for the metage of such goods, which is part only of a general monopoly of the porterage for hire of all articles throughout the City. This monopoly, which is confined to the corporate limits, and is of importance chiefly at the port and in the City markets, does not seem to us to possess those advantages for which its advocates contend, notwithstanding that, by this system, it is probable that the general character of the porters is raised. It is plain that the price of labour must be enhanced by it, since out of the profits of that labour, which otherwise would go only to maintain the labourers themselves, several officers are remunerated with considerable salaries, besides the pensions and gratuities which are conferred on decayed members of the fraternity. The quarterage paid by the parties may perhaps be considered as in the nature of a contribution to a benefit society, with these important differences, that the contribution is compulsory, and the return uncertain and eleemosynary. Free subscriptions among any class of men, to secure corresponding benefits in sickness and old age, are known to be beneficial; but, under the plan of the fellowships of porters, it seems almost a necessary consequence, that an equivalent for the quarterage must be expected from an artificial increase in the wages of labour; and we see no peculiarity in the trade of a porter which should make it reasonable that a monopoly should be sustained in it for such purposes. One circumstance, insisted upon as an advantage, is the liability of the fellowship to make good any losses occasioned by the porters' misconduct. A company of porters, or of any other class of labourers, under regulation, and for whose conduct a responsible body becomes surety, may perhaps be advantageous to the public; but the benefit can be put beyond dispute, only by its obtaining employment when in free competition with others not so regulated. The same remarks apply with rather more force to the carmen.

IRISH SOCIETY.

The Irish Society is a committee of the common council which superintends what are called the undivided estates of the London companies in the province of Ulster, in Ireland. We believe that the Irish estates under their charge, and also under that of the several companies, are managed with great liberality and benefit to their tenants. Besides this superintendence, which is merely proprietary, the society exercises an important and anomalous control over the municipal authorities of Londonderry and Coleraine. Every bye-law made in these towns must be sent to London for approval by this committee of the common council there.

We do not know of any pretext of argument for continuing this municipal supremacy of the Irish Society. The commissioners declined to receive evidence of the manner in which it is exercised, conceiving that they could not do so completely without an examination of the particular state of the corporations of those Irish towns which seemed beyond the scope of the commission. But a control of this kind, maintained at the present day by the municipality of one town in England over another in Ireland, appears to us so indefensible in principle, that our opinion would not have been changed, even if it had been found (which we have no reason to doubt) that hitherto it has been conducted with discretion and forbearance.

PROPERTY.

The ordinary income of the corporation of London, calculated chiefly on an average of three years ending with 1832, was, in round numbers, 148,0007.; the average annual expenditure during the same period, was about 133,0007., leaving a surplus of nearly 15,000l. This surplus will be reduced by more than 7000l. per annum, which, in the accounts furnished to us, is stated to be in consequence of the arrangement made with your Majesty's Government in the purchase of the package, scavage, and portage duties, which were certain dues levied on the imports and exports of foreign merchants. We are not, however, satisfied that the corporation has made a real sacrifice of any thing approaching to that amount, because we think it is evident, from an examination of the produce of those duties for twenty years previous to the redemption of them by your Majesty's Government, that the amount at which they were estimated would not have been recoverable, except in anticipation of that bargain, the basis of which was the amount received on account of the five years preceding the purchase.

The chamberlain continues to carry out in the accounts, by way of memorandum, the principal and interest of a debt of 20,0007. due from the trustees of Sir Thomas Gresham's will since 1708, and amounting, at the time of our inquiry, to 145,0007. The repayment of this sum seems to be treated as nearly hopeless.

The landed estates belonging to the corporation, which are mostly freehold, are situated chiefly in the neighbourhood of Broad-street, New Broad-street, Broadstreet Fields, Fenchurch-street, Aldgate, and the Minories. The corporation also

possesses five-sixths of a considerable leasehold estate under the Chapter of St. Paul's, which it has held since 1315, or perhaps an earlier date. The existing lease expires in 1867, in which year the whole of this property will lapse to the church. The net produce of the City's share, arising principally from ground-rents, exceeds 75007. per annum, and it is probable that the rack rental cannot fall short of 50,000l. or 60,0007. on the termination of the subsisting leases. They have also a large estate in the parish of St. George's, Hanover-square, mostly let upon renewable leases.

The details of the receipt and expenditure of the corporation are given in the particular report.

