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LIF? © COBDER,

[ons

1888. of the incorporation of the great city to which he belonged
His large comprehension of the greater needs of civilizati”
and his country never at any time in his life dulled his i
terest in the need that lay close to his hand. The new
papers of the time show him to have been the movin g pir
in the proceedings for incorporation, from the first requis"
tion to the Borough-reeve and Constable to call a meetin?
of the rate-payers (February 8, 1838), down to the fin?
triumph.
The Municipal Reform Act had been passed by Lord
Melbourne’s Government in 1835, on the return of the
Whigs to power after the short ministry of Sir Rober!
Peel. It was the proper complement to the greater Refor®
of 1832. By extending the principle of self-government!
from national to local affairs, it purified and enlarged the
organs of administrative power, and furnished new field
of discipline in the habits of the good citizen. In 18%
Brougham had introduced a measure for immediately i
corporating such towns as Manchester and Birminghat®
and directly conferring local representative government
upon them by Act of Parliament. But between 1859
and 1835 things had happened which quenched thes
spirited methods. A process which had been imperative
in 1833, had by 1835 dwindled down to the permis
sive, Places were allowed to have charters, on condi”
tion that a majority of the ratepayers, being inhabitant
householders, expressed their desire for incorporation by
petition to the Crown in Council. A muddy sea of co™
ruption and chicane was stirred up. All the vested in
terests of obstruction were on the alert. The close and
self-chosen members of the Court Leet, and the Street?
Commission, and the Town Hall Commission, could not
endure the prospect of a system in which the publi
business would no longer be done in the dark. and thf