The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2=2, 1842.

ST. THOMAS'S DAY.

ELECTION OF COMMON COUNCILMEN.

Yesterday being St. Thomas's Day, wardmotes
were held according to ancient custom in the different
wards of the City, for electing members to serve in
the Court of Common Council for the year ensuing.
Great activity having been exercised by the Anti
Corn-law Leaguers and the advocates for free trade
to return members who Would support their particular
opinions, a more than usual interest was excited.
The following are the principal results :
The names marked * ara those of new candidates.
ALDERSGATE WARD.

The wardmote for Aldersgate, for the election of
eight members of the Common Council, was held yes-
terday afternoon, at the Dispensary, Aldersgate-street,
Sir Peter Laurie, Alderman, in the Chair.

There was no opposition to the gentlernen who have
already represented the ward in the Common Coun-
cil, and no new candidate, and the following gentle-
men were therefore re-elected, after a short discussion,
viz. :—Messrs LorkirW
, Godson, Stacey, Norria; ood,
De Jersey, Mottram, and Smith.
Some business of theward having then been trans-
acted,

Mr. W.tan rose to propose some resolutions. He
disclaiined all intention to impute any impropriety of
conduct or neglect of duty'to his friends the
.newly-
elected Common Councilmen, and declared that his
object was to test the opinion'Of the ward as to its
views on those measures' of commercial policy .which
had been under discussion in the Common Council
Chamber On the Bth of December. _Resolutions had
been agreed to at that meeting, to which he desired
the assent of that wardmote; and when he had made
known the proposition which he was about to bring
forward, he thought' that they could have no hesita-
tion in declaring, their concurrence in his views. He
had been accidentally present at the discussion to
which he had alluded, and he regretted much that the
ward of Aldersgate had, in his opinion, displayed the
least alacrity of any of the wards of the City'of London
on the great question which was brought forward. At
that Council meeting, two of their representatives only
supported the views which were-eventually adopted by
the Chamber itself; three 'opposed those views, and
three' besides their Alderman, were absent. It was
this fact which had induced him now to come forward,
in order to ascertain what were the feelings of the
ward upon this matter. He would not enter upon a
fresh:discussion, upon all the' demerits of the Corn-laws,-
or Upon- the numerous topics which the general ques-
tion presented for 'debate ; but feeling that the merits.
of the measure which he advocated were embodied in
the resolution of the Common Council, he would sub-
Mit that resolution 'to them, and would pray their
concurrence in it. He maintained; in reference to the
last resolution, that the gentlemen whom they sent to.
the. Common Connell were bound to represent the .
opinions which they (the'electors) held. .-. •
Sir P. LAURIE said that as he was referred to in
one of the resolfitiona, he would say a pw.ivords in
.explanation. He did not go to the Common- Council
meeting, which was referred' to, because he' was.of
opinion that that meeting was not convened for the
Purposes of fair discussion, but rather with a view to
St. Thomas's-day.--;--(Hear, hear.). That reason had
operated upon his 'mind, and he believed 'upon the
minds of' many other persons. With regard to the
Corn-lawa;•they involved a principle upon which he
had not yet come to any conclusive opinion ; he could
not help making one observation upon the reolutions
now proposed, however, namely, that if the wardmote
agreed in the sentiments 'expressed by Mr. Ward, and
which amounted to a 'censure upon their representa-
tives, they had hardly done well in re-electing the
same 'gentlemen 'who had been guilty of the' fault of
which they complained. It seemed to him, that for
the wardmote no to agree to the resolution proposed
would be somewhat' anomalous.--(Hear, hear.)
Mr. R. BESLEY rose to propose' an amendment to
the following effect :—" That this wardtnote, after hay -
ing examined 'the resolutions agreed to by the Com-
mon Council, cannot but regret that, while the Com-
mon Council is expressing so strongly its abhorrence
of bad laws, it makes no effort' to reform some of the
laws under its 'own control, Which-inflict-a much deeper
injury On the population of this city than those which
they seek to procure to be repealed ; and they recom-
mend to the Com Mon Council to apply themselves to the
amendment of the laws which affect the commerce of
the 'port of London, to the Corporation regulations,
and to the reduction of those-monstrous legal and
other expenses, which are now watched over only in a
loose and unbusiness-like manner, but which require
the application of the pruning knife of economy, and
the adoption of some other check that that now pro-
vided." He declared that he entertained a strong feel-
ing upon the question of the Corn-laws, but he thought
that a great subject ought not to be dealt with in a
little way.—(Hear.)
Mr. TUCK seconded the amendment. He declared that
the Corporation, by the continuance of the existing port
and market regulations, stood between the consumer
and producer, and by the exaction of heavy lolls en-
hanced the price of every sort of food. He insisted
that before they could, with any hope of success, de-
mand the total abrogation of the Corn-laws; they must
remove all those abuses of which complaint was made ;
in the resolution.

