Without sixteen.  This, after all, is surely the point most worthy of attention.  The object is not so much to obtain an equality of districts as an equality of representation.  It is of no consequence that Cornhill be twice as populous as Bassishaw, if it return twice the number of representatives, for in that case the disparity at once ceases to exist.  Sir George Grey, however, is partial to arithmetical equality.  There must be sixteen wards and ninety-six Common-Councilmen, or six to each ward.  Not that there is anything novel or original in this suggestion.  Sir George merely purposes to revert to the arrangements which prevailed in the reign of Richard II.—­a period few students of history would select as an illustration of the happiest and most constitutional balance of power throughout all departments of the commonwealth.  No proof is adduced that this parcelment of the City was attended with the best possible results, to justify its restoration in the present century, after so long an interval and such elemental changes of the social and commercial system.  It is quite possible, and not at all unlikely, that in the time of the second Richard ninety-six Common-Councilmen may have been amply sufficient to discharge all the duties that devolved upon them.  But it does not thence follow that that same number will now suffice.  If it is proposed by Sir George Grey to establish the civic administration on the broadest, safest, and least assailable foundation, it is scarcely consistent to begin by narrowing that basis.  It is generally believed that it is more difficult to corrupt or influence a large number of persons than a small one.  In the multitude of counsellors there is strength of will, integrity of purpose, and variety of knowledge.  There is less opportunity for jobbing among two hundred than among one hundred individuals, The smaller number is certainly more likely to come to a mutual understanding among themselves, and to apportion to each member his share of the loaves and fishes.  On this head no better evidence need be adduced than the report of the commissioners of 1855, by no means too favourably disposed towards the Corporation.  It is in the following terms that they speak of the City, and of the advantages incidental to a large representation:-"The antiquity, extent, and importance of its privileges, the long series of its charters, the large amount of its revenues, its metropolitan position, and its historical associations, combine to give it a character different from that of any other municipal borough.  It may be added, that the continued predominance of the popular element in the formation of its governing body furnished a reason in 1835 for excepting it from the Municipal Corporations Act; seeing that one of the principal defects which that Act was intended to remedy was the practical exclusion of the principle of popular election from the government of the borough, and the accumulation of power in the hands of a small