£ Brought forward - 355,000 8. Rents of alms houses and schools, household expenses, and expenses in relation to livings 9. Sums expend ed in Ulster in support of churches and schools minations. (about) 10. Improvement England and maintenance of halls, &c. (about) 8. The household expenses are by no means excessive. The other items are reasonable, and necessary, and productive of 75,000 great good. 10,000 70,000 9. This requires no comment. 10. These are necessary to maintain the properties and work of the Companies, and no objection can reasonably be made thereto. It must also be borne in mind that the position of the halls in their different localities has tended to improve and maintain the respectability of the £510,000 district in which they are placed. court not 11. It cannot be of any real importance whether the Courts of the Number of Livery Companies be composed of 10, 20, 30, or 40 members, when members of their surroundings and social positions are considered. It must be remem- important. bered that every liveryman aspires to attain the Court of his Company, and that to enable a fair proportion of the livery to do this, it is absolutely necessary that the Courts be large in number. It may also be pointed out that each member has paid a sum according to the status of his Company for his seat, and that he does not reach this till he is far advanced in life, that some die before and some soon after their election on the Court before they have received even a return of the fines and fees paid by them to their Company. 12. What is called colourable apprenticeship is no wrong, it being one Colourable of the modes of admission, and enables a man of moderate means to apprenticeobtain for his son a position in the Company, which otherwise he would ship no not have been able to do, and which may be to his advantage in after wrong. life. It must be remembered that this has been the custom of centuries. 13. The administrative control of charitable and all trust estates has Charitable and trust long since passed away from the Livery Companies, and they are only estates now administered by them under the order and approval of the Charity under conCommissioners at cost and trouble to themselves, and undoubted trol of advantage to the trusts. Charity 14. It is true that only 1500 of the livery out of a total of about As to in20,000 liverymen and freemen are members of the Courts of the Com-terest of all panies at any one time, but each qualified liveryman and freeman in members in rotation, if life allowed, would become a member. The whole of the property of remaining 18,500 members have a vested interest in the properties of the Company. Companies, and enjoy advantages and privileges as such. There is no evidence and not even a suggestion of any contemplated payment of any dividend or any misappropriation or division of the funds, and nothing Members of Companies are satisfied with present administration. Liverymen do not pay annual subscription. Summary of the position of Companies. of the sort could legally take place without the consent of each and every member, be he livery man or be he freeman. 15. The present administration may be said to be in almost thorough accord with the feelings of every member of the Companies; the only two adverse opinions given before the Commission were contradictory, one being of opinion that his Company did too much, the other that his did too little. 16. It has been stated that the liverymen only pay 17. a year for their privileges. They do not pay any annual subscription (except quarterage in some Companies, which amounts from a few pence to a few shillings per annum), but each pays down on admission sums varying from 150l. to 2007. in the more important, and from 157. to 50l. in the lesser Companies, for which he practically receives no return until he is admitted on the Court, when a further sum of from 251. to 250l., according to the position of the Company, has to be paid. All admissions being very carefully made as stated in paragraph 9 of this protest, it follows that but very few are admitted in any one year, and thus the united payments for admission may only amount on an average to the sum mentioned. I beg to enter a most emphatic protest against the partisan spirit which has prompted the publication of misleading statements. 17. Finally, I respectfully submit to your Majesty that the Livery Companies are middle-class institutions, and have always been well, honourably, and honestly managed (against this assertion no evidence has been adduced); and any attempt to destroy them will seriously affect the middle class of the City of London and the Metropolis, and, possibly, hereafter, through them, the whole of this class throughout the realm; it would be one more advance towards centralization, which, if established, will ultimately divide the people of this country into two classes, the highest and the lowest, or aristocracy and serf; a state of affairs which, by preventing union in a common cause, led to the subjection of Poland to Russia. That they pay all rates, taxes, &c., ordinarily paid by landlords and tenants, including income tax on all moneys annually received by them. That the pensions, gratuities, and doles, which are curiously objected to by some parties, as previously stated, save the rates, by keeping the recipients from applying for parochial relief, as by so doing they would forfeit all claim to any gift from their company. Almost