Download or read book First Report of the Commission on Municipal Institutions written by Ontario Commission on Muni Institutions and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-21 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from First Report of the Commission on Municipal Institutions: Appointed by the Government of the Province of Ontario As we have derived all our institutions, political and municipal, directly or indirectly from Great Britain, we endeavored to trace the growth and development of municipal institutions in that country, and to ascertain whether anything likely to be beneficial to us could be gathered from its experience or example. We found the task very difficult and not very profitable. England. The present condition of local government in England, Mr. Goschen described a few years ago as a chaos of authorities, "a chaos of rates, and, worse than all, a chaos of areas." The powers which we believe should be exercised by municipal bodies elected by the people, are there divided amongst local bodies, between which there is no connection, save what has been effected by the control which the local Government Board, created in 1870, exercises over some of them. For the models on which our institutions are framed we must look to a remote period. In the Anglo Saxon times the mark or tithing, afterwards called township, had, as our township has to-day, its Reeve and four associates, who managed its local affairs and represented it in Wapentake or Hundred mote, and, when counties were organised, in the Shire mote. At those assemblies justice was done in criminal and civil affairs, and provision was made for the construction of roads and of such other works as were deemed necessary, the greater works being undertaken by the Hundred over whose mote the Hundred man presided, or by the Shire at whose assembly the ealdorman and with him, in Christian times, the Bishop presided. In those days cities and boroughs enjoyed a large measure of self-government conferred upon them by royal charter, or established by prescriptive usage. The commissioners appointed to enquire into the state of the boroughs of England, in 1833, reported that a charter granted by Athelstan, and another by Edward the Confessor, were still extant. It is probable, however, that the rights and privileges enjoyed by cities and boroughs arose from the peoples desire for independence, from their genius for self-government, and from the circumstances which forced those communities to act as one for the protection of all. Those Anglo-Saxon charters, like the many royal and baronial charters issued after the conquest, gave or guaranteed to the citizens and burgesses only the right to elect their own magistrates, to make what laws they thought necessary for the management of the city or borough, to establish markets to carry on their business without interruption and to raise among themselves in their own way the taxes which under various names they were required to pay to king or baron, to abbot or prelate. The only material change the conqueror attempted to make in their constitution was the substitution of a royal bailiff for the port-reeve as chief magistrate. The chief duty of this officer was to collect and pay over the royal tribute. But the cities and towns one after another induced the monarch, by offer of more liberal contributions, to allow them to elect their own chief magistrate, who was then called Mayor. During the long struggle between the king and the great feudal nobles, which, commencing in the reign of the Conqueror, continued for centuries, the cities and boroughs grew in importance and acquired greater privileges. The monarch sought to secure their assistance which often proved valuable, and the barons found it necessary to attach more firmly to their interests the boroughs which held charters from them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com