The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-21 00:00:00

THE MERCHANT TAILORS' COMPANY.

This day being appointed by the Commissioners to re-
sume the inquiry into the Merchant Tailors' Company, and
the former evidence given by Mr. Franks (the Company
having refused to give information), having created much
interest in the City, the Court was more fully attended
then usual.

Mr. Franks attended, to resume his evidence relative to
the affairs of the Company.
The COMMISSIONERS asked Mr. Woodthorpe what in-
formation he could supply relative to this Company, and
whether the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen had
exercised any authority over them ?
Mr. WOODTHORPE said he had many instances where the
Court of Aldermen had exercised such jurisdiction. On
the 16th of April, in the Ist of Richard 111., the Court of
Aldermen took upon themselves to arbitrate in a dispute
between the Merchant Tailors' Company and the Skinners'
Company, and the Court adjudged that, in order to put an
end to all strife between the two bodies, the Merchant
Tailors' Company should dine with the Skinners' Company,
at their Hall, Sn the day of Corpus Christi, if it should be
an open dinner, unless they could assign good reason for
not so dining, and that the members of Skinners' Com-
pany should dine with the Merchant Tailors' Company, at
their Hall, on the day of St. John the Baptist, if an open
dinner, unless they could in like manner assign good cause
for not so dining. The Court further ordered, as a re-
conciliation, that on all future occasions of processions, or
public meetings, of the City Companies, the Skinners'
Company should go before, or take precedence of the Me-
rchant Tailors' Company, for one whole year, from Easter
to Easter, and that on the next following year the Mer-
chant Tailors' Company should take the like precedence of
the Skinners' Company. The Court further adjudged that
in case any Alderman belonging to the Skinners' Company,
or to the Merchant Tailors' Company, should be the Lord
Mayor of London, the Company to which he belonged
should, in all processions, go before all the other City
Companies, or Fellowships, and these orders are in force
to this day, the two Companies having voluntarily submit-
ted to them ; but if they had not so submitted the Court
would have proceeded to enforce its authority. Another
instance of the exercise of the Court's authority occurred
in the reign of Henry VIII. Renald Newington peti-
tioned the Court to be translated from the Merchant
Tailors' Company, to which he belonged, to the Mercers'
Company,
notwithstanding the oath which he had been com-
pelled to take in the Merchant Tailors' Company, that he
should confine himself to that Company, and not belong to any
other craft or fellowship. The Court entertained the petition,
and ordered that the oath in question should be struck out
of the by-laws of the Merchant Tailors' Company, and
that clause altogether expunged, as against the liberties of
the City of London. To this order the Company also sub-
mitted, and the oath abolished. A third instance happened
also in the same reign, when the Court of Aldermen issued
an order, saying that having received information that a
number of young men, of the trade and craft of tailors,
were goinc, about the City idle, the Court directed the War-
dens of the Company to search out those who were so idle,
and to inform the Court what foreigners of the craft em-
ployed men, also foreigners, in their own houses. On the
24th of October, 1632, an objection was made before the
Court of Aldermen, upon a scrutiny, against several of the
Company who had voted at the election of Lord Mayor,
and after hearing Counsel, the Court decided that those
members not having taken the oath in the Company, their
votes were not good and lawful votes. In 1691, the 3d of
William and Mary, another instance also occurred, where
the Court exercised jurisdiction over this Company, as to
swearing in four Wardens and sixteen Yeomen, whom the
Company had refused to receive on the Court of Assistants.
Mr. Woodthorpe said this was all the information he was at
present prepared to give on this part of the inquiry, but it
fully proved that the Court of Aldermen possessed and had
exercised jurisdiction over the City Companies.
Mr. FRANKS now proceeded in his development of the
Company's affairs. The Master of the Company has the
power to convene meetings of the body, to make liverymen
and freemen, and to bind apprentices. The Master and
Wardens claim, as their own individual property, the whole
of the funds of the Company, and they always exercise this
right. The clerk of the Company distinctly stated that
the Company possesses large property, both real and per-
sonal ; but that the whole belongs to the Master and War-
dens, and not to the fraternity. The Hall of the Company
they also claim as the property of the Master and 'War-
dens for the time being. Property had been devised to
the Company under different titles, as the Merchant Tailors'
Company, and as the Master and Wardens of the Mer-
chant Tailors' Company.
Mr. ELLIS asked if the Master and Wardens had, by
the Company's Charter, a special power to purchase, re-
ceive, and alienate property?
Mr. FRANKS said he believed they had, but still it must
be wrong to call the property the individual property of the
Master and Wardens. In January, 1831, in an argument
of Sir James Scarlett, in the Court of King's Bentt, which
involved this very point, Lord Tenterden interrupted tho
Learned Counsel to observe that the Master and 'Wardens
held the property only in trust ref tho Company, The
Master and, Wardens gf the Company aro conjointly trea-
surers, and three of them must sign all orders for paying
money, The clerk receives 01 runts fl,om the tenants of
the Company, and pays them over to the Wardens, who
give receipts. The clerk finds security to the amount; of
3,0001., but the Master and Wardens find pone, There
was a ease not long ago, iyhore a member of the Court of
Assistants was one of the clerk's bondsmen, and being called
UPON to pay his bond of 3,0001. he refused, on the ground
that the bond was informal, Alderman Atkins was the
bondsman to whom he alluded. The opinion of Chief Jus-
tice Tyndal, then at the bar, was taken on the point, and
he declared the bond informal, and that it could not be en-
forced. A compromise, however, took place, and Alder-

