The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-15 00:00:00

THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION BILL.

Towards the close of the- last session of Parliament
Lord Brougham brought. forward, in-the House of Lords,
" as a healing measure," a bill creating corporations in
Some thirty of the newly-enfranchised boroughs, who were
to be provided with mayors, recorders, and other munici-
pal functionaries. As this measure emanated from an
economical government and the patron of "cheap justice,"
economy coupled with utility—that is, " cheap and good"
—were supposed to be, its leading features;. and we dare
say his Majesty's advisers will, when the proper time ar-
rives, prove to an admiring wr,rld that it is so; but that
is their business, not ours.

In consequence of the circulation of a draft of the hill,
the inhabitants of Merthyr civil, one of the new bo-
roughs whom the Chancellor "delighteth to honour," as-
sembled last week, when (what extraordinary times we
-
live in !) two resolutions were passed : the first declaring
that the people. of Merthyr do not want a corporation ;
and the second directing petitions to be presented to the
two Houses of Parliament "against the proposed incor-
poration of Merthyr Tydvil."
We regret that our limits confine unto the following
extracts from the-speeches of Anthony Hill, and William
Mevrick, Esgt s., is bleb WC VC evict! front The Merthyr
Guardian:—
Mr. bill requires the magistrates to sit two
days in the week, with the recorder to assist them with his ad-
Oir arrangements for this purpose are already sufficient,
and I see no cause at present to change them. As to the ex-
pense, however, of this bill, it provides that his Majesty shall
appoint us recorder a barrister of five years standing; but this
involves a fallacy, inasmuch as a bat Utter of five years stand-
ing is not consequently a barrister of five years knowledge ihe
law. It may be that under this bill a man in no respect com-
petent to the duty, a mere briefless barrister, may be sent-down
to us; .and what, as respects the administration of justice, will
be our situation then ? And I hardly anticipate that a man of
talent ii iii be allotted to us; to such a man the record,,rship of
Merthyr is no object of ambition; such a gentleman would not
look to Nlerthyr as the avenue to the Lord Chief usticeship of
England. *
I will now proceed to consider the cases to be adjudged by
the magistrates whom the bill is to create.. These we hind to
cuusist chiefly of black eyes and bloody noses, (laughter,) men
fined for drunkenness or unruly misdeineamirs, (laughter, ) cer-
tain occasional disagreements between ladies whose passions
are rather irritable—(laughter)—beer-house convictions' re-
movals of paupers, and occasionally cases of truck. I ask, sir,
whether the bid or the magistracy that it proposes to raise up,
have any tendency either to diminish the cases .of this descrip-
tion, or to decide them either with more fairness or with cleat er
discernment that they are decided already ? I t once now, sir,
to a point which I feel to be one of souse delicacy ; but I hjld,
in great matters and weighty interests, that.that fastidiousness
which shrinks front the avowal of truth is highly censurable,
and ought never to prevail. I come to the qm.siion, whether
11Ierthyr Tydvit be yet in that situation in which such a bill
may be beneficially introduced ? In
.great commtmities_,.l ad-
mit, the elements of those gradations 111 society, which this bill
supposes, ate found to exist; but where are they to be found in
the newly-mule borough of Merthyr? I mean-to wound -no
males jet littos, 1 incite to uutt LIU uito scuba. (11 preper
sett-
respect, but must say, that I hope that no glittering visions of
fancied glories, no fond anticipations .of-civic honours, have
made any of our neighbours imagine that they are elevated in
the path of honour, by rising .in civic power. I draw a wide
distinction, sir, between the station which is merely elevated in
public view, and the station which is truly honourable. We are
born in different stations, have different duties to perform, and
the only honour in my sense is to perform them well. lu my
humble judgment—

llGnour and shame from no condition rims.
Act well yot.r part—there all.the'honour lics—!Cheersi

I conceive, sir, that we arc quite destitute of the eleMents re-
quired for the working of this bill. Of the great lauded pro-
prietors few, if any, are ttsident. Of the gentlemen of inde-
pendent fortune, in the county, can we expect that any will de-
vote their time to the provisions of this bill? Of the gentlemen
resident in Merthyr, all, we well know, are engaged in busi-
ness, and not only it may be possible, but will be probable, that
often the offender and the magistrate, the party and the judge,
may be so connected, as comp.etely to destroy all the. prospects
of 1111 partial

