The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-12 00:00:00

COU.R7 OF 4ILDERMEN.

Yesterday at 1 o'clock the aldermen of the City
of London held a meeting at the Guildhall, the Lord
Mayor presiding. Sheriffs Cockerell and Twenty-
man reported that the number of prisoners now in
the gaol of Newgate is 97; in the debtors' prison,
Whitecross-street, 92 ; and in the prison at Hollo-
way, 395 ; in all 554, of whom 17 are in the infir-
maries. The return in each case was accompanied
by the certificate of the surgeon as to the fit condi-
tion of the prison. At the request of the Lord
Mayor, Mr. Woodthorpe, the town clerk, read a
letter which had been addressed to his lordship on
Tuesday last by Sir Henry Muggeridge, resigning
the office and dignity of an alderman. Sir Henry
therein stated that failing health prevented him
adequately performing the duties incident to the
office, and he sincerely thanked the members of the
Court, in taking leave of them, for the uniform
kindness and courtesy he had received at their
hands during the several years he had been asso-
ciated with them. On the motion of Alderman
Copeland, the Court, taking the matter into consi-
deration, passed a resolution accepting Sir Henry's
surrender of the office, and desiring the Lord
Mayor to hold a wardmote for the Ward of Castle
Baynard for the election of a " a fit and able person"
as an Alderman in his stead. The Lord Mayor said
he desired to state that a numerous deputation of the
inhabitants of the Ward had that morning waited
on him and represented that ever since the resigna-
tion the ward had been kept in a state of agitation
by the canvassing for the vacant gown, that busi-
ness was to a great extent paralysed in consequence,
and they earnestly requested that the earliest pos-
sible day might be fixed for the nomination and
election. Feeling the importance of the application
he had told the deputation that as soon as he ob-
tained the sanction of the Court to his issuing a
precept for holding an election, he should do so, fix-
ing Thursday next, at 4 o'clock, for the nomination.
Mr. Woodthorpe read a letter which Sir George
Grey, the Home Secretary, had addressed to the
Lord Mayor, stating that there appeared reason to
believe, after inquiry into the subject, that the
debtors' prison in Whitecross-street would, under
the altered state of the law of bankruptcy, afford
ample accommodation for the confinement of all
debtors in London and Middlesex; it was therefore
proposed by Government to bring a bill into Parlia-
ment for the abolition of the Queen's Prison ; but
that before any proceedings were taken for that pur-
pose ho would invite the Corporation of London to
state what claims, if any, upon the Government it
is conceived the Corporation would be entitled to
make in case of the abolition of the Queen's Prison.
Sir George, therefore, requested to be favoured with
an early communication on the subject. On the
motion of Alderman Challis, who spoke in terms of
approval of the proposed arrangement, the letter
was referred to the Gaol Committee. Alderman
Copeland, M.P., the senior member of the Court,
was unanimously elected a trustee of Sir J. Swine's
Museum, Library, and Works of Art in Lincoln's-
inn-fields, in the room of the late Sir Peter Laurie,
at the instance of Alderman Humphery, seconded
by Alderman Finnis. A report was presented by
the General Purposes Committee, to whom it had
been referred to consider the powers of the
justices of the city of London, with respect
to committing boys to reformatories and in-
dustrial schools, and as to the best way of exercis-
ing such powers. They stated, on the authority of
Mr. Martin, clerk to the magistrates at Guildhall,
that the aldermen as justices had no power to com-
mit juvenile offenders to any reformatory., schools,
or to commit destitute and neglected children to in-
dustrial schools, unless the managers of those insti-
tutions were willing to receive them. They had
ascertained that the managing committee of the
Redhill Reformatory were willing to receive boys
committed from the justice-rooms of the Mansion-
. house and Guildhall upon an arrangement similar
in its conditions to that now pending in respect of
boys convicted and sentenced by the Central Crimi-
nal Court for offences committed in the city. The
committee recommended the Court to agree to that
arrangement. A motion by Alderman Copeland for
the adoption of their report led to a discussion as to
the propriety, or otherwise, of investing a single
magistrate with the power of committing children
to reformatories and industrial schools. Alderman
Lawrence deprecated a power being given to one
magistrate to send children to such institutions, to
be incareerated there, it might be, for years.