The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We trust that Parliament will have virtue—
nay,
.humanity—enough to throw out- the Bill
for giving Sir Thomas Wilson a right to annihii,
late Hampstead- heath ; that is, to do as has been
clone with so many other places of healthful re-
creation for the smoke-dried inhabitants of Lon-
don—surround or cover it with rows of brick-
built houses. When some cold-blooded projec-
tor first recommended 'a variety of what= he called
improvements" in St. James's-park, we fore-
told distinctly what would happen—namely, that
in exchange for a few clumps of shrubs, a long
line of iron railing, and a curved instead of a
square-ended piece of water, the space through
which free air circulated would be abridged, and
more town raised on the groaning earth, to en-
close, obstruct, and stifle us. What then fol-
lowed ? As matters now stand, we see a sort of
street or " terrace" of mansions, as high as the
Tower of Babel, occupying that ground
" where once a garden smiled"— the gar-.
den of Carlton Palace. That sheet of open
space, over which the breezes rushed out
upon the Park, or from it, is now bunged
up by a mass of stuccoed and decorated walls,
as thick and impassible as the skull that.planned
them. We have got the privilege of crawling by
the sides of that old puddle, the St. James's
canal. We have incurred the necessity of lift-

ing up our eyes. at an angle of 80 degrees or
so, to meditate those lofty pens of the aristo-
cracy which border the northern flank of 'the
mall, as we walk along it. We have pilasters
and palaces, and raw materials of • soot and stag-
nation, beyond all example—for these things the
people of London did not want ; but that which
alone they did want viz., more air, and an:.ex-
tension instead of a contraction of unbuilt sur.
face,—that, let the Grandees talk big if they
like, they have taken from us. The whole of
the gardens of Carlton-house are swept away, but
the tenant of Marlborough-house had better
taste : he refused to immolate the small pleasure-
grounds of that historical habitation, and the
stucco-fiend has been compelled to spare them.
The same game, nay, a worse as it would seem, . •
is about to be tried with Hampstead-heath,—
that spot so elevated,—so animating,-4to acces-
sible
to the crowd,—so refreshing to the impri-
soiled population of those narrow districts of the
metropolis " where" (for six days out of seven)
" the pale artist plies the sickly trade,"—so sa-
lubrious for all who have no other doctor than
a weekly plunge into the aerial current of that
half-mountain region. It is frightful to
think of Hampstead-heath becoming the sub-
ject of a Bill of Enclosure. Nor is this
outrage upon the public comfort, nor can
it be, the perpetration of any individual.
It cannot be the work of a sordid or griping •
landlord, for the thing is to be done by Act of
Parliament ; and if the landlord could effect it
by virtue of any right, or privilege, or usage, in-
herent in himself, appertaining to his title, en-
joyed by him as of the nature of property, or as
incidental to it, he might have wrought this
paramount mischief without requiring the pro-
tectors of the people to be his participes gr,nyii,„:„„„
nis—without coming for a new law to :o.4wpm 3scf~ ac
-
nate the ancient and immemorial enjoyotOnt* 05E,97
every class of Englishmen in both east and west,
of London. The Regent's-park—no longer a ..„0„,.5
park, but an irregular polygon of buildings, with
grass and water in the midst of it—has been
devoured by the brick and plaster mania.
Nothing remains but Hyde-park and Kensing-
ton-gardens, since the Green-park has become
a sort of side court-yard to that frivolous but
laboured chaos which some people would per-
suade us is to be a favourite abode of Princes,
deep buried in the swamp of Pimlico. How
long, indeed, we may boast of either Kensing-
ton-garden, or of Hyde-park, it is not safe tr.,
surmise. Some Hottentot once proposed to
build upon them !
aty.the.r,
appearanceh
aa
ds tthhee
fpurtnohb:
was withdrawn to be resumed at a more conve-
nient season. If so, we trust that all England
a°lbsl oai :nib" 1-1
is
9ilwl mithui tHinyamatpsttheaedn.
rian scheme; but in the mean time our business
Bill for its enclosure.—Times.
The French Ministry, about a year ago, from
sympathy with the cry of commercial distress
which resounded through the land, or from a

