The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-01 00:00:00

one.

The usual meeting of the Metropolitan Board of
Works was held yesterday at Spring Gardens,
when some questions of public interest were dis-
cussed. The report of the Works and General
Purposes Committee was brought up, and it re-
commended a very useful purchase on behalf of the
Board. It seems that a recent purchase of the
ground bordering on Wilderness-row, formerly the
property of the Charterhouse, by the Merchant
Taylors' Company, has afforded a favourable op-
portunity for carrying out a long wished for im-
provement, by widening the thoroughfare. The
present width of Wilderness-row is 28ft. ; but the
reconstruction of the frontage will give a full
width of 40ft., leaving only 10ft. to be
provided to carry out the improvement.
The Merchant Taylors are willing to sell the
ground for £2,100, and a proposition to this effect
was laid before the Board of Works yesterday, but
it met with some opposition on the ground that the
improvement in question was a local and not a ge-
neral gain. However, the original motion was car-
ried by a large majority, and very reasonably. It
can hardly be said that the improvement of the
narrow, overcrowded City thoroughfares would not
be a metropolitan improvement, since it concerns
every one whom business calls to the City. It
should be the object of the Board to improve and
facilitate the means of communication in every
populous part of the metropolis, and it is one of the
great arguments in favour of a central authority
that it should be raised above any petty feeling
or local jealousy. It is to the interest of all Lon-
doners that those great centres of metropolitan life
and business, which all of us must frequent more
or less, should be as easy of access as possible. We
have become so accustomed to the narrow byeways
and crowded passages in which a good share of the
business of the world is conducted that we are
almost insensible to the inconvenience and inap-
propriateness which strike upon a stranger at first
sight. The Metropolitan Board of Works will do
good service if they will keep a vigilant watch over
such localities, and seize every opportunity of
widening streets and opening thoroughfares which
presents itself to them.
Another useful undertaking which has been

fairly carried oit under the direction of the Biard
is the formation of a recreation ground for the east
of London. The names of the eastern parishes,
Poplar, Limehouse, Spitalfields, Bethnal-green,
and a host of others, are scarcely known to the
inure fortunate denizens of the west, except in con-
nection with some terrible exceptional calamity
like cholera, or with the annual records of famine
and distress in winter time ; yet there are thousands
of children eager for play, and thousands of men
and women still able to enjoy a park and a pleasure.
ground in spite of depression and destitution. If we
had more of such moral and sanitary agents we may
depend upon it that the masses of our toil-worn
population would be less degraded, and there would
also be less suffering. Fever and cholera would find
less ready victims. Fresh air would give them
vitality, and would naturally lead them to demand
pure water, and these two combined would save more
lives than the whole College of Physicians. Skill
and science contend almost vainly against the condi-
tions in which many of our people live, and we
shall not see many desirable changes effected until
the habitations of our people are reformed and
humanised. In waiting, however, for what must
be a work of time, it is gratifying to see some of the
natural requirements of the people provided for, so
that soon we hope there will be no children living
in London who will be able to say that they have
never played among trees and flowers, nor seen
the blue sky except through the chimney pots.

The accident which occurred last night at Man-
chester was one of those painful and startling
catastrophes which now and then call attention to
the unsatisfactory construction of our public
buildings, and to the lamentable want self-
self-

control and presence of mind among the majority.
The details are not yet given, but the accident
appears to have originated in the old cause for un-
reasoning panic—the alarm of fire. As usual, it
was a false alarm, but the result was equally ter-
rible. Nearly 2,000 persons were in the Victoria
Music Hall at the time, and no sooner was the cry
of fire raised than they rushed madly to the doors
and windows, end the crush was terrific. Twenty-
six persons were killed and many injured ; how
many it is yet impossible to ascertain. The
lamentable consequences of giving way to such
reckless terror have too often been made evident
before for us to hope that the pre-
sent sad disaster will serve as a warning
for the future. The total loss of self-control and
reason on the first whisper of danger magnifies any
risk a hundredfold and creates the very things it
fears. Allowing the building to have been actually
on fire, there would no doubt have been ample
time to save every life if order had been maintained,
and there are fifty ways of rescue which a man
with his senses about him can discover for himself
and others. The reckless and, we must add, selfish
struggle to get first through a narrow doorway
cannot fail to produce a fatal crush, which not
only occasions the death and injury of individual
sufferers, but which would in case of fire infallibly
defeat itself. A regiment of soldiers would get
through a gateway in one-tenth of the time
occupied by a disorderly crowd in getting over
the same space, even without the crash which
impedes progress. There is not enough at-
tention paid to the cultivation of the very necessary
qualities of self-control and presence of mind in
training the young, and the consequence is that
almost every accident is made ten times worse than
it need be for want of sense and courage. No one