The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-17 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a Court was held for the dispatch of a great
deal of public business.
The petition of Mr. Samuel Wells against the return
of Messrs. R. Taylor, Obbard, Hodgson, and Gresham, as
Common Councilmen for the ward of Farringdon With-
out having been sent from the Court of Grand Wardmote
to the Court of Aldermen, the petitioner was called, and
immediately attended at the bar.
After some conversation amongst the members, the se-
veral cases in which Mr. Wells had petitioned were post-
poned for a fortnight, some of the gentlemen whose re-
turn has been impugned having at the same time ex-
pressed a hope that the Court would endeavour to decide
on that day, and save them the additional expense of
producing counsel and witnesses on subsequent days.
Alderman COPELAND, in bringing up the Report of
the inspectors of weights and measures, said it was with
great satisfaction he called the attention of the Court to
the exertions of the inspectors for the last twelve months.
(Hear.) When the Court considered that the labours
of these two excellent officers were calculated to render
benefit to those who needed protection and assistance
most, in consequence of their limited means, he was sure
it was unnecessary for him to say more to prove the
value of the new appointments.—(Hear, hear.) The
services already rendered in the poor and populous neigh-
bourhoods of the City of London, in every district of
which the inspectors gave evidence of remarkable impar-
tiality as well as vigilance and activity, were most sen-
sibly felt, and he trusted that their unabated zeal and
exertions would further increase the advantages derived
from their appointment.
The report specified that 90 publicans had been, in the
year 1843, summoned and convicted ; that 40 butchers
had been summoned and convicted ; that 10 bakers had
been summoned and convicted ; that 46 coal-dealers and
general shopkeepers had been summoned and convicted ;
that 17 greengrocers, cheesemongers, and tallow-chand-
lers had been summoned and convicted ; that 3 oil and
colourmen had been summoned and convicted ; that 10
greengrocers had been summoned and convicted ; that 4
marine-store owners had been summoned and convicted ;
that 4 tobacconists had been summoned and convicted ;
that 3 metal dealers had been summoned and convicted;
that 15 provision merchants had been summoned and
convicted ; and that 5 wharfingers had been summoned
and convicted. The total number of deficient weights
and measures was stated to be 379. The total number
of unstamped weights and measures, 1,396 ; the total
number of false balances, 163 ; the total number sum-
moned, 247 ; the total number convicted, 247 ; and the
number appointed to be heard, 30.
The Report, which was signed by Mr. Knott and Mr.
Harvard, the City inspectors, was ordered to be entered
on the journals of the Court.
At a former Court, upon the motion of Alderman
Fairbrother, the sum of 400/. per annum was added to
the salary of Mr. Bullock, to whose high talents and
merits every one in the assembly bore the most ready
testimony.
Alderman BROWN at the present Court rose to move
the following resolution :—" That the Court, appreciat-
ing as they do most highly the zeal and abilities of Ed-
ward Bullock, Esq., as manifested in the discharge of
his duties as one of the Commissioners of the Central
Criminal Court, and recognising his first 'Maim to an
increase of salary, deem it to be nevertheless their duty
to rescind their regulation of the sth of December last,
viz., That the sum of 4001. be added. to the salary of
Edward Bullock, Esq., in respect of his duties at the
Central Criminal Court,' from a full conviction that his
claim to an additional salary will be duly recognised by
the Court of Common Council, by whom he was elected."

The resolution was agreed to, after some conversa-
tion amongst the members.
The Court of Aldermen has tho undoubted power to
vote tae addition, but the former resolution was re-
scinded, from respect to the Court of Common Council,
from whom the Learned Gentleman received his appoint-
ment.

Upon the motion of Sir PETER LAURIE, it was re-
solved " That no addition be made by the Court to the
salary of any officer, unless previous notice on the sum-
mons for the Court, stating the addition proposed to be
made to the salary."
Alderman FAREBROTHER rose to move that the elec-
tion of a deputy governor to the gaol of Newgate be
postponed until the duties to be performed by such de-
puty are settled ; and that a committee be appointed
to consider such duties, and to report the same to the

Court.
The motion having been seconded,
Alderman WILSON rose to move, as an amendment,
that the nomination of a deputy-governor be made at the
next Court.
Alderman T. WOOD seconded the amendment.

After considerable discussion,
Alderman BROWN submitted the following, which
Alderman Wilson consented to substitute for that which
he had proposed :—" That the Court do, at its next
meeting, proceed to nominate a fit and proper person to
be by.them recommended to the Governor of Newgate,
to be by him appointed as turnkey of the prison, and
afterwards appointed deputy governor thereof, subject to
the approbation of the visiting magistrates."
Alderman Brown's amendment was then carried.
Sir PETER LAURIE moved that so much of the pre-
sentments of the Wardinote Inquests as regards parties
carrying on trades within the city, either by wholesale or
retail, be referred to a Committee of the whole court, to
consider the best course to be adopted thereon ; and to
report. He should not enter upon the important matters
connected with the subject which had excited so much
interest in the City, but he should briefly advert to the
conduct of one of the wards, which bad at the grand
wardmote accused the Court of neglect, and maintained
at the same time that the authorities of the ward ad-
mitted there were nearly one hundred persons in it who
refused to take up their freedom, and yet not one of
these individuals had been returned to the Court in the
presentment.—(Hear, hear.)
Alderman COPELAND said he looked upon the subject
of obliging poor retailers to take up their freedoms and
allowing rich wholesale dealers to conduct all kinds of
commercial pursuits without requiring them to perform
the duties of citizens, as a very serious grievance. It was
his determination to have all parties in his ward who
were not free presented, and to ascertain by an appeal to
the law whether merchants and wholesale dealers were
not compellable to be free.
The RECORDER said that retail dealers were proceeded
against under a bye-law, which did not apply to whole-
sale dealers. The point, then, was not whether whole-
sale dealers could not be reached by that bye-law, but
whether the Corporation could not make a bye-law which
would reach them ?—(Hear, hear.)
Alderman HUGHES HUGHES deprecated all argument
upon such a subject in Court at that time. When the
subject was submitted to a Committee, he should take
care to attend it, and give and receive all the informa-
tion that could be collected on a matter which the Court
well knew very particularly interested him.
The motion was then agreed to.
Alderman Wn.sow presented a petition from the In-
quest of Castle Baynard Ward, calling attention to the
state of Puddle Dock.
The petition was referred to the City Solicitor.—Ad-
journed.

MISS STRICKLAND'S " LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF
ENGLAND."—We are requested to state that a new and
revised edition of the first six volumes of this work is
published this day, by Mr. Colburn, of Great Marl-
borough-street, and may be had of all booksellers
throughout the kingdom. Mr. Colburn has also just
published a new and cheaper edition, with additions, in
2 vols., uniform with :" The Lives of the Queens of
England," of" Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots," edited,
with an historical introduction and notes, by Miss
Strickland. " Undoubtedly the most valuable, and by
far the most interesting, work illustrative of the life and
character of Mary Stuart ever given to the world."--
,Edinburgh Evening Pot.