The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-23 00:00:00

CITY OF LONDON COMMISSION.

The commissioners re-assembled in the Privy Council
Chamber on Friday, and renewed their investigations
into the state of the Corporation of the City of London.
Commissioners present—Sir John Patteson and Mr.
Cornewall Lewis.
The first witness examined was
Mr. William Cotton, late governor of the Bank of
England, who stated—l am one of the directors of the
Bank of England, and have been connected with the
shipping interest of the city of London for 45 years. I
have paid attention to the general subject of the consti-
tution, but not to its details. I would retain the Court
of Aldermen as a distinct court from the Court of Com-
mon Council. I think there is an advantage in having
an unpaid and independent magistracy ; but, looking at
the altered state of circumstances in the city, the mer-
chants of the city are unable to devote sufficient time to
the office of alderman, because of the magisterial duties
attached to the office. I would not, however, deprive
the aldermen of the city of their judicial functions ; but
I would have a legal officer in the capacity of a paid
magistrate to preside on the bench. I believe the alder-
men to have paid assessors to assist them with legal
knowledge at present ; so that practically, although not
nominally, you have a system of paid magistracy in the
city, but you have it without an efficient responsibility.
The merchants do not reside in the city now, as they
used to do, which accounts to some extent for their in-
dispositio❑ to take part in the affairs of the corporation.
The former residences of the merchants in the city have
now become warehouses and the places of business of
retail traders. In my younger days the corporation used
to represent the great bankers and merchants, but now
it only, or at least almost exclusively represents the retail
traders. At the same time the principal retail establish-
ments are not now chiefly within the city—many of them
are situate at the west-end. I recollect Mr. Williams,

and other leading merchants and bankers, throwing up
their aldermanic gowns on account of the disrepute
into which the municipal offices in the city had fallen.
Attacks had been made upon them in the House of
Commons, and ridicule was cast upon the corporation.
The charges to which I refer have taken place within
the period of my recollection. My opinion with re-
gard to the Court of Common Council is, that such a body
may be adapted for the transaction of its deliberative
functions ; but it is too numerous for the proper dis-
charge of the executive duties now intrusted to it. If
you can establish a system of electing members to the
Court of Common Council, in whom the public would
have confidence, I think it would be better to leave that
court to elect its own executive officers, as is done in
other municipal boroughs, instead of having them
elected by the Common Hall, as is now the case in
City. The livery companies at present have, generally,
no preference to the respective trades whose name they
bear; but the goldsmiths, the bowyers, and one or two
others of the guilds, still retain a connection with the
trades to which their members originally belonged. The

constituency of provincial boroughs under the-Munici-
pal Reform Act would be better adapted for the city of
London than the existing constituency. It appears to

me to be improper for the corporation to compel the re-
tail traders to take up their freedom when they cannot
enforce it upon the wholesale merchants. The City has
a large amount of property independent of its rates and
dues. I think the corporation have applied their funds,
arising from rents, &c., honestly, but not judiciously;
because they have not carried out social improvements,
such as baths and washhouses, and the like, which have
engaged the attention of corporations like that of Liver-
pool and other large places. The corporation has cer-
tainly improved the streets of the City, but I do not
think the application of its funds ought to have been
exclusively confined to objects within the limits of the
City. I think a plan might be devised for giving mu-
nicipal institutions to the whole metropolis ; and I think
there ought to be such a means ; and I believe that some
body might be formed for attaining that end ; but I do
not feel myself competent now to determine what that
body should be. If an improvement is proposed in the
metropolis, you must go to the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, or to the City, for the necessary funds to carry
it out ; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer may fairly
answer, "If I give money to build bridges in the me-
tropolis, I cannot refuse to give it to build Edinburgh and
other cities." I think, therefore, that there ought
to be some board instituted to execute improvements
within the whole metropolis, and having for that pur-
pose powers of taxation co-extensive with the entire
metropolis. I do not think a chamber of commerce
desirable within the city of London. The merchants
have now free access to the Board of Trade and the
other departments of the Government, and the various
branches of commerce having their head-quarters in the
City, and possessing each its own particular association,
where all matters of importance can be discussed, the
establishment of a chamber of commerce in the city of
London, I think, is quite unnecessary, and could be at-
tended with no good result ; and that I believe to be
the general opinion of the merchants.
Mr. Pulling, barrister, who attended before the com-
mission last week, appeared again at this sitting, to con-
clude his evidence. He stated—The city of London has
a ♦ery peculiar jurisdiction, both civil and criminal. It
has peculiar laws, exempting the citizens from the juris-
diction of the Queen's ordinary courts, and the citizens
have also the power of choosing their magistrates and
judges. The City authorities have likewise a very pecu-
liar mode of trying prisoners. I contend that these laws
still exist, being yet unrepealed. They are based on
certain charters, the first of which goes back to the reign
of Henry I. If a freeman of the city of Lendon, for in-
stance, commits a felony in the county of York, a ques-
tion may arise whether he has not a right to be tried in
London, because, by the old laws to which I refer, a
citizen of London has a right to refuse to plead except
within the City walls. I know, indeed, of no instances
of such pleas being usged in the case of prosecutions by
the Crown, but there are several instances of it in civil
actions. In the City there are the wardmote courts,
with the ancient jurisdiction of court leets, but all that
now remains of them is that certain men go about the
streets dressed in fur, collecting money at Christmas.
Then there is the Central Criminal Court having jurisdic-
tion over the whole metropolis, but co-existent with it
is the conflicting jurisdiction of the London Sessions
within the City, at which, however, very little business
is done except in assaults and other petty cases, as well
as in appeals against rates. Then there are the alder-
men's police courts, and the Lord Mayor's Court of Con-
servancy—the latter a penal court, relating to the river
Thames. There is also the coroner's court, London, being
a county of itself, has its own coroner. The Lord Mayor
is the coroner, but he has a deputy who does the duty.
The Lord Mayor has also the power of, mero moto suo,
summoning any person before him residing within the City
and its liberties at the request of a citizen, and of deter.
mining any matter of difference between them. This is
a kind of court of arbitration, and many cases are enter-
tained in the aldermen's courts which are never heard
before the paid magistrates in the metropolitan districts.
The civil courts are very numerous, and include the
Court of Hustings, the Mayor's Court (a court of equity),
the Sheriffs' Court, the Appeal Court, for hearing ap-
peals from the Court of Hustings and from the Mayor's
Court. This appeal court is called the Court of St.
Martin's-le-Grand, where the Queen's judges preside,
but they have not sat there within the last fifty years.
Then there are the Court of Orphans, two Courts of
Policies of Insurance, two ancient courts of pie-poudre ;
and the Lord Mayor being Admiral of London, it is a
question whether the City has not also an admiralty
jurisdiction. The witness then proceeded to detail the
functions and the forms of process belonging to the vari
ous City courts abovenamed, and illustrated the manner
in which their jurisdiction conflicted with each other
and with the general law of the country. He said, the
City is an exception to the general County Courts Act,
and has a small debts jurisdiction engrafted by a special
act upon the Sheriffs' Court.
Sir J. Patteson—Perhaps that acoonnAn for the fact
that, under the Charitable Trusts Aot, whereas cases
relating to charities are to be carried to the county
courts throughout the rest of the kingdom, cases relating
to charities in the city of London go up direct to the
Master of the Rolls ?

