the hour the House of Commons sanctioned the appointment of a
prejudiced and illegal tribunal.

The New Wards.

The first clause of the proposed Bill directs a new division of the
City, and recommends that it be redistributed into sixteen wards,
instead of twenty-five as heretofore. No reason is assigned for this
innovation, beyond an allusion to the fact that no other city--not
even Liverpool--possesses more than that number of divisions or
departments. The object of the Government was evidently to abase and
humiliate the City of London, and to reduce it to the level of the
provincial municipalities. It is alleged, that while the metropolis
has extended far and wide in every direction, the boundaries of the
City have remained unchanged, so that they now inclose barely 1/108th
part of the entire metropolitan area. The population also does not
embrace 1/20th part of the inhabitants of the aggregate of villages
and boroughs collectively known as London. An undue importance,
therefore, has been ascribed to that small portion which constitutes
the City proper, to the prejudice of the more populous districts,
which inclose it on every side. This overrated influence is now to be
diminished in good earnest, and henceforth the sole criterion of
importance is to be the number of men, women, and children existing
within a certain area. Intelligence, wealth, enterprise, industry,
commercial reputation, and ancient rights are to be regarded as of
little value when compared with the register of births and marriages.
So, the City of London is to be divided into sixteen wards, that it
may learn not to lift up its head above other corporations. The
division is, of course, to be effected by the inevitable barrister of
seven years' standing--the modern type of all that is wise, good,