The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-15 00:00:00

i:VEN ENG EDITION.

.-~

A PPOMiSING BOROUGH.

BRIDGE WATER, TO WIT.
A very curious specimen of Tory trickery was at-
tempted to be perpetrated at the borough of Bridge-
water, in Somcrsetshire, last week—and we take notice
of it the rather, to point out the horror in which Con-
servatism, as it is called, holds all manner of amend-
ment or reform. The following requisition was sent to
the Alayor:--

" \re, the undersigned inhabitant rate-payers of this
borough, request that you will be pleased to convene a
meeting of the inhabitants, to consider the propriety of
Petitioning the proper authorities to relieve them from
Vie severe pressure of the Municipal Corporation,
13orough Sessions, and Borough-rate."
Who ever heard of severe pressure, in the palmy old
times of the ancient Corporation ? The man who had
)
dared to breathe such words, would have been reviled as
a traitor and an infidel. They were men of dignity, from
the Mayor to the Mace-Bearer. They cared not for
the people, and had no business to do so, for they elected
each other from father to son, so that the body almost
beeline hereditary in a few families. A large property,
aueh as would have been sufficient, properly taken care
of, to have rendered Bridgewater one of the handsomest
Provincial towns in England, has been wasted from cen-
tury to century, no man knows bow, and no man knows
When, for their books were sealed, their meetings pri-
vate, and into their accounts (if they had any), no one
had a right to inquire. Their plan of operation was
to bind themselves, body and soul, to their one or two
Tory Members for the borough, who, on their parts, had
Paid the same devotion to the Minister of the day.
The member's business, besides being the Minister's
tool, was to look out for every possible place and ap-
Peiutment he or they could find, which was to be placed
at the disposal of !Ate said Corporation. The minor
gifts, such as icianships and India Cade,
sometimes found ‘,
their way to a favoured few of thetships out-
of-door friends ; but the fatter bits generally stuck by
the way, and either wets held by the worthies them-
11,elyes, or their immediate families. Thus Receiver-
-s,"iPs-General, Stamp-Distributorships, Collector and
I`.-44optrollerships of the Customs, and a few Crown
livings amounting to some thousands per annum,
were generally shared by them. The service they
Were to render for these favours, was to use all their
Pciwer us corporators, magistrates, and trustees, for party '
"rPoses. As Magistrates they bad the power of naming
the overseers, which in a borough voting by scot and
1 't. is a great power. If the rate were appealed against,
Ine legality came to be tried at the Bough Session
uefore those very Magistrates who made the appoint-
s
trient• Then the Mayor was the returning officer.
13ut the world was grown tired and weary of such
loquities, for such were the old Corporations throughout
the land, and a mighty voice, from Inverness to Land's.
ud, swept such corruptions like a torrent before it.
Trustees
people were once more allowed to choose their
and their Magistrates. And such Trustees
and 'Magistrates must give a regular and yearly open
`1 Clear account of their stewardships, or they may
be speedily ungowned, and pitched from their high places.
t It may be urged that much useless waste and ex-
Aravaganee has accrued under the new system.
rhteyn men are foolish and wicked enough to allow base
spirit to run away with their judgments and feel-
ings,t they has e always done and will always do wrong
ti!lugs. We talk not of men, but of systems. Under
the Old system the evil, when it took place (and that
was always) was irremediable : under the present, the
remedy is obvious and at hand.
„ Put it seems that now the people have the right in
their own hands, and can place over them those who will
e,:tduct their affairs with impartiality and integrity, and
;una,t.....the Municipal Corporation is become a severe Pres-
Proh pudor !
in We almost forgot to ment;on the result of the meet-
leg' For the honour of. the place, when the motion
wha MU, it was negatived by a majority of thirty to one.
o this be a IeSQCI to them to rally round the friends
"0 have fought hard to liberate them, and shake off
s'enrf incubus which centuries has cursed them with—a
-elected, h9ereditary, old, end corrupt Corporation.