• man Atkins and the other bondsmen paid between them
1000/. The junior clerk of the Company sometimes had
as much as 800/. at a time in his hands before lie paid it
over to the Wardens. This frequently happened before
the dismissal of Mr. Teasdale, the Company's clerk, in
1822, but now the practice he believed was, to pay the rents
over immediately to the treasurers. The Master and War-
dens are the auditors of their own accounts, and the audit
takes place in the month of December in each year.
Mr. WOODTIIORPE observed that there was a pocket-
book published by the Company for the exclusive use of
the Court of Assistants, containing all the general business
of the year.
Mr. FRANKS said he had one of the books. He had in
1831 requested of the Master, by letter, to know on what
day the Company's accounts were to be audited, in order
that he might attend as a liveryman of the Company. In
reply, he was informed that the accounts would be audited
the next day at ten o'clock ; but that no person except the
Court of Assistants would be permitted to be present. He
had seen a copy of the letter sent to summons the Court of
Assistants to audit the accounts, and it concluded with the
following words :—" N.B. Dinner on table at a quarter
past five precisely."—(Laughter.) He had an account of
the expenses of one of those dinners. On this occasion 75
persons had dined, 40 of whom had no connection whatever
with the Company, and the expenses of the day amounted
to 240/. The annual election of Master and Wardens
takes place within 20 days before or after the day of St.
John the Baptist. The Committee of Finance first held a
private audit of the accounts, and dined together, and some
days afterwards, the public audit, as it is called, takes
place ; but it is only public to the members of the Court.
The Finance Committee consists of 11 persons ; but few
of them attend : indeed, many reside altogether away from
London. For instance, one lives at Bath, another in Dub-
lin, and another in Canterbury ; and they are so aged and
infirm as not to be able to travel. They were all above 70
years of age, and some of them had lately died. The mem-
bers of the Court are paid each a gainea for their attend-
ance. The clerk is the only officer who has a regular salary
in the Company, amounting to 400/. per annum, and he gets
also 150/. a year, instead of fees. Besides this, he has the
whole business of the Company as solicitor, so that the
office is worth between 2,000/. and 3,000/. a year, as was
admitted by Mr. Teasdale, who had been clerk. He held
in his hand the bill of costs of the present clerk, amount-
ing to 795/., incurred in opposing, on the part of the Court
of Assistants, a rule which he (Mr. Franks) had obtained
in the Court of King's Bench, for an investigation of the
affairs of the Company. From this it was plain that it was
the interest of the clerk to institute as many law proceed-
ings as he could. The beadle of the Company has a sa-
lary of 100/. per annum, besides a house, coals, and candles.
The clerk has also a house rent free, with coals and candles,
and neither clerk nor beadle pays taxes for his house. The
duty of the beadle is to collect the quarterage and summon
the members of the Court ; he has a commission of 3s. in
the pound on the money he collects, and he has perquisites
on all liverymen made in the Company, and all freemen
admitted. The payment of the quarterage is not very
rigidly enforced at present, except on the occasion of bind-
ing apprentices. There are quarterly meetings held in the
Hall, when the ordinances of the Court are publicly read,
prayers being first said. Liverymen have no privilege over
freemen in the Company, except as to the exercise of their
trade. Members of the Court of Assistants claim a right
to vote as freeholders for Members of Parliament for the
county, and the freehold on which they ground this right
is the money they receive annually for attendances on the
Court, which they consider an annual income fixed and in-
alienable. In the year 1791 Lord Loughborough ruled
this to be a sufficient qualification, and it had been since
acted upon. He compared the right to that of a residen-
tiary prebend. The opinions of all the other Judges were
also taken on the point, and they concurred in the judgment
of the Chief Justice.
Mr. WOODTHORPE said that it would rather seem that
this annual income was the gift of the Master and Wardens
of the Company, inasmuch as they claimed all the property
of the Company as belonging to them, and it was odd,
therefore, how it could be construed to be a freehold.
Mr. FRANKS said, such however had been the decision of
the Judges. The Company exercised the monopoly of ex-
clusive trading before the charter of Henry VII., but at
present there are no by-laws to that affect_ There are two
distinct Courts in the Company, one consistira, of the Mas-
ter, Wardens, and Assistants, and the other of the Master
and Wardens alone. There are besides several Committees.
No Court can be held without the presence of the
Master and Wardens, and they are also on all Committees.
