The report of the Royal Commission appointed " to consider
the proper conditions under which the amalgamation of the City and the County of London can be effected, and to make specific and practical proposals for that purpose," was issued on Saturday as a Blue-book. The Commission, which consisted of Mr. Courtney, Lord Farrer, Mr. Holt (Mayor of Liverpool), and Mr. Orford Smith (Town Clerk of Birmingham)—Mr. H. Homewood Crawford (the City Solicitor), it will be remembered, withdrew from the Commission during the course of its pro- ceedings—has reported unanimously in favour of Unifi- cation. When the report is carried out, there will be one Lord Mayor and City Council for the whole Metropolis, and below a number of sub-municipalities each with its mayor and corporation. " The old City," as it is to be called, is to be one of these sub-municipalities, the others are to take the place of the old vestries. The new City Council will take over the estates of the old City, or at any rate, so much of them as belong to London as a whole. This, however, is no great matter, as the free value of the estates is practically nil. They have been mortgaged to their full value for various. improvements. The great civic buildings will of course belong to the new City, which is to be the repository of the civic tradition. The plan, as we have said elsewhere, is an excellent one, and very moderate and sensible. The old City will of course fight hard, but it will be of no avail.
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