history would select as an illustration of the happiest and most
constitutional balance of power throughout all departments of the
commonwealth. No proof is adduced that this parcelment of the City was
attended with the best possible results, to justify its restoration in
the present century, after so long an interval and such elemental
changes of the social and commercial system. It is quite possible, and
not at all unlikely, that in the time of the second Richard ninety-six
Common-Councilmen may have been amply sufficient to discharge all the
duties that devolved upon them. But it does not thence follow that
that same number will now suffice. If it is proposed by Sir George
Grey to establish the civic administration on the broadest, safest,
and least assailable foundation, it is scarcely consistent to begin by
narrowing that basis. It is generally believed that it is more
difficult to corrupt or influence a large number of persons than a
small one. In the multitude of counsellors there is strength of will,
integrity of purpose, and variety of knowledge. There is less
opportunity for jobbing among two hundred than among one hundred
individuals, The smaller number is certainly more likely to come to a
mutual understanding among themselves, and to apportion to each member
his share of the loaves and fishes. On this head no better evidence
need be adduced than the report of the commissioners of 1855, by no
means too favourably disposed towards the Corporation. It is in the
following terms that they speak of the City, and of the advantages
incidental to a large representation:-"The antiquity, extent, and
importance of its privileges, the long series of its charters, the
large amount of its revenues, its metropolitan position, and its
historical associations, combine to give it a character different from
that of any other municipal borough. It may be added, that the
continued predominance of the popular element in the formation of its
governing body furnished a reason in 1835 for excepting it from the