contributions had ceased, and such corporations had no longer the means of maintaining municipal institutions of any kind. In the case of Grampound, the mayor had left the borough upon its disfranchisement, and the corporation books and accounts had not been found since; nor had any new mayor been elected until the year in which the late commission of municipal inquiry issued.

In compliance with an address of the House of Commons, this royal commission to inquire as to the existing state of the municipal corporations in England and Wales, and to collect information respecting the defects in their constitution; and to make inquiry also into their jurisdictions and powers, and the administration of justice, and in all other respects; and also into the mode of electing and appointing the members and officers of such corporations, and into the privileges of the freemen and other members thereof, and into the nature and management of the income, revenues, and funds of the said corporations, and into the several local jurisdictions existing within the limits of England and Wales,' was issued in July, 1833; and the general report of the commissioners was laid before the king, and before the House of Commons, who ordered it to be printed, in March, 1835. On this general report, with the particular reports upon the several places appended to it, was founded the ministerial bill for the regulation of municipal corporations in England and Wales.'

mond, St. Ives, Tewkesbury, Walsall, Welchpoole, Wen-
lock, York.
And 15 are municipal only:-

Bideford, Chesterfield, Congleton, Deal, Doncaster,
Gravesend, Kingston-upon-Thames, Louth, Newbury. Os-
westry, Penzance, Romsey, Saffron Walden, Stockton,
Wisbech.

The second schedule (B) comprises that portion of the boroughs of the smallest class not divided into wards, and having only 4 aldermen and 12 councillors, which are not to have a commission of the peace, except upon petition of their council and grant by the crown. This schedule, too, is divided into two sections, after the same manner as the former. The first section comprises those parliamentary boroughs whose parliamentary boundary is to be taken until further legislated upon, in number 9:

Arundel, Beaumaris, Cardigan, Llanidloes, Pwlheli, Ruthin, Tenby, Thetford, Totnes.

Of the 41 contained in the second section of this schedule, whose municipal limits are to remain as before the Act until altered by parliament, 23 are also parliamentary:Bodmin, Buckingham, Calne, Chippenham, Droitwich, Eye, Flint, Helstone, Huntingdon, Hythe, Launceston, Lyme Regis, Lymington, Marlborough, Morpeth, Penryn, East Retford, Rye, Sandwich, Shaftesbury, Tamworth, Wallingford, Chipping Wycombe.

And 18 are municipal only :

Basingstoke, Beccles, Blandford Forum, Chard, Chipping Norton, Daventry, Faversham, Folkestone, Glastonbury, Godalming, Godmanchester, Llandovery, Maidenhead, South Molton, South Wold, Stratford-on-Avon, Tenterden, Torrington.

The fixing of the new municipal boundaries is the task of a distinct commission, which has been actively at work since the passing of the act. Anciently there was no distinction between municipal and parliamentary limits, because it was by virtue of its being a municipal town that each borough sent representatives. But in fixing the new parliamentary limits under the Reform Act, regard was had to various circumstances, which, in many instances, occasioned the tracing of a boundary much too wide to serve conveniently as the limit of a borough inhabitancy. In many cases however it is probable that the boundaries will remain as already indicated in the schedules affixed to the Act, especially in those larger parliamentary boroughs whose great amount of population made it least necessary, in settling their limits, to describe a circuit extending far beyond the more densely inhabited space.

