The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-11 00:00:00

adjourned.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed
of, and the house adjourned at One o'Clock.

At the last Borough Sessions at Carmarthen, a
man named JOHN CHARLES was indicted for unlaw-
.

fully obstructing the path leading through certain
meadows called the Royal Oak fields. It appeared in
evidence that the defendant, being in possession of a
field in which there was an old stile leading to a path
that had been a public one for sixty years and up •
wards, had caused the stile to be removed, and an
iron gate placed there instead, which was always
kept locked. At the close of the trial, the jury
found CHARLES guilty; but as the prosecutor did not
press for punishment, he was liberated, on entering
into his recognisances to appear, when called on,
for judgment, and on the understanding, also,
that he should erect, within a week, a proper
and convenient stile in the place where the
old one formerly stood, and give the neigh-
bourhood the same right of way through the
field which they had always had. At the recent
Hertford assizes a somewhat similar case was heard
before Lord Chief Justice DENMAN. The plaintiff
was the owner and occupier of Rickmansworth Park,
and had taken it upon himself to close a path which
runs near his house, and which had been used for se-
veral years by his neighbours as a short cut to some
mills in the vicinity. He contended that there was
no public footpath, strictly speaking, for though people
had long been in the habit of making use of it, yet it
was only upon sufferance, the legal right being
against them. On the part of the defendant it
was urged, that by the usage of many years
the path in question had become a public one,
and the right of people to pass through it could not
now be disputed. The result of the trial was that a
verdict was returned for the defendant, thereby esta-
blishing the right of the public to the disputed path.
We trust that these two important verdicts, which do
infinite credit to the jury who delivered them, will
hare the effect in some degree, of putting a stop to
that jealous, selfish spirit of isolation and exclusive •
ness which for some years past has been creeping in
among our provincial gentry. Whoever is ac-
quainted with our rural districts, especially with
those in the neighbourhood of cities and towns,
cannot fail to have remarked with disgust
and vexation the gradual disappearance of those
delightful field paths which, for many years,
were the sources of such convenience and
enjoyment to the inhabitants of the vicinity. How
many a narrow, winding path leading away from
the dusty high-road, through meadows carpeted with
the freshest turf, and enamelled with all sorts of
fragrant wild flowers, have been mealy stopped up,
merely to gratify the absurd pride and paltry selfish-
ness and jealousy of some " respectable " country
gentleman, who had purchased a " respectable" estate
in the neighbourhood, ard thought it necessary to his
" respectability" that his neighbours should be shut
out from the " old familiar" meadows which formed
a portion of his newly acquired domains ! How many
a poor man's quiet, healthy, evening stroll with his
family, after the day's labours are at an end, has
been rudely put a stop to, in order that
the rich man of the parish—frequently some retired
merchant or thriving attorney—may have the oppor-
tunity of exhibiting that love of exclusiveness and
tyranny, which are the unerring characteristics of
a petty, vulgar, upstart nature ! It • may seem
to many people a matter of little or nu public moment
whether field-paths are stopped up by the score or not;
but in reality it is not so; it is a question of grave
importance, involving far more than merely ephemeral
considerations—a question whether the humbler classes
of the provincial community shall be still further
alienated, from those above them by a continued
manifestation, on the part of the latter, of a spirit of
jealous exclusiveness and arbitrary power, as ungene-
rous as it is impolitic ; or whether by a mutual dis-
play of good-will and forbearance towards each other,
a kindlier feeling shall be generated between the two
classes. A question of this sort is, we repeat, one of
no trifling moment; and it is for the higher orders to
take the initiative in the matter, and make the first
advances towards the poor, for they have been the
great aggressors.

Madrid papers of the 2d instant have been re-
ceived. In some of them it is stated that the fall of
the Ministry was brought about in consequence of
their demanding the suspension of the sale of the pro-
perty of the secular clergy, which had not already
been disposed of. Two Ministerial journals declare,
from authority, that there is no truth in the state-
ment ; but they do not condescend to add more. The
anniversary of the rising at Madrid against the
French, in 1808, was celebrated on the 2d by solemn
services in most of the churches, and the Bourse
remained closed.

The discussion in the French Chamber of Deputies
was a little enlivened on Tuesday by a speech of M.
the previous day had made DadeE Lan
ARAGO. The Marquis
aA.ttalteoucemnEJtAhr
mEeLmlNbeor3ll
softrtutet i
oCommitteeofthne
w
prison of
appointed to superintend the con-
that the cells were insufferably
La Force, and declared
beings,
ill
This gave
and in fact unfit for hur
of M. ARAGO
offence to the scientific skill and pride
and Co., and on the adjournment of the Chamber, it
make would appear, they hurried to the prison to
ex-
periments; and the next day M. ARAGO reported the
result to the Chamber, amidst loud
laughter. " I
can take on myself to declare," said he, " that the
'Hon. Deputy was completely mistaken. It was not
alone the size of a cell that was to be considered, but
its facilities for. ventilation and heating. In the con-
struction of those cells, all the improvements which