On the 23d of January, 1800, John Herring, Esq. then Mayor, summoned a General Meeting of the Inhabitants, at the Guildhall, to consider of the propriety of applying to Parliament for an Act for the better paving, cleaning, lighting, and watching of the city; for removing and preventing annoyances and obstructions, and for regulating hackney coaches.
At this meeting, a committee of twenty-one gentlemen was appointed to consider of the plan proposed by the Mayor, and to make a report, to a future general meeting, of the result of its opinion.
This committee had several meetings, in which it very minutely investigated the subject submitted to its consideration: it employed proper persons to estimate the expence of paving a particular district, and stationed men at fourteen entrances into the city, to ascertain the actual number of carriages, horses, &c. of every description, which passed and repassed during a week, that a fair calculation might be made of the expence to be incurred, and of the funds to meet it.
The result of the labours of this committee was laid before a general meeting of Inhabitants, on the 3d of March following, in a report, which stated the expediency of applying for an Act for the following purposes:
I. To empower a Deputy Mayor to be appointed in certain cases.
II. To empower the Mayor, or the Deputy Mayor, with one Justice, to adjourn the Sessions in the absence of the Recorder and Steward.
III. To better regulate the watch.
IV. To better light the city.
V. To better regulate the sweeping and cleansing of the city.
| £ | ||
| The present expence | ||
| of lighting | 632 | |
| of watching | 550 | |
| of sweeping | 700 | |
| 1882 | ||
| The future expence, under the new regulations proposed by the committee, | ||
| Lighting | 840 | |
| Watching | 730 | 1770 |
| Sweeping | 200 | |
| would amount to a saving of | 112 |