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MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. 



MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. 



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appoint. No notice of the business to be transacted at these quarterly 

 meetings need be given. 



The mayor may call a special meeting as often as he thinks proper. 

 Should the mayor refuse to call a meeting, when requested so to do by 

 writing signed by five members of the council, those five members may 

 call a meeting, of which they must give due notice, and which they 

 must sign, stating at the same time the business to be transacted. A 

 summons to attend, specifying the business to be transacted, signed by 

 the town clerk, must be left at the abode of every member of the 

 council three clear days before every special meeting ; and no business 

 save that specified in the summons can be transacted at the meeting. 

 At every meeting the majority of members present decides all ques- 

 tions, provided the whole number present be not less than one-third of 

 the whole council. The mayor, or in his absence such alderman, or if 

 no alderman be present such councillor, as the rest shall choose for 

 chairman, presides, and in case of equality of votes has a casting vote. 

 Minutes of the proceedings are drawn up and entered fairly in the 

 minute-book, and must be signed by the chairman at the meeting. 

 These minutes are open to the inspection of any burgess at all reasonable 

 times on payment of a fee of one shilling. 



The council may appoint out of their own body committees for 

 general and special purposes, whenever it is thought that the matter in 

 question can be better managed by means of a committee. The acts 

 of all committees must be submitted to the council for approval. 



The council may make bye-laws for the good rule and government 

 of the borough, and for prevention and suppression of such nuisances 

 as are not already punishable in a summary manner by virtue of any 

 Act in force throughout the borough, and may appoint such fines, not 

 exceeding 51., as they may deem necessary to enforce the observance of 

 these regulations. Such bye-laws, however, have no force until the 

 expiration of forty days after a copy sealed with the common seal has 

 been sent to one of the secretaries of state, and has been affixed to the 

 door of the town hall or some other public place within the borough, 

 and such bye-laws may be annulled or modified by the crown with 

 advice of the privy council. 



Police. It is the duty of the council to appoint out of their own 

 body a committee entitled " The Watch Committee," for managing 

 affairs of police within the borough. This committee appoints con- 

 stables, who may act within seven miles of the borough, and who are 

 empowered to apprehend idle and disorderly persons disturbing the 

 public peace, or whom they may reasonably suspect to intend felony, 

 and to deliver such to the constable in attendance at the nearest watch- 

 house. The watch committee must transmit a quarterly report on the 

 1st of January, 1st of April, 1st of July, and 1st of October, to the 

 secretary of state, with a copy of their rules for the management of 

 constables. 



Patifi, Liijlitiny, etc. By the Municipal Corporation Act, and by 

 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 105, and 20 4 21 Viet. c. 50, provision is made for 

 the transfer to the body corporate of the borough of the powers for 

 paving, lighting, supplying water, and other useful objects, which 

 under a multitude of local acts had been previously vested in the 

 old corporations or in separate bodies of trustees. Charitable trusts, 

 of which the old corporations were the depositaries, are not transferred 

 to the councils, but have been confided to distinct bodies of trustees. 



Barowjh Fund. The rents and profits of all hereditaments, and 

 proceeds of all personal property, dues, fines and penalties, and moneys 

 arising from the sale of copies of the burgess-roll, overseers' lists, and 

 liate of claims and objections, are directed to be paid to the treasurer 

 of the borough, and constitute the borough fund. The council are 

 restrained from alienating or mortgaging lands or granting leases 

 (except leases not exceeding 31, years without fine), unless with the 

 consent of three lords of the treasury. An exception is made, 

 however, with regard to certain leases renewable by custom, and 

 building leases. 



The purposes to which the borough fund is applicable are, the pay- 

 ment of the salaries of the mayor and other officers, all the expenses 

 attending the preparation of the burgess-list and municipal elections, 

 the expenses of the prosecution and punishment of offenders, the main- 

 tenance of the borough jail and other public buildings, and various 

 other municipal expenses. Certain contributions are also required to 

 be made to the county treasurer for public purposes ; and other expenses 

 to be presently referred to, have been charged by sundry Acts of Parlia- 

 ment upon the borough fund. 



If the borough fund be more than sufficient for all the purposes 

 defined by law, then the surplus is to be applied, under the direction 

 of the council, for the public benefit of the inhabitants and the improve- 

 ment of the borough. Should the borough fund be insufficient for the 

 above-mentioned purposes, the council are empowered to levy borough 

 rates for the purpose of supplying the deficiency. 



The treasurer keeps accounts of receipts and disbursements, and the 

 account books are open to the inspection of any alderman or councillor. 

 They are audited half-yearly, in the months of March and September, 

 and after the September audit a full abstract is printed and published. 

 A full statement of accounts is sent to the secretary of state before the 

 1st of March in every year. 



