Part 17 (1/2)

This was done by the Act of 1888, which created a County whose boundaries were the same as those of the former Metropolitan Board of Works; in other words, it embraces all the suburbs of London properly so called. This County extends from Putney and Hammersmith on the West to Plumstead on the East: on the North are Hampstead and Highgate; on the South are Tooting, Streatham, Lewisham and Eltham. There are 138 Councillors, of whom 19 are Aldermen and one a Chairman. The conservative tendency of our people is shown in their retention of the old division of aldermen. It is, once more, Kings, Lords, and Commons.

But the functions of the Aldermen do not differ from those of the Councillor. The Councillors are elected by the ratepayers for three years, the Aldermen for six; but there is a rule as to retiring by rotation.

The powers of the County Council are enormous. It regulates the building of houses and streets: the drainage: places of amus.e.m.e.nt: it can close streets and pull down houses: it administers and makes regulations concerning parks, bridges, tunnels, subways, dairies, cattle diseases, explosives, lunatic asylums, reformatory schools, weights and measures.

It grants licenses for music and dancing: it carries on, in fact, the whole administration of the greatest City in the world, and, in some respects, the best managed City.

In order to carry out these works the Council expend about 600,000_l._ a year. It has a debt of 30,000,000_l._, against which are various a.s.sets, so that the real debt is no more than 18,000,000_l._ The rating outside the City was last year 12_d._ in the pound. The first Chairman was Lord Rosebery. He has been succeeded by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. John Hutton. The list of County Councillors contains men of every rank and every opinion. Dukes, Earls and Barons, sit upon the Council beside plain working men--an excellent promise for the future.

Such is the government of London. Within the City what was intended to be democratic has become oligarchic. The election by the whole people has become the election by 8,000 only. Without the City a great democratic Parliament attracts men whose historic names and t.i.tles belong to the aristocracy. In the London County Council the Peers may, if they are elected, sit beside the Commons.

Lastly, what is the chief lesson for you to learn out of this history?

It is short, and may be summed up in a few sentences.

1. Consider how your liberties have grown silently and steadily out of the original free inst.i.tutions of your Saxon ancestors. They have grown as the trunk, the tree, the leaves, the flower, the fruit, grow from the single seed. The Folk Mote, the 'Law worthiness' of every man, the absence of any Over Lord but the King, have kept London always free and ready for every expansion of her liberties. Respect, therefore, the ancient things which have made the City--and the country--what it is.

Trust that the further natural growth of the old tree--still vigorous--will be safer for us than to cut it down and plant a sapling, which may prove a poison tree. And with the old inst.i.tutions respect the old places. Never, if you can help it, suffer an old monument to be pulled down and destroyed. Keep before your eyes the things which remind you of the past. When you look on London Stone, remember that Henry of London Stone was one of the first Mayors. When you go up College Hill, remember Whittington who gave it that name. When you pa.s.s the Royal Exchange think of Gresham: when you go up Walbrook remember the stream beneath your feet, the Roman Fortress on your right, and the British town on your left. London is crammed full of a.s.sociations for those who read and know and think. You will be better citizens of the present for knowing about the citizens of the past.

2. The next lesson is your duty to your country. What does it mean, the right of the Folk Mote? The Mote has now become a House of Commons, a County Council, a School Board. You have the same rights that your ancestor had. He was jealous over them: he fought to the death to preserve them and to strengthen them. Be as jealous, for they are far more important to you than ever they were to him. You have a hundred times as much to defend: you have dangers which he did not know or fear.

Show your jealousy by exercising your right as the most sacred duty you have to fulfil. Your vote is an inheritance and a trust. You have inherited it direct from the Angles and the Jutes: as you exercise that vote so it will be ill or well with you and your children. Be very jealous of the man you put in power: learn to distinguish the man who wants place from the man who wants justice: vote only for the right man: and do your best to find out the right man. It is difficult at all times. You may make it less difficult by sending to the various Parliaments of the country a man you know, who has lived among you, whose life, whose private character, whose previous record you know instead of the stranger who comes to court your vote. Above all things _vote always_ and let the first duty in your mind always be to protect your rights and your liberties.

These are the two lessons that this book should teach you--the respect that is due to the past and the duty that is owed to the present.

NOTES

1. THE FOUNDATION OF LONDON. PART I.

~aeneas~: a Trojan prince who escaped from Troy when it was destroyed by the Greeks.

~Venus~, the Roman G.o.ddess of Love and Beauty, was the mother of aeneas.

~Troy~: a famous city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. It was destroyed by Greek invaders about 1,000 years before Christ, and the stories connected with it form one of the chief subjects of Greek and Latin poets.

~Troynovant~ means New Troy.

~Constantine the Great~ was Emperor of Rome, that is, of all the then known world from 305 to 337 A.D. He was the first Roman Emperor to adopt and favour Christianity. Constantinople is named after him, and was made by him the capital of the Empire.

~Geoffrey of Monmouth~ was a British historian of the twelfth century.

He was made Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152. His 'histories' are largely made up of stories, such as that about Brutus, which n.o.body believes now.

~historical doc.u.ment~: a piece of writing that can be used to prove some event in the history of past times.

~architecture~: the art of building; the style in which houses are built.

~Cornhill~: a street in the City of London running west to east from the Royal Exchange into Leadenhall Street. It was probably named after a family of that name, and not from any corn market on the site.

~bastion~: a strong turret or tower at the corner of a fortified building.