The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-15 00:00:00

the Churchwarden in the Chair determined that the
Trustees were not officers of the parish, and ti at
therefore a ballot could not be allowed on their
election, and they were accordingly chosen by a
show of hand'. When the Trustees were to be
chosen, the Churchwarden decided that they were
not officers of the parish, and therefore that the
question was not to be decided by a show of hands
(which is the rule for other business than the elee-

Lion of officers by the Act), and when the question
was for a postponement of the Election, he then de-
cided that the sense of the Vestry should be taken
in that mode which is provided solely for the elec-
tion of officers, namely, pro rata. The reason for
the decision may, in both cases, be guessed without
much difficulty. Postponement would have left
him and his co-trustees in a minority. We have
entered thus minutely into the case of this parish to
show how worthless are any of the securities that
have been devised for the protection of the
parishioners, where the temptation to mismanage-
ment is great. The officers of Islington have not,
indeed, such/princely revenues to dispose of as the
Vestry of Marylebone ; but still much may be made
of 25,0001. a year. This jobbing, it is to be re-
membered, is going on more or less in almost every
parish of the kingdom. In the Appendix to a work
just published, by Lieut.-Colonel Briggs, of the
Madras Army, on " the present Land Tax in India,
considered as a measure of Finance," there is an
extract from a law promulgated on the 14th March,
1814, for the village Municipalities of Wurtemberg,
which might be of great advantage to those of our
Legislators Who really sish to introduce some-
thing like purity into ourparochial administrations
Every village and town forms a commune. . . .
Every individual and every description of property within
the limits of the township is amenable to its laws, unless
especially exempted.

-A-; A A A
" The affairs of the township shall be entrusted to a
Common Council, which shall consist of not less than
seven, and not more than twenty-one members.
" The members of the Council shall be elected by the
Commune, according to a majority of votes.—[Every
adult male enjoying civil rights is entitled to vote. The
vote is given in writing, and put into a box, which is
opened in public, and the successful candidates are an-
nounced.l
The Council represents the interests of the village in its
relations with tke Government; its duty is to protect the
people from external encroachments, and from internal
disorder.

" Every village or town elects its Mayor, or Chief,
who is ex-officio Chairman of the Council.

• • • • e •
" The Mayor receives a salary from the village, which
is paid out of the common fund.
" The duties of the Mayor ure to maintain public order
and security; to superintend the police, bath for the secu-
rity of the community and for the benefit of the Govern-
ment; to execute the laws; to assist and expedite the
pour and helpless ; to give information and assistance to
strangers; to prevent all acts of injustice and oppression ;
to superintend and act for the welfare of the village ; to
direct the management of its affairs in concert with the
Council, and to prevent abuses. [The same duties, the
same office, and the same mode of election, are common
throughout most parts of Germany.]
• • • •

" The Council shall elect a Public Record Keeper,
whose office lasts for life ; he, like the Mayor, shall be
paid out of the common fend.
" The Council shall have the management of the funds
of the Corporation, and elect a Treasurer from amongst
its Members, who shall superintend and examine the ac-
counts.

" The Council shall decide on the best mode of manag-
ing the public funds, and shall judge of the necessity of tsll
charges in the most frugal manner; or the employment of
the surplus funds; and' in case of deficit on the mode of
raising means to defray the expanses. •
_ _

• • • •
" The Mayor shall form the annual Budget of the Com-
mune, and submit it first to the Counsel, subsequelitly- to
the Committee, and eventually to the Government.
• • • • • • •

" Every year the public accounts shall be closed, and
read by the Registrar, in the absence of the Treasurer, to
the assembled commune, and shall be left in possession of
the Council for eight days. They shall then be submitted
to the Village Committee, with the necessary vouchers,
which is bound to return them to the Council within one
month, with any remarks it may think necessary.
• A 0 4

" The Community takes no immediate concern in the
public affairs, nor cen it assemble without being sum-
moned by the Mayor; but it has a right to elect a perma-
nent Committee to controul the acts of the Council.
" The Committee consists of the same number of mem-
bers as the Council ; it is elected for two years.
w •ar • I *

" The Council is obliged to obtain the consent of the
Committee of Controul in the following cases :
" 1. In the formation of theßudget and the Assessment.
" 2. In the defraying of any Expences.
" 3. On the occasion of forming all Contracts on account
of the village which are not put up to public auction ; espe-
cially should the contest to be made with a Member of the
Council.

" 4. On remunerating the Members of the Connell for
extra services.

" 5. On remitting balances due to tke village.
" 6. In all charges whatsoever of the public disburse-
ments on the public funds.
" When the Council and Committee of Controul cannot
agree on any matter, ro change shall take place.
" The Committee, on examining the Budget, shall he
competent to annex any remarks it may have to make on
the general state of the community and its concerns."

• ♦ • •0
How superior the organization of these commu-
nities to anything we have in this country. Here
every thing is anarchy, or irresponsibility. By this
scheme, the people are deprived of what they never
can discharge with advantage—the power of delibe-
ration on the parochial affairs ; while they have full
scope in electing those who have to execute and
deliberate. Care again is taken, by the appoint-
ment of a Committee, that the Council or Parlia-
ment of the Communes shall not exceed its powers.

--In our parishes time is neither Exectuive nor
Council. One of the Churchwardens is always a
creation of the Parson, and hostile to the parishioners,
and the Overseers hurry through their task the test
way they can. All the functions assigned to the
Mayor of the Commune in Wurtemburg are in Eng-
land assigned to no one. If a Churchwarden or
Overseer have a relation an attorney, the parish
funds are liberally expended in prosecutions and liti-
gation in general. But in general individuals are
left to protect themselves as they best can.—Morn-
ing Chronicle.
When the greater part of the public press, " No,
- - - -

vitatis avida,;" was crying up the New police as a
wonder-working system, from which marvellous re-
sults, in the way of the preservation of public order
and diminution of crime, were likely to ensue, we
ventured to avow ourselves of a different opinion;
and though we were not prepared to admit that
even the end could justify the means, we gave our
reasons for thinking that neither the means nor the
end were such as the public were, or had a right to
be, satisfied with. We never denied that the Old
Police had not become ineffective, and, therefore,
that it did not cal! for reform in all its branches ; but
we thought that, in police as well as politics, reform
and revolution were very different remedies, and
that it did not follow that, because abuses were
suffered to grow up and exist in a constitutional
system, that, therefore, an unconstitutional one
should be substituted in its stead. Upon this
principle, the abuse of any good is only to be
remedied by the adoption of an opposite evil. We
believe we are not now singular, as we were then,
in the opinions we entertained. We were asked to
wait and see how the system worked. We did not
wait, it is true, because we objected to the principle
of the thing; but it has been left to work, and what
has been and is the result ? Why, that the public
ale daily filled with alarm and annoyance by that
which was to have been their comfort and safeguard,
and that the time both of the Magistrate and the
Courts seems to be nearly as much occupied in
looking after and judging of the conduct of police-
men, as it is in punishing those whose crimes and
excesses they are appointed to prevent and controul.
e do not feel at all inclined to attach blame to
those who have had the direction of the system, who
on the contrary, instead of screening offenders from
Justice) or sanctioning their misconduct,',have actually,