The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-11 00:00:00

CORPORATE BODY.

15. The constitutions of the existing municipal corpora-
tions in England and Wales, are exceedingly various in de-
tail, and do not admit of being summarily described, except
with regard to some of their most prominent features. Some
corporate towns are counties, and have the same powers in
that character as the shires of the realm. The importance
of others is increased by the exclusive jurisdiction which the
corporate magistrates exercise within their limits. The con-
stitution of a great number is, practically, much affected by
the retnrn of members to Parliament. The municipal powers
of many are almost nominal. Tables are appended to this
report, classing the several corporations of England and
Wales, with reference to these distinctions. These corpo-
rations generally consist of a number of freemen, having
within themselves a governing body, besides magistrates and
various officers. They will be considered successively with
reference to each of these heads.

16. A distinction of great practical importance may be
made between corporations consisting of a definite and those
of an indefinite number. Most cf the charters incorporate
the men and inhabitants of the borough. There are very
few charters which unequivocally designate the corporate
body as a small and definite number of persons, but in many
places custom (supported by the silence of the charters as to
any general right to the franchise, and by its disuse and
oblivion, where any such may have formerly existed) has
practically established the same restricted constitution. A
very numerous class of corporations exists, which may be
considered as occupying a middle place between those in
which it is now treated as necessarily definite. This class
consists of the corporations in which, although there is no
doubt, both from the wording of the charters, and from the
modern practice, that the number of corporator' may be in-
definite, it has been the policy of the ruling body to restrict
the number, so as to retain all the privileges constitutionally
belonging to- a large and indefinite body in the hands of a
small and select one.

17. In a great proportion of the instances in which the
number of corporators is, both in constitution and fact, large
and indefinite, the freemen have no share in the management
of the affairs of the corporation ; this prevails to so great an
extent, that in such corporations the commissioners often
found that the freemen had long ceased to consider them-
selves as forming any part of the corporation, which term,
in popular language, was exclusively applied to the ruling
body. In some places, this notion has been further refined
upon, and a distinction has been drawn in the large indefi-
nite body of corporators between those elected by the ruling
body, and those claiming by an independent right, the for-
mer class only being treated as forming an integral part of
the corporation.
18. In those boroughs where the number of corporators
is definite, or where it has been always kept small, the prin-
cipal mode of enteriry, the corporation is by the nomina-
tion of the ruling body. In some cases the election must
be from persons qualified, the most usual qualification
being residence in the borough ; in other cases, the choice
of the electors is unfettered by any conditions of eligibility
in the person chosen. This mode of acquiring the freedom
is usually said to be by gift or purchase, and in fact, a
sum of money, varying with the circumstances of the cor-
poration and supposed value of the franchise, is usually
paid by each corporator on his election. In the boroughs
where, both by charter and in practice, the number of
corporators is unlimited, the circumstances under which the
freedom may be demanded of tight are very various ; but
almost all may be classed under the general titles of free-

dom by birth, marriage, and servitude. In a few places the
possession of or occupation of property gives a title to the
freedom. A distinction is now made everywhere between
the freemen' and inhabitants, except in a very few places,
as at Beeeles and Wisbech. The right of conferring the
freedom by sale or free gift is claimed and exercised by the
ruling body of almost every corporation.
Particular officers of the corporation, usually the Mayor,
are frequently allowed to name a certain number of per-
sons to be admitted to the freedom ; but although this
practice has nearly acquired the force of positive law, it ap-
pears in its origin not to be distinguishable from the gene-
ral power exercised by the ruling body, who have in these
cases agreed to acquiesce in their officers nomination. In
the city of London, where the price of admission to the
freedom has been long settled, this privilege of naming to
the freedom is now treated in almost every case as the grant
of so much money to the officers, and is so carried to ac-
count in the city books. _ _

19. It is necessary in London, Shrewsbury, and many
other towns, in order to complete a title to admission to the
municipal freedom, that the party applying should be first
admitted a member of certain guilds or trading companies
still existing within the borough, and preserving various
degrees of connexion with, and subordination to, the muni-
cipal corporation. There are traces of a more general preva-
lence of the same custom at an early period.
The derivative title which confers a right of admission to
these guilds is usually of the same kind as that by which
the municipal corporation itself is entered.

