698 Notes of the Month [JuNE, 



bill, which was first introduced last year, and rejected, has been again 

 thrown out by the House of Lords. It is not every selfish and con- 

 temptible scheme that can obtain the sanction of Parliament/' 



Without being good cockneys, we share in the rejoicing that this miser- 

 able and selfish project has been sccmted. The name of Thomas Mary on 

 Wilson may not have reached the ears of many of his majesty's subjects; 

 but if, instead of a pair of Christian names, he had a dozen, we exult 

 in seeing his paltry contrivance for putting money in his already over- 

 charged pocket utterly and contemptuously defeated. We rejoice 

 when avarice is exposed and put to scorn ; and we trust that if this man 

 shall make any further attempts of the kind, they will be as carefully 

 watched by the people, and as promptly and disdainfully put down by 

 the legislature. The enclosure of the few heaths and open spaces about 

 London ought to be resisted by more than the individuals immediately 

 resident on the spot. The health of every great city depends much on 

 the opportunities of fresh air and exercise afforded to the people. It 

 depends, too, in a great degree on their cheerfulness and the innocence 

 of their amusements. And who shall make a comparison in any of those 

 points between a people cramped up in the streets and alleys of a mighty 

 province of brick, and a people with the opportunities of enjoying the 

 open country, breathing air unpolluted by city smoke, and refreshing 

 their eyes, and their feelings too, by the pure and almost sacred aspect of 

 nature ? Government has been faulty in its neglect of providing public 

 walks and rural recreations for the population of London. The most 

 petty city on the continent has more cheerful promenades, and plea- 

 santer excitements for out-of-doors' exercise, than the opulent city of 

 London. We will allow that something has been done of late years. 

 The Regent's Park is undoubtedly a fine improvement; though, from its 

 being locked up, the people can only indulge themselves with the sight 

 of verdure. St James's Park also has undergone a change. But some- 

 how or other there is a heaviness about all those places, that makes them 

 less like the great resort of a wealthy and healthy population than the 

 walks of an hospital. 



There is a vast deal of nonsense talked every session about the reve- 

 nues of the clergy. On the motion in the House of Lords for the second 

 reading of the bill for enabling the Bishop of London to grant leases, 

 the Bishop himself took occasion to advert to Mr. Baring's statements 

 in the House of Commons on the amount of church revenues. His own 

 income had been alluded to as approaching to 100,000. He begged to 

 state that the fixed revenues of the see did not amount to one fourteenth, 

 nor did it, with all casualties and contingencies amount to one seventh 

 of the sum in question. Here the statement of Mr. Baring is flatly con- 

 tradicted. Yet we are to suppose that this patriotic passer of bank- 

 notes feels himself quite as honest and trustworthy a person, as if he had 

 not been detected in talking without any kind of knowledge on the sub- 

 ject. But is it a public crime that a man whose profession implies learning 

 (and in the present instance it is learning of no trivial degree), peculiar 

 attention to morals, public decoruni/igeneral benevolence, and religious 

 duty, should have 20,000 a year, or more? Or is it a crime that a 

 man should have this money who is guilty of wearing a black coat ? 

 Let it be remembered who make the bishops : if they are not universally 

 the men they ought to be, the blame must fall on the government which 



