The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 4, 1861

least, regarded as a public nuisance. Now
was the very time for setting the whole
question at rest, at once and without any
further mistake about it at all. Accidents
happened too just about the time—not certainly
on the tramway in the Bayswater-road, but (it
was of course all the same thing in the end, to those
who had made up their minds against the under-
taking) quite on the other side of London, over
yonder in the neighbourhood of Kennington. Some
unfortunate boys tumbled themselves down there
under the wheels, and—as a matter of course—got
crushed very badly. Not on the Bayswater-road
again we must remark, but right in an opposite di-
rection over at Kennington. Could anything be
more opportune in its way ? It was quite a case
in point. True, the Bayswater-road line had acted
admirably well from its very commencement until
now. True, it had only been complained
against at all by one or two well
know curmudgeons who are fond of a chance of
complaining about anything. True,
in fine, that
when there was a prospect before the inhabitants
in the locality of seeing the tramway pulled up and
carried off altogether, no less than 8,000 of them
at' once put their names down to a petition plead-
ing for its continuance. All this was nothing to
the purpose—the Commissioners had already made
up their minds that the thing was to be done away
with. And when the opportunity came at length,
when the time arrived for their decision, they
acted accordingly. Like Mr. PECKSNIFF himself,
when gratifying his own feelings of spleen against
Mr. Tom PINCH at the time of his dismissal, the
Commissioners had a " duty to Society" that
it was incumbent upon them to discharge. And
they have in consequence, with the most high-minded
air in the world summarily discharged it ! They
have decreed—they have issued their solemen ukase
—they have published their imperial hatt—the
street tramway in the Bayswater road (no matter
what the eight thousand inhabitants of Bayswater
who signed the petition for its continuance may think
about it) is to come up and to be:carted away by the
fourth day of this next month of October. As Mr.
WILLETT, senior, of the Maypole, would say, "no
sooner and no later —not before and not arterwards."
On the 4th of October. Each of the Metropolitan
Commissioners who spoke upon this mighty matter
in dispute between them and the Public—to put
the disproportion of members arrayed in opposition
to each other in the most moderate way imaginable,
we will say between a little group of half-a-dozen
(the Commissioners) and a comprehensive gather-
ing of 8,000 (the petitioners at Bayswater)—each
of these wonderfully autocratic Commissioners
whoh as spoken in the matter has said it—
the thing is done—the question is settled defini-
tively. But seriously —isit ? Well, point
blank, then, we distinctly assert that it is not
settled thus, so very conclusively. There is a higher
power even than the Metropolitan Road Commis-
sioners, and this higher power, this supreme admi-
nistrative power may yet, if it please, act even now
at the eleventh hour, for the convenience of the
public generally. The Commissioners have de-
clared peremptorily that the street railway in the
Bayswater-road shall be removed by the 4th pros.
Yes. We admit that. But—there is the Secretary
of State, who, by a stroke of his pen, can set this
decision of the Commissioners at naught. And we
dow now wish very earnestly to put it to Sir
GEORGE GREY whether the present is not precisely
one of those exceptional cases calling for the
Home Secretary's prompt and energetic
interference ! If the right honourable baronet
requires any good and valid reason to be afforded
him why he should interfere in this way—here
is that good and valid reason already visible in the
form of the urgent petition signed by eight thou-
sand of the respectable inhabitants of Bays water.
There is no time for interposition otherwise than
through the power lying at all periods in this way
in the hands and at the discretion of the Home
Secretary. We heartily trust that SIR GEORGE
GREY will act as befits himself and his high
office in this little vexatious emergency. If it be
only to afford time for further investigation into
the whole question as to the advantages or the dis-
advantages accruing to the public at large from the
construction of these street railways, it would become
Sir GEORGE, as the administrative guardian of the
public interests in matters of this kind, to inter-
pose between the Commissioners and the gratifica-
tion of their Pecksniffian sense of the responsibility
devolving upon them, for some mysterious Duty to
Society. A Duty to Society now required to be
attended to (according to their view of it), by the
4th of October, and not a day later than the fourth
of October.

No harm at any rate can possibly result to any one
if Sir GEORGE GREY, in consideration of the pecu-
liar circumstances of this case, interferes so far as
to say, in his capacity as Secretary of
State for the Home Department—No : the
tramway shall not be dragged up .thus
precipitately on the 4th of October—further time,
at least, shall be afforded for consideration and
inquiry into the working of this new system of
public street conveyance—and then (not on the 4th
of October, but later) if the Street Railways
are proved to be more of a Public Nui-
sance than of a Public Convenience, then, but
not till then, this tramway in the Bayswater-
road shall be destroyed. The Commissioners have
just had their innings. Now is the time for Sir
GEORGE GREY'S. And we are very much mis-
taken indeed, in our estimate of the Right Hon.
Baronet and his hitherto conspicuous love of
fair play, if he do not act in this matter as we
now very confidently think that he will.

LATET NEWS.

TURIN, SEPT. 4.

