Yendall or Yenleet, and from Colemouth Creek to Cockham Wood in the
Medway, including every bank, shore, and wharf within those limits.
The duties of the office are to remove all wears and other
obstructions, to prevent the construction of piers or wharfs
calculated to impede the navigation of the river, to protect the
fisheries, and generally to take care that neither the channel nor the
banks suffer injury through the malice or heedlessness of individuals,
or from accidental causes. This department of the corporate
administration is at present intrusted to the Navigation Committee,
annually selected from the Court of Common Council, who make
periodical excursions on the river, and judge with their own eyes as
to what is desirable to be done or avoided. No doubt these functions
could be discharged by a government officer, the friend or relative of
a man of parliamentary influence, and equally without doubt this
consideration is likely to carry more weight in the House of Commons
than any claims derived from immemorial usage and centuries of
beneficial operation.

The Metage Dues.

The same charter of James I. which confirmed the ancient right of the
mayor and commonalty of London to the conservation of the water of the
Thames, declares that the citizens are equally, and on the same
grounds, entitled to exercise the office of measuring all coals,
cereals, fruits, vegetables, salt, and other merchandise sold by
measure, brought to the port of London. In the beginning, this
privilege arose out of the necessity of ascertaining the exact
quantity of these articles actually imported into the City, in order
fairly to collect the king's customs. It has since been found mutually
beneficial to all parties that all measurable goods should be meted