Those guilds also are accustomed to admit purchasers to
be of their company ; but such purchasers neither acquire
nor can convey any absolute right to admission into the
municipal corporation. Occasionally, as at Bristol and
Evesham, an incorporated guild has continued to exist after
Its connexion with the municipal corporation has been almost
or altogether dissolved.

20. The right to the freedom acquired by birth is very
various in different places. In some, none but the children
of freemen born within the borough acquire the right ; in
others, the children of-freemen, wherever born : in some, it
is sufficient if the father become free at any time to confer
an inchoate right on all his children, though born before
his freedom was obtained ; in others, those only who are
born afterwards may claim to be made free ; in many, only
the first son born after his father became free obtains the
privilege. This enumeration might be extended still further.
21. The right to the freedom by marriage is acquired by
marrying the daughter or widow of a freeman, and there is
less variety in the nature of the title which the woman
must possess, to enable her to confer this privilege, than in
the case of the sons of freemen.

22. The third right, by servitude or apprenticeship,
usually accrues by service under indentures of apprentice-
ship for seven years, to a freeman within the borough. In
some towns it is doubtful whether the right might not be
gained by service to a freeman performed out of the borough ;
►t certainly may in London. Service at sea is generally
considered in the light of service within the borough, when
the vessel belongs to its port. In some boroughs, where
companies of trades exist, the binding and service must be
to one of the company in the trade peculiar to that com-
pany. Most of these companies have long ceased to have
any connexion with trade.
23. In most corporations, the right to the freedom, or
citizenship, or burgessship, has been restricted to a much
smaller class than that which formerly possessed it. Without
inquiring when corporations in this country assumed their
present form, it may be safely asserted that the body, how-
ever named, which was originally intended to share, and
which in fact did share, in the rights which the early char-
ters conferred, embraced the great mass of the householders
or inhabitants. By degrees exclusive qualifications were
insisted on with increasing strictness, and with new excep-
tions, as the privileges to which these exclusive bodies laid
claim rose in importance. This importance again was en-
hanced by the narrowing of the access to the privilege, and
the consequent diminution of the number of individuals
sharing in its advantages.
24. The functions of the freemen in most towns arise
out of their share in the election of members of Parliament,
and of their own corporate officers. They have retained
the fortifier right in many places in which they have been
long deprived of the latter.

25. The share which the freemen at large now take in
the election of their governing bodies and corporate officers
is in most places very limited.
In a great majority of those towns in which there is a
large body of freemen, they have no share whatever in those
elections. In a few instances, such as Berwick-upon-Tweed,
Ipswich, and Carmarthen, they have the right of electing,
from among themselves, all, or nearly all, the corporate offi-
cers ; in others, such as Beverley and Pontefract, they elect
only the mayor ; in Norwich, they elect the aldermen, com-
mon councilmen, and one of the two sheriffs ; in some, such
as Plymouth, they have the right of electing their officers
out of a select body ; in others, as Oxford and Swansea,
they have only the power of selection from the nominees of
such a select body. In many places, where the system of
self-election now prevails, no trace exists of a more popular
mode having been used at any time ; in others, such as
Newcastle-under-Lyme and Bridgenorth, the right clearly
appears to have been taken away from the freemen by an-
cient usurpation of the select body ; and in the ease of
Newcastle-under-Lyme it has been recently restored, after
an' interval of 200 years, by a decision of the Court of
King's Bench. _

In some towns these rights are possessed only the resi-
dent freemen, in all other places by all the freemen, whether
resident or non-resident. The latter is the more common
case.

26. The privileges of the freemen, besides their share in
elections, generally consist in exemption from the tolls and
duties which in many towns are levied under various grants
from the Crown. In the greater number of towns the pri-
vilege extends only to those tolls levied by their own cor-
poration ; the freemen of some corporations claim and are
allowed to be free in certain cases from those of other
towns ; a very few claim an universal exemption. The
freemen, in most towns, are exclusively eligible to corporate
offices. The freemen are also very generally excused from
serving on county juries ; this exemption is often enjoyed by
all the inhabitants of corporate towns. They have some-
times exclusive privileges in the local courts, the existence
and extent of which will be presently noticed more in detail.
They have in many places the exclusive right of trading,
within the corporate limits, as in Oxford, York, and Bever-
ley. Another privilege often belonging to the freemen is,
that they or their widows or children are designated as the
sole objects of local charities.