The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-08 00:00:00

VIE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JUNI 8, 1835.

government, in conformity with the maxim of that
admirable plan of civil polity by which the wise
founders of the British Monarchy were guided, that
the supreme Government should do nothingfor the peo-
pie, except what the people could not do for themselves.
On the very opposite to that maxim our centralising
Doctrinaires proceed—men who, with much assump-
tion of superior knowledge, are but ignorant and con-
ceited pretenders ; patriots by profession, but tyrants in
principle—who seek in themselves and their own party
to concentrate all political power ; who pursue their
own purpose of. selfish-aggrandisement by any path,
however crooked, though it lead through the wreck of
those institutions under which civil liberty, the human
intellect, the sciences and arts of civilised life, have
prospered more than they ever did beneath any form of
,government that the world has ever seen. Now the
first thing that strikes us in Lord John Russell's plan
of Corporation Reform is the large stride which it
makes towards the advancement of the centralising sys-
tem, by vesting in the Ministers of the Crown the
power of appointing all the Recorders, or Judges, of
all the boroughs in England. This is also another
step towards making the Bar of England dependent
upon the Ministers of the Crown. A great deal has
been done in that way already by the multiplying of
Commissionerships, which are chiefly bestowed, not
for professional qualification, but subservient party
opinions. In abolishing the close government
of the boroughs, and giving the inhabitants the
power of governing themselves, nothing more is
done, if that power be judiciously regulated, than re-
storing the ancient principle and practice of our Anglo-
Saxon Constitution. But why should they who, in
that respect, abolish usurped power, seize that very
opportunity to filch from the public the right of ap-
' pointing those local Judges which has been vested in
Municipal Governments from time immemorial ? We
would propose, as indeed we have already suggested,
that a select body, themselves to be elected by the
burgesses for life, but subject to removal for proved
misconduct, incapacity, &c., or for a term of years,
should have the appointment of Recorders and Town
Clerks, the former of which officers should be elected
for life, but liable also to removal for such misbeha-
viour or imbecility as ought to disqualify for the ad-
ministration of justice. Thus on the one side the evils
of popular election with regard to judicial functionaries
would be avoided, and on the other the too great in-
crease of the influence of the Ministers of the Crown.
Yet we should not wonder to see a large proportion
of the Tories join the Whigs as to that part of their
project of Municipal Reform which has reference to the
appointment of Recorders, for the very same reason
that we object to it—viz., the great augmentation
which it would give to Ministerial power anepatronage.
As to the right of voting in the Corporation, we think
that if the municipal franchise be extended so far be-
yond the Parliamentary franchise as is at present pro-
posed, some better protection ought to be afforded to
the rights of property than any which the Bill is said
to contain. Ihe Municipal Governments of this coun-
try, as originally constituted, and.before they were im-
paired and altered by encroachment and abuse, were
each an epitome of the Constitution at large ; the
principle of mere democracy was not recognised in
these local Governments any more than in the collec-
tive Government of the State. All these institutions
were in harmony with the great design of a mixed and
balanced Government, constituted of different orders,
and impelled by one united action. Let the fantastic
patriots of France talk of a " monarchy with Republi-
can institutions ;" such a Monarchy is a chimera, if
by Republican be meant purely democratic institutions.
Every man who meddles with the reform of our sys-
tem, should well understand its great design, or he
may destroy where the object should be to renovate
and restore. That architect is surely not qualified to
repair and restore an ancient building who does not
understand the principle of its original construction.--
Morning Herald.
We are gratified to perceive that the able and lucid
speech of Lord John Russell on Corporation Reform,
is already published in the shape of a pamphlet, which
we trust will be read by every person interested in
Municipal institutions : as from the abuses exposed—
the remedies to be applied—and above all, ,the great.
principles embraced in the Noble Lord's admirable
essay, as it may be justly called, render this document
one of no ordinary importance. In our hasty and
necessarily limited comments of Saturday, we omitted
to notice some important provisions of the Bill—such
as the vesting in the Crown the power to grant
charters, in conformity with the principles of the 13iil,
to such towns as may hereafter desire an incorporate
Municipal body—the uniformity of the system, which
is at once to be established in one hundred and eighty-
three towns which already enjoy, or rather are afflicted
with, Corporate Governments. The new Corporations
are to be the trustees of the charities already coutioled
by the existing bodies—the power. of granting licenses
is to be withdrawn from the local Magistrates,
and vested in the Towns' Council, a change which,
we think, must give general satisfaction to the whole
country. All exclusive trading is to be abolished—
all clauses in existing charters at variance with the
present Bill, to cease—and, in fine, the municipal
power is to be vested where it ought to be, in the in-
telligent and resident body of citizens. There is one
clause, however, which we think will require consi-
derable modification in Committee, namely, the qua-
lification of the occupiers of houses rated three
years for the benefit of the poor, and " the payment
of all rates due for six months before the revision.
With regard to the first, the test is indefinite of due
qualification, as one man may occupy newly-built
premises, and be for three years excluded from the
freedom of a citizen, and another by taking a house
rated for three years, though only a temporary resi-
dent, may acquire his freedom by the payment of six
months' 'rates, therefore, we have no doubt this will be
altered in the Committee ; and with regard to the pay-
ment of the rates, we decidedly object to its being the
sine qua non of qualification, as when the governing
body have the power of enforcing payment, and when
there is a permanent property for its liquidation, the
rights of freemen, either in regard to the general or
corporate franchise, should not be affected by the pay-
ment or non-payment of that which may be enforced,
or what is sometimes worse, even deferred at the option
of a factious collector. The most remarkable feature
in the debate, however, was the avowed coincidence
of Sir Robert Peel in the views—the enlarged, en-
lightened views put forth by the Noble mover. We
are never disposed to scrutinize too closely, nor cavil
at the motives of any individual, even of Sir Robert
Peel—who comes forward to support any great ques-
tion of national justice ; but we trust the
.public will
bear in mind the principles of policy admitted by all
parties in the House on this occasion. These prin-
ciples involve almost the whole elements of rational
liberty, and if these principles be adhered to and
acted upon, the perfect regeneration of the country
must be the inevitable consequence. On this subject
we will not at the present enlarge, but shall watch with
vigilance the progress of the Bill, as we confess we
have little confidence in the sincerity of hasty con-
versions, and suspect that there are some parts of this
Bill too good to be permitted operation by the Tories
without either an open or covert opposition. Sir R.
principle of the Bill is no
most determined,
rminepdr,eucenddeesrhathned
hdPoueoestbli'itsi t
yga
—enpetroreal
prelude
tdhaesesteodnetltutiolsem
i thev calm whiche
storm—and. we therefore say to all true Reformers,
" Be up and be doing—register—register—no faith is
to be placed in those who have hitherto always been
your enemies."—Morning Advertiser.

