The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-18 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

Oa Thursday a Court of Common Council was
held at the Egyptian Hall in the Mansion-house, the
newly elected Lord Mayor in the choir.
In opening
the proceedings,
The LORD I.IIAYOR said that it afforded him much
pleasure to meet the gentlemen present upon so Early
a day after his election, upon a subject of importance
to the citizens of London. It bad been his lot for
several years to meet many of those present upon the
floor of the Council Chamber, and he trusted that he
should always be able to reainLio for them that free-
doom for the expression of their opinions which be
had always experienced, and which he felt it to be
a(
sCs herisetause. )e
fHt
he e hopedcour t hau tt
hhues sehuodueladv
oa
ul wr
janygs
thave a hne
his duty as well as his privilege to maintain.—
i
tain their ancient rights and privileges, which he
hoped to be able to hand down unimpaired' to his suc-
cessor.—(Hear, hear.)
MR. CHARLES PEARSON'S PLAN FOR IMPROVING THB
CoAurftt,erautdhetheredaidspinogsaolfofthue
femwinmutoetsterosf
METROPOLIS.
otfh ea
mfoerrme
leyr
routine character,
Mr. WOODTIIORPE read the following requisition :
" To THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD M•YOR.
" We, the undersigned members of the Court of Com-
mon Council, request your Lordship will convene a
Court on an early day to consider Mr. Charles Pearson'a
comprehensive plan for improving the metropolis, parti-
cularlythe city of London, by levelling the intended
new street from Farringdon-street to Clerlienwelt, by
raising it on a level with the high ground of the adja-
cent streets, and extending ii to tng' s-cross; by con-
structing a trunk railway on a well lighted and ventilated
sub-way under the surface ofthe
street, connecting the
northern railways and northern suburbs of the metropolis
with termini in Farringdon-street and the new street;
by, lifting Holborn valley severceen feet, nearly on a level
with Holborn-hill and :snow-hill; and by removing the
wholesale meat and vegetable markets, and the railway
carriers' receiving houses, from their present confined
and inconv,nient situations to spacious sites in the new
street, by which means, as Mr. Pearson asserts, the
overcrowded streets will be relieved of a large portion of
the railway waggons and the omnibuses from the
northern railroads and the northern suburbs of the me-
tropolis, which now throng the City and impede the
ordinary traffic. We likewise request your Lordship
will insert on the summons convening the meeting no-
tices of the specific motions it may be intended to pro-
pose for the consideration of the Court."
The motions alluded to were as follow :
"By Mr. Thomas Dakin—' To present a memorial
from Mr. Charles Pearson upon the subject of the rail-
way terminus.'

By Mr. Deputy Harrison—' That it be referred to
a Ward Committee, now to be appointed, to consider in
detail the railway terminus and City improvement plan
proposed by Mr. C. Pearson, in connexion with the re-
solution of this Court of the 3d of November, 1845, and
to inquire into the desirability, practicability, and cost
thereof, and to report their opinion to this Court; and
that, pending the foregoing inquiry, the committee be
empowered to give the necessary Parliamentary notices
in the Gazette and the newspapers, to enable the Court
to act thereon in the approaching session, if, after re-
ceiving the report of the committee, they shall determine
to do so."

Mr. DAMN, on being called upon, said that he had
no doubt but that it would save time if the memorial
which he had but a few minute: before received, were
at once read.

The memorial contained in a compressed form the
various facts and argument so often reiterated by
Mr. Pearson, and which have so recently been re-
ported in the ordinary channels of information. The
memorial concluded with the following paragraphs :
" Your memorialist humbly pays your Lion. Court
to refer this matter to a committee, tittre whom he m Ay
be allowed to prove the foregoing tacts, or such of them
as may be thought important to the inquiry—your me-
morialist undertaking likewise to prove that a commit-
tee of citizens, influenced by public and not pecuniary
considerations, are willing, pending the inquiry, to take
upon themselves to provide for all necessary proceed-
ings, preparatory to the approaching session, and to keep
the control thereof in their own hands, ready to be deli-
vered over to public commissioners or the corporation,-
if it shall be thought desirable to carry out the projected
improvements in the manner suggested in the 11.?ilway
Commissioners' report. Your memorialist likewise un-
dertakes to lay before any committee that may be np-
pointed by your Hon. Court, the evidence of competent,
practical, professional men, to prove that the whole of
the objects specified in the requisition may be accom-
plished, and that the neccseary works may be completed
ready for action within three years from the date of
their commencement, and that not a single sewer or
street need be stopped in the progress of the works until
other drains and other streets are provided to divert the
sewers and accommodate the inhabitants and passengers
in the several thoroughfares both by vehicles and on
foot. Your memorialist further undertakes to prove by
satisfactory testimony, that if the railroad companies
principally interested shall be willing to lease the pro-
jected lines and stations at moderate tolls (far less than
the sums now paid by City passengers to their distant
stations by the ordinary modes of conveyance), a fund may
be raised from this source and from ground rents of
surplus ground more than sufficient to defray the entire
cost cf constructing the railroad and stations and re-
adjusting the adjacent streets; and that if the existing
railroad companies shall wholly or partially reject such
a proposal, a company may be formed to execute the
trunk line to the northern suburbs of London, which by
means of low fares and constant trains, will amply repay
for the outlay of the required capital, if aided out of
public funds with means to defray the cost of raising
Holborn valley, and improving the streets to au extent
commensurate with the advantages the public will
rive from the accommodation,"
Mr. Alderman SIDNEY said he wished to ask whe-
ther he rightly understood the Solicitor that there
was some company formed prepared to curry the
undertaking into execution if approved by the
Court ? lie also desired to know what was the
estimated cost ?

