The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-07 00:00:00

REPORT ON MUNICIPAL REFORM.

The Courier has published an outline of the report of the com-
missioners for municipal reform. The following is a sketch:—
" About 300 corporations have been visited—upwards of 200
reports are printed, and the remainder are in the course of pre-
paration. The inquiries in all cases were conducted in public.
"The corporations which have refused all information to the
commissioners are Corfe Castle, Dover, .Lichfield, Maidstone,
New Romney, and some of the London Companies; those who
afforded. partial information, but who refused to exhibit their
accounts, or to permit inquiry into the state of the corporate
property, are Arundel, Hull, Leicester, and Rochester. The
commissioners have confined themselves to pointing out abuses;
they have suggested no remedies. They state of the abuses,
that corporations have the irresponsible, uncontrolled, ma-
management of the whole public property; they dispose of it to
themselves or to their friends; they contract debts, and bestow
the patronage held in trust for the benefit of the community on
their own partisans. All offices and places of trust, whether in
the council, magistracy, local police, administration of charities,
or expenditure of corporate revenues, are bestowed with:the
like selfish views. The admission of freemen, resident or non- •
resident, has for its end and object to secure and perpetuate the
ascendancy of the political party in the corporation granting it,
or the members through whose interest it is obtained. Indivi-
duals of adverse political opinions are invariably excluded from
the governing body. Since the repeal of the,corporation and
test acts, and the emancipation of the catholics, very few in-
stances occur in which either dissenters or catholics have been
chosen into the governing body of the corporation. To these
councils, which embody the opinions of a single party, ate en-
trusted the nomination of magistrates and of the civil and• cri-
minal judges.
"The power assumed by the corporations of levying local
tolls on merchandise or goods brought to market by persons not
freemen is a fruitful subject of complaint. The freemen them-
selves are invariably exempt from these impositions; and the
magnitude, as well as the partiality of the evil will be under-
stood from the fact, that in Newcastle-upon-Tyne the payment
of these tolls has made a difference to a merchant of £450 an-
nually. In Liverpool, one mercantile firm has paid to the
town dues more than £l4OO in one-year. In some towns, as in
Bristol, a merchant, by payment of a fine, may be admitted to
the freedom of the city ; but in Liverpool the corporation re-
fuses to sell the freedom, and the tolls consequently remain as
a permanent tax upon the nun-freemen merchants. some
towns a large amount of the public property has been spent in
bribery and other illegal practices-at contested elections. Dur-
ing the election of 184, the corporation of-Leicester expended
£lO,OOO to secure the success of a political friend of that body,
and mortgagedsome of their property to discharge the liabilities
so incurred. in Barnstaple and. Liveiponl the funds of the-cor-
poration have been wasted in defending a body of freemen.from
threatened disfranchisement, who had been proved guilty of
bribery. In general, the corporate funds are but partially ap-
plied to municipal purposes; und.they are frequently expended
in feasting;nd paying the expenses of unimportant offices.
"The opinion having taken strong root, that the property of
the corporations is held in trust for the benefit of the corporate
.bodies milli, distinguishing that body from- the community with
which it is locally connected, the transition is not difficult to
the opinion that individual corporators may justifiably derive a
benefit froth that property. At Cambridge toe practice was
attempted to be justified.
"The heavy debts which have been incurred in many corpo-
rations have been increased to their present amount by most
negligent and improper management. At Berwick-upon-
Tweed, where the freemen manage the affairs of the corpora-
tion in common hall, and where commons of the value of about
£6OOO per annum are enjoyed by them, sums of money have
been borrowed for the express purpose of dividing among them-
selves.
The instances of gross mismanagement of trust property are
numerous and striking. At Coventry, the funds of an endowed
school amounted to £9OO per annum; the two masters divide
£7OO between them; and they had only one pupil in 1833, and
for some years previously. At Tewkesbury, no redress could
be obtained against the master of the school, because he was
one of the borough justices, by whom the master is appointed
and the school visited.
"The administration of justice, both civil and criminal, is in
a state-disgraceful to an enlightened community. The magis-
trates are usually chosen from the -aldermen, and the aldermen
frotsr among the leading political partisans; besides that, they
are often taken from a class of persons totally incompetent to
the discharge of, judicial functions. At East Itetford, a re-
spectable wittiness, who had been clerk to the magistrates, de-
clared that one of the magistrates was in the habit of convers
ing familiarly with the culprits brought before him, and that he
endeavoured' to impress them with the idea that he was per-
forming an unwilling office.. On one occasion he saw the ma-
gistrates fighting with. a prisoner, and struggling with him on the
floor! At Nlalmesbury_the magistrates are generally unable to
read and write. At Wenlock, where the jurisdiction of the
borough magistrates is exclusive, andthe population comprised
within it exceeds 17,000 persons, the magistrates have signed
blank warrants.
"At Carqsarthen verdicts are frequently given against justice
from' party bias. At. Haverfordvvest, where none burgesses can
serve on the juries, the general opinion is that it is inip6ssibie
to convict a burgess."
The report concludes thus :
•"rhat where corporations exist. in their most. perfect form,
and are most rightfully administered, they are inadequate to
the wants of the present state of society. In their actual con-
dition, when not productive of positive evil, they, in the great
majority of instances, exist for no purpose of general utility.
The perversion of municipal institutions to political ends has
occasioned the sacrifice of local interests to party purposes,
which have been frequently pursued through the corruption
and demoralization of the electoral bodies. That, in conclu-
sion, there prevails amongst the inhabitants of the great majo-
rity.of these incorporated- towns a general and a just dissatis-
, faction with their municipal institutions: a distrust of the self-
elected municipal councils, whose powers are suhject to no
popular control, and whose acts and proceedings being secret,
are unchecked by the influence of public opinion; a distrust of
the municipal magistracy, tiinting with suspicion the local ad-
ministration of justice, and often accompanied with contempt
-of the per Sons by whom the law is administered; a discontent
under the burdens of local taxation, while revenues that ought
to 'be applied to the public advantage are diverted from their
legitimate use, and are sometimes wastefully bestowed for the
benetit of individuals, sometimes squandered for purposes inju-
rious to the character and morals of the people. That, in short,
the existing municipal corporations of England and -Wales
neither possess nor deserve the confidence •nor respect of the
community, and that a thorough reform must be effected before
• they stag become what they ought•• to be—useful and efficient
I instruments of local government."