The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-13 00:00:00

comparatively trifling. It is needless to add, that should
any engagement take place between an American and
an English frigate, the power of the two being now
nearly on a par, the result will be widely different from
the frigate actions already adverted to, and is more
likely to be similar to that of the Shannon and the
Chesapeake.

WESTMINSTER IMPROVEMENTS
The Third Report of the Commissioners appointed by
warrant under your Majesty's sign manual, bearing date
the 23d of November, 1842, "To inquire into and con-
sider the most effectual means of improving the metro-
polis, and of providing increased facilities of communica-
tion with the same."
Your Majesty's Commissioners have had under their
consideration the means of improving a large and densely-
peopled district in the southern parts of Westminster,
the condition of which, from defective drainage, and from
other causes, has for a very considerable period been
alike offensive to public morals, and to the public health.
The expediency of improving the communications in
Southern Westminster, as a means of ameliorating the
social condition of the district, has been at various pe-
riods under the consideration of Parliament. It formed
the subject of inquiry before a Select Committee of the
Rouse of Commons in the session of 1832; it is adverted
to in reports of Select Committees on Metropolitan Im-
provements subsequently appointed; and it was ulti-
mately recognised by the Legislature, in connexion with
measures affecting other portions of the metropolis, by
the assignment of a sum of 39,000/., in aid of a spacious
and convenient communication between the neighbour-
hood of the Parliament Houses and that of Buckingham
Palace.
The appointment of the earliest of these Committees
was moved by .lir. Rigby Wason, then representing the
town of Ipswich in Parliament ; and from the corres
poudence inserted in the appendix, it will appear that
proposals founded upon the recommendation contained
in its report have, at various subsequent periods, formed
the subject of communications between Mr. Wason and
the Government.
Upon the appointment of these Commissions by your
Majesty, these proposals were renewed. In conjunction
with Mr. Thomas Ashton Yates, and Mr. Richard
Rushton Preston, Mr. Wason addressed to the First
Lord of your Majesty's Treasury a memorial reciting
the various proceedings to which he had been a party,
in connexion with the question of an improvement in
improvement in Westminster, and expressing a desire
that his offer should be referred to, and reconsidered by
this Board.
In accordance with the prayer of this memorial, Mr.
Wason and his coadjutors attended and submitted to
this commission plans, partly original, end in part the
suggestion of others, for lines of communication between
the Broad Almonry in Westminster and the immediate
neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace. Of these lines,
varying chiefly at their termini, and having a common
(or very nearly common) centre in Strutton-grotind, the
memorialists proposed to complete and open to the
public a portion, extending from Strutton-ground to
Pimlico, for a sum not exceeding 25,0001.
On investigation, these proposals were found to apply
to but a comparatively inexpensive division of the dis •
tance between Pimlico and Westminster Abbey, and as
they contemplated at the same time the "absorption of
nearly two thirds of the sum set apart by Parliament in
aid of the entire cost of the improvement, your Majesty's
Commissioners declined to entertain them. Further
proposals were thereupon submitted for guaranteeing the
completion of the whole distance, at a cost to the public
not exceeding 50,000/.
Your Majesty's Commissioners have endeavoured, by
evidence and otherwise, to arrive at an opinion which
should guide them in dealing with this offer, and they
feel bound to admit that, if the question submitted for
their consideration were one involving the expediency
cf undertaking this improvement solely at the public
charge, its solution might be sought in rain in the con-
flicting and unsatisfactory testimony before them, both
as to the present value of property in Westminster, and
its probable increase hereafter, supposing the projected
line of street to be completed.
But looking to the assistance sought for by the me-
morialists in the light in which it has evidently been
viewed by the Legislature,—as in the first instance an
incitement to private enterprise, and ultimately as a
contribution only to the cost of a great public im-
provement, to be paid for in great measure
out of private resources,—your Majesty's Com-
missioners are of opinion that the evidence, though
conflicting, and inconclusive for ulterior objects, is
sufficient for the immediate purposes of this inquiry, and
such as to justify them in recommending subject to the
hereinafter-mentioned conditions, an addition of the sum
of 11,0001. to the 39,0001. already granted by Parliament.
Your Majesty's Commissioners may observe that they
have had the less difficulty in arriving at this conclusion
from the fact that the sum at present available under
the authority of Parliament for the purposes of an im
provement in Westminster, was set apart without
reference to considerations in any way connected with
its probable cost, but as the estimated residue of a fund
to be created, under the same authority, for effecting
improvements in other districts of the metropolis.
The lines of communication submitted by the me-
morialists, and referred to in a previous portion of this
report, have been slightly modified by this commission.
The immediate object of this modification has been to
avoid any interference with the workhouse of St. Mar-
garet's parish, and with the burial-ground attached to the
chapel in the same locality ; but its effect has also been to
divert the channel of communication between the Broad
Almonry and Strutton-ground, in a direction further
south, into a more imperfectly drained, a more densely
