The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-07 00:00:00

D 4 Alt lA,T,NATQF.A.PER
•

sary of Police should send in a
.torney.-General within 24 hours, ly...,:l.O.repeette47
sent in till, nearly a month 'after; wis.o
been done at last may be attributed 41 *lle ileit•S
sure to the publicity which has been ;given to the'
facts. Commissary Mobillo Would glisste the appeere,
ante orlegality to his conduct. At the. same
giere are those 'Who have been in, detention for
years who have never seen a judge, nor been, asked
4 question, and yet have been manarled like felons.
As to any ptegressive measures„ I see not the
Slightest twilight indicative of an y. An extract
from a letter from Messina, on the decree of the
19th, speaks of alterstions in the law of the press+,
in that affecting municipal institutions, and conir:
mercial reform. With regard to the first, it has
never entered into the wildest thoughts of Francis
II , and as to the two latter I believe that they haSe
been used as decoy ducks, to deceive and pacify.
At the same time that they were spoken of, a large•
amnesty was semi-officially promised, material
:progress largely talked of, and the concession for
completing the Taranto line of railway, that itn-
practicable line (spe:king of it as a speculation),
was granted. Who ever hears of them now ?
They were delusions, and intended to be so; the
prisoners remain in confinement or exile; and re-
ceive additions' to their numbers. Does the " Cir- .
eular" I sent you harmonise with an amnesty? A B
for the municipalities, they remain as they were,
and the commercial tariff is no longer spoken of. I
can imagine the Government of. the Two Sicil jos
saying, " Let us
,Show at least 'the appearance of
doing something, and let us attempt to tonsil hoe
John Bull. It is easily done if we talk about n rate-
Hal progreSs and a commercial tariff. After AA a
little talk is all that is required, and if at th a last
moment it is necessary to do something, v, to can
pay; those measures and preserve our princi D'ioi of
government."
•
I cannot even now explain the reateaus, !s of the
panic which led to guards being placed in. all the
streets and in the roads outside the city r,. `few days
since. some say that a report had beep received
that 12,000 muskets were to be introdurle d into the
eitY; and now I hear that the remains of; the Swiss
contingent in Avellino have shown sl mptoms of
mutiny. It. is excessively difficult to tv,Tive at the
real, truth, but I believe it is the case. that the Go-
vernment has violated its conditions ith them—in
one instance, I am told, by making thti em contribute
a portion of their pay to the purchase of their uni-
firm ; and hence the reported disco ntent and, as
some say, dispersion of the Swiss. this seems to
be the most probable way of accounting for the
great apprehension which marked_ the arrange-
ments of the Government. at the b`. Caning of the
week. Several regiments of cavalry in Caserta
and elsewhere have been reviewed lately, and re-
ceived orders to be in readiness to march, while
two regiments of infantry and a bat'calion stationed
in Maddaloni and Caserta were actually on their
route to the frontier when counter orders reached
them at Santa Maria (Capita Azalea). One regi-
ment, the 14th, remained there, and. the otherS re-
turned with their baggage to their old quarters. It
is impossible to explain these changes, except by Sup-
posing that things arc conducted here by a puerile
caprice. lam told, indeed, on high authority, that
the Government is fully sensible of the danger of
interfering in favour of the Pope, but one other
folly in addition to so many others would not be
surprising.
Not only apprehension, but divided counsels,
exist in the Royal family. and there is talk of some
one retiring to Gaeta—at all events, servants are
said to have left to polish the floors of the Palace,
as if some one were expected.

THE LIEUTRA.4NOT OF TILE CITT OF

LONDOX.

Few public bodies, especially among those pos-
sessing taxing powers, are !•0 little known to the
public as Ibe Court, or rather Commission of Lieu-
tenancy of the City of London,a body which trans-
acts its business with closed doors, and endea-

yours to veil its proceedings Irt-in general ob-
servation. Despite this strong disposition to

privacy, we have, however, bee: able from time
to time to report their pi oceethilgs ; and although
•a. formal motion which «•as submitted to the court

