BOROUGH ENGLISH

Instance by Edward I., had since been extended by fresh grants, and was then becoming of considerable importance) into the hands of such as were most likely to be easily guided or controlled, either by the crown itself or by the great lords upon whose support it reckoned, and with whom it became usual about the same time to connect themselves with the boroughs in the neighbourhood of their po e ions, under the honorary title of high stewards. The exclusive system of municipal government, which attained its height during the Stuart dynasty, continued unimpaired till the present time, when it was effectually put an end to.by the Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations, pa ed in the year 1835. For an account of which, as well as of the other remarkable incidents in the history of our municipal institutions, which happened from the time of the Tudors to the present period, see title Municipal Corporations; and for an account of the representation of boroughs, and particularly of the reform in their representation, see title Parliament. The account above given of English boroughs, both as to their origin and constitution, applies in all its general' features to Scotch boroughs; with this qualification, that the government by close corporations was in the latter country more thoroughly and more generally prevalent until the reform in them, which preceded by a year the Municipal Regulation Bill applicable to this country; and resembled it in almost every thing but this, that it made the qualification for burge hip identical with that required to give a vote in the election of members, namely, Uie occcupancy of a house of the yearly value of 10/. In Ireland the municipal system, as it now exists, is of considerably later origin than in Scotland or in England. It was transplanted, and gradually introduced from the latter country; and though with the same names and form of constitution as then existed there, had much more in it of a political character, being intended in the first instance as a support to the English against the Irish, and in later times to the Protestant against the Catholic, and was so used to the neglect of functions more properly municipal, which have therefore in many instances been intrusted to other hands by local acts of parliament. These distinctions of religion and birth aggravated also in other respects the vices of a close and exclusive system, which was there, as in Scotland, more generally and thoroughly established than it ever was in this country. A measure for the reform or abolition of the existing municipal corporations of Ireland is now pending before the legislature. [s. 169]