The total number of municipal corporations in England and Wales was found by the commissioners to be 246. A certain number of these, the most inconsiderable in size and population, being left for future legislation, and London, the greatest and most complicated of all, with its many wealthy trading companies, each an important corporation, being reserved as the subject of a distinct bill not yet brought before parliament, the total number of the cities, towns, and ports, reconstituted, under the general name of 'boroughs,' by the Municipal Reform Act, is 178. The act arranges these in two schedules, each divided into two sections. The first schedule (A) comprises those boroughs which are positively to have a commission of the peace. Their number is 128, and includes all those whose popula tion is large enough to admit of their division into two or more wards, as also a certain number of those which are not to be so divided; the members of their respective councils to be elected under the act vary, according to the population, from 4 aldermen and 12 councillors, which is the number for Aberystwith, Abingdon, Andevor, &c., and is the lowest number allotted by the Act, up to 16 aldermen and 48 councillors, the highest number fixed by the Act, and assigned only to Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, and Norwich. Besides the general inadequacy at the present day of the This schedule is arranged in two sections; the first com- antient borough limits in the more populous towns, there prises those boroughs, 84 in number, the enlarged parlia- were two other classes of anomalies in the old system, in mentary limits of which, as settled by the Boundary Act relation to this matter, which it is of some importance to accompanying the Parliamentary Reform Act for England notice. The first was, that in some cases, as at Grantham and Wales, are to be taken as the municipal limits until and Brecon, the corporate boundary was not continuous, altered by act of parliament. These, of course, are all par- but included outlying parcels of ground. The most reliamentary boroughs as well as municipal. They are:- markable instances of this occur in the Cinque Ports. At Aberystwith, Abingdon, Barnstaple, Bath, Bedford, Hastings, for instance, the corporate magistrates had authoBerwick-upon-Tweed, Bridgewater, Bridport, Bristol, Bury rity, amongst other places, over two detached precincts disSt. Edmunds, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cardiff, Carlisle, tant from that town forty and fifty miles respectively. And Carmarthen, Carnarvon, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, the town of Ramsgate, as well as the corporate town of Dartmouth, Denbigh, Derby, Devizes, Dorchester, Dovor, Deal, both at some distance from Sandwich, were under Durham, Evesham, Gateshead, Gloucester, Guildford, the jurisdiction of the corporation of the latter town. The Harwich, Haverford-west, Hereford, Hertford, Ipswich, second class of these anomalies consisted in the precincts Kendal, Kidderminster, Kingston-upon-Hull, King's Lynn, being often locally situated within the limits of the Leeds, Leicester, Leominster, Lichfield, Liverpool, Mac- corporate authority, but exempted from its jurisdiction. clesfield, Monmouth, Neath, Newark, Newcastle-under- Such existed at York, Lincoln, Norwich, Winchester, and Lyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Newport (Monmouthshire), Chichester. These had usually originated in ecclesiastical Newport (Isle of Wight), Northampton, Norwich, Not-privileges, or had been the site of the castle of the lord of tingham, Oxford, Pembroke, Poole, Portsmouth, Preston. the borough. In the city of Canterbury there were fifteen Reading. Ripon, Rochester, St. Albans, New Sarum (Salis- such precincts, though some of them were in dispute bebury), Scarborough, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Stafford, tween the county of Kent and the county of the city. Stamford, Stockport, Sudbury, Sunderland, Swansea, Tiverton, Truro, Warwick, Wells, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Wigan, Winchester, Windsor, Worcester, Great Yarmouth.

The second section of this schedule contains those boroughs, in number 44, the municipal limits of which are to remain as before the passing of this Act, until altered by act of parliament. Of these 29 are also parliamentary; viz. Andevor, Banbury, Beverley, Bewdley, Boston, Brecon, Bridgenorth, Clitheroe, Coventry, Exeter, Falmouth, Grantham, Grimsby, Hastings, Lancaster, Lincoln, Liskeard, Ludlow, Maidstone, Maldon, Plymouth, Pontefract, Rich

The Municipal Reform Act removes both the above descriptions of inconveniences. In each borough every place included within the general boundary indicated in the schedules is to form part of that borough; but any place hitherto forming part of a city or borough, but not included within the boundary thus indicated, is henceforward to be held as part of the county within which it is locally situated, and not as part of the borough.

In analyzing the change made by the act in the internal constitution of the boroughs, we find that the facts naturally resolve themselves into three divisions. The first and most important consists of those relating to the constitution

of the electoral body; the second division regards its orga- | admitted a member of certain guilds or trading companies nization for the purposes of local legislation, taxation, and of antient institution within the borough, and still preserv the other branches of public economy, as the administra-ing various degrees of connexion with, and subordination to, tion of public property, whether absolute or in trust; the the municipal corporation; a practice which seems to have appointment, surveillance, and payment of magistrates, been formerly still more prevalent. The derivative title officers of justice, police, and other departments; the main- conferring a right of admission to these guilds was usually tenance of public works and buildings; the paving, light- of the same kind as that by which the municipal corporation ing, and cleansing of the town; the maintaining and im- itself was entered. These guilds were also accustomed to provement of thoroughfares, and supply of water. The admit by purchase; but such purchasers neither acquired third division regards the organization for purposes of local nor could convey any absolute right to admission into the judicature, comprising all that relates to the constitution municipal corporation. Occasionally, an incorporated guild and powers of the local courts and magistracies. has continued to exist after its connexion with the munieipal corporation has been almost or wholly dissolved.