every object brought before the Commission as worthy of being assisted from or through the funds of the Livery Companies, such as education (general and technical), hospitals, public playgrounds, accidents of moment, in short, everything that charity, philosophic, or scientific bodies can suggest, has from time to time been profusely assisted by the Livery Companies. Their income, as stated in paragraph 10 of this protest, may be estimated at 510,000l. per annum, out of which under 35 per cent. is spent on the members, including in this amount 60,0007. for salaries, wages, &c., a position which I humbly venture to think very few bodies of men in similar circumstances could improve, leaving 335,000l., of which 70,000l. is applied towards the improvement of estates in England and Ireland, and in the maintenance of halls, &c., 30,000l. in payment of rates, taxes, &c, the balance being applied in supporting good, useful, and charitable objects. That the agitation against the Livery Companies is but small, and must be so as their work, constitution, and uses must be seen, felt, and known to be appreciated, and this every man in the kingdom can now do upon a reference to their returns. To upset the existing order of things by the appointment of new and most probably more expensive bodies of management, would, independently of the great injustice done to the rights of property, produce, as very many pretended reforms in the past have done, no better, and most likely far worse results. No public bodies of importance (not even those who appeared before the Commission) have advocated or sought for a distribution of the properties of the Companies. They have very naturally expressed a hope that they might, in the event of any distribution, be allowed to share, in order that what they must lose under the altered position of the Livery Companies might in some way be made good. The Livery Companies have no money in hand, the whole of their balances being applied, as has been previously shown, to works of acknowledged public utility and goodness. The Charity Commission have in all cases reported most favourably of the Companies, showing that they are most excellent trustees, who spend a much larger amount than they are bound to do on all the charities they administer; and I would also humbly beg to call your Majesty's gracious attention to the fact that nearly all important civil actions attacking the private properties of the Companies have been decided in their favour. Any interference with the property of the Livery Companies must tend to create mistrust and destroy confidence in all benefit and other societies which tend to inculcate habits of saving and thrift. Much has been said about the power of the Parliament to take possession of the properties of the Livery Companies. I do not doubt its power, but I do its right to commit a gross injustice and wrong. 18. Lastly, may it please your Majesty to allow me humbly to call Attention your gracious attention to the protest against the abstraction of the called to private properties of the Livery Companies which accompanied each Companies. return to the Commission. protest of April 10th, 1884. (Signed) W. J. R. COTTON. L pany stigmatized by Phillips as that of a lunatic; the attempt to seize it a warning of what may be expected in the early future. CHAPTER IX. Mr. Thwaites' noble bequest to the Clothworkers' Company-Attempt to seize same a warning of what may be expected in the early future-Bequests to her Majesty and the late Earl of Beaconsfield-The Royal Commission a result of a change in the political constitution of the City of London representationExtreme views held by a majority of the Royal Commission-Perversion of facts in regard to the status of the Companies resulting from the Great Fire of London-The term "public" wrongly applied to the Companies-The term corporation" explained-The Livery Companies "public" only in the same sense as the railways and banks-Penal clause of the ancient Guilds-The historic development of the City Companies-Unanimity of the spoilers; their various pretexts favourable to the communists-Sacrifices submitted to in olden times to satisfy the rapacity of royal plunderers-Recapitulation of some of the many infamous charges brought against the Companies-Speech of Sir Hardinge Giffard referring to the falsities of the Companies' enemies, their attacks on property-rights, and a recent unworthy utterance of a Cabinet Minister-Alderman Fowler's great services to the cause of the Companies The Spectacle Makers' and Armourers' Companies instances of the high character and nobility of heart of all the so-called "Minor Companies "-Matters introduced into the Commission Inquiry having reference to the several estates in Ireland the property of certain of the Companies, and the using the occasion for an attempt to secure lowering of rents-The Ironmongers' with Salters' Companies' administration of their respective properties-Sir Thomas Nelson's admirable statements of the Liveries' case before the Commission Thwaites' LET no man hug himself to the belief that length of time is needed noble bequest for maturity of a period ere the confiscator will seek devised property as to the Cloth- prey. Take the case of good Brother Thwaites, of the Clothworkers' workers' Com- Company, whose death but as yesterday, though affording a happy instance that the spirit which prompted the offerings of the brethren to the common stock of the Guilds