Mr. Pulling—l dare say it is so. Besides the Court
of Equity where the regular judge, the Recorder, sits,
there is also a Court of Equity in which the Lord Mayor
has the power to sit to administer equity without the
presence of the Recorder. The Court of Policies of In-
surance was created by an act of Queen Elizabeth, and
was afterwards regulated by an act of Charles 11., since
which reign the court has never been called into exist-
ence, but it has never been formally abolished. With re-
gard to the 12 or 13 different courts in the City which I
have enumerated, it certainly does appear inconvenient
that there should exist so many separate jurisdictions, and
that doubts should exist in the minds of parties sued as
to whether they are under the jurisdiction of these City
courts or under the jurisdiction of the general laws of
the land, or whether they are deprived of the benefit of
those laws. The City courts were established at a time
when justice was not perfectly aslrainistered all over the
country; but that state ofthings having passed away, and
justice being administered everywhere by the Queen's
courts, there is no longer any necessity for keeping up
these exceptional courts. The corporation as a corpora-
tion has no peculiar interest in maintaining these courts,
the advantage or disadvantage which arises from `them
accrues to the citizens at large. But supposing the
general County Courts Act applied to the City in the
same manner as it does to the rest of the country—a
measure which I think would be very beneficial—still I
think it would be advantageous, out of the wreck of all
the other City courts, to preserve one good ccurt for the
city of London, where civil cases could be tried by a
and
C.
Lewis—You such tribunal might be formed out of the
Mayor's Court.
JuryM
; jurisdictions r
consolidated
ene all
generalthe various
and
usefulpetty
couivir.rt?
Pulling—I would. I would have one consoli-
dated court for the trial of debts of large amount in the
city of London. Similar courts exist in other places,
and are found to be very useful. There is one at Liver-
pool, and another I believe at Exeter. It is certainly
a question more for the merchant than the mere lawyer;
but I doubt whether attachments for debt ought to
pre-
vail in the city of London and not over thEi rest of te
kingdom.
All. C. Lewis—Might not the custom of attachment
be modified without being abolished ?
Mr. Pulling—lt would be very difficult to do anything
else but destroy it altogether, unless you apply it to the
rest of the kingdom. It gives the creditor in the city an
which ha
abolition
tdoesien nefo t
allen jtmerlseeewulhiaerree.ustlewmosulndf
d to attachments, arrests on mesne
rtahedeevoaemninittayegnwedi:i
process,
Great inconvenience arises from
femmes couvertes, &c.
ns to watch the course of
the distribution of property left under intestacy,
regard
of the City ;an esi es aen in
legislation on behalf
gets a clause inserted into a
stihtesirinbetihnegHleefutseunerfepeeeamledm.o The City
db Remembrances
to the private bills he often
public act excepting the City fron2 the operation of .the ,