The CITY SOLICITOR replied—He assured the
Court, upon
for thehishopunr,rposthaet, andth thaterehad h be had hadeennocomno-
pany formed
communication with any of the existing companies.
He had deemed it his duty, as an officer of the Cor-
poration, carefully to ab3tain fromhuplicating himself
or the undertaking with any company or individual
as a pecuniary speculation. He was also anxious
that the Corporation should equally abstain from doing
any act which might wear the appearance of pledging
itself to any course of action until the committee to
whom it might be referred should have time and op-
portunity to examine and report upon the whole
measure. As to the expense he would answer the
Honourable Alderman's question with equal frank-
ness. He had some years since employed surveyors of
character and experience to estimate the cost and the
returns. They had surveyed, measured, and valued
every property in the lire, and they reported the
probable amount of the balance of cost after the sale
of the groundrents from the surplus ground at r
small a sutra that he was almost ashamed toshtaetesuift.
They were of opinion that 500,0001.
fisucirepi,iiut
stgoroduenfdrafyortmhearckoestts afteran d h takingnhiied
Courting sites.
to Mr. Deputy HARRISON wished
wastwouldcd it for the
placed. On the
under-
stand the position in which
the solicitor, and then he (lair.ncl the model then before
the first time saw the
platnlawith great interest, and
He lookedd a
27th of October last he attbeendDelepauttythieiraersriidsoennr
forof
the Court.
combine
et
tshoemcaonrypoardavtiaolan.
ought to take
it up. He thought, further,
was the time for them to do
that the present. .
tthagouesghthtatthiatt itw saseenfheis
not do so immediately the op..
otoplincioonmbt
irretrievably lost.—(Hear, . ear, hear.)
l t (H
Deputy Harrison then proceeded to defend the
City Solicitor from the attacks of some members of
the Court, who had considered he had no right to in-
F‘soirrtufonrityifmtighebyt bdeld
in-
terfere with matters not immediately connected with
his own department, when after a powerful appeal he
moved

" That the matter be referred to a ward committee,
and that the said committee give the necessary Parlia-
mentary notices, &c."
Mr. W. A. ROSE seconded the motion.
Alderman SYDNEY rose to propose that all the words
after the first paragraph which had reference to the
committee, " being empowered to give the necessarz
Parliamentary notices in the Gazette and newspapers,
should be omitted. The worthy alderman gave the
Solicitor every credit for his shill, while he eoneidered
that the plan was deserving of every praise, still he
thought it right to ask the Court to pause before they
agreed to go too far, as they
.might perhaps be doing
much more than their municipal duty.—(Hear.)
Alderman CUBITT seconded the amendment.
, M.P.,
He did so because he had grave doubts both RS to the
feasibility and practicability of thescheme, Ye thought

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hill. The model liled<se "demonstrates the 1a.412AV .- Ak.' ...;-,
which, by a groat exertion of combined forces, -2 V 7.7-
--- -7 - ... r -1,- i. -,!.:13-- 2z< - Tin
r4ratively a small expense, the number of our strepii FA' 7 '.t c\--*7
that direction may be naul,iptted and so re•errAntted`: .*:-.,.-..`- that they mill admit of four times the number or:ipdge.'"` 3`, sengers the railroads can bring being distribute 4;:a4, .174--ts,'! *''''' A
only without producing inconvenience to the At ce : '''''''" $;-,/,„ ks,ll
trai-dc of the City; but actually diminishing to a ;'ots2'„
)
great extent the abstractions which now imped,76z al< `-'
thoroughfares.
" In order to illustrate with more clearness and preci-
sion than could be otherwise done theerrect which railway
traffic has upon the ordinary transit of vehicles and foot
passenger: through the public streets; the carriage roads
and pavements, shown on the mcdel, exhibit numerous
carriage ar,d foot passenge:s, made precisely to scale,
and arrang(d in point of numbers by a table prepared
from the reporiv, of traffic table,,, at, ell the metropolitan
rsilway stations."
Mr. PEA.esoN (it it et considerable length on the
principal ftaturcs of t1:,1 model, pointing out the ad-
vantagEs in the public ecor;oroy of London which
would follow from the removal of Xewgate market,
thr erection of meat ;.r.d vew-table marke.ts more than
four times as extensive, th, provitii:;z pi:ssengersta-
tions and goods rtc‘4v;ng huu.es on the most exten-
sive scale, and the epanic.g up In. w lines of street from
north to south and east to west, relieving the now
ehuked up thomuahfares. When he had concluded
~
his audience had an opportunity of gratifying their
curiosity by examining the model, of woieb roost of
the company availed themselves.