The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-09 00:00:00

The Court of Common Council and the
Guildhall Exhibition.

At a Court of Common Council held yesterday at
Guildhall, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor,
Afr. T. WEBBER said he should like to ask a ques-
tion in reference to a matter.ofiti considerable import-
ance connected with the exhibition at pre-
'sent going on in the Guildhall, and which was
represented to the public as an exhibition by the
w orl=ing classes. What ho desired to know was
-whether the exhibition was conducted in accordance
with the terms of the motion agreed to by this
court ? He had been over the exhibition, and it ap-
-neared to him that instead of being an exhibition of
•works of art by the working classes, it was merely
an exhibition of articles supplied by some of the
gigantic tradesmen of the City, and that it was made
tl.O
use of by them to exhibit their own goods. (Hear,
bear, and confusion.)
Mr. BUTCHER rose to order. There was no motion,
be said, before the court. (Cries of
44 Hear, hear.")
Mr. WEBBER said he was determined to bring the
matter before the court, as he considered it affected
the credit of the corporation, and that such a course
of proceeding as he alluded to ought not to have
been permitted, and was contrary to the terms of
the motion that had been agreed to. (Hear, hear.)
If the names of the persons who made the articles
that were exhibited bad been attached to them he
should not have said a word, but he did object
to persons of the class he had referred to holding
themselves out as exhibitors at a working man's in-
dustrial exhibition. (Hear, hear.) The exhibi-
tion was not an exhibition of working men at all—
it was an exhibition of influential tradesmen, and he
was sorry to see their hall made use of for such a
purpose, and he hoped it would not occur again.
(Hear.)
The LORD MAYOR said he thought it right to
explain that in opening the hail on the previous
day he believed he was merely acting in accord-
ance what he considered to be the wish of the
court. (Hear, hear.) He knew nothing whatever
of the arrangements that were made by the City
La nds Committee, to whom the matter was entrusted,
and he had nothing to do with these arrangements.
Mr. 11. L. TAYLOR said that no complaint what-
ever could be made, so far as the Lord Mayor was
concerned, who had performed the duty of opening
the exhibition in a most proper and satisfactory
manner. (Hear.) With regard to the exhibition
itself, he quite concurred in what had been said by
Mr. Webber, and thought that they had made a
great mistake in allowing the Guildhall to be made
use of for the purposes of the exhibition. (II ear.)
Deputy FRY here interposed, and said that there
was no motion before the court, and the discussion
ought not be prolonged.
Mr. TAYLOR said it was not his intention to pro-
long the discussion, but he repeated that it was his
opinion that the use of the hall ought not to have
been allowed for the purpose of such an exhibition
as the one that appeared in it. The only course,
however, that could be taken was for some member
to give notice of a motion that the permission to
use the hall be rescinded on the ground that it had
not been applied for the purpose for which it was
intended. (Hear.)
The matter then dropped.
CLEANSING THE FOOTWAYS OF THE CITY.

Mr. C. GRIMWADE then brought forward a mo-
tion, that the Commission of Sewers be required, in
the forthcoming contracts, to make arrangements
for the cleansing of the footways of the City.
This motion led to rather a long discussion with-
out any result, and eventually, after an amendment
proposed by Alderman Sidney, that the Commis-
sioners of Sewers be requested to enforce the law
which required every householder to cleanse the
footway before his house, had been put and nega-
tived, Mr. Longden moved the previous question as
another amendment, which was carried.