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clause introduced to make an aristocratical ten ant-at-will Corporation council . The apparent readiness of the Tory foes of human improvement to co-operate in this reform , renders it more than suspicious that they see prospects of sinister gain to their cause in modelling the details as it passes through the various stages of
legislation . But the principle is once more recognized that the people are the source of power ; that government , whether general or local , is an institution for their benefit , and that the governors are merely their servants ; the contest of brute force is given up , and the contest of chicanery will be the only struggle . The people , as far
as the term is yet understood , meaning at present all those male human beings who have attained majority , and are not disabled by madness , idiocy , or crime ,, and who moreover happen to be occupants of a dwelling , shop , or place of business , are to be recognized as the employers , and turners off , of their local governors . The
people are to be called burgesses , and those they employ as governors are to be called a mayor and council ; the people electing the councillors once in three years , the councillors electin g the mayor annually , from amongst their own body . There is , it is true , a provision made , that one-third of the council shall vacate
annually ; but this confused regulation only marks the unwillingness of the Whigs to give a perfect popular controul , a dread of annual borough parliaments , and at the same time a fear of the people which makes them temporize , and concede a small part as an excuse for withholding a larger part . And the exercise of the burgesses' suffrage is clogged in every possible way . Three years
residence is required , accompanied by payment of rates , ere a burgess can gain a right to vote for his local rulers , and as often as he may change his locality so often must he undergo the same process . The mayor and councillors , too , are hardly dealt by They are obliged to serve the respective offices if elected , under
the penalty of a fine ; and if misfortune should overtake them they are liable to be dismissed with ignominy . But mark the absurdity wherewith one clause contradicts another . The imposition of a fine in case of a burgess refusing to serve , is of course made on the assumption that the office is onerous , and , if possible , to be avoided ; yet the next clause provides , that one month ' s absence
from the borough shall ensure the dismissal of either mayor or councillors without a fine , thus assuming the office to be desirable Therefore the plain course of the councillor who does not wish to serve , is , to accept the office by way of avoiding the fine , and
then to quit the borou gh for a month in order to vacate his troublesewre employment . The principle of compulsory service is a bad one . ' One man may lead a horse to the water , but twenty cannot make him drink . * He wha serves b y compulsion will be a ^ bad b . « er * aftit as he who serves gratuitously . The labourer 10 worth } 6 f 4 m hire , aftd the well-paid labourer is the one who will
Untitled Article
47 S Corporation Reform .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1835, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2647/page/42/
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