Cities and Boroughs named above which were included in the Act of 1835 178 106 284 Total of Municipal Cities and Boroughs Cities and Boroughs having a separate Commission of the Peace and Quarter Sessions 102 112 Cities and Boroughs in which the County Magistrates exercise concurrent jurisdiction with the Mayor and the immediate Past Mayor 73 Cities and Boroughs in which the Town Council is not the Urban Sanitary Authority (Banbury, Blandford, Calne, Cambridge, Chippenham, Faversham, Launceston, Lyme Regis, Lymington, Morpeth, Oxford, and Wenlock) 18 163 12 * The abstract of the Local Government (England and Wales) Act, 1888, should be referred to on these points (see page 286); by its terms, 61 cities and boroughs become administrative counties, and forty boroughs, with a population of less than 10,000 each, lose the privilege of maintaining a separate police force. ACTS OF PARLIAMENT SPECIALLY AFFECTING THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT, 1882, PASSED SINCE THE DATE OF THAT MEASURE. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT, 1883. 46 & 47 VICт., CH. 18. An Act to make provision respecting certain Municipal Corporations and other Local Authorities not subject to the Municipal Corporation Act. [29th June, 1883.] WHEREAS Commissioners were appointed by His late Majesty King William the Fourth (in this Act referred to as the Commissioners of 1834) to inquire into Municipal Corporations in England and Wales, and made reports respecting divers corporations, including most of those mentioned in the schedules to this Act: And whereas the Municipal Corporation Acts consolidated and repealed by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, were passed and applied to most of the places mentioned in the above report, but not to those which are mentioned in the schedules to this Act: And whereas Commissioners were appointed by Her Majesty to inquire into Municipal Corporations not subject to the Municipal Corporation Acts (in this Act referred to as the Commissioners of 1876), and have made reports to Her Majesty respecting the places mentioned in the schedules to this Act, and it is expedient to make the provisions herein-after appearing respecting those places: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as the Municipal Corporations Act, 1883. 2. On and after the twenty-fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, or such later day, not after the twenty-ninth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, as Her Majesty in Council may in the case of any place or places appoint, the following provisions shall (subject to the savings for vested interests and other provisions contained in this Act) apply to each of the places mentioned in the schedules to this Act; that is to say, (1.) All civil, criminal, and Admiralty jurisdiction of any corporate officer, court, or judge of the said place appointed or holding office under any charter, grant, or prescription shall cease, whether such jurisdiction is conferred by such charter, grant, or prescription, or by any Act, and the place shall be subject to the same jurisdiction as the part of the county in which it is situate or to which it adjoins, and if it adjoins more than one county or part of a county, then as the county or part with which it has the longest common boundary: (2.) All exclusive rights of trading, local exemptions from juries, and other local franchises, privileges, and exemptions existing under any charter or grant or prescription shall cease. 3. On and after the twenty-fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, or such later day, not after the twenty-ninth day of September one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, as Her Majesty in Council may, in the case of any place or places, appoint, the following provisions shall (subject to the savings for vested interests and other provisions contained in this Act) apply to each of the places mentioned in the schedules to this Act to which Her Majesty may not be pleased before the said day to grant a new charter; that is to say, (a.) The place shall not be a corporate town or borough, and any municipal or other corporation thereof existing under any charter or grant or prescription shall be dissolved: (b.) All property of any corporation in the place which is dissolved by this Act, or of any person as member or officer thereof, or of any court or judge whose jurisdiction is abolished by this Act, shall be applied for the public benefit of the inhabitants of the place in such manner as may be for the time being provided by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, or, in a case where a scheme is made by the Local Government Board, by that scheme, and shall vest in such persons or body corporate as may be specified in such scheme. (2.) Provided that until any such scheme takes effect the said property shall continue to be held, managed, and enjoyed as heretofore in like manner as if a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, in pursuance of this Act, had provided for such holding, management, and enjoyment, and for that purpose the persons managing the property shall continue in like manner as if they were a body constituted by the scheme for the administration of such property, but the legal estate in the property shall vest in the official trustees. 