10 s. xi. FEB. is, 1909.] XOTES AND QUERIES.
125
doing good work. For these three bodies
Mr. J. A. Simon, M.P., appeared ; while
Dr. Mansfield Robinson, Town Clerk of the
Borough of Shoreditch, represented that
Council. The Worshipful Company of Iron-
mongers placed their interests in the hands
of Messrs. Honoratus Lloyd, K.C., and
Arthur Adams, the desire of the Company
being only to do the best possible in the
interests of their numerous pensioners. It
was decided to hear all interested, and a
considerable number of witnesses were
brought forward, both for and against the
sale of the land, and the transfer of the
almshouses to some other spot. Among
those on behalf of the Company were Mr.
R. C. Adams-Beck, the Clerk; Mr. W. T.
Price, the Master of the Company ; Mr. G.
Hubbard, F.R.I.B.A., the surveyor ; the
Rev. Septimus Buss, the chaplain ; and
Dr. Garrat t , the " apothecary. " The matron,
the nurse, and several inmates of the Alms-
houses supported the plea for the sale, and
gave evidence as to the undesirable sur-
roundings of the locality for such an institu-
tion. The witnesses for the opposing bodies
were Mr. Lutyens, an architect, who spoke
as to the interest of the buildings from an
archaeological standpoint ; the late Sir W.
Randal Cremer, M.P. for the district ;
the Rev. E. R. Ford, the Vicar of Shoreditch ;
the Rev. J. L. Le Couteur, Vicar of St.
Columba's ; Mr. T. W. Troup, Architect
and Sxirveyor ; Sir R. Hunter, Chairman
of the Executive Committee of the National
Trust ; Mr. Holmes, Secretary of the
Metropolitan Gardens Association ; and
some others. It appeared that the witnesses
on behalf of the Company did not marshal
their facts to the best advantage, and the
opposition, it must be said, seemed some-
what vexatious and frivolous, for all things
went to prove (as before stated) that the
Company was solely actuated by the desire
to benefit its pensioners, and had never
been anxious to sell for any other reason.
The City Press of 11 and 18 Jan., 1908,
gave a full account of the proceedings.
The result of the inquiry, which was held in the Court-Room of the Company, at the Hall in Fenchurch Street, was that these old almshouses were not to be removed ; and an abstract of the reasons of the Com- missioners' decision appeared in The City Press of 29 February. It was to the effect "on a careful consideration of all circumstances, the Commissioners, while fully recognizing the desire of the trustees to do what they think best calculated to benefit the inmates of the almshouses, are of opinion that a sufficient case is not established to call lor their sanction to the proposed sale."
Here, for some little time, the matter was-
I allowed to rest ; but an appeal was lodged
i against the decision, to enable the trustees
to assert what they claimed to be their
i rights. The result of this appeal so far as
I can ascertain has not appeared in the
public press ; but lately the inmates were
informed that the matter had been decided,
and that no sale of the land or removal of
the almshouses would take place.
It may be put on record that the would-be purchasers of this property were the Peabody Trustees, and that the price to be paid for it was 24,000/., which appears to be a very moderate price. There would have been put up about five blocks of five-story dwel- lings, and overcrowded Shoreditch would have had its population increased by some 1,200 or more souls. For the present, at least, this change in Ivingsland Road will not come about, although the boards announcing that the land is for sale have not yet been removed.
W. E. HARLASTD-OXLEY, Westminster.
COPYRIGHT nsr LETTERS. The question
of the copyright in letters appears to be
one of interest in France as well as in this
country. The decision in Macmillan tv
Dent (1906) has, in the words of a legal
expert, given rise to a good deal of specula-
tion as to how the law relating to letters
has been settled or unsettled by the judg-
ments of the Lords Justices.
A French case of considerable interest was decided last summer, when an unsuccess- ful effort was made to suppress the ' Note& sur Prosper Merimee ' of Felix Chambon, containing a number of letters addressed by Merimee to his friends, as well as official reports of monuments made by him as- inspector. The substance of the decision of M. Ancelle in the Premiere Chambre of the Tribunal Civil de la Seine I find in one of the many excellent catalogues that reach me from Paris, and it is of interest as a piece of literary history, as well as for its bearing on the perplexed question of the right to publish or to suppress the letters of a bygone notability. *H
Put in its shortest form, the French case is this. M. Chambon is the author of a work entitled ' Notes sur Prosper Merimee,' in which there are many hitherto inedited letters of that well-known writer. Madame Hemon, as the representative of Merimee's legatee, claimed the sole right of authorizing the publication of any of his letters. On this ground she asked for 5,000 francs as
