The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC

The Standard has renewed
unfounded opposition to the obj(
ings of the Commission appoin
into the state of the English and
rations. We find it difficult '
tangible form in the arguments
subtle Evening Contemporary. His enmity to
the object of this most necessary and long de-
sired municipal investigation is palpably of a
purely political nature, in so far as it rests ex-
clusively on the party consequence of the inevi-
table reformation of these local institutions, which
the Standard acutely foresees will be the ulti-
mate destruction of Toryism. If that, however,
was the exclusive end sought by the Whin; Ad-
ministration—viz., the simple extinction of a rival
party—we should condemn the Commission,
equally with our contemporary, as a sinister and
factious ministerial measure. But we believe Lord
Grey and Lord Brougham to be incapable of
such a restricted or selfish object. Corporations,
in the present corrupt and self-elective system of
municipal government, have long survived their
original utility. In their ancient construction
they were suited to feudal times and by-gone
ages ; but not to the present era of British poli-
tical or commercial society. The frame work
may be substantial and capable of adaptation to
modern purposes. We do not say that a de-
structive measure of reform is necessary or re-
quired, excepting only the extinction of many
little Corporations in decayed towns and villages,
possessing only shadows of authority, and no pro-
rerty, where there are no numbers to govern,
and where nuisances, and no possible benefits,
can exist, from their perpetuation. Corporations
were created by the rising spirit of liberty and
independence. Most of them were voluntny
associations, which wealth and commerce formed
for the protection of property. They defended
the Commonalty against bands of marauding
Barons and highway outlaws. The Royal
Charters were authenticated recognitions of
rights confirmatory of privileges already existing,
and creating trustees for the investment and ad-
ministration of property previously devoted to
public uses, with other sources of revenue added
to the common fund by the munificence and
wisdom of the Monarch conferring the Char-
ters. A civil and criminal jurisdiction was
vested by the early British Monarchs, in the au-
thorities, as convenient " Local Courts," where
the people could cheaply, quickly, and impar-
tially obtain justice. The burgher watch and
ward was added to the municipal jurisdiction, as
a further protection of personal liberty, life, and.
property. The early Charters were substantially
founded on the popular principles of frequent
election, and complete responsibility of the mu-
nicipal magistracy to the borough constituencies.
Exclusive privileges, in the freedom of the cities
and boroughs, originated, for the most part, in
objects peculiarly beneficial to certain stages of
society, but the utility of these objects has
long vanished. Such is the simple history of
the English borough municipalities cleared of
antiquity and unnecessary legal erudition. Alas,
what is their present deformed and scandalous
state ?—a deep stain on the national character !
Corporations, deficient perhaps in some of the
vital essentials of political purification, have be-
come stagnant institutions. Time has eaten its
way into the core of their constitution ; the rust
iohngg
huistiiiceinpda el de
otrhpeetrra
iuoshes, ahial dv
et hhuost
of antiquity has corroded their vital organs.
the
Abusem o uhladse rl
only remained unimproved with the advance of
society, but have absolutely lost their primitive
and original value. The various dynasties of
the Tudors, the Stuarts, and the (range branch
of the Stuarts, and the House of Hanover,c' suc-
cessively took advantage of this apt machinery
for political misrule. When the power of a re-
presentative system began to expand itself in the
House of Commons, a systematic siege was
commenced against the integrity of the pro-
vincial municipal institutions. It became con-
venient to annihilate freedom and purity of
election of representatives by usurping the rights
of franchise enjoyed by the burgesses at large,
and vesting them exclusively in a few self-elected
corporators. The few are always more ma-
nageable than the many by despots and tyrants.
In process of time, when the ancient Catholic
hierarchy was dissolved by the growing spirit of
Protestantism and the fanatical contests of op-
posing religionists, the wicked spirit of into-
lerance and "religious" persecution broke into
the municipal system of England, Wales, and
Ireland, and the Test and Corporation Acts and
Catholic disabilities (from which, thank God, we
are now emancipated )introduced an odious exclu-
sion (for conscience' sake) from municipal honour
and authority. Lastly, the Oligarchy, the borough-
mongers—that hated, but nevertheless expressive
name—overlaid the Crown, and occupied the
corporations as fortresses of political conquest,
anti abominable triumph over the disfranchised
constituency. What is now their shameless and
scandalous state ? They have been the garrisons
of Tories, and with few exceptions exclusively
occupied by a party. The civil and criminal
jurisdictions are filete. The municipal autho-
rities command no popular respect. The funds
are perverted from public devotion to private
interest and political party objects. Secrecy,
irresponsibility, self election, are time mortal
cankers eating away the last remains and very
form of the corporate institutions. Can or ought
such a state of infamous local misgovernment
to continue? We extract from the Warwick
Advertiser, and from the Leicester Chronicle,
samples of a borough expecting the visitation of
the Commissioners, and of a borough anxiously
expecting their arrival. Would any country
journals dare, in the heart of their towns, to
publish such accounts of local institutions, if
untrue ? If our contemporary the Standard is
fair and honest in his defence of these superan,
nuated and inefficient institutions, lie will oxin
tract these provincial narratives—especially after•
his articles on the Leicester investigation; and,
if he can, let him deny the facts, and resist
die conclusions. No marvel that the Leices-
ter Herald should raise the war-whoop of' per-
sonal calumny and conservative spleen on the
subject of' the Commission, when two of the
corporators visited are represented to be of
the number of its proprieters ! No wonder that
the Leicester Town Clerk should need support,
and a newspaper elixir, when he confesses the
misappropriation of Ten Thousand Pounds to
electioneering party purposes ; and less wonder
still that the Catholic Question was protracted
when Tory Corporations in secret impunity
spent the public money in supporting such a
cralllSt Mr.
bigot as Sir Charles Hastings ab
Evans. We would recornmend our able con-
temporary to sbandon his up hill defence of
Corporators, and to cliscontintie his retrospective
antediluvian references to the blessings of Roman
Catholic Disabilities. Such a forlorn hope, and
such reminiscences, are unworthy a powerful

JOURNALS. ;-41`
1 •
I its oblique and$7
ject and proceed
nted to tuire r,,•s)
I Welch rpo."4-
to discover ally
of our usually