176 
EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
inconformably to, “ the provisions of the Charter,” are not legally 
binding on the corporate body. The Council must not forget they 
are the servants of the Charter; not its masters. Whatever latitude 
of construction certain paragraphs and clauses of the Charter may 
admit of, one step in their transactions beyond the demarcation of 
the law jeopardizes any enactment the Council may determine on 
making. 
If these observations be founded in reason and in law, we shall 
not be found fault with for proposing to subject any by-law of ques¬ 
tionable validity to the test they so naturally suggest. A by-law, 
if valid, will find its guarantee in the Charter; ergo, one for which 
the Charter contains no authority must be pronounced invalid. 
Let us by this ready and pretty unequivocal test try the substan¬ 
tiality of the by-laws relating to apprenticeship. Does the Charter 
authorize the Council to make such laws] 
We read in the Charter—“ That the Council shall have the entire 
management of and superintendence over the affairs, concerns, and 
property of the body politic and corporate, &c.; and also shall and 
may make any orders, rules, and by-laws for the regulation of the 
Council, and for the management of the estates, goods, &c.; and 
the same orders, rules, and by-laws, from time to time, to alter, 
suspend, or repeal, and to make new orders, rules, and by-laws, in 
their stead, as the Council shall think most proper and expedient, 
so as the same may he not repugnant to these presents or the laws 
of this our realm.” In another place, where the Charter is de¬ 
clared to be granted to petitioners, and such other persons as 
“ shall pass such examination as may be required by the orders, 
rules, and by-laws which shall be framed and confirmed pursuant 
to these presents , shall by virtue of these presents be members of 
and form one body politic and corporate,” &c. 
From this, it is clearly evident that the Council’s right to make 
by-laws is restricted—and very properly restricted—by their not 
being repugnant to the “ presents” or instructions of the Charter ; 
and that the validity or invalidity of the by-laws relating to ap¬ 
prenticeship must be decided by this and by no other test: and 
we must confess we are, after a strict and scrutinous reading of the 
Charter, inclined to the opinions of counsel, as stated in our last 
number, viz. that the apprenticeship by-law cannot he maintained. 