belief that a more accurate knowledge of the
sources of the public suffering might lead to some
practical remedies, appointed (like ourselves in
similar cases) two Commissions of Inquiry, the
result of whose labours, it was expected, might
enlighten the Government, and either furnish it
with the means of effecting reforms, or an excuse
for not attempting them. These Commissions,
consisting of intelligent merchants, manufactu-
rers, and deputies, addressed themselves with
considerable zeal to the duties imposed upon
them, and collected a great body of evidence not
less curious than useful. One of them examiusl,
the state of the iron-trade, and the poliev
en-
couraging founderies in France; aw 3 • of ,
the other
the manufacture of sugar and th- .nterests of the
colonies. The object
"'
certain whether it mir ot h cases was to as-
nt not be advantageous
for French intere:
prohibitive, • to reduce the duties, almost
on both commodities, so as to ad-
mit the importation of foreign supplies in
ti':ese articles, in order to pay for the wine or
other produce of the French soil and industry
which had suffered a ruinous depreciation
in value from the want of a market. The
practical result is of little importance,--be-
cause the inquiry was pursued under too
strong a bias to resist improvements, however
beneficial in their ultimate effect, if required to
be purchased by any present sacrifice either to
the Exchequer or to partial interests,—but the
facts collected, especially on the sugar question,
are extremely curious and unexpected. Who.
for instance, would have imagined, when the itu,
genuity of the French chymists vied with what
we thought the madness of the Imperial Go-
vernment to produce sugar from beet-root, that
such a plant would be cultivated, and such. a
manufacture continued, when the sugar-cane wo:,
again accessible, and the French colonies re-
stored ? Who could have imagined
the beet-root-grower could compete N% it% the
West India planter, either in the or
the price of the article, while the fo.l.sater at-first
could only bring his produce to viarket at three
or four shillings a pound ? Then many good.
jokes were made about tb.e profit of making Eu-
ropean sugar, and ON. probability of discovering
the philbs'ophees stone! Now the project is so
far fin-it.bsktig thought chimerical, that new ca-
tsital is daily embarked in its. success. Planta-
tions and factories are extending, in a manner
that would appear incredible to the people of
this country, unless the facts mad been stated in
such a manner as to leave no doubt of the truth
before the commission to which we have alluded.
It appears from its rgport (which now lies before.
us), that since the Restoration the price of beet-
root-sugar has been reduced about three quarters
Wow its original prise,--that the number

factories now at work amounts to more than a
hundred, and that the quantity of sugar which
they produced in the course of last year exceeded
four millions of kilogrammes (about eight mil-
lions of pounds) or about a twelfth part of the
consumption of France. This is no doubt a
small quantity compared with the importations of
Great Britain from her West India Colonies
(amounting to about 400,000,0001b5. annually),
but considering that it is a new manufacture, it
bears a great proportion to the consumption of a
country like France, where the use of sugar is
not so universally spread among the lower
classes. Nor would even the relative quantity
appear of great moment, unless the manufacture
were new and extending. But, on the opinion
of the same parties, who gave evidence as to
the present success of its manufacture, its pros-
perity is increasing, the machinery employed will
soon be doubled, and, the quantity of sugar made
from the beet-root next year may be cal-
culated at 10,000,000 of kilogrammes, or about
20,000,0001b5. In every one of the existing
factories one apprentice is employed, and in se-
veral from 10 to 15, whose knowledge may
afterwards enable them to erect and to superintend
new establishments. It is calculated by some
of the witnesses that if the present system of
protection is continued, and if the beet-root ma-
nufactory increases at the rate which has been
witnessed within the last four years, in five or
six years more France will be able to prepare
within her own territory all the sugar which she
consumes. Nor does it appear that the protec-
tion against foreign competition, by Custom-
house duties, would either require to be very
high, or to be indefinitely continued. Accord-
ing to the present rate of expence in cul-
tivating the plant and manufacturing the sugar, a
pound of the latter may be sold at about 3d.,
and afford a profit to the manufacturer. An
intelligent witness examined on the question,
whether the expenses of production might not
be materially diminished, replied that he saw so
many imperfections at present both in the cul-
ture of the root, and in the preparation of the
extract, as to be convinced that when all the im-
provements of which both were susceptible were
carried into execution, beet-root sugar might be
sold for 30 centimes• (three-pence) the kilo-
gramme, or about three-halfpence the pound.
Another witness stated that if the domestic ma-
nufacture continued to receive such improve-
ments .as it had done within the last few years,
he would. state his conviction that in ten years
it could support a competition on equal terms
with the sugar of the colonies. These facts
must excite the surprise, if not the alarm, of the
West India.colonies connected with both coun-
tries: What a reduction in the price of this
sugar, from 3s. to 3d. the kilogramme! In the
petition from the West India planters and colo-
nial merchants of London, presented towards
the close of last session by Mr. Pallmer, we
find it stated as a subject of complaint, that
while the average price of sugar during the year
had been 635. the cwt. the Government duty
was 275., leaving only 365. for the expense of
cultivation and the transport of the article to
Europe. Though the duty, therefore, were en-
tirely withdrawn, the price of West India sugar
at that rate would amount to more than 31d. a
pound, or more than double the price at which
the French manufacturers of beet-root sugar ex-
pect to be able to sell that article after a few
years of experience and improvement. Happily
for our West India interest they see no rivals at
home ; they need have no apprehensions except
from a class of growers at more than twice their
distance from England, and they are even pro-
tected against these Asiatic competitors, by a
duty of 10s. a cwt. above their own. Should
the beet-root manufacture prosper and extend,
France may bid farewell to her colonies, to her
colonial marine, and to slave-labour.—/bid.

