Municipal Corporations Act 1882

PART V Corporate Property and Liabilities.

Corporate Land.

105 Power to purchase land for town hall, &c.

A municipal corporation may contract for the purchase of and hold any land not exceeding in the. whole five acres, either in or out of the borough, and thereon, or on any land belonging to or held in trust for the Corporation, may build a town hall, council house, justices' room, with or without a police station and cells, or lock-ups, or a quarter and petty sessions-house, or an assize courthouse, with or without judges' lodgings, or a polling station, or any other building necessary or proper for any purpose of the borough.

106 Power to borrow with approval of Treasury.

The council may, with the approval of the Treasury, borrow at interest on the security of any corporate land, or of any land proposed to be purchased by the council under this Act, or of the borough fund or borough rate, or of all or any of those securities, such sums as the council from time to time think requisite, for the purchase of land, or for the building of any building which the council are by this Act authorised to build.

107 Power to acquire land with the approval of the Treasury.

(1) Where a municipal corporation has not power to purchase or acquire land, or to hold land in mortmain, the council may, with the approval of the Treasury, purchase or acquire any land in such manner and on such terms and conditions as the Treasury approve, and the same may be conveyed to and held by the corporation accordingly.

(2) The provisions of the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 18.] Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts, 1845, [23 & 24 Vict. c. 106.] 1860, and [32 & 33 Vict. c. 18.] 1869, relating to the purchase of land by agreement, and to agreements for sale, and conveyances, sales, and releases of any lands or hereditaments, or any estate or interest therein by persons under disability, shall extend to all purchases of land under this section.

108 Restrictions on alienation of corporate land without approval of Treasury.

(1) The council shall not, unless authorized by Act of Parliament, sell, mortgage, or alienate any corporate land without the approval of the Treasury.

(2) The council shall not, unless authorized by Act of Parliament, lease or agree to lease any corporate land without the approval of the Treasury, except as follows ;

(a) They may make a lease or agreement for a lease for a term not exceeding thirty-one years from the date of the lease or agreement, so that there be. reserved and made payable during the whole of the term such clear yearly rent as to the council appears reasonable, without any fine.

(b) They may make a lease or agreement for a lease for a term not exceeding seventy-five years from the date of the lease or agreement, and either at a reserved rent or on a fine, or both, as the council think fit,—

(i) Of tenements or hereditaments, the greater part of the yearly value of which, at the date of the lease or agreement, consists of any building or buildings; or

(ii) Of land proper for the erection of any houses or other buildings thereon, with or without gardens, yards, curtilages, or other appurtenances to be used therewith; or

(iii) Where the lessee or intended lessee agrees to erect a building or buildings thereon of greater yearly value than the land,—of land proper for gardens, yards, curtilages or other appurtenances to be used with any other house or other building erected or to be erected on any such land, belonging either to the corporation or to any other proprietor, or proper for any other purpose calculated to afford convenience or accommodation to the occupier of any such house or building.

109 Power to dispose of land with approval of Treasury.

The council may, with the approval of the Treasury, dispose of any corporate land either by way of absolute sale, or by way of exchange, mortgage, charge, demise, lease, or otherwise, in such manner and on such terms and conditions as the Treasury approve.

110 Council may renew leases, &c.

In the following cases,—

(a) Where a body corporate of a borough was on the fifth of June one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five bound or engaged by any covenant or agreement, expressed or implied, or was enjoined by any deed, will, or other document, or was sanctioned or warranted by ancient usage or by custom or practice, to make any renewal of any lease for years, or for life or lives, or for years determinable with any life or lives at any fixed or determinate or known or accustomed period, or after the lapse of any number of years, or on the dropping of any life or lives, and years determinable after the lapse of any number of years, at a fine certain, or under any special or specific terms or conditions :

(b) Where a body corporate of a borough theretofore ordinarily made renewal of any lease for years, or for life or lives, or for years determinable with any life or lives at any fixed or determinate or known or accustomed period, or after the lapse of any number of years, or on the dropping of any life or lives, on the payment of an arbitrary fine,—

Then, notwithstanding anything in this Act, the council of the borough may renew the lease for such term or number of years, either absolutely or determinable with any life or lives, or for such life or lives, and at such rent, and on the payment of such fine or premium, either certain or arbitrary, and with or without any covenant for the future renewal thereof, as the council could or might have done if this Act had not been passed.

