The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-17 00:00:00

lands by private contracts to members of their own body,
upon a rent and at fines wholly disproportionate to their
value, and frequently for long terms of years ;" and the
report adds that at Cambridge practices of this kind have
prevailed to a very great extent. This is a very grave
malversation, and one for which the constitution of close
corporations would seem to have offered much impunity.
The Cambridge report is not yet printed, but it appears
from the printed reports that accusations of such malprac-
tices were preferred against the following corporations ;
viz., East Looe, Kendal, Gloucester, Reading, Aberystwith,
Barnstaple, Fordwich, and Carlisle. In East Looe no evi-
dence was given to support the charge. (Evidence, p. 535 ;
App. p. 48.) In Kendal the case is at once dismissed by
the Commissioners. (Evidence, p. 1593 ; App. p. 79.) In
the Gloucester case the Commissioners were satisfied that
the rents reserved upon two of the leases were the full
value of the land, and of the third lease, more than the va-
lue. (Evidence. p. 66 ; App. p. 35.) At Reading, where
the charges were " strongly pressed upon our attention,"
the Commissioners having allowed a whole day for the
purpose of enabling both parties to procure evidence,
were satisfied, after a long and minute inquiry, that the
charges were without foundation. (Evidence, p. 116 ; App.
p. 38.) At Barnstaple, before the present town clerk
came into office (an event which took place twenty-seven
years since), many leases were granted by the corpo-
ration without public competition, and sometimes to mem-
bers of the corporation. A specification of these leases would
not have been superfluous (in the Reading case the parti-
culars are fully given) ; but the Commissioners could " form
no estimate of the value of the property," a mode of stating
that no sufficient evidence was produced ; yet " a strong
opinion seemed to prevail with some of the witnesses that
in a few cases the fine taken by the corporation and the
rent reserved were inadequate to the value of the premises
granted." (Evidence, pp. 432, 433 ; App. p. 43.) At Ford-
wich " the freemen conceive" that the freehold" of a very
small extent of ground," " worth very little," and used for
the purpose of drying fishing nets, belongs to the corpora-
tion. It is in the possession of the devisee of a late Mayor,
who maintains that they were merely allowed the use
of the said land. The natter is still in dispute, anu
the Commissioner could not obtain any satisfactory evi-
dence as to the right of property. (Evidence, p. 992 ;
App. p. 65.) At Aberystwith an' individual, who often
served the office of Mayor, is the lessee of two parcels
of land, now of considerable value. But, " how far
this Gentleman may have availed himself of his in-
fluence with the corporation for the purpose of obtain-
ing a beneficial lease of the premises in 'question, or how
far improvident bargains may have been made on the part
of the corporation in the other leases granted by them, it
would now be difficult to determine ; the transactions were
not conducted in such a way as to be altogether free from
suspicion." (Evidence, p. 173 ; App. p. 39.) The last
and most important case of this description occurs at Car-
lisle, where, between the years 1700 and 1750, various de-
mises were made by the corporation of a tract of land,
called King Moor, for lives, for nominal considerations, and
with covenants for pepetual renewal, the larger portions to
members of their own body, and the smaller to freemen.
About fifty years ago the corporation contemplated resist-
ing the renewal of these leases, but being advised they could
not do so legally the leases were renewed. Other grants
have been made by the corporation to its members. About
twenty years ago a small piece of land was let by the
Council to one of its own members for 999 years, at the
annual rent of 61. Three years afterwards he sold his in-
terest in it for 701. ; and in the year 1815 the corporation,
for a nominal consideration, granted to the Recorder the
site of a building in "Scotch-street ;" but which grant was,
in fact, an exchange. Evidence p. 1477 ; App. p. 74.)
These cases are here stated somewhat in detail, because the
details alone will show that the assumption that corpora-
tions are in the " habit" of committing the most culpable
species of malversation rests (except so far as it may be
supported by the Cambridge case and the other inedited
evidence) upon the " conceptions" of the Fordwich wit-
nesses ; the " strong belief," without evidence, of the
Barnstaple witnesses ; the " suspicions" which attach to
the Aberystwith demise ; the value of a moor in Cumber-
land in the first half of the eighteenth century ; and the
bargain made about twenty years ago by the member of the
council at Carlisle.

