ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(THE MANOR AND THE BOROUGH)
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT
In this second instalment of their English Local Government the authors apply their method of combined history and analysis to the fascinating story of the towns and the manorial communities, of which several hundreds find mention, belonging to all the counties of England and Wales. An interesting new account is given, from unpublished materials, of the organisation and development in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the Manor and its several Courts, with picturesque glimpses of the hitherto undescribed part played by the Jury in the common-field agriculture. But the Manor is shown to be also the starting-point for a whole series of constitutional developments, passing through grade after grade of Manorial Borough, hitherto undescribed, into the complete Municipal Corporation. This, too, is analysed and described in a way never before attempted, so as to make the strangely interesting life of the towns live before us. A special chapter is devoted to the Boroughs of Wales, in which their national peculiarities are brought out. Their extensive study of the manuscript records enable the authors to set forth the inner working of the "Municipal Democracies" that existed alongside the chartered oligarchies, with their many analogies to modern American cities; and to bring vividly to notice the conditions and limitations of successive Democratic government. There is an interesting sketch of English hierarchies of town government, chief among them being the Cinque Ports, the constitutional position of which is presented in a new light. The anomalous history of the City of Westminster is explored by the light of the unpublished archives of its peculiar municipal organisation. An altogether novel view is presented of the constitutional development of the greatest municipality of all, the Corporation of the City of London, to which no fewer than 124 pages are devoted. The work concludes with a picturesque account of the "Municipal Revolution" of 1835, and the Homeric combat of Brougham and Lyndhurst which ended in the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.
CONTENTS
Introduction.
The Lord's Court—
(a) The Lawyer's View of the Lord's Court. (b) The Court Baron. (c) The Court Leet.
The Court in Ruins—
(a) The Hierarchy of Courts. (b) The Court of the Hundred. (c) The Court of the Manor: (i.) The Bamburgh Courts. (ii.) The Court Leet of the Savoy. (iii.) The Court Leet and Court Baron of Manchester. (d) The Prevalence and Decay of the Lord's Court.
The Manorial Borough—
(a) The Village Meeting. (b) The Chartered Township. (c) The Lordless Court. (d) The Lord's Borough. (e) The Enfranchised Manorial Borough. (f) Manor and Gild. (g) Arrested Development and Decay.
The City and Borough of Westminster—
(a) Burleigh's Constitution. (b) Municipal Atrophy.
The Boroughs of Wales—
(a) Incipient Autonomy. (b) The Welsh Manorial Borough. (c) The Welsh Municipal Corporation.
The Municipal Corporation—
(a) The Instrument of Incorporation. (b) Corporate Jurisdictions. (c) Corporate Obligations. (d) The Area of the Corporation. (e) The Membership of the Corporation. (f) The Servants of the Corporation. (g) The Chief Officers of the Corporation. (h) The Head of the Corporation. (i) The Bailiffs. (j) The High Steward and the Recorder. (k) The Chamberlain and the Town Clerk. (l) The County Officers of the Municipal Corporation. (m) The Mayor's Brethren and the Mayor's Counsellors. (n) The Courts of the Corporation. (o) Courts of Civil Jurisdiction. (p) The Court Leet. (q) The Borough Court of Quarter Sessions. (r) Courts of Specialised Jurisdiction. (s) The Administrative Courts of the Municipal Corporation. (t) The Municipal Constitutions of 1689.
Municipal Disintegration—
(a) The Rise of the Corporate Magistracy. (b) The Decline of the Common Council. (c) The Establishment of New Statutory Authorities. (d) The Passing of the Freemen. (e) The Mingling of Growth and Decay.
Administration by Close Corporations—
(Penzance, Leeds, Coventry, Bristol, Leicester, and Liverpool.)
Administration by Municipal Democracies—
(Morpeth, Berwick-upon-tweed, Norwich, and Ipswich.)
The City of London—
(a) The Legal Constitution of the City. (b) The Service of the Citizen to his Ward. (c) The Precinct. (d) The Inquest of the Ward. (e) The Common Council of the Ward. (f) The Decay of Ward Government. (g) The Court of Common Hall. (h) The Court of Common Council. (i) The Court of Aldermen. (j) The Shrievalty. (k) The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor. (l) The Officers of the Corporation. (m) A Ratepayers' Democracy.
The Municipal Revolution—
(a) Towards the Revolution. (b) Instalments of Reform. (c) The Royal Commission. (d) An Alternative Judgment. (e) The Whig Bill. (f) The Municipal Corporations Act.
Index of Subjects.
Index of Authors and Other Persons.
Index of Places.
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
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