The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-01 00:00:00

I.egisiature.
• 1
Whether those views or alterations were con.
sistent with sound and judicious policy, or were justified by
events; whether the • tituttons or modifications, created at
expectations of those
particular periods, andnis
byforl particular purposes, enswered the
deemed it within ' our ..
policyr of the State, we have ant
)(i they were established, in re.e
ference to the general
dered these bodies in thje dirnleceet to inquire. We haveconst.
'the reSpective communities immediate relation which
they bear to
either actually* or nominally attached to which they nee
meets of local ad,.lT,Nore, Or th" seme.,e.,.an4 'l3 thehdl.irnt"'s
of the corporate district. In this view, in' divs'-tith''."--J. 'llits
we have, in these Reports, Humbly endeavoured this (abject, -.
wherein, either in principle or practice, their top„,t.°lnt out
ttution or ,
aroceedings,appeer to us defective, and where - the
result from the original frame of the corporate suci,,so defects
been produced by unauthorised deviation. from 'y,
.or :lave
',4,1
of, its arrangements. The operation of thre., 'dc'ecr'ort,,v,cm ` °l'
beyond what may be deemed 'sear° co xteAds
parade° limits:
Corporations have long ladddidd '',...,npopnlar, and objects of
suspicion. As at, long taco 111 L
they are,' in many in-
staeces, of Ile kirvlve to '.
',le mincnunity-',-in others, i eurious ;
in all, InsultMent• 'aild. inadequate to the proper purposes. and '
ende of neil institutions. The public distrust in them at-- ' '
teehes to their officers and nominees ; and the resulais a failure
of that respect for, and confidence in, the ministeas of justice
and pollen, which our ht to subsist in well-reguleted etoennue
[shies, whieh, where they do exist, conduce se notcle to the
peace and good order of society, and without which:the autho-
rit
effy of the law may be dreaded, but cannot be respected or
ective." Having thus stated to the House what the general
eharacter of the namicipal corporations in fret:led was. as re-
ported-by the Commissioners, he should r • some r
„ext. go Into o
tlse details •
• • %tall respect to several of the corporate belies, and
first he I 11 " i
• saou,e ea the attention of tai,., -H„,,,..,:, l, 1 it:
, ti; ._., ,TIOt e
wide% the:
. authorities in them hadenanaged the r ,},weed te hie; ,
was intrusted to them (or ranter eelt;cll j e gees I til f
the purposes of the. public bee, ae 'er they 1. Led let i , or
,t.enc. rae woudf he -in v. it}
potationOw of Dablin as the Chief owe inlreleed,' 1
ane en ' .thepre-
sentitter, et:
its
of this thieeterdic:ltioa of p'ehli•-• d .
intrested to :ts management, whieh was•sr, strews in '''-A '4ll°"Y
tint that
it would Le wroeg to pass it over. That CorpeettierP .
toe Irish, Perliantent so Act empowering theni tee •1 ~te- e from
evero called pipe water rates. This Act investeee t
,i(eA.,owhat
ration with the power of raisin,* a sum of iitoneyr.,,,..te' ~, • proPse°-
Of layiue pipes, in order to supply the' &al', -
et f D ::blixiuri'iith
water. 'The very first' thing the Alayor itn'l :,
Nitlertnl ,) afterii.; .
they had got ibis Act was to vote an' animal salary to .the.
Treasurer of pool., and accordingly from that tie-tie:hi-etc, the
yeer WOO the Treasures received ava sum yearlyout of the
dates. Having thus for several year, 1-,
enesequent to that period. strewn this sum, until it amounted in. the aggregatettei 47,0001.,
toe CorpOrarirn in the year 18:09 got another Act of Parlia-
ment passed, the object of w'aieh was to enable them to • sub-
stitute metal pipes for the :seed pipes then laid" down, and by
this Act they were empdtvered to levy additional rats, which
they esnitieued to do antil they were 160,000/. in 'debt or, the
rates. The second Act of Parliament was framed iii a manner
to provide that se long as this debt of /00,000/_ continued un-
paid none of I!,e water rates should b 0 loweeed. The natural
result was, that this debt never was -paid,. and the water pipe
rates continued in full force up to ihe year 18:27. At that pe- tied sdme proeeediegs in tlet'C•turt of Chancery at Dublen
Were taken, with a view to' obtain an account ol; the mc,nies
eeceived, by the Corporation on this account, but
.taide then
Lord Chancellor of Ireland-dismissed the bill' at tredi; a
..-, aduat
he could not bring the Corporation to ace.. . te le an ap-
peal was made to the House Of
.eedle, '.te-fr-,n`sit.'' as decided.
that fhe Corporation had no right to cenlittuy to": levy the
water-pipe rates, and that they were debtors ItII e! ilifL9tlnt of
74,0001., which they were made to account fee-, This -...s one
of the abuses which had sprung from the r,e-e.scnt condition of
the municipal Corporations, but it was 'not a 'case where the
private property of the Corporation errs applied to the use of
individuals; he ehoeld give anoticr similar instance of miss
plication Ci peblie trust money p-
jrport of evidence on
the Civ of Londonderry.
