The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

a corps of police less than 1,000 in number, without
being under orders received from the Home Office ?
ft hen been the relief of witty writers, and the re-
laxation of a cynical public, to make a London
alderman the type of individual dulness and muni-
cipal incapacity, but between the triflings of an
absurd literature and the serious deliberations of a
legislature the step is immense, and we are entitled
to ask the Government what is their opinion on the
popular prejudice, and how far they ere prepared to
adopt it P Have our Cabinet Ministers so entirely
restricted their knowledge of London aldermen to
the joint discussion with them of a Mansion House
banquet that they have come at last to regard them
as fit for nothing else? Is a judgment in mock
turtle the only judgment that Downing-street will
accredit to men who have had the unfortunate idea
of inviting it to a dinner? Is its idea of a Lord
Mayoralty hut a magistracy of Mansion House sur-
feitings ? Is it fancied because lazy urchins in the
streets have learnt, like their betters, to enjoy a
cheap laugh at a London aldermen, that the London
alderman is therefore at the bottom of creation ? Is
Punch, in short, your only authority on the com-
petency of the magistrates of the City to do their
duty ? In this sense the bill to be introduced by
the Home Secretary may be looked upon as a test
question. Clearly enough, it the civic authorities
are not competent for the management of their
police, they are competent for none of the public
services to which they have been elected, and their
deficiency would imply at least an equal deficit
on the part of the liverymen. The proposition
places the whole system of local government on
its trial, for what are constituencies capable of
if they cannot secure in their election of magis-
trates an efficient control over the men en-
trusted with the simplest and humblest of the
aids rendered to the maintenance of public peace
and order ? If we go to the question of
fact, and try the tree by its fruits, we are far from
finding that the case made out—whatever it be—
tells against the principle of local government. The
policemen of the City enjoy at least as good a cha-
racter as those of the metropolitan area. As a rule,
discretion, tact, and general worth, that befit the
subaltern officer of justice, are qualities better evi-
denced within the City boundaries. The character
of the chief reason advanced for the alteration almost
admits that there is no groundwork for proposing it.
It is not only an isolated but exceptional incident,
and when the most is made of it warrants no con-
clusion of the kind connected with it. The deficiencies
shown in the City arrangements for the procession of
the Princess of Wales, and for the illuminations
which took place on the day of her marriage, were
only part of a system of defect for which the Go-
vernment was at least as responsible as the City
authorities. It is idle to say, with Sir George Grey,
that he confided in the assurances of the Lord
Mayor, and had a reasonable belief that he and the
aldermen were competent to secure public order and
safety to life under circumstances having no relation
whatever to the means at their disposal. The
Government knew as well as the City the pro-
tective agencies at its command, and were better
fitted to comprehend how largely the need gene-
rated by the occasion they were furnishing was
likely to exceed these. In restricting that portion
of the procession supplied by the Corporation to the
boundaries of the City, Sir George Grey centred
exclusively in Cheapside and Fleet-street attractions
which inevitably made them impassable, almost
under any power of police protection, with the essen-
tial disadvantage that the very means of order—the
police force—became elements of disorder in the
excess of the numbers they contributed to augment.
It was the same thing in the illuminations. In pro.
portion as:the City authorities, enthusiastic in their
loyalty, were ingenious in ie profuse generosity
with which they demonstrated it, in that propor-
tion did the Government show itself inert in car-
, rying out the measures which would have given a
corresponding expression to the national sentiment,
and kept in safe dispersion all over the metropoli-
tan area a population which, bent on sharing in the
festival, would necessarily cluster about the locality
made most interesting and attractive. Sir George
Grey's policy —as far as we can adjudge it—is
founded on a forgetfulness of his own share in the
confusion and mischief which marks the two days
of our national festivity, and the motion now before
the house amounts, in fact, but to a punishment of
the Mansion House for the shortcomings of the
Home Office.