THE GREAT COCKNEY IMPERIUM IN QUEEN VICTORIA'S IMPERIO.
THE inhabitants of this free country have no notion of the for- midable oligarchy that reigns within the walls of London City. There is the popular belief, indeed, that the Sovereign cannot enter at Temple Bar without asking leave of my Lord Mayor ; and it is a well-known legal fact, that although the Lord Mayor makes a point of politely offering the keys to the Monarch, that high personage dares not keep them, on pain of being knocked down with the mace.
That right, however, is a shadow compared to the frightful privileges that, by grace of the Aldermanic clemency, lie dormant. The collision between the two civic chambers has disclosed the extent of those privileges. In the first place, the City constitu- tion is far less democratic than the British. The House of Com- mons rides rough-shod over the Lords, who no more dare touch a money-bill than they dare ride in an omnibus; whereas the riding rough-shod is just what the City Lords, the Aldermen, do over the City Commons, the Council. The Aldermen may spend what they.plemie, may eat what they please, do what they please, and go whither they please—to Oxford, or to—that place to which beggars on horseback ride. There is no doubt that they have such privileges, for they say so themselves ; and if they don't know, who does ? Nay, they can silence all objection : Alderman Wood says, that "among the precedents of the power of the Court of Aldermen, is one which shows that if a person treats the Court of Aldermen with indignity, they may sentence him to have his hand chopped off in Cheapside." We tremble to think what we may have written concerning Aldermen, and recant it on the tt:f1...e We avow the most profound respect for that august assem- . It has no precedent in its potency but one, the terrible Council of Ten that governed Venice : and it is a curious fact that the Aldermen, like the Ten, are a sort of Police Magistrates. Alderman Wood recommends the Court not to act too strictly upon its precedents. Why not I Is this a time, when the Cor- posrtion is threatened with reform, for yielding to the "spirit of the age" ? Such weakness provokes aggression. Let it, then, assert its powers to the full—even this one of hand-chopping. Begin with Lord Brougham : he has reviled the Aldermen, and even their Doge the Mayor, for "giving advice "—though he himself is so profuse in such bounty : take him before Lord Mayor Johnson—sentence him to have his hand chopped off— nay, find a precedent for cutting out his tongue. Lord Brougham and Vona might till that time be vox; but 7)rteterea, that just severity would turn him into nihil. Such an example would teach Peers and Commoners to know their place. We would not, indeed, have the Aldermen to be lavish in such severities and we would counsel the Lord Mayor to keep before his eyes the fate of the Doges Pietro Candiano and Marino Faliero, victims to their own arrogance. But we need not counsel : do we not see the forbearance with which the Aldermen hold their dreadful rights ? Years of bitter oratory have not deprived Lord Brougham of a single hand ; but both are left him, to wield a knife and fork at the City banquets; where he does suit and ser- vice for the act of grace, by pouring forth eloquent panegyrics on the Corporation.
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