BIRTHS. It will not be lawful for a registrar to register the birth of any child after the expiration of six calendar months following the day of such birth, and every registrar will be liable to a penalty of 50l. for every such offence. He will also be subject to the like penalty should he register a birth after the expiration of forty-two days following such birth, unless a solemn declaration of the particulars required to be known touching the birth of such child is first made by some person present at the birth, or the father or guardian of such child, when it shall thereupon be lawful for the registrar, in the presence of the superintendent-registrar, to register such birth according to the information of the person making the declaration. The superintendent-registrar will be entitled to a fee of 2s. 6d., and the registrar 5s., from the person requiring the same to be registered. The time allowed by law for registration is within fortytwo days after the birth, when no fee is demanded.

BAPTISM. The birth of a child may be registered before baptism, and the name given in baptism may be registered within six months after registration of birth, and within seven days after baptism, on payment of a fee of Is. to the minister, and the like fee to the registrar.

BURIALS.-Every person who shall bury, or perform any funeral or religious service for the burial

of any dead body, for which no certificate shall have been duly made and delivered, either by the registrar, or (in cases of inquest) by the coroner, and who shall not within seven days give notice thereof to the registrar, shall forfeit 10l. for every such offence.

MARRIAGES. - Every person who shall knowingly and wilfully make any false declaration, or sign any false notice or certificate, for the purpose of procuring any marriage, and every person who shall forbid the issue of any superintendent-registrar's certificate, by falsely representing himself or herself to be a person whose consent to such marriage is required by law, knowing such to be false, shall suffer the penalties of perjury. And if any valid marriage shall take place by means of any such false representation made by either party to such marriage, it shall be lawful for her Majesty's Attorney-General or SolicitorGeneral to sue for a forfeiture of all estate and interest in any property accruing to the offending party by such marriage; and the proceedings and the consequences will be the same as are provided in the like case with regard to marriages by licence before the passing of the act according to the rites of the Church of England.

Persons also failing to do that which is by an act of parliament enjoined, are indictable for a misdemeanour, although no specific penalty is imposed by theact which they have so disobeyed.

Ditto Ditto

:

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF MUNICIPAL INQUIRIES. THE CITY COMPANIES.-The following is a copy of the report of the commissioners upon the City Companies.:

"The companies, which are sixty-nine in number, are to be considered in a twofold capacity; first, as connected with the corporation of London by conferring municipal rights, and furnishing the supply of freemen and liverymen, in whom the elective and other franchises are vested; and, secondly, as bodies constituted for the government of the concerns of peculiar classes of citizens, and for other purposes not appertaining to the municipal community at large. No company, except the Carmen, is now exclusively composed of persons belonging to the trade from which the company takes its name, and in few of them is the majority so composed. The apothecaries form the chief exception. "As far as concerns the supply of freemen by and through the companies, the common council, when the commissioners were engaged in their inquiry, were understood to contemplate allowing parties to come in as redemptioners, without previously taking up their freedom in a company; but this change would not affect the rights of parties claiming by patrimony or servitude, and the elective functions of the livery given by statute of 11th of George 1st can, of course, be altered only by legislative authority. Unless such alteration be made, redemptioners cannot acquire the right of voting

960 896 823

in common hall, without resorting to a company to obtain their franchise.

"With respect to the reason far rendering the livery an element in the franchise, the object appears to have been the establishment of something in the nature of a property qualification. An order of the court of aldermen, of the 27th July, 1697, that no person should be allowed to take upon himself the clothing of any of the twelve companies, unless he have an estate of 1,000l., of the inferior companies unless he have an estate of 500l., is decisive as to this point; and the whole tenor of this institution shews, that it was intended to designate a superior and leading order of citizens.

"The livery is obtained, so far as pecuniary payments are con cerned, upon unequal terms, but upon payment of the required sum it is fairly accessible to every freeman in the great majority of companies. The principal exceptions are the apothecaries, who adhere to their limited numbers; the clothworkers, in which the access to the livery is guarded with a certain degree of jealousy, and the stationers, where a renunciation in the participation of the trading stock of the company is required. Of the rejection of a candidate for the livery, only two instances are found, -viz., in the cases of clothworkers. Neither instance occurred at a recent period. In form the grant is discretionary, but in effect it is yielded to most applicants without discussion; whatever may be the disposition of

for

the larger companies, it is evident that in the smaller companies by whom the great bulk of the liverymen is supplied, no qualification whatever is required, provided the party pays his fine, and that they look to the livery merely as a source of revenue, and do not insist on any test of the fitness of the party. Much is said in every company, about the necessity of respectability, and that no person of bad character would be admitted; but after this saving clause, the statements, with a few most scanty exceptions, agree, by acknowledging that no refusal of an applicant is recollected. This question, therefore, with respect to the utility of the livery as a civic qualification, is reduced to the inquiry whether it be expedient to annex a money fine to a municipal franchise. Constituted as the livery now appears to be, the only argument which could be raised in its favour is, that this condition may raise the standard of the voter, being indirectly a property qualification, inasmuch as he must at least be in a situation to spare a sum not less than 151. or 20l. But if such a qualification be thought desirable, it could be better obtained by more direct means, and we can therefore see no disadvantage in severing the guild franchise and the municipal franchise, and in permitting all the privileges of the city to be obtained independently of the companies.

"The practice prevailing in the drapers' fishmongers' and other companies, of granting allowances or pensions to decayed bers of the court, is liable to very great objections, however remote or contingent such an allowance or pension may be. A pecuniary

interest and value are thus annexed to a seat in the court which never ought to be attached to the character of a trustee. Considered as distinct or special committees, the companies were probably, in their original conformation, not so much trading societies, instituted for the purpose of protecting the consumer or the employer against the incompetency or fraud of the dealer or the artisan, and equally with the intent of securing a maintenance to the workman trained to the art, according to the notion of early times, by preventing his being undersold in a labour market filled by an unlimited number of competitors. Furthermore, the companies acted as domestic tribunals, adjudicating, or rather arbitrating, between master and man, and settling disputes, thus diminishing hostile litigation and promoting amity and goodwill.

"They were also in the nature of benefit societies from which the workman, in return for the contributions which he had made when in health and vigour to the common stock of the guild might be relieved in sickness, or when disabled by the infirmities of age. This character speedily attracted donations for other charitable purposes from benevolent persons who could not find any better trustees than the ruling members of these communities; and hence arose the numerous charitable gifts and foundations now intrusted to their

care.

"They also possessed the character of modern clubs. They were institutions in which individuals of the same class and their families assembled in social intercourse; so important was this object deemed, that several of the companies now actually hold their