The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-24 00:00:00

THE CITY REMEMBRANCER,

At length a day, the 14th January, at a meeting of the
Common Council to be specially convened, has been ap-
pointed to elect a Remembrancer for the corporation of
London, in the room of Mr. Tyrrell, who retired from the
office about six months ago, after a service of more than
half a century. By a recent resolution of the Court of
Common Council, the salary has been fixed at £1,500, with
an annual allowance besides of £4ot) for office expenses.
The emoluments, which until now have been fluctuating,
amounted to about £2,000 a-year upon an average. There
are eight candidates in the field namely, Mr. James
Crosby, solicitor, admitted 1828; Mr. George C. Oke, as-
sistant- clerk at the Mansion-house justice-room, and
author of several legal works of retatte; Mr. Samuel Spof-
forth, Parliamentary agent and solicitor, admitted 1850,
Mr. John R. L. Walmisley, Parliamentary agent and soli-
citor, admitted 1840; Mr. Henry T. Riley, M.A., Cam-
bridge, barrister, called in 1847, and editor and translator of
Liber Albus; Mr. James Pearce Peachey, barrister, called
in 1851, and for three years lecturer on conveyancing to the
Law Society ; Mr. Woodthorpe Brandon, registrar of the
"Lord-Mayor's civil court; and Mr. H. E. Brown, Parlia-
mentary agent and solicitor, admitted in 1840. The lang in-
terval which has elapsed since the vacancy arose, and dur-
ing which it was uncertain whether or not the office would
be amalgamated partly with that of the City Solicitor and
partly with that of the Town-clerk, has operated to prevent
some of the candidates presenting themselves until the
eleventh hour. Others, again, were unwilling to undertake
the labour of canvassing the Common Council, about 260
in number, so long as it remains a matter of doubt that.
ihe Remembrancership would be maintained as a separate
department of the corporation, as it had been from the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. Some are understood to have
declined on principle to canvass at all, preferring to de-
pend on their good repute, even where the coveted prize
is equal in emolument to the office of an Under-Secretary
of State, but without its precarious tenure. This being so,
it is feared that some members of the Common Council
promised their votes when the field of choice was compara-
tively limited, and that the wholesome rule of deur
digniori, which ought to be above all other considerations,
may not be allowed to prevail in the public interest. It
would be difficult, perhaps, to understand how many arts
are practised on these occasions in the interest of particular
candidates for offices in the corporation, down to the em-
ployment at times of paid electioneering agents, It is not
uncommon for a man to lay himself out for a place of
emolument or honour before it is really vacant, and that
because its possessor happens to be moribund or advanced in
years. A rumcur was recently current in the city that an
inhabitant of a ward canvassed for the gown which
en alderman, who was ill, was supposed likely to give ups
and that the moment the alderman heard of the proceeding
he declared hia determination to retain his gown until the
last. In the matter of the Remembrancership effortts quite
as unconscionable are being made to carry theeleuctinc
fl°u in
a
and
which has just
particular way. It rests with the Common c
especially with the new body of the beencandi-
to baffle such artifices, and see that, every one
o elected
dates has a fair chance. The choice they made on a recent
election of a Commissioner of Police gaye ;
a Remembrancer
why that general eatisfac
lion. There is no reason and that it will do, pro-
should not gain equal approbation, an
vided it proceeds on public considerations alone.

JUDGE JEFFRIES,.OF NOTORIOUS MEmaRY (point-
ing with his cane to a man
Ettld, " At which who was
end
asabout to be
,tsried),
Lim Said, Them at th
is a great rogue h;of my cane. The
inan to whom he pointed, looking at,
end, my lord?"
A CYNICAL PIIILOSOPIIF.II, has remarked—" If
we all had windows to our breasts to-morrow, what a de-
mand there would be for blinds!"
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