The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-28 00:00:00

N enter, :int
-

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1844.

Notwithstanding that he has been three times de-
feated in his attempt to smuggle through Parliament
a Bill for the inclosure of Hampstead Heath, the Lord
of the Manor, Sir T. M. WILSON, with a perseverance
worthy of a better cause, has again renewed his
efforts to accomplish that unpopular object. The
Bill now introduced into Parliament, observed Mr.
HOARE, at a meeting held on Thursday at Hampstead,
although different in form, had precisely the same
object in view as the three former Bills which had
been so successfully resisted. What was contem-
plated by the Lord of the Manor by the present Bill,
was to obtain power to effect a sale of certain por-
tions of land in various parts of Hampstead Heath.
Now, if this were permitted, no one " could
doubt for a moment," added the speaker,
" that the beauties of the Heath would be destroyed,
and the copyholds of the manor be considerktbly de-
preciated in value. It was therefore desirable that
resolute steps should be taken to oppose this measure."
We cannot imagine a more ungenerous or obnoxious
scheme than this for the inclosure of Hampstead
Heath, which is now almost the only open, airy, syl-
van spot left us within a moderate walking distance
of the metropolis. Norwood, with its umbrageous
glades, and sunny, sylvan uplands, exists no longer,
being everywhere defaced with brick and mortar;
the meadows, once so picturesque and healthy, in
the neighbourhood of Dulwich and Camberwell,
are stuck all over with notices of " This land
to let for building ;" not an o2en space in
Islington—which but twelve short years ago
was still a country village—but is converted
into unsavoury brick-fields, and threatened with
the visitation of Heaven knows how many
suburban villas; Hackney and Clapton —injured
innnocents !—are in the same digressing plight; and
now it is seriously proposed to deprive the working
classes of the metropolis, who stand so much in need
, of fresh air, of their sole remaining healthy country
walk, by covering Hampstead Heath with a mass of
unsightly buildings, thereby converting into private
property that which, for long generations, has been
the undispo,,d property of the public. The scheme
is about as sel:ish and offensive a one us could possibly
have entered into the head of a monopolist, and we do
hope it will be strenuously protested against, not only
by the copyholders of Hampstead, but by every Mem-
ber in either House of Parliament who takes an interest
in the welfare of the working-classes. The system
of commons' inclosures has already been carried to a
much greater length than either justi.:e or right
feeling can approve ; year after year, artfully and
noiseessly, the poor have been shut out from the
lauds over which they had exercised the rights of
pasturage for centuries ; field-paths have been blocked
up ; large portions of heaths pillaged from them
in order to make preserves, or increase the extent
of the possessions of the squirearchy of the district ;
and—with here and there perhaps an exception—
they have scarcely an acre of ground left which
they can venture to call their own, or even
ramble over on a summer evening, after the
day's toil is at an end, without incurring the penal-
ties of trespass. As regards Hampstead Heath, which
is one of the lungs of the metropolis, and serves to
ventilate the entire northern district, nothing can
be possibly more injurious to the health of that
populous district, than the inclosure of this fine,
airy tract ; for when once it is covered with
brick and mortar, elevated as it is far above
every other spot in the neighbourhood, every
brisk wind that blows from the north, will be
sure to bring down upon a large portion of the
metropolis immense clouds of smoke, which will half
poison the inhabitants with its pestilential vapours.
But the greatest grievance, and the one which we
wish chiefly to keep in view, is the injustice which
will be inflicted on the working classes of our over-
crowded capital, who, when once Hampstead Heath
is inclosed, will be deprived of one of their favourite
Sunday evening enjoyments—a breezy country walk
over one of the healthiest and most picturesque spots
in Middlesex. This is no slight grievance—whatever
the Lord of the Manor may think to the contrary—
: for, deprived of the enjoyment in question, many of
the working classes may fly in despair to the tavern
or the gin-palace.

"We freely confess," says a Whig Contemporary of
this morning, " that the manner in which the ques-
tion of Ten Hours was treated in the House of Com-
mons was not such as to exalt the already low esti-
mate formed by the working classes of that branch
of the Legislature. Hopes were excited only to be
disappointed; votes were given only to be rescinded;
allegations were made and contradicted ; statis-
tics were confronted with statistics ; speech
answered speech ; but there was nothing
throughout the whole controversy which conveyed
the impression of calm, deliberate, investigation and
decision. The House of Commons has exhibited
itself to the country as dealing with a great question,
first in the spirit of rash meddling, and then timidly
shrinking from it under a vague apprehension of
consequences." This stringent censure more parti-
cularly applies to the Conservative portion of the
House—to that selfish, short-sighted, unscrupulous
faction—for, however numerically strong, they
scarcely deserve the name of a party—who first
voted one way, with a view to bully, and frighten, and
revenge themselves on the manufacturers, and then
voted just the contrary way, from a discreet
apprehension that their own interests might be en-
dangered by their consistency. In the whole annals
of political tergiversation, we know of nothing so
utterly indefensible as this recent wholesale apostacy
of the Conservatives—an apostacy for which they
did not even deign to apologise, but which they
seemed to look upon quite as a matter of course, as
a laches to be expected from them, and quite natural
and justifiable under the circumstances in which
they were placed. With what sovereign con-
tempt must not the working-classes henceforth
regard this trimming, cowardly faction With what
freezing indifference—not unmingled and unquickened
by a fierce despair—must they not regard every
future measure which receives their sanction ! Though
strong just now in point of mere numbers, the Con-
servatives have not the slightest moral influence. No
unprejudiced man has the slightest confidence in
them—no thinking man cares two straws for what
they say. Bad as the Tories were, these, their illegi-
timate successors, are a thousand times worse; for the
former were at least manly, consistent, and
intelligible in their conduct; whereas the latter
fling all ideas of consistency to the winds,
and speak and act under' the influence of no more
generous motive than that of pleasing their task-
master, whom, nothwithstanding their subserviency,
they hate with as much intensity as the Devil hates
holy water. Truly, it is a great credit to Sir R.
PEEL that he has manufactured such a sect out of the
shattered fragments of Toryism. The created are
well worthy of their creator, and deserve equally the
respect and admiration of the country. Both these
amiable parties just now find it their mutual interest
to pre 'e<s a decided hostility to any farther altera-
tion in the corn•laws. But having changed once,
sad this without the slightest hesitation, on one of
the most important questions of the session, who shall
say that they will not change again ? Who shall say
that when r.VitmEns next brings forward his motion
for the total and immediate repeal of the corn-laws,
the Conservatives, with the ductile Premier at their
head, will not " go the whole hog" in company
with the Member fur Wolverhampton ? There is
no speculating on the course of policy they will
pursue on any one public question, though the
probability is that if there be ope course more