CORPORATIONS .MUNICIPAL) OF IRKI 



CORPORATIONS (MUNICIPAL) OF IRELAND. 



age*, which were association* for the teaching and managing, each ol 

 iU particular handicraft, and fur eleemosynary purposes, in regard to 

 iU member*, who might tall into decay. They were not established 

 with any view to traffic or the nuking of profit*. 



For incorporated eumpaniof trading ai banker), MB Grant on 

 ' Banking'; and the article BAXK, BAXKEK, BAXKIKU. 



:.-neral information on corporation*, ace Grant'* ' Law 

 ponUiona,' where particulan are stated of the law respecting the 

 universities and their colleen* ; grammar achooU ; hospital* ; dean and 

 chapter*; guardian* of tbo poor; bishop*, panoni; and generally 

 respecting all description* of corporate bodies known in thi* country. 



vTlnXS (MfMCirAl.) OF JUKI. AND. The preaent 

 constitution of the borough* of Ireland, will be treated under Mtsi- 

 CITAL ConroHiTioNs. The following u merely a historical i. 

 aome of the peculiarities no longer existing, which marked the Irish 

 corporations 



The whole system of borough*, which hold* to conspicuous and 

 important a place in the history of the political and general civilisation 

 of the British islands, i*, in nature as well as name. .'\itonic 



original : that particular apeciea of organisation baring ever Wen found 

 repugnant to the habits and spirit of the Celtic nation* in their inde- 

 pendent state. Thus, in Great Britain itself, its local limits advanced 

 with the growth and extension of the Germanic colonies both north 

 and couth of the Tweed ; and in Ireland we l.nd that i' 

 were strangers to it until Uie settlement on their eastern and southern 

 coast*, about the 9th century, of some of those Danish. North -man, 

 or, as they were called in Ireland, Oil-man (East-man) bands, in that 

 great era of the permanent migrations of those formidable sea 

 Of these maritime settlements, five, namely. Dublin, Wexford. 

 ford, Cork, and Limerick, appear as places of note at the commence- 

 ment of the Anglo-Norman conquests in the island, and a* (possessing 

 that municipal organisation which constantly attended all the branches 

 of the Teutonic race. The Ost man colonials of Ireland, too, though 

 for a considerable time after their first settlement they adhered to 

 their ancient paganism, had at the period in question, owing un- 

 doubtedly to the amicable relations which had arisen between them 

 and the Irish population, and to the exertions of the Irish cler>- 

 long in the profession of Christianity; so that.it should seem, the 

 first Anglo-Norman invaders might have recognised in them some 

 degree of na'-ional affinity. But being ignorant and brutal, though 

 subtle and daring adventurers, their thirst for plunder and for terri- 

 torial acquisition would not permit them, in their career of murderous 

 rapine, to make any distinction in treatment between the Scandinavian 

 and the Celtic blood, between the Oat-man and the Irishman. 



This unsparing temper of the early private invaders perfectly 

 coincided with the policy of the English crown ; and so soon as 

 Henry 1 1. had found leisure to take the business of the invasion into 

 his own hands, one of hi* principal measures for securing the footing 

 of his government on the Irish soil was the colonisation of the < ' 

 ports with English or Anglo-Norman settlers. Thus tin' (>*< 

 Dublin were thrust without the walls of their city to inhabit the 

 suburbs thence called Ost-man town, and still, by corruption, Oxman- 

 town, giving place to a baud of mercantile settlers from Bristol, who 

 became the English king's " burgesses " of Dublin, with a charter of 

 liberties modelled exactly upon that of Bristol. In like manner, 

 during the various fluctuations of the territorial conquest, down to its 

 completion at the close of the reign of Elizabeth, ev^ry pel 

 extension of the English frontier extended the English organisation of 

 the territory, of which the establishment of fortilird towns, with inha- 

 bitants municipally organised and trained to arms, was a constant and 

 a prominent feature. 



The municipal commissioners of 1833 could not help observing the 

 " marked distinction in the language of their charters, as to the < 

 lions of the municipal corporations in Ireland, according to the dates of 

 those instruments," that is, according as they were granted before or 

 after the commencement of the reign of James I. This was pi 

 the period when the crown was mo->t actively exerting itself to secure 

 the power of moulding the borough constitutions at iU pleasure ; and in 

 the middle of James's reign was given the notable judicial division in 

 favour of the prerogative of establishing close boroughs by charter, upon 

 which the crown ever afterwards acted. Far, however, as the exercise 

 of this power was carried in England, yet, in tin- hands uf the Stuarts 

 at le-u-t . it failed of the complete attainment of its object. But in 

 Ireland, which presented a much clearer field for its exertion, it W.M 

 used both lavishly and effectually, not only in < .-lavishing new 

 boroughs, but in refraining the constitutions of the old one*. In the 

 " plantation of Ulster," as the settling of British inhabitants upon the 

 lately-forfeited lands there was then denominaVd, l.y charters granted 

 by J.uues to various " undertakers " of the plantation, a number of 

 incorporations were made beforehand, on the new and approved plan 

 of towns "to be built "on the respective lands. Another a- 

 similar mode of making boroughs in Ireland at this period was the 

 incorporating of some village already existing, at the same time placing 

 iU corporation under the absolute control of the lord of the manor 

 existing previously or newly creeled. The whole number of borough* 

 thus created by James I. and hi* two immediate successors, a large 

 proportion of which were originally of the claa* just described, though 

 some of them hare aince risen to importance, was 61, and the number 



of the older borough* waa 45; there were also 1 1 other pla<-c which 



i'renentatire* to the Irish parliament, i 

 in existence but which derive*! their right from usage. 



