The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-28 00:00:00

REPORTS ON BOROUGHS.

The report of the Boundary Commissioners,
which has only recently been issued to the public,
shows that in the 90 boroughs in which alterations
are proposed the Commissioners have endeavoured
to adhere, as far as possible, to the well-known
limits of parishes, townships, and districts under
local boards of health ; but in cases where such
boundaries would include too large an area, other
well-defined limits were adopted, such as railways,
rivers, &c. The number of counties and divi-
sions of counties affected by the Representation
of the People Act was 13, and it was found ne-
cessary iu two instances to recommend alte-
rations in the temporary divisions constituted by
the Act. As far as practicable the old and
well-established division of hundreds was adhered
to ; but in Somersetshire these boundaries could not
be conveniently adopted, and 014 petty sessional
divisions were followed, except in determining the
boundary between East and Mid Somerset. In con-
sequence of the natural division of the county by
the Mendip-hills, it is recommended that dome of
the parishe3 in the Axbridge petty sessional division
should be taken from East Somerset and added to
Mid Somerset. In the West Riding of Yorkshire

is proposed that certain parishes and townships
should be separated from the rest of the wapen-
take of Morley. It appears there was a general
lindisposition on the part of persons residing in the
immediate neighbourhool of boroughs to their
premises being included within the Parliamentary
boundary, attributable ti the fear that a correspond..
ing extension of municipal area would follow, by
which they would become liable to the payment of
borough rates. Some of the old borough bounda-
ries presented serious difficulties. Thus, at New-
port, the borough included the whole of the river
Medina, with its creeks and foreshores, for a dis-
tance of four miles, to a point in the sea off Cowes.
The result has been that both at East and West
Cowes houses have been built on land reclaimed
from the river, and were consequently included in
the borough of Newport, votes having in more than
70 cases been claimed and allowed in respect of
them. In this instance the Commissioners have re-
commended that East and West Cowes shoull
included in the borough, although, had they
possessed the power, it would have been better
to have circumscribed the Parliamentary boun-
daries, and thus included only such premises as
were immediately connected with the town of New-
port. Attention is directed in the report to the follow-
ing special matters for legislation Wherever
additional districts are included within boroughs
which are counties in themselves the freeholders in
the parrs added will, in the absence of any provision
similar to that in the 31st section of the Reform
Act of 1832 (2 William IV., c. 45) still vote for the
county, notwithstanding that the freeholders
within the existing Parliamentary are a vote for the
borough only. 2. Compound householders in
parishes not within existing borough boundaries,
but which may be wholly, or in part, added to
boroughs, in conformity with the recommendations
of the Commissioners, will be precluded from quali-
fying as voters in the year 1869, unless some special
provision is made for their protection similar to
that contained in the Representation of the People
Act. Of the 90 boroughs in which alterations
are proposed nine were those constituted by the
Act of 1867—namely, Chelsea, Stockton, and Wed-
nesbury, in which extensions are proposed ; Burn-
ley, Darlington, Gravesend, and Staleybridge, in
which contractions are proposed ; and Dewsbury
and Middlesborough, in which both extensions and
contractions are proposed. The remaining 81
boroughs, existing before 1867, iu which extensions
are recommended are as follows :—Abingdon, Ash-
ton-under- Lyne, Aylesbury, Barnstaple, Bath,
Bewdley, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn,
Bolton-le-Moors, Bridgewater, Brighton, Bristol,
Cambridge, Chatham, Cheltenham, Chester,
Chichester, Cirencester, Coventry, Derby, Droit-
wich, Dudley, Durham, Exeter, Finsbury,
Gateshead, Gloucester, Greenwich, Guildford,
Halifax, Hastings, Hertford, Huddersfield,
Kidderminster, King's Lynn, Kingston.upon-
Hull, Lambeth, Lewes, Liverpool, Macclesfield,
Manchester, Marylebone, Monmouth district, Mor-
peth, Newport (Isle of Wight), Northampton, Not-
tingham, Oldham, Oxford, Penryn and Falmouth
district, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth,
Reading, Richmond, Rochdale, South Shields,
Stafford, Stamford, Stoke-upon-Trent, Stroud,
Sunderland, Taunton, Tynemouth and North
Shields, Wakefield, Walsall, Warwick, Wigan,
Windsor, 'Worcester, Beaumaris district, Cardiff
district, Carmarthen district, Carnarvon district,
Denbigh district, Flint district, Pembroke district,
Swansea district, and Merthyr Tydfil.

We quote the following from the Racing Times
and Amateur Dramatic Chronicle:—

"We confine ourselves in general strictly to our duties—
to record past and to give our opinion on future events,
connected with the Turf or the D,•ama, but as there are
no rules without exceptions, ours cannot be considered as
more perfect or more binding than thereat. Even if they
were so, wo are about to free ourselves from their control
and touch upon a mechanical contrivance, which we be-
lieve will prove interesting to many, if not to most, of our
readers. Let none imagine, from this exordium, that wo
are about to disclose some wondrous complication of
machinery, or to unfold some novel and startling
principle. No ! A flying machine is still free to be a re-
ward of ingenuity, and perpetual motion continues open
to general competition. No! We soar not so high. We
wish simply to commend a novel article, which we
have found, by experience, of much utility in every-day life.
It is no other than the AB C gas metre. By a simple
and ingenious contrivance, this machine records not only
the number of cubic feet of gas consumed, but also the
total amount to be paid for the same. We, and all those
who take advantage of this invention, have no complicated
calculations to go through, either to satisfy ourselves or to
check the authority of a company. By simple inspectieu alone
we can ascertain our nightly—nay, oxr:hourly, expenditure
for illumination, learn, if so we will, the hourly cost of
every burner in our house. Judging, therefore, on the
authority of personal experience, we aura that few iu
vontions of modern date will prove more advantageous
to the proprietors of theatres, music-halls, and concert-
rooms than this, for by its aid the cost of nightly,—as of
any special extra, illumiu ttion can be at once deter-
mined. Nor is it to these alone that it is useful, for, as
our previous observations infer, it is of general advantage
and open, by its moderate price, to every householder •
The patentees and manufacturers are the London au d
Westminster Meter Company, Johnson's-place, Lupus-
street, S.W., and Castle-court, Birchin-lane, City."
MUSICAL ITEMS. Zenner, a pianist and com-
poser of some repute, is expected in London this season.
Rubinstein, the Russian piauist, has left Brussels, where
his playing seems to have caused immense excitement, for
Paris. According to a brochure recently published in
Paris, Auber was the son of a picture dealer; Rossini, of
itinerant singers ; Verdi, of an innkeeper; and Ilalovy, of
a grocer.—Musical St ndard.