The Express.
London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 14.

We never joined in the cry of those who repre-
sented the Corporation of London u a den of thieves,
and sce therefore have nothing to retract in refer-
ence to the observations we made during the pogrom
of the examinations before the City Coundookos of
Inquiry. Our objections to the state of the London
Corporation have been confined to the warabereeme
and complicated machinery by which the sookipal
functions in the City are worked, to the Wisdom of the
City from the rest of the metropolis, to the robotism of
. the AblllESWbilkallMindk MOO

under a system which preserves so many regulations
and restrictions utterly averse from the spirit of
modern freedom. We have pointed out defects, and
very great defects in the Corporation, but we have
Dever cried out for its abolition. We have called
for its thorough reform, bat never fur its destruction.
We consider every separate municipality as a living
protest against the system of absorption and centralise-
tion which would deliver us bound han mineralt into
the hands of a bureaucracy. As a rule,
the municipality of a town will do its work far better
than any Government can do it for them, while the
other advantages arising from independent °ogees-
bons are too great to need enumeration. It is chiefly
by the operation of local government that the spirit
of freedom, and aptitude for public business, ham
been generated and preserved in the nation, and we
should be the last to desire that one single local
corporation should be destroyed.
But any argument that is valid for the preservation
of municipalities, involves the supposition that they
are well regulated, and no ewe aim has read the pro-
ceedings before the Cananite= sea maintain that
the government of the Cityte eel dell to preimi is
this score. If any further eclipse teem amid ea
this point than that which appemieillehee WSW%
that of Mr. Scum the valialikig awaits of the
Corporation, would settle the meter. Thit a groat
public corporation should sanction the inheidisins
a newspaper to bolster up its interests, or to act it
its expositor and defender before the world, is of
itself sufficient to excite suspicion that its proem&
logs are not of such • character as to challenge sia•
amination. The remaining portion of Mr. Scan%
evidence is of a similar nature. In his evidence as
Thursday that gentleman acknowledged that be
was employed by the Market Improvement Com-
mittee—nut in his official capacity—but se ast
dividual in whom the Committee had trust, in gdtlaig
up and furthering the opposition against the removal
of Smithfield Market. A sum of 2,7501. was ex-
pended for this purpose, and the committee, " dr
parting from their usual mode of procedure," regal:id
no details of expenditure to be laid before them, bat
were content with his (Mr. SCOTT'S) check ups it.
2,6301. was expended in canvassing, agencies, pro-
curing petitions, printing, and law stationery
charges. The remaining 1004 was expended
in payments to gentlemen for " literary ser-
vices." When asked the meaning of this expression
all that Mr. ScoTT would say was, that the gentle-
men in question drew up papers and assisted the
Remembrancer in " a general literary way." The
expenditure was confidential. Of course the natural
conclusion as to • secret expenditure of this nature,
the items of which were not revealed to the auditors
of the accounts, would be that it would open a door
to abuse. When Mr. SCOTT was asked if such was
not likely to be the case, he answered that it did'
open a door to abuse; but he did not think that]
the power had been aimed. What possessor of
irresponsible power ever did think that he had
abused it ? The world will scarcely agree with Mr.
SCOTT, and will continue to believe that the expendi-
ture of secret service money by a body corporate, is
prima facie evidence against the justice of the cause
which the Corporation is endeavouring to defend.
The suspicious taint of secrecy clings to other pro.
eeedinge of the Corporation. Why should the City re-
fuse an inspection of its charters as in the riessiDati-
field and Co.? The official Serjeant
is reported to have said in the course of his STAN%
" I should feel it my duty to refuse an imperil* if
the charters in the case of a suit brought maid lb
City. An individual would not show his tide-dsede,
and I don't think there is any difference in such ones
between an individual and a corporation." Surely
there is this difference at least, that an individual
holds his property as a personal right, while a err
poration retake its privileges as a public trust. Ike
charters of a corporation confer privileges which were
intended for the equitablebenefit of the borough orcity
to which they refer, not to create barriers by which
the community is general can be defrauded of their
just rights. The Commission therefore was jailed
in asking Serpent Mnaxwrraen—" Doss ft net
seem right and reasonable, that whim a or
tain claim is founded upon charter, the person
on whom this claim is made should have the liberty
of inspecting the document on which the claim
is said to be founded ?" And the answer to
the question —" I hesitate, as a lawyer, to
answer a question which is now pending
before the coerts"—is simply an evasion. He was
asked sot a question of law, but one of equity: not
whether snob a practice was in conformity with the
letter of the law, but whether it was " right and
reasonable." Any honest man who knew nothing
of law would have answered the question at once.
And in taking shelter behind law, and refusing to
notice an appeal to " right and reason," the learned
Serjeant virtually ignores the purpose of the Com-
mission, which is not so much to find out the
nature of the laws which regulate the management
of the Corporation as the tendency of those laws,
and the Whence which they exert on civic and
national prosperity, or for Corporation abuses and
disgrace.
It is of the utmost importance to the right admi-
nistration of the business of the Corporation that
'eerily should be abolished, and that the accounts
and records of Corporation transactions should be
open to the light of day. This applies to one divi-
sion of City affairs which has not as yet been taken
in hand by the Commission, bat 'which mast not
be neglected if the inquiry is to be complete.
The royal hospitals require nein' ate investigation.
The fonds arising from the original estates has. et
late years, increased enormously in vela*, awl it is
matter of the greatest importance that the pulls
should have a full account of the manner in whisk
they are administered. That the management of
these institutions is susceptible of much alteration
for the better is generally known, and in the ease
of Bethlehem, has been proved sufficiently in the
columns of the Deity Ness. The commissioners should
turn their attention in this direction at once.

EMIGRANTS FROM Mawr:RT.—The number of
cougreete, chiefly Genius, hoes the 'bone port daring
18S3 was 15,282, being ea increase over the mending yea
of Ih. Of the 15,282, 2,847 left in Belgian mode.