hoped that no future ministry will bring forward a Bill for the
"best regulation." Every additional step in this direction can only be
worse than its predecessor, for the goal to be attained is not only
the ruin of civic influence, but the subversion of self-government
throughout the realm.

For the present, indeed, this precious Bill has been withdrawn; but
let not a suspension of hostilities be construed into a conclusion of
peace. The question will certainly be brought before Parliament under
a modified form in the ensuing Session, and it is then that the fate
of the Corporation will be decided.

Are the citizens of London--are the people of Great Britain--prepared
to resign without a struggle the last of the glorious rights and
privileges bequeathed to them by their Saxon ancestors? Are they
willing to exchange their old ancestral customs and usages for the
dogmatic theories and arbitrary practices of continental systems?
In short, will they consent to barter freedom for absolutism, the
happiness and independence of the many for the aggrandizement of the
few? For that is the real question at issue, and one the answer to
which cannot be much longer deferred.