Mr. lIERRING supported the amendment. He con-
tended that the Corporation, notwithstanding the vast
means which it possessed, neglected the wants of the
poor, as regarded cleanliness,-and all those minutiae so
essential in the internal management of.a city, for the
preservation of the public health. For his own part,
he believed that the Common Council were not the
political representatives of the wards for which they
sat. They had representatives in Parliament, to whom,
in poltical matters, they must look. With reference
to the question of Corn-laws, he thought that the
manufacturer could not in justice demand a free trade
in corn unless he was also willing to grant a free trade
in the commodities in which he dealt; but he had
had shown his unwillingness to submit to this test of
his sincerity, because for every species of manufacture
a protecting duty was Tetained under the new tariff.

_
After a few words from Mr. Gonsow, who depre-
cated the introduction of the question of-the Corn-
laws into this meeting, the amendment was carried,
and was ordered to be published in the morning
newspapers..
_

TKank3 having been voted to the chairman, the
wardnnote terminated.
ALDGATE WARD.

The Lord. Mayor Presided in this (his Own) ward.
A vacancy was occasioned by the retirement of Mr.
Simpson and there were three candidates for the
honour of filling it, viz. Messrs. Burrell and Clifton,
Conservativs, and Mr. Dodd, Liberal. The Lord
Mayor declared the show of hands to be in favour of
the following eight gentlemen (the number to be re-
turned)' viz. :—Mr. Green (Deputy), Mr. Lake, Mr.
Fisher, Mr. Massey, Mr. Whitesides,"Mr. Salter, Mr.
Jerram, *Mr. Clifton. A poll was demanded on be-
half of Messrs. Dodd and Burnell, but was subse-
quently withdrawn, and the above gentlemen were
declared duly elected.

tion in the vestry-room of St. Manlius Church, Lower
Thames-street, Alderman Sir Chapman Marshall in
the chair. There were two vacancies to be filled up,
Messrs. Loch and Sharpe having-retired, for which
there were four candidates, and a poll being de-
manded, it took place, from two till four, and at the
latter hour, the numbers were declared to be as fol•
low :

Mr.Pewtress (Deputy) 43, Mr. Hill . 46
Mr. Coke . 47 *Mr Low
I • 40
Mr. Matthews....... 48 *Mr. Chadwick 42
Mr. Davison ........ 431*Mr. Towse l6
Mr. Knott 4Bl*Mr. Witham l4
The two last candidates have retired, but the poll
must still be kept open for three days.

