The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-22 00:00:00

utmost zeal and rapidity. It is not more than four
years, if so much, since the idea was first started of
erecting a statue to NELSON, and adorning with
suitable embellishments the interior of Trafalgar-
square ; and 10, the statue is already finished and set
up on its column ; and the well, and the basins, and
the fountains also are all to be completed and
thrown open to the fashionable public this sum-
mer ! How different is the spirit in which im-
provements are conducted at the East-end of Lon-
don ! In that remote, uncivilised, plebeian region, all
is neglect—torpor—cool, easy indifference. About
the same time that it was proposed to embellish the
interior of Trafalgar-square, it was proposed also to
form a Victoria Park for the accommodation of the
inhabitants of Bethnal-green, Spitalfields, White-
chapel, &c. The Square is to be finished this sum-
nier, the Park is not even to be commenced till this
autumn ! The cause of the activity in the one case,
and of the dilatoriness in the other, is easily
accounted for. Those who live at the West-
end are all respectable folks—members of the
thriving family of the Somebodies, consequently
their wishes and interests must be treated
with respect; those, on the contrary, who vegetate at
the East-end are poor, helpless, vulgar operatives and
tradesmen—mere Nobodies—consequently, they can
afford to wait—indeed it is their duty to wait,
patiently, submissively, and thankfully, until it suits
the leisure and inclination of the official authorities to
pay attention to their wants. We allude to these cir-
cumstances in no invidious or carping spirit, but sim-
ply because we feel it our duty to take every opportunity
of urging the claims of the poor and defenceless,
which we cannot but know are never too diligently
attended to even at the best of times; and because
also we feel, in the present case, that the formation
of a " Victoria Park" is an absolute necessity in the
close, pent-up, neighbourhood of the East-end of
London, while the embellishment of Trafalgar-square
is a mere matter of taste and luxury, whose only
recommendation is, that it is pleasing in the eyes of
those who reside at the West-end.

An interesting and affecting case was heard at the
Queen-square Police-office, yesterday. A Miss
ELIZABETH 13uwros, seventy-nine years of age,
was charged with begging, when it appeared, to quote
the language of the Reporter, " that in the exercise
of their vocation as mendicants, she and her sister
11 ere frequently apprehended, but whether in the*
'streets of the metropolis, or within the walls
of a prison, they had always been insepa-
rable, until yesterday morning, when for
the first time the prisoner was found begging
alone." The Magistrate having asked her what had
become of her sister, the following was her simple
and touching answer—" Oh, Sir, she's lying very ill
at home, dying! I was really obliged to go out and
beg this time to get the poor creature something. I
am sure I shall never live after she is gone." Greatly
to the credit of his good sense and humanity, the Ma-
gistrate, on hearing this artless statement, not only
dismissed the prisoner, but gave her some money, ob-
serving that "he could not think of separating the
sisters under such circumstances?' We have alluded
to this circumstance, because it affords another
striking illustration of that inherent kindliness and
generosity of nature which is found not merely
among the poor, but the hopelessly destitute,
far oftener than your wealthy and respectable
folks imagine. It is easy to talk of the recklessness
and depravity of spirit which poverty engenders, by
way of justifying the indifference of the rich
towards the poor; but here we find—and we
have read lately of many similar cases the
warmest, purest, and noblest feelings of the human
heart surviving even in the midst of hopeless, squalid
destitution; and this, too, at an advanced period Lf
life, when callous selfishness, egotism, and indiffer-
ence too often gain the ascendant in the breasts both
of men and women, to the utter exclusion of every
healthy and generous emotion.

