The next step was to claim the same power over municipalities which had always exercised the right of sending representatives. The ignorance or subserviency of the law courts in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., favoured this design. In the 12th year of the latter monarch, it was judicially declared that the king could by his charter incorporate the people of a town in the form of select classes and com monalties and vest in the whole corporation the right of sending repre sentatives tol parliament, at the same time restraining the exercise of that right to these select classes; and such was thenceforward the form of all the corporations which royal charters created or re-modelled.
The perversion of municipal institutions to political ends, the sacrifice of local interests to party purposes, the alienation of corporate property, and other flagrant abuses flowing from the whole powers of the corporations being vested in select bodies, had for more than two centuries been a matter of constant and nearly universal complaint before a remedy was applied by the statute 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76, commonly known as "the Municipal Reform Act," but of which the title is, " An Act to provide for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales." Upon this Act a number of others have since been grafted, by which various special objects of municipal government are provided for, the whole together constituting a most beneficial eode, of which the full results still however remain to be seen. We will endeavour to state succinctly the nature and rules of the existing municipal corpo rations under the Act 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76.
These corporations consist of a mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, by which names they have perpetual succession.
Burgesscs.—The of a burgess, the want of any one of which is fatal to the claim to that appellation, are as follows :—Tho burgess must be a male, and of full age. He must be found on the last day of August in any year to have occupied a house, warehouse, counting-house, or shop within the borough during that year and the whole of the two preceding years. He must during that period have been an inhabitant householder within the borough or within seven miles of it,. Ho must be duly enrolled ou the burgess-roll for that year; and to be entitled to enrolment, he must have been rated to the relief of the poor during such time of occupancy for his premises within the borough, and must have paid on or before the last day of August in that year all poor rates and all borough rates (if any) payable by him in respect of such premises, except such as become payable within six calendar months before the said last day of August. lle
need not during the period in question have continued to occupy the stone premises. Disqualifications ore, being an alien, having been con victed of bribery, and having within twelve months next before the said last day of August received any parochial relief, alms, or charitable allowance.
It is the duty of the overseers of the poor to prep arsa list of the burgesses every year, which is to be delivered on the 1st of September (20 & 21 Viet. c. 50, s. 7) to the town clerk, who causes copies to be printed and sold, and fixes a copy on the door of the town hall from the Sth to the 15th of September. This affords an opportunity for all persons whq claim to be inserted in the burgess-lists, if they find their names omitted, to assert their rights, which must be done by giving notice of their claim to the town clerk on or before the 15th of September. In the same way, objections may be raised to names supposed to be improperly inserted. Lists of the claims and objections made are framed by the town clerk and fixed up on the door of the town hall from the 23rd of September to the 1st of October. A court for the revision of the burgess-lists is held by the mayor and two borough assessors between the 1st and the 15th of October. The claims and objections are heard, and upon the evidence given the mayor inserts the names of those who establish their claim, and expunges the names of those against whom an objection is successfully maintained. Any other mistake, as the insertion of the name of a dead person, may also on this occasion be corrected. The mayor's decision as to the rejection of any name from the burgess-list is under the control of the Queen's Bench ; and under 7 Will. IV. & 1 Vict. c. 78, persona whose claims have been rejected, or whose names have been expunged, may apply for a mandamus to have their names placed on the burgess-roll.
The burgiass-lists, when revised, are reduced by the town clerk into alphabetical order, and entered in a book, each name being numbered. This book is the Burgeas-roll ; it must be completed on or before the 22nd of October, and every person whose name is found in this roll is entitled to vote at elections of councillors, assessors, and auditors of the borough from the following 1st of November until the 1st of November in the succeeding year.