Mr. Lowe has been thrashing another deputation. East Lon- don
has got a park—Victoria Park—and wants to enlarge it. The Government, however, had advanced the money for the park, on condition of being recouped out of the sale of certain reserved lots, and is accordingly selling them for building purposes. A deputation of East Londoners, headed by Mr. Reed, on Saturday waited on Mr. Lowe, asking him to suspend the sales ; but ho refused, describing the facts, and declaring that if East London wanted the land East London must pay for it. The statute was clear, and England cannot pay for East London. The argument is unanswerable ; but Mr. Lowe forgets that it is not the fault of London, but of the country at large, that it is without the insti- tutions which every other city enjoys, which create municipal feeling, and elicit local liberality. Nobody does or can bequeath a fortune to East London, as he might to any city with a decent constitution. We believe the failure of successive Cabinets to organize London costs the metropolis half a million a year in legacies and gifts alone. People would give for new parks as readily as for new churches.
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