THE IRISH ColteoltATI(fxs.

The Report of the Irish Corporation Commissioners, an abstract of which was given yesterday in the Morning Chronicle, contains, ap. parently, a full exposure of the system of numiripal misgovernment in Ireland. The Commissioners give a list of ninety-nine municipal cor- porations which have during the last century exercised any functions as such ; also of eighteen boroughs which at the time of the Union sent Members to Parliament, but had not then distinct corporations. At pre-cut, however, there are may sixty municipal corporations ef- fectively existing.

The abuse of creating non-resident freemen for party purposes pre- vails to a great extent in the Irish corporations. The Commissioners

say- " In many corporations (we may instance those of Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Drogheda), tile creation of non.resident freemen has prevailed to an extent apparently only limited by the necessity of providing a sufficient number in the interest of the corporation to hear down the resident freehold constituency. As members of the corporations fur general municipal purposes, the nonresident freemen du not appear to have intufered ; but such lights as they may have in that respect remain unaffected by the provisions of the Reform Act; awl if the subject of contest should be of sufficient importance, they might still he resorted to by the governing body on occasions of the exercise of corporate powers where vested in the freemen at large."

Corporations are uniformly looked upon with distrust and dislike by the great body of the people. And no wonder ; for " Their members frequently consist entirely of the relative's and adherents of particular individuals or families; and the principles of their association, and those which regulate admission or exclusion, have rarely any connexion with the common benefit of the district, or the wishes of its inhabitants. In far the greater number of the dose corporations, the persons composing them are the mete nominees of the ' patron' or !browning of the borough ; while in those apparently more enlarged, they are ae witted and associated in support of some particular political interest, must fromently at variance with the majority of the resident inhabitancy. In the town of Belfast, the whole municipal corporation consists of the Sovereign, the Lind of the Castle, the Constable, his appointee, twelve self-Ocoed burgesses, and six freemen. In Armagh it is as el ase."

The Roman Catholics are still excluded from admission into corpo- rations, although the laws framed to exclude them were repealed in the year 1793—

" In the close boroughs, they are almost universally excluded from all enrpo- rate privileges. la the more considerable towns, they have rarely been admitted eVCII as fteenten, asid, with few exceptions, they ate altogether excluded from the governing bodies. In sonic—awl among these is the most important cor- poration in Ireland, that of Dublin—their admission is still resisted un avowed principles of sectarian distinction. Even iii tionnse carton ations where rights to freedom are acknowledged and ronvialed, the Imo*' operation of the Penal Code having prevented the acquisition of freedom by the immediate ancestors of the present Roman Catholic population, very few have been enabled since its repeal to establish the requisite titles."

What makes this system of exclusion the more infamous, is the fact that, in the boroughs, the Roman Catholics are not only more mne, rous, but constitute tine bulk of the men of property- " Previously to the relaxations of the Penal Code, the number of opulent Ro- man Catholics residing in the corporate cit:es and towns was necessat fly But since those changes in the halts which hoe enabled them to share ins the general diffusion of wealth and in the benefits of unrestricted industry, they have risen and 1111.1hIplIed in the middle and upper classes ; so that, in most of the cities and towns, they constitute MA may a majority r of the whole popula- nun, but a large proportion of the I11011: Ipulent orders.

The mode of appointing Sheriffs and Grand Jurors shows in a striking light the practical effect of the existing corporate system on the Government of the country. It is not surprising that the people are turbulent, when the laws are administered by a sect of hostile partisans.

" A large proportion, frequently the majority. of the Grand Jurors, is ern- panneled from the members of the governing corporate bodies,—an arrange • merit which, as these bodies are at present constituted, practically vests and pre- serves in limited Corporate Councils the extensive powers of local taxation given by law to the Grand Juries. The reimposition of the Grand Juries, which ought to be generally and impartially taken from the inhabitants at Loge, is thus dilectly and effectively that of the Corporations, and partakes of their defects and unpopularity. The Corporation and Grand Juries of Dublia afford stliking instances of this connexion between the two birdies. In 'Water- ford, we find a singadar arrangement made to .guard against the practice, by an agreement between the Corporation and the inhabitants that no more than a certain II umlwr of the Common Council should be on the Grand Jury. " The exercise of this branch of their functions by the Corporate Sheriffs in the return of Petty ,furies on occasions of interest to the Corporations, or affecting their influential members or supporters, obviously affords the means of giving an important advantage to parties in their interest, us' professing the same local or general solitical views."

The mariner in which the public property is seized upon by the cor- porators, for their own use, is thus described-

" The members of the Common Councils, or governing bodies, frequently ap- pear fa/ the rentals of corporate property. as the favoured grantees or the lessees of long and valuable leases, amounting or many instances to perpetuities. at in- adequate tents, which appear to have been made without survey or advertise- ment ; the same par tits being thus, substantially, the lessor and lessee, and exer- cising without scruple, or regatd to public duty or trust, in their own favour, a complete dominion user the estates of the community. " In other cases, the influential station of the patron has been used to secure the appropriation, to his ,iu'u nee, of the corporate property. " Amongst the 11;11,4 flagrant, as well as recent, are the rases of Cashel and , Naas, the peculiar and esti di oars cireumstauces attending whirls ate detailed in the repots on those corporations, and dentatal grave consideration.

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"'Pine corporations insist that tier are entitled to the estates in absolute do- minion, to dispose of at their will and pleasure, and not upon any trust whato• rec."

Alany local acts have been passed, to withdraw the lighting, watch- ing, and paving of towns, from corporate control; and amine of these acts recognize

"the value of election by the general inhabitancy, without other distinction than the degree in which they contlibute to the exigencies of the town. as well as the neseasity of submitting the expenditure and accounts of the park- funds to the vigilance and control of the people themselves. " These principle's have been extensively adopted in the recent enactments of the statute 9 (:eo. IV. r. 82, te lila provide for the establishment in corporate and other towns, in Ireland, of a resident board for these, useful purposes, elected triennially ty (Ind ft Inn the iuhuhitupt hoes, huh/ens, and the provisious of which we have found already in force in many corporate towns."

The Commissioners significantly recommend to his Majesty's consi- deration the principles on which these acts rest, which, when "deter- mining what emotitueney is requinal, may form the surest basis for any reform or new establishment of the Municipal Corporations in Ire- land." They do not recommend any specific measures, but conclude their report by saying-

" We feel it to be our duty humbly to represent to your Majesty, that the early and effectual correction of the existing evils, end the prevention of future mis- chief, are anxiously desired and essentially requisite; and that these benefits can be attained, milt', by means of a general and complete reform if the consider,- films of 211funicipal Corporations in Ireland."