The Corporation of London, Its Rights and Privileges

by William Ferneley Allen

Conservancy of the Thames.

To the disciples of the modern doctrine that ancient charters were given only to be abolished, and parliamentary statutes enacted only to be repealed, it is idle to state that the first charter of James I. acknowledged that the conservation of the water of the Thames had been held time out of mind by the mayor and commonalty. Those, however, who still reverence the ancient landmarks, and regard with respect the honest feelings and manly wisdom of their ancestors, will not treat so lightly claims derived from immemorial usage and prescriptive right. >From time, then, "whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," the conservancy of the Thames has been one of the duties and privileges of the mayoralty of the City of London. The jurisdiction of the Thames conservator extends from Staines Bridge to Yendall or Yenleet, and from Colemouth Creek to Cockham Wood in the Medway, including every bank, shore, and wharf within those limits. The duties of the office are to remove all wears and other obstructions, to prevent the construction of piers or wharfs calculated to impede the navigation of the river, to protect the fisheries, and generally to take care that neither the channel nor the banks suffer injury through the malice or heedlessness of individuals, or from accidental causes. This department of the corporate administration is at present intrusted to the Navigation Committee, annually selected from the Court of Common Council, who make periodical excursions on the river, and judge with their own eyes as to what is desirable to be done or avoided. No doubt these functions could be discharged by a government officer, the friend or relative of a man of parliamentary influence, and equally without doubt this consideration is likely to carry more weight in the House of Commons than any claims derived from immemorial usage and centuries of beneficial operation.

The Metage Dues.

The same charter of James I. which confirmed the ancient right of the mayor and commonalty of London to the conservation of the water of the Thames, declares that the citizens are equally, and on the same grounds, entitled to exercise the office of measuring all coals, cereals, fruits, vegetables, salt, and other merchandise sold by measure, brought to the port of London. In the beginning, this privilege arose out of the necessity of ascertaining the exact quantity of these articles actually imported into the City, in order fairly to collect the king's customs. It has since been found mutually beneficial to all parties that all measurable goods should be meted out by sworn meters, carefully selected for their responsible duties, and over whom is maintained a constant and jealous supervision. The Court of Common Council appoint ten "corn-meters in trust," who are placed over 150 deputy meters, chosen by the Corn and Coal and Finance Committee, and sworn in the Lord Mayor's Court to do their duty without fear or favour. There are also a few other officers connected with this very important branch of the civic regulations as to trade, to whom, however, it is unnecessary further to allude than as an illustration of the useful and practical precautions adopted by the Corporation to secure strict fairness of dealing between buyer and seller. The fruit-meters are four in number, who appoint their own deputies, and are equally bound to impartiality. There are likewise twenty-one deputy oyster-meters, one salt-meter and several deputies, and a fruit-shifter and a salt-shifter. It is now proposed to deprive the Corporation of the funds realized by these metage dues. The principle of free trade is to be carried out to an extent that will exclude honesty as an essential ingredient in commercial transactions. Everything, we are told, finds its own level. Every man is the best guardian of his own interests. Neither seller nor buyer will submit to be wronged by the other. It is contrary to the modern system of trade to interfere between dealers and purchasers; they are quite competent to take care of themselves, and are quite ready to dispense with the intervention of a third party. Besides, there is no necessity to do away with sworn meters, payable by the job according to a fixed scale. The only alteration that is required is the confiscation of the right of the Corporation to derive any profit from their labours. This doctrine of confiscation is a convenient one, but it is somewhat inconsistent with the outcry that has so recently been raised because Lord Canning was supposed to have confiscated the rights of certain farmers of the revenue in India; for that is the exact position of a talookdar. Now the Corporation farms, and has from time out of mind farmed, the revenue arising from these various sources. The sovereign is the seignior of the City, and therefore entitled in the first instance to all customs, duties, revenues, and imposts levied within its precincts. But on various grounds, and by various means,—such as petition, purchase, composition, and extraordinary services—the citizens of London have at various times obtained the remission or enjoyment of these different sources of income. The metage dues are therefore as much their property as an hereditary estate is that of its acknowledged proprietor. Their title to these dues is of considerably longer standing than that of his Grace the Duke of Bedford to Woburn Abbey, and those of so many lay impropriators of church property. If royal charters and Acts of Parliament are of no greater value than waste paper, there is of course nothing more to be said on the subject. There is nothing, then, to oppose as a barrier to any act of spoliation. Blackstone, indeed, says that Parliament is omnipotent to bind or to loose, and competent to annul charters and to repeal its own statutes. It is certainly no new thing for Parliament to stultify itself, but it is also certain that the Legislature will better consult its reputation by occasionally repressing its eagerness to cancel the proceedings of its predecessors, and by abstaining from too frequent indulgence in acts of confiscation.