The Opinione of to-day publishes a despatch
from Naples, announcing that the concession for
the railway, from Tronto to Foggia and from
Salerno to Eboli, has been granted to a company,
which, according to the conditions of the contract,
will immediately commence the works.

PESTH, SEPT. 4.

The Committees of eight Comitats, as well as the
Municipality of Pesth, have been dissolved by
order of the Government.

AGRAM, SEPT. 4.

In yesterday's sitting of the Croatian Diet a
proposition was made by one of the members that
the Diet should enter on the minutes the expression
of its regret on account of the dissolution of the
Hungarian Diet.

MONTPELLIER, SEPT. 4.

At the banquet given by the Prefect of the De-
partment of the Herault, on the occasion of the
meeting of the Conseil General M. Michel Chevalier
delivered a speech, of which the following is a
summary :

M. Chevalier said :—" France is honoured and
respected abroad. She is only feared by the
enemies of progress and the adversaries of
civilization. France is considered in the world
as the principal representative and the principal
champion of social and political progress. She in-
spires admiration and sympathy in the peoples who
hope for a happier destiny, and receives marks of
the hatred and distrust of the men who still enter-
tain the passions of another age."
M. Chevalier also said—" I regret that speeches
recently delivered oblige me to range on the side of
the latter sons Ministers of a great nation—our
nearest ally, and renowned for its love of liberty
ande progress, towards which the Emperor has
made advances, honourable to both parties, and
which merited a better welcome and a more sym-
pathetic response."

ROME, SEPT. 3.

Yesterday fifty Piedmontese soldiers attacked
Epitaffio, on the Neapolitan frontier, but were re-
pulsed by the Papal gendarmes. A company of
French troops has occupied Epitaffio.
An encounter has taken place between some Papal
gendarmes and Piedmontese troops, on the road
between Orvieto and Balsena. The Piedmontese
troops suffered no loss.

TURIN, SEPT. 3.

The Minister of Finance has authorised Messrs.
Rothschild, of Paris, to receive the instalment of
the second-tenth of the Italian loan, on presentation
of the certificates.

MILAN, SEPT. 3.

The Perseveranza of to-day says :
" Baron Ricasoli will retain the portfolio for
Foreign Affairs until the solution of the Roman

question."
The Gazette di Torino of today publishes a
stating that the French
wdespatch
actively
Perugia,
watching the frontiers, and tha t
several encounters had taken place between the
French troops and the brigands, who wished to
penetrate into Italian territory.

VIENNA. SEPT. 3.
The draught address to the Emperor was passed
to-day in the Lower House of the Reichsrath.
The Polish members abstained from voting.

PESTH, SEPT. 3.

, The Comitat of IVliskolcz has passed a resolution
concurring in the protest of the Comitat of Pesth,
against the dissolution of the Hungarian Diet.
It is expected that similar resolutions will also be
passed by the other Comitats of Hungary.

MADAME LIND-GOLDSCHMIDT.

(From the Liverpool Albion.)

The public of Liverpool will not have forgotten the im-
pression created by Madame Goldschmidt's appearance at
the Philharmonic concerts now two or three years since, and
we are particularly gratified in being able to announce that
the amiable and gifted lady will again appear under the
same auspices some time in October next. Dui ing the past
London season Mr. and Madame Go ldschmidt gave a grand
morning concert at Earl Dudley's mansion, in Park-lane,
in behalf of the Female Artistes' Society, at which the won-
derful abilities of Madame Goldschmidt appeared to be as
great as ever. We believe we may announce that a per-
formance of Mendelssohn's Oratorio of Elijah is now pre-
paring in London, in behalf of a local charity, at which
Madame Goldschmidt has generously offered her services,
and will sing Mendelssohn's grandest composition, the in-
terpretation of which has been considered by many as Ma-
dame Goldschmidt's finest achievement. We hear that the
Philharmonic Society of this town have arranged for a per-
formance of Haydn's Creation, in which Madame Gold-
schmidt is to sing the soprano part, and our own great tenor
Sims Reeves will sing the tenor part for the first time with
the greet artiste. Signor Belletti is to complete the ensemble
by singing the bass, a combination that has not hitherto
been witnessed. The oratorio is to be succeeded the follow-
ing evening by a Miscellaneous Concert, at which, in addi-
tion to the transcendant attraction of Madame Goldschmidt,
Mr. Sims Reeves, and Signor Belletti as vocalists, the emi-
nent violinist, Herr Joachim or Signor Piatti, and Mr. Otto
Goldschmidt will combine their distinguished talents. It
must give general satisfaction to learn that Mr. and Madame
Goldschmidt, with their family of three young children—
two boys and a girl—have become quite domiciled in this
country, indeed, that Mr. Goldschmidt has become a natu-
ralised subject of England, and it is very pleasing to find
them quitting their retirement at Wimbledon, if only for a
season, and resuming a position from which it has been so
much regretted they should seem disposed to retire. Few
public characters have diffused more real intellectual enjoy-
ment by her professional abilities, or dispensed greater
happiness and benefits byher unostentatious generosity, than
Madame Otto Goldschmidt, nee Jenny Lind.