To make the municipal change now effecting distinctly intelligible, we shall compare, under each of these heads, the state of the municipalities previous to the late Act, with the several provisions of the Act itself.

1.-MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION.

The titles from birth, marriage, and apprenticeship, were very various in different places. In some, the right by birth was enjoyed only by the children of freemen born within the borough; in others, by children of freemen wherever born; in some, the father's admission at any time Electoral Body or Local Constituency. conferred the inchoate right on all his children wherever born; in others, only on those born after, and in many, Most of the governing charters incorporated the men and only on the first son born after his admission. Less variety inhabitants of the borough; yet, though very few of them is found in the nature of the title which a freeman's unequivocally designated the corporate body as a small and daughter or widow must possess, to enable her to convey definite number of persons, custom (supported by the si- the privilege. The right by apprenticeship has usually aclence of the charters as to any general right to the fran- crued by service under indentures for seven years to a freechise, and by its disuse and oblivion where any such might man within the borough: service at sea has generally been formerly have existed) had in many places practically esta- considered in the light of service within the borough where blished the same restricted constitution. A very numerous the vessel belonged to its port: in some boroughs having class of corporations existed which might be considered as trading companies, the binding and service must be to one Occupying a middle place between those in which the num- of the company in the trade peculiar to that company. ber of corporators was indefinite and those in which it was Defects of lute system.-The capital defect was that the now treated as necessarily definite: this class consisted of corporate bodies existed independently of the communities the corporations in which, although there is no doubt, both in which they were. In most of them, the right to the from the wording of the charters and the modern practice, freedom, or citizenship, or burgess ship, had been restricted that the number of corporators might be indefinite, it had to a much smaller class than that which formerly possessed been the policy of the ruling body to restrict the number, it. Without inquiring, say the municipal commissioners, so as to retain all the privileges constitutionally belonging when corporations in this country assumed their present to a large and indefinite body in the hands of a small one. form, it may be safely asserted that the body, however In a great proportion of the instances in which the number named, which was originally intended to share, and which of corporators was, both in constitution and fact, large and in fact did share, in the rights which the early charters conindefinite, the freemen had no share in the management ferred, embraced the great mass of the householders or inof the corporation affairs: this prevailed to so great an habitants. By degrees, exclusive qualifications were inextent, that in such corporations the municipal commis-sisted on with increasing strictness, and with new excepsioners often found that the freemen had long ceased to tions, as the privileges to which these exclusive bodies laid consider themselves as a part of the corporation; which claim rose in importance, This importance again was term, in popular language, was applied exclusively to the enhanced by the narrowing of the access to the privilege, ruling body. In some places this notion had been further and the consequent diminution of the number of individuals refined upon, and a distinction drawn in the large indefinite sharing in its advantages." body of corporators, between those elected by the ruling body and those claiming by an independent right, the former class alone being treated as forming an integral part of the corporation.

