The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-10-07 00:00:00

James Chalmers .

Ditto.

.Z2O 0 0

The committee consider that the town-clerk is legally
responsible for all that is done by the persons above men-
tioned, with the exception of those duties which Mr. Shut-
tleworth and his clerk, Hughes, perform as prosecuting
solicitor, James Halsall as mace-bearer and constable, and
Messrs. M'Combe and Chalmers as constables.

It is quiteOnCot the power of the committee to define the
specific duties of each person in this department; for, in
most cases, the individuals themselves have stated, that it
was out of their power to give the committee the information.
On investigation, the committee find, as before stated, such i
a total want of system and arrangement, that the public has
been put to the greatest inconvenience and annoyance by the
delays which take place in the business of this department.
To put the council in possession of the system which is
carried on, the committee will take the labyrinth which, for
instance, contracts and various other documents have to go
through. One of the committees of the council, which
neither the town-clerk nor any person in his office has
attended, agrees with A. B. to do certain work, which
ap-
pears on their minutes, kept by Mr. Okill. The conditions
come before the council for confirmation in the proceedings
of that committee ; they return to Mr. Okill, who sends
such particulars as he may consider sufficient to the Town-
clerk , they then go to the deputy town-clerk, who may be
attending to his duties as prosecuting solicitor at the sessions ;
he therefore places them in the hands of a clerk, and here
they remain until the deputy town-clerk can find time to look
at the rough draft. When this period arrives, be finds that
his instructions are not sufficient, and he has to see Mr.
Okill to explain, and afterwards to confer with the town-
clerk, whom he cannot meet with for some days, owing to his
being otherwise engaged. The draft at last is prepared, and
forwarded to the contractor's attorney, who considers it ne-
cessary to make alterations therein, and calls at the Town-
hall respecting them; and it happens to be the sessions, and
the assessor is also sitting in his court. Mr. Okill and the
surveyor may be seen by the attorney for the contractor, but
theyt are incompetent to decide the points raised by him ; and
a
i althis particular time, how does he find the town-clerk and
others in his office
performing Quick. the duties of clerk of the peace, with his clerk,
Walters is sitting by the side of the recorder, acting
as his clerk;
r. Richard Radcliffe, jun., is acting as
registrar in th ls Asessor's Court, with one of the apprentices
assisting him; Fitzgerald is also it) the Borough Court,
acting as crier; Mr.
the apprentices,
is atStehntipeworth, with Hughes and one of
and other times the mg to the prosecutions. At these
committee find the general public busi-
ness of the town entirely
town-clerk's or his deputy's y
the committee may almost say,o to
the simplest can
give an answer, simplest question. The
'
committee may mention, that when
Halsall is in the Recorder's Court, the courts are sitting,
acting as crier, and
M'Combe and Chalmers are in attendance
in one or other
of the courts, to prove the service of summonses on absent
jurors.
The next point the committee have to remark u •' f pon, is the
loose and most unsatisfactory mode in whichthe ees received
in the town-clerk's office have been checked, and the irre-
gular way in which they have been accounted for.
Two or three of the clerks, as it may happen „attend to the
Borough Court, and the fees received by them are placed in a
wooden bowl in a drawer, which is not locked, and at the end
of the day the contents of the bowl are counted, and a memo-
randum made of the amount. No particulars of these fees