4. Nothing in this Act shall prevent the application to any place of any charter applying the Municipal Corporation Acts which Her Majesty may be pleased to grant, or affect anything done in pursuance of those Acts or any scheme thereunder, and shall not affect the operation of any such charter, thing, or scheme; save that nothing in the said Acts or scheme shall authorise the establishment or continuance of any court for the trial of civil actions. (2.) Nothing in this Act shall affect the right to the benefit of any charity or shall alter or confer any power of altering the defined charitable purposes (if any) to which any property is by law applicable at the passing of this Act. 5. Whereas the Commissioners of 1876 reported that the places mentioned in the first part of the First Schedule to this Act might be dealt with by being subjected to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, and the Acts amending the same, as if they were mentioned in Schedule B. of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835: Be it therefore enacted as follows: (1.) As soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act, the Privy Council shall cause an inquiry to be made into the expediency of advising Her Majesty to grant a charter extending the Municipal Corporations Acts to the several places mentioned in the first part of the First Schedule to this Act, and also whether it is expedient that any adjoining district not included in the existing corporations shall be included in the places to which such charters may be granted, and shall report to Her Majesty thereon. (2.) The expenses of such inquiry shall be regulated by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, and paid out of moneys provided by Parliament. (3.) Nothing in this section shall require an inquiry to be held with respect to any place with respect to which a similar inquiry has been held since the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. 6. The Privy Council, upon being satisfied by any applicants after inquiry that it is expedient for the public so to do, may, by order, provide for retaining any court leet or other court or any officer, whether as returning officer for the return of members to serve in Parliament, or as town clerk for the purpose of the registration of parliamentary voters, or otherwise, and for the appointment of any officer so retained, subject in every case to such exceptions, restrictions and modifications as seem expedient. (2.) Subject to the provisions of any Order of the Privy Council, any person who at the passing of this Act holds an office by virtue of which he is such returning officer or town clerk as aforesaid may, during the time limited for the tenure of his office, continue to perform the duties of such returning officer or town clerk as aforesaid, and on the expiration of such time, or his otherwise ceasing to perform the duties, the said duties shall, so far as regards the returning officer, be performed in manner provided by the Act of the session of the seventeenth and eighteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter fifty seven, intituled "An Act to amend the law relating to the appointment of returning officers in certain cases," and so far as regards the town clerk shall be performed by the person in the parliamentary borough who is town clerk within the meaning of section one hundred and one of the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843. 7. Whereas there are local boards or improvement commissioners in some of the places mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, and the Commissioners of 1876 reported that it might be expedient to establish local boards in other of such places: Be it therefore enacted as follows: (1.) Where any part of any of the places mentioned in any of the schedules to this Act is comprised in the district of any local board or improvement Commissioners, whether established before or after the passing of this Act, and Her Majesty is not pleased to grant a charter to such place, the Local Government Board, after such local inquiry as they think expedient, may, at any time before any corporation in the said place becomes abolished by this Act, make such scheme as might be made by the Committee of Council under part eleven of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882: (2.) Sections two hundred and thirteen and two hundred and fourteen of and the Seventh Schedule to that Act shall, so far as is consistent with the tenour thereof, apply accordingly as if they were herein re-enacted, with the substitution of the Local Government Board for the Committee of Council, and of the said district for borough, and with a limitation to the purposes of this section: (3.) A scheme may be made as aforesaid for the purpose of amending any previous scheme under this section: (4.) Sections two hundred and ninety-four, two hundred and ninetyfive, and two hundred and ninety-six of the Public Health Act, 1875, shall, so far as is consistent with the tenour thereof, apply to any local inquiry held by order of the Local Government Board for the purposes of this section. 