Accordingly in most places all identity of interest between the corporation and the inhabitants had disappeared. This was the case even where the corporation included a large body of inhabitant freemen. It appeared in a more striking degree In those boroughs where the number of corporators was as the powers of the corporation became restricted to smaller definite, or had always been kept small, the principal mode proportions of the resident population, and still more glarof entering the corporation was by nomination of the ruling ingly when the local privileges had been conferred on nonbody. In some cases, the election must be from among resident freemen to the exclusion of the inhabitants, to persons qualified, the most usual qualification being re- whom, say the commissioners, they rightfully ought to sidence in the borough; in others the choice was unfettered belong.' Some corporations, indeed, were occasionally by any conditions. This mode of acquiring the freedom spoken of as exercising their privileges through a popular was usually said to be by gift or purchase; and in fact, a body; but in the widest sense in which the term popular sum of money varying with the circumstances of the corpo- body was applied to corporate towns, it designated only the ration and supposed value of the franchise, was usually whole body of freemen; and in most towns the freemen paid by each corporator on his election. In the boroughs were a small number compared with the respectable inhawhere, both by charter and in practice, the number of cor- bitants interested in their municipal government, and posporators was unlimited, the circumstances under which the sessing every qualification, except a legal one, to take part freedom might be demanded of right were very various; in it. In Plymouth, for instance, where the population, but almost all might be classed under the general titles of including Devonport, exceeded 75,000, the number of freefreedom by birth, by marriage, and by servitude. In a few men was only 437, of whom 145 were non-resident. In places the possession or occupation of property gave a title Norwich, the great majority of inhabitant householders and to the freedom. Everywhere, a very few places only ex-rate-payers were excluded from the corporate body; while cepted, a distinction was made between the freemen and paupers, lodgers, and others, paying neither rates nor taxes, the inhabitants. The right of conferring the freedom by were admitted to the functions of freemen, and formed a sale or free gift was claimed and exercised by the ruling considerable part of the corporation, The case of Ipswich body of almost every corporation. Particular officers of the affords another remarkable illustration. Out of more than corporation, usually the mayor, were frequently allowed to 20,000 inhabitants. the resident free men formed about a name a certain number of persons to be admitted to the fifty fifth part. Of these more than one-third were not freedom; but although this practice had nearly acquired rated; and of those who were rated many were excused the force of positive law, it is not distinguishable in its payment. About one-ninth of the whole were paupers. origin from the general power exercised by the ruling body, More than 11-12ths of all the property assessed in this who seem in these instances to have simply acquiesced in borough belonged to those excluded from the corporation. their officers' nomination. Of the inhabitants taxed under a local act for municipal purposes, less than 1-15th were freemen; and of the assessed taxes paid in the borough less than 1-20th was paid

In many towns, as still in London, it was necessary, in order to complete his title, that the party should be first

old ruling bodies, still leaving in their hands an arbitrary power of admission or exclusion.

by the whole corporate body. The condition of these free men exposed them to bribery and undue influencé, and advantage was taken of that condition to establish the most Changes introduced into the local constituencies by the demoralizing practices. A further illustration of the vast Municipal Reform Act for England and Wales. - The most disproportion existing under the old system between the important change is the recognition and adoption of the two actual basis of constituency and that which the inhabitancy great principles upon which alone a municipal establishwould have suggested, appears in a table given in the comment can be usefully based;-first, that the primary missioners' Report, of sixteen of the largest English cities object of such an establishment should be the welfare of the and boroughs, which, with a collective population of 715,702 residents within the municipality;-secondly and consewithin their parliamentary boundaries, had only 34,697 quently, that the constituency should comprise all those, freemen of all classes, resident and non-resident. and only those, who contribute to the local burdens and are liable to the local services. A termination is thus put to that mischievous power so long exercised by the general government of the country, and by individuals holding political patronage, in modifying, enlarging, or restricting the nominal constituencies of so large a portion of the English municipalities, for the promotion of political or private ob jects exclusively, to the total disregard, and often in open contempt, of the well-being of the communities which they professed to regulate.

The political importance which the election of members of parliament has in later times conferred upon these go verning bodies, and the rewards for political services thus brought within the reach of the ruling corporators, had caused the exercise of the parliamentary franchise to be often regarded as the sole purpose of a municipal institution; and in some boroughs this right has even survived all other traces of municipal authority. The custom of keep ing the corporators as few as possible is referable rather to this cause than to the mere desire of monopolizing the municipal authority, which has been coveted almost exclusively as the means of securing the other and more highly prized privilege. Hence a great number of corporations have been preserved solely as political engines, the respective towns deriving no benefit, but often much injury, from their existence.To maintain the political ascendancy of a party,' say the commissioners, or the political influence of a family, has been the one end and object for which the powers intrusted to a numerous class of these bodies have been exercised.' The most flagrant abuses arose from this perversion of municipal privileges to political ends. The commissioners generally found that those corporations which had not possessed the parliamentary franchise, had most faithfully performed the duties of town government, and had consequently acquired more than others the confidence and good-will of the communities to which they were attached. Such was found to be the case in some where the ruling body was strictly self-elected, and the general constitution liable to the same objections as the great majority of corporations.

It was likewise with a view to the lucrative exercise of the elective franchise that admission into the corporate body was commonly sought. In those towns where a large body of freemen returned the members, the years in which elections happened, or immediately preceding those in which they were expected, have been marked by the admission of a number greatly exceeding the average. Maldon and Bristol present two remarkable instances: at the former, in one election year, 1870 freemen were admitted, the annual average since then being only 17; at the latter, in another election year, 1720 were admitted in lieu of the annual average of 50. The number of admissions, since the Reform Act abolished the exclusiveness of the freemen's right of parliamentary election, had remarkably fallen off; and the corporate officers, in the course of the recent inquiry, expressed their conviction that the revenue from admission fees would thenceforward diminish, and in some places entirely fail.