J notice. With regard to the administration of justice in boroughs 

 under the Municipal Corporation Act, the crown is empowered to 

 appoint, in the boroughs named in schedules A and B of that Act, 



ARTS AXD SOI. BIT. VOL. V. 



justices of the peace, who are not required to have any qualification 

 of estate. The council also of every borough may, if they think it 

 necessary that one or more salaried police magistrates should be 

 appointed, make a bye-law fixing the amount of salary, and thereupon 

 the crown may appoint a barrister of five years' standing to the office. 

 The appointment is vested in the crown, in order that the adminis- 

 tration of justice may be above the suspicion of being tainted by party 

 or local interests, which might be incurred if the appointment was 

 made by the town council. In boroughs where the council signify 

 their desire to that effect by petition, setting forth the grounds of 

 their application, the state of the jail, and the salary which they are 

 willing to pay, the crown may appoint a recorder for any one such 

 borough, or for two or more conjointly. He must be a barrister of 

 not less than five years' standing. 



Prisons. In every borough to which a separate court of sessions of 

 the peace is granted, there must be one common jail, and at least one 

 house of correction, excepting where the corporation contract for the 

 maintenance of borough offenders in some county or borough jail, or 

 house of correction, or in some district prison. The regulation of the 

 jail is entrusted to the borough justices, for which purpose they hold 

 a quarterly session at the usual times of holding quarterly sessions of 

 the peace. 



Lunatic Asylums. The Lunatic Asylums Act, 1853, directs that in 

 every borough having a quarter sessions, recorder, and clerk of the 

 peace, or having had at the passing of a previous Act (8 & 9 Viet, 

 c. 126, 8th Aug., 1845) six justices or more, besides a recorder, a 

 pauper lunatic asylum be provided or hired. The justices of the 

 borough may contract with the justices of any other counties, 

 boroughs, or hospitals, for the reception of the borough lunatics, or 

 they may contract for the erection and provision of a joint lunatic 

 asylum, for the reception of lunatics of other places, as well as their 

 own borough. The charges of the asylum are thrown upon the 

 borough fund, or, if necessary, upon a general borough rate levied for 

 the express purpose. 



Public Libraries and Museums. The Public Libraries Act, 1850, 

 authorises the mayor, upon the request of the town council of any 

 municipal borough, the population of which at the last census 

 exceeded 10,000, to take the sense of the community as to the 

 desirability of putting this Act into operation. A poll of the burgesses 

 is held after a ten days' notice, and if two-thirds of the votes are in its 

 favour the Act is adopted. The Act enables the council to purchase 

 or hire the necessary lands and buildings, and to erect and maintain 

 necessary buildings, and for this purpose to levy a rate, which must 

 not exceed iu any one year one halfpenny in the pound on the 

 annual value of the property in the borough rateable to the borough 

 rate. 



The council, and committees appointed by them, are authorised to 

 make rates for the conduct of the museum and library, and the appoint- 

 ment and salaries of officers. Admission to such libraries and museums 

 is to be free of all charge. The council may, with the approbation of 

 the Treasury, borrow money on security of the rate levied under 

 this Act. 



Public Baths and Weak-houses The 9 & 10 Viet. c. 74 (1846), which 

 is intended to encourage the establishment of public baths, waah-houses, 

 and open bathing-places, may be adopted by the council of an incor- 

 porated borough, and may then be carried into operation in accordance 

 with the existing laws and regulations relating to the borough. The 

 expenses may be charged upon the borough fund or supplied by a 

 separate rate. The council have the control and regulation of the 

 baths and wash-houses thus established. They are also empowered to 

 raise money for the purposes of the Act upon security of the borough 

 fund. 



Public Uealtk Act, 1848. This important Act, which is directed to 

 the promotion of the health of towns and populous places, by the 

 supply of water, and the improvement of the sewerage and draining, 

 may be brought into operation in boroughs upon the petition of not 

 less than one-tenth of the inhabitants rated to the poor, or without 

 this in places where it can be shown from the registrar-general's return 

 that the annual number of deaths exceeds 23 in 1000. A report having 

 been made to her Majesty by the General Board of Health upon the 

 case, the Act is put in force by an order in council. But in cases 

 where a local Act of Parliament for cleansing, water supply, &c., is in 

 force, the order in council must be ratified by Act of Parliament before 

 it takes effect. In districts consisting solely of a corporate borough, 

 the council of the borough are constituted the local board of health ; 

 in larger districts, including more than a borough, the mayor and 

 a portion of the councillors are to be members of the local board of 

 health formed for the united district. 



Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1848. In places 

 where the Public Health Act is not in force, the council of the borough 

 may, upon the receipt of a notice signed by two inhabitant householders 

 of the existence in any house or premises of a privy, cess-pool, or other 

 nuisance dangerous to health, cause the premises to be examined ; and 

 if satisfied of the dangerous nature of the nuisance, either by such 

 examination or the certificate of two medical practitioners, the council 

 may lodge a complaint with a justice, who may summon the owner to 

 appear, and order the nuisance to be removed within two days. In 

 default of this being done by the owner, the council may themselves 



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