ion of 1833, he had informed the Houses that he had
"directed commissions to be issued for investigating the state of the
municipal corporations throughout the United Kingdom, the result of
whose inquiries would enable them to mature some measure which might
seem best fitted to place the internal government of corporate cities
and towns upon a solid foundation in respect of their finances, their
judicature, and their police." He reminded them that they had recently
passed acts "for giving constitutions upon sound principles to the royal
and parliamentary boroughs of Scotland," and warned them that "their
attention would hereafter be called to the expediency of extending
similar advantages to the unincorporated towns in England which had now
acquired the right of returning members to Parliament." The commission
of which his Majesty thus spoke had now presented its report, strongly
condemnatory of the existing system in almost every point of view; of
the constitution and mode of election of the existing corporations, and
of their government of the towns over which they presided. It declared
that "even where they existed in their least imperfect form, and were
most rightfully administered, they were inadequate to the wants of the
present state of society." But they charged them also with positive
offences of no venial kind. "They had perverted their powers to
political ends, sacrificing local interests to party purposes. They had
diverted from their legitimate use revenues which ought to have been
applied for the public advantage, wasting them in many instances for the
benefit of individuals; sometimes even employing for purposes of
corruption funds originally intended for charitable uses." And they
asserted that this too common misconduct of these bodies had engendered
"among a great majority of the inhabitants of the incorporated towns a
general and just dissatisfaction with their municipal institutions, a
distrust of the self-elected municipal councils, and of the municipal
magistracy, tainting with suspicion the local administration of
justice." And therefore they "felt it their duty to represent to his
Majesty that the existing municipal corporations of England and Wales
neither possessed nor deserved the confidence and respect of his
Majesty's subjects; and that a thorough reform must be effected before
they could become what they ought to be, useful and efficient
instruments of local government."

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