Page:The government of London.djvu/13

 Here, then, is the impartial and deliberate judgment of a Commission consisting of one of the best judges who ever sat on the common law bench, and two of the most respected ministers who ever held the seals of Secretary of State; men thoroughly read in the constitutional history of their country, and thoroughly versed in the administration of its affairs. Given habitually to deal with facts and necessities as they presented themselves, and deeply impressed with the conviction that the soundest legislation is that which recognizes the natural developments of society and promotes its spontaneous tendencies to organization, they put aside with judicial gravity fantastical suggestions for erecting an unwieldy and ill-proportioned system, which they clearly saw would be unmunicipal in its very conception, and unmanageable (save by external influence) should it ever be set in motion. They saw nothing to apprehend in the erection of as many corporations as there were boroughs in the valley of the Thames; they saw everything to warn us against making the experiment of one. In 1853 two millions of people seemed to them palpably too many to be fitly or safely represented in a single town council. What would they say were they with us now and heard the proposition made of one municipality for four millions? To them ratable property to the extent of £9,964,318, diverse in every conceivable form and character, seemed infinitely too wide a field for corporate taxation. What would they think of giving over £25,055,674 of ratable property for an assembly in Guildhall or Whitehall to experimentalize upon?

Their Report was duly presented to both Houses, and met with general approval. Hopes of reviving the project of expansion and inclusion were not altogether laid aside; and out of doors its advocates kept up a desultory attention, but at Westminster it was crowded out of remembrance by rumours of coming war. Next year there was no time to think of internal reforms of any kind, and it was not until the spring of 1855 that Government decided on carrying into effect some of the recommendations of the Commissioners. The City with its chartered privileges, antique forms, rich endowments, and curious anomalies fiscal and judicial, was respited till a more convenient season; and the jocose veteran then at the head of affairs continued to be the most favoured