OBJECTS OF INQUIRY BY THE CORPORATION COMMISSION.
THE following is a list of the points on which the Corporation Commissioners are now collecting information from the various municipal officers and others throughout the kingdom.
" 1. The local limits of the Corporation. 2. The charters by which it is constituted. 3. The title of the Corporation a copy of the governing charter, and date of all other charters. 4. The several officers of the Corporation ; how and by whom elected or removed ; the time for which they hold their respec- tive offices ; their respective functions and privileges ; and their salaries and in- cidental emoluments. 5. The mode by which persons become free; their duties, privileges, and emoluments ; the number of resident and non-resident freemen. 6. By whom and from whom the ruling body of the Corporation is elected. 7. Fees paid on admission to the freedom, or any office in the Cor- poration, and to whom paid. S. Courts, criminal, and civil ; the officers or magistrates presiding or otherwise acting in them; the extent of their jurisdic- tion, whether exclusive or otherwise; the nature of their process ; what fees are paid in them, and to whom, and table of costs. 9. The juries, grand and petty, criminal and civil, by whom and from whom selected. 10. The ma- nagement of the local police, and general regulation of the town. 11. The superintendence of gaols, by whom exercised and under what control. 12. Fines imposed by the Corporation on their own members or others. 13. The nature of the property ; the amount of receipts of the Corporation; from whom derived ; by whom received ; to what purposes, and by whom applied; how and to whom accounted for. 24. The patronage, ecclesiastical and other, ex- ercised by the Corporation ; through whom dispensed. 15. A schedule of the dates and titles of local acts of Parliament relating to municipal government or local taxation. 16. The general state and prospects of the town.'
It will be seen that these queries are very searching and com- prehensive. They have produced considerable alarm in many quarters ; much uncertainty prevailing as to the extent of the powers of the Commissioners and the limits they will set to their inquiries. A paragraph which we extract from the Irish cor- respondence of the Globe, if correct, proves that they intend at all events to report upon the titles by which many persons have obtained beneficial leases and grants of land from unscrupulous corporate bodies.
" I have learned that a noble Earl is likely to be deprived of 1,200 acres of the best land in the county of Meath, in consequence of a disclosure at one of the corporate inquiries relative to the manner in which his family became pos- sessed of them, by a sort of bargain with the Corporation, of which his Lord- ship is a member. The labours of the Commissioners continue to excite the most lively interest."
The Standard remarks upon the above- " This, it is true, mar be but accidental; but it will add an instance of defec- tive title in an individual, to the precedent of scrutinizing such titles in the case of corporation property. It will, therefore, unquestionably, greatly aid in hurry- ing forward the general result ; which, we repeat it (let the Duke of Bedford. look about him), cannot be, and, upon the principle of the Corporation Com- mission, ought not to be, any thing less than a commission of defective titles ; and, of course, a resumption of all Crown yrants, not made upon a valuable consideration."
We do not think that this inference is a just one. The Com- missioners may inquire into the state of Corporation property, which has been granted for certain public, not private purposes ; and when they find that this property has been made the subject of a corrupt bargain and sale, may recommend—for that is all they are empowered to do—that such bargain be annulled, and the property be applied to the purposes for which it was granted. The Corporation, in granting leases for the benefit of certain indi- viduals, has exceeded its powers. But the Crown had legally the right to make certain grants—that of the Abbey lands of Tavi- stock to the Duke of BEDFORD, for instance—for the private pur- poses of the grantee. To inquire into the title of the Duke, would, as it appears to us, be exceeding their powers on the part of the Commissioners; and if the Legislature were to resume the grants made by HENRY the Eighth, it would be a gross interference with the rights of private property. But let us hear the Globe of Thursday upon the point.
" The limits are in many cases indistinct, and almost indistinguishable, which separate corporation from private property. If there be a dozen or fifty persons having a corporate name as Burgesses, or " Merchant Tailors," or "Fish- mongers," having the power of transmitting their propene, under certain rules, to successors of their own appointment or of their own kindred, it is not very easy in all cases to know why the State should interfere with the savings or ac- quisitions which form their common stock, rather than with the property which a dozen or fifty other persons hold in severalty and transmit in a similar manner to their legatees or their heirs."
Again, last night, the same journal remarks, in reference to the property of the City Companies- " The fact is, most of these companies are in respect of their property, on the same footing as the Equitable or Amicable Assurance Companies, and other bodies of the same nature ; the several members being interested in the property according to the rules prescribed by their original charters or partnerships, and by common practice and consent, so far as these can lawfully modify the original constitutions of corporate bodies. If a certain quantity of stock or interest in the Amicable, or the Equitable, or in the Bank of England, were made a quali- fication for voting for a City Magistrate, it would be obviously ridiculous to contend, that on that account the right of intermeddling with the management of the property of these bodies became vested in the Government or its Com- missions.'
We think that there is no great use in confusing the subject in this manner. What the Commissioners have to ask of the Corporation officers is this—What property have you ? for what purpose wa3 it given to you ? how do you apply it ? If, upon inquiry, it appears that it is applied to the purposes for which it was granted, all is right; but if not, then the Legislature will interfere, and very properly, to compel such application. With regard to the char- tered Assurance Companies, Government have always a right to inquire whether the terms of the charter are complied with. It is the grant of a charter upon certain conditions which authorizes such interference; otherwise the partners in an insurance com- pany ought to be as safe from it as any banking establishment in Lombard Street.
Let those, therefore, who hold property upon defective titles— that is, from parties who had no right to convey it upon the terms on which they have conveyed it—" look about them ;" but let the Duke of BEDFORD and others similarly situated rest in peace.
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