48] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



that little or no revenue remained 

 for their current expenses ; and 

 the burgesses felt considerable 

 alarm for their own individual and 

 private property. It had already 

 happened in one case, that no 

 person could be persuaded to 

 undertake the office of magistrate. 

 If no political interests were con- 

 cerned, he was sure that the state 

 of long-continued abuse they had 

 suffered, and of degradation into 

 which they were fallen, would 

 excite the sympathy of all parties 

 in the House. The noble lord 

 concluded with moving, That 

 there be laid before this House a 

 copy of the Act or Warrant of 

 his Majesty in Council, dated in 

 the month of September 1817, 

 authorizing the guild brethren 

 and inhabitant burgesses in the 

 burgh of Montrose, to elect [fit 

 persons to be magistrates and 

 town councillors of the same, 

 and authorizing and ordering an 

 alteration in the former set or 

 constitution of the said burgh in 

 all time coming. 



Lord Castlereagh said, that the 

 reform which the noble lord 

 wished, would lead to an exten- 

 sive change in the burgh elections 

 of Scotland, and would therefore 

 carry reform into the representa- 

 tion of that part of the country. 

 There might be defects in that 

 part of the administration, as 

 there were defects in every insti- 

 tution ; but in so far as his majes- 

 ty's ministers were acquainted 

 with the state of the country, 

 there was no part where the 

 population was in a sounder 

 condition than in the burghs of 

 Scotland. There seemed, how- 

 ever, a defect in the law of Scot- 

 land with respect to the burghs, 



who had no power at present to 

 take cognizance of the pecuniary 

 concerns, and to enter into the 

 subject of the administration of 

 the funds of these burghs ; but 

 this evil would be obviated by the 

 bill of which notice had been 

 given by his learned friend, the 

 lord advocate. It was vain to 

 think of separating the question 

 of reform, from giving to the 

 burgesses the faculty of electing 

 their magistrates : and the noble 

 lord could not state any practical 

 utility in the projected change, 

 except with a view to a reform in 

 parliament. As to the question 

 of the legality of what had been 

 done, it was rather for the deci- 

 sion of a court of law, than for 

 that of the House. Now, there 

 was no individual of Montrose 

 affected by the change who had 

 not his legal remedy, and who 

 might not question the legality of 

 the election of magistrates under 

 the new charter. The noble lord 

 had argued, that though the 

 present arrangement for the 

 burgh of Montrose was good in 

 itself, ministers might afterwards 

 make other arrangements of a 

 very different character to favour 

 particular political views. But 

 Fiere the act had grown out of the 

 circumstance of the suspension of 

 all the powers of the burgh. The 

 relief was generally solicited ; 

 there was not one complaioing 

 party ; and therefore it was unfair 

 to consider an act called for under 

 such circumstances, the beginning 

 of an arbitrary system of inter- 

 ference with the constitutions of 

 the burghs. 



After some farther observa- 

 tions, his lordship said, that 

 upon these grounds he considered 



it 