(7.) The report states (p 46, sec. 117), " That the
debts incurred by many corporations have been swelled to
their present amount by the most negligent and improper
management. At Berwick-upon-Tweed, where the free-
men manage the affairs of the corporation, and possess com-
mons of the value of about 6,0001. per annum, they have
borrowed money expressly for the purpose of dividing
amongst thenhelves." It is strange that Berwick-upon-
Tweed, the only specific example quoted, should be brought
forward thus prominently in a general report upon the cor-
porations of England and Wales. Belonging to this corpora-
tion is a very large tract of land, divided into three great
portions ; one of these portions is subdivided into smaller
parcels called " stints," which the burgesses take in seve-
ralty ; another portion, formerly common land, and upon
which each burgess was anciently entitled to a right of pas-
ture, is now inclosed, but the rents are divided amongst the
burgesses. A third portion of the land is held for the ge-
neral purposes of the corporation ; and the burgesses, in
guild assembled, have very ample powers for governing and
disposing of all their lands. Under these circumstances
they have purchased the tithes, and paid for repairs and
various other charges out of the aggregate or corpora-
tion portion ; and up to the year 1817 they paid the poor's-
rate in the same manner, borrowing money to make up de-
ficiencies, by which means a very large debt has accumu-
lated.—(Evidence, pp. 1443, 1449 ; App. pp. 72, 73.) No
doubt can be entertained of the extreme impolicy (perhaps
illegality) of such a course, but at the same time it is equally
certain that the acts of a community thus circumstanced
afford no standard whatever for estimating the management
of other corporations. The abuses of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
brought forward as the prominent feature of the case, is
one from which no general conclusion can be drawn, and
which no general enactment could remedy. The reform
must be effected by a local Act, adapted to the special cir-
cumstances of the corporation. As to the debts incurred by
the mismanagement of many not named corporations, no
judgment could be pronounced without a very minute exa-
mination of their affairs, and it appears from the reports
that the Circuit Commissioners did not always conclude
that the amount of debt incurred by a corporation was a
proof of negligent and improper management. Amongst
the largest debts incurred by any corporation in the West
of England is the debt of Plymouth, viz., 39,9001. on mort-
gage ,annuities payable annually 2,1241. 10s. Bd., &c. &c.—
(Evidence, p. 594)—and yet the Commissioners report that
" we have not visited any corporation in the West of Eng-
land so well managed in' all respects as the corporation of
Plymouth."—(Evidence, pp. 595, 596 ; App. pp. 50, .51.)
More will be said about Plymouth in another part of this
Protest, p. 16.
_ _

(8.) But in no portion of the report is the want of per-
tinency in the consideration of the evidence so apparent as
in those sections (pp. 37 to 43,-80 to 102) which treat of
the governing bodies and corporate officers, and of the
jurisdictions which they exercise. The evils resulting from
the inherent defects which the corporations are utterly un-
able to correct or remove, are amalgamated with inferences
arising from the real or assumed defaults of the present
magistracy ; and whilst, as before observed, the report
makes the corporations responsible for the acts of individual
magistrates, so on the other hand does it equally represent
the individual magistrates as answerable for the defects of
their corporate institutions. To unravel this perplexed
web would be in fact to draw another report ; and it will
only be possible in this protest to point out some of the
leading passages which (as it is submitted) the evidence
does not sustain.

The report states that " the magistrates are usually cho-
sen from the aldermen, and the aldermen are generally
political partisans. Hence, even in those cases in which
injustice is not absolutely committed, a strong suspicion of it
is excited, and the local tribunals cease to inspire re-
spect." The suspicions, however strong, excited in the
minds of those whom the Circuit Commissioners deno-
minate " intelligent and well-instructed persons," who
" believe improbable suggestions and accusations upon
little or no evidence," and who, being completely
refuted by facts, which placed the innocence of the accused
magistrate " beyond doubt," then, in the words of the cir-
cuit report (Evidence, p. 12 ; App. p. 33), renew their
accusation " by shifting their ground," and " assert and
appear to believe" another charge, wholly contradicting the
one first preferred, and which, like that first, was com-
pletely negatived—need not be examined. But the report,
by the expressions " even in those cases where injustice
is not absolutely committed," &c., infers that injustice is
absolutely committed in the general practice of local tribu-
nals ; and which inference appears as a substantive asser-
tion in a subsequent paragraph, though there the injustice
is ascribed to another : " Even in the more important bo-
roughs great injustice results from entrusting the powers of
sitting as magistrates in quarter sessions, and as judges of
civil procedure, to persons not having professional know-
ledge and experience," thus uniting to the general charge
of injustice arising from the party spirit of the magistracy,
another general charge arising from the incompetency.
In the printed evidence the following charges of injustice
appear to have been preferred. In Banbury (Evidence,
p. 12, App. p. 33) and Reading (Evidence, p. 16, App.
p. 37), where they were entirely disproved. In Dart-
mouth, where the Magistrate was insane. (Evidence,
p. 483, App. p. 45.) In Evesham, where a case was
adduced, " rather as having a suspicious appearance
than as forming the ground of any actual incul-
pation," and in which, though the Commissioners investi-
gated the matter with some diligence, " they could not come
to any certain conclusion." (Evidence, p. 55 ; App. p.
34.) At Marlborough, where the Commissioners, " upon
full inquiry find that the decisions of the borough magis-

Tilt SUN, LONTIOS7, FRItIAY, APRI,L 17, 183.5.