There is no Court whatever at which the liverymen or free-
men attend, or are admitted, and in fact both liverymen and
freemen are in a state of perfect ignorance of all the affairs
of the Company. When he first applied to the clerk to
peruse the by-laws, the clerk told him that he had no more
right to inspect the by-laws as a liveryman, than he would
have if invited to dine with the Court of Assistants to in-
spect the bill for the dinner. The number of Committees
was five, viz. :—The Committee of Finance, the Committee
of Estates, the Committee of Charity, the Committee
of General Purposes, and the Mora Committee. This
last Committee is called Mora, or Moor, from some
estates the Company have about Moorfields, which
this Committee manage. There is no fine for ab-
sence, but a fee for attending. The business of
the Company before the Masters and Wardens began
at two o'clock, and ended about dinner time. The
business related to the property of the Company and the
distribution of the estates. Disputes were settled formerly
before the Masters and Wardens, but such has not been
the plan for the last century. The Master of the Merchant
Tailors' Company, Mr. Attwood, stated that it had been
the practice to send the beadle of the Company to Bartho-
lomew fair with a silver yard to see that the measures were
all correct, and that fact was represented as a proof that
the Company was not a municipal one. The thing was
only a matter of form ; so ignorant were the Master and
Wardens of the Company of their new constitution that
they were obliged to send to the Tower and Rolls' Court
for a copy of their charter. The Clerk of the Company,
Mr. Milner, at the end of the 17th century was paid 40/.
for translating the charter. He (Mr. Franks) obliged the
Company to produce certain by-laws to which an objection
was made by the Master and. Wardens, but afterwards
acquiesced in upon Counsel being consulted. He (Mr.
Franks) applied in January, 1831, to the Court of King's
Bench, to examine the books, records, &c., of the Com-
pany ; but the rule was discharged in consequence of the
extent of the application, and he afterwards applied for
the by-laws as a freeman and liveryman, which after great
delay he procured. The copies were missing, his attorney
having mislaid them when removing to another house.
They were all obsolete, however. They were confirmed
in May, 1613, by the Judges.—(Mr. Franks hero handed
in a list of the receipts and expenditure of the Com-
pany.)—The trust expenses embraced the amount of sums
paid in charity. In 1822 Mr. Franks stated, we under-
stood (he spoke all through in a low tone), that the return
was 3,423/, and in 1823 it amonted to 3,6001. The
greatest part of the property of the Company was in Lon-
don. No preference was, he thought, given to the mem-
bers of the Company in letting houses. The houses were
surveyed according to the regulation for the sale of City
property, and the occupier obtained a preference on renewal
invariably. The Clothworkers' Company held part of the
Irish property with the Merchant Tailors. The Merchant
Tailors' Company had lent at the end of the 17th century
so much money to the Government, that they were obliged
to sell part of their property to make up the deficiency
which existed. Some of the property was sold to a Mr.
Richardson, relative to which disputes existed. The Irish
Society had not been consulted in alienating this property,
as in the case of the property disposed of possessed by the
Goldsmith and Vintners' Company, and he should be glad
to see it revert back again to the Merchant Tailors' Com-
pany. The Merchant Tailors' had a distinct share of the
Irish property, and made up the amount due for the e 5....
.c
which the Clothworkers' Company had received.
Mr. ELLIS asked if there was any pr.r
the Company in letting leases ?
Mr. FRANKS said he
...olieved the leases were let fairly,
the tenant .
....Lys having a preference. He then handed
'accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the Company
from 1823 to 1830, and gave information upon the various
items. There were dividends arising out of the funds held
by the Company. The patronage of the Company's school
was in the hands of the Court of Assistants, each having a
certain number of admissions. He believed there was not
much difficulty in getting an admission for a boy. The
school was supported at the entire charge of the Merchant
Tailors' Company, and he had been informed, cost 600/. to
700/. a year. At present he believed the school was full,
there being 300 scholars in it. The greater part of the re-
venues of the Company arose out of the surplus of funds
left for specific purposes. When he first commenced pro-
ceedings against the Company there were only three poor
liverymen relieved by the Company ; but the Court of As-
sistants have since created a fund out of the Company's
cash, and 20 are now relieved. He complained of the mode
adopted by the masters of the schools taking boarders, by
which the system was followed of "grinding the boys for