The coal duties, however, demand a fuller consideration than any other department of City finance. The first charter of Richard II. confirmed to the Corporation of London "the custody" of the persons and property of all orphans. According to ancient custom, the citizens could dispose by will of only one-third of their personal estate, the remaining two-thirds being paid into the Court of Orphans in trust for their children. A very large sum of money was at times thus invested, to the no small advantage of all parties concerned in the arrangement. But in the seventeenth century the Corporation became involved in debt to this fund, and to private individuals, to the extent of three-quarters of a million sterling. This state of bankruptcy was by no means the result of imprudence or ostentatious extravagance. During the Rebellion the City had been despoiled by both parties under various pretexts. After the Restoration the great fire consumed a vast amount of city property and necessitated a ruinous outlay in the reconstruction of entire streets. To this was added the shutting up of the Exchequer by Charles II., and the seizure of the charter when the City refused any longer to provide the means for his selfish and disgraceful prodigality. A better era, however, was inaugurated by the accession of William and Mary, in the fifth and sixth of whose reign an Act was passed for raising what was called an "Orphans' Fund." The estates of the Corporation were charged with the annual payment of 8,000 pounds towards the liquidation of their debt, and for the same purpose a duty of 2,000 pounds a year on the personal property of the citizens was paid till 1795. To meet these heavy charges a duty of fourpence per chaldron was levied on coals and culm imported into London, and also an additional duty of sixpence per chaldron for fifty years. By this means the debt of 750,000 pounds was finally discharged in 1782, but another debt had been contracted by the Corporation being called upon to contribute to public improvements beyond the just limits of their jurisdiction. By the year 1823 no less a sum than 846,300 pounds had been expended in this manner out of the Orphans' Fund, and in the l0th of George IV. a further sum of 1,000,000 pounds was charged upon the fund to defray the expenses for improving the approaches to London Bridge. Under William IV., however, the coal duties were fixed at one shilling per ton in lieu of metage, and an additional one penny per ton was allowed for the expenses of the market. This statute extends to a circle measured by a radius of twenty miles from the General Post-office, and up to the present time has been productive of much good to the general interests of the entire metropolis. A duty upon coals is naturally unpopular, and it would be difficult to devise one that was otherwise. It is always easy to raise a popular clamour against taxes that press upon matters of first necessity, but in what other way is the public exchequer to be replenished? It will not suffice to tax objects of luxury alone, and with regard to the coal duty it is very improbable that the poor would benefit in the slightest degree by its repeal. The utmost reduction in the price of coals that could be expected, would be a little more than a halfpenny per hundredweight, and this difference is far more likely to find its way into the pocket of the vender than into that of the needy purchaser. There is, moreover, another trifling consideration to be taken into account before the abolition of these duties be decided upon. Relying on the respect usually paid to property in this country, and confiding in the good faith of the House of Commons, the Corporation have mortgaged these duties in order to raise a very large sum of money. It was not for any purposes of civic ostentation, or indeed for any purely civic object, that they were induced to incur this heavy obligation. Cannon Street, the Model Prison at Holloway, the admirable improvements and enlargements of the Gaol of Newgate, attest the disinterested application of the funds thus obtained. But how is faith to be kept with their creditors, if their property be snatched from their hands, and with it all means of making repayment? If the Legislature deem it just and expedient to deprive the Corporation of one of their chief sources of revenue, they are bound to release them from all obligations incurred through the possession of those sources. It is not disputed that the Corporation were justified in raising money upon these securities. If, therefore, the securities be arbitrarily confiscated by Parliament, it is to Parliament alone that the holders of those securities must look for redress. But whence are funds to be obtained for future improvements? It would be well if the "faithful Commons" would take the trouble to find a satisfactory answer to this obvious inquiry before they finally decide on ruining the City of London.

PART II.

THE CIVIC REFORM BILL.

The Commission of Inquiry—The New Wards—Aldermen and Common
Councilmen—City Expenditure—City Receipts and Removal of
Restrictions.

The Commission of Inquiry.

In the year 1834 a commission was appointed "to inquire into the existing state of the municipal corporations, and to collect information respecting their defects." These commissioners applied themselves to the discharge of their somewhat invidious duties with both earnestness and impartiality, and in their Report, published in 1837, acknowledged the superior excellence of the London Corporation as compared with other corporate bodies. They readily admitted that the Common Council possessed the necessary powers to effect whatever reforms might have become necessary through the lapse of time. They also bore witness that the Corporation had already of itself corrected much that was amiss in its constitution, and that its history furnished "honourable testimonials to the vigilance, good sense, and justice of its legislative body." On these grounds the Imperial Legislature expressly exempted the City of London from the action of the Municipal Corporations Act, and left it in the undisputed enjoyment of its ancient franchises—which, moreover, are declared by 2 William & Mary not to be liable to confiscation. A period of twenty years then passed away without any cause of complaint having occurred to justify the interference of Government, until some disputes arose on the subject of the City markets, and the conservancy of the Thames. Sir George Grey at once availed himself of this pretext to appoint a commission to investigate "the existing state of the Corporation of the City of London, and to collect information respecting its constitution, order, and government." These commissioners, unlike their predecessors, exhibited from the commencement of their proceedings a strong bias and feeling of hostility against the Corporation. The witnesses they called before them were, with scarcely an exception, the avowed enemies of the existing state of things, and prepared to convert trifling blemishes into radical and monstrous defects. And yet even these did not agree among themselves, or assign any sound reasons to render compulsory innovations expedient or justifiable. The general tenor of their evidence, indeed, was actually in favour of the Corporation, when due allowance is made for the spirit by which they were actuated. Nevertheless, it was upon the report of this one-sided and unconstitutional commission that the late ministry founded their Bill for "the better Regulation of the Corporation of the City of London." They had arrived at a foregone conclusion, and asked for only the shadow of an excuse to mask their preconcerted designs against the chief and last stronghold of self-government. The fate of the Corporation was clearly doomed from the hour the House of Commons sanctioned the appointment of a prejudiced and illegal tribunal.