The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-19 00:00:00

CORPORATION COMMISSION.

COPY of 11tz.voCti4oris' passed at a Court of Assistanti of
the Merchant Tailors of the Fraternity of. St, John
Baptist, in the City of London, holden at theii Hall, on
Thursday, the .24th October, 1833, and again by ad-
journ Merit on Thursday, the 14th November, 1833.
Resolved unanimously,
That this Court are ready and willing to dis.,.Stose every
thing relating to the affairs of this:Company before a com-
petent tribunal.
That, deeply impressed with sentiments of the most
profound respect and loyalty towards their Sovereign, they
are proMpled no lesi by inclination than by a sense of
duty to yield implicit obedience to all authority constituted
according to law.
That, entertaining doubts how fat the Commission for
iniuiiing into Municipal Corporations is in accordance
with law; and whether, if it be so, it extends to corpora-
tions of the nature of the M, rchant "Tailors' Company, they
have thought it right to submit those donlAs to the consi-
deration of counsel learned in the law.

That, upon mature deliberation, aided by the legal
advice thty have received, they entertain a strong con-
fiction

.--.-..
That the Crown cannot by virtue of the prerogative
alone compel any subject to make communications or dis-
closures upon oath, or otherwise, except in a dice course
of the administration of justice.

That a roving CoMmission to inquire for grievances,
and to compel answers, is clearly contrary to law.
That the members of the Corporation can in no respect
be compelled to make any answer to the Commissioners
appointed by the Crown touching any of the matters
propounded in their queries, er within the scope of the
Commission.

That the method prescribed for executing the Commist
sion in question, by summoning the officers of the different
bodies whom the investigation affects ; forcing disclosure
of title, or of defects of title, by an extra-judicial oath
looking for abuses without a specific accusation in legal
form, and by causing the production on oath, without any
cau.e depending at the suit of a party interested, of the
muniments and other writings of Corporations, is not only
a wide departure from the ordinary course of law but a
grievous violation of the liberty of the subject, and of
highly dangerous example to the security of property.

That the Address or c.ncurrence of one House of the
Legislature only, as the law now stands, can add nothing
to the validity of the Commission in question.
That although the House of Commons claims a power
to enforce, by meins of its own privilege, the attendance
of witnesses, and the production of papers and records
before its own Committees of Inquiry, yet it cannot
communicate such a power to the Crown; and the pri-
vilege of the House of Commons is not, like the preroga.
tive of the King, reducible to any control of a court of
justice, nor, perhaps, to any strict definition so that it
must ever depend entirely on the discretion and modera-
tion of that assembly whether that privilege shall be
exercised for the real benefit of the people, or in a manner
wholly inconsistent with justice or liberty, as it certainly
must be whenever the House of Commons shall assume
a jurisdiction which properly belongs to the legal tribunals.
That the known and lawful manner of inquiry into the
misconduct of a Corporation, or into the improper
exercise of its franchises, is by information in the Court
of King's Bench, which can only be granted upon some
specific charge, or to redress some specific grievance.
That a Commission from the Crown (and the same may
be said of a Committee of either House of Parliament),
for the purpose of finding out matters of complaint against
every Corporatio❑ in the kingdom, if it were armed with
compulsory powers, would be liable to all the objections
which were justly urged against the quo wurrantos of
Charles the Second, without even regarding, as they did,
the farms of justice.
That even assuming the Commission in question to be
legal and effectual, as regards Municipal Corporations, the
Merchant Tailors' Company is not a Municipal Corpora
tion, and does not therefore come within the scope of it
inquiries.

That the term " Municipal Corporations" seems to refer
to those Corporations only which embrace cities or town
as contradistinguished from such as possess no local juris
diction whatever, but merely relate to persons, professions
trades, mysteries, or commercial adventures, having no
concern with the administration of justice, or the mainte-
nance and regulation of the police, or the preservation of
the peace.
That, if this be not the sense of the words " Municipal
Corporations," it is difficult to conceive why they should
not comprehend the Colleges in the two Universities, the
Universities themselves, which do by their Charters invest
the Vice-Chancellor with the office of Conservator of the
Peace, the Dean and Chapter in every cathedral town, the
Bank of England, the East India Company, the College of
Physicians, and many others of the like kind, as well as the
trading Corporations and fraternities of particular mysteries.
That this Court, moreover, being, for these reasons,
satisfied that any information given by their authority to
the Municipal Corporation Commissioners would be purely
voluntary, feel that they cannot, consistently with the
ancient and lawful oath taken by each individual on his
admission to the Court of Assistants, disclose any matter
which in their knowledge or judgment was not intended
to be published.
That this Court, in declining to give any information
whatever to the Commissioners appointed under and by
virtue of the Commission aforesaid, are desirous of assuring
the Commissioners most respectfully that there is nothing
in the history, constitution, or administration of the Mer-
chant Tailors' Company that the members of this Court
have, collectively or individually, any wish or interest to
withhold from inquiry.
That, on the contrary, it would be a source of gratifica-
tion to them to have the opportunity of demonstrating the
increased and increasing extent and utility of the charities,
which, as well by a due economy of their revenues, as by
the munificence of several of their predecessors members of
this Court they have been able to establish and to enlarge ;
but they are actuated exclusively by two considerations—
first, the oath of office, which they think precludes them
from voluntary disclosures ; and, secondly, the persuasion
that the univers tl, though reluctant, submission of all the
corporations in the kingdom to a Commission so mani-
festly unlawful, and, in their judgment, so inconsistent
with the security of the property and rights of the
subject, could not fail to he treated as s sanction to such
an exercise of the prerogative and to become a precedent
full of danger to future times. Wherefore they conceive
it to be the more especial duty of such of these bodies
as have no favour to expect and no danger to fear to
meet this unlawful encroachment of power with unqualified
resistance.

Resolved. That a copy of these resolutions, and of the
opinions of Counsel, be transmitted to Sir Fras. Paigrave.
By order,
(Signed) JOHN B. DE MOLE,
Clerk and Solicitor to the Company.

COPY OF THE QUERIES, AND OPINIONS OF COUNSEL,
UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

COMMISSION.

Query 1. Whether Municipal Corporations are legally
bound any compellable to furnish the information sought
for by the Municipal Corporation Commission, and by
the first list of queries propounded by the Commissioners ;
and if so, to what extent ?