evinced a want of proper caution and foresight. The money raised was
applied to just and legitimate purposes, and secured on revenues
enjoyed from time immemorial, the usufruct of which might fairly be
deemed perpetual. Prescriptive right, however, is no barrier to
reformers greedy of patronage, whose only thought is to buy cheap
popularity by yielding to vulgar prejudices at the expense of their
neighbours. It is thus proposed to abolish all metage dues, to deprive
the Corporation of their portion of the coal duties, to remove all
restrictions upon brokers, and to sanction the establishment of
additional markets within the prescribed distance of seven miles.
Nothing is more easy than to pull down and destroy, but to fill up the
vacancy thus created is a very different matter. It requires no great
amount of moral courage, or of power, to dry up the sources whence the
corporate funds are derived, but far less easy will it be to obviate
the consequences of a step so ill-judged. It is one thing to demand
the usual tale of bricks when the supply of straw is cut off, and
another to obtain it. In vain will the Government call upon the City
to construct prisons and asylums, to widen the thoroughfares, to
cleanse the river, to embellish the streets. Such work as this can
only be accomplished through the employment of large funds, and these
will no longer be at the disposal of the Corporation. In the first
place it is proposed to take away "all such right of metage of any
grain, fruit, wares, or merchandise as the Corporation is entitled to
by custom, charter, or otherwise." In other words, 11,000 pounds a
year of the income of the City is to be confiscated for nobody's
benefit, but simply out of deference to a senseless clamour. The
officers employed in the collection of this revenue are to receive
compensation out of a fund provided for the purpose by a duty of three
farthings on every quarter of grain, seed, and pulse brought into the
port of London. But nothing is said about compensating the Corporation