§ The House went into a Committee on the Municipal Corporations Act Amendment Bill.
§ On Clause 6, (in such cases where the council of a city or borough had not elected a mayor, that the electors in general should be empowered to proceed to the election of that officer)—
§ Sir Edward Knatchbullproposed, as an amendment, that in every borough in which the mayor shall not have been elected before the passing of the Act, the council shall, on the 21st day after passing of this Act, proceed to elect a mayor; and in case of an equality of votes, in any election of mayor, the Alderman who shall have been elected by the greatest number of votes, shall have a second or casting vote.
§ The Attorney-Generalobjected to the amendment, on the ground that the constituency of a place had not in contemplation, when they voted for a particular councillor, the intrusting him with such power. The clause, as it stood in the Bill, would be only applicable to the boroughs of Newport and Rochester.
§ The Committee divided on the clause. Ayes 111; Noes 42; Majority 69.
§ Clause agreed to.
§ Bill went through the Committee, and the House resumed.