The corporation has the management of large estates, distinct from the corporate property, for the maintenance and repair of London Bridge, which have been recently made liable to the repairs of Blackfriars Bridge also. The average income of the Bridge-house estates, calculated as the corporate property was, appears to exceed 31,0007.; the average annual ordinary expenditure is only 70007., leaving a surplus of 24,0007., applicable to the redemption of money lent on the security of the estates for rebuilding London Bridge, and to the repairs of Blackfriars Bridge. An account is also kept in the chamber of London of a fund, formerly called the Orphans' Fund, which consisted originally of the sum of 750,000l., deposited with the court of aldermen in its character of court of orphans, and of which they, and those who were beneficially interested therein, were originally deprived by the shutting of the Exchequer in the reign of Charles II. As this transaction was in

the nature of a national act of bankruptcy, it should seem that the nation at large were bound to make good the loss. It has been made good, however, chiefly by a charge on the real estates of the corporation, and by an exclusive tax laid on all the inhabitants of the metropolis for all coals and wine imported into London. The original debt was extinguished in 1820, and the question is so far simplified; but it seems obvious to us that every part of the metropolis is entitled to share, in the same proportion in which it may be supposed to contribute to the tax, in the benefit of the public improvements which of late years have been charged upon it. The Mercers' Company received 30007. per annum of it for thirty-five years, for which no consideration was stated before us. The alteration of the title of this fund to its new name of "London Bridge Approaches' Fund" sufficiently indicates its destination for many years.

Many other accounts established under various Acts of Parliament are under the charge of the Chamberlain of London, in which the corporation has no corporate interest. Abstracts of these are laid annually before Parliament.

SOUTHWARK.

It was unquestionably intended, by the charter of Edward VI., that the borough of Southwark should be incorporated, for all municipal purposes, with the city of London. This intention has never been fully carried into effect; and the privileges of citizens of London, and in particular the right of electing aldermen and common councilmen, have not been possessed by the inhabitants of Southwark, except for a few years, soon after the charter was granted. Whether it has hitherto been a serious grievance to them that the intentions of the charter should not have been complied with, or whether, upon the whole, it would have been advantageous to them to participate fully in the municipal privileges of London, at the expense of bearing the full proportion of municipal burthens and imposts under the existing constitution of the City, are questions upon which we entertain considerable doubt. We cannot understand why the corporation of London should have declined to make Southwark effectually a part of the City, if they had possessed the means of so doing, and if the great body of the inhabitants had really desired it. By incorporating this large population with the City, the corporation would have increased their own power, revenue, and patronage; and there does not appear, in modern times, to have subsisted any jealousy between the respective inhabitants of London and Southwark, which would have rendered the union an unpopular measure. The great impediments, we apprehend, have always been the question of enforcing the freedom of the City, upon the possession of which by far the greatest part of the customary privileges of the citizens are founded, and the impracticability, without an Act of Parliament, of extending strictly local customs beyond the district in which they have been legalized by immemorial usage.

The remarks which we have suggested at the commencement of this report, respecting the extension of municipal advantages to the whole metropolitan district, would, of course, include the Borough of Southwark in their application.

COMPANIES.

The companies, which are sixty-nine in number, as has been already stated, are to be considered in a two-fold capacity; first, as connected with the corporation of

London, by conferring municipal rights and furnishing the supply of freemen and liverymen in whom the elective and other franchises are vested; and, secondly, as bodies constituted for the government of the concerns of peculiar classes of citizens, and for other purposes not appertaining to the municipal community at large. No company, except the carmen, is now exclusively composed of persons belonging to the trade from which the company takes its name; and in few of them is the majority so composed. The Apothecaries form the chief exception.

As far as concerns the supply of freemen by and through the companies, the common council, when the commissioners were engaged in their inquiry, were understood to contemplate allowing parties to come in as redemptioners, without previously taking up their freedom in a company; but this change would not affect the rights of parties claiming by patrimony or servitude; and the elective functions of the livery, given by the statute of 11 Geo. I., can, of course, be altered only by legislative authority. Unless such alteration be made, redemptioners cannot acquire the right of voting in common hall without resorting to a company to obtain their franchise.

With respect to the reason for rendering the livery an element in the franchise, the object appears to have been the establishment of something in the nature of a property qualification. An order of the court of aldermen, of the 27th July, 1697, that no person should be allowed to take upon himself the clothing of any of the twelve companies unless he have an estate of 10007., of the inferior companies unless he have an estate of 500l., is decisive as to this point; and the whole tenor of the institution shows that it was intended to designate a superior and leading order of citizens.

