Court Of Common Council.
The Times, 1824-01-29T00:00:00

Yesterday a Court of ;o2 d w beld for the aespatch , T}}E 011A.DIM SOcIETY. IIIT. Alderman peEY Vfested a ttion from thi sec*ta;y ahi managers of the Guardian Society, prayiag tbut the Court woula' be-pleas4 tw grant some peumary- 4sistance, for the sappoit of Me, le .wqrAldernnn observed, thatithe society la. wo"l y-of the a sistamcWof the CDurt. irt ob*- e0Wtasto provideatenporary asylum, wih su letemplyn eat, for those abandoned femles-. who-crowded the stree3 of tile Inc. trpolis. As a proof of tho good which reslted fromt the sot- clety, it a's itated to hima, Mit out of eight. huaidred femalet who had entered the idtitution since its. establishment in 18hZ the majorlty had been restored to the 2psths of virue. The plan upon iwhich the s Aciety *hs conductid was much better than thba -on' which th. comzmittee which had -.buin anpited by tAhe corpoiatih .proceedd., That committee htl liprited their exertions torlbe. throwinW into prison, numzes of vaifbr. tunale fesna1 -a:gaig^nk slt liberty " to wallowr lkesqwir n the mie" Hti'moved-uths?he petition be referred to the Commniteje of Genei1l'1ijtss. . Rer a fe't wvords from the LOstD MAYo, Alhe =nWoks Mh tr. FAVELL, in commendastion of che society, t.he mOoSot wiis agreed to THE COAL TRADE. lr. -SOeTHGATE broiht up a report from tht Corn and' Col 'Committee, to whomt' it-i beeht referred to inquire into tbelnode of deliveringcoaYs-in theriver, and the cause of the high price of that areicle. 'A'herenor, upon the motion of the wthyc deputy, was read. It setlorth hat the Committee had receiveda memtorinifrom 103 coal-mercbnnts, coinpliningthatthe numberof- l-mt bad not been increaied m pgporon to the increase which hadtskenpce of late years in the conmtion of coal, whereby the publegener. aUly,aswvell'asther6selves( te memorialists),were conaidrheos They stated, that it- consequence of the number of meters being in. sufEcient5ie fre4uebtlyhd 4ppened, that ships were nomnpelledto wait 10, and in tsmt instarices 12 days, before they weredischarge- The comiattet had called before4fhem and examined several coal-meters, who denied that the present mumber of their body was insufficient, and anssgitd,that thedelay which was cm laiedOf in'thedischarge ofE71ipS a caued by the want ofan sufficient number of craft to. yte from the vessels. Another .et of witnesses attri. buted the high price of coals to the duty which was paid ett their importation into London, and the high chargS-fo laboQar in the river. The committee finally were of opin;on, -that there. sent number of cosa-metens was not irisuffclent, although theyr,re. commended that, for the -sake of experiment, and to rcmove' all doubt on the subject, the nutmber should bc augmented to 130, bv filling up the vacancies now existing, and atppointing 12 new metetw TChe committee were also of opinion, that the duty of 3s 4d. per chaldron which was paid on the arrival of codals in the port ofLoin- don, and not elsewhere, was exceedingly burdensome and oppreesive; and they recommended that the dudes upon coal sheuld be equalr -1 all over the counltr y. [The above we be'aeve to be a- correct description cf the sub ;- of the report but if there be any error, it must be attribute i-_: nolsewhich prevailed in aver? crowyded ourtwhilst the -dmzk. t s was being read~] - - MIr. SOUTUGATE observed, tfvat from the extreme lenogtt . the report, he-conceived it must have bcenvery difficultfor'the erlembers of the court to catch the leading points, and he would therefire very briefly re-state them. In the firstplacethe committee had fo pned, an opinion that the present number of coal-meters was fily ade_ quate to the dischlarge ofall ships laden with coal which arrivtjE ir. the port of London, as a proof of which it appeared that in the last vear the meters had measured l00,O00l crAaldlrons more than at anyformer period. Since the. appoinutmen4 of' the committee, the meters' list contained the naimes of the ships wriiting to be discharged, but attbe present momnent there was actually a coD- siderable nunber of meters asiting for. employment. It. wass also important that it should be 1mown, that the present price, so far from bedng excessive, as comnpared with that of former periods, v.ts really. redutced in the proportion of 25 per cent. belowv the w ar pric es. Thte c ommittce felt-bound in honeaur to state that there had hit en a re- duction to that extent, lt ought also to be stated, that di iring the- last two years -the coal.merchants had reduced their - chrges on coals in the POQI from 12s. to lOs. As ithad hasppened, I iowever, that this circumst-ance had been kent quite secret, noX person hlaving felt the benefit of. it within lila own famil, tli e coinm- mittee thought it right that it should not -be alowedi to re- raism any longer unknown, but that the public at largl might derive advantagefrom it, Another important fac t had comn ieto the knowledge of the committee, and had been alluded to in td Weir re- portn.amely, that one of the Gas Companies had suiferi d theirr stock of coals to be so exhausted, that a considerable dlistrict of Ljondon must halve beea left- in total darkness if: j coal- merchant, on the spur of the moment, bad- not been ;>ble to supply them with alarge qusantity ofecoals. It was tobe hoj ed-that the Gass Companies would be less inegligent in future, forinl iondon, -in which; asin all large cities, a great