The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-22 00:00:00

Al n,

IWNISTERIAL ATTACK
UPON THE CITY'S PRIVILEGES.

Ti7E

BUG

.NANGHAM PALACE, Mallen 21, 1839.
clay, the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Alder-
"— Recorder, Sheriffs, Common Council, and Offi-
cers of the City of London, waited upon Her Majesty with the
f.l.owing Address and Petition, which was read by the Hon.
Charles Ewan Law, the Recorder, and which Her Majesty was
graciously p:eased to receive on the throne ,
" To THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
" The humble Address and Petition of the Lord Mayor, Alder-
men, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Coun-
cil assembled.
" Flo,t Gracious Sovereign,—We, your Majesty's most loyal
and dutiful subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Com-
mons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled,
humbly approach your Majesty' w.th feelings of unshaken
confidence to solicit your Majesty's aid and protection
against a measure now pending in Parliament in violation of
our-no st sacred rights and privileges, being assured from
your Majesty's mo,t gracious declaration in the Guildhall of
your ancient. city of Loudon of your Majesty's regard for the
r.reat commercial community, the met opohs of your empire.
Prior to the Norman conquest, the citizens of London pos.
srsstil and exorcised the important right and privilege of
Electing their own Magistrates, and of providing by rules and
regulations, made by their own municipal authorities, for the
protection of their property, and for the preservation of the
peace within the City, by the appointment of proper officers
for keeping watch and ward within the same.
" King William 1., by his charter, granted and secured to
the citizens of London the integrity of their rights, customs,
arid franchises, as fully and freely as they were enjoyed in the
dais of King Edward the Confessor.
Under the said Charter the citizens of London continued
:"rise these rights and privileges, and the same have been
armed by repeated charters of your :Majesty's Royal prede-
detsers.

to ex()

" The ancient rights and privileges of London were
arbitrarily invades! by a colourable judgment in a quo
warronto obtained by King Charles 11. ; a perseverence
in these and such like illegal and unconstitutional pro-
eeediLgs in the reign of his successor, King James
11. tended to shake the stability of the throne, and
operated, amongst other causes, by the glorious Revo-
lu.ion, to transfer to your Majesty's ancestors the domi-
nion of those realms. To indemnify the city of London for the
past, and to provide a permanent security for the future,
to the rights, franchises, and liberties of the citizens, an Act
of Parliament was passed in the second year of the reign of
King William and Queen Mary, entitled ' An Act for Re-
versing the Judgment in Quo Warranto against the City of
London, and for restoring the City of London to its ancient
Rights and Privileges.'
"By the Bill introduced into the House of Commons by
your Majesty's responsible advisers, entitled ' A Bill for
further Improving the Police in and near the Metropolis,' it is
proposed to enact, amongst other things, that the city of Lon-
don, and the liberties thereof, and all precincts and places
within the outer boundaries of such places, shall be
part of the metropolis police district, and that the Justices
appointed and to be appointed under the provisions of
the Act of the 10th year of the reign of King George IV.
shall be Justices of the Peace of the said city, liberty, precine+s,
and places, and empowered to act therein, as fully as if the
said city, liberties, precincts, and places, had been named in
the said Act.
" The Bill se introduced is an encroachment upon, and a
violation of the ancient chartered rights, liberties, and privileges
of London, without any reasonable cause of complaint or advan-
tage to the public.
"It is to us a matter of deep regret and disappointment to
find that your Majesty's Ministers (professing liberal princi-
ples of popular representation and self-government, as opposed
to aibitrary power) should be authcrs of a measure calculated
to wrest from the hands of the citizens of London, and place
under the control of a Minister of the Crown, their ancient,
unabused, and long respected right of protecting their own pro-
perty, liberties, and lives.
" Should such measures pass into a law, your Majesty's
citizens of London will be deprived of a privilege which Parlia-
ment in its wisdom has recently conferred, without distinction,
upon all the Municipal Corporations in the kingdom.
" We, your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, have established
a police in the City of London fully adequate to its wants, and
equal, if not superior, to the Metropolitan Police; and we,
therefore, feel that there exists no occasion or pretence fur the,
measure contemplated by the Bill. We are most anxious for a
thorough and complete co-operation between the two bodies, and
that such an union may be effected as shall carry every wise and
_ salutary principle fully into operation, without interfering with
or destroying the immemorial rights and privileges of the citi-
zens of London.
"We cannot but contemplate the proposed measure not only
as destructive to the rights of the citizens 111 London, but as
dangerous to the Constitution, involving, as it does, a prin-
ciple of centralization inconsistent with and in opposition to the
franchises and liberties of the whole people.
.• We therefore humbly and earnestly implore your Majesty's
roost gracious interposition on behalf of your citizens of Lon-
don, and that your Majesty will not countenance your Majesty's
responsible advisers in a measure calculated to subvert the rights
and privilege, of our ancient Cit y.
("Signed by order of Court)
" HENRY WOODTIIORPE."
sty was graciously pleased to return the following

Her Maj

answer :
" The pcace and security of the. inhabitants of my capital re-
quire my care and the attention of my Government.
With these objects in view, I have directed measures to be
submitted to Parliament, which will, I have no doubt, receive
their de.iberate consideration.
" I fully rely on their zeal for the welfare of my people, and
their regard for the rights and privil,ges of ii my subjects."