The election to municipal offices, too, has often been a trial of strength between political parties; and instances of systematie bribery to secure such elections, appear at Maidstone, Norwich, Ipswich, Liverpool, Oxford, Hull, &c. Thus have the inhabitants had to complain, not only that the choice of their magistrates and their municipal functionaries was made by an inferior class of themselves, or by persons unconnected with the town, but also of the disgraceful practices by which the magisterial office was frequently attained; while those who, by character, residence, and property, were best qualified to direct its municipal affairs, were excluded from any share either in the management or the elections.

The Act provides, that every male person of full age, not an alien, who, on the last day of August in any year, shall have occupied any house, warehouse, counting-house, or shop, within any borough during that year and the whole of the two years preceding, and during that period shall have been an inhabitant householder within such borough or within seven miles of it by the nearest route, shall be a burgess of that borough, if duly enrolled in that year as below stated. But to be entitled to this enrolment he must have been rated to the relief of the poor, during such time of occupancy, for his premises within the borough, and must have paid, on or before the last day of August in that year, all poor-rates and all borough-rates (if any) under this Act, payable by him in respect of such premises, except such as become payable within six calendar months before the said last day of August. It is not necessary that, during the period in question, he should have continued to occupy the same premises. Any person occupying as above stated may claim to be rated to the relief of the poor, whether the landlord of the premises be liable to be so rated or not. And upon his so claiming, and paying or tendering the amount of the rate last payable, the overseers are bound to put his name upon the rate; and if they omit to do so, he is still to be deemed to be rated from the period of making such rate. And where any such premises shall come to any person by descent, marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion to any benefice or office, he will be entitled to reckon the occupancy and rating of the former possessor as his own, and to add it to his own period of occupancy for the purpose of enrolment as a burgess. No person may be so enrolled who within twelve months before the last day of August in any year shall have received parochial relief or other alms, or any pension or charitable allowance from any fund held by trustees in the borough; but neither charitable medical or surgical aid given by trustees of the borough, nor the education of a child in any public or endowed school, is to disqualify for enrolment.

On the 5th of September in every year, the overseers of the poor of each parish or township, wholly or partly within any borough, are to make out an alphabetical list, to be called 'The Burgess List,' of all persons who shall be entitled, by the qualification above stated, to be enrolled in the burgess-roll of that year in respect of property within such parish, &c.; inserting therein the Christian name and surname of each person at full length, the nature of the propérty rated, and the street, lane, or other place in the parish or township where the property is situated. The overseers are to sign these lists, and deliver them to the townclerk of the borough (appointed as hereafter stated), or to the person acting in his stead, on the said 5th of September, and to keep a true copy of them to be perused by any person, without payment of any fee, at all reasonable Another great source, in the late system, of unfair and in-hours between the 5th and 15th of September; and the townjurious limitation of the municipal franchise, must not be overlooked. The Test and Corporation Acts, until their repeal not many years ago, excluded from the corporate bodies the whole mass of English Roman Catholics and dissenters. Against the latter especially, whose numerical proportion to the whole population of the kingdom has in later times so rapidly increased, the operation of those acts was most seriously prejudicial to the public welfare; and since their repeal the measure has been found to have little practical effect, owing to the self-elective constitution of the

clerk is to have copies of all the lists printed. for sale to any person, at a reasonable price per copy, and to have a copy fixed in a public situation within the borough, on every day during the week preceding the 15th of September.

Every person whose name shall have been omitted in the list, and who shall claim to have it inserted, must gi e notice in writing to the town-clerk or his deputy, on or before the 15th of September, describing the nature, period. parish or other place of his occupancy and rating, and subscribed with his name and place of abode.

