The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-02 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

REFORM OF THE CORPORATION OF
LONDON.
(From the Times of this day.)
The long-expected measure for the reform of the
Corporation of London 'presents itself at last in
the mildest possible form. It was not without
reason the civic Conservatives 20 years ago de-
manded a special consideration, for they have cer-
tainly obtained for the Corporation of London a
gentler treatment than fell to the lot of its pro-
vincial compeers. These were so entirely newly
constituted that identity was lost in the change,
and a new body of men stopped in and assumed the
property and functions of the old. Not a corpora-
tion but changed its members, its officers, the
boundaries of its jurisdiction, its duties, and every-
thing that can make a municipal body. Sir Geo.
Grey proposes to leave the boundaries of the city
of London unchanged, and the mode of admission
also the same as now. With the government of
the body he interferes somewhat more. Of tile
three courts, the Court of Aldermen, the Court of
Common Council, and the Common Hall, made up
for both, he gives power to the Court of Common
Council, and takes it away from the Court of
Aldermen. That this leaning will be popular with
the more popular body, and contribute to the suc-
cess of the measure, is likely enough, though one
cannot help desiring that a body to be intrusted
with larger powers should be better prepared arid
qualified for them. It is proposed to take fr,..nn
the Aldermen their ri?ht of nominating the caudi-
dates for the Mayoralty from their own body ; to
leave their magisterial powers, but to create some
new police-courts, presided over by stipendiary
magistrates, as iu the rest of the metropolis. Sir G.
Grey does not propose to merge the city police in
the metropolitan, notwithstanding the recommen-
dation of the commissioners, and the strong grounds
of economy, as well as unity of action, that have
been urged for this change. It is a matter of ne-
cessity that certain customs and privileges should
be abolished. The right of opening a shop is no
longer to be reserved to freemen, and the rights of
porterage, metage, and street tolls are to cease. It
will be remembered that the commissioners, whose
report was made previous to the creation of the
new Metropolitan Board of Works, with its taxing
powers, proposed to hand over the coal duties, as
long as they lasted, to that body, s hen it should be
formed. Sir George Grey now proposes to let the
penny and the eightpenny duties expire, and to
retain the fourpenny duty in the present hands--
only, however, for the liquidation of existine,
charges upon it. The ancient conservancy of the
Thames he proposes to transfer to a Government
board.

Such a measure can only be regarded iji the
light of a compromise, and as such its ptesent
success, its working, and its duration must depend
upon circumstances. If the reformers are content
with it, anal if the Conservatives, nowhere so
numerous and so influential as in the City of Lon-
don, are ready to compound for the measure, it
will certainly remove some inconveniences and
absurdities. The main absurdity, for such we
must call it, is, however, untouched. It is absurd
that in the heart of this metropolis there should
be an imaginary boundary, existing only in maps
and the minds of officials and ratepayers, and
without one particle of public utility in its favour,
upon one side of which a man is a citizen and
on the other nothing at all, without one iota of
self-government. That distinction, it seems, is to
be continued. The man on one side of a party-
wall may have a voice in the election of an Alder-
man or a Mayor, and may himself aspire to those
offices with a fair chance, if he has only the per-
sonal qualities and a determination to address him-
self to the object ; he may attain to important
magisterial functions, to the management of a
large body of police, to the control of an immense
expenditure and to the chance of numerous
emoluments and honours, which the genius of our
ancestors certainly intended for the widest possible
competition, not for a small section of London.
It is true that the man who is so fortunate as to
dwell inside the imaginary line has to pay for it
in the shape of some high rates, and possibly,- too,
in a little misgovernment ; for of the enormous
wealth belonging to inbtitutions in the city of
London not much is diffused among that modest
:nd independent class that will not ask for a
share. Yet there is no denying—for it constitutes
the very case against a substantial reform of the
Corporation—that the man who dwells just inside
a certain line to be found in the maps of the
metropolis, though by no means in the metripolis
itself, is decidedly better off in some considerable
respects than his outlying but very near neighbour.
This is still to be the case, though no sufficient rea-
son has been assigned for it ; nor has it yet been
shown why the municipal rights so industriously re-
tained for a portion of the metropolis should not be
equally desirable for the rest. No doubt, the dignity
and importance of the municipal offices would be
vastly enhanced if the municipality were the whole
of the metropolis, instead of a twentieth part of
it ; or, at all events, if it comprised all that we
commonly call London. Whoever, then, wishes
the Corporation of London to be something worthy
of the name must desire to have its boundaries
extended.

At the same time we are bound to admit that in
so serious an affair, and in dealing with such
various and intractable elements, it may be better
to proceed by the tentative orexperimental method.
The Metropolitan Board of Works, as at present
constituted, is only au experiment, for it remains
to be seen how far a popular assembly composed of
the nominees of a number of local democracies will
conduct with wisdom, unanimity, and discretion
even that lesser part of social government, the ma-
terial works of the metropolis. It cannot be said
that these representatives, though they may be
considered by position the very elite of the metro-
polis; and must be supposed to have won their place
by force of character and social qualities, have as
yet worked together even so well as our represen-
tatives in Parliament. They seem disposed gene-
rally to circumscribe their jurisdiction within the
narrowest possible limits, instead of extending it
to the utmost limits of their charter. The general
conviction formed on the minds of enlightened
observers by the constant jealousies and mutual
obstructions of the newly• created metropolitan
pr.rliament is decidedly adverse to the credit of
British citizens for local self•governtnent on a
considerable scale. That a few 101. householders
and as many freemen should le able to
manage their wretched little affairs at least
without scandal, if not wi h much profit, is thought
likely enough ; but the example of the new Board
of Works is now daily cited to show the middle-
class Englishman wants the pressure of the class
below and the guidance of that above in his admi-
nistration of public affairs. Time alone will show
whether this board will get over those difficulties
of deliberation and co-operation which were noticed
even in the British House of Commons fresh from
the Reform Act. But, for the present, it is natural
to suppose that Sir George Grey does not think the
Board of Works so succes-ful an instance of self-
government as to encourage him to a strong awl a
large measure of municipal reform for the city of
London. When the new Board of Works has done
its present work well, it will then be time to give
it more to do.