Working Men's Dwellings.

111 Sites for working men's dwellings.

(1) If a municipal corporation determines to convert any corporate land into sites for working men's dwellings, and obtains the approval of the Treasury for so doing, the corporation may, for that purpose, make grants or leases for terms of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, or any shorter term, of any parts of the corporate land.

(2) The corporation may make on the land any roads, drains, walls, fences, or other works requisite for converting the same into building land, at an expense not exceeding such sum as the Treasury approve.

(3) The corporation may insert in any grant or lease of any part of the land (in this section referred to as the site) provisions binding the grantee or lessee to build thereon as in the grant or lease prescribed, and to maintain and repair the building, and prohibiting the division of the site or building, and any addition to or alteration of the character of the building, without the consent of the corporation, and for the re-vesting of the site in the corporation, or its re-entry thereon, on breach of any provision in the grant or lease.

(4) Every such provision shall be valid in law to all intents, and binding on the parties.

(5) All costs and expenses incurred or authorized by a corporation in carrying into execution or otherwise in pursuance of this section, shall be paid out of the borough fund and borough rate, or by money borrowed by the corporation under this Part.

(6) In this section the term working men's dwellings means buildings suitable for the habitation of persons employed in manual labour and their families; but the use of part of a building for purposes of retail trade or other purposes, approved by the council, shall not prevent the building from being deemed a dwelling.

Repayment of Loans.

112 Power for Treasury to impose conditions as to repayment of money borrowed.

(1) Where the Treasury approve a mortgage or charge under this Part they may, as a condition of their approval, require that the money borrowed on the security of the mortgage or charge be repaid, with all interest thereon, in thirty years, or any less period, and either by instalments or by means of a sinking fund, or both.

(2) In that case the sums required for providing for the repayment of the principal and interest of the money borrowed shall be by virtue of this Act a charge on all or any of the following securities, namely, the land comprised in the mortgage (without prejudice to the security thereby created), or any other corporate land, or the borough fund, or the borough or other rates legally applicable to payment of the money borrowed or of the expenses which the money is borrowed to defray, as the Treasury direct.

113 Provisions as to sinking fund.

(1) Where money borrowed under this Part is directed to be repaid by means of a sinking fund, the council shall, out of the rents and profits of the land on which, or out of the borough fund or rates on which, the sums required for the sinking fund are charged under this Act, invest such sums, at such times, and in such Government annuities, as the Treasury direct, and shall also from time to time invest in like manner all dividends of those annuities.

(2) The annuities shall, in the books of the Bank of England, be placed to the account of the corporation, and in the matter of this Act or of any previous Act under which the investment is made.

(3) The dividends of the annuities shall be received and invested by such persons as the council by power of attorney under the corporate seal from time to time appoint.

(4) No transfer shall be made of the annuities, or of any part thereof, without the consent in writing of the Treasury addressed to the chief accountant of the Bank of England.

(5) The direction in writing of the council by power of attorney under the corporate seal, with the consent in writing of the Treasury, shall be sufficient authority to the Bank for permitting any such transfer.

Purchase or Compensation Money.

114 Provision for replacing purchase or compensation money paid to treasurer.

(1) Where purchase money or compensation has been paid to the Bank of England under an Act of Parliament in respect of land or any interest therein purchased or taken from a municipal corporation, or in respect of permanent damage to land of a municipal corporation, and the Treasury approve of the payment of the money or compensation, or of any money to arise from the sale of any Government securities in which the same has been invested, to the corporation or the treasurer, the Treasury may, as a condition of their approval, require provision to be made for raising and for investing in Government annuities a sum equivalent to the amount of money so paid.

(2) The foregoing provisions of this Part applicable in the case of a sinking fund, as regards the mode of investing, payment of dividends, and transfer of annuities, shall be applicable in the case of investments under this section.

(3) The Treasury shall, when it appears to them that an amount of annuities equivalent to the amount so paid has been raised by investment, direct that the accumulation shall cease; and the annuities and the dividends thereof shall thenceforth be applicable as if the annuities had risen from the investment under the Act of Parliament under which the purchase money or compensation became payable.

