The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-16 00:00:00

LONDON CORP

IFORif

-e -

A. part of the following appeared in our impressing
of yesterday
A Common Hall of the Livery of the City of Lottdca
was held this morning at the Guildhall, to take into
consideration the provisions of Sir George Grey's bill,
recently introduced into Parliament, for reforming the
Corporation of the City of London. The meeting was
called for 12 o'clock, but, in accordance with civic want
of punctuality, the business did not commence until a
quarter past 1 o'clock. At that hcsur bat few persons
had assembled in the Hall, and the interest excited, con
sidering the manner in which the City had been plaoarded.
and the subject to be discussed, was considerably less
than might have been expected. The Lord Mayor pre-
sided, supported by the Sheriffs, Aldermen, and others
connected with the Corporation.
The LORD MAYOR, in opening the business of the
meeting, said he bad convened it in consequence of a
numerously-signed requisition to that effect, to take the
sense of the Liverymen on this bill, which, in the words
of the requisition, " strikes at the root of their ancient

and valued privileges." His Lordship said he was no

party to calling this meeting, but he must say that
whilst the proposed measure tended to widen the elec-
toral privileges of the Liverymen, it in other respects
would totally annihilate those rights which many of
them possessed.
Mr. JAMES LAWRENCE condemned the proposed bill
as one that would abrogate the rights and privileges
that the Livery had possessed for centuries. The day
on which this bill was introduced into the House of
Commons was very aptly named April fool's-day, and
he trusted this would prove an April fool's measure.
(Hear and laughter.) This measure had been introduced
in a speech that afforded no arguments on which to base
the necessity of change. Sir George Grey admitted,
on the occasion alluded to, that the funds of the
City had been administered in a proper manner, and that
the parties who had managed them had manifested zeal,
energy, industry, and fidelity, and for the possession and
discharge of those qualities' the city of London was to
be deprived of those rights and privileges which they
had !so long enjoyed. The Livery had ever been
true to freedom, when many of its advocates had slunk
back discouraged by the obstacles that appeared to stand
in their way, and was it for that that they were to be
swept away l (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman then
proceeded to remark on the statement that had been
put forth, that this was a moderate measure, but he
looked upon it as the moderation of the housebreaker,
who, after taking your plate end property, considered
he had acted moderate in leaving you in posses

sion of your lives. (Hear.) He (Mr. Lawrence) looked
upon this measure as one of the movements of the Go-
vernment to obtaia centralisation—(hear, hear)—and be
deprived of their liberty of local action. It was by crush-
ing the Corporations of France that the march of des-
potism became easy, and the result they had all seen and
knew. (Hear.) Sir G. Grey by this bill was open to
the charge of deliberate falsehood, or a deficiency of
common understanding, and he left him to choose which
horn of the dilemma he would select. (Hear.) The
lion, gentleman, inn lengthened speech, contended that
the Corporation needed no reform, and that one of the
objects of the bill was to confiscate the funds
of the Corporation, which, if accomplished, would
entail a rate of from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per pound
to discharge the expenses of their law courts and other
expenses. (Hear, hear.) He asked the Livery to unite
in adopting the petition that would be submitted
to them for the protection of their privileges, which
they ought to hand down to their children intact. If
this measure be universally resisted by the Livery the
Government would not dare to persist in it. (Hear.)
He moved the following resolution :—" That the bill
lately introduced into the House of Commons purport
ing to be for the better regulation of the Corpora
tion of the city of London, although professing to
abolish such customs and privileges only as are
injurious to trade, it ignores the whole body of
the Livery and a destruction of its privileges an ex-
tinction of its municipal existence, and is other-
wise subversive of the ancient rights, properties, and
liberties of the Corporation and the Common Hall
determined to give the most strenuous opposition to the
passing of such a bill." (Cheers.)
Sir JOHN FINLEY in a short speech seconded the reso-
lution.