The first Report of the Commissioners on the
Law Of Real Property has been distributed. The
law of real property itself seems to them to re-
quire very few essential alterations ; " but a view
of the law respecting the transfer of real pro-
perty suggests remarks of a different nature. It
appears .to us that the modes by which estates
and interests in real property are created, trans-
ferred, and secured, are exceedingly defective,
and require many important alterations." In
this first Report they give the conclusions they
have formed upon the several detached subjects
of Inheritance, Dower, Gurtesy, Fines, and
Recoveries, and Prescription and the Statutes
of Limitation. They explain the leading con-
siderations that influenced them in their deli-
berations, and subjoin the final result of them in
the form of distinct , propositions, " which may
assist (they.. say) in the framing of Bills to be
introduced into either Howse of Parliament, if
any of the measures they suggest should be
deemed worthy of being proposed to the Legi-
slature." That the Alterations suggested by
the Commissioners will improve the law in
many most important respects, by the substitu-
tion of direct for circuitous modes of procedure,
is sufficiently obvious. The objection to their
labours, we apprehend, is, that these alterations
are not carried sufficiently far. They seem to
us to be by no means liable tb the charge of ex-.
eessive temerity. To take as an instance their
okservations respecting a general registry—" No
meaSure (they say) has been suggested to us
from so many different quarters, or has been so
earnestly pressed upon us, as a general registry
of deeds ;" and the Commissioners evidently in-
cline to a registry. But they conjure up, not-
withstanding, all manner of obstacles to the
measure. " We are aware (they say), however,
of the numerous and weighty obstacles which
present themselves to the establishment of a plan
so extensive, and, in order to make it effective„
so novel in this country. The experiments
which have been tried in. two English counties
and in Ireland have been so imperfect, both in
principle and detail, and have been so marred
by the doctrine of equitable notice, that they
afford no- criterion of the utility of the measure
or the means of accomplishing it. We found
that information upon this important subject
must be sought not merely from the practitioners
of English law and from English treatises, NA
from Scotland, where a general registry has been
long established, which the great boast of the
law Alia country, and from the Continental States,
in many of which a similar institution has been
introduced with more or less success. We have
taken steps for obtaining this information in the
most authentic shape ; and we should anxiously
consider whether the plan can be safely adopted
in a country of so great extent as England,
where transfers of land are more frequent than in
any part of the globe, where the law of real pro-
perty must ever remain a peculiar and compli-
cated s3stem, and where the disclosure of pri-
vate affairs may be dangerous to commercial
credit." oow s registry can be dangerous to
commercial'eredit is what passes our power of
compreheiliion. Without a registry, g man pos-
sessed 01 propertyomnst'often labour under the

