Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/317

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��24t

��Rateable value of the

��Was passed empowering the Metropolitan Board of Works to under- take the purification of the river.

As regards the rateable value of the City of London, the growth has been enormous. In 1861 it was 1,279,887/., to-day it is 5,470,496Z. The statistics of population are most interesting. In 1861 the residents were 112,063 ; in 1871 they fell to 74,897 ; in 1881 these decreased to 50,652 ; in 1891 to 26,923 ; and now the number is only slightly over 21,000. The day population increased from 170,133 in 1866 to 374,730 in 1906. The day census taken in May, 1891, showed that 1,186,000 persons and 92,000 vehicles entered and left the City on the day the counting took place.

London's roll of fame during the last half century contains, London's roll among other illustrious men upon whom the freedom of the City of fame. has been conferred, David Livingstone (May 21st, 1857), Sir John Lawrence (July 3rd, 1859), Capt. Sir Francis Leopold McClintock (May 19th, 1860), Lord Clyde (December 20th, 1860), Sir Jemes Outram (on the same day), Cobden (June 6th, 1861), George Pea- body (July 10th, 1862), Earl Canning (June 26th, 1862), Garibaldi (April 20th, 1864), Lord Napier (July 21st, 1868), De Lesseps (July 20th, 1870), Sir George Airy, Astronomer Royal (Novem- ber 4th, 1875), General Ulysses Grant (June 15th, 1877), Sir Row- land Hill (June 12th, 1879), General Booth, of the Salvation Army (October 26th, 1905), and Lord Lister (June 28th, 1907).

��As regards the Guilds, The City Press claims that these have been " born again, or, in other words, returned to their former activities, and become once more closely associated with the crafts from which they sprang." The Guilds were formerly entrusted with far-reaching powers ; gradually these in many cases fell into desuetude ; but there are five Companies still exercising some of the responsibilities conferred upon them : the Goldsmiths, who are the hall-marking authority ; the Fishmongers, w r ho control Billings- gate ; the Apothecaries, who are one of the examining bodies in medicine, and have been endowed with further powers of late years ; the Gun- makers, who are still the legal authority for the marking of gun barrels ; and the Stationers, as the copyright authority. The year 1877 " witnessed the reawakening of the Companies," for the City and Guilds of London Institute was then formed " for the purpose of promoting manual training, and associating the Guilds once again with London craft life." Three- quarters of a million have been devoted to this end, and " the Institute has to-day assumed a world-wide importance, being regarded the Empire over as the great examining body for technology in all its branches." Three years after its formation the appoint- ment of the Royal Commission on the Guilds served as another stimulus. The Companies, it is true, emerged triumphantly

��The Guilds.

�� �