SIR RICHARD MAYNE'S LETTER TO THE "TIMES."
SIB, RICHARD MAYNE'S "Letter to the gentlemen connected with the Times," which was read in the House of Commons on Friday, by Lord Hotham, is a curious document. It begins by an allusion to some observations which are said to be contained in the Times of the 9th, and to censure the arrangements made by the authority of the Secretary of State for War for the volunteer gathering in Hyde Park on the preceding Saturday.
We have carefully read the newspaper referred to, and we are unable to find in the whole of the graphic description which it gives of the proceedings in the park a single word reflecting on the course taken by the War Department. The fact that the people were kept at a certain distance behind the lines of volunteers is simply mentioned, and that is all ; but Sir R. Mayne, in his eagerness to gain a little popularity at the expense of others, has seized upon this bare statement and distorted it into the condemnation of Sir G. Lewis, which he appears to be so eager to procure. Starting from this imaginary censure, the Commissioner of Police goes on to inform his correspondents that he has suspended the Superintendent of Police on duty in Hyde Park, for not having resisted the execution of the orders of the Secretary ef State.
It is, of course, necessary that Sir R. Mayne should main- tain strict discipline in the force under his authority ; but the severe punishment inflicted on a meritorious officer is scarcely justified by the alleged offence, and would seem to have been in reality a sacrifice to Sir Richard's wounded pride ; while it cannot fail to render the police disinclined to co-operate cordially and readily with the military authorities on future occasions.
Sir Richard Mayne next tells us what his intentions were, and seems to imagine that it was for him to order out the volun- teers, to place them where and as he chose and, in fact, that he was for the hour the supreme authority in Hyde Park. This is a new view of the case. We had previously understood that it was the Queen, and not the Commissioner of Police, who had acceded to the wish of the volunteers throughout the country to do honour to the Princess Alexandra, and that it was by Her Majesty's express desire that they were drawn up in double lines in Hyde Park. We believed that it rested with Sir G. Lewis, and not with Sir R. Mayne, to make the arrangements necessary for carrying the royal orders into effect, and, in • short, that it was for Her Majesty to make known her pleasure to her Ministers, for them to give their orders accordingly, and for the police to obey. Sir R. Mayne has undoubtedly the powers conferred by the annexed clause : —" And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Com- missioners of Police from time to time, and as occasion shall require' to make regulations for the route to be observed by all carts, carriages, horses, and persons, and for preventing obstruction of the streets and thoroughfares within the Metro- politan Police District in all times of public processions, public rejoicings, or illuminations, and also to give directions to the constables for keeping order, and for preventing any obstruc- tion of the thoroughfares in the immediate neighbourhood of
Her Majesty's Palaces and the Public Offices, the High Court of Parliament, the Courts of Law and Equity, the Police Courts, the Theatres, and other places of public resort, and in any case when the streets or thoroughfares may be thronged or may be liable to be obstructed." But that clause does not make him Commander-in-Chief.
The next sentence of the letter expresses Sir R. Mayne's astonishment at finding a different state of things in the park from that which he expected. We confess ourselves entirely unable to reconcile the statement made in the letter, and by Lord Hotham in the House of Commons, that Sir R. Mayne was quite unaware of the space which the Secretary ol State for War cons:dered it necessary to keep clear, with Sir G. Lewis's explicit declaration that a map upon which the whole of the intended arrangements were laid down was shown to Sir R. Mayne before the 7th. It is for the Commissioner of Police and his advocates to explan this contradiction. The public will certainly accept without hesitation the statement of Sir G. Lewis. And now we get a glimpse of what Sir R. Mayne's arrangements would have been, if he had been left to himself; for he complains that the effect of the course actually pursued was "to deprive the Royal party of the joyous cheering there had been elsewhere at every point." This can only mean that Sir Richard would have let the crowd come up quite close behind the ranks of the volunteers, pressing in upon their thin formation of only four deep, and that instead of presenting to the Princess the imposing spectacle of 17,000 armed citizens paying her their heartfelt homage in disciplined silence, he would have desired to see a waving line, squeezed in between the procession and a cheer- ing crowd, whose loud salutations, most appropriate elsewhere, would have utterly marred the effect of the great military demonstration which Her Majt sty's express orders bad called forth.
It is an old wish, "that my enemy would write a book," and if we were Sir R. Mayne's enemies we should greatly rejoice, instead of, as we do, sincerely regretting that he has written this foolish letter.
But the last sentence surpasses all the rest—" You may take any notice you think proper of the arrangements in the park." So says the Commissioner of Police, an official of long standing, filling an important and confidential post, and writing to "the gentlemen connected with the Times ;" you may take, that is, any notice you think proper of the arrange- ments of the Secretary of State for War—the more sharply you criticize them the. better I shall be pleased. We believe that such a proceeding as this finds no parallel in the annals of official indiscretions. The junior clerk in the most subordinate office would have known, if he had been tempted to do anything of the kind, that it would be a serious breach of the most ordinary rules of official discipline ; yet Sir R. Mayne not only commits the impropriety, but glories in and parades it. " C'est pire qu'un crime ; c'est tine bietise ;" and in all earnestness it is a serious thing that a public officer holding an appointment, in which discretion and reticence are so especially necessary, should have shown himself under any pro- vocation so utterly wanting in both.
But we are altogether at a loss to comprehend what it was which provoked Sir R. Mayne. We can hardly suppose that he is animated by any personal dislike to Sir 0. Lewis, who was for two years his direct official superior; for we have always understood that the present Secretary of State for War was one of the kindest and most considerate of chiefs; still less can we conceive it possible that the Commissioner of Police either has himself any hostility to the volunteer force, or has made himself, on this occasion, the tool of any clique who may be actuated by such feelings ; and we are, at last, almost driven to believe that Sir R. Mayne has committed this egregious blunder under the smart of offended dignity, or from some exaggerated notion of his own importance.
We trust, however, that he will receive such a lesson from his official superiors as, combined with Sir G. Lewis's calm and dignified public disavowal, will save us from again wit- nessing the unseemly spectacle of an official subordinate, charged with grave and important duties, deliberately inviting a public journal to make hostile criticisms on the acts of a Secretary of State.
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