The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-20 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a Court of Aldermen was held in their
Council Chamber, at Guildhall, for the despatch of
business. The court was numerously attended at

Lts meeting, and when the Lord Mayor took the

chair,
M. Alderman and Sheriff WATERLOW presented
the sheriff's report of the state of the City gaols,
from which it appeared that in Newgate there were

106 prisoners, of whom three were in the infirmary;
in the debtors prison, Whitecross-street, there were
104 prisoners, of whom six were in the infirmaries;
and in the City prison, Holloway, 328 prisoners, of
whom nine were in the infirmary. The surgeons of
the several prisons reported the general state of the
health of the prisoners as satisfactory.
The CITY REMEMBRANCER presented to the Court

three bills which, since the last court, had been pre-
sented to Parliament, the first having relation to
the regulation of the traffic of the city of London
and the suburbs, the next to an alteration in the
laws relating to the offence of murder, and the third
having reference to capital punishments being car-
ried out within the precincts of the prison.

Mr. Alderman LAWRENCE, M.P., drew attention
to the provisions of the City Traffic Bill, the effect
of which he contended would be to close the busi.
ness of the City, including its docks, wharves, and
warehouses, which would be interfered with after
ten o'clock in the morning, as though the streets of

the City were on the same footing as the suburban
roads. lle protested against the bill, and expressed
a hope that its provisions would receive the careful
consideration of the General Purposes Committee,
to which he moved that the bill be referred, and
that copies of the same be forwarded to every
member of the Court.

After a desultory conversation, in which Alder-
man Wilson, Alderm In and Sheriff Waterlow,
Alderman Copeland, Alderman Sidney, and Alder-
man Lusk, M.P., took part, the motion was agreed
to, and the bills referred to the General Purposes
Commit tee.
Mr. Alderman. WILSON presented a petition from
Mr. Thos. Holmes Gore, the assi6taitt clerk to the
Lord Mayor, at the Mansion-house, praying for au
increase to his salary, which was, after some con-
versation, referred to the General Purposes Coin.-

mi ttee.
The Court having disposed of some business of a
routine character, the chamber was cleared of
strangers, on the motion of Mr. Alderman COPE-
LAND, on the ground that he had au important com-
munieation to make to his brethren which at pre-
sent ought not to go forth to the public. After a
short interval the court was re-opened to strangers.
THE CITY COUNTY-RATE QUESTION.

Mr. Alderman FINNIS then moved, pursuant to
his notice, which had stood over from the last court,
" That previous to the justices applying to the Court
for any further grant of money from the Chamber
for the purposes of the lunatic asylum, they be re-
quested to consider the propriety of making a county
rate." The alderman, of ter thanking his brethren
for kindly postponing the motion during his unavoid-
able absence at a former court, said that in his judg-
ment the time had arrived when it became the Cor-
poration to take some steps with a view to increase
their resources under the circumstances which now
prevailed. It could not be lost sight of that the
Corporation were about to be deprived of the Fins-
bury estate, involving a loss of £48,000 per annum.
In addition to this the Metropolitan Board of
Works had introduced into Parliament a measure
for the imposition of an improvement rate for the
general purposes of that board, and in like manner
the Corporation had introduced a bill also for an
improvement rate, and those respective bills were
opposed by the different bodies by whom they had
been submitted to the consideration of the Legisla-
ture. This would entail a cost of not less than
£lO,OOO in law and Parliamentary expenses, and
without any certainty as to which of these measures