• ON THE LOCAL TAXATION OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN, 319 You mean to say, that in the city of London, freemen would be preferred, but not in the city of Westminster ?— They are generally preferred by the corporation, because they are obliged to provide for their freemen. The same principle exists in the city of London as in Westminster, as to the quality of the men and the security ?— I cannot speak as to that; I do not think they take any security in the city of London; I am talking of my own district. What is the duty upon any quantity less than a chaldron ?— There is no less quantity than a chaldron. Is there no less quantity sold?— Yes, there are three sacks. What is the duty paid upon that ?— Three half- pence. So that invariably they are sold by measure and pay accordingly, and by weight only in the instance of this large description of coal you have mentioned ?— Yes; in my district I suppose there are not more than twenty- two tons in a year of that coal. Do you find that many complaints have been made of your meters?— I cannot say that I do, considering the number of men that we employ, I think the number of complaints have been very few. How many are they ?— Forty- eight stations and two inspectors, two extra meters, and three assistant meters, so that in fact we have fifty- three meters employed in Westminster. Can you tell the number employed in London ?— That I cannot tell. Have they as many as that?— They ought to have as many as that. In case any frauds are committed by those meters, to whom do the parties apply ?— To the magistrates; they impose a penalty upon parties connected with the meters in making that fraud. Who can dismiss them ?— I can dismiss them instantly, on any complaint against them of improper conduct John Claudius Beresford, Esq. an Alderman of the City of Dublin, called in; and Examined. DO you know any thing of the debt stated to be due by the corporation of Dub- lin to the paving board r— Yes. What debt is alleged to be due by the corporation of Dublin to the paving board?— It is alleged that the corporation owe the paving board between three and four years arrears, of the sum of 2,2001. a year, which is payable by the corporation of Dub- lin to the paving board, for cleansing and paving the city of Dublin, under the provisions of an Irish Act of Parliament, passed in the 26th of George 3d, chapter 61, section 44, which is in the following words; " And whereas the cleansing of the " streets and other places in the city of Dublin, hath before the passing of the Act " of the 23d and 24th years of his present Majesty, been conducted and managed " under the direction of the lord mayor, sheriffs, commons and citizens of the said " city; and the expense thereof hath been defrayed by them out of the revenue ari- " sing by the tolls and customs of the said city, wherefore and towards enabling the " said directors and commissioners to defray the expense of cleansing the streets " of the city of Dublin; be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the lord " mayor, sheriffs, commons and citizens of the said city shall from and after the pass- " ing of this Act, continue to pay to the said directors and commissioners, the annual " sum of 2,000 i. out of the revenue of the said city, by equal half yearly payments " on every 29th day of September and 25th day of March in each and every " year, the first payment whereof shall be made on the first of the said dates en- " suing the passing this Act; and the said directors and commissioners shall and " may have the same power of demanding, levying and recovering the same, as are " hereby given them for recovering of any of the rates and assessments which shall " or may be made under the authority of this Act." Is it payable out of any particular funds?— In the year 1778, a committee sat in the Irish House of Commons, of which the present Lord Oriel, then Mr. Forster, was chairman, to inquire into the paving and scavenging of the city of Dublin, by whom and out of what funds it was done, with a view to establish a separate board to carry on those works in future, it appeared then, by the evidence of Alderman Gale, the treasurer of the corporation of the city of Dublin, that the corporation had been in the habit, for many years, of scavenging certain parts of the city of Dublin, and repairing the pavemeut of the parts leading to the markets, which