The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-12 00:00:00

EARL GREY.

(From the Durham Chronicle.)
On Tuesday last a meeting of the corporation of Dur.
ham was held, at which it was resolved to present to Earl
Grey the freedom of the city, accompanied by an address.
The presentation took place at the Waterloo Hotel, at 12
o'clock on Wednesday—the hour appointed by his Lord-
ship to receive it, as he passed through the town on his
way to the metropolis. There was a very numerous at-
tendance of the corporation, and several of the roost res-
peactable tradesmen of the place accompanied then. His
Lordship received them with great politeness and urbanity.
The addrvs having been read by the Deputy Recorder, the
noble Earl returned thanks as follows :

" I receive the honour you nave been pleased to confer
upon me with sentiments of satisfaction and gratitude
which I cannot hope adequately to express. I feel as I
ought to do the honour of being admitted to the freedom
of the ancient corporation of Durham. Be assured I con-
sider the approbation of his countrymen—more particu-
larly when that cannot be deemed the mere ebullition of
popular feeling, but the result of trial and experience—
the best reward a public man can receive. This reflection
makes the honour you have conferred upon me doubly va-
luable, as a mark, at the end of a long public lire, now
fast drawing to its close, of your estimation of the services
which, however feeble, it has ever been my wish and de-
sire to perform, zealously and faithfully, unbiassed by any
thirst for popularity, to the cause of liberty and good go-
vernment. With respect to the great measure of Parlia-
mentary reform, to which your address more particularly
alludes, I beg leave to state—and I will only say so much
—that I origin illy proposed, and afterwards persevered in
the measure, from a deep-rooted and long-reflected convic-
tion of its necessity. It was at length carried, amidst
m my difficulties, and after a severe contest, to a successful
and glorious conclusion ; but in that contest, rest assured,
my humble efforts would have been but of little avail with-
out the support I received from the general feeling of the
country. The Reform Bill, to adopt a much abused word,
was founded upon conservative, not revolutionary prin-
ciples—it was intended to restore, and not to destroy : its
object was to improve the ancient institutions of the state
—to remove the defects and repair the breaches which
time had made in them, but not to sap their sure and solid
foundations—it was to consolidate liberty with the neces
sary power of Government, and to secure to both the
strength which is necessary to the general welfare. These
were the views and expectations with which the Reform
Bill was carried. Notwithstanding, the predictions of
those who opposed reform—predictions which, I verily
believe, many of them wished to see realized, in order that
they might have a triumph over their political opponents
—that it would lead to confusion and all its consequent
evils—l feel confident that the expectations under which
the Reform Bill was carried will be realized by the good
sense of a brave and enlightened people, who know their
rights and arc determined to defend them ; but who know
also that their interests cannot be promoted by confusion,
nor even by a continued state of restlessness and agitation,
and who, having secured a true representation of the peo-
ple, will trust to that for the remedy of all abuses." After
a few further observations to the same purport, his Lord-
ship concluded by repeating the gratification he derive
from this public testimonial to the nature of those services
which he had endeavoured to render to the public, in de-
spite of all the calumnies and falsehoods by which he had
been so foully assailed.
The members of the corporation then retired, and his
Lordship and his family immediately proceeded on their
journey, after receiving three hearty cheers from the per-
sons assembled.

'HE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION COM-

MISSION.

On Saturday evening a meeting of the committee ap-
pointed by the citizens of London to aid and assist the
Commissioners of Inquiry into Municipal Corporations,
took place at the Guildhall Coffee-house. John Dillon,
EN., in the chair.
A voluminous Report was read relative to the Corpora-
tion of the city of London and the trading Companies.
The matter to which the Committee directed their atten-
tion was the state of the constituency of London, and
the elective rights possessed by the citizens, or to which
they were entitled. After an historical statement of the
Corporation and the Companies, evidently the result of
great labour and research, the Report recommended to
the Commissioners that an efficient inquisition should be
forthwith made by them into the origin of the funds, and
mode of expenditure of all the municipal and trading
Companies. It represented the necessity of obtaining the
repeal of the 11th Geo. 1. cap. 18, which gave the voting
for certain municipal offices to the Liverymen of the
trading Companies, and of giving the franchise to the
freemen householders of the city of London ; the removal
or diminution of the many fines on the admission to the
freedom, end the prevention of the necessity of a pre-
vious admission to the freedom as a subsequent ad-
missio❑ to the livery of any of the trading Companies,
and the obtaining of a more equal division of the
several Wards. It also recommended that the members

