London Institution

“ Proud of their position as the chosen delegates and representatives of their fellow-citizens, among whom they and their fathers have lived for generations, the City potentates have, of their abundance, contributed lavishly and without stint to every local institution deserving of sympathy and support. And not only these, but the livery companies likewise have given lordly amounts to charitable establishments both within and without the City liberties, and have founded schools in many distant parts of the kingdom. ”

“ Of the charitable donations and subscriptions of the Corporation it is needless to speak, for their fame has gone forth throughout the world. The City of London School was built at a cost of 20,000 pounds, and year by year receives substantial support and encouragement. The education and maintenance of a hundred orphan children are provided for at another establishment; nor is there any charitable institution worthy of support that is not assisted with ungrudging liberality. ”

“ Thus we have those who have concentrated their efforts to evolving out of the remote past the municipal organization of the City. Their task has been to unfold the origin and institution of the Mayoralty and Shrievalty of London, the division of the City into wards with Aldermen at their head, the development of the various trade and craft guilds, and the respective powers and duties of the Courts of Aldermen and Common Council, and of the Livery of London assembled in their Common Hall. ”

“ No great work is done and no enterprise attempted but the fact is known to some one in London. In spite of the great growth and wealth of America, the industry and success of Germany, the thrift and saving of France, the financial center of the world is in London, and other bourses and boards of trade follow the lead or are in fact only branches of the English concern. Every active financial institution in the United States or elsewhere has its London connection [240] through which it draws when it engages in international business or when it goes out of the local sphere of influence. ”

“ Our own law does not, indeed, so deal with the matter. The person known to the law of England as the University of London is not the institution that goes by that name, but a personified and incorporated aggregate of human beings, namely the chancellor, vice-chancellor, fellows, and graduates. It is well to remember, however, that notwithstanding this tradition and practice of English law, fictitious personality is not limited by any logical necessity, or, indeed, by any obvious requirement of expediency, to the incorporation of bodies of individual persons. ”

“ But, on the general central meetings of Presidents and Committee in London, would devolve the primary measures for the permanent establishment of the Institution; the general system of finance, the formation of rules and regulations, and the plans for giving activity and effect to the whole. ”

“ In 1854 he lectured at the Royal Institution, London, on economic science. He was appointed in 1858 an assistant commissioner of inquiry into primary education, and removed to London. He was examiner in political economy to the London University from 1863 to 1868, and was placed on the council of University College, Gower Street. ”

“ At the British Institution there is a spring exhibition of modern pictures, and a summer exhibition of ancient. The price of admission to such places is almost invariably One Shilling. Other exhibitions, pertaining more to entertainment than to fine arts, are briefly noticed in a later section.
COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES.
London, as may well be imagined, is largely supplied with institutions tending to the proper care of the young, the aged, the sick, and the impoverished. A few of the more important among them are worthy of the attention of strangers. ”

“ It has survived where weaklings died like flies. And yet these things which I am relating happened to my body and to me. I am a fact. My drinking is a fact. My drinking is a thing that has happened, and is no theory nor speculation; and, as I see it, it but lays the emphasis on the power of John Barleycorn—a savagery that we still permit to exist, a deadly institution that lingers from the mad old brutal days and that takes its heavy toll of youth and strength, and high spirit, and of very much of all of the best we breed. ”

“ Intelligence, wealth, enterprise, industry, commercial reputation, and ancient rights are to be regarded as of little value when compared with the register of births and marriages. So, the City of London is to be divided into sixteen wards, that it may learn not to lift up its head above other corporations. ”

“ The English Commons were at this precise period fast rising in wealth and importance, and the number among them who sought a good education for their children was every year on the increase. The London citizens particularly were men of intelligence and enterprise, fully conscious of the weighty position they held in the State, and perfectly well qualified to fill it. ”

“ The wisdom of the Legislature cannot stoop to such elemental questions. It is unworthy of the wise and illustrious senators of this great empire to take heed of such a vulgar consideration as commercial morality. This is a free country, wherein every man may freely live, providing for himself, and warring upon his kind. Such throughout is the tone and the spirit of the proposed measure for the "better regulation" of the City of London. ”

“ Then the Lord Mayor, the wealthy merchants, the venerable craft-guilds, with many liberal knights and peers, and a few brilliant scholars and clergymen, turn to and remodel the London Company into a truly great commercial corporation with an effective government and one of London's foremost merchant princes at its head. As if by special intervention from heaven, the struggling colony is rescued at the very point of death, and soon takes on a new and more vigorous life. ”

“ The London school starts with the coöperation of all the economists and students of political science in the United Kingdom and with the support of the Society of Arts and, on its commercial side, of the London Chamber of Commerce. It will be organized to meet the needs of different classes of students. ”

“ Here will be one of the great meeting places of mankind. Here—I speak of Utopian London—will be the traditional centre of one of the great races in the commonality of the World State—and here will be its social and intellectual exchange. There will be a mighty University here, with thousands of professors and tens of thousands of advanced students, and here great journals of thought and speculation, mature and splendid books of philosophy and science, and a glorious fabric of literature will be woven and shaped, and with a teeming leisureliness, put forth. ”