With regard to the principle of the bill, I hold it in the last
abhorrence. It makes this tribunal, this Corporation magi-
stracy, one of Quarter Sessions, and robs U 3 Of that resort, which
is the glory of the country, and the hest security of our rights
and justice. Will any man see his property, perhaps his per-
sonal liberty, submitted to this tribunal, in preference to the
magistrates of Quarter Sessions? This bid makes the judgment
of oiiences entirely a hole and corner business. Th, crime,
the judge, the jury, all originate in the place, where all local
prejudices or local partialities can operate with unrestrained
sway. In the Quarter Sessions, we have the_ judgment of a
bench of magistrates known for unsullied integrity and legal
experience, selecled, as well as the jury, not from one small
locality, but front the whole county : gentlemen elevated by
their station, and removed by their locality, from all connec-
tion with the parties in dispute ; and this is the tribunal which
we are called upon by the bill to resign.
Mr. Meyriek.—lf we expected that the recorder wits not to be
a- person incompetent, from want of practice, for his olree, we
were to consider that a
_gentleman of abbity in his profession,
and relinquishing all other practice, fur the bid constrains him
to attend twice a-week in Merthyr, must be paid an adequate
salary. He (Mr. M,) was enabled to say that a barrister, qua-
lifted to discharge the duty of recorder, would not make this sa-
crifice for a smaller salary than a thousand poundS a-vear. A
town-clerk, to assist with legal advice the Mayor and ti'leermen
must also be a gentleman learned in the law, who must ail, .i.te a
clerk of the peace at the quarter sessions created by this Lill
and could not be expected to give his services for less than
£3OO a-year. A deputy town-clerk must also be pros iced, who
must elan officiate as clerk of the justices as well, and must sit
daily and give up his whole attention to the business. The ser-
vices of such a gentleman, who must also possess legal know-
ledge, could not be obtained for less than I.;atO asy ear. A
treasurer also must be appointed, (and all tho appointments, ex-
cept the recorder, are in the gift of theAlayor aud corpora:iota)
and, as a great portion of this gentleman's time would be en-
gaged, his salary could not he less than XIGO. We have thus
an additional expense of £1.600 a-year, jo which must be added
the salaries of a clerk, a collector, and several other officers, be-
sides priutiug, and occasional rewards to special constables,
making an agregate of at least £2,2,A0, £2,30t.) a year. To
meet this demand, by the provisions of the bill, a borough fund
was constituted, which was to consist of lines and lees.. Ile
had taken an average from the actual amount, during the last
three years, of what these fines and fees would produce, and he
found it not to exceed 1:21:0 a-year ;so that-a Sum of £2,000a-vear
would remain to be raised on fhe poor rates oOlei thyr, Aberdai c,
and Vainor. Then, as to the framing of the-bill, an eminent
yer, one who had shod lustre on the highest dignities of the law, he
meant the Earl of Eldon, on an oceasicn ca which an act of
Parliament was spoken of', had said that it was so louselY
worded that a coach anal four might drive through it: A coadi
and four! why a coach
and six might drive through the provi-
sions of this bill. It says that if the fines and tees are nasul-
ficient, the Common Council ate required to estimate as cor-
rectly as may be what amount in addition to such fund will
be sufßeient, which' they
(the
Common
Council) may raise Ly
warrant to the overseers of eretv pari;ii within such hot-math,
to command them to pa v the minima mentioned in the warrant
out of any
money in their hands collected fur the relief of the
Poor. •If the overseers have not stittkient money in their hands
the amount reouired as part a
they are to levy the pour rate,
hat it is asprovided that no sucti addidishalaaae shaii he levied
except on houses and other builstiossP, cuttilages, gurdebs, and
orchards." Now by the law of the laud if any person fintls
himself aggrieved liv the puor's-rates, he has no appeal in the
first instance to the Vestry. and even utter that, to the Quarter
Sessions. But here there is ito appeal. The Common Coattail
are to estimate the sum, to issue their warrant, and to levy
whatever they may estimate, not upon all species of property
liable to the poor's-rates, tut exclnsb ely upon " heuses and
other buildings, eurtilages, gardens, and orchards," and this
must be paid without appeal. Was ever an act more erbitrary-
in its provisions proposed or even imagined? 'We have heard
of the expeuces of civic festivals, we have heard that in London
even the stint of 1:8,000 does not defray the annual costs of
Mayors' dinners, &c. ; here in the borough of Met tily.r, we are to
have a bill empowering a Corporation to go to coy e7pences, to
form any estimates. to levy any sums the) may choose to estimate,
on the parishes of Merthyr, Aberdare, and V ainor, without auy
appeal. Ile held in his hand an estimataof our present expellees in
attaining that unspeakable advantage, the bpi relit and intelligent
administration of Impartial justice. We Paid for this now £llOO
a-year; of that sum £3OO, (instead of .£'2.3tX.!,) was paid from the
funds of the parish of Merthyr. The renutiutng i4OO was made
up front the n'onmasters, win were better .satistied to contribute
that quota than have the burdens of active megistraey. The
fees received by the Justices' Clerk 'sera, in the year ending
June, 18.31, £l6l 15, Bd.; June, 1F32, £llO Os. Cd.; Ji.ne,
1833, £122 ss. This was the sum paid for the -adminisA.atien of
justice, exclusive of the ex,;enees saved to the parish for fees on
orders of removal which in each year exceeded £111), ao that in
fact the parish 'lid less than iAO a-year for that justics which
this bill, with all its affected perfections, would never prialuce,
even ftr the .£2300.
The meeting is described as one of the most nutneroys
and re pectahle that was-ever assembled in district.