(4) But this section shall not apply to money payable to a municipal corporation when provision for the application of the money, or of the price or compensation from which the money is derived, is contained in any local Act of Parliament relating thereto, and the money is to be paid to the corporation to be applied in conformity with that provision.

115 Investment of proceeds of sale, or exchange authorised by Treasury.

(1) Where the Treasury approve of the sale or exchange of any corporate land or of any interest therein, their approval may be subject to such conditions as they think fit in relation to the investment for the benefit of the corporation of the money arising from the sale or exchange.

(2) If the Treasury direct the money to be invested in Government annuities, the foregoing provisions of this Part respecting the mode of investing, payment of dividends, and transfer of annuities shall be applicable, but not so as to make any accumulation necessary.

(3) If the Treasury consent to the application of the money or of any part thereof for the benefit of the inhabitants of the borough, they may, as a condition of their consent, require the like provision to be made as they are authorized to require in the case of their approval of payment to a municipal corporation or the treasurer.

116 Power for Treasury to authorise application of certain investments for benefit of borough.

The Treasury may at any time approve of the application of any annuities arising from investments under either of the two last preceding sections, or of the money to arise from the sale thereof, or any part there of respectively, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the borough; and, as a condition of their approval, may require the like provision to be made as they are authorized to require in the case of their approval of payment to a municipal corporation or the treasurer, and so from time to time, and the provisions of this Part shall be applicable accordingly; but it shall not be imperative on the Treasury to impose the condition aforesaid where by reason of the application of the annuities or money to improvement of the property of the corporation or for the permanent benefit of the borough, or otherwise, under the special circumstances of the case, the Treasury in their discretion think fit to dispense with the condition.

Misappropriation.

117 Penalty for misappropriation of moneys.

If any person authorized to receive money to arise from the sale of any annuities or securities purchased or transferred under the foregoing provisions of this Part, or under any Act repealed by this Act, or any dividends thereon, or any other such money as aforesaid, appropriates the same otherwise than as directed by this Act, or by the Treasury in pursuance thereof, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be subject in respect thereof to the provisions of the [24 & 25 Vict. c. 96. s. 75.] Larceny Act, 1861, applicable to a person guilty of a misdemeanour under section seventy-five of that Act, or to the provisions of any enactment for the time being substituted for that section.

Corporate Stock.

118 Transfer of and other dealings with corporate stock.

(1) Any stocks, funds, or public securities (in this section referred to as stock) standing in the books of the Bank of England or of any other public company or society in the name of a municipal corporation, under any style or title of incorporation, and the dividends and interest thereof and all bonuses and accretions thereto, belonging to the municipal corporation, without being subject to any trust for charitable purposes, may be transferred by and paid to such persons as the council appoint by an instrument under the corporate seal, signed and sealed also by the clerk to the trustees of the municipal charities, who shall on request sign and seal it.

(2) Any stock and money so standing belonging to the trustees of the municipal charities solely on charitable trusts may be transferred by and paid to persons appointed under the hands and seals of the greater part of the trustees, the appointment being attested under the hand and seal of their clerk, and being also sealed with the corporate seal, which seal the mayor shall on request cause to be affixed thereto.

(3) The dividends and interest of any stock and money so standing, belonging partly to the municipal corporation but subject to charitable trusts, may be paid to persons authorised to have the same paid to them by an instrument in writing under the corporate seal, and appointed under the hands and seals of the greater part of the trustees, the appointment being attested under the hand and seal of their clerk.

(4) In every case the receipt of the persons authorized to give a receipt to the company or society by an instrument under the corporate seal, and signed and sealed by the clerk to the trustees of the municipal charities, shall be an effectual discharge to the company or society.

(5) So much of the money so paid as is held on charitable trusts shall be paid over to the trustees of the municipal charities, and so much as the municipal corporation is entitled to beneficially shall go to the borough fund.

(6) But the company or society shall not be bound to see to the application of that money, or to the validity of the appointment of the clerk to the trustees of the municipal charities, or to the execution of any instrument by any of them, or to inquire whether or not the stock or money is charged with or held on any charitable trust.

(7) Every person authorized to so receive any money shall account to the council and to the trustees of the municipal charities for all money received by him, and on his failure so to account a court of summary jurisdiction may, on complaint either of the council or of the trustees, by summary order require him to do so.