The LORD MAYOR having put the resolution,
Mr. BENNOCH came forward to address the Livery;
and was met with cheers and counter cheers. In the
course of his address the remarks made by the hon. gen-
tleman were distasteful to the meeting, and it was with
great difficulty he could obtain a bearing, and the Lord
Mayor had to interfere to request the Livery to bear
patiently what each speaker bad to advance. The hon.
speaker proceeded to remark that the bill in question
was not intended to destroy the Corporation, but was to
remedy certain defects in the Corporation, and make it
in harmony with the advanced spirit of the age. Instead
of striking at their privileges, it would extend them,
and rescue the character of that body as being a shath,
from the manner in which the affairs of the Corpora.
tion had been conducted for the past 20 years. Tha
City of London contained a population of but 128,000.
The revenue of the Corporation amounted to 400,0001.
per annum, and the cost of administration of these funds
amounted to 114,0001. per annum, whilst Liverpool,
with a population of 376,000, and an annual income of
600,1001., administered that fund at an expense under
30,0001 It was those immediately connected with the
Corporation that desired to continnethe present state-
ot things. The hon. gentleman was coutineally inter-
rupted in the course of his address, which he said
was a proof how much the Livery required reforma-
tion—not knowing how to act like Englishmen—fear-
ing to hear the real state of the working of the Cor-
poration. He considered this measure too moderate ;
it should have gone further and intimated how the large
funds of the corporation sheuld in future be administered.
He looked upon the fact of the Lord Mayor being elected
by 06 instead of the whole livery as a disgrace and a
shame, and that the election of the Lord Mayor and
Sheriffs should be by the citizens of London, and not by
the Aldermen and Common Council. He considered
the present corporation a concentrated essence of cor-
ruption, requiring to be scattered and turned into a wide
expanded area of liberty. He concluded tiy proposing a
resolution to the effect that the present measure was a
wise and moderate one, and that this meeting would use
its influence to insure its becoming a law. (Uproar.)
Mr. BATEMAN seconded the amendment amidst great
uproar. He sail he was inclined to imagine that the
conduct of the Livery that day in refusing to hear both
sides of the question was aff.rding an argument for the
abolition of the Common Hall, one of the provisions of
the present bill. The hon. gentleman at some length,
and amidst much interruption, supported the bill as one
likely to do away with that which had hitherto pre.
vented the free progress of the citizens, and that by
abolishing the tax on coal, throwing open the brukery
trade, &c., &c., London would become a freer City than
it had ever been.

Mr. Alderman SIDNEY supported the amendment.
He said that 70 of the clauses of this bill might be passed
over as unobjectionable, but the remaining 16 clauses
were hateful, and such that no man understanding the
liberties of our common land could recognise or agree
with. Speaking of the magistracy of London, the hon.
gentleman said that they were more independent than
the stipendiary magistrates of the metropolis, who were
under the control of the Goterriiiient, and were lectured
often by the Chief Cammissioncr of Police, who was in
frequent communication with the Home Secretary.
The hon. gentleman then entered into many of the ob-
jectionable details of the bill, oral defended the present
system of admiuisterin.g the funds of the Corporation.
Neither property nor individuals were so lightly taxed in
any other part of the kingdom as in London. No doubt
the management of the funds of the Corporation might be
improved ; but he did not think that a sufficient cause
for the Government, unsolicited, to deal with 111,0001.
of the Corporation funds.
The resolution was ultimately agreed to, as were the
following resolutions, and also a petition embodying the
sentiments of the Livery prt sant on the bill :--
"That, by sweeping away the long-established rights
of the Livery, and transferring the functions of that very
numerous body to a small number of persons, the princi-
ple is obviously at variance with the true spirit of re-
form.
"That the Livery are fully alive to the desirableness of
reforming all abuses, and would gladly lend their aid to
any scheme of reform really worthy of that designation ;
but they can only consider the present bill as one of in-
considerate changes, needlessly and injuriously inter-
fering with Lug established and valuable iustitutions ;
the right use of the powers of the Livery never having
been impeached, and it being indisputable that great
services have been rendered by them to the country.
"That this Common Hall approves of the proceeding
of the Committee of Liverymen, appointed at a meeting
at the Guildhall Coffee House, held on the 9th day of
April inst., and hereby requests the said Committee to
continue to act on their behalf, and toladd such membars
of the Livery to their number as they may, from time to
time, deem advisable.
" That the petition now read be adopted and signed
by the Livery, and presented by Mr. Masterman to the
House of Commons, and that all the members of the
City be requested to support its prayer."
Thanks were voted to the Lord Mayor and the
Livery separated.

FUNERAL op MRS. KELLY.—Yesterday the remains
of the late Mrs. Kelly, of Dublin, were interred by the
side of her late husband, Mr. Kelly, in the vault pur-
chased by him in Kensal green Cemetery. The body
arrived in London vitt the North-Western Railway, on
Saturday night. The remains of the deceased were fol.
lowed to the grave by bar broflor, Coptt344l434;Ctlit
tiliC4 in4ovis.