The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-16 00:00:00

COURT OF COISIitiON COUNCIL.
Yesterday a Court was held fur the dispatch of public
business.

FREE TRADE.
Mr. ASHURST gave notice of a motion for the next
Court day, " Tat the thank of te Court nd the free-
dom of the city,h in gold boxes, oft he value a
of 100 gui-
neas each, be presented to Richard Cobden, the Hon.
Charles Villiers, Jo! n Bright, end Colonel Thompson,
for their eminent public services."—( Loud cheers.) Mr.
Ashurst also gave notice of a motion, " That the thanks
of the Court ba given to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., for his
otainent public services in introducing and supporting
the Bills for the repeal of the c)rn-laws, and for the re-
daction of taxation."—(Loud cheers.)

THE ALDERMEN AND THE COMMON COUNCILMEN.
Mr. ANDERTON called the attention of the Court to
What he considered to be a gross breach of privilege.
1e alluded to the conduct of certain Aldermen who had
thought proper, instead of attending to vindicate their
conduct in the Court of Common Council, in Which that
conduct, in presenting a separate address to the King of
the French, was impugned, had thought proper to stig-
%wise the members of the Court of Common Council in
unmeasured terms. The ball had been opened by Al-
dermen Copeland and Farebrother, who might have come
to the Court in which the objectionable course pursued
by the Aldermen had been reprehended, although their
Court could not be entered by commoners, for the pur-
pose of vindication, or for any other purpose.—(Hear.
Lear.) He was determined to exercise the rec.ignised
Principle of freedom of debate, and he had accordingly
condemned those who had committed a breach of faith
towards the Court in which they were assembled by slip-
Ping in a separate address. Alderman Farebrother said,
11Pon the occasion referred to that he was determined to
Itssert the independence and maintain the dignity of the
Court of Aldermen. Now there was no person in the
„Court of Common Council who was disposed to inter-
fere either with the dignity or the independence of the
body, except in matters involving a violation of the rights
of,, the former importance of the Corporation. The
Lord Mayor would have interfered to put a stop to any
abuse, if any had been uttered ; but what was said was
uttered in language which Alderman Farebrother showed
himself not at all qualified to estimate, when he desig-
nated it as part of the vocabulary of the fishmarket.
to believed the manner in which the Court of Common
Council generally expressed their sentiments and opi-
kolia was as unexceptionable as the language in general
amongst the members of the Court of Aldermen.—
lkiear, hear, and laughter.) He was sure the tone as
*ell as the matter was quite as gentlemanlike ; and
certainly, although the terms in which some members of
the former had given vent to their indignation at a sig-
nal breach of faith were strong, there was not a word
said which could with propriety be retracted. The Al-
dermen, who were so anxious to vindicate that which was
Wholly indefensible, ought to be expected to have come
to that Court where their conduct might have been fairly
discussed and more generally reprobated. He hoped
never to hear of any more absurdities of the kind.
Alderman %%. oon was surprised that Mr. Anderton
should assume that expressions made use of by one or
two members of the Court of Aldermen were adopted by
the whole of that body. He was not present when the obser-
vations referred to were made, and undoubtedly nothing
could be more unfair than to attribute to the Court the
Use of words for which the individuals who uttered them
Were alone responsible.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. LAWRENCE said that he had, in speaking of the
breach of agrt em.nt entered into by the two Courts,
used
very strong language. If he had stronger at his
command he would not hesitate to speak it, and there
Was not one word uttered by him which he could think
";Ttracting.—(hear, hear.)
Mr. R. TAYLOR and Mr. %V. JONES said the Court by
no means meant to cast an imputation upon the Court
Of Aldermen as a body.
IRE INTENDED VISIT OF THE LORD MAYOR TO OXFORD.
The CITY CHAMBERLAIN having presented his ac-
Mr. ANDERTON rose and requested to be informed by
thr Lord Mayor Whether the Court of Aldermen had not
used a resolution to the effect, that the Lord Mayor
requested to visit Oxford, with the view of holding a
Court of Conservancy on the Thames?
The LORD MAYOR—Yes.
Mr. ANDERTON—Is the expenditure limited ?
T., 1 o LORD MAYOR—No.
R. ANDERTON said the Court of Aldermen had no
Power of the kind, and he for one would sign and give a
roiblie notice to the Chamberlain not to pay expenses
ford
under such circumstances.—(Haar, he-ar.) The
I,4*lcd Mayor and the Corporation of London had no more
Saltless at Oxford than they had at Rotterdam, and it
would be just as rational for them to go to the one place
ita to the other. The limit of the conservancy authority of
thebe City was known to be at Staines, and it would
k a most wanton expenditure of the public money to
~,!Pose of it by junketting at Oxford.—(Hear, hear.)
iint the Court had the power of stopping so unwarrant-
;le and ridiculous a diffusion of the City means, there
„Ss no doubt. In the year 1769, 1001. per annum was
%go limit of the conservancy expenditure. Subsequently
tite sum was increased to 2001., and at the pre sent mo-
ment he believed the amount expended was something
about 3,000/. He denied the right of the Court of Al..rrnien to give the Lord Mayor unlimited authority, to
Persons
Where he pleased, and to give entertainment to any
he might think proper to invite, perhaps to the
tune of from 1,5001. to 2,000/. In 1826, Alderman
b..,nables, as was well known to the world, from the
account of his travels by his chapla'n, Mthe Rev.
r Dillon, visited the town of Oxford upon a similar
pretext, and he hoped that the next Lord Mayor who
aold extend his visit to that locality, would take care
4°vide himself with a historian equally magnificent.
to enruaan
Court SIDNEY begged to know whether they were
g
Consiggo themstives in bandying compliments from one
tc) another. There Wtls no question before the
Court.

