distress be found, he may be imprisoned in the house of correction for a month, the imprisonment to cease when the sum due is paid.

Bye-laws inflicting imprisonment as a penalty are invalid; also those made in restraint of trade.

CHAPTER XV.

OF FINANCES.

THE borough fund is formed of the rents and profits of all estates, and the interest, dividend and annual proceeds of all moneys, goods and valuable securities belonging or payable to the corporation.

Fines and penalties are paid into this fund; but unappropriated fines go to the county where the borough has not either a commission of the peace or a quarter sessions (a). It is charged with the salary of the mayor, recorder, town clerk and treasurer, and of every officer which the council shall appoint; also with the expenses of printing burgess lists and other notices, and, where there are separate quarter sessions, the expenses of prosecutions; also all other matters necessary to carry out the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Acts. If the borough fund does not suffice to meet these expenses, then the borough rate is made.

(a) Reg. v. Dale, 17 J. P. 68; Mayor of Reigate v. Hunt, 32 J. P. 342.

Where the borough fund derivable from corporate property is more than sufficient to pay the salaries of the different officers and other expenses in connection with the carrying out of the provisions of the Municipal Act and other purposes authorized by any general or local act, the surplus is to be applied by the council for the public benefit of the inhabitants and in improving the borough; and where insufficient, the council is to estimate from time to time, as correctly as may be, the additional amount required to carry out the provisions of the Municipal Act, and may order a borough rate, in the nature of a county rate, to be made within the borough, but such rate must not be retrospective. The council has, for the purpose of ordering a borough rate in nature of a county rate, all the powers given to justices by 55 Geo. 3, c. 51, 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 92, and 15 & 16 Vict. c. 81, or it may order the overseers of the poor of the parish or parishes constituting the borough to levy the amount required for the borough and watch rate out of the poor rate or rates, or to make a pound rate upon the occupiers of all rateable property to raise the amount required (b).

All warrants required by that act to be issued

(b) 1 Vict. c. 81, s. 1.

under the hands and seals of two or more justices are, in the case of the borough rate, to be signed by the mayor and sealed with the corporation seal. An appeal against this rate, on notice to the town clerk, lies to the recorder at quarter sessions, or to the county sessions, as the case may be.

In boroughs having a separate court of quarter sessions, and where the borough is formed of parts of parishes or places which lie partly within and partly without the borough, the council may appoint an overseer for all such parts and places, who is empowered to levy and raise, by an equal rate or assessment upon all the property within each of the parts of parishes or places respectively for which he is appointed, the sums required to meet such borough and watch rates, These rates are to be called district rates, and must be allowed and published in like manner as rates for relief of the poor, and may be appealed against. Such overseer or collector is to account as an officer appointed by the council (c).

Different acts specify objects on which it may be expended :

The Baths and Washhouses Acts, 9 & 10 Vict. c. 74; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 61;

Lunatic asylums, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 97;

(c) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 110.

Libraries and museums, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 70; Literature, science and art, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 112;

Highways-adoption and repair of, by council, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61.

The council cannot sell or mortgage the real property of the corporation, nor let it on lease for a longer term than thirty years. In exceptional cases the lords of the treasury can enlarge these powers.

By 23 & 24 Vict. c. 16, power is given to municipal corporations to purchase or acquire lands for public purposes with the approbation of the lords of the treasury, and to borrow the money on mortgage of the borough fund or borough rate after giving the notices required by the act (d).

A memorial may be presented for this purpose: a month's notice of this must be given, and a copy of the memorial deposited in the town clerk's office for inspection.

The Municipal Corporation Funds Act, 1872, provides that costs of promoting and opposing parliamentary and other proceedings for benefit of the inhabitants are to be charged on the borough funds (e).

(d) Municipal Corporation Mortgages Act, 1860.

(e) 35 & 36 Vict. c. 91. For this purpose an absolute majority of the council must pass a resolution after ten clear days'