LONDON. 
fcended in a meadow, five miles beyond Ware in Hert- 
fordfhire. See the article Air-balloon, vol. i, p. 218- 
*21 . 
It is with pleafure that we adduce a new indance of the 
ffrenuotifnefs of the city of London to preferve its original 
rights, privileges, and prerogatives. In the month of Jline, 
1785, a bill was introduced into the houfe of commons, 
for regulating the police of the metropolis, which was 
underitood to be the produftion of a gentleman who had 
taken uncommon pains with it, and had confulted thole 
bed; enabled to affid in maturing fuch a plan ; but it was not 
fortunate enough to obtain the approbation of the corpo¬ 
ration of the city of London. A petition was prefented from 
the court of aldermen, complaining in high terms of the pro- 
jetted meafure. Their alarm was reprefented, by oneof their 
body, to be equal to that which would have been excited if 
a general conllagration had been begun in the city of Lon¬ 
don. The petition dated, that, under colour of correcting 
abules, the bill overturned the forms edabliihed by the vvil- 
dom of ourancedors, and effettedan entire i'ubverfion of the 
chartered rights of the greated city in the world. It was in 
vain urged, that the commiflioners appointed by the bill 
would haveno power within the jurifdiblion of the corpora¬ 
tion of London ; that it was exprefsly provided, that no war¬ 
rant from them lliould be executed in the city, until it 
was backed by the lord-mayor, or one of the aldermen ; 
and that, when executed, the perfon apprehended in vir¬ 
tue of it was ordered to be carried before fome of the city- 
magidrates: nothing could allay the apprehendons of a 
body fo tenacious of their privileges; and, in the end, 
their oppolition proved fatal to the bill. 
The long-conteded quellion, relative to the power of the 
court of aldermen to remove one of their body, was finally 
determined in the court of King’s Bench,on the nth of June. 
Some years before, in confequence of feveral accufations 
brought againd alderman Wooldridge, repeated fummonfes 
were lent to him, to attend in his place in the court of 
aldermen, to anfwer to them; all of which being unat¬ 
tended to, be was declared to have forfeited his feat, and 
a wardmote was held for the ele&ion of an alderman in 
his dead. At a lubfequent period he attended, and 
claimed to be received as alderman : which being refufed, 
he obtained a mandamus from the court of King’s Bench, 
to be redored; the return to this mandamus had been ar¬ 
gued in November preceding, but the court required fur¬ 
ther time to decide upon it; and, on this day, the final 
argument was heard, when the court unanimoufly pro¬ 
nounced judgment in favour of the city, declaring their 
opinion, that the court of aldermen had the power to re¬ 
move one of the aldermen, upon a jud and reafonable 
caufe; and that, in the prefent indance, their exercife of 
that right was perfectly legal- 
A caufe was tried at the Lent aflifes for the county of 
Surry, which laded three days, and ended in the con¬ 
demnation of a Ihipwright at Rotherhithe, who, by ere cl¬ 
ing a floating dock, had obdrufled the navigation of the 
Thames, and encroached upon the rights of the corpora¬ 
tion of the city as confervators of the river. Long debates 
alfo took place concerning the rights of the corporation 
over the town and borough of Southwark; and resolutions 
were taken againd foreltaliers, by whofe nefarious practi¬ 
ces, in buying up the cattle before they arrived at Smith- 
field market, the price of proviiions had conliderably in- 
creafed. An application to the legislature was recom¬ 
mended, in order to prevent the continuance of thele evils. 
A commercial treaty with France was in the courfe of 
negotiation in the latter part of this year, by fome of the 
provifions of which, the right of package, Ravage, and 
balliage, of the city of London, would have been taken 
away, as well as the rights of the fellotvlhip and all other 
free porters, free watermen, lightermen, &c. On the dif- 
covery of this, a committee of the court of aldermen were 
appointed to make the necdfary reprefentations on the 
fubjeft to Mr. Pitt, who gave them an afl’urance, that, al¬ 
though their rights would hays been unintentionally in¬ 
119 
vaded and taken away if this application had not been 
made; yet, being now fully pofl'eded of them, he Ihould 
certainly think it his duty to proteCl them in the mod 
ample manner. 
