§ A Petition of the court of mayor and aldermen of the city of London was read; setting forth, "That his Majesty's royal predecessor Edward the 4th, king of England, being entitled to the gauging of all wines, oils, and other gaugable commodities, imported for sale into England, by his letters patent under the great seal of England, bearing date at Westminster, the 26th day of June, in the 18th year of his reign, in consideration of 7000l. released to him by the said mayor and commonalty and citizens, was, amongst other things, graciously pleased to grant to the said mayor and commonalty and citizens the office of ganger within the said city, to have the said office, and the disposition, ordinance, oversight, and correction of the same, together with the fees, profits, and emoluments to the same office due and by use belonging by use and custom to the said mayor and commonalty and citizens and their successors for ever, and also the exercise of the same office, by themselves or their sufficient deputy, which said office has been exercised by the petitioners from the granting of the said letters patent, hitherto to their emolument, and to the great advantage and benefit of the public; and the forfeitures accruing to his Majesty and his predecessors, received by the petitioners or their deputy, in the exercise of such office, have been duly accounted for annually, upon oath, by the gauger and deputy gauger of the city of London, in the court of Exchequer; and that, from the granting of the said letters patent until the completion of the docks and quays authorized and established by the acts of parliament hereinafter mentioned, much the greater part of the gaugeable commodities, imported into the port of London for sale, were landed and brought within the said city and the liberties thereof, by reason whereof the petitioners had the gauging of the same, and the fees, profits, and emoluments arising therefrom; but 426 that an Act passed in the 39th year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, "An Act for rendering more commodious, and for better regulating the port of London;" and, by another Act passed in the 39th and 40th year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, "An Act for making wet docks, basons, cuts, and other works, for the greater accommodation and security of shipping, commerce, and revenue within the port of London," the several quays therein mentioned, which are now completed, are made legal quays for the importation and landing of merchandize imported for sale into the said port of London; and almost all the gaugeable commodities imported into the port of London must now, by the respective provisions of the said Acts, necessarily be landed on the said quays respectively, and cannot lawfully be landed elsewhere; and that the said quays are situated out of the local limits of the said city and the liberties thereof; and although the gauge of all gaugeable commodities coming into the port of London, and landed without the actual limits of the city of London and liberties thereof, have, from the date of the said charter down to the completion of the docks constructed by virtue of the above mentioned Acts, been taken by the city gauger on each shore of the river up to upon and beyond the local situation of the said docks, without question or dispute of the city's right of gauge, and although the lord chief justice of his Majesty's court of King's-bench, upon the first trial of the question, decided in favour of the city's right so to gauge under the charter of Edward the 4th, yet, upon a subsequent trial of the question, that court adopted a contrary decision, and adjudged that the petitioners could not, under the said letters patent, legally claim to exercise their said office of gauger on gaugeable commodities there imported and landed, whereby they have lost nearly the whole of the profits of their said office, so purchased by them as aforesaid, for a large pecuniary consideration, and the public have lost the advantage of a gauger legally constituted to gauge and ascertain, an oath, between the buyer and seller, as also an arbiter between the gaugers for the revenue and the merchant, in the measure of the gaugeable commodities so imported and landed at the said quays; and that the consent of the lords commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury to this application was not obtained until within a few 427 days last past; and praying, that leave may be given to present a petition for leave to bring in a Bill to enable his Majesty to grant to the said mayor and commonalty and citizens the officer of gauger at the said docks and quays, and at all legal quays and sufferance wharfs wherein gaugeable commodities may now or hereafter be lawfully landed within the port of London, in like manner as they now hold and exercise the said office within the city of London, or that they may have such other relief as the House shall think just and equitable."
§ Ordered, That leave be given to present a petition as desired.
§ The House being informed, That one of the sheriffs of the city of London attended at the door, he was called in, and at the bar presented to the House, a Petition of the court of mayor and aldermen of the city of London:—and then he withdrew.
§ And the said Petition was read; containing the same allegations as the last preceding petition; and praying, that leave may be given to bring in a Bill for the purposes therein mentioned.
§ Ordered, That the said petition be referred to a committee, with power to send for persons, papers, and records.