Municipal Corporations Act
Municipal Corporations Act, 1835. A corollary to the 1832 parliamentary reform was local government reform. As with the Poor Law, the Whigs prepared the way with a royal commission to investigate the existing municipalities. This apparent willingness to precede reform by systematic inquiry was less than complete. The well-paid post as secretary to the royal commission went to the government's principal electoral manipulator, Joseph Parkes, whose conduct of the inquiry was partisan. The subsequent Act swept away the existing heterogeneous borough constitutions and replaced them by a standard form of councils consisting of mayor, aldermen, and councillors elected by ratepayers. Provision was made for the establishment of the same system in urban areas like Manchester and Birmingham which were without proper municipal institutions, if local ratepayers approved. The powers of the new councils were narrowly limited and few of them showed much inclination to spend ratepayers' money in expensive schemes of local improvement.
Norman McCord
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Edwin Chadwick , CHADWICK, EDWIN
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CHADWICK, EDWIN (1800–1890), English reformer.
Born 24 January 1800, near Manchester, Edwin Chadwick… Royal Commissions , In Britain and in some of its former colonies such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, Royal Commissions of Inquiry have been an ad hoc, flexible,… Corporation , Artificial entities that are created by state statute, and that are treated much like individuals under the law, having legally enforceable rights, t… Sir Edwin Chadwick , The English utilitarian reformer Sir Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) sponsored legislation in the areas of public health, factory reform, and poverty reli… City Government , local government, political administration of the smallest subdivisions of a country's territory and population.
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Although t… Corporate , corporate •gamut •imamate, marmot •animate •approximate, proximate •estimate, guesstimate, underestimate •illegitimate, legitimate •intimate •penulti…
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Municipal Corporations Act