The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-13 00:00:00

sates to committees is excessive in amount and mischiev-
ous in their application.
" 2. The cost and efficiency of the department of corpo-
ration business which is conducted by the committees were
inquired into by the former Royal Commissioners, who
reported of the Common Council and its committees.
Whatever opinions may be entertained respecting the con-
stitution of this body, the manner in which its duties have
been exercised seems to have given satisfaction with very
f exceptio 's to its constituents, and, as it appear to us,
justly so. The system of committees in parti, ular seems
to operate very successfully, and to corn bine in a remarka-
ble degree the requisites of power and liability to control.
in
in cash, called line
inquiry the four standing
c mu"
mAi tutehe es
received
t certainthat foallowancesrmer
money, which was distributed equally at the close of the
year among the members who had been present at the time
their names were called over. Besides these sums they had
certain stipulated allowances to be expended in dinners or
other refreshments for members. We present in a tabulated
form the allowances to the committees at the date of that
inquiry, as well as those of the present time. We have
likewise set out the average amount of the allowances at
the commencement of the present century, when the in-
fluence of the merchants and bankers was felt in the ad-
ministration of the affairs of the corporation. We have
also set forth the amount of the revenue under the manage-
ment of the committees, as nearly as we have been able to
ascertain it, and the average number of meetings of the
committees in the course of the year. This table is as fol-
lows, viz.:—

Average of Years.
1802. 1832. 1852.

City Lauds Committee :
Allowance £2oo
Expenses
Bridge House Committee :
Allowance •
Expenses
Navigation Committee—
Allowance
Expenses
General Purposes Committee:
Allowance
Expenses
Average amount of revenue
under management of
committees
" It will be observed that at the present time the line
money formerly allowed to the principal committees is no
longer paid to them. That allowance was abolished ; and
the other payments were regulated by an order of the
Court of Common Council in the year 1836. The commis-
sioners, in their report, questioned the propriety of such a
payment, amounting, as they say, to only 3s. W. for
each attendance, as it might be said to place common
councilmen in the invidious position of managers of busi-
ness paid out of the funds under their own control. A
great difference of opinion prevails on this subject. Some
persons think that, like the directors of the Bank of Eng-
land, the joint-stock banks, dock companies, insurance
offices, and other public establishments, it would be better
to pay the committeemen for their attendance in money,
leaving it to be expended in refreshments or any other
mode that might suit their own convenience ; but, in ac-
cordance with the judgment of the majority of the mem-
bers, the line money was discontinued, and the allowance
for tavern expences was moderated, but retained.
" Although the vast augmentation in the revenue and
expenditure of the corporation has rendered the creation
of additional committees necessary for the convenient di-
vision of labour, and although the number of meetings has
been proportionately increased, vet the aggregate amount
of the alio eances to all the committees in the present day
is less than it was at either of theformer periods embraced
in these returns.
" 3, The salaries of the officers of the corporation are
stated by some of the witnesses to be excessive
" The remarks we have just made as to the committees
may be likewise applied to the officers. The commissioners
thus express themselves with respect to them ;
" ' It is a common practice with the Common Council,
when offices of any importance become vacant, to refer to
a committee the business of examining into the duties of
the office, and reporting whether they should be changed,
whether the office itself should be abolished or consolidated
with any other, whether the salary sheuld be altered, and
questions of a similar kind. The reports which have re-
sal ed from these inquiries furnish most valuable accounts
of all relating to the office, and many most important re-
forms have been effe..ted from time to time with a very
scrupulous regard to existing interests. We believe that
the history of no other corporation furnishes such honour-
able testimonials of the vigilance, good sense, and justice
of its legislative body'
" In the time of our predecessors in the last century the
corporation offices had been bartered and sold, some with
and s,.me without the power of alienation, and with the
right to remitueration from fees and emoluments, which
were undefined. It is, therefore, impossible to state with
any precision what'the amount of their emoluments may
have been, but the commissioners thus report of the offices
as they existed in 1832 :
" With respect to the salaries in general, we have to
observe, that they are undoubtedly framed on a very
liberal scale, but we are of opinion that the question of
their amount is one which may safely be left to a civic
legislature fairly chosen.'
"The practice of the corporation described above has
since the date of the report been constantly observed.
The officers state to us that their labours, cares, and respon-
sibilities have been augmented, as the accoimt of the re-
venue and expenditure of the corporation have increased;
notwithstanding which we believe that their net income is
less than it was at the date of the commissioners' report.
We have no desire to screen those gentlemen any more
than ourselves from the fullest inquiry upon this point,
and we have directed them to submit themselves for exa-
mination upon this and every other matter upon which the
commissioners may think it right to inquire, Returns of
the particulars and accounts of their salaries made out by
the officers, will be delivered to the commissioners, from
which they will be able to compare the amounts payable
to them at the two points.
" Fourthly—Amongst the items of revenue and expen-
diture under the management of the Common Council to
which exception has been taken, the City police and the
sewers' commission are named, not on account of the man-
ner in which these services are conducted, but principally
because it is assumed that, if amalgamated with the cor-
responding establishments of the metropolis, those func-
tions would be more economically and more efficiently dis-
charged. We will sake a few observations upon each of
these subjects :
" POLICE.—It is well known that in ancient times the
watch and ward of London, and other ancient cities and
towns, were performed by the male inhabitants, bearing
their lot in turns, their duties extending to the night only.
Instead of rectifying the inconvenience of this system by an
act of the governing body of the corporation, which might
have been amended from time to time as experience called
for alteration, an act of Parliament we sobtained (11 Ge 0.11.),
by which a nightly watch was established. Watchmen were
to be appointed, their authority to act was limited to their
respective wards, and their duties were confined to the
nocturnal hours. The want of a day police, for which
this act made no provision, having been pressed upon
the Court of Aldermen they established, about 25 years
ago, an effective day police, consisting first of 68 and after-
wards of 100 men, properly clothed and accoutred, to act
war the entire city during the day only, under the Lord
Vls.yor and Court of Alderman. The cost of this corps of
police amounted annually to about 7,0001., and was main-
tained at the corporate charge. Some time afterwards an-
other advance was made in the improvement of the system.
t;,vernrnent had provided an adequate police force under
commissioners to act both by night and by day over the
remainder of the metropolis, which tip to that time had
been entirely without any dsy police. A parliamentary
committee investigated fully the whole matter, and a bill
was brought in by the corporation, and passed with the
nporobation of Parliament, to reoeal the old act establish-
in!'' the nightly watch, and enabling the Common Council
to form an effinien force for the protection of the city both
Amy day and by night. Under this act it is efficiently pro-
wcted having every portion covered. By subsequent acts
•nd additional regulations, the metropolitan police and the
city police, the aldermen of Lo,b.n and the Ktipendiary
magistrates of the home counties, have interchangeably the
power of acting and executing warrants within the several
jurisdictions as often as the public service may require.
'There are peculiarities in respect to the City force that dis-
tinguish it r oin the metropolitan police.

