much that was amiss in its constitution, and that its history
furnished "honourable testimonials to the vigilance, good sense, and
justice of its legislative body." On these grounds the Imperial
Legislature expressly exempted the City of London from the action of
the Municipal Corporations Act, and left it in the undisputed
enjoyment of its ancient franchises--which, moreover, are declared by
2 William & Mary not to be liable to confiscation. A period of twenty
years then passed away without any cause of complaint having occurred
to justify the interference of Government, until some disputes arose
on the subject of the City markets, and the conservancy of the Thames.
Sir George Grey at once availed himself of this pretext to appoint a
commission to investigate "the existing state of the Corporation of
the City of London, and to collect information respecting its
constitution, order, and government." These commissioners, unlike
their predecessors, exhibited from the commencement of their
proceedings a strong bias and feeling of hostility against the
Corporation. The witnesses they called before them were, with scarcely
an exception, the avowed enemies of the existing state of things, and
prepared to convert trifling blemishes into radical and monstrous
defects. And yet even these did not agree among themselves, or assign
any sound reasons to render compulsory innovations expedient or
justifiable. The general tenor of their evidence, indeed, was actually
in favour of the Corporation, when due allowance is made for the
spirit by which they were actuated. Nevertheless, it was upon the
report of this one-sided and unconstitutional commission that the late
ministry founded their Bill for "the better Regulation of the
Corporation of the City of London." They had arrived at a foregone
conclusion, and asked for only the shadow of an excuse to mask their
preconcerted designs against the chief and last stronghold of
self-government. The fate of the Corporation was clearly doomed from