Borough Bridges.

119 Maintenance of borough bridges.

(1) Every bridge which is either wholly or in part in a borough and which the borough and not the county wherein the borough is situate is legally bound to maintain or repair shall, as to the whole of the bridge if it is wholly in the borough, or as to such part only as is in the borough, be maintained, altered, widened, repaired, improved, or rebuilt under the sole management and control of the council.

(2) For that purpose the council shall have all the powers which the justices of a county have with respect to county bridge, but the notices required in the case of a county bridge shall not be required in the case of borough bridge.

(3) All expenses incurred for the purposes of this section shall be paid out of the borough fund or borough rate, or out of money borrowed on the security thereof.

(4) The council, with the consent of the Treasury, may from time-to time borrow on that security such sums as they deem requisite for any of those purposes, and may mortgage the borough fund and borough rate for the purpose of securing the repayment, with interest, of any money so borrowed.

Loans for Municipal Buildings.

120 Power to borrow for buildings.

The council of a borough may borrow money from the Public Works Loan Commissioners for the purpose of building, enlarging, repairing, improving, and fitting up any building which they are by this Act authorized to build, and may levy a rate or an increase of the borough rate for the purpose of paying the principal and interest of the loan, and may mortgage the rate or borough rate to the Commissioners in accordance with the [38 & 39 Vict. c. 89. s. 40.] Public Works Loans Act, 1875, or any amendment thereof, in such manner and form as the Commissioners direct.

Advowsons and similar Bights.

121 Obligations and powers in respect of advowsons, &c.

(1) Notwithstanding any sale by a municipal corporation of any advowson, or of any right of nomination or presentation to a benefice, ecclesiastical preferment, or office of priest, curate, preacher, or minister, whether the sale is made before or after the commencement of this Act, the corporation and its property shall continue liable to the same obligation (if any) of providing for and maintaining or contributing to the maintenance of any priest, curate, preacher, or minister, as if the sale had not been made; and that liability may be enforced by the same means, at the instance of the Crown or otherwise, as if this Act had not been passed, and the advowson or right had remained vested in the corporation.

(2) Where a municipal corporation holds land subject to an obligation to provide a priest, curate, preacher, or minister, nothing in this Act shall preclude the corporation from augmenting or endowing his office, either by assigning to him and his successors in office a competent portion of the land, or by charging thereon an annual stipend, either in money or in kind, for his and their use and benefit, except that no such augmentation or endowment shall be valid without the approval of the Treasury.

(3) Where a municipal corporation sells a right of nomination to an ecclesiastical preferment, not being a benefice or perpetual curacy, that preferment shall, from and after the sale, be a benefice presentative, and the holder thereof and his successors shall be a body corporate, having perpetual succession and capable of taking and holding in perpetuity all property granted to or purchased for them by the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, or by other persons contributing with those governors as benefactors.

122 Regulations as to sale of ecclesiastical patronage belonging to municipal corporation.

(1) Where at the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, a body corporate, or any particular class, number, or description of members thereof, or the governing body thereof, were in their corporate capacity, and not as trustees of a charity, seised or possessed of any manor or land whereto any advowson, or right of nomination or presentation to any benefice or ecclesiastical preferment was appendant or appurtenant, or of any advowson in gross, or of any right of nomination or presentation to a benefice, ecclesiastical preferment, or office of priest, curate, preacher, or minister, the advowson or right, if not sold before the commencement of this Act, shall be sold at such time and in such manner as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England direct, so that the best price be obtained for the same.

(2) Upon any such sale the council shall, with the consent in writing of those Commissioners, signed by any three or more of them, convey, under the corporate seal, the advowson or right to the purchaser, or as he directs, and the advowson or right shall vest accordingly.

(3) The proceeds of sale shall be paid to the treasurer and invested in Government securities, and the income thereof shall go to the borough fund ; or those proceeds, or any part thereof, may be applied towards the liquidation of any debt contracted by the body corporate before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835.

(4) Any vacancy arising before the sale shall be supplied by the presentation or nomination of the bishop or ordinary of the diocese in which the benefice or preferment is situate.

Special Rates.

