The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

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its City, In rogue I
population and th(
to them ; and were,
eluded in the measure of parliame)
Government had promised to
sion. This point he, theref'
served for future considerati(
Mr. Hickson then •withdre\
Mr. 'Thomas Woodley examined.
ing on business in Aldgate
30 and 40 slaughter-houses
annoyed by a class of men
City, the right to mouopolif
demand 2s. 6d. per bullock f,
high charge, and 30 per celh
work done for by other persons. They claim under an old
by-law passed by the Court of Common Council, under
which any one employing non-freemen in any business is
liable to a fine of 51. Actions were brought against me in
the Lord Mayor's Court for not employing freemen, and I
was obliged to compromise the matter by taking up the
freedoms of four of my men. These men afterwards
endeavoured to act as petty masters over me, and
raised their charges to a higher rate than I paid them
before I took up their freedoms ; and the effect of
the system when the men lay out 6/. or 71. of their own
money in taking up their own freedoms is to make them
have higher notions of themselves, and try to domineer
over the masters. I think the members of the corporation
are not favourable to the system, as when I was summoned
a fourth time for employing a non-freeman, Sir John Key
dismissed the case, on the ground that it originated in pure
malice, one of my men who had left my service, knowing
that I was liable to the penalty, having sought to enforce
it against me. No such fine is exacted anywhere else that
I am aware of ; but it is useless to defend an actionbrought
against you in the Lord Mayor's Court, because it is almost
always sure to be successful. The system is not enforced
in Newgate-market ; it is only enforced in Whitechapel-
market. It is, I believe, capriciously applied, and is not
extended to any other trade but ours. The privileged
slaughterman can earn from 10s. to 12s. per day at their
own rates.

Thomas Pillow examined—l am a lighterman, carrying
on business at Lower Thames-street, and also at Simon's-
wharf, Tooley-street. lam a member of the Watermen's
Company, and one of the court of assistants of that body.
The gentleman from Isleworth made a mistake with re-
gard to the Medway. We have no jurisdiction over that
river ; and he has the same power of bringing his craft
from that river, as he has of navigating his own vessel from
the collieries in the north. Our freemen enjoy the exclu-
sive right to manage and navigate all craft and barges be-
tween Yantlet Creek and Staines ; but their right does not
include the Medway. They enjoy this under act of Parlia-
ment and not under charter. We have no exclusive privi-
leges extending over the loading or unloading of ships, they
extend to the navigation of them only. Anybody, there-
fore, can employ his own servants in loading and unloading.
If a barge comes from a point below our company'sjuris-
diction, the owner can bring her tohis own wharf without
our intervention. I admit that the community would be be-
nefited by the throwing open of the trade. I am an advocate
gefrreeew-titeEerinciples, but if our privileges werefattlismheedn
employed on the guaranteeriver, no
and densnue, and the
collisionsf o for the efficiency
weu l
remedy would be worse than the disease. I would, how-
ever, prefer the abolition of the present system to its being
weohniteinh uTedcoeuixadctlyas
suggest,i it stands now;
wouldnow be ;buvt
very great
a r i
ree changespre v
iivinepercn,yntisn.t
jhleiTr'iocormuispn.lsotyafmnfceaen,mtinaonfoubarpasop
wrennntbaciacrtegst,ehswee,rhheicahre Ir est
thr ili ne kt
hav
i °anr ese
two apprentices ; but if he has 100 barges, ho can
cannotcan on y
have
more than three apprentices. I would 'suggestat,a man
should
be allowed to take as many apprentices as he pleases.il
If the trade were thrown open, I do not think our rates
would fall very much, or that the present freemen would
suffer much. I believe our men would still be employed.
We are not connected with the corporation, and have no
political standing in the City. We have have at present
7,786 freemen of the Watermen's Company on our books.
Oar body is bound by act of Parliament to send a con-
tingent to the royal navy in certain cases, and if the Go-
vernment required it, we could be compelled to-morrow
to supply 500 men for the fleet in the event of hostilities.
In fact, if absolutely necessary, we can be compelled to
serve her Majesty to the full extent of our whole number.
At the breaking out of the last war we were called upon
to supply 500 men. W'e have 1,680 apprentices, 800 of
our number are master lightermen, and the number of
barges and lighters registered is 5,107. The number of
barges has increased slightly of late.
Mr. Charles Brown examined—l am one of the rulers of
the City fellowship porters. Our governing body consists of
the present Lord Mayor, who is the governor, a deputy go-
vernor, twelve rulers of the body, two corn ifters, a salt
shifter, and a fruit shifter. The number of the fellowship
is limited to 3,000 by an act of Common Council, but
the actual number, I believe, is not more than 2,000.
The body of the free fellowship porters of London, al-
though admitted to be a legal institution, is not a corpo-
ration in itself, but claims the right to this species of
labour under the prescription of the corporation of Lon-
don. The body has existed from the time of Edward I.
and was originally created for the purpose of landing and
delivering corn, salt, apples, pears, plums, onions, and every
other other article in its nature measureable, entering the
port of London between Yantlet Creek and Staines. Their
wages are fixed from time to time by the Court of Com-
mon Council. They must be all citizens of London, and
if they wish to be appointed they must go through the
ordeal of sending in an application to the Court of Rulers,
and then waiting for their turn. The extent of the busi-
ness to he done varies. Only last week there was a large
importation of potatoes, and the merchants memorialised
the Lord Mayor, as governor, to appoint more porters to
do the work, because the supernumeraries they had been
obliged to employ had committed depredations, and the
merchants were desirous to have the protection which is
derived from the men being subject to the jurisdiction of
the fellowship. A member of the fellowship must find
two sureties in 401. each for his honesty and general good
conduct. As a specimen of their charges, I may state
that fellowship porters receive, when they are working
oats, 2d. per quarter, which has to be divided among as
many men as are employed on the job—say seven or eight,
as the case may be. Out of that sum they have to find
a " shift." For heavier grain—wheat, barley, peas, and
tares---they receive ltd. a quarter, and whatever charges
may be sent in to the importers, the 8111 n I have stated is
all that the porters receive. Ido not think that the rate
received by the fellowship is any higher than the market
value of the services performed ; indeed, 1 believe it is
considerably lower; and if the fellowship porters were re-
moved to-morrow, the corn trade would experience a
difficulty in getting their work done.
Mr. C. Lewis—Then if their exclusive privileges were
abolished, the porters would not be losers ?
.._