The burgess-lists, when revised by the mayor and two | they were nominated by the executive municipal officer, assessors (elected as hereafter described), and signed (as usually termed mayor. The election was generally for provided for in the Act), are to be delivered by the mayor life: the qualification of residence, though sometimes neto the town clerk, who is to keep them, and cause them cessary, was often little regarded. The aldermen generally to be accurately copied into one general alphabetical list, filled up vacancies in their own body from the other branch in a book provided by him for that purpose, with every of the common council; in other cases their class consisted name numbered in regular series. If any burgess be of all who had filled the executive office: the aldermen, like rated for distinct premises in more wards than one, he will the common councilmen, were usually chosen for life. Lon De entitled to be enrolled and to vote in such ward as he don and Norwich afford instances of the election, by large shall select, but not in more than one. And for the better bodies of freemen, both of aldermen and common council, ascertaining who are the burgesses of any ward, the town- the latter in both cities being chosen annually. clerk of any borough divided into wards is to cause the burgess-roll to be made out in alphabetical lists of the burgesses, to be called 'Ward Lists. The books are to be completed on or before the 22nd of October in every year; and the town-clerk, at the expiration of his office, must deliver them, together with the lists, to his successor. Every such book into which the burgess-lists have been copied, is to be the burgess-roll of the burgesses of the borough entitled to vote in any election of councillors, assessors, or auditors of the borough that may take place between the 1st of November inclusive in the year in which such burgess-roll shall have been made, and the 1st of November in the following year. The admission, registry, and enrolment of burgesses are to be free from stamp-duty, which, in a large proportion of cases, formed, under the old system, the heaviest part of the expense of admissions to borough freedom.

The town-clerk is also to cause copies of the burgess-roll in every year to be written or printed, and is to dispose of them to all persons applying for copies, at a reasonable price for each. The proceeds of the sale of these, of the overseers' lists, and of the lists of claims and objections, are to be paid to the treasurer of the borough on account of the borough fund, out of which the expenses of their preparation are to be defrayed; and the council are to reimburse to the overseers of the poor, out of the borough fund, all reasonable expenses incurred by them in relation to the burgesslists.

The reader may refer to the Act itself, or to the abstract in the Companion to the Almanac for 1836, for many of the details of this and other parts of the Act, which it would be unnecessary to insert here.

II. ORGANIZATION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT. This part of our subject involves the consideration of three distinct though closely relative departments, the legislative, the executive, and the ministerial.

1. Constitution, Designation, and Powers of the Legislative Body.

Under the late system the legislative body generally consisted of a single select assembly called the common council, presided over by the executive officer of the municipality; though in some boroughs, as Ipswich, Carmarthen, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, it consisted of the freemen at large. The body of the council however was often composed of two classes, the superior class being generally designated as aldermen, the inferior simply as common councilmen. In many places the aldermen, or those of analogous station in the corporation, had real municipal powers beyond those of the other members of the council; in others the distinction was merely honorary; in a few there were more than two classes in the common council: in many, the presence of a majority of each class of the common council was necessary to constitute it a legal assembly, the instances being rare in which the aldermen met also by themselves as a separate deliberative chamber; although in some, as at Hull and Pontefract, the executive officer and the aldermen, or analogous functionaries, constituted the whole council. The recorder, a legal officer, was occasionally constituted by charter a member of the common council; and in some towns other corporate officers were members of it ex officio. The same form of legislation, by a mayor and common council, had been preserved in the corporations whose number was definite, and in those in which the number, though indefinite, had been purposely kept low in the former case, the common council generally comprised the whole corporation, and in the latter nearly

the whole.

The members of the council were elected, in the great majority of instances, by the council itself, or by that division of it commonly designated as aldermen. In some cases

The functions of the governing councils, which the original charters of most boroughs must be considered as having sanctioned rather than created, might be classed under four distinct heads-the appointment of officers, the making of bye-laws or local regulations, the levying of the various denominations of rates or local taxes, and the management of the corporate property and revenues. In a great number of corporations however the power of making bye-laws had long fallen into disuse. In some cases they were offered for approval or confirmation to a more popular assembly; and some charters required them to be approved by the judges of assize. Many corporations had the power of enforcing their bye-laws by fine and imprisonment, but these powers had of late been little exercised. In scarcely any instance have the members of the council, as such, legally received any salary or emolument. In London indeed allowances are made for regular attendance on the committees, in which the great mass of business is prepared for the consideration of the common council.

