The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-07 00:00:00

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HOUSE OF LORDS.—TnunsnNy

I ord BROUGHAM called the attention of their lorpships to
the state of the municipal corporation of the city of London,
with a view to its reformation. In doing this it was not his
wish to speak with bitterness or disrespect of the corpora-
tion of London. Indeed it would be most ungrateful of him
to do so, because on a certain memorable occasion he had
been presented, together with his noble friend (Lord Den-
man), with the freedom of the city, and was in consequence
a member of that corporation himself. This, however, could
not blind him to the enormous abuses which prevailed in that
corporation—abuses, some of which were so glaring that,
after his statement of that night, he would predict they could
not exist for a single year. The noble and learned lord then
entered into a lengthened statement of the abuses he referred
to, as well in the mode of election of the responsible mem-
bers and officers of the corporation, as in the general manage-
ment of its enormous rever.ue. He denounced the system of
city police as dreadful, and said that if the intention was to
invent a system the best calculated to promote vice of every
kind abetter one for that purpose could not be devised than
that existing in the city of London.- The administration of
justice in the city was decidedly bad. The aldermen, &c.,
were a remnant of the old feudal system. The Duke of
Lancaster had given up his judicial jurisdiction—in Durham
also this jurisdiction had been given up—in fact throughout
the kingdom these local jurisdictions had been abandoned,
and yet in London two aldermen could try men for their
lives at the Central Criminal Court. The aldermen, &c.,
had also the power ofappointing no less than six judges—one
chosen by the aldermen alone, and the other five by the
Court of Common Council. Those judgeships were can-
vassed for, and when Lord Denman contested the common
sergeantcy with Mr. Bolland he ran a great risk of defeat,
because the latter gentleman was city pleader, and those who
wished to succeed him in that office got their friends to vote
for his elevation. A similar influence defeated Mr. Hill.
Was it right that the appointment of judges should be de-
pendent upon such influences and motives. The noble and
learned lord then strongly denounced the practice which pre-
vailed of persons asking advice from city magistrates, and
thus making exparte statements, when the parties whom
they complained of had not the remotest idea that their con-
duct was to be subjected to such a public investigation.
There were a nest of magistrates in the city who were fond
of hunting out what they called swindlers; their imperfect
knowledge of the law not telling them that swindling is a
term unknown to the law, and those magistrates were conti-
nually listening to stories got up for the express purpose of
extortion, from the fear of parties of being dragged before
the public, however innocent might have been their conduct.
If they persevered in this conduct after this warning, he would
tell them that the Court of Queen's Bench would take cogni-
sance of their proceedings, and put an end to the usurpation
which they thus exercised of the jurisdiction of higher courts
of justice. The noble and learned lord concluded by moving
that an address be presented to her majesty, praying that her
Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct the report of
1834 to be taken into consideration, with a view to the re-
formation of the corporation of the city of London.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that his noble and learned
friend should hate given a more definite notice of his object
before he sought to pledge the house to an extension of the
municipal corporation reform bill to the city. He concurred
in all that had been said as to the impropriety of the conduct
of magistrates who listened to charges which they had no
power to determine, and hoped that what had passed would
put an end to the practice.
Lord CAMPBELL did not think the city of London so bad
as his noble friend had' represented it to be. It was a repre-
sentative government, and no doubt abuses had crept in,
which he hoped to see reformed.
Lord BROUGHAM then said he would withdraw his mo-
tion, and bring it forward in another shape.