The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-20 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a court of aldermen was held in the
Council Chamber, Guildhall (the aldermen's court
being occupied by one of the courts of law), for the
despatch of business.

The report of the sheriffs as to the state of the
City prisons showed that in Newgate there were 119
prisoners, of whom two only were in the infirmaries;
in the Debtors' Prison, Whitecross-street, there were
124 prisoners, of whom four were in the infirmaries ;
and at the llolloway House of Correction there were
338 prisoners, and only 10 inmates of the infir-
maries.

After some routine business and the swearing of
brokers had been disposed of,
Mr. Alderman SIDNEY requested to know why
_

there did not appear on the paper of business for to-
day the question as to the swearing in of additional
constables by the magistrates, which had been in-
terrupted at the last court in consequence of the
insufficiency of members.

The TowN CLERK—I beg to say that the Lord
Mayor is the party to whom the omission was to be
attributed.

The LORD MAYOR—I beg to reply, Mr. Town
Clerk, that I did not give any directions on the sub-
ject.

The Town CLERK said he wished to expl.tiu that
_ _ _

he had been requested to ask his lordship Co appoint
this as a special session simply for the admission of
brokers and other routine business, and his lordship

had consented to that arrangement on the ground
that business likely to create a discussion should not
be brought in during the sittings of the Central
Criminal Court, when the Recorder and the Com-
mon Sergeant would necessarily be engvged in their
judicial capacity.
The LORD MAYOR remarked that the town clerk
must have been mistaken in what he had stated.
His recollection was that he had given no such di-
rections as to the paper of business for that day,
and certainly the town clerk must have misunder-
stood him.

The Town CLERK reminded the Lord Mayor that
he had spoken to him on the subject in the pre-
sence of Mr. Alderman Wilson at the last court,
and it was then arranged that the order of the court
should not be interfered with.

A somewhat personal and acrimonious conversa-
tion ensued amongst the members of the court, in
the course of which the Town Clerk repeated his
declaration, when
The LORD MAYOR, with some warmth, declared
hat he had already made his statement of his re-
membrance of the facts, and, having done so, he
would not submit to be contradicted by any officer
of the court. (Sensation.)
After considerable discussion, the adjourned
question as to the power to swear additional con-
stables by the aldermen was resumed on the ad-
journed report, when eventually the report was
agreed to on a division of 11 to 4, with the amend-
ment moved *by Mr. Alderman Wilson that from
the report should be excepted the officers employed
at the justice-rooms at Guildhall and the Mansion
House, and that the power should ba reserved to
the magistrates to swear their own officers, with an
appeal to the commissioner of police. The court
then adjourned.

Combinations and Strikes.

. _
At the second ordinary meeting of the Statistical
' Society for the present session on Tuesday evening
—Col. Sykes, M.P., one of the vice-presidents of
the society, in the chair—there was a pretty num e-
mus attendance of fellows. several gentlemen
having been elected fellows of the society, and other
business having been disposed of, Mr. Jacob Waley,
M.A., read a paper " On Combinations and Strikes,
with reference to the Rate of Wages." The lec-
turer in the first instance considered the question
whether strikes were in any case economically jus-
tifiable, and laid down the principle that unless by
this means the workmen could obtain any important
advantage, or any advantage which could not be
more readily and beneficially obtained by other
means, strikes could not be economically justified.
Upon this point there existed the greatest difference
of opinion. Some persons who were enabled to
speak with authority upon the subject had asserted
that strikes were never attended with advantage to
the workmen, while the investigations of the Social
Science Association and the authority of other
writers tended to an opposite conclusion. The in-
fluence of a strike depended a good deal upon the
condition of a trade. In some instances, no doubt,
demands for the increase of wages might prevent
the profitable carrying on of a trade ; but in the in-
stance of the building trades, the iron and coal
trades, the ceramic manufactures, and the cotton
manufacture, there had been, notwithstanding the
disturbing influence of strikes, a constant increase
of production. There was also a good deal of doubt
as to whether wages were ever increased or the hours
of labour diminished except through the influence
of strikes; and the balance of evidence cited by Mr.
Waley appeared to be that such increase of wages
or diminution of hours of labour were generally ob-
tained as the result of strikes. Strikes against the
introduction of machinery were always unjustifiable,
iand could not be too strongly condemned, and,
therefore, it was not necessary to consider them
minutely in reference to this question. In order to
deduce some inferences as to the real influence of
strikes, the lecturer briefly narrated the circum-
stances of several important strikes. Among these
were the engineers' strike in 1852, the Preston
strike in 1853-54, that in the building trades in
London, 1859-60 ; the flint-glass makers' strike in