123 Power to continue rates for special purposes.

Where before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, a rate might be levied in a borough for the purpose of watching conjointly with any other purpose, nothing in this Act shall prevent the levying and collecting of such a rate for that other purpose solely, or affect the powers given in any Act anterior to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, as far as they relate to that other purpose ; but where the amount of that rate might not before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, exceed a given rate in the pound on the value of property rateable thereto, the rate to be levied for the other purpose solely shall not exceed such proportion of that given rate as appears to have been expended for that other purpose by an account of the average yearly expenditure during the last seven years before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, or during those of the same seven years during which the rate was levied.

Misapplication of Corporate Property.

124 Prohibition of expenditure of corporate funds on parliamentary elections.

(1) It shall not be lawful for a municipal corporation, or the council of a borough, or a corporate officer, or a trustee, or other person acting for a municipal corporation, to pay or apply any money, stocks, funds, securities, or personal property, of or held in trust for the corporation, in payment of any expenses occasioned by a parliamentary election or incurred by any person offering himself as a candidate at or before a parliamentary election.

(2) Any bond, covenant, recognisance, or judgment given by a corporation, council, officer, trustee, or person as aforesaid, for securing payment of such expenses, shall be void.

(3) Any payment, application, bond, covenant, recognisance, or judgment made or given by a corporation, council, officer, trustee, or person as aforesaid, for inducing any person to labour in a parliamentary election at a future time, or to pay or incur expenses as aforesaid at a future time, shall be deemed to be forbidden and declared void by this section, although colourably made or given for any other cause or consideration.

(4) Any mortgage or other disposition of corporate land for securing or satisfying any expenses or engagements incurred or to be incurred as aforesaid, and any estate or charge thereby created) shall be void.

(5) Any resolution, byelaw, or other proceeding of a council, purporting to direct or authorize any payment or thing forbidden by this section, or made or adopted for evading the provisions thereof, shall be void.

(6) If any member of a municipal corporation authorizes or directs any payment or application forbidden by this section, or assents to, or concurs or participates in, any affirmative vote or proceeding relating thereto, or signs or seals in his individual capacity, or affixes the corporate seal to, any instrument by this section declared void, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and, on conviction thereof in the High Court, shall, in addition to such punishment as the court awards, be for ever disabled to take, hold, or exercise any office in the same corporation.

(7) If any corporate officer, trustee, or other person as aforesaid, makes, or concurs in making, any payment or application of money or property as aforesaid, he shall be deemed to have done so in his own wrong, and he shall be individually liable to repay and make good the amount or value thereof to the corporation, notwithstanding any release or pretended indemnity given to him in the name or on behalf of the corporation.

(8) Any two or more burgesses may bring and prosecute any action in the name of the corporation against any officer, trustee, or person making any illegal payment or application as aforesaid, as if they, their executors and administrators, were jointly and severally appointed the irrevocable attorneys of the corporation for that purpose; but the plaintiffs shall, on the application of the defendant, give reasonable security, as the court directs, for costs, as between solicitor and client.

(9) Nothing in this section shall affect the provisions of the Ballot Act, 1872, or of any other Act for the time being in force regulating the payment by the returning officer or otherwise of expenses relating to parliamentary elections.

Transitory Provisions.

125 Transfer of investments made before 1860 in names of trustees.

(1) In the several cases following:

(a) Where before the fifteenth of May one thousand eight hundred and sixty the Treasury on approving of a mortgage of corporate land had required a sinking fund in names of trustees;

(b) Where before the same day the Treasury, on approving of the payment to a corporation or their treasurer of purchase money for or compensation in respect of corporate land, or of money arising from sale of Government securities in which the same had been invested, had required provision for raising by investments in names of trustees an amount equivalent to the amount so paid ;

(c) Where before the same day the Treasury, on approving of a sale or alienation of corporate land, had required the investment of the proceeds in names of trustees ;

The Treasury, if they have not so done before the commencement of this Act, may require any securities in which any such investments had been made to be transferred into the name of the corporation in the matter of this Act, or may require any money applicable for the purposes of such sinking fund to be invested in the purchase of Government annuities in the name of the (corporation and in the matter of this Act.

(2) The order in writing of the Treasury for that purpose shall be a sufficient discharge to the trustees from all claims in respect of the transfer of the securities in pursuance of the order.