is not even yet extinct, tells with trumpet-tongue that the vampire of despoil will fix his claw on property of even most recent devise. So lately as 1831 Mr. Thwaites was in the flesh; he loved his old company, he had eaten many good dinners and had much happy intercourse with his brethren of the Clothworkers' Company, and when he passed away from the world it was found that his will recorded that he endowed his Company with no less a sum than twenty thousand pounds, and, as specified in his own last will and testament, "to "be laid out in the way that may tend to make the said society comfort"able." Of course for any man to leave the world, and with the last move ment of his lips bear witness to the goodness of those who had gone before him by following their example, was the surest way to secure the exasperation and vindictiveness of the Firth class. Accordingly Mr. Thwaites was denounced before the Commission by Mr. Phillips in the strongest language, and his gift to the Clothworkers' Company stigmatized as "a lunatic bequest." Thoughtful men will dwell on this case and all that appertains to it. The donor of the money to his Company passed away from his brethren but as yesterday, and yet we see it coolly recommended that his will shall be worse than disregarded, and that the enemy shall enter into possession. Applied to wills of past ages, the principle is less startling, though none the less opposed to every principle of law and justice. of Beacons field. There is an instance of a bequest of a large sum of money within recent Bequests to years to her Majesty the Queen. It is also matter of notoriety that a lady, her Majesty in admiration of Lord Beaconsfield's devotion to the interests of his and the Earl country, bequeathed him a considerable sum. What would be said of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Derby, or other persons in high position, publicly recommending that these bequests should be set aside and the moneys drawn off into other channels? Or supposing Mr. Gladstone to fall under such love and like admiration as to become a legatee after the manner of Lord Beaconsfield (and although such event has not yet shown itself, it may come to pass), would it be tolerated to seize on Mr. Gladstone's legacy and hand it over to Mr. Firth's Liberation or other political societies in Chelsea? These are no far-fetched cases, they are precisely what is proposed under the Commission, but which it is hoped the people of a law-abiding country will never support or sanction. Let my Lord of Derby and his Grace of Bedford look to their ways in this matter, remembering, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”—Matt. vii. 2. Her Majesty and Lord Beaconsfield's legacies are as yet a little too green for the spoilers. Give such a shade more of maturity, though both are now somewhat approaching to the age of Mr. Thwaites' bequest, when deemed ready for freebooting diversion. Even Mr. Firth and his comrades have not yet got so far as to meddle under half a century. There must be some ripeness to cover up such class of pillage. stitution of the It has been the aim of the writer to place everything in connection The Royal with the inquiry into these old Companies before his readers in a strictly Commission fair and true light. In concluding the remarkable history, it is well to the result of a take a short review of the whole case so far as the main facts are con- change in the cerned. Chiefly should it be borne in mind that all seemed smooth with political conthe Companies until the general election of 1880. The party it brought City of Lonback came on the stage of power with very pronounced associates. These don represenremembered that the City of London had somewhat changed its representa- tation. Extion, and we find Mr. Gladstone announcing that the time had come "to in- held by a maquire into the Livery Companies of the City of London." Forthwith the jority of the Commission started into life, and with its birth came new light, as Commission. evidenced in the names of the Commissioners. There were to be twelve altogether, nine of whom were of the dominant political party, and three, i.e. Firth, Burt, and James, were unmistakably the openly avowed enemies of the most pronounced class. These were the men selected to sit in judgment on the Companies, and to decide whether they were guilty or not of the charges preferred against them by Firth and Beale, crimes openly asserted as of a character warranting their treatment as criminals. Firth, be it ever remembered, as the most prominent of their accusers, is placed on the judgment-seat. Lord Coleridge, though he be Lord Chief Justice, is neverthless one of the gentlemen forming the band of serjeants who but recently sold the property of their Guild, and divided the proceeds among themselves; he also was selected as a fitting one to place in the seat of justice in the case offering such a marvel of wealth as was hung before the eyes of the spoilers. It is almost beyond the assurance of even the most utterly conscience-void, that the class of men known to represent the Companies should have been marked out for preventitive of property-dividing such as the law serjeants had just perpetrated. There was no ground for believing that the gentlemen forming the Liveries Management Courts were of a class thus to fill their pockets. They had the characters and honour of long lines of honourable predecessors to protect treme views |