We have just received the portly " Blue Book"
containing the Report (and depositions of witnesses
therein referred to) of the Commissioners appointed
by Royal Commission under the sign manual, dated
Windsor, Oct. 7, 1843, " for the purpose of making a
full and diligent inquiry into the present state of the
laws as administered in Sourn WALES, which regu-
late the maintenance and repair of turnpike roads,
highways, and bridges ; and also into the circum-
stances which have led to recent acts of violence and
outrage in certain districts of that country." The
well-known disturbances which "REReccA's" orga-
nised and daring demonstrations of physical force
occasioned in many parts of the Principality, and, in
some cases, almost simultaneously ; the offences and
crimes in which those disturbances resulted, and the
special tribunal constituted for the trial of some of the
offenders who had been engaged in them, must be
still fresh in the minds of our readers. Some persons
are still of opinion that the character and amount of
the " troubles in Wales" were a good deal exaggerated
for the "meridian of London ;" but we never heard a
doubt expressed touching the expediency of this Com-
mission of Inquiry into the latent causes of such
alarming discontents among a people remarkable, at
all times, for their loyalty and their general submis-
sion to the laws. We will endeavour to give a suc-
cinct statement of the contents of the Report.
The Commissioners (the Right Hon. FRANKLAND
LEWIS, and R. H. CLIVE: and Wst. Cam's, Esqs.)
have divided this document into the following sec-
tions :—lntroductory Report, a sort of historical re-
sume of facts; statements respecting particular trusts;
general ditto as to Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire,
Radnorshire, Breconshire, Glamorganshire ; con-
clusions and suggestions derived from the above de-
tails; of tithe in South Wales; poor-law, of its ad-
ministration ; magistrates' clerks' fees; county rate;
" minutes of evidence" of nearly 200 witnesses.
These are preceded by a good lithographed map,
showing, by coloured lines, the direction and extent
of the said trusts. The Report bears date only the
6th inst., and occupies 579 folio pages. The expe-
dition with which these have been printed, and the
technical execution and accuracy of the work being
alike honourable to the establishment of Messrs.
eLowrs and SONS, the eminent printers of Stamford-
street.
The Commission was publicly opened at Carmarthen
on the 25th of October, 1843 ; and after three weeks
occupied in taking evidence and receiving informa-
tion (which it had solicited from all quarters), it re-
moved to Haverfordwest. From hence, after dili-
gently examining into the state of Pembrokeshire,
and the transactions which had occurred therein, it
successively visited Cardigan ' and Radnor, and in
these counties instituted similar inquiries. Its next
sittings were held in Breconshire, and " the wealthy
and populous county of Glamorgan." After "visiting
in succession the
.principal towns" therein, it ter-
minated its " inquiries at Merthyr-Tydvil on the
13th December last." The Commissioners express
their belief that the disturbances in South Wales
bad not originated in any political causes :
" Tho chief grounds of complaint were the mis-
management of the funds applicable to turnpike-roads, the
frequency and the amount of the payments of tolls, and,
in some cases, the vexatious conduct of toll collectors,
and the illegal demands made by them: the increase in
the amount payable for tithe under the Tithe Commuta-
tiona the unequal distribution of the rent charges,
theprileethoefvajoirnabl:ettinaeymopeenrtasiioflnucotufatthinegrwoiotrh-law
average
Amend-
ment Act, principally (though not exclusively) on ac-
count of the high salaries of the officers and the opera-
tion of the bastardy clauses: the administration of jus-
ticeamo by the local magistrates, and especially
of the fees paid to their clerks, and the progressive in-
crease of the county rate. The cost and difficulty of
recovering small debts, with some minor points of griev-
ance and complaint, were pressed on our attention,
some of which it will be our duty to notice before we
close our report."

A formidable catalogue this, it must be confessed,
of local grievances, the grievances themselves

being precisely those most calculatedto'ed mxesiiptetle.
the
resentment of a people at once poor and simple-
minded, choleric, and impatient of oppression. There
is abundant testimony, in these pages, to show that
they have long had to endure some of the most in-
tolerable vexations of " district board mismanage-
ment," and parochial acid county jobbing. The
Commissioners thus report upon some of the more
prominent, perhaps more unavoidable, but certainly
very disheartening, discouragemements,rynder which
the "small farmers" have long been declining:—
" All persons acquainted with the condition of the
country concurred in stating that a succession of wet
and unproductive harvests had very much reduced the
capital of the farmers. They had been forced, during
successive years, to buy the bread consumed in their
families; and the money they obtained by the sale of
stook, and the other produv of their farms, scarcely en.