PROPOSED LAW-QUARTER AT LINCOLN'S INN. ONE point in which our
system of administration fails to secure proper guarantees for the public advantage is, the want of some responsible officer to check the invasions of private interests upon public rights,—a species of encroachment which may at last be carried through the simple force of pertinacity. The invasion of Lincoln's Inn, to which we alluded last week, is a case in point. There are two objects in the movement for carrying the Courts of Law from Westminster to Lincoln's Inn : one lies with the legal profession, and relates exclusively to the convenience of lawyers and suitors at law, to whom the severance of the courts from the Inns causes inconvenience, and therefore expense both of time and money. The proper end of this movement would be its success ; for all the arguments in its favour are, as we remarked last week, strong beyond refutation. The movement to place the Courts of Law within the open ground of Lincoln's Inn Fields is a subordinate and a separate movement ; and it has originated with the owners of property around the square, who desire to increase the value of their own. And it is not the first time the attempt has been made; • for a correspondent recalls the history of this endeavour, which began eight or ten years ago. At that time, the owners of property obtained a Committee of the House of Commons; and Sir Thomas Wilde, now Lord Truro, was placed in the chair. Among the witnesses called, was Mr. M. D. Bill, who was known to be favourable to the scheme of bring- ing the Law Courts from Westminster and Guildhall into the legal quarter of the metropolis. In other words, Mr. Hill was, like a large number of people interested as lawyers or suitors, in favour of concentrating all the machinery of the law so as to save need- less journeyings between the different departments. But this wit- ness, who was so strongly in favour of the transfer, was equally strong against using up the open space of Lincoln's Inn Fields for this purpose ; and he pointed out the very site which we partly indicated last week—the block of houses between Clement's Inn to the West and Chancery Lane to the East. He described this as not only forming a better site with regard to the preservation of open space, but as holding the balance more fairly between Lincoln's Inn and the Temples, and also as offering better faci- lities for approaches. The result of Mr. Hill's evidence was curious.
"Mr. Barry, who," according to our correspondent, "had been called to support this site in Lincoln's Inn Fields, was recalled to demolish Mr. M. D. counter-project ; which he attempted by somewhat elaborate criticism. By this time the session drew towards a close, and the Committee did not conclude the inquiry. Next year it was revived, with a new chairman. Probably most or all of the members were new ; but that I do not recollect. Mr. Barry was recalled for the second time ; and in reference to the site proposed by Mr. Hill, the architect produced surveys which had been taken intermediately, and proved that it was the right suggestion. Mr. Barry, however, carefully abstained from any reference to Mr. Hill, but left it to be inferred that the proposal was his own."
The temptation to build upon open spaces is very great ; it is a short cut to obtaining ground, and it evades difficulties. But it consumes the resources for the improvement of London, instead of enlarging them. They have been sinners in that way even at Lincoln's Inn; encumbering the gardens with the new Hall, and the Old Square with the Vice-Chancellors' Courts. There, however, it was almost a case of necessity, the means available to the So- ciety of Lincoln's Inn being limited. But Leicester Square is another flagrant example, with no necessity to extenuate the en- croachment.
Neither, in the particular case under notice, is there any neces- sity for the alienation of the open space. The property is no doubt valuable, and nobody in his senses would deny the fact that with the proposed improvement it would become still more valuable. The ground indicated by Mr. Hill so long as eight or ten years ago, is in fact suggested by its own characteristics. As respects the Strand, it offers a slight rise of ground, and the Law Courts might be made to present a magnificent facade in that direction. The improvement to the remaining property in the Strand and to all the surrounding neighbourhood would be self-evident, besides drawing together connexions which are now scattered about the same neighbourhood and the City and Westminster. It would, in fast, create a totally new kind of quartier, devoted to the practice and study of the law, with all the business of ministering to judges, lawyers, students, and suitors of every degree of life.
Previous page