The livery is obtained, so far as pecuniary payments are concerned, upon unequal terms; but, upon payment of the required sum, it is fairly accessible to every freeman in the great majority of companies. The principal exceptions are the Apothecaries, who adhere to their limited numbers; the Clothworkers, in which the access to the livery is guarded with a certain degree of jealousy; and the Stationers, where a renunciation of participation in the trading stock of the company is required. Of the rejection of a candidate for the livery, only two instances are found; viz., in the cases of the Clothworkers and Butchers: neither instance occurred at a recent period. In form, the grant is discretionary, but in effect it is yielded to most applicants without discussion. For, whatever may be the disposition of the larger companies, it is evident that in the smaller companies, by whom the great bulk of the liverymen is supplied, no qualification whatever is required, provided the party pays his fine, and that they look to the livery merely as a source of revenue, and do not insist on any test of the fitness of the party. Much is said in every company about the necessity of respectability, and that no person of bad character would be admitted; but, after this saving clause, the statements, with a few most scanty exceptions, agree by acknowledging that no refusal of an applicant is recollected. This question, therefore, with respect to the utility of the livery as a civic qualification, is reduced to the inquiry whether it be expedient to annex a money price to a municipal franchise. Constituted as the livery now appears to be, the only argument which could be raised in its favour is, that this condition may raise the standard of the voter, being indirectly a property qualification, inasmuch as he must at least be in a situation to spare a sum not or 201. But, if such a qualifica

tion be thought desirable, it could bd by more direct means and

we can therefore see no disadvantage in severing the guild franchise and the municipal franchise, and in permitting all the privileges of the City to be obtained independently of the companies.

The practice prevailing in the Drapers', Fishmongers', and other companies, of granting allowances or pensions to decayed members of the court, is liable to very great objections: however remote or contingent such an allowance or pension may be, a pecuniary interest and value are thus annexed to a seat in the court, which never ought to be attached to the character of a trustee.

Considered as distinct or special communities, the companies were probably, in their original conformation, not so much trading societies, as trade societies, instituted for the purpose of protecting the consumer or the employer against the incompetency or fraud of the dealer or the artisan; and equally with the intent of securing a maintenance to the workman trained to the art, according to the notions of early times, by preventing his being undersold in a labour-market filled by an unlimited number of competitors. Furthermore, the companies acted as domestic tribunals, adjudicating or rather arbitrating between master and man, and settling disputes; thus diminishing hostile litigation, and promoting amity and good-will. They were also in the nature of benefit societies, from which the workman, in return for the contributions which he had made, when in health and vigour, to the VOL. I.-NO. I.

D

common stock of the guild, might be relieved in sickness, or when disabled by the infirmities of age. This character speedily attracted donations for other charitable purposes from benevolent persons who could not find any better trustees than the ruling members of these communities; and hence arose the numerous charitable. gifts and foundations now entrusted to their care.

They also possessed the character of modern clubs. They were institutions in which individuals of the same class and their families assembled in social intercourse. So important was this object deemed, that several of the companies now actually hold their banquets under their royal charters. The annual feasts of the Skinners, Haberdashers, Clothworkers, &c., for instance, are legal and corporate franchises.

Such were the original attributes of these societies, of which the first, their power as trade societies, is now almost extinct; for, at the present day, very few, comparatively, exercise any substantial control over their proper art or mystery, or retain more than a nominal connexion with it. Those which are in anywise connected with a trade may be divided into three classes:

I. Companies still exercising an efficient control over their trade or mystery.

II Companies exercising the power of searching for defective wares, or proving or marking the article, or executing any legislative enact→ ment bearing some relation to their original objects, by virtue of powers which have been superinduced upon the company by

Statute.

III. Companies into which individuals carrying on certain occupations in the City are compelled to enter themselves as members.

I. In the first class we can find only two, the Goldsmiths and the Apothecaries, With respect to the manner in which the Goldsmiths exercise their functions, we have no evidence.

The Apothecaries, as far as we are able to judge, execute their trust with great vigilance and activity; but they are enabled to do so only by means of the powers conferred by Statute, by which a new body has been engrafted upon the original community.

II. In the second class are the following:-The Apothecaries, as above. The Stationers perform important duties under the Copyright Act, and, as alleged, at some disadvantage to themselves. The Gunmakers, having recently received a confirmation of their powers, may be considered as having satisfied the Legislature that they have been found qualified to perform the functions assigned to them; though, to enable them to act with efficiency, further powers would be required. But the marking of weights by the Founders, the powers of search exercised by the Saddlers, the trade price list issued by the Painters, the assays made by the Pewterers and Plumbers, though insisted upon in the evidence given by the companies, cannot be practically of any real importance in the present state of trade in the metropolis.

