The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-28 00:00:00

Court of Common Comicil.

Yesterday a special meeting of the Common Council
was held at the Guildhall, the Lord Mayor (Alderman
Hale) presiding.
-- • ----

THE STItEET TRAFFIC.
Mr. HEATH, pursuant to notice, moved a resolution call-
ing the attention of the city magistrates to the over-
crowded state of the streets in the immediate vicinity of
the Mansion-house ; to the desirability of providing addi-
tional cabstands ; and also to the necessity of more strin-
gently carrying out the provisions of the law with respect
to the drivers of cabs plying for hire in thepublic thorough-
fares. He attributed much of the overcrowding to declara-
tions by certain of the city magistrates from the bench to
the effect that they always took a cab, when they wanted
one, wherever they could find it, which, he said, tended to
encourage cabmen loitering in the streets for hire.
Mr. HARTRIDGE seconded the resolution, remarking that
he had recently been knocked down in crossing the Poultry
and seriously hurt. It was next to impossible, he said, to
cross Cheapside or in front of the Mansion-house, with
safety, in the busiest parts of the day.
Alderman SALOMONS, M.P., said he came into the city
daily, never feeling exactly happy unless he came, and he
generally moved about in cabs. The reason that so many
cabs were found in the city was because people were con-
stantly flocking to it. They came for a great part in cabs,
and cabs, on setting down their fares, had to make their
way out of the city as best they could, seeing that now, as
compared with former times, there were but few cabstands
in it. The corporation had done nothing to provide a suffi-

cient number of cabstauds. The consequence was that

people whose time was valuable took cabs wherever they
found them ; and until the corporation did its duty in that

respect the evil of loitering would necessarily continue. .
Mr. ANDEITON said that a few years ago, in crossing in

front of the Mansion-house, he was thrown down and had

his neck nearly broken; he went direct to the Justice-

room and complained to Mr. Cubitt (then Lord Mayor) and
he still suffered at times from theinjuries he then received.
Alderman JAMES LAwitEscE believed that the practice

of Cabmen loitering in Cheapside and other main thorough-
fares in the city had been much checked by the fines which
had been imposed from time to time on offenders by the
magistrates, and by policemen having been specially em-

ployed to regulate the traffic in that respect. On the other
hand, the objections taken by citizens in particular locali-

ties where the magistrates had wished to establish cab-
stands had been so great that they had been obliged to

abandon the intention

Mr. MGEottaz suggested that the inconveniences com-
plained of might be still more lessened by the police regu-
lating the traffic in Cheapside in much the same manner as
they did on London-bridge.
The motion of Mr. Heath was then agreed to.
THE NEW BRIDGE AT BLACKFRIARS.

Deputy BONE moved a resolution expressive of the opi-
nion of the Court that the whole of tho members of the
corporation should have been invited to join in the proces-
sion from Guildhall, and to take part in the ceremony of lay-
ing the foundation stone of the new bridge at Blackfriars,
which being a remarkable event in the history of the city
and corporation ought to have been made the occasion for a
great public ceremonial; and that it be an instruction to
the Bridge-house Committee that no steps be takenby them

for publicly opening the new bridge, when completed,
without first ascertaining the wishes of the Common Coun-
cil. Mr. Bone explained that the only object he had was
to uphold the dignity of the corporation on such occasions,
which he held had not been consulted at the recent cere-
mony. On the morning of laying the stone he said a state-
ment appeared in the Times to the effect that the whole
corporation, with the Lord Mayor at their head, would take
part in it, and that the city authorities, regarding, as they
did, the event as a notable one in their history, had deter-
mined to give it the character of a great public ceremonial.
That was as it should have been ; but the statement was
not true, and he complained that the occasion had, instead,
been made simply one for the glorification of the Bridge-
house Estates Committee, who made the arrangements, to
the neglect of the members of the corporation at largo.
The shortcoming was the more to bo regretted, as a copy
of the leading journal of that day, promising a more dig-
nified ceremony than had really taken place, had been de-
posited in the cavity of the foundation stone at the instance
of Mr. Deputy Hawtrey, the chairman of the Bridge-house
Estates Committee, and the New Zealander was therefore
likely to be deceived. (A laugh.)
The motion, seconded by Mr. DRESSER-ROGERS, led to
a discussion, occasionally angry in its tone.
Mr. LAWLEY, Chairman of the Coal, Corn, and Finance
Committee, was of opinion that a great opportunity had
been lost by the corporation, and he endorsed a statement
in a morning paper to the effect that had such a ceremony
taken place in Paris it would have been conducted in a
manner commensurate with the interest of the occasion,
and calculated to reflect credit on the municipality.
Mr. Deputy FRY said the ceremony was simply a file
given by the Bridge-house Committee to their friends, and
that the corporation was not officially represented on the
occasion.
Alderman WATERLOW argued that the complaints were
due to the practice of permitting committees on such occa-
sions a control over the corporation purse.
Mr. HAwTREY, the chairman of the committee, explained
that in making the arrangements they had simply followed
the precedent furnished on laying the foundation-stone of
London-bridge 40 years ago ; that the Lord Mayor had on
this, as his predecessor had on that occasion, entertained
the whole Court of Common Council, with the principal
officers of the corporation, at a dinner at the Mansion-house
in honour of the event; that the committee had only invited
13 of their friends to the dejeemer at Guildhall, and that the
funds at their disposal precluded their inviting the whole
corporation to it. Eventually the part of the motion whtton
that no
stated that the whole of the members of the corpora
should have been invited to take part in the ceremony
was
negatived
it be an instruction to the Bridge-house Com
negatived by a majority of six ; and it was resolvedmtt Thatt
steps be taken by them for the public ceremony of opening
tee
the new bridge without first ascertaining the wishes of the
Court of Common Council."
" the Now Zealander," to know that the account of The
• f the ceremony, to the effect that
It may possibly lessen Deprty Bone's great anxiety for
Times on the morning o
the whole corporation, with the Lord. Mayor at their head,
would assist at it—the truth of which he rudely impugned
in the Common Council—was a simple statement of fact
given upon proper authority. The Common Council, as
stated in the paragraph in question, were invited to attend
in their robes and accompany the Lord Mayor in the pro-
cession from. Guildhall to Blackfriars, and, had they done
so, as it was intended they should, the statement would
have been literally realised, as would also the wish of the
Committee of Management, to give to the occasion the cha-
racter of a public ceremonial. But many of them are said
to have taken umbrage—first, at not having been invited to
a ekjearter given by the Bridge-house Committee at Guild-
hall to the Lord Mayor and a few other persons of note in
the city ; and next at their not having been provided with
carriages to accompany.the procession. For reasons such
as these, the Common Council, upwards of 200 in number,
were not represented as a body in the pageant, and a groat
opportunity was lost, the like of which may never again
occur in their time.