The acknowledged defects in the late legislative constitution of the English boroughs bear a close affinity to those above indicated in the composition of the general constituency. As the commissioners remark, the exclusive and party spirit which belonged to the whole corporate body, appeared still more strikingly in the councils by which, in most cases, it was governed. It has been stated that the members of these councils were usually self-elected and for life. They were commonly of one political party, and their proceedings were usually directed to secure and perpetuate that party's ascendency. Individuals of adverse political opinions were, in most cases, systematically excluded from the legislative council. Since the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, and the removal of the civil disabilities of either Catholics or Dissenters, though often forming a nuthe Roman Catholics, we find very few instances in which merous, respectable, and wealthy portion of the inhabitants, have been chosen into the governing body. These councils, embodying the opinions of a single party, were intrusted with the nomination of magistrates, of the civil and criminal judges, frequently of the superintendents of police, and were, or ought to have been, the leaders in every measure that concerned the welfare of their town; yet, so far from being the representatives either of its population or its property, they did not even represent the privileged class of freemen; and being elected for life, their proceedings were unchecked by any consciousness of responsibility. The discharge of their functions was rendered difficult by the dislike and suspicion which the mode of their election inevitably entailed upon them. Hence also the carelessness often observable in the performance of their duties; while persons well qualified for the council were excluded, sometimes for want of vacancies, sometimes through rejection by the electing body, sometimes through their own refusal to identify themselves with a system of which they disapproved. The common council of London is cited by the commissioners as a striking exception to the system of self-election for life, and a remarkable instance of the absence of the consequent evils. Again, it has been part of the general system of close corporations, that all their affairs should be managed with the strictest secrecy, sometimes even enforced by oaths administered to the members of the common council. The inhabitants subject to their authority had often very imperfect information as to its nature and extent; knew not whether it flowed from prescription, from charters, or from bye-laws, and had no means of ascertaining it but the troublesome and expensive one of applying to the superior courts for a writ of mandamus or quo warranto. The bye-laws made or repealed were seldom published, and the public generally learned their provisions only from common rumour. This ignorance was sometimes shared by the members of the corporation itself, so that both charters and bye-laws were frequently violated with impunity.

2. Constitution, Designation, and Powers of the Executive Office.

be a number divisible by three (as one-third quit office every year), and the particulars of the number ass gned to each ward are to be submitted to the king in council, and published in the London Gazette,' and a copy is to be deposited with the town-clerk of the borough.

The executive officer of the municipality, or 'head of the corporation,' as he has commonly been called, has, in all instances, been constituted by annual election. In a very The councillors are to be elected by the burgesses who few corporations of indefinite number, as at Berwick-upon- have been duly enrolled in each borough, and in boroughs Tweed and Ipswich, the freemen at large had an unrestricted divided into wards the councillors for each ward are to be power of choosing any one from their own number. In elected by the burgesses of that ward only; and should the some, they chose him from the aldermen or the common same person be elected councillor for more than one ward at councilmen; in others, from two or more nominated by the the same election, he must make choice of one within three governing body. Most commonly, the court of aldermen or days, or in default the mayor is to name the ward for which common council elected him from the aldermen or common he shall serve. One-third of the number is to go out of councilmen. In some places, he was presented by the jurors office every year, and an annual election of one third of the of the court leet. In several, the same person was re- whole number of councillors is to take place. The order in eligible only after a given interval. In a great majority of which those who may be chosen at the first election are the English and Welsh boroughs, the executive officer bore annually to retire, is to be that of being returned by the the Anglo-Norman designation of mayor; in a few, that of smallest number of votes; and, in case of an equality of bailiff; and occasionally, but rarely, the old Saxon title of votes, the determination is to be made by a majority of the portreve. Some of the governing charters gave him the council; and after two-thirds have thus retired, those always power of appointing a deputy. who have been for the longest time in office without reelection are to go out; but they may be immediately reelected if duly qualified.

The head of the corporation, besides presiding over the governing council and acting as its executive organ, has universally been, by virtue of his office, the head of the The number of aldermen in every borough is to be onelocal judicature also. He commonly received a salary: in third of the number of councillors. They are to be elected some small boroughs he has taken the whole corporate every third year by the council for the time being from the revenue without account; but more usually a fixed sum has councillors, or from the burgesses qualified to be councillors, been paid him, besides tolls, which have often been collected and one-half only of their number is to go out of office at exclusively in his name and on his behalf. Having been each election; so that each alderman will in fact be elected generally expected to exercise hospitality towards the other for six years. Immediately after the first election the almembers of the corporation, and distinguished visitors of the dermen who shall retire at the expiration of the first three town, it is probable that, on the whole, more has been ex-years are to be named by the councillors, and afterwards pended in this way than has been realized from the ordinary emoluments of the office. In some boroughs no emolument whatever has been attached to it.