Mr. Brownl believe they would actually get more
money. The porters are compelled to take jobs at a loss.
Their living is very precarious, and the small jobs, which
form a large proportion of their work, do not pay. Com-
plaints have been made about their charge for landing
potatoes ; but they only receive, for conveying, from the
first, second, third, fourth, or fifth vessel in the tier to the
shore, three halfpence per sack. I took out my citizen-
ship by redemption, and paid 501. for it, and I have to com-
plain that the corporation takes the redemption fee from
our class, but does not secure to us our exclusive privilege.
I believe that there are about 100 of the fellowship who
have paid as much as myself for their freedom. Before
1835 we were compelled to be freemen of a company. The
corporation suffered the dock companies to take our labour
away from us without our receiving compensation for the
loss. With regard to the oyster dues, which, I under-
stand, have also been complained of, the fact is, it is not
the importers, but the public who pay the porters for their labour. The porters are only paid ld. per peck for taking
the oysters a certain distance ashore, andithree halfpence
per peck for a greater distance ; and what profit there is
beyond this all goes to the meters—the
.porters are
paid for work actually done. If any mistake or irreonly
gu-
larity occurs, the party to whom the
oysters belong has
only to apply at the Fellowaldp-hall, and the whole of his
loss is at once made good to him.
At the conclusion of this witness's examination, the com-
mission adjourned the inquiry until Friday next.

egg to the iobrp4..mtiv• osti*i
,he number of representatives
therefore, not ikkttly.l.4) ~1!e• 7,tlr
szliamentary refermi 4hich
to introduce in A • -\
efore, though Ttittitlia '' 4 \ttiT
Lion.
rew.
umined—l a ''' herlosa°T;
Highstreet. k. - • tkre between Jeio,,4
in my neighbclUlhOd itud4.lant
2. who claim, as the the
ise the whole of the We. They
for slaughtering, whiell'h a vtity
:nt. more than I conk' get the