chised, the question of the municipal franchise was
next dealt with. In 1833 a commission inquired into the administration
of the municipal corporations. The result of the inquiry was the
Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which gave the municipal franchise to
the ratepayers. In all the municipal corporations dealt with by the act,
the town council was to consist of a mayor, aldermen and councillors,
and the councils were given like powers, being divided into those with
and those without a commission of the peace. The minutes were to be open
to the inspection of any burgess, and an audit of accounts was required.
The exclusive rights of retail trading, which in some towns were
restricted to freemen of the borough, were abolished. The system of
police, which in some places was still medieval in character, was placed
under the control of the council. The various privileged areas within
the bounds of a borough were with few exceptions made part of the
borough. The powers of the council to alienate corporate property were
closely restricted. The operations of the act were extended by later
legislation, and the divers amendments and enactments which followed
were consolidated in the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. (M. Bat.)

_Irish Boroughs._--In Ireland the earliest traces of burghal life are
connected with the maritime settlements on the southern and eastern
coast. The invasion of Henry II. colonized these Ostman ports with
Anglo-Norman communities, who brought with them, or afterwards obtained,
municipal charters of a favourable kind. The English settlement
obviously depended on the advantages which the burgesses possessed over
the native population outside. Quite different from these were the new
close boroughs which during the plantation of Ulster James I. introduced
from England. The conquest was by this time completed, and by a rigorous
enforcement of the Supremacy and Uniformity Acts the existing liberties
of the older boroughs were almost entirely withdrawn. By the new rules
published (in terms of the Act of Settlement and Explanation) in 1672
resident traders were permitted to become freemen, but neither this
regulation nor the ordinary admissions through birth, marriage and
apprenticeship succeeded in giving to Ireland free and vigorous
municipalities. The corrupt admission of non-resident freemen, in order
to outvote the ancient freeholders in parliamentary elections, and the
systematic exclusion of Roman Catho