, rt e i,. ,im the re
appeared from ereport- that the Corporation of Lonee
ender p
consisting ofth re
a 'lor and twelve Alder Men, 7;47 "an Act of Parliament passed in, the year
1790, enabling 4ssoe to build a bridge over the Boyne, and to
levy a aoll-l'ilank resseng,ers and carts, &c. Upon this, Act the,
CortattelliGa to sod a sum of 16,500/., with which the brike
wai built, "aditir front the }'r 1790 to the year 1813, the sure, of • 32,000k/was taised in tolls, whilst hot one shilling of the money
bortte:
ed in order to defray 'the cost of building the bridge was
tn;plaid. ' In the year Isla the bridge was carried away by a ,
'flood, and the Corporation applied in consequence to
Parlia-
ment,- and obtained 15,000/e out of the Corisedideaed Fund to,
enable them to rebuild it. This was 'done, and.from the year
1813 to theyear 1331 a sum exceeding 70,0001. was taken in
tolls, of which amount about 17,000/. was laid out in repairs.
There conseqtetnily remained an 'excess of 57,000/., not Is. of
which was applied towards the 'repayment of ti:, loan from the:
Consolidated Fund ; but, on the contrary, .the Corporation
spent •it_in other ways. The Corporation received,alsefi•om the'.
tonnage a;:d harbour dues very large sums, and be only quoted .
the words of 'the report when. he stated that from the year
1790 to 1831 the' Corporation of Londonderry received or. this •
account n Sum hmounting to '270,0001., of which CG,937 was
expended in necessary repairs, and a balance of 203,1'63/. was
left over in
.the hands of the Corporation of Londonderry.
Such were the facts stated by the Commissioners "sith respect to . this city, the municipality of which had, type rently, delighted
to set at naught. the Act of Parliament by which the specific
method of applying their, surplus rever,ues was -Doir.t(!a out.
The report entered also somewhat intee the details of the me- • s
-eagementeVtheeeareporation elf tie
.;.'tir affairs. Everything" it
e.
appeared, had heen conducted lel
me
the
most expensive scale, •
aad the outlay was upon a r.cry liberal elan. 'I he officers of
the Corporations had hie",
ee t salaries, and uensior's were granted
freely, it might tamest tie said to all who; asked for them. The
Corporation Se'dditote also had a liberal salary, and his bill for
costs almost atnouneed to 4,000/. Large sums were expended
lit city antertainesents, and at a time when the Corporation owed
the
publie 13,:100/. They had during the years 1828, 1829,
and 13....?.0, a cook, who was paid a very high salary; and, as u
necessary appendage to this functionary, an apothecary was re-
tained at a considerable annual expense.—( Hear, hear.) In
the year 1819, et a time when the Corporation was 111 debt V.,
the amount Of 170,000/., the .Recorder 'of the city was pre-
sented with a piece of plate of the value of 1,6001. ; ar,d in
1821, when his late Majesty George IV. made a visit tw Ire-
land, the city of Londonderry sent a deputation to bishlin to
greet his M:ijesty, at an expense of 5411. In short, the Cor-
poration of Londonderry acted as if they were de screened to
expend the public money in every possible way 'jut the fight
one, that, namely, of paying their debts. Zee Right Hon.
Gentleman here referred to the report, a considerable portion
of which, relating to Londonderry, he read,. The next Corpo-
ration ho should refer to in support cf his declaration as to the
neoessity of a municipal reform, vets one where the corporators
acted upon the same principle ddith respect to expenditure as the
city of Londonderry bad done, but which, unlike that gene-
rous Corporation, appeared to have confined its liberality to
the private want% and purposes of the corporators themselves.