peopled, and, consequently, a more objectionable por-
tion of district.
Your Majesty's Commissioners are aware that, in
all great measures of local improvement, modifica-
tions like these are seldom to be effected but at the
expense of advantages of another character. But in de-
vising means to meet the complicated exigencies of such
a population as that of Westminster, within the limits
defined by the Legislature, and restricted by the peculiar
eiretrnstanees of the district, the course of their pro-
ceeedings has admitted of but little room for considera-
tions devoted exclusively to subjects of taste, or of
architectural development.
Your Majesty's Commissioners, however, are of opi-
nion that a line of street has been devised which, both in
itself and as the parent of other improvements in the
communications of Southern Westminster, may promote
the health, the morals, and the social comforts of a large
body of its inhabitants ; and with the conviction that, as
far as the conditithl's imposed by Parliament and the cir-
cumstances of the disii-riet will permit, it will supply an
important defect in the existing thoroughfares of the
western portions of the metrZ:molis, they have decided
upon recommending to your Niajt:•ety its adoption upon
the following basis, viz :
1. That the contracting parties shall obtain, in the
present session of Parliament, an Act empoetering them
to make and complete a new and direct line of :.'ommer-
nication between Pimlico and Westminster Abb.l, ac-
cording to the plan modified by this commission.
2. That the Act shall contain clauses requiring them to
give or provide security to the extent of 10,0001., for the
complete execution of the undertaking, according to
such plan. within the space of five years from the passing
of the Act ; such security to be approved by the Com-
missioners of your Majeety's Treasury, and to be given
to such persons as they shall nominate, who shall be
empowered to enforce the same.
3. That the Act shall empower the Commissioners of
your Majesty's Woods. &c., to pay to the Commissioners
for executing the projected improvement the 39,000/.
which, by an Act of the fourth of your Majesty's reign
they are empowered, with the consent of the Trea-
sury, to advance in aid of a communication between
the neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament and
Buckingham Palace ; and that it shall also empower the
payment to the said Commissioners, out of any moneys
which may be raised for metropolitan improvements
hereafter, of the further sum of 11,000/.
4. And that neither the 39,000/. nor the 11,0001. shall
be Teak' to the Commissioners for executing the Act until
after the projected improvement shall have been fully
completed to the satisfaction of the Treasury
Your Majesty's Commissioners think it their duty
to certify, with one exception, no other plans for the
improvement of Westminster have been subeiitted for
their consideration within the period comprised ia this
report.
The Dean and Chapter of Westminster were invited
to produce plane, and declined, on grounds which will
be found stated in the annexed correspondence.
The Society fur promoting Metropolitan Improve-
ments submitted a plan (of which a copy is appended),
involving a total re-arrangement of the district. Your
Majesty's Commissioners have declined, therefore, to in-
clude the plan of the society in their inquiries.
Your Majesty's commissioners, since their engagement
to recommend the plan which forms the immediate sub-
j( ct of this report, have very recently received intima-
tion of the existence of other plans for the improvement
of the same district, which, however, by the fact of such
engagement, they do not feel themselves at liberty to
call fur with a view to their investigation.
For the immediate purpose, however, of any inquiries
connected with the amelioration of this portion of the me-
tropolis, they haee caused the whole district of southern
Westminster to be surveyed and levelled, and the
levels to be carefully laid down, on a plan which is
inserted in their appendix ; but while there is evidence,
they conceive, on the face of this document, of the eligi-
bility of the line of street which they have recommended,
it forms, they feel assured, the best foundation that at
present can be devised for a course of future and more
enlarged improvement.
All which is most humbly and dutifully submitted.
(Signed) LINCOLN (L S ) R. LION (L.s.)
LYTTLF.TON (L s.) 11. G. KNIGHT (L.S.)
COLBIRNF. (L.S.) A. MILNF. (L.S.)
J. C. 11F.RRIES (L.S.) CHAS. GORE (L.S.)
J. /1112:IPHERY (LS.) R. SHIRKE (L.s.)
R. 11. INt:LIS (L.s.) CHAS. B lIRY (L.s.)
I. W el e'•. April e, 1215.

METRoPOT.IS IMPROVEMENTS.—On Saturday last the Com-
missioners of her Majesty's Woods and Forests received
tenders, at their offices, Whitehall, for letting, on building
leases, the ground on the east side of the new street between
Long-acre arid Broad.street, St. Giles's, and which is to be
called Entlell-street. The fronts of the houses are to be
" architectural elevations," according to the terms of the
contract, and no objection will be made to buildings of the
style known as Elizabethan. The lessee is to forfeit all right
to the lease, unless the carcase of each house be completes
by or before Christmas-day, 1845 ' - and the houses are to be
completely finished and rendered fit for habitation by Mid-
summer-day, 1846, under penalty of forfeiture of the lease.
The several pieces of ground are to be let on lease for a term
of eighty years, from Midsummer. day, 1845, at a rent of
one peppercorn for the first year, and at such rent., for the
remainder of the term, as shall be agreed upon. The lessee is
to reimburse the Commissioners for building the vault and
paving the snteßlitlantigiool. fin. 114 feet six inches
or 35/. a and muted for the /Olinda-
tions, if ners, is to LK, deposited to
fill up _ •
t Millbank Prison. The
street, ~14e.it' -01 ipes are laid down, will
vary i 41d 16. xtZ
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