CIVIC FEASTING AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE.
LET the gormandizing portion of the Aldermen and Common- Councilmen uf the City of London eat and spare not, for verily evil days are at hand for all such. Feasting and excur- sions, turtle and " hops," will not be provided his themselves and their wives and daughters much longer at the public expense. We have always had rather magnificent ideas on the subject of City feasting., but bad no notion, till lately, of the extent to which the public money was consumed in this way by the men who were es- pecially chosen to see that it was all fairly and honestly expended
in the public service. Time annual income of the City of London is not much less than
400,000/. Of this, a large portion is raised by imposts of various descriptions, which press heavily upon the struggling shopkeepers. The houses and tenements belonging to the City are in number bout six thousand ; and it appears from the evidence of Mr. \Vie- eisvis, who was an Auditor of Civic Accounts appointed by the Livery in 1 8 2 9, and from sonic letters published in the Morning Chronicle, that this property is jobbed in a very scandalous manner. Further disclosures on this part of the subject are
promised.
In the meanwhile, a correspondent of the Chronicle furnishes sonic curious particulars of the sums voted to defray the cost of Corporation dinners. The Committees of City Lands, Bridge House Estates, and Sewers and Pavements, have each a sum of 700/. voted for tavern and other expenses, and 150/. for a summer excursion. The Committees of Navigation, Coal and Corn, and General Purposes, are allowed 500?., and 1 5 0/. each for summer excursions. The London Bridge Committee is charged with having expended 1,000/. per annum, since its appointment, in
feasting and frolics.*
111 tire whole history of British Corporate corruption, it is doubt- ful if any thin,* is to be found more gross than this. A number i■f• persons are elected to take care of the public interest—that is, to guard the public purse vigilantly, to see that all the money spent is spent fairly for the benefit of their constituents; and yet, year after year, they vote thousands away for the mere gratifica- tion of their own brute appetites.
The money thus spent, it should be borne in mind, is obtained by taxing the citizens; the property belonging to the City, vast as it is, being unequal to defray the expenditure. It is not the surplus of a charitable estate after fulfilling the literal instruc- tions of the testator ; but it is money actually levied by taxation, authorized by acts of Parliament. This at least will not be permitted much longer, whether the projected measure of Corporation Reform be carried or not. Every man who has been a party to such a misapplication of public money should be turned out of office the very next opportunity.
• Mr. ALEXANDER GALLOWAY, in a letter published in the Chronicle of yesterday. elates that not more than 4,1001. per annum is spent in this way by the Cerporat ion Committers ; and that this sum would only give alma 15/. to each member of the Com- mon Council. Hut then, Mr. GALLOWAY :Ode, that at no dinner lms he seen more than sixteen or eighteva members, although some of the Committees consist of forty-six, and one of seventy-live members. The guttling practices of the sixte:n or c'ghteen dinner gentle-:n-n. who consume the share of the absentees as well as their own. are those which call for especial exposure; although every member who consents to this misap- propriation of the public money is blameable more or less.
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