Each of the 100 corporation* referred to above, sent two member* 

 to the Irish Mouse of Common*, and many of those created by James I. 

 and hi* two successor* nerved scarcely any other purpoae from the 

 b [ inning, ':> .:',)..- n I. .-. aa a liU in re to tu .. < >vi i f.-r 

 the nomination of the two m< Many 



had consequently fallen into virtual disuse long bti 

 union with Kngimd. 

 The mode of incorporation adopted by the crown in erecting the 



. borough*, presents little more than a parallel to the course it 



was pursuing m England; but in order t .v it was that the 



nidi it effected in the ancient borough constitution* of 



i was F o much more rapid and more complete than in those of 

 England, we must advert to some very remarkable features in the 



religious history of li 



In the very first establishment of boroughs in that . 

 Anglo-Norman crown hod found it--clf under an aK-olnt. mi 

 pi. i ing the municipalities on the footing 



boroughs in England : the M : upon the 



Irish soil required that the incorporated burgesses should ln> strong 



: '-naive warfare ; and, t 

 they should be free. Not only th< 

 parliamentary franchise enjoyed by the inhabitant : n at 



out their common exemption from burdensome 

 services, aud from feudal jui , is rendered m 



than in England itself : and such, on tin 

 of the Anglo-Irish boroughs continue to I 

 territorial conquest. This completion, while 



boroughs from the danger of external attack from the unsubdued 

 native Irish population, i .in more liable to 



attack fioju tin English crown, at length relieved from 

 embarrassment of nteat with " the Irish enemy." Another 



rein. ukable circumstance appeared just at the same period, 

 while it commenced an entirely new era in Anglo-Irish hi.-; 

 in the hand* of the Knglish government a we.ipun 

 efficiency fur the prosecution in Jit 1 mil of its new pol 

 ancient boroughs in general. When Henry VIII. had al 

 bis own advantage, the papal 



ned only a partial ; .ml. In the reign 



of Elizabeth two statutes were passed relating to the crown's religious 

 supremacy and to the uniformity of common prayer ; but her >. 

 ment was too discreet to enforce either of t a? to the 



clergy and the leading officers acting in ri\ . 

 ment. But James I. sent presidents or military governors 

 Irish provinces for the immediate enforcement of the statutes in ques- 



i.eciaily in the corporate towns. The leading miiir 



jectod, others, of known pliancy, were sul their 



places ; and these persons readily resigned the rights and liber: 

 their towns into the king's hands, and took out new charters of 

 poraiioii. And here it was that (ha leading object of tin 



iishcd. To the several ancient Union 



soon issued, so framed as to leave 1ml a very small share of municipal 

 power to the great body of ti uts. In these chart, i 



viduala were expressly nominated to fill the offices of mayor, nucriir, 

 recorder, to. : the members of the governing council of the corpo- 

 rations were in ino.-i instances nominated in like manner, with c.v 



to appoint their successors ; so that the inhabitants at 

 were almost wholly deprived of that share in tin ir local government 

 which, under the original constitutions of these boroughs, tin 

 enjoyed for upwards of four ceutin 



The system of exclusion was cl. > 1 by the persons thus 



newly placed in corporate authorit this means, gradually 



i thrir interests from those of the inhabitant* at large 

 they were unable wholly to extinguish the mnniripal rights of the 

 am ieiit class of freemei om the 



higher corporate offices, continued 1* until tl. 



1 1G54, when tin aimy i tin- ' .1th obtained possession 



such towns. No soon rlcs II. restored than tin 



Justices of Ireland issued a proclamation confirming t 

 holding by grant or contract with " the late usurped powers," all their 

 lands and possessions, as well in towns as elsewhere. ii. 

 1'nder the authority of this proclam.it ion, wh 

 legislature was caii r for the general arrangement of ! 



, . ami other public interests, which had b> ly sub- 



of civil war. the Commonwealth soldiery, who, 

 I under Cromwell, had possessed thcmschcs of the walled 

 i able to return an overwhelming majority of members to that 



lii-'h passed the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. 'I 

 mim neu of their interest was thus jn and tin 



rights, and liberties of those corporate iv - were vested in a 



body of men but recently nettled in the kingdom. The unjust 

 exclusion consequently maintained, became, in the course of the same 

 reign, a subject of inquii Irish government; but.v. 



as that government ha* so often been between justice and expi < 

 it procured no effectual change in that system, the evils ot v, liich it 

 seemed to deplore. 



