Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/618

612 LONDON here the prisoners are detained during two years, and trained to useful trades. The house of correction, Cold Bath Fields, and that of Westminster for females, hold respectively about 1,200 prisoners, and are under the control of the Middlesex magistrates and the home sec- retary. The Surrey house of correction, Wands- worth common, is for convicted criminal pris- oners, except those sentenced to penal servi- tude or to death ; and there are female convict prisons at Fulham Refuge, and at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight. The prison for debtors in White- cross street was in 1874 converted into a rail- way freight station. The government of the greater part of the metropolis is under the charge of the home secretary, and administered under his instructions by the commissioners of police ; but that portion known as the City is under the exclusive control of the corpora- tion of London, one of the most influential and wealthy municipal bodies in the world. It includes the lord mayor, 25 aldermen exclu- sive of the chief magistrate, 4 sheriffs, and 206 common council men. The lord mayor is elect- ed annually from the court of aldermen ; he must have previously served as sheriff, and may be reflected. The aldermen hold office for life ; they are elected one for each of the 26 wards of the City, and all resident freemen are en- titled to a vote in the respective ward elec- tions, whether liverymen or not. The num- ber of liverymen varies between 6,000 and 8,000. Their guilds number upward of 80, 39 of which have separate halls, the rest meeting in the guildhall or in taverns. Among these are 12 formerly called honorable companies, and still holding a certain preeminence ; they are the mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, gold- smiths, skinners, merchant tailors, haberdash- ers, salters, ironmongers, vintners, and cloth- workers. The guild of saddlers is traditional- ly the oldest of them all ; saddles were known in London as early as A. D. 600. Many of the guilds are possessed of large property, and dis- pense the most lavish hospitality in their halls. Fishmongers' hall, mercers' hall, grocers' hall, merchant tailors' hall, the new clothworkers' hall in Mincing lane, and, above all, goldsmiths' hall, are among the finest. These guilds are intimately connected with the corporation of London. Next in importance to the corpora- tion are the metropolitan board of works, the local boards of works, and the parish vestries, all elective bodies, which have been compared to local parliaments. The guildhall, in which the civic deliberative assembly meets, is a large but not remarkable building. The lord mayor is the representative of royalty in the civil government of the City, chief commissioner of its lieutenancy, and conservator of the river Thames ; and on the death of a sovereign he becomes pro tern, a member of the privy coun- cil. The day on which he enters upon office (Nov. 9) is kept as a partial holiday in the City. He then proceeds in state to Westminster hall, where he is sworn in ; and in the evening he gives a sumptuous banquet in the guildhall, which is attended by ministers and other pub- lic personages. The metropolitan police force consisted on Jan. 1, 1874, of 9,855 persons, in- cluding 4 district superintendents, 26 superin- tendents, 298 inspectors, and 3,981 sergeants. The expenditures for the year ending March 31, 1874, comprised 26,897 for the cost of the offices, 797,135 for wages and equipment of the force, 527,000 for police stations, &c., and 74,878 for pensions. The receipts, in- cluding a surplus of 163,934 from the pre- ceding year, consisted of 602,028 contributed by the parishes, 230,052 by the state, 114,- 584 by public institutions, 17,584 by asso- ciations and private individuals, and 1,777 by managers of theatres. The register of the police, established in 1869, contained in 1874 the names of 117,568 suspicious characters, including all petty offenders who have under- gone punishment in preceding years. The me- tropolitan fire brigade in 1874 employed 396 firemen, 3 floating steam and 104 land engines, of which 21 were worked by steam* and 83 by hand. The engines have generally seven-inch barrels with eight-inch stroke. Small engines are drawn by hand or by one horse ; two horses are used for distances under 6 m. and four for remote localities. Two engines are united in cases of emergency, and together throw 180 gallons in a minute; one of the floating en- gines throws 1,400 gallons. The pumps are worked by levers, and horizontal bars enable a large number of firemen to operate at the same time upon the same pumps. The num- ber of large fires in 1870 was 276, and of small fires 1,670 ; altogether 1,946, or 555 above the average of 10 preceding years. In 1873 there were 105 fire escape stations, 181 day and 90 night watches in the metropolis, and 1,548 fires. The tower of London, the most celebrated citadel of England and the only fortress of the metropolis, is of very ancient origin, and has been traced to Julius Caesar, but without suffi- cient authority. It contains a renowned col- lection of armor, in the galleries known as the Horse armory and as Queen Elizabeth's armory. The regalia of the English monarchs is in the jewel room. Among the most mem- orable spots are the traitors' gate, now closed, through which Ealeigh, Sidney, Russell, and other eminent men were ushered into the tower, and the fine arch of which was restored in 1866; the bloody tower opposite the gate, where the sons of Edward IV. were mur- dered at the instigation of Richard III., and which the duke of Wellington regarded as the securest place of imprisonment; and the white tower, the oldest relic of the building, constructed by William the Conqueror, and externally remodelled by Wren, but almost unchanged in the interior. Beauchamp tow- er, where Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey were detained, and named from Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was restored in 1853. On Tower hill, N. W. of the tower,