MEMOIRS OF LORD BOLINGBROKE.—..« Boling-
broke (says the Literary Gazette) seems to have possessed no
tame medium in his character. His tremendous powers rush
on in one tumultuous torrent, of which, although able to direct
the course, he cannot temper the impetuosity. His superiority
thus manifested, and under no restraint, rendered him the
object of fear, hatred, and admonition. The two volumes
which stirred us to these reflections are from the pen of George
Wingrove Cooke, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and are ably and
eloquently done. The condensation of the hitherto widely
diffused notices relating to Bolingbroke into so comprehensible
a shape, is of itself a public service ; and when we add, that
the author has been governed by a strict impartiality, both with
regard to men and things—that he is neither the pitiful apo-
logist for, nor the malignant exaggerator of, a great man's de-
fects, he secures to himself if not our unqualified approbation,
at least our entire respect."
An experiment is about to be made in the city
of New York, of paving the streets with wood, after the Rus-
sian manner.

COURT OF CHANCERY.

The VICE CHANCELLOR, and Mr. Justice BOSANQUET sat as
Lords Commissioners to day.

IN THE MATTER OF THE ACT OF THE 6TH OF ANNE.

Mr. ROMILLY made an application to their Lordships this
morning of rather a singular nature, under the statute of the
6th of Queen Anne, entitled a Statute for the discovering and
production of persons supposed to be dead. The application
was for an order of the Court upon a person named Manning,
residing in Long-lane, West Smithfield, to produce on the
22d of the present month, at the parish church of St. Bartho-
lomew the Great, the body of John Hughes. From the affida-
vit it appeared that the present Lord Kensington, at the
death of a person named Hughes, was entitled to cer-
tain estates. That Noble Lord had applied to Mr.
Manning, who was the father-in-law of Mr. Hughes,
in the year 1823, to know where Mr. Hughes resided, and he
was then informed that he was living at Stafford. Lord
Kensington made application there, but could obtain no infor-
mation. Since that period he had made repeated applications
to Mr. Manning, who refused to tell him whether Mr. Hughes
was dead, or, if living, where he resided. Under such cir-
cumstances Lord Kensington had no other alternative but to
make the present application.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR—I believe, Mr. Romilly, this ap-
plication is strictly within the Act.
Mr. ROMILLY—It is, Sir.
The VICE-CHANCELLOR—Then take the order.
LORD KENSINGTON V. MADDEN.

Mr. ROMILLY, under the authority of the 6th of Anne,
which gives the Court power to compel the production of per-
sons, who are supposed to be concealed for purposes of fraud,
applied for an order to compel William Madden, of 26, Long-
lane, in the City of Westminster, to produce before the peti-
tioner, Lord Kensington, the bodies of John Hewse and Ellen
Oliver, who are the alleged survivors of certain lives in a lease
granted by the first Lord Kensington in 1777. The affidavit
in support of the petition stated that the defendant, William
Madden, was at present in possession of two houses, No. 56
and 57, Long-lane ; that he held the premises under a lease of
lives ; that the whole of the lives were supposed to be extinct,
but that he asserted two of them to be still living in Stafford-
shire; and that Lord Kensington, who is entitled to the fee
simple of the property on the extinction of the lease, had not
been able, after the most diligent inquiries, to find the persons
named in the lease, at the places to which he had been referred
by the defendant, and where he asserted they were now living.
The petition, under these circumstances, prayed that the de-
fendant should be compelled to produce the lives mentioned in
the lease on a certain day, in the Church of St. Bartholomew
the Great.
Their Lordships directed the order to issue.

ROLLS' COURT.