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The
History of London - Government of the City
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62. THE
GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY.
PART III.
That is the best Government which gives the greatest
possible liberty to its people: only that people can be happy which is
capable of using their freedom aright. You have seen how your personal
freedom from violence, robbery, and molestation in your work is secured
for you: how you are enabled to live in comfort and
cleanliness—by a vast machinery of Government whose growth
has been gradual and which must always be ready to meet changes so as
to suit the needs of the people. One point you must carefully remember,
that your greatest liberty is liberty of speech and of thought and of
the Press. It is not so very long since martyrs—Catholic as
well as Protestant—were executed for their religious belief:
Catholics and Jews until quite recently were excluded from Parliament.
A hundred years ago the debates of Parliament could not be reported:
one had to weigh his words very carefully in speaking of the Sovereign
or the Ministers: certain forms of opinion were not allowed to be
published. All that is altered. You can believe what you like and
advocate what you like, so long as it is not against Divine Law or the
Law of the Land. Thus, if one were to preach the duty of Murder he
would be very properly stopped. Therefore, when you buy a daily paper:
whenever you enter a church or chapel: whenever you hear an address or
a lecture{229} remember that
you are enjoying the freedom won for you by the obstinacy and the
tenacity of your ancestors.
We have spoken of the City Companies. They still exist
and though their former powers are gone and they no longer control the
trades after which they are named, their power is still very great on
account of the revenues which they possess and their administration of
charities, institutions, &c., under their care. There were 109
in all, but many have been dissolved. There are still, however, 76.
About half of these possess Halls which are now the Great Houses of the
City. The number of livery men, i.e. members of the Companies, is
8,765. The Companies vary greatly in numbers: there are 448
Haberdashers, for instance: 380 Fishmongers: and 356 Spectacle Makers:
while there are only 16 Fletchers, i.e. makers of arrows. Many of the
trades are now extinct, such as the Fletchers above named, the Bowyers,
the Girdlers, the Bowstring Makers and the Armourers.
Some of these Companies are now very rich. One of them
possesses an income, including Trust money, of 83,000l.
a year. It must be acknowledged that the Companies carry on a great
deal of good work with their money. Many of them, however, have little
or nothing: the Basket Makers have only 102l. a
year: the Glass Sellers only 21l. a year: the
Tinplate Workers 7l. 7s. a year.
If, therefore, you hear of the great riches of the City Companies
remember (1) that 25 of them have less than 500l. a
year each: and (2) that the rich Companies support Technical Colleges
and Schools, grant scholarships, encourage trade, hold exhibitions,
maintain almshouses, and make large grants to objects worthy of
support. It is not likely that the privilege of electing the Lord Mayor
will long continue to be in the hands of the Companies. It is not,
indeed, worthy of a great{230}
City that its Chief Magistrate should be elected by so small a minority
as 8,765 out of the hundreds of thousands who have their offices and
transact their business in the City: but while this privilege will
cease, the Companies may remain and continue to exercise a central
influence, at the least in London, over the Crafts and Arts which they
represent. Let us never destroy what has been useful: let us, on the
other hand, preserve it, altered to meet changed circumstances. For an
institution is not like a tree which grows and decays. If it is a good
institution, built upon the needs and adapted to the circumstances of
human nature, it will never decay but, like the Saxon form of popular
election, live and develop and change as the people themselves change
from age to age.
London Sights to See
St. Paul's Cathedral
Buckingham
Palace
Elfin
Oak of Kensington Gardens
Shakespeare's
Globe Theatre
Harrod's
Department Store
Hyde
Park
Kensington
Palace and Gardens
Kew
Palace and Gardens
Madame
Tussauds Wax Museum and London Planetarium
Piccadilly
Circus
Royal
Observatory, Greenwich
The
West End
Trafalgar
Square
Westminster
Abbey
Whitehall
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