Lord Newton said that the old rule of walking on
the right probably dated back to the time when people carried swords. That again may be so, but we think there was another rule, probably contemporaneous with the carrying of swords, for a man " to give the wall," as the phrase was, to a woman. That is to say, a man, when meeting a woman, would walk on the outside of the pavement, which was theoretically the position of danger. As Lord Newton truly said, the change which the local authorities of London have tried to introduce is desirable, because to walk on the left is to face the oncoming traffic. When people walk on the right in a crowded street they are in danger of being pressed into the gutter and may be struck by traffic which is overtaking them and which they have never seen. Lord Onslow, in answering Lord Newton, said that the Commissioner of the City Police was not in favour of the change and that the Home Secretary was not prepared to instruct the police to take any action in the matter.
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