III. The third class comprehends the following companies:- Apothecaries, Brewers, Pewterers, Butchers, Barbers, Bakers, Saddlers, Painters, Stainers, Plumbers, Innholders, Founders, Poulterers, Cooks, Weavers, Scriveners, Farriers, Spectacle-makers, Clock-makers, Silk-throwers, Distillers, Tobacco Pipe-makers, and Carmen. With respect to these, the advantages resulting to the members, if any there be, must be confined to such as may be derived from the opportunities, afforded to the more substantial classes, of occasionally being brought into contact with each other at the meeting of the companies. Advantages to the community at large, there are none; and the disadvantage to those who are compelled to come into the companies, on account of their exclusive privileges, is measured by theextent of the fine paid upon admission.

It may not be irrelevant to remark, that several of the rules in the bye-laws of the companies, as, for instance, the limitation of the number of apprentices, are entirely analogous to those which workmen often attempt to force upon their employers by means of their Trade Unions. Whether these practices are more or less mischievous when sanctioned by charters conferring legal incorporation, or when insisted on by unauthorised associations, is a question not unworthy of the attention of the Legislature; but it is evident that, in the present enlarged state of the metropolis, any powers which are confined to the City and liberties, must, from that circumstance alone, be inefficacious, and that no exertions on the part of the companies, under the imperfect powers granted by their charters, could have enabled them to retain whatever utility they may be supposed to have formerly possessed.

Qualified, therefore, only in particular instances by the greater or lesser extent of

the duties exercised by the first and second classes (for those of the third class are absolutely null), the only useful functions which remain to the companies, and more particularly to the larger and more opulent of these bodies, are the management of the charities which are vested in them as specific trusts, and the dispensation of the voluntary benevolences which issue from their own funds.

The ruling bodies are in effect mere trustees for charitable purposes or chartered festivals: the freemen and liverymen or commonalty are persons entitled to participate in these charities, to partake of the feasts of the company, and qualified to be promoted to the office of trustees; and in this light alone are the different orders of the companies to be viewed.

In form, the governing bodies are the rulers of the commonalty; but this is a mere shadow, and the only authority which they really exercise with respect to the commonalty, except as above, consists in their ministerial duties appertaining to the admissions of the members. The analogy which, when the companies were really trade societies, existed between them and Municipal Corporations, is, by the change of circumstances, wholly destroyed. There is no connexion between the governors and governed, because there is no matter out of which such a connexion can arise; and the responsibility of the governing bodies is not as towards the commonalty of their companies, who are now no longer governed by them, and render to them no obedience, but as towards the law, for the due execution of their trusts.

The conduct of the ruling bodies, in their capacity of charitable trustees, has not been made a subject of inquiry by us, but has been reported on by the Commissioners of Public Charities.

All which we humbly submit to your Majesty's consideration.

JOHN BLACKBURNE.
FRANCIS PALGRAVE.
D. JARDINE.

(L.S.)

(L.S.)

(L.S.)

METROPOLITAN POLICE FORCE.-The total expense of the Metropolitan Police in 1836, was, 216,3137. 15s. 5d.; of this sum 194,379. 5s. 5d. were expended on the active force of the establishment as follows:

SALARIES,

Receiver

Clerks, three in Commissioners' office.

three in Receivers' office

Superintendents, 2007. per annum each (deducting

1837. 12s. 8d. for stoppage for lodging)

£ s. d. per week each, (deducting
55347. 7s. 10d. for lodg-

Inspectors 1 18 6

Sergeants 1 2 6

Constables 0 19 0

ing; 15007. 7s. for sickness;

2977. 10s. for fines)...... 166,935 15 2

23,549 18 4

Dress for police sergeants and constables, including hats, boots, stocks, armlets, &c. &c. The rest of the expenditure took place under the following heads: Police premises, coals, superintendents contingencies, rewards and gratuities, messengers and servants, law charges, printing and stationery, extra allowance, lamps and gas lights, medical attendance, stamps, stable expenditure, funeral charges, incidental charges, extra pay duty.

BEER HOUSES.-The number of houses in England and Wales licensed under 1 Will. IV. c. 64, and 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 85, to sell beer, cider and perry by retail, in 1836, was as follows:-' -To be consumed on the premises, 39,100; not to be consumed on the premises, 5030; to sell cider and perry only, 1608; total, 45,738.