I.erence given by

" To the most illustrious, most noble, most sage,
amongst the grandees of Christendom, Col. Lazareff.
" That our good will be known to you!
" As soon as we received the letter of your Excel-
lency, we took cognizance of it. The Commission,
relative to the Armenians and to their removal, with
which you have been charged by the great General
Paskewitsch, is perfectly well known to us. Nor are
we ignorant that you have the authority of your Go-
vernment for this affair. The conditions of the Treaty
of Turkmantschoi, February 1828, between the two
great Powers, stipulates, it is true, that all those who
were desirous of passing under the dominion of an-
other sovereign should be at liberty to do so. There-
fore we have not opposed the slightest obstacle to the
emigration of several Armenians of Tauris, which took
place at the time the Russian troops were withdrawn
from that town, and before we entered it. We did no
more than this ;we anticipated their wishes. But
whilst we remark that in all the places where your sol-
diers had been stationed, the Armenian population emi-
gtated voluntarily, as you say, reason and conscience
dictate to us to inquire of you whethet it be possible,
that many thousands of families should have sponta-
neously abandoned a country that this people have in-
habited for a thousand years, and have left behind
them their property, their gardens, their houses, in
order to drag themselves in your train, without know-
ing where they might find a resting-place, and being
exposed to all sorts of privations ?
" According to your account, the Armenians are
unanimous in their desire to pass under your dominion.
But there are two kinds of desire—that which springs
from a full and free will, and that arising from fear and
violence. It is true that the satisfaction of
the first of these .wants is one of the con-
ditions of the treaty of peace which is equally
advantageous to the subjects of both nations ; but it
also appears, from all that is passing, that your
Lordship does not abstain from bringing the other into
p'ay. I have, with my own hands, delivered passports
to the Armenians who quitted Tauris, and I know
that their emigration was caused by that of their priests.
Now, if all the ecclesiastics of, this country have
abandoned them, no doubt the fault lies with the
Primate of Etschmiadzin, who threatened to deprive
them of their dignities, to excommunicate them ;
and he even declared that they would be respon-
sible, in another world, for their disobedience. Now
that your Lordship resides at Salmas, which is occupied
by your troops, you send officers and Kozaks to levy
contributions in the villages where there are no
Armenians who wish to emigrate, whilst you distribute
money to those who do emigrate. I demand whether
your conscience is satisfied with these proceedings, and
whether this is not infringing upon the free-will of in-
dividuals ? The villages where the Armenians do
not manifest a desire to go over to Russian domina-
tion are immediately occupied by soldiers and Kozaks
and the consequence is, that the inhabitants, being
unable to support these vexations, are forced to quit
their homes, and to abandon their property. I beg of
your Lordship to constitute yourself judge in this af-
fair : you can act thus better than any other person ;
for during the time that the Persian territory was oc-
cupied by the Russian troops, you visited all time
towns, villages, and hamlets of the Aserbeidsehan, and
you must have observed what violence your officers
took upon themselves to commit towards the Arme-
nians. But now that the war has ceased, and that
peace and good intelligence arc re-established between
the two powers, you had no right to over-run in this
manner all the-villages. By exciting the inhabitants
to abandon their homes, and to quit the country, you
have acted contrary to the friendly relations which had
again become established between the two nations.
The coercion you practised against the Armenians was,
therefore, misplaced, and the taking possession forced.
Thus the injury inflicted on these people must have
been displeasing to God. lam inclined to believe
that the great Emperor, with that justice, loyalty, and
clemency by which he is distinguished, will not see
without dissatisfaction the conduct that has been prac-
tised towards a powerful ally. lam ignOra,nt as to
what his Excellency General Paskewitsch will say to
it ; but I know that his conduct has never failed to be
just. As to you, as you have been yourself employed
in this affair, you must admit that violence and threats
have not been spared. In conclusion I have kept si-
lence as to your operatioßs ; but, after having read
your letter, I thought it my duty to answer you briefly,
and, at the same time, to acquaint the Commissary of
the brilliant Russian power thereof.
( Signed) " ABBAS MIRZA."

