The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-24 00:00:00

BOUNDARIES AND WARDS.

The Lords who object to the King in Council, on the re-
ports of Commissioners, determining the Boundaries ,and
Wards of Boroughs, have mutilated the Bill by empowering
the neighbouring County Magistrates to settle the Wards, and
to divide towns of 6,000 inhabitants into two wards-9,000
into three wards, &c.—the Town-Clerks in the majority of
towns being the Clerks to the Magistrates, and five-sixths of
the County Magistrates being Tories !! ! The Wards are
thus reduced to a maximum population that the Municipal
Constituencies may be small enough to be influenced, small
bodies being notoriously more " manageable" and corruptible
than large bodips of Electors I This is a mutilation, and cun-
ning " amendment," to which the Commons never can agree.
No single alteration of the Lords can be so detrimental or
unpopular. This " amendment" restricts the first muni-
cipal elections within the territorial and defective extent
of the " Parliamentary boroughs," and leaves the bo-
roughs in the second section (not Parliamentary) unal-
tered in their boundaries till some future Act of Parlia-
ment ; whereas the Boundary Commission now at work
would equitably settle the respective boundaries in tim
for the first municipal elections, and any errors of which
settlement might have been hereafter corrected by Parlia-
ment. Thus the Lords would have a Reformed House of
Commons commit the responsible task of an impartial warding
of the boroughs to Tory Justices and Town-clerk County-
clerks !
This the Commons can never agree to without being de-
pised by their constituents. The following is the amended
clause.:
" X X XIX. And whereas it is expedient that certain bo-
roughs of large population should be divided into wards ; be it
therefore enacted, that every borough in the said schedules
( A.) and (B.) shall be divided into the number of wards men-
tioned in either of such schedules in conjunction with the name
of such borough ; and that the town clerk of every borough so
to be divided into wards shall, within the space of one calendar
month next after the passing of this Act, and ten days at least
before the meeting hereinafter next mentioned, summon all the
justices of the peace of the county usually acting for the division
(for which special sessions shall beholden) within which such
borough shall be locally situate, to meet together at a time
and place to be mentioned in such summons, and such justices
shall then and there hold a petty session ; and it shall be law-
ful for the justices at such petty session, or at some adjourn-
ment thereof (such justices not being less than three), and
they are hereby required to determine and set out the extent,
limits and boundary lines of such wards, and what portions of
.slM.ll)9rough shall be included therein respectively ; cod the toll

PRICE 7D.

of the particulars of such division shall be forthwith transmitted
to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, and shall
be published in the London Gazette, and another copy of such
particulars shall be delivered to the town clerk of such borough,
to be by him safely kept among the public documents of such
borough ; and every such borough shall thenceforth be deemed
to be divided into such wards as shall be so determined and set
out as aforesaid, and such division shall continue and be in
force until the same shall be altered by authority of parlia-
ment."