on Friday for opening their doors was negatirtal,
we shall, no doubt, still be able to communicate to
the public any bre-iness transacted -which, eithrr
fi•fen its own mit tin:, or the position of the partirs
most act ire in the transaction, mlly render it \ vort :y
of being noted as an item of general informatiot r.
On Friday we were able to announce that, the court
resolved to recommend his :Royal Highness tine
Duke of Cambridge to her Alajesty as Colonel of
the London I:Hit:Brigade, and we could. if incline d,
have extended our report considerably. Thus v.-e
could have stated that the motion of Mr. Depulty
Lloyd for thro w in!, open the doors was lost by a
majority of 17 to 8"; that. lient.-Col. hicks applied
for permission to form the London Rifle Brig: ale
into two battalions of 800 men caxh, which ap-
plication was referred to a committee; that Mr.
Spottiswiiode applied for permission to einbo( ly a
troop of 80 of his own men, the eonsiAleration of
which application was postponed ; and that. -Ar.
Ambrose Moare expressed himself indignantly to-
wards those individuals—members of the court or
ollmise—through whose instrumentality the p ro-
ceedings of the court were communicated to the
reporters, and so made known to the public. As
the commission has now formally refused to remg-
nise the right of publicity, and asserted its own
right to be regarded as an irresponsible body--(al-
though there are people in the City of London who
sad' that being taxed by the commission they have
a right to a little talk, if they get nothing else for
their money)—a glance at its constitution may not
be without its interest. In fact, the Commission
of Lieutenancy is a substitute for the Lord Lieute-
nancy of a county; in constitution it is beyond
question the most respectable public body in the
metropolis. how it assumed its present numerical
importance is not exactly apparent ; hut it was
originally constituted under the 13 and 14 Chas.
IL, c. 3, s. 27, and was again the subject of Parlia-
ment enactment in the 1 Geo. IV., c. 100, s. 35 ; the
general power given by these acts being "identical
with those conferred on lords-lieutenant of counties
in connection with the militia or other such armed
bodies as may be raised locally (apart from the regu-
lar army) in times of invasion, insurrection, or rebel-
lion, or other emergency. By the Act of Charles
the Second the lieutenancy were required to raise
yearly a one " month's share of .1:70,000;" but by the
Act of George the Fourth this power of taxation
was limited to £4,666 per annum, to be levied equi-
tably upon the respective wards of the City. This
power has not, however, been lately exercised to its.
fUll extent. The last tax levied by the commission
—the tax itself being known as the "Trophy Tax,"
and intended to be appropriated to the militia,
having been called for in 1857 ; but the power is
about to be again exercised, and a fresh trophy tat
will be levied during the present year, after a state-
ment as to the expenditure of the last raised tax
shall have been submitted to and examined byjus-
tices of the City in quarter sessions. In addition to
this power of taxation, the power of appointing
officers to the militia and volunteer forces virtually
rests with the commission, but of course subject to
the approval of the Sovereign. So far the powers of
the commission. -With regard to its constitution, it
may be said to consist of about 250 members, each
pmaeritl o
rf e
ca 0 lrodredr-
of whom, therefore, is the 0,250 th
lieutenant. The lord mayor, alder ~ ,
00rcodmi
smt
iins --
a in)yd deputieso
ffotrhtshier
town-clerk, common sergrantss
time being are commissioners by
esm° fe
n2O
offices, and there are besidae
sioners, many of ,Y14"1 1 •
, Thus
oanto.t the present Tho
Thos. Baring,
the
MX., R.D. )," others
rseupgwenatt•
the lion. H. l . Bouverie,
cgoomisthheisdsiopnosiiatiga.ia,
am
M.
:Pi r Ille\aarinry
. f - •
E Man-
gles,S(i.'E Cotton,
81.11E.P.:1ii".-plAre.,:- SirS 13,4 i M. Lindsay,
tFelgor"e,Bart S.
I.x.yi;
i,
a(n: o,
lli.i
tShymk Sykes, Mo f M.P.,
itawlinson; Baron Lionel de Rothschild, M.P.,
N. de Rothschild,
ABfaarjo*ir•General Sir R. J. ll.l‘
City bankers and many eminent merchants. It must
be said that the majority of these gentlemen do not
act, nor, as nine commissioners form a quorum, is
it necessary for the transaction of business that
they should do so. The Lieutenancy is regulated
by royal commission from time to time, but the
privilege of nomination rests with the Lord Mayor,
and the course of procedure is understood to be
this :—That when the commissioners,• from deaths
or other causes, fall below a certain number, the
fact is intimated to the home Secretary, upon
which an order comes down for the Lord Mayor to
nominate persons to fill the vacancies; which is
done forthwith, and then there issues a royal com-
mission, reciting the names of the commissioners
in full, and so the court is constituted. The last
commission issued in 1857, and it is expected that
another will be issued during the present mayor-
alty. It is said to be an object of great ambition
with many to be made the 250th part of a lord-
lieutenant, not for the emoluments, but for the
" position" of the office, and that when a new coin-
' mission is issued the Lord Mayor is overwhelmed
with applications from gentlemen desirous of being
placed upon it.