£2OO
500

" The men aro picked men, both as to age and height,
ind they are all required to reside within the City, so as
to ensure prompt and vigorous united action in cases of
emergency, in conse tuence of which both officers and men
are a!lowed a higher rate of wages. The force is likewise
ere n ired to be more numerous, in proportion to the area
au, i population of the City, than any other part, of the me-
tropolis. It is necessary that the ground sheeild be more
closely covered, both by night and by day. The vast number
of vehicles that pass and repass through the streets of the
City, and the multitude of persons who continually have
resort to the bank, where 24,001,000 Z. of dividends are an-
nually paid, the Post-office, the Royal Exchange. the Stock
Exchange, the insurance offices, the banking houses, and
other commercial and monetary establishments, many of
them with property of great value about their persons, re.
quire the daily service of a greater numl,er of able, active,
vigilant, and trustworthy men than any other part of the
metropolis, where these circumstances do not occur. And
by night a much larger force than under ordinary circum-
stances are re muired ; because although there are in the
banks, counting-houses, warehouses, and shoos in the City
cash securities and goods of immense value, these estab-
lishments are almost deserted during the hours of night,
leaving the property to the protection of the police. To
secure the additional number of men of a superior order,
turindonertethoenctoonftrt their liof their own officers the corporation con-
the entire body The funds
one
of the cost of the metro -fourth of the annual cost of
metropolitan
t a
n Governmentpolice,
in likewiseretpuaryn one-fourthfor
which
p
they have a right to employ the men for especial govern-
mental purposes, not only within the metropolis, but also to
send them, as they have often done, to any part of the
wintry where their services are required. We respectfully
urge, in answer to the charges that have been made against
us on this head, that the general interests of the metropo-
lis cannot in any degree suffer from the independent exer-
tion of two co-operative forces, acting, as they do, in har-
mony with each other for all purposes where co-operation
is required, and acting separately only in the instances
where special circumstances require a special treatment.
" SEwERS.—The objection to an independent commis-
sion for the lighting, paving, and sewerage of the City is
founded upon the same arguments, and is to be met by the
same reply. The affairs of both the sewers and the police
are superintended by members of the Common Council,
selected by the inhabitants of each locality, whose wants
and wishes are known to, and attended to, by their repre-
sentatives with a diligence and intelligence that it would
be impossi 'de to impart to a central body acting for the
entire metropolis. covering 80 square miles of territory,
and representing two millions of inhabitants. Upon the
score of united action with the Metropolitan Commissioners
of Sewers in all matters where union is required, there can
be no pretext for destroying this ancient and useful com-
mission in the City, or for merging it in the larger and
already overburdened body which has charge of the rest of
the metropolis ; for under the act of Parliament the Com-
mon Council appoint four representatives. to act as mem-
bers of the metropolitan board in all cases where combined
action is required ; and it has been proved by the experi-
ence of several rears that the members of the united body
can act in conformity and harmony with each other for
the benefit of the whole community, while both sections
have special regard for the interests they respectively re,
present.
"It should not be forgotten that both before aed since
the
Boardformation
ofHealth rhf, thee
iMetropolitancarrying.'siß°noacrd
iaanndid the n
their
eocf6u
cers
have been diligently engaged
extensive measures for the organic improvement (d. the
w
sewers, and for the Isanitary imprlveolisnt of the City.
During the last few years the commissioners have con-
verygreat
structed many miles of sewers, necessarily a,t a
e d
expense, having to form !hair um ter the en-
,
thorough-
fares within their jurisdiction. These sewers having been
substantially constructed, will last for many years, and
the rates on the citizens will be reduced. if the change
proposed by some of the witnesses were to be carried out,
the citizens may be aersesied to defray in other localities