THE CHAIRS IN ST. JAMES'S PARK.
DISCUSSIONS about seats are the order of the day. Somefifty or sixty chairs, neither very elegant nor very easy, have, by some means not known to John Bull, been introduced into the enclosure in St. James's Park ; and for a seat on one of these, one penny is demanded. A corres- pondent in the Herald demurred to the demand, and asked for explana- tion ; which was not forthcoming. The chairs, he in consequence asserts, (although it does not exactly follow) have been bought with the public money, and the charge of a penny is an imposition. The Morning Journal takes up the cudgels on behalf of the chair-hirers, or those who act as such ; and belabours John Bull and the Cockneys for in- sisting not only on a walk to weary their legs, but on a seat to rest them, and all for nothing. The Journal, in its zeal for the chairs, and for sound principles, would banish benches from all places of public resort ; benches being, according to it, a species of support which no modest young woman or man can press without danger of contami- nation. We confess we like to be independent, and therefore prefer the chair; but we do not see vely clearly the necessary connexion be- tween its enjoyment and the Ur.: which the enjoyment at present sub- jects its to. The Journal seems to have overlooked the only point in dispute—namely, to whom the said chairs happen to belong. If to the King, then doubtless the charge is an impudent imposition: if to pri- vate individuals, who authorized private individuals to hawk chairs
there? No analogy exists between the practice in Paris and the prac- tice in St. James's Park, for the simple reason that in Paris every one may hire chairs that likes. The English affair appears to us to be a job,— a job on the smallest possible scale indeed, a mere penny job ; but as indicative of the spirit of the nation, and of the manner in which public affairs are customarily managed, as if it were a job of a pound. To mention the expense of such a petty accommodation, which may probably average twenty shillings per annum, and the necessity of pro- viding for it by such a mode of contribution, is, with the view that a seat in these grounds commands, ridiculous. Still more ridiculous is the idea that his Majesty having consented to give up these delightful walks to his subjects, should grudge to afford a seat to those who profit by his kindness.
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