2-970-041 - /Heritage Images

The Common Hall on Corporation Reform, in Guildhall, [London], 1856. Political meeting '...to oppose the London Corporation Bill....the proceedings commenced by the Serjeant-at-Mace calling out that those who were not liverymen were to leave the hall on pain of imprisonment - an announcement which was received with loud laughter. The Lord Mayor then stood forward, and said...the bill which was now before the House of Commons...struck at the root of their ancient and valuable privileges....although the bill professed to widen the electoral basis of the Corporation, in other respects it was a total extinction of those rights which they had possessed for many years past...the bill had been called a moderate measure. That moderation was...the moderation of the pickpocket, who stole a man's purse and then thought him well off that he left him his hat and coat...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.