fectly clear that things could not go on in their pre-
sent
state. Distress throughout the country had
increased, and was still increasing; and nothing but
the most determined and Unequivocal measures could
save us. • The worthy elector went through a variety
of statistical returns respecting the misery and pau-
perism which prevailed throughout the country. In
Liverpool, he observed, there were at the present mo-
ment 8,000 cellars, holes under ground, containing
40,000 human beings, without money, without em-
ployment, without hope—(Hear, hear)—and the same
was the case in Manchester, Leeds, and all our great
manufacturing towns ; indeed, in nigh all our towns.
Lord Yarborough, at a dinner to the agriculturists of
the isle of Wight, only a day or two ago, stated that
he had been on a visit of inspection to several of our
manufacturing towns, and that the misery he saw was
indescribable.—(Hear, hear.) The great, the only
hope of the nation, was the exertion of the men who
were fighting so bravely against' the Corn-laws, in
the great Anti-Corn-law League—(Hear, hear)—
and he trusted that this noble Association would meet
with universal support; those who could not give 101..
to its funds, let them give 11.; those who could not
give 11.,- let them give 10s. ; those who could not give
10s., let them give ss. ; and those who could not give
55., let them give 45.,. 35., 25., is., or 6d. ; but let
everybody give something. It was an investment
that would pay incalculable interest.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. PROCTER complained that several of their late
representatives who were again candidates, among
others Mr. R. Taylor, had, upon the occasion of the
recent contest for the office of High Bailiff of South-
wark, supported the suspension of that standing order
which precludes Common Councilmen from becoming
candidates for civic office—a standing order which he
(Mr. Procter) considered essential to the interests of
the City to retain uninfringed upon. It was quite
evident that the Tories were endeavouring gradually
to introduce men of their own opinions into the repre-
.sentation of that ward; one had slipped in last year,
another was now a candidate • but he felt confident
that a ward which had boasted a Wilkei and a Waith-
man, would never suffer itself to be Tory-ridden.
Dr. LYNCH said that the advocates of free trade had
every reason to go on with their work hopefully. The
worthy elector then proceeded to complain of the in-
adequate representation allotted to that ward, as most
prejudicial to the ward itself, and to the cause Of mu-
nicipal and general reform. Thirty thousand persons
there were represented by 16 Common Council- I
men only, whereas it had been most justly de-
clared that the number of its representatives ought,
on every fair principle, to be not feWer than forty.
He also complained of. the docquet dues, and
other fees and duties exacted by the Corporation,
to the injury of. trade and commerce, and of
the large salaries paid to civic, officers, , more
especially referring to the 2,0001. a year received by
Mr. Sergeant Merewether as town-clerk. London
was the only city in England whose corporation was
guilty of such abuses. He further complained, that
whereas the corporation of Liverpool had advanced a
large sum to bring the Birmingham and London
Railway to that important town, the corporation of
London had, on the contrary, resisted the attempt
made to benefit the citizens by bringing the terminus
of that railway among them. It should, therefore, be
the aim of all electors to strengthen the hands of the
men who already supported their true interests in the
Court of Common Council, and for this end they
should sedulously keep out all Tories.
Mr. BUCKMA STER also complained of the inadequate
representation of their ward.
Mr. WELLS complained of the constant expenses to
which the citizens were subjected for the repairs of
Blackfriars •bridge, and of the large amount swallowed
up by the salaries and allowances to the Lord Mayor
and other functionaries, and gave notice of a motion
which he intended to bring forward at the close of the
present election, calling upon the corporation of Lon•
don to appropriate a portion of its revenues to meet
the expenses of sewerage in the City.
Mr. STONE said that those who said no, when it was
asserted that pauperism was on the increase, would
find sad reason to admit that this unhappily was the
case, were they to become guardians of the poor but
for a month.

Mr. SEELEY was cf opinion that the aspect of things
was everywhere improving. The number of poor in
the workhouse of their own parish was less by fifty
than it was last year. The decrease of distress in the
course of the last two years had been matter of general
remark.—(oh, oh.) He did not consider that it
would be benefiting the people of this country to
take five millions a year out of the pockets of the
agricultural labourers, in order to send the money
abroad.—(oh, oh.)
Mr. STONE said that, on the contrary, distress was
sixty per cent. greater now than it was two years ago.
Mr. SIDNEY then addresed the meeting.
The meeting then proceeded to the election, and
the show of hands having been taken in each case,
the Alderman declared the choice to have fallen upon
Messrs. Ramshaw, Charles, Anderton, Pierce, Burn,
Obbard, Edkins,Bedford, Barnard, Walker, Gresham,
Prendergast, Taylor, Williams, and Sidney. A poll
being demanded on the part. of Messrs. Woollett,
Harding' Wells, and Stokes, the polling was ordered
to take place that evening, from four to five; this day,
from eleven to three ; and to-morrow, from ten to two,
then finally to close.