§ MR. W. H. JAMESasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the Report and Evidence of the Special Inquiry Committee of the Court of Common Council of the City of London in reference to the practice of long standing of gra- 1194 tuities, commissions, or discounts being received by certain officers of the Corporation, and regarding the habitual breach of Standing Order No 67, which rules that no member of the Court of Common Council, or his partner, or other person on his behalf, shall be a contractor for or shall be employed directly or indirectly in any work to be performed in his business or profession, for or against the City or any of its Committees; and, whether he has consulted the Law Officers of the Crown on these matters, and with what result?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, he was informed by the City Remembrancer that certain officers of the Corporation had been in the habit of receiving gratuities and commissions, but the Court of Common Council had called upon the chief persons implicated for an explanation. While emphatically condemning the malpractices in question, the Corporation were of opinion that they had dealt with the matter in the manner which, in regard to all the circumstances of the case, seemed to them to be the most expedient. With regard to any breach of the standing regulations of the Court of Common Council, the City Remembrancer said the matter was one with which the Common Council themselves were fully competent to deal.