FURTHER ENCROACHMENTS OF RUSSIA IN

THE EAST.

The following is from the Courrier Francais:—
We have received news from Constantinople, up to the
date of the 2Oth of September, from which we are in-
duced to believe, that since the return of M. de Bou-
tenieff, he has been preparing the Porte to cede a con-
siderable extent of territory. It appears that the con-
vention signed last year at St. Pctersburgh has not yet
been executed, and that Russia will not be
contented with the districts of Paehkow and.
Tchilguir. The negotiations relative to certain stipu-
lations of the treaty of Adrianople will not terminate
without the cession of several districts on the shores of
the Black Sea, near to Trebisond, which will complete
the possessions of Russia in that quarter. It is kociwtt
that the Russians have occupied for some time :everal
points on the frontiers, which have not been formally
given up to them by treaties.
The Sultan will not throw any difficulties in the
way of Russia ; his condescension to t).at power knows
no bounds, The resources of the
ex-
hausted in fitting out a fleet, which could have been
17'orte have been
of no service under any
jects in Asia are on circumstances ; and its sub_
mense bodies ",,ressed by the assembling of im-
tro'ops, who show a great reluctance to
fighting.. The military preparations continue all along
the*line from Scutari by Tokat to Pivat, and in the
vicinity of the Taurus. All the military chiefs from
Lazes to Kan are upon the alert, in order to furnish
their contingent of men to the Seraskier of Armenia,
who requires 40,000 troops to punish a tribe of the
Kurds which has kept the country in a state of alarm
for some time. It is said that this army will be in-
structed by Russian officers in the different manoeuvres ;
the artillery-men are almost all Russians.

Messrs. Henry and Ottley, who have been occupied
for the last three months in surveying the ground for the esta-
blishment of a rail-road between flaniburg and Hanover, have
just finished their labours, whie_li they are about to submit to
the examination of M. Vignoles, who will lay the result before
the Ministry of Hanover, together with the alterations whisk
he may think fit to make.

The murderers of Mr. Ashton have been further
respited to the 18th of November.

In 1717 Mr. Shippen, M.P. for Sahash, _ sent
to the Tower for saying that " the second paraiwagt is n the
King's (George I.) Speech seemed rather calcted for the
meridian of Germany than Great Britain," and that "it was .
,a
great misfortune the King was a stranger to our language and
Constitution."