occurrence of general importance which took place was the introduction, on the I0th of August, 1848, of the County Constabulary Force into the town, by the magistrates acting in this division of the county, under the powers vested in them by the Act 2nd and 3rd Victoria, chap. 53. Previously to this event, the local affairs of the town, including watching, lighting, and general improvements, had been administered by a Board of Commissioners, who were constituted under an Act passed on the 26th of May, 1826, the qualification necessary for assuming the office being the possession of property of the value of £50, or the occupation of premises rented at £30 per annum. For a considerable time previously to the year 1848, the ratepayers had, at different times, given free expression to their dissatisfaction with the irresponsible powers vested in the Commissioners, and they had also manifested no small degree of discontent at their proceedings. Local improvements, it was alleged, were not prosecuted- with the spirit and energy which characterised the proceedings of the leading men of business, nor were they carried out to that extent which the rapidly increasing wants of the population required, although for this it is only fair to add that the Commissioners were not altogether responsible, the Act under which they qualified preventing them from expending more than £200 on any improvement during any single year. Shortly after the election of 1847 a disagreement arose between the political parties in the borough with regard to the conduct of the police, which was then under the management of the Commissioners, and the result·was the introduction, by the magistrates, of the county force. This measure, the propriety of which would be liable at any time and under any circumstances to call forth differences of opinion, excited a certain amount of dis- satisfaction in the public mind, and, coupled with the other complaints which were made against the Board, aroused the attention of the inhabitants to a subject which had been at different times previously mooted,

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