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Cobden As a Citizen a Chapter in Manchester

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Cobden As a Citizen a Chapter in Manchester ( no a ny a s H HA T O m mw na dfioo G H A H D I H R H RD D E H E T 2 6 ! E R LD I C A COB N W N ABOU A S O . FRO M A PAINTI NG IN TH E POSSESSION OF TH E FAM ILY . CO B D E N A S A C ITI ZE N A C H APT E R I N MA NC H E S T E R H I S T O R! A FACS I M I LE O F C O B D E N ’ S PAM PH LE T “ I N CO RPO RA TE ! O U R B O RO U G H ” WI T H A N I N T R O D U C T I O N R E C O R D I N G H I S CARE E R A S A M U N I C I PA L R E FO RM E R A N D A CO B D E N B I B LI O G RAPH ! ! L ! N B WI LI AM E . A . A O I LLUS TRATE D O W L NDO N : T . FI S H E R U N I N ADE LPH I T E RRAC E . M C MVI I rights reserved) i ht To the R g Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Corporation of the City of Manchester, is dedicated this record Of the services of Richard Cobden , to whose zeal and energy Manchester - owes the possibility of local self government . PRE FAC E H I S book originated in the discovery I by Mrs . Jane Cobden Unwin among some family papers of a copy Of her ’ - father s long lost pamphlet , Incorporate ! ” t Your Borough This trac , of which 1 8 8 copies were printed in 3 , was the beginning of the successful agitation for the incorporation of Manchester . I t has long been vainly sought for by collectors ; two industrious harvesters of local lore , father and son , have been unsuccess fully looking out for it since 1 85 2 ! When it was deemed desirable to reprint this rare , if not unique , pamphlet , it seemed also de sirable to put on record some details of Cob ’ den s efforts as a citizen before he became a h t sorbed in the work of parliament . H is ac ivities ’ are , of course , indicated in Mr . John Morley s admirable biography , but many of the details here given would have been out of place there . Yet it is thought that they will not be without interest at a time when the possibilities of use ful municipal work are continually increasing , and the dignity and importance of local self government are more generally recognized than in the day when Cobden was a member of the Corporation of Manchester . CO NTE NTS PA GE Preface Introduct ion Chapter I Manchester under the Eeu da l hda nor o u I I . Defeat of M derate M ni cipa l Reformers . Re I I I . Cobden as Municipal former u ! IV . Incorporate your Boro gh A Letter to the I nhabitants of Manchester ’ the V . A Town s Meeting in Early Vict orian Period VI . The Struggle for a Municipal Charter C t VI I . The Charter ontes ed VI I I . Alderman Cobden I ! . Cobden ceases to be a Citizen of Manchester O o Incorporate your Borough ! a fa cs imile of Cobden ’ s Pamphlet h Appendix . Cobden Bibliograp y . I ndex LIST O F I LLU STRATI O NS Richard Cobden when about twenty- six years old . From a painting in the posses ‘ ' sion of the Family Fromisp z ece ’ Cobde ns ua S tree t Residence in Q y , Man chester, now the County Court . From a B rime low drawing by G . M . , in the pos f . o . session Messrs Taylor , Garnett Co The Town Hall , Manchester, now the Free Reference Library Facsimile of Circular respect ing the Town ’ s Meeting on I ncorporation Kt Sir Joseph Heron , , First Town Clerk f ir a O . c c Manchester From a photograph , 1 877 The First Mayor of Manchester, Thomas 1 1 8 0 Potter, born 774 ; knighted 4 ; died 8 1 45 . From a bust in the Manchester Town Hall , by Matthew Noble Gavel presented by Cobden to the first Mayor of Manchester . Now preserved in the Town Hall , Manchester Copy of Resolution presented to Cobden by the Manchester Town Council , July, 1 8 6 4 . Now i n the possession of the Family xi Copy of Resolution presented to Cobden e n by the Manchest r City Cou cil , March , O f 1 86 1 . Now in the possession the Family We ste rfi eld C re sce nt Viétoria , Park , Park , ’ bd s Co en last Manchester Residence . From a drawing by William Canning xii H E local government of Manchester the closing years of the reign of Willie IV was hopelessly antiquated and t e ffeétive . The Lord of the Manor , by vs agency of his steward , summoned at his ' e eleét ec a Court Leet , and the j urors th re B orou h reeve Le ers : g , Constables , M ise y , M t ket Lookers , Ale Tasters , Muzzlers of mas f dogs , a Pounder, and other honorary o fice The jury also appointed salaried deputy cc ov stables and beadles . The jury had the p infi iCt 1: to fines in repression of nuisances , their main fu nétionwas that of appointing t municipal officers . The borough reeve had to be a person re dent in the township of Manchester , and dwelling- housesbecame transformed into w a I houses there was an increasing di fficulty in 4 f vs taining a suitable person . This di ficulty increased by the unwritten law that the ough reeve must not be a shopkeeper ! T was a similar edict against N onconfo h w ether rich or poor, though to this there I n some exceptions . addition to the Court O fficials the churchwardens and sidesmen certain civic as well as ecclesiastical dutie perform , both in relation to rating and to relief of the poor . The rapid growth of M 2 chester had necessitated the obtaining of vari “ t a d ous improvement ac s , and these were ministered by a body of police commission ers ” elected by a suffrage which was always t restric ed , although varied from time to time . - O f The out townships Hulme and Chorlton , which formed part ofthe parliamentaryborough of Manchester , had their own constables . The surveyors of highways for the parish and township of Manchester were appointed at ves try meetings held in the Collegiate Church . The accounts were submitted to a vestry and parish re meeting , which , having passed the accounts solved itself into a meeting of leypa yers of exa ét li it the township . What were the m s of the func‘tions of these varying authorities it would be di fficult to say . The adjoining borough of Salford was gov erned by a Court Leet as a Manor of the Duchy of Lancaster , and by commissioners appointed under local acts . The constables of the out-townships were appointed at the Court Leet of the H undred of 1 th 1 8 Salford . At the court held 9 April , 37, M r . John Harland complained of the nuisance t caused by the chimney of a manufac ory . He showed that there had been a presentment in 1 8 2 3 , that amendment had been promised , and 3 that the nuisance continued . The barrister who presided said that it was scarcely necessary to refer to the Oldpresentment and the jury thereupon decided that there was not sufficient 1 evidence of the existence of the nuisance . 1 8 When , in 35 , the Municipal Corporations A Ct was before Parliament , a petition in favour Of the bill and against the delay which was intended by the device of receiving further evidence from the old corporations whose cor ruption had been fully shown by the inquiries of the Commission , was signed in a day by inhabitants and was taken to London by a deputation consisting of Thomas Potter and “ l - George H a dfi e d. They went in a post chaise ” - th and four at half past nine on Thursday , 7 August , and reached London on the following afternoon . The petition was presented by Lord 1 0th toa c u riou s Melbourne on August , and led little debate . After Lord Brougham had sup of ported the petition , the Duke Newcastle said that he had received a letter from “ a very good Conservative who said that the petition had been got up in the way in which such petitions — very frequently were by O btaining the signa tures ofpersons who were perfectly incompetent to affix their signatures to it . It was by 1 “ a nch e st e r me s 2 2nd r 1 8 M Ti , Ap il , 37. pla c ingta ble s at the corners of the public streets and getting all such persons as could j ust scribble their names to put them down : as the boys came out at their dinner—hour they were called to sign thei r names : not one of them ” knowing what they were signing . I hope , added the writer , youwill explain to the House - this trick , carrying on by the Whig Radicals the representative party of our blessed House of Commons .
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