Thelhop-tax, which had always been obnoxious to the 
traders and citizens of London, attracted again the ferious 
confideration of the court of common-council, whofe an¬ 
nals are fraught with refolutions molt conducive to the 
welfare of the red of the community ; and a petition to 
the houfe of commons, with another concerning the Have- 
trade, were prepared in February 1788. The Oiop-tax 
was foon after repealed; but the dave-trade continued 
throughout the whole of Miv Pitt’s adminidration, and 
was not got rid of till the year 1807. It was obferved, 
that Mr. Pitt made fome very eloquent fpeeches in favour 
of the repeal, but always differed himfelf to be out-voted. 
It was not until it was made a government-meafure, which 
was during the lad diort adminidration of Mr. Fox, 
(though that excellent datefman did not live to complete 
his work,) that it met with fuccefs. 
In the year 1788 alfo, an uncommon fall of rain deluged 
the dreets of London to a molt alarming degree; during 
which a ball of fire burd about the middle of George- 
dreet, and damaged feveral houfes. And the enfuing 
winter was remarkable for a very fevere frod, which be¬ 
gan on the 25th of November, and laded exactly feven 
weeks. The greated cold was on the 5th of January, 
1789, when the thermometer dood at eleven degrees below 
the freezing point, in the middle of the city. During this 
frod, the Thames was completely frozen over below Lon- 
don-bridge, and was covered with booths, puppet-fhows, 
and wild beads, fo as to have the appearance of a fair. 
The watermen, being deprived of their ufual means of 
obtaining>a livelihood, broke the ice clofe to the fliore, 
and laid planks acrofs the openings, which they differed 
no one to pafs without paying. On the thaw, which came 
very fuddenly, the Rene was dreadful beyond example; 
the large bodies of ice floating on the river made it necef- 
fary to moor all the ffiips to the fiiore ; many however 
drifted ; and one, lying off Rotherhithe, was fo pred’ed by 
the drength of the tide and the weight of ice, that it car¬ 
ried away the beams of a houfe to which it was fattened,, 
and levelled it with the ground, by which accident five 
perlbns were killed in their beds. 
During this inclement feafon, the difireffes of the poor 
were not forgotten. Liberal fubfcriptions were entered 
into by the affluent for their relief; and a court of com¬ 
mon-council met on the 13th of January, to take the date 
of the poor into confideration, when the fum of fifteen 
hundred pounds was ordered to be paid out of the city- 
cafh, for the relief of Rich poor inhabitants as did not re¬ 
ceive alms of the parifh. At this court, a letter was read 
from the prince of Wales’s treafurer to the chamberlain, 
inclofing his royal highnefs’s draft for one thoufand pounds,, 
to be applied in the fame manner as his majelty’s bounty 
had ulually been ; but which, from the unfortunate date 
of the king’s health, was this year delayed. On which it 
was unanimoufly refolved to return the grateful acknow¬ 
ledgments of the court to his royal highnefs, for his fpon- 
taneous and truly-princely beneficence. 
The city of London, lympathifing with the red of the 
kingdom, had to deplore at this period a vifitation of the 
molt fevere kind which afflibled our beloved monarch, and 
was but a prognodic of the unfortunate fituation in which 
he hasfince continued for lo long a period : but, Aliening 
to the fervent and iincere prayers of his royal family and 
his people, Providence ordered that this dreadful difeafe 
Oiould, for that time, retire from him, and that he fliould 
be redored to the love and relpebl ot a feeling and grate¬ 
ful nation. 
The 10th of March, 1789, was the day appointed for- 
making an official declaration of his majedy’s complete 
recovery. In the morning, the bells rang in all the 
churches; and, at noon, the Park and Tower guns were 
fired. On the river, every veffel was decorated with the 
$ colours. 
