important function was intrusted to small bodies, quite
incompetent of acting upon general principles, and perfectly capable of
petty jobbing, when unrestrained by any effective supervision. In
another direction the same tendency was even more strikingly
illustrated. Municipal institutions were almost at their lowest point of
decay. Manchester and Birmingham were two of the largest and most
rapidly growing towns. By the end of the century Manchester had a
population of 90,000 and Birmingham of 70,000. Both were ruled, as far
as they were ruled, by the remnants of old manorial institutions.
Aikin[96] observes that 'Manchester (in 1795) remains an open town;
destitute (probably to its advantage) of a corporation, and
unrepresented in parliament.' It was governed by a 'boroughreeve' and
two constables elected annually at the court-leet. William Hutton, the
quaint historian of Birmingham, tells us in 1783 that the town was still
legally a village, with a high and low bailiff, a 'high and low taster,'
two 'affeerers,' and two 'leather-sealers,' In 1752 it had been provided
with a 'court of requests' for the recovery of small debts, and in 1769
with a body of commissioners to provide for lighting the town. This was
the system by which, with some modifications, Birmingham was governed
till after the Reform Bill.[97] Hutton boasts[98] that no town was
better governed or had fewer officers. 'A town without a charter,' he
says, 'is a town without a shackle.' Perhaps he changed his opinions
when his warehouses were burnt in 1791, and the town was at the mercy of
the mob till a regiment of 'light horse' could be called in. Aikin and
Hutton, however, reflect the general opinion at a time when the town
corporations had become close and corrupt bodies, and were chiefly
'shackles' upon the energy of active members of the community. I must
leave the explanation of this decay to historians. I will only observe
that what would need explanation would seem to be rather the absence
than the presence of corruption. The English borough was not stimulated
by any pressure from a central government; nor was it a semi-independent
body in which every citizen had the strongest motives for combining to
support its independence against neighbouring towns or invading nobles.
The lower classes were ignorant, and probably would be rather hostile
than favourable to any such modest interference with dirt and disorder
as would commend themselves to the offici