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

TOWN COUNCILS.-MUNICIPAL REPRESENTATIVES.

The 'Commons' Bill gave to the whole roll of Municipal
Electors equal eligibility to municipal office. The English,
as the Scotch, have always hitherto enjoyed the privilege—no
charter- restricting the electors, or prescribing for the elected
hig-her qualification. But the Lords, so jealous of the Par-
liamentary rights a the Freemen, make light of insulting and
disfranchising the middle classes, by creating an offensive and
oligarchical class of one-sixth of the highest rated municipal
electors alone eligible to the to the Town Councils. The
following clause is designed to create " Little Houses of Lords
atid Contigns" in every city and borough I
"X V. And be it enacted, that en the fifth day of Septem-
ber in every year the overseers of the poor in every parish,
wholly or in part within any borough, shall make out an alpha-
betical list, to be called The Burgess List,' according to
the form No. 1, in the schedule (D.) to this Act annexed, of
all persons who shall be entitled to be enrolled in the burgess-
roll of that year, according to the provisions of this Act, in
respect of proper-'y within such parish • and the overseers of
the poor of every such parish shall in like manner on the fifth
day of September in every year make out another alphabetical
list, to be called The Councillors' List,' according to the
form No. 2, in the schedule (D.), which list shall contain the
names of such persons in the Hurgess List (being one-sixth
part of the whole number) as shall be rated to the latlest amount
in the last assessment made fcr the relief of the poor of such
parish ; and in making out such Councillors' List all persons
who shall be rated at an amount which would entitle any one
of them to be placed on such list shall, whatever may be their
number, be entitled to be placed and shall be
.placed on such
list, notwithstanding it may in such case contain more than a
sixth part of the number of names on the Burgess List ;
and whenever any persons shall be jointly rated the
amount of the rate charged upon them, shall, for the pur-
pose of making out the Councillors' List, be deemed ,to
be divided into as many equal parts as there are persons
so rated, and each person shall for the purpose aforesaid be
deemed to be rated only to the amount of one such part ; and
the overseers shall sign such lists, and shall deliver the same
to the town-clerk of such borough on the said fifth day of
September in every year, and shall keep a true copy of such
lists, to be perused by any person, without payment of any fee,
at all reasonable hours between the sth and 15th days of Sep-
tember in every year."
Nor is this abominable and aristocratic qualification for the
town-councillors the only limitation of the power of the muni-
cipal electors. The " double standard "of property and num-
bers—the " gold and silver standard"—is foisted into the Bill
by the munificent and law-giving Lords as follows :
" XL. And be it enacted, that the justices at such petty
session, or at some adjournment thereof (such justices not
being less than three), shall, after the division of the borough
into such number of wards as is directed by thiS Act, apportion
among the several wards of such borough one half of the num-
ber of councillors mentioned in conjunction with the name of
such borough in either of the said schedules (A.) and (B.),
in such manner that the number of councillors to be assigned
to each ward shall bear the same proportion to such half if
the total number of councillors for the borough as the amount
of the assessments to the poor-rate in each ward shall bear to
the total amount of such assessments in the borough ; and the
said justices shall apportion the other half of the total number
of councillors above mentioned, in such manner that the num-
ber of councillors to be assigned to each ward shall bear the
same proportion to such one half qf the total number qf coun-
cillors for the borough as the number of persons on the bur-
gess-roll in each ward shall bear to the total number of bur-
gesses on the burge§s-roll of the borough ; and the sum of the
numbers so found shall, as near as may be, be the number of
councillors assigned to each ward ; provided always, that the
number of councillors assigned to each ward shall be a num-
ber divisible by three ; and the said justices shall, in determin-
ing the boundaries of the wards of the borough, have regard to
the rules hereinbefore directed to be observed in the appoint-
ment of councillors, so that as far as may be the actual number
of councillors assigned to each ward may correspond with the
true proportion of councillors to which each ward may be en-
titled as aforesaid ; and a copy of the particulars of the num-
ber of councillors so assigned to the several wards of the
borough shall be forthwith transmitted to one of his Majesty's
principal Secretaries of State, and shall be pnblished in The
London Gazette, and another copy of such particulars shall
be delivered to the town-clerk of the borottgh, to be by him
safely kept among the public documents of such borough ; and
the number of councillors so assigned to each ward of such
borough shall thenceforth be the number to be elected in such
ward, and shall so continue until the same shall be altered by
authority of Parliament."
But the Peers, not content with this cunning assignment of
different numbers of councillors to the certain numbers of elec-
tors (regulated by property assessments, an inversion of Stur-
ges Bourne's Act) again empower Justices of the county to
apportion the councillors for each ward, as follows :
" X LI. And whereas it might be convenient in divers bo-
roughs to adhere in the division of the same into wards to the
ancient division thereof into parishes or into districts under any
local Act,. or to adapt such division to local circumstances, and
such division so made might render difficult such apportionment
of councillors as is hereinbefore directed ; be it therefore en-
acted, that in every such case the said Justices shall be em-
powered, at their discretion, to divide any borough in conjunc-
tion with the name of which, in either of the said schedules (A)
and (B) to this Act annexed, shall be mentioned any number
of wards greater than two, into any number of wards more or
less by one, and to apportion in any such borough any number
of councillors more or less by three than the number of wards
and councillors respectively mentioned in conjunction with the
names of such boroughs in either of the said schedules."
Nor is this the extent of the evil " amendments." Only
three-fourths of the Town Councils are in fact to be elective.
The remaining fourth is to consist of select of the existing
mayors and aldermen, who are not only to enjoy their titles,
(odious by association with " neglects and abuses"), but the
old self-elect are to hold their offices for life We need say
no more than that it is a mockery for Lord Lyndhurst hypocri-
tically to affect that he concedes the principle of the Bill and
leaves untouched the electoral qualification of the municipal
constituency. He neither has done it nor meant to do it ; but
his cunning will be discovered and resisted. The Commons
will not submit to his insults.
POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE TOWN COUNCILS.
So John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst, you maintain
the " principle of the Bill," do you ? The country will not be
humbugged by you I You have deprived the Council of the
presentment to the Crown of the borough magistrates—you
have perpetuated the class of aldermen extinguished by the
Commons' Bill, and you have appointed Aldermen to preside
in the absence of Mayors—you have struck out all the licens-
ing clauses—you have destroyed the clauses respecting corpo-
rate charitable trusts—sou have mutilated the clauses empow-
ering the levy of borough rates, extra the corporate funds—you
create no provision for Justices in schedule B—you do not pro-
hibit Justices from granting alehouse licenses—you do not
think proper to prohibit Town Clerks from being in commen-
dam Qounty Clerks; and you do not limit the power of aliena-
tion of property by leases I The people will doubt whether
the old system is not better than your new one