The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-14 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday the magistrates of the City of London
held a Court at Guildhall for the transaction of
business—the Lord Mayor presiding. There was
a large attendance of members, and it being an oc-
casion on which a new member of their body was
to be introduced, most of them wore their scarlet
robes, according to custom at such times. Pre-
vious to entering upon the business of the day,
Alderman Sir William Rose called attention to the
circumstance, which was an unusual one, that all
the officers of the Court were absent except the
Town Clerk. It was a circumstance, he said,
which should not be passed over without notice•
The Lord Mayor said he saw the Recorder in
his place a few minutes before, and the Town Clerk
explained that many of the officers were then en-
gaged with the Special Gas Committee of the Cor-
poration. Alderman Sidney said he had reason to
know that the Recorder had been engaged in the
Mayor's Court since Saturday on a compensation
case, which was still undecided. Alderman Law-
rence, M.P., said this being a special occasion on
which a new member of their court 'was to be in-
troduced, points of law might arise on this introduc-
tion, as they had done before on such occasions, and
it was inconvenient that not a single legal officer of
the Corporation should be present. Mr. Alderman
Gibbons said the duties of the Recorder in that
Court were only second to those of the Recorder of
London, and the most proper and dignified course
for the Court to pursue was to request the attend-
ance of the right hon. gentleman on an important
occasion like that. Eventually, on the motion of
Mr. Alderman IVilson, the senior member, who re-
marked thatnoofficer should be absent from his place
without the consent of the Lord Mayor, the Town
Clerk was instructed to writeto each of the absentees
for an explanation, and the matter was allowed to
drop. Mr. Orton, attorney of the Lord Mayor's
Court, officially reported that Mr. Thos. Scambler
Owden, citizen and innholder, bad been elected to
represent the ward of Bishopsgate in the Court of
' Aldermen, in the place of Mr. William Taylor
Copeland, deceased. Upon that the recently
elected Alderman appeared at the bar, escorted by
many of the principal inhabitants of the ward, and
Mr. Metcalfe Ilopgood, a
Common Councilman,
addressing the Court, said the honour bad. devolved
upon him of introducinga new member, and it
might not be out of place for him to say he
believed the Court of Aldermen was held in the
highest respect by the thinking part of the
community of that great city. The citizens re-
garded with very high esteem the privilege
they had long enjoyed of electing their own
magistrates, and were proud of the way in which
justice as a rule was administered in the city of
Lond,,n. It had been often a source of sAtisfac-
tion to many of them to hear judges of the land
bear testimony to the discretion and impartiality
with which the magistrates of the City discharged
the duties de;olving on them, and he had reason
to believe that the inhabitants of the various wards
were fully impressed with the responsibility at-
taching to the privilege of electing members to
roprescut them in that ancient Court. Ile had the
honour of introducing to them Mr. 0 wden, a
gentleman who had been unanimously chosen by
the ward of Bishopsgate, which was one of the most
important in the City, numbering as it did 1,200
electors. his friend had passed almost the whole