8. (1.) The Charity Commissioners may provide, by the appointment of interim trustees and otherwise, for the security and proper management and application of the property, for the application of which such Commissioners have, or may in certain events have, power under this Act to make a scheme. (2.) If any such property has after the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, and before the date at which a charter or a scheme under this Act, or the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, as the case may be, takes effect, been alienated by way of sale, mortgage, grant lease, charge, or otherwise, and such alienation has not been made in pursuance of some covenant, contract, or agreement bond fide made or entered into on or before the said first day of March, or of some resolution duly entered in the Corporation books of the Corporation on or before the said first day of March, or in pursuance of any right saved by this Act, and such alienation has been made collusively and for no consideration, or for insufficient consideration, such alienation may be set aside in the like proceedings (instituted with the consent of the Charity Commissioners or of the Attorney General) and in like manner as a lease of land of a charity granted without due consideration may be set aside: Provided that if a charter is granted or a scheme made whereby the property is affected, the said proceedings shall be commenced within one year after the charter or scheme takes effect. (3.) Anything authorised by this Act to be done by the Charity Commissioners may be done by an order of those Commissioners, which may be made in like manner as if the property were the endowment of a charity and application had been made as provided by the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1869; and an order of the Charity Commissioners may be made at any time after the passing of this Act, so, however, that the order shall not take effect until such date as the Charity Commissioners fix as being, in their opinion, under the circumstances of the case, most consistent with the purposes of this Act. (4.) Any corporation or person directly affected by any order of the Charity Commissioners under this Act in relation to any property made before a scheme under this Act has provided for the application of such property, or directly affected by the order of the Charity Commissioners which first establishes a scheme providing for the application of such property, may, if aggrieved by the order, appeal (except as herein-after provided) to the Privy Council, and the Privy Council after considering the objections to the order and, if it seem necessary, hearing the parties, may make such order as in their opinion the Charity Commissioners ought to have made, and such order shall have the same effect under this Act as if made by the Charity Commissioners, and an appeal shall not lie to the High Court of Justice under the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1869, against any order against which an appeal to the Privy Council can be had in pursuance of this enactment. (5.) After a scheme has been made under this Act providing for the application of any property the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1869, shall apply in all respects as if the scheme were a scheme made in pursuance of those Acts, and the property shall for the purpose of those Acts be deemed to be the endowment of a Charity. 9. (1.) All property by this Act vested in the official trustees or any body corporate or persons shall, so far as the same can be transferred by this Act, be transferred by virtue of this Act, and so far as the same cannot be so transferred, be held in trust for those trustees, body corporate, or persons, and shall be vested for the same estate and interest, and subject to the same liabilities, for and subject to which such property was held at the time immediately before the same becomes so vested. (2.) For the purposes of this Act the expression "property" includes all property, real and personal, and all things in action, and all rights of common or commonable rights, and rights to toll, and all franchises, privileges, and rights which have any pecuniary value, and all charters, records, deeds, books, and documents, and includes any estate or interest, legal or equitable, in any property as so defined; and all property held, enjoyed, claimed, or administered by any corporation, court, judge, or person, shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be the property of such corporation or person. (3.) All powers and duties conferred or imposed by any local Act of Parliament (including a Provisional Order confirmed by Parliament) on, and all trusts administered by, any corporation abolished by this Act, or any officers or nominees of such corporation, either alone or jointly with other persons, shall vest in and be exercised, and performed, and administered by such persons as may be provided by a scheme under this Act, and until such scheme takes effect by the same persons as at the passing of this Act. (4.) Any question which may arise as to whether anything is property within the meaning of this Act, or as to whether anything is vested in the official trustees or any body corporate or persons as provided by this Act, shall in the first instance be decided by the Charity Commissioners, subject, nevertheless, to an appeal to the High Court of Justice, as provided by section eight of the Charitable Trusts Act, 1860, and such appeal may be presented by any person interested or claiming to be interested in the property, and the provisions of this Act with respect to an appeal to the Privy Council shall not apply. 10. (1.) Every person who now is or hereafter may be an inhabitant of any borough mentioned in any of the schedules to this Act, and also every person who has been admitted or might hereafter have been admitted a freeman or burgess of any such borough if this Act had not been passed, or who now is or hereafter may be the wife or widow or son or daughter of any freeman or burgess, or who may have espoused or may hereafter espouse the daughter |