The borough to which he alluded was Drogheda, the Corpo-
ration of which, it appeared, was possessed of property, eon-
sisting of lauds, honses, &e., to the amount of 14,000/. or
15,000/, a year 1 of tolls also to a considerable amount, being
froth the year 1800 to 1813, no less than 33,406/. These Oils
were granted originally in trust for the public benefit wad ad-
vantage, but it appeared that during the years above epecified.
only 8,000/. had been brought to account for the Ilse of the
commonalty, reeving a balance of more than 25,0 frat, unac-
counted for in the hands of the Corporation. Tie: munici-
pality was possessed, as be had before stated, 4 lands' amount-
ing in yearly value to nearly 15,000/., or, as nad been calcu-
lated and stated in the Reports, 14,7311. Now, this rental
was, in fact, reduced to a sum little •
exceeding 3,000/., and
the result of the inquiry showed, that: this was entirely owing
to the lettings of the Corporatiatn property having latterly .
been conducted in private, \vithout any competition being
suffered to take place,. 7dhe property of the 'Corporation,
which consisted a hoenes was also equally ill-disposed of.
It consisted of bIZ'A hnmses, amounting, on a moderate compu-
tation, tie the anneal value of 11,000/. Now, this property was
in tilt) hande of thirteen families, who did not pay in
than
wbe)e more than 9,000/., thus showing a loss of more thau
9,0004 a year upon the rental of the borough property. In
feet, there n was scarcely a corporate tow in lreland where
e
similar misapplication of the corporate property was not to b
found. Take the borough of Carrickfergus as another exam-
nle. In that place there was a large property consisting or
connnon lands. A nobleman connected with the berotigh had, a
valuablelease of some of these lands, which in 1813 was about
to exotic., ••' and for the renewal of which, at the existing tent, -
he had applied. lie had been elected an aldet•mati of the he- .
rough, though, he had never attended any of the proceedings .of
the corporsailen ; and it so happened that there were two yob._
tical parties there, elually -balanced, and whose carts had
bout most severely tested at the last -two or three canteeted :
elections for the representation of the borough. On th a ap- • .
plication for the renewal of the abovernentioned leas•e being.",
sent in, it was contended between these two parties w 1
er ite
should be renewed or net; but as each was afraid of offending .
a nobleman who had considerable • influence is, dna borough, .
both parties joined for once in atereeing to renew it, and the -,
consequence was, that he got a lease foe eteadf 200-acres or, .
most valuable land, at a nominal rent. of 304 a' year. One oc -
the corporaters, however, was subsequently dissatit•fied with
this proceeding, and laid a case before the Barons at the Es
-.:hequer, to sec if it could he reversed. On that occasion one of
the aldermen was examieed, and he gave as his .retteon for suf.
ft•ring this Nobleseau to take so large apiece ,of lenel•at 90
low a rent, tltai all the other Aldermen had already lead their •
shard, ie the municipal property, and he had a r;ght,to take.
h 4:. if the Houma, would look to other cases as stated in the
Report, they wade; fitind similar statements of misappropriation.. .
The easea et: Peatarlington was one ; that of Neas was anodic:
wisVoe tile° recollection of the House ; for so recently as the.
yeAr• 1832, the proccodings in that borough had been brought
to their notice. In many eases it had been found dulUeult ba-
the Cammiselateers to ascertain how much Corporate property
had been weak away with by grants to individuals th ; but
followln extract from their Report would show the, extent to
which,, so Lee as the year 1832, this systom had been carried
on in the borough of Naas. • "On
The Report stated. , _ the
morning of the 29th of September, 1832,.. Lord --'s law
the direction, of the Dean W.,:
agent, at his Lordship's house, by . _ . .
entered in the Corporatism book the following resoles.
7---' , Boroughof P. a county of Kildare to wit,
;tons ;__.
At
an assembly held on the 29th of Septem'Jor, 1832, hefor e p,
e--, Esq., sovennd,g,,, and the Hon. and Rev. G. • s
I ants
J. —, E';4, portrecvcs, among other resolutions lie vas res
solved fee-farm grant for one of the several, la 4' • i
that a c
11 1. am
• comprised in letters patent of Kingdantes 1., bearing,- ~
premises
date the 9d of May, 1609 ..e execpti;),g, however, er d.resseave: --:-.1
' r the right to certain lands and premises leenei:Oned..eed i t
'l' •certain fee-fern.. . .. -
comprised in a
the Right . Hon. John Lord Viseeunt —___, a
te.atieestoredfsa9, J.
Earl of ---9, be executed and perfected by this Colfporeai,c9ln e
nem the said Earl td* _____, his heirs and assi.ges, so_ehject,to
the yearly reit': of 12/. sterling. Resolved, that aeposfap- ,
grant for one of the markets, and several fairs ofeeNdas, ,7 at
eluding the' Tipper fair, with the dells, customs, &e., be