number of bad ch; Iracters congregated, the -consequences which would result from a dept avation of light at night would be moKst inconvenient. He felt -it hi b duty to :;sate, that the ship-owners, factors, and merchants b who attended the committee, gave every kind of information 'which was required, and that he believed them to bc as honcurablc nt body of men as was connected with any trade whatever. The wor chy de- puty then moved that the report be printed, and that a c ppy be -given to every member of the Court. (Hlear.)T Mr. Huxcomsne seconded thd motion. Ele said, that :Ie in- tended toseserve his observatiobs on the question until the rort should lbe printed. H{e would content himself at present witbh draw- ing the attention of the Court to the fact that dhg en cha ged a guinea for the deliveryof any quantity of cuals, hohever cagelL lie thought that the practice w one which required correticd m. Mir. Alderman W oOD sold, that he knew the subject to ,whlcht the report referred would-be discussed in Parliamtent shore y after the commencement of the sesision, and he hoped for the hotl tour of the Corvoraaon, that before that eo evrhin that con 1d pots sitlybfdone to reuce te pricexofooa would be efrcbted. ti vithstandin the conclusion to which the Committee had i one, it appeared tohim to be absolutely necessary that there shou Id be a greater number of meters than at present. luring his myoepidltyh a geat many Complaints were cnstantlg being made to him '_of tbe want of meters, an-ahe had no doubg that hnisLordship, if he had been requested ro attend the Committee, could have stated t tbat the same circumstancei had occurred to hiren. Under these i rcum stances, he felit to be his d,ty to move as an amendreb atn that the following words be annexed to the originalpiotion :_" at Id that, in the mean time, the Coal Committee be directed tofippoint 1i2 ad- ditional meeters." The Loan MAYGE, in reference to wh'athad fallen from the last spaker, observed that lhe certainl was rather surprised that a ie had nrot been called befre the committee: if he bad, he 'ould have been able to communics sovate s tion respecting certi iin im- proper p rractices which existeLd i r. Rourar seconded the amendment. the observedj tha'l it had been stated by some witnesses who were examined before th ' co- mittee, that ships hal frequently to wait in the river 12 dayt before tiey were Wtcharged. Now 'he knew that the ships tb Wts de- thained must incur an expense of 41 or th aday, which would create an additional charge of about five shillings a chatdroI to the consumer. Mlr. JAMJ;S thought that thc Court ought to take no step on the subject until the report was printed. b te last Mr.w Dixog concurred in the op2iion expresned- by tpe,it speaker. DIlr. -SoustHOATE said a few words in explanation, afteti which a dnvision took place. The numbers w ere_ For the amendment, -Aldermen, 41 Common C ouncilmen, 62c1 Tellers, 2 . I 68 Against it. Aildern3en, 61| Common Councilmen, 1221 TelUers2 . .130 Msajority against the amendment, b t2. th Mfr. Rou T r presented a re ortfrmma committee to whom it had heen referred to rbquire into dtoe nature, duties, 0ad emolum`ns of the office of prmncipal landt seaCac l meters. He moved that f re- port be agreed to. - Tihr. DLxo objected to that part of the report which recom tnend- -ed that the saary ofithe two prmdnlpalmeters should be 350at hyear each. Hlemoved, asan amesidisent, that th'e salary of the senior meter should be 4001., and of the other 300I. I The amendmnent was carreed by a show of hands. - ~~~TrlitE5SIN LONDON. rr. IIusucoMsg said, that he hded in his hand a report erom the T?itheCommittee,which hadbeendrawn urin consequenceof *sn appli. eatio'n which had beea malde tothem by apersoniiamedPurrie5sfor theN assistance of thlelegalofficers of the tCorporation1 in a cause -between him and the lay innpropriator of tithes in the rivsh of St. Ieen, re- spectg a claim for tithes, at therate of 2s. thd. in the pousnd. -s e (Mr. liurcobinbe) was exttemely sorry'to find that any c1ers'i,y or la y inpropriator should again put forth a caim to tiheis at the hlgh ate referred. He had houth that thequestion woulgnot ltavn been agitated agatn. He moved that the report be read.pntd Tihe report scatedr" That an application havine been m:de to the committee by UGlr.AJobn Vincent Puwier, of S'a2nt aelen,a-place, a citizen of London, for the old and assistance of certain oltcers of the Corporation, in a cause between him - and the lay 2mp rp6rator o tlerishof St_ Cmalen, in thecity ot Tondps -2ec ngb1e0ain or'tithe2i at. the rate of 2s.. gd. in the- pound, which cau..% ws speadily to beu etrd before-phis ronour- teo-ViteetChancelor -and tbe conreftee having considered the n aid ap,d plicationd anld ium tntf- - atedthe eircumstancea attending the same, and feeling tha t it would generally assist the qutcstion relating to tithes as reagard 2 the several amrishes net included inChe Fire Act, and acting up tet the intent qithe Court of Commo2n Councili mthe- ppoimtments.*' comittee, they -had commlied with the said applcation of Abr. 0-y_r rier, for the asaistpce of the Recorder, Commhon Sergeynth e'eio Clerk, and:Sohcttor, subject to the approhntei of P,Xhe Uonrtd abd had given to the Solictor instuct ions achord artJy.' om- - Tihe Court unnimously agreed with -ithe. Committee in ihc ateps-they had taken, and referred it back to themn to sueperintend the samne. - i -S.'oxerl