In some cases, the duties of the mayor have been wholly neglected, either from want of capacity or of will; occasionally from non-residence. In some boroughs the same mayor was continued from year to year; and in others it was customary to elect two or three individuals in rotation. The effect of entrusting his election to the freemen, constituted as their body has generally been, was to degrade the office in the estimation of the persons to be governed. The charters usually limit the executive officer's power of appointing a deputy to occasions of his illness or necessary absence, plainly importing that residence in the town was an implied condition of his holding such office. But although the mayor was usually resident, the practice of deviating from the charter by appointing a deputy for the whole year had become general.

the order of retiring will be that of length of time in office without re-election; but the retiring aldermen are not to vote at the election of a new alderman.

We shall here speak of the mayor only as head of the local legislature, leaving his executive and magisterial functions for subsequent notice. He is to be annually elected by the council out of the aldermen or councillors.

The property qualification for mayor, alderman, or councillor is the same; namely, in boroughs divided into four wards or more, the clear possession of 10007. in real or personal estate, or being rated to the relief of the poor upon the annual value of not less than 301.; and in boroughs not divided into wards, or divided into less than four, the clear possession of 5007., or being rated upon the annual value of 15l. In order to be elected councillor or alderman a person must be entitled to be on the burgess-roll of the borough; and during his continuance in either of these offices, or in that of mayor, he must also continue to possess the above-named qualification in property or rating to the

Changes made by the Municipal Reform Act in the Con-relief of the poor.
stitution, Designation, and Powers of the Legislative
Body.

Every person on being elected mayor, alderman, or councillor must make or subscribe before two or more aldermen or councillors the following declaration, or one to the same effect:

It is here that the House of Peers in its legislative capacity has most decidedly and importantly interposed. Leaving the constituency on the broad basis fixed for it by 'I, A. B., having been elected mayor (or alderman, or the first bill sent up from the Commons, that is, on the councillor) for the borough of, do hereby declare that rate-paying qualification, more extensive than the 10l. suf- I take the same office upon myself, and will duly and faithfrage of the parliamentary constituencies, it proceeded to fully fulfil the duties thereof according to the best of my re-model the simple constitution which the Commons had judgment and ability; [and in the case of the party being fixed for the governing councils. They had enacted that qualified by estate, say]-And I do hereby declare that I for the future each municipal body should be styled simply am seised or possessed of real or personal estate, or both [as 'The mayor and burgesses of such or such a borough, and the case may be], to the amount of 10007, or 5007. [as the the constitution of each was to be purely popular; the go-case may require], over and above what will satisfy all my verning council, consisting of one class only, to be chosen debts." one-third yearly by the burgesses at large, and subject to no qualification of property. But the Lords have introduced a distinct class of aldermen elected for a term of years, so that the future style of every corporate body is to be 'The mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of -,' and they have also made high pecuniary qualifications requisite for the holding of any municipal office, even as a member of the council or local representative assembly.

The governing council then, or local legislature of each borough, is to consist of a mayor, aldermen, and councillors, and to be called 'the council of the borough.'

The number of councillors to be elected for cach ward in boroughs so divided is to be fixed by the revising barristers who determine the limits of the wards; and who are, in assigning the proportions, to have regard to the number of persons rated, and the amount of the poor-rates paid in each respectively. The number of councillors in each ward is to

The mayor and aldermen are to continue ex officio members of the council while they hold their respective offices, notwithstanding that it is provided that councillors shall go out of office at the end of three years.

No person in holy orders, or being the regular minister of a dissenting congregation, or holding any office or place of profit, other than that of mayor, in the gift or disposal of the council, or having directly or indirectly, by himself or his partner, any share or interest in any contract or employment connected with the council, is to be qualified to be elected, or to be a member of the council; but the proprietors or shareholders of any company for insuring, lighting, or supplying water to the borough, are not to be disqualified thereby.

Every person duly qualified who shall have been elected to the office of mayor, alderman, or councillor, must accept such office, or pay to the corporation such a fine, not ex

VOL. V.-2 E