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

SIR JAMES SCA RLETT'S ANSWER.

I own I find considerable difficulty in bringing the
Merchant Tailors' Company within any proper definition
of the words " Municipal Corporation." The word
" municipal" in Latin signifies one who isicapable " mums
capere" of taking office, and was used to distinguish one
who had the rights of a Ro:nan citizen from one who had
no such rights. Thence probably the word " rnunicipium,"

Difeolt
to denote a town of which the inhabitants had the privi-
lege or franchise of being itrieOled by their own Magi:-
trates end laws, and of bearing the title of Roman citi-
zens; no', however, with the_ privilege of voting as
citizens of Rome, as the distiAgtioia was very familiar
between the " Municipium cum ttuffiagio" and the
" Municipium sine suffragio." " Municipiurn" then
signified a town or city enfranchised by a decree
of the Senate from the obligation of receiving the
Roman law or submitting to a Roman Prefect.* Hence
in our language the adjective word " tnun;cipal" seems to
have taken its meaning, and when app'ied to " laws"
signifies the laws of a city, province, or even maims, as coo-
tradistinguished from a more universal law ; and when
applied to an officer, signifies an officer of some town, or
city, or place, having a peculiar law, or lex loci, by
virtue of which the office exists. The combination
" Municipal Corporation" is, as far as I know, quite new
in a legal instrument. The distinctions between Corpo-
rations aggregate and sole, ecclesiastical and lay, civil
and eleemosynary, are well known, being familiarly used
in law books. But I am not aware of any legal autho-
rity for the meaning of the words " Municipal Corpora-
tions." Judging from analogy, I should have thought
the words not ill chosen to express those Corpora-
tions only which embraced cities or towns, as contra-
distinguished from such as merely related to persons,
professions, trades, mysteries, or commercial adventures,
having no concern with the administration of justice, or
the maintenance and regulation of the police, or the
preservation of the peace. If this be not the sense of the
words, then I am at a loss to know 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 Conserva-
tor of the Peace, the Dean and Chapter in every cathe-
dral 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 Companies or Frater-
nities of particular mysteries. lam unwilling, however,
to offer any confident opinion upon the sense which these
words were intended to convey, observing that the Com-
missioners have put a different construction from mine
upon them, and being aware that words, as well as laws,
sometimes take their effect and borrow a meaning from
popular feeline.

MR. W. W. FOLLETT'S ANSWER.

I am disposed to think that the M.rchant Tailors' Com-
pany cannot properly be called a Municipal Corporation.

MR. W. R. RENNALL'S ANSWER.

If the point were conceded that the Commission to in-
quire into Municipal Corporations is a valid instrument, I
should he of opinion that this Commission does not autho-
rise an inquiry into the existing state of the Trading Com-
panies. They are not named, nor do the terms local
jurisdictions existing within the limits of corporate
towns" include them.

* Note.—These Municipia were in effect what are now
corporate towns or cities, governed by their own Magistrates,
and freed, more or less, from the services to which other towns
were liable. They had become very numerous and powerful
during the existence of a free Government in Rome, insomerli
that Sylla the Dictator passed a law, entitled " De Muni-
cipiis," to disfranchise those who had given support to Marius
and Cinna in their resistance to him. He considered these
Corporations as the last stronghold of the party which he
made it the object of his policy to destroy. J. S.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE-(THIS DAY.)

FROM LLOYD'S.

DEAL, Nov. 18.—Wind E.S.E.—Arrived the Janet,
Rodgers, from Bengal—lefr the Sand Heads the Bth July,
and St. Helena the 29th September; Margare, from
L.ghorn ; Oberon, Cruse, from Bilbaa ; and Volusca,
Raffell, from London for Jamaica. Sailed the outward-
bound. The Apollo, from the River, passed to the west-
ward last night.
PORTSMOUTH, Nov. 18.—Calm.
FALMOUTH, NOV. 17.--Wind S. to S.E., moderate
breezes.—Arrived off port the Greyhound, Rivett, from
Cephalonia.
STANGATE CREEK, Nov. 18.—Arrived the Syced
Kban, Middleton, from Smyrna.
CowEs, Nov. 18.—Arrived the Prince Regent, Aitken,
from Batavia—sailed the 15th July, St. Helena the 27th
September, and Ascension the 3d ult.
BRISTOL, Nov. 18.—Arrived the John, from New-
foundland; Mayflower, Orley, from Denia; and Mary
Ann, from Gallipoli.
MILFORD, Nov. 17.—Arrived the Wellington, M't-
chell, from Cardiff, very leaky, and supposed must dis-
charge, bound to Newcastle.
LIVERPOOL, Nov. 17.—Arrived the Exquisite, Pen
son, from Smyrna.
WATERFORD, Nov. IG.—Arrived the Genii, Mace,3
from London.

DROGHEDA, Nov. 16.—Arrived the Euphemia, Baker,
from London.

The Comely, Stratton, from Dundee to Riga, was toi
tally wrecked on Bornholm the 2d instant—crew saved.
The Henry, Heentrod, from Ipswich, was driven o
shore near Memel the 7th instant—crew saved.

The Jessie, Stephens, from Hamburg to Inverkeithing,
is abandoned near Thisted—one of the crew drowned.

The Canning, Brays, from Shoreham to Kiel, and the
Catherine, Osterbury, from New York to Gottenburg,
are stranded on the west coast of Jutland—crew saved.
The Wilhelmine Emelie, Maass, from Hull to Dantzic,
put into Cuxhaven, dismasted.
The Robert Blyth, which was on shore in the Hoogh-
ley, has been got off, and was proceeding to Bengal the
23d June.