Mr. B. L. JONES said, there was a question before the
Court, and A very proper one—and the fit time for dis-
cussing it was when the City banker presented his
eeefeints.
.• ANDERTON was astonished to find Alderman
Sidney endeavouring to stop him in his attempt to
Ileek a ofliate expenditure.—(Hear hear.
h) When
Iderman pr
Sidney was a member of that'Court e would
11t have given such an interruption, hut such was the
effect of keeping bad company.—(Laughter.) In 1639,
II septennial visit was paid up the River, and the coat
of that freak was 1,0991 6s. 6,1. The visit, which used
t° take place but once in fourteen years, was thus be-
?me septennial. He trusted the Court would support
it° in the honest endeavour to break down an inordi-
tate and useless expenditure. The Chamberlain, he
new, was a cautious end discreet man, who would
take care how he paid a sum of money in the teeth of a
en°tiee from that Court. He meant, as one of the Li-
;73', to give notice to the same effect to the Chamber-
-111•—(11ear, hear.) There were good men in the
"men time in the Corporation, and he hoped there were
good men to be found in it now. No man was more
d •
esirous than he to maintain the dignity of the Corpo-
ration, no man more resolutely coudemned a wan-
ton expenditure.—(Cheers, and loud cries of " Hear,
heat) Mr. Anderton concluded by moving the follow-
;ng :—" That the Chamberlain shall not pay out of the
Chamber any sum of money for any charges or ex-
rises for any visitation, or journey, by the Lord
ayor, Aldermen, or any other branch of the Corpo-
ration, either for the purposes of conservency, or other-
/I_6e, when such visit or journey shall be beyond the
boundaries of the jurisdiction of the City, without the
Previous authority of the Court of Common Council."
Or. LYNCH begged leave to intimate in the most polite
tanner that this was not the age for profuse and ex-
et)llyagent expenditure. The Court had seen that the
ervancy expenses had raised themselves at from
10°1- to 1,1001., for an absurd and useless piece of ridieu-
-11111: epageantry, for a parade of gilded buffoonery, for
deli ht of aldermen's wives in general, and the
torrifieation of the Lord Mayor in particular.—(Laugh-
t 4,ond hear hear.) A. high-minded man would not
t'c'eetreustio_iend to, cut adash at the expense of the Corpora-
of one tier such circumstances. It was only at intervals
hatiat 1130 fourteen or fifteen years they read of a man
A goo4l7.ess enough to be guilty of such an enormity.
xnan hadawstance occurred fourteen years ego; one alder-
in bathos-14°e. t and historian to chronicle to the world,
per3,l7°'l bombast, the eventful day when such
rations•
trot_ea entrusted their august bodies or corpo-
waters," in the
broad bosom of the Thames, a. nd the
them.—(Great lacushast-eYr.
in delight -aned‘voerdts of the enraptured poet, • danced
)at the honour conferred upon
The old horses," he said,
"became young again, and danced and pranced when
the aldermen were lifted into their saddles." They were
proud of having so much wisdom and civic grandeur on
their back,;. The sylvan songsters warbled their wood
tniocutelas-r a)._
notes-wild, a melodious strain peculiar to the par-
(Laughter.) His Lordship had no poet
or historian in his train, like Alexander the Great
sighing for a Homer—he had no one to perpetuate the
glory of the event. An odd story was told of an cent--
rence which took place on the last visit to Oxford,
When the saddle of an alderman's horse was rubbed by
Some wag with mustard, and the troweers of his wor-
ship were, when he alighted, anything but white.
Dr. Leecu called upon the Court not to justify the
rvastton extravagance proposed and adopted by the Court
of Aldermen ; the present question was a monetary
question, and the members of that Court were respon-
sible; for the conduct of the Court of Aldermen was de-
cidedly an usurpation. The Court of Aldermen were
exceeding the authority of the House of Lords, who
never meddled with the purse. Ile was anxious to have
the question decided, if n; cessary, by an appeal to the
Courts of Law.—(Cheers.)
Mr. JOHN KING objected to the discussion of such a
question witheut due notice.
Mr. STEPHENS IhOUght, the sabject one of such im-
mense importance that he thought it would not be proper
to discuss it except in a full Court ; but it was suggested,
in order to discuss the point, it would be necessary to
suspend the standing order.
Mr. AsnuasT opposed the idea of suspending the
standing order.
Mr. W. LAWItANCE said that general reasons did not
always apply to pee titular occasions. There were ex-
traordinary occasions, in which delays were not only
dangerous but fatal, and the present was one.—(llear.)
Mr. It. L. JONES thought the more crowded the Court
the
.greater would be the number of opponents to the
expenditure. These were not times for prodigal expen
diture. They were times in which the Corporation was
threatened with reform by the Government, and the
Court should be cautious how it sanctioned such a mon-
strous waste of money with such a menace over the
Corporation.—(Hear, hear.)
earlyT dayheLouto Marsh intimated he should appoint an
for the discussion ; and the motion was then
ordered to stand as a notice for that day.
dsTeided
hefleyeling of a vast majority of the Court was most
Opposed to the trip 0) Oxford. The arrange-
ments have, we unth•rstand, been all made ; and the
"-aord Mayor has already received an invitation for his
_arty from Mr. Morrison, of Baselden Park, to an en-
taituaent
r at his House and ground&