The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-03 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a Court was held for the dispatch of
business.

et EXTENSION OF THE PRACTICE or ATTORNEYS.

The LORD MAYOR presentecithe following petition
to the Court

" The petition of David Williams Wire, solicitor,
showeth that your petitioner has been admitted and
sworn, and is now practising as a solicitor in the tligh
Court of Chancery, and in the Courts of Law at West-
-minster, as appears by thc certificate hereunto an-
nexed. - _

" Your petitioner, therefore, humbly prays that he
may be admitted an attorney of the Mayor's Court of
London?"
Alderman 'BROWN presented a similar petition from
William Davis, ofColeman-street. He stated that he
felt himself bound to present the petition from the
respectable individual whose name was annexed, but
he believei there were many interests affected by it,
and he, therefore, thought that the matter should be
referred to a Committee, and that the attorneys of the
Mayor's Court should he informed of the application,
and summoned to attend before a Committee upon the
subject.
Mr. WIRE, on being called upon by the Lord
Mayor, stated that he made the application under the
authority of the 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 73, which
enacted that every person who should have been
duly admitted-an attorney of any one o f the superior
courts of law at Westminster, should be entitled to
be admitted an attorney in any other of the said
courts, or in any inferior court of law in England and
Wales." He (Mr. Wire) had been admitted in the
superior courts, and he now claimed to be admitted
an attorney of the inferior court of the Mayor and
Aldermen of the City of London, commonly called
the Mayor's. Court. He was fully aware that the
practice of that court had been exclusively confined
to four gentlemen, and that they would claim a vested
interest in the monopoly, having either purchased or
obtained these places by the gift of the Corporation. But
notwithstanding such practice, and notwithstanding
its previous legality, he submitted that the Act of
last session completely destroyed any chartered or
vested rights, and threw open the Court to all prac-
titioners, admitted by the superior courts, and he was
borne out in the opinion by the Act itself, by the ex-
ceptions introduced, and by the interpretations already
put upon it by the Recorders in other towns and cities,
who, notwithstanding the previous exclusion, now,
under the authority of the Act, admitted all practi-
tioners duly qualified. He believed it would be un-
necessary further to argue the question as a matter
of law, but if it were necessary, -he was fortified in
the view he had taken of the. Act by authorities.
He would.now, therefore, turn to the benefits likely
to result to the public from the throwing open of the
Court. It was a Court of large jurisdiction, and em-
braced both a legal anal an equitable side.
Alderman BROWN said that this was a question of
grave consideration, and deeply affecting the rights of
others, and it ought, therefore, be referred to a Com-
mittee, to examine and report upon.
Mr. WIRE said, with the concurrence of his
Learned Friend near him, he had no objection to a
referende, provided the Committee considered the
matter forthwith, as he was anxious to get the answer
of the Court, to enable him, if necessary, to go to the
-Court of- Queen's Bench for a tnanclamus.

Alderman T. WOOD and Alderman BROWN se-
conded a proposition to refer the matter to a Com-
mittee, and to advise with the law officers of the
Corporation thereon.—The motion was unanimously
agreed to.
Subsequently a similar petition was presented, from
Mr. Hartley, of New Bridge-street, solicitor; and it
was stated that several more petitions upon the sub-
ject would be likely to follow, it being the determina-,
tion of the profession to open the Court.