The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-18 00:00:00

occasion,

Alderman SIDNEY, M.P., rose, and said that un
Tess resolutions like the one now before the Cour
were to be taken as mere matters of form and
courtesy, and to be treated as such, he thought that
every member of the Court had an undoubted right
to criticise the conduct of the chief magistrate dur-
ing his year of office, and, while disclaiming the
least intention of detracting from the honour that
the late Lord Mayor was duly entitled to for the
able manner in which he had performed the duties
of his office, he still claimed the right of expressing
his opinion with regard to some important matters
that had occurred during his mayoralty. (Hear,
hear.) He could not forget that at the commence-
ment of the present year the Corporation of
London had been placed in a position of extreme
peril, owing to the accidents that had occurred
in the City upon the occasion of the procession
of the Prince and Princess of Wales through Lon-
don—(hear, hear)—and he believed that if the
late Lord Mayor—had consulted his brethren of
the Court of Aldermen with regard to the arrange-
ments to be made, and had not taken so much
upon himself—(hear, hear)—this would not have
occurred. (Hear.) He had no hesitation in saying
that if the Lord Mayor had asked for any advice
from his brethren of the Court of Aldermen, he
would have been told that a Lord Mayor of the City
of London had quite enough to do to attend to the
duties of his office without going out of his way to
provide tor the arrangements to be made to keep
order in the streets upon such an occasion. (Hear.)
In his (Alderman Sidney's) opinion the privileges
and rights of the city of London had never been
more endangered than they were by the breakdown
last March. (Hear, hear.) There was another point
upon which he felt called upon to make a few re-
marks, and this was the withholding of the usual
honours accorded by the Crown to the chief magis-
trate of the city of London upon such extraordinary
and important incidents as had recently occurred.
(Hear.) The hon. alderman woo had proposed the
motion had not touched upon this subject, and had
not alluded in any manner to the reasons that had
induced the Government to decline to accord these
honours; but he felt called upon to say a few words
upon the subject. He had carefully read the reasons
that had been stated by Lord Palmer&ton for the
course that had been adopted; but it appeared to
him that they were untenable. If the Lord Mayor
of the time was granted a baronetcy and the sheriffs
were knighted upon the occasion of the visit of a
foreign potentate to this country, surely it might be
thought that the coming of age of the Prince of
Wales, his marriage, and the affectionate reception
he had met with from the citizens of London, might
be considered an equal justification for a similar
course being taken. Thee, however, had not been
done, and he must express his opinion that the course
that was taken by the late Lord Mayor, of going
in person to solicit the Premier to grant him the
honour of a baronetcy was one that he ought not to
have taken. (Hear.) He believed if he had asked
one or two of the old and discreet brethren of the
Court, and a few of the more important members of
the other branch of the Corporation, they would
have given him better advice, and the city of Lon-
don would not have been slighted in the manner it
had been, and that the honours to which it was so
justly entitled would have been accorded to the Cor-
poration. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") He men-
tioned this because he believed that the, public were
misinformed upon the subject. He had heard many
persons say that the only object the Corporation of
London had in view in the reception they had given
to the Prince of Wales, and the City banquet, was
to get a baronetcy for the Lord Mayor, and a
knighthood for each of the sheriffs, and that they
had spent £50,000 or £60,000 for those purposes.
(Hear, hear.) He thought it right that this Court
should disclaim any such motives, as he was well
assured that no other object was sought to be at-
tained than to express that loyalty which had ever
been shown by the city of London to the Royal
Family. (Hear.) He would only observe that he
desired by these observal ions to express his opinion
that in the course he had adopted the late Lord
Mayor had made a very great mistake—(hear)—
and that ail he tied done had served to defeat the
object he had in view. He should not, of course,
object to the motion, but at the same time he felt it
his duty to make the observations he had done in
reference to these matters.
Alderman PIIILLIPS said he had no desire to pro-
long the discussion ; but he thought it right to state
that, in his opinion, the Court of Aldermen gene-
rally were quite as much responsible for the pulice
arrangements that were made upon the occasion of
the entry of the Prince end Princess of Wales into
London as the Lord Mayor. (Loud cries of " No,
no.") He repeated that this Court sanctioned the
arrangements that were made, and authorised Capt.
Hodgson, the superintendent; of police, to carry
them out.
Alderman COPELAND rose and made a brief re-
ply in support of his motion. He said that he
could not deny that the city of London had been
slighted on the present occasion, but as the Prime
Minister and the Government had not felt it right
to award spontaneously to the Corporation of
tLhoonse-
don, in the person of their chief magistrate,
honours to which he might be consideredentitled,
he thought it better, in moving the present(H resolu-
tion, to make no allusion to the ma
The resolution was then talfldt carried
slter.
unani-
mously, with the addition that it shouldu be adver-
tised in the usual manner.