wards, they are in a position to obtain peculiar and authentic
information as to the characters, habits, and motives of witnesses,
accusers, and accused. Their devotion to public business is wholly
disinterested, for there are no pecuniary emoluments attached to the
office, which has truly little to recommend it, save as being a sphere
of active utility, and as a gratifying token of the good-will of one's
fellow-citizens. The proper style of the Court is the "Court of the
Mayor and Aldermen in the Inner Chamber." It consists of the Lord
Mayor or his deputy--an alderman who has passed the chair--and not
less than twelve other aldermen. The proceedings of the Court are
entered in journals called "Repertories," which are kept in the
muniment-room. The Recorder, the Steward of Southwark, the Clerk to
the Lord Mayor, the keepers, governors, chaplains, and surgeons of the
different prisons, and other officers of the Corporation, are elected
by this Court, which, for assiduity, intelligence, and
incorruptibility, yields to no body of men in the kingdom.

Court of Common Council.

But however distinguished may be the civic position, however great the
moral influence, of the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, the
controlling power is, after all, centred in the Common Council. At a
very remote period the freemen of the City were accustomed to meet in
general assembly, and to act as one body. As their numbers increased,
the many inconveniences of such a mode of proceeding soon became
manifest; and so early as the reign of the first Edward
representatives began to be chosen from each ward for the despatch of
real business. At first the guilds, or trading companies, claimed the
right of election as their exclusive privilege, and consequently
excited the jealousy of the mass of the inhabitants. It was therefore