discredit caused by the uncertainty as to its
being exempt from burdens, while a man with-
out any property may obtain credit for having
what he has not. But this state of things is in-
jurious to commercial credit. What is wished
for is, that a man should receive the credit to
which he is entitled, and no more. We can
easily conceive, however, if a number of assump-
tions must not be questioned, and among others
that the law of property must ever remain a pe-
culiar and complicated system, the additional
expellee caused by registration may be some ob-
jection to it. We are glad to find that the
Commissioners, among other improvements, re-
commend the establishment of a Civil Register
of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, including all
classes and religious professions ; giving the ad-
ditions, trades, or professions, and residences
of the parties.—Morning Chronicle.
When the Civil body first evinced its reluc-
tance to let Parliament into a sight of its ac-
counts, the Duke of Wellington seemed inclined
to afford to them his protection. The Duke,
however, with that ready good sense which cha-
racterises the main of his proceedings, soon gave
up this idea, considering, as no doubt he did,
that no persons, either in a public or private ca-
pacity, could have any right to apply for either
a loan or a gift from the Government, on account
of the deficiency of their own means, without
showing how and to what extent that deficiency
had arisen. And then, as to the inquisitorial
nature of such a proceeding, it was absurd to
think of it. Any nobleman or gentleman's
steward would have just as much right to com-
plain of his employer calling for his accounts as
the civic body have, who are merely stewards to
the great body of freemen of the different compa-
nies, and to the Parliament, which is the guardian
for them all. Besides, a common creditor's bill
would open the whole of their accounts to the
Court of Chancery, and to every copying clerk em-
ployed under it. And as for the demand being in-
quisitorial, why the Property Tax, instituted (as
it is again likely enough to do) an inquisition
ten times more prying into every man's affairs
than this public exposure of public concerns
called for. The truth, we have no doubt, is,
that the City accounts would, if minutely exa-
mined, present so much law, so much feasting,
jobbing, and favouritism of a hundred different
kinds, that no wonder that they who have been
prospering under its sunshine should dread the
cloud which is calculated to damp all their
hopes: • No wonder that they cry out " Shut
the door" when the profane eye of Parlia-
mentary curiosity calls for an exposure. But,
the .more odious this exposure is to the
whole race of Civic jobbers (its " Stipen.
diary Magistrates" among the rest), the more we
rejoice at its accomplishment, for the more the
common good will be brought about by it. Al-
ready have fear and trembling fallen upon the
ranks which heretofore revelled either in joyful
fruition, or scarcely less joyous expectation. All
now is sorrow, melancholy, and dismay. The
thought that funds must for the future be applied
to legitimate purposes which have heretofore,
there is-too much reason to fear, been dedicated
to purposes quite the reverse, fills the whole tribe
of Civic hangers-on with bitter disappointment.
And how do they revenge themselves but by
angry vituperation against two great and noble
coal-owners, to whose disappointment in the way
of business they allege that they owe their own ?
But what do the public in general care for this ?
They know that self-interest is the all-controul-
ling principle of mankind ; and if, on this occa-
sion, it has produced a public benefit, why so
much the better.--Morning Herald.
A rumour was current yesterday that the Ses-
sion of Parliament would be prolonged until
nearly the end of the month, for the purpose of
affording the Speaker of the House of Com-
mons time to issue new writs, in consequence
of a partial change of Ministers, calculated to
strengthen the Administration of the Duke of
Wellington, and to afford greater satisfaction to
the country, being expected. The alleged cause
is, that the state of Europe is such as to require
a stronger and more efficient Ministry to direct
the affairs of the State than now exists. Ex-
pected changes in the law department are also
mentioned; but these will, in a great degree, de-
pend on the re-establishment of the health of the
Master of the Rolls, who is so far recovered
that his medical attendants have given it as their
opinion that he will be enabled to take an airing
on horseback in the course of a fortnight.—
Morning Advertiser.

CANTERBURY, June 13.
Having a large supply of foreign samples of Wheat,
and a fair quantity of English, together with very fa-
vourable weather for the Wheat on the land, caused our
prices to rule exceedingly dull, and to make sales our fac-
tors were obliged to submit to Is. to 2s. per quarter re-
duction. Other Grain a short supply, but without altera-
tion in value.

Wheat, white 69s. to '74s.
red
Barley, Malting 32s. to 365.
Oats
B?ans 26s. to 345.
Pease 32s. to 335.