of the Court of Aldermen should be subject to re-election,
at a time to be fixed ; that the Lord Mayor should, as
originally, be chosen by the freemen, ncl-, as was at pre-
sent the case, by the Court of Aldermen, from two Al-
dermen who were merely nominated by the Liveries;
that the veto in city elections, claimed by the Court of
Aldermen, should be declared invalid ; that the
Court of Aldermen should conduct their business in
public; that one simple and uniform triode of disbursing
the city funds should be established, fixing responsibility,
and providing checks upon the expenditure ; that the
masters and officers of the different trading companies
should be chosen according to their charters, and the ori-
ginal practice by the freemen or liverymen of the com-
panies ; that the accounts and the affairs of the several
companies should be laid before the freemen and liv,i y-
men, for their sanction, and that an investigation of the
property and endowments of the companies should be
strictly entered upon by the proper authorities, in order
that they should be devoted to their original purposes,
as trust, and not private property, whether charitable or
otherwise.

Mr. DILLON, before the report was read, produced a let-
ter which he had, as Chairman of the Committee, received
from Sir Francis Rdgrave. It stated that viva race
evidence would be received by the Commissioners on and
after the 26th instant, and requested information upon the
subject from the Committee.

Upon the motion for adopting the report,
Mr. ANDERTON asked whether the periodical election
of the City Magistrates was not a point upon which much
difference of opinion might exist ; and whether, if the rule
applied to the Magistrate of the City, the application of
it could with consistency be withheld from all others in the
commission of the peace ?
Mr. R. TAYLOR said that it was much to be desired
that all Magistrates should be annually chosen, for the
electors would then hold over them a power likely to secure
good behaviour. In the instances of officers under the
Corporation of London, whose election had been made
annual, there was a positive security against abuse, as
was palpable from the present condition of the Secondaries'
office. The poor all through the country were ground to
dust by the tyrannical Magistrates, because the Justices
were only removable by art authority very seldom likely to
be exercised. The principle of holding an annual election
in terrorem was an incomparable mode of attaining equal
justice.—( Hear, hear.)
The CHAIRMAN stated that, in all probability the Com-
missioners would, in the first instance, examine the wit-
nesses as to the Corporation, and afterwards those who
were prepared to give evidence relative to the Companies,
and that it war necessary to advertise for testimony, and
to appoint competent individuals to collect all the necessary
information with due arrangements.
Mr. TAYLOR said it was absolutely necessary to watch
the Corporation Committee, for he did not think that the
information which its Members might be disposed to give
would be all that might be required. He suspected that
it would, in fact, be limited and partial, and not an in-
genuous exhibition of existing abuses.
Mr. WILLIAMS (of Watling-street) strongly urged the
necessity of watching the Corporation Committee, who
appeared to be so very anxious to give information, although
they doubted the legality of the Commission. A too jealous
eye could not be kept upon their movements.
Mr. R. TAYLOR said that a considerable inconvenience
might arise from the existing practice of allowing one
ward to choose a magistrate for the whole city. An in-
dividual to whom all the rest of the city might have a
most reasonable, but insuperable objection, might be
chosen by a few individuals, as the custom now stood, to
preside as a magistrate over the whole civic population.
This was not the case anciently, and it was an abuse
which he hoped the Commissioners would not fail to
investigate and remove. He wished to be understood as
not speaking in allusion to any particular ward or person.
He merely meant what might happen.
Mr. DILLON said, it was only fair that if an aldertnan
represented the whole city, he should be elected by the
whole city.

Mr. FEA.aoli said, that the observation comprehended
the case of Mr. Scales, whom the ward of Portsoken bad
certainly elected, but would probably not be the choice of
the whole city.
Mr. NswELLauggested a variety of abuscs amongst

which was the extraordinary one of buying the silent
consent of the Corporation to the West India Docks' job,
by electing four of the aldermen as directors, at 3001.
a year each.

The CHAIRMAN stated, that he had received a letter
from Dr. Bowring, who had been endeavouring to obtain
information relative to the Fishmongers' Company, but
who, after all his labour, was obliged to write that he
knew nothing at all about it—an expression which meant
that all inquiry was distinctly resisted.
Mr. FRANKS declared that the evidence of Dr. Bow-
ring to that point would be most important.

After some further de,ultory conversation, it was agreed
that measures should be immediately adopted for supply-
ing the Commissioners with all the information which
should be considered necessary towards the accomplish-
ment of the great work of reforming the Corporation and
the Companies of the City of London.