(3) The Treasury may, in the cases aforesaid, give such directions as they might give in the analogous cases in this Tart provided for, arising after the commencement of this Act, or as near thereto as circumstances require, and the provisions of this Part shall apply accordingly.

(4) Where any such transfer as aforesaid has before the commencement of this Act been made into the name of the corporation in the matter of any Act repealed by this Act, this Act shall, if the Treasury so direct, be substituted in the title of the account for that Act.

126 Scheme respecting mortgage debts incurred before 1860.

Where in a borough any mortgage debt had been, before the fifteenth of May one thousand eight hundred and sixty incurred, for discharge of which no adequate provision then existed, the council, if they have not so done before the commencement of this Act, may submit to the Treasury any scheme for the discharge thereof by instalments, or a sinking fund, or both, extending over any term of years, and if the Treasury approve of the scheme, the sums required for discharge of the debt as proposed therein shall by virtue of this Act become charged on all or any part of the corporate land, or the borough fund, or borough rate, or any other rate applicable to discharge of the debt, or on all or any of those securities, as the Treasury direct, and the provisions of this Part applicable for repayment of money borrowed on mortgage by a sinking fund, or instalments, or both, except the limitation to a period of thirty years, shall apply for discharge of the debt.

127 Consolidation of debts incurred before 1860.

Where in a borough debts had from time to time, before the fifteenth of May one thousand eight hundred and sixty, been incurred under Acts of Parliament, with different periods assigned for discharge thereof, the council, if they have not so done before the commencement of this Act, may, with the consent of the Treasury, and with the previous consent in writing of the persons or bodies corporate to whom the debts are owing, consolidate the debts into one, and provide for discharge of the consolidated debt by annual instalments, or a sinking fund, or both, extending over a period not exceeding thirty years, and make the instalments or payments a charge on the borough fund, or borough rate, or any other rate applicable to the discharge of the debts, or on all or any of those securities, as the Treasury direct.

128 Saving for sales, &c. in pursuance of past contracts and resolutions.

Nothing in. this Act shall affect any power to sell, mortgage, alienate, or lease corporate lands in pursuance of an agreement made on or before the fifth day of June one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, or of a resolution entered in the books of a body corporate on or before that date.

129 Saving for rates in respect of past debts.

Nothing in this Act shall prevent the levying or collection of any rate for the purpose of paying any debt contracted before the commencement of this Act or any interest thereon.

130 Saying for rights of creditors in respect of tolls or dues.

It shall not be lawful for the council of a borough of which the body corporate had before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, contracted any lawful debt chargeable on any tolls or dues belonging or payable to that body corporate, or to any member or officer thereof in his corporate capacity, or towards the satisfaction whereof such tolls or dues or any part thereof were or was applicable before the passing of that Act, to alter or reduce the amount to be levied and payable of such tolls or dues, or to grant for any consideration any remission thereof or exemption therefrom or of or from any part thereof, except with the consent in writing, under the hands of a majority in number and amount, of the creditors to whom the debt is due, until after the debt and all arrears of interest due thereon have been fully paid and satisfied.

131 Saving for lawful debts contracted before 5 & 6 Will.4 c.76.

(1) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the application of the borough fund to the several payments specified in the Fifth Schedule or otherwise authorized by this Act shall be subject to the payment of any lawful debt due from the municipal corporation to any person which was contracted before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, and is unredeemed, or of so much thereof as the council from time to time are required or deem it expedient to redeem, and to the payment from time to time of the interest on so much thereof as remains unredeemed.

(2) The council may from time to time execute under the corporate seal any deed or obligation in the name of the corporation for securing repayment and satisfaction of any such debt or obligation contracted by or on behalf of the corporation before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835.

(3) Money borrowed by a council for the purpose of being applied, and applied, in or towards satisfaction and discharge of any such pre-existing debt or obligation, shall be deemed to be a debt contracted by or on behalf of the corporation before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835.

132 Saving against new liability to debts contracted before 5 & 6 Will.4 c.76.

Nothing in this Act shall make liable to the payment of any debt contracted by any body corporate of a borough before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, any part of the real or personal estate of that body corporate which before the passing of that Act was not liable thereto or authorize the levy of any rate within any part of any borough for the purpose of paying any debt contracted before the passing of that Act, which before the passing of that Act could not lawfully be levied therein towards payment of the same.