“ Here will be stupendous libraries, and a mighty organization of museums. About these centres will cluster a great swarm of people, and close at hand will be another centre,—for I who am an Englishman must needs stipulate that Westminster shall still be a seat of world Empire, one of several seats, if you will—where the ruling council of the world assembles. Then the arts will cluster round this city, as gold gathers about wisdom, and here Englishmen will weave into wonderful prose and beautiful rhythms and subtly atmospheric forms, the intricate, austere and courageous imagination of our race. ”

“ To such men an appeal would indeed be useless. But, to the Corporation of the City of London—whether as assembled in its entire Parliament, or as represented within the confines of this Court—to the Corporation which, on so many occasions, has attained patriotic ends by great expenditure and sacrifice ”

“ Admission to the freedom of the City is by presentment by persons entitled to confer that privilege. It is imperative on all persons elected to a corporate office, or "occupying premises and carrying on any trade, business, or profession, within the City and its liberties," to become free of the City. ”

“ The question will certainly be brought before Parliament under a modified form in the ensuing Session, and it is then that the fate of the Corporation will be decided.
Are the citizens of London—are the people of Great Britain—prepared to resign without a struggle the last of the glorious rights and privileges bequeathed to them by their Saxon ancestors? Are they willing to exchange their old ancestral customs and usages for the dogmatic theories and arbitrary practices of continental systems? ”

“ It is a capital opportunity; and I, for one, hope that hundreds of the intelligent working-men of London will avail themselves of it. They, on their part, may find government education not unacceptable; and government, on the other hand, encouraged by a successful experiment, may feel inclined to extend its benefits. If a clear-headed lecturer on political economy could also be appointed, perhaps in time our industrial fellow-countrymen might come to understand that strikes are always a mistake, and the masters, that fair play is a jewel. ”

“ In his own person he represents all the rights and privileges of the Corporation. He is said to hold the same relation to the City as the Crown does to the rest of the kingdom. He is chief butler at the coronation of the sovereign, lord-lieutenant of the county of London, clerk of the markets, gauger of wine and oil, meter of coals and grain, salt and fruit, conservator of the Thames, admiral of the port, justice of gaol delivery for Newgate, chairman of every committee he attends, and subject to many other burdens. ”

“ It was proposed to establish in London a society for ensuring the integrity of clerks, secretaries, collectors, and all such functionaries as are usually obliged to find security for money passing through their hands in the course of business. ”

“ Let it be the endeavor, as it is the duty of London citizens, to aid all wise schemes for its physical and intellectual amelioration, but especially such as relate to morals and religion. With a clear eye, a loving heart, a steady hand, and a determined will, each must apply himself to pulling down the evil, and building up the good. The moral health of a city should be the care of all its members. The most precious object amidst the multitude of precious things in the chief city of England is the citizen himself. ”

“ These considerations appear to us decisive against the expediency of placing the whole of the metropolis under a single corporation, without adverting to those more general questions of public policy which naturally suggest themselves in connection with the subject. ”

“ For thirty-five years he represented the ward of Farringdon Without on the common council of the city of London. He took an active part in all matters of education, and assisted in founding the city of London school and the corporation library, while he promoted the establishment of the London University (afterwards University College) and of the university of London. ”

“ All processions in London ought to be prohibited, with the exception of such State, Civic, or Ecclesiastical processions as may be deemed essential to the dignity of authority, and which have been, and still are, a source of real pleasure to the Londoners, who dearly love a show, when there is due and proper occasion for it. ”

“ It is too certain that London hath at some time paid near half the excise of England, and that the people pay thrice as much for the hearths in London as those in the country, in proportion to the people of each, and that the charge of collecting these duties have been about a sixth part of the duty itself. ”

“ Inhabitants and citizens of London, and fellow-countrymen! We address you collectively and individually. Weare daily gaining the co-operation of men of wealth, intelligence, and influence, who are fast swelling our ranks; men who have only lately known the peril of their country and the justice of our cause. ”

“ Finally they assured the king that as the prerogatives of his majesty's high office were intended for the good of the people, the citizens of London would always support the constitutional exercise of them to the utmost of their power. ”

“ The ministers of the day feel their position to be insecure until it has been ratified by the acclamations of the citizens, and the hospitable attentions of the civic magistrates. Statesmen and warriors, poets and historians, men of thought and men of action, are all stimulated to exertion by the honourable hope of being distinguished by the burgesses of London, and enrolled in the lists of freemen. ”

“ The "complete" citizen may be defined as a ten-pound householder, paying scot and bearing lot. The freedom of the City is not, however, attainable by simple residence. It is to be acquired only by three modes—by patrimony, by apprenticeship, or by redemption. ”

“ While the labouring classes are abundantly able to maintain these institutions when established, and to render them amply remunerative to those whose capital has first founded them, it is obvious that no power of association lying within their means can suffice to originate such work. ”

“ The tide of life has swollen and shrunk alternately in many ways—what wonder if popular institutions have drifted somewhat from their original moorings? London vestries have for a quarter of a century done an infinity of useful work, and for the most part done it innocuously and unpretentiously. Is it not time that with the training and experience thus acquired a higher degree of duty and responsibility should be set before the worthy and capable men who take the chief part in local business? ”