§ LORD ROBERT CECILsaid, he rose to ask the First Commissioner of Works, If he has given attention to the prayer of a Petition from the Inhabitants of Bayswater and Kensington?
MR. COWPERreplied, that when he first proposed that the House should vote the expenses of establishing a communication between Bayswater and Kensington Gore, he suggested a new road, which was to be so separated from the Park that it could be opened at night. That arrangement would have involved considerable expense, and ultimately a more economical plan was adopted, by which existing roads were used. The plan answered very well in several respects, but it bad the disadvantage, that if the road were used at night, access would be given to the whole of Hyde Park. If the request of the Petitioners were adopted, and the gates were to be open after ten o'clock at night, he could not consent that they should be opened to rich persons and carriages, while the poor people on foot were excluded; and if they were open to all, consequences, in a police point of view, might arise which might be highly objectionable. There was every reason to suppose, that if the gates were thrown open during the dark 1475 nights, the park would become a nest of evil-disposed and disorderly persons. It was quite impossible that the three-hundred acres could be properly watched, and to light them would be out of the question. Even at the present moment, while the gates were carefully closed between ten at night and five in the morning, there were scenes occurring which called for the constant vigilance of the police.