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MEMBERS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF LIVERPOOL,

on the 18th of October, 1775.

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The and other

The public business of the Corporation used to be transacted in the Exchange, now called the Town-hall. edifice contained, besides an assembly room entertaining rooms, the council room, the magistrates' court room, the offices of the treasurer and the surveyor, the loan office, and other offices(2) connected with the Corporation; and also the hall-keeper's apartments. The Court of Quarter Sessions for the trial of offences, and the Court of Passage for civil causes, were held in the building; and in front of it, towards Castle-street, the hustings on the election of the members of parliament, and of mayors and bailiffs, used to be erected. Public meetings were also held in the edifice, and the mayor's dinners and other entertainments were given in it.

(1) Chapter I, page 73.

(2) At one period, a portion at least of the business connected with the Townclerk's department, was transacted at an office, on the west side of Fenwick-street.

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By the governing Charter of 7th William the Third," (26th September, 1695,) the title of the Corporation was expressed to be, "The Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster." Pursuant to that charter the Common Council consisted of forty-one members, including the Mayor, the two Bailiffs, the Recorder, and a Town-clerk,(2) called in the charter, “the Common Clerk." The Recorder and Town-clerk were elected by the Council, and they held their offices "quamdiu se bene gesserint." Two Sub-bailiffs and a Sword-bearer were also mentioned in the charter, as to be chosen by the Council; which completes the list of what may be called chartered officers.

The Mayor was annually elected from amongst the members of the Council at a Court of Election, held on the feast of St. Luke, the 18th of October, without any notice, for being charter day, it was universally known, and notice was not necessary. The election took place by the freemen, or, as they were otherwise called, free burgesses, at hustings, before the outgoing Mayor and Bailiffs. The new Mayor might be put in nomination at the hustings by any free burgess, (the practice being, as was usual in other places, for one burgess to nominate him, and another to second the nomination,) and if there were more than one nomination, it was the custom to proceed to a poll, which used to be taken in tallies of ten at a time, and the member of the Council so nominated, if returned by the majority of votes, was sworn in at the same court, or as soon as he attended

(1) The Charter is in Latin, but a copy and also a translation have been published in the printed Report of the Proceedings at Liverpool before the Commissioners of Inquiry into Municipal Corporations, in 1833.

(2) Prior to the Act for the regulation of Municipal Corporations the person who held the office of Town-clerk of Liverpool, held also various other beneficial appointments, which will be mentioned afterwards.

afterwards. The election ought, if possible, to be finished on the charter day; in a contested election, therefore, the poll has occasionally been kept open until twelve at night; on subsequent days there was not the same necessity, and the usual time of polling was about eight hours a day. The contest has been known to last several days; in general, however, it terminated some time in the course of one day. It was necessary that the Mayor should be a member of the Council, but beyond that there was no restriction. He was not elected in rotation, and could not serve the office two years in succession; being returning officer, he could not elect himself. The Mayor was elected to hold the office for one year, and in case of absence or sickness, he had the power of appointing a deputy to represent him, which was frequently acted upon. He was not only a justice of the peace for the borough, but was, during the mayoralty, also (after taking the usual oath) one for the county of Lancaster. He was the chairman at the quarter sessions for the borough, and also, assisted by the Recorder, at the Mayor's Court, called the Court of Passage, at which the Mayor presided, for the trial of civil causes, where the cause of action arose within the borough; he also presided at the meetings of the Common Council; and was returning officer at the election of members of parliament for the borough, and at the election of his successor in office. He had the privilege of nominating a burgess after his year of office had expired; but that appears to have been a matter rather of courtesy than of right, and it was given by a resolution of the Council, generally at the first Council after the expiration of his year of office.

Instances have occurred of serious riots on the occasion

(1) The printed Report of the Proceedings at Liverpool, before the Commissioners of Inquiry into Municipal Corporations, in 1833.

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