egitimate use, and are sometimes wastefully bestowed for the
benefit of individuals--sometimes squandered for purposes injurious to
the character and morals of the people. We therefore feel it to be
our duty to represent to your majesty that the existing municipal
corporations of England and Wales neither possess nor deserve the
confidence or respect of your majesty's subjects, and that a thorough
reform must be effected before they can become what we humbly submit to
your majesty they ought to be--useful and efficient instruments of local
government." Lord John Russell, proceeding on this recommendation,
on the 5th of June detailed the plan of municipal government which
ministers intended to provide for one hundred and eighty-three
corporations. After detailing the many abuses which existed, he said
that, instead of the present irregular government of corporations, it
was proposed that there should be one uniform system of government--one
uniform franchise for the purpose of election: and the like description
of officers, with the exception of some of the larger places, in which
it might be desirable to have a recorder, or some other magistrates
different from the other smaller boroughs. In regard to the
qualification of electors, he said it had been determined not to adhere
to the parliamentary franchise. By the proposed bill they would be
obliged to pay the borough rates, and accord to the established
practice of the English government, and the acknowledged and recognised
principles of the British constitution. He thought it fair that they
should have a voice in the election of those by whom the rates were
made, and by whom the corporate funds were expended. As, however,
the electors ought to be the fixed inhabitants of the town, known to
contribute to the rates, it was proposed that they should be persons
who had been rated for three years, and had regularly paid those rates.
Provision was also made in the bill for the case of those individuals
who might have omitted to pay their rates. In regard to the governing
body, there was to be one only--a mayor and common-council. The
common-council would consist of various numbers, generally regulated by
the population of the different places; their numbers would vary from
fifteen in the smallest places to ninety in the largest. It was proposed
that the largest towns, of which there were only twenty, should be
divided into wards, and a certain proportion, which would be regul