chairman of the committee expressed himself in terms of general approbation as to the manner in which the Corporation had been constituted, and their duties fulfilled.

The committee were, however, unable to report fully and decisively to the House on the general question referred to their consideration, and recommended that commissioners should be sent to all the corporate towns for the purpose of obtaining more extensive information.

The Corporation of Leicester and a few other towns made a strenuous opposition to this enquiry, and setting at defiance the authority of the commissioners, it being, in their opinion, of an inquisitorial and unconstitutional character, refused to answer the interrogatories delivered to them, or to allow their records and proceedings to go through the ordeal of an investigation. The Capital Burgesses of Wisbech, however, used every exertion to co-operate with the commissioners in their laborious task. The publication of their accounts, and the mode of annual election constituted by the charter, had effectually secured an honest administration of their funds; they therefore felt no fear of censure, but proceeded to lay before the commissioners the records of their transactions, without the least reservation, and the learned gentlemen who were deputed to institute the enquiry, stated, that on their whole circuit they had not met with another instance where the lighting and watching of the town were effected without the aid of a local rate upon the inhabitants for that specific purpose, or where the funds were so exclusively appropriated for the benefit of the public.

The commissioners proceeded to ascertain from some

of the parties present (public notice having been previously given soliciting the attendance of the burgesses, inhabitants, and other individuals interested in the question), their opinions as to the mode of the election, when some suggested the propriety of the Capital Burgesses being elected for three years, and others that a part only of the members should be subject by rotation to annual election, in conformity with the system pursued in Scotland, and it was also suggested that the franchise should be extended to the copyholders as well as freeholders, and also to persons renting a tenement of a certain amount, that the electors should be registered, a returning officer regularly appointed, the qualification of the Capital Burgesses more fully defined, either as to amount of property or otherwise, and that the election should close earlier than twelve o'clock at night to prevent the temptation to riot which occasionally occurs at a meeting under such popular excitement.

The commissioners have not yet made their report to the House of Commons, and consequently no measures have yet been adopted; but we trust that ere many months have passed away the Corporations of this kingdom will be placed upon a footing more in accordance with the spirit of the times, and the existing state of society, and that other public companies will be compelled to appropriate their funds exclusively to the public service, in accordance with the example long since held out to them by the Corporation of Wisbech.

We have seen that on the dissolution of the Guild, the Corporation were in possession of 616 acres of land and in the year 1595 they purchased about thirty acres in the parish of Walpole. Their estates, however, have

been considerably increased by the enclosure of the fens and commons of the several parishes in which they are situate, and the rent-roll now exhibits 695A. 3R. 5P. of land, the rent of which, in addition to the Crane Wharf and Cattle Market Estate, forms what is usually denominated the fund for general purposes. In addition to these they receive the produce of the market tolls, which are most liberally presented to them by the Bishop of the Diocese as lord of the manor, the tonnage duties charged on vessels frequenting the port; and lands, and funded property to a considerable amount are placed under their controul and superintendence, to be appropriated to specific purposes. We have collected a general statement of the present income and expenditure of the Corporation, which will be found in the appendix, and it will tend to show the extent and value of the revenues and the necessity of having proper persons to watch over and regulate the just and faithful appropriation of funds so important to the public.

CHAPTER VII.

The Church.

MAN, with a laudable piety and ambition, has

commonly exerted his utmost skill in the erection of his temples for religious worship. The singular pagodas of the Chinese, the gorgeous remains of Indian architecture, the glittering mosques and mausoleums of Mahometanism, the solemn ruins of Egypt, and the stately cathedrals of France, Italy, and our own country, all bear indisputable evidence that the same feeling of devotion and ambition for majestic elegance, has alike influenced the pagan, the barbarian, and the christian.

The earliest erections for religious worship of which we have any record, were altars, and on these, while man inhabited the forests and caves, he offered up the fruits of the earth and of his flocks. But as time matured his rude conceptions and enlarged his observation, he learned to defend himself from the warfare of the

elements, and the construction of a habitation scarcely preceded the erection of a temple, in which to offer up his orisons to the beneficent author of his existence. It is unnecessary and indeed impossible perhaps with accuracy, to trace the gradual rise of architecture from the first conical hut to those gigantic piles of building which adorned the cities of Babylon, Persepolis, and Thebes. Of the two former capitals not a vestage is left to attest their original greatness; but Thebes still retains such sublime fragments of its massive edifices, that had they not remained to show the bewildering vastness of their dimensions, such mighty fabrics would have been classed with the improbabilities of fiction. But notwithstanding their incredible greatness, such edifices could never be mistaken for the work of civilization and refinement, since their cumbrous deformity bears evident marks of the infancy of architecture, which contented itself with magnitude where it could not obtain beauty. It would seem that in constructing their places of worship the architects in those days wished them in some manner to accord with their ideas of the magnificent Being to whom they were dedicated, by swelling their proportions into collossal greatness.

The splendid mythology of India was not less favorable to architecture. But here on the contrary the temples were gaudy rather than gigantic; of the strangest diversity of forms, of the most costly materials, and the most extravagant embellishment. Over the whole of that vast peninsula, but particularly at Benares, are to be seen the splendid and unrecorded remains of their early paganism, whose history and date of erection is involved in as many mysteries as the