OFFICE OF CHIEF-CONSTABLE.

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direction,)-to provide fire-engines,-to erect, or provide, proper offices for the use of the Constables, lock-up houses, or prisons, for the detention and safe custody of felons, and prisoners,-to appoint, annually, some person, out of their own body, to be Chief-constable of Burslem, with such number of assistant or deputy-constables as might be deemed proper ;—also to appoint Watchmen, all of whom are required to be sworn into office by the Magistrates of the County.

CHIEF-CONSTABLE. This Officer's duties are not further defined by the Act, than that he has power given him to suspend any assistant, or deputy-constable, from acting until the next meeting of the Commissioners, and to appoint the Town-crier; but, in practice, ever since the passing of the Act, the Chief-constable has had the general direction of the business of the Police; he presides at all meetings of the Commissioners, and is the authority to whom the inferior constables make their daily reports, and resort for advice, and instructions, in cases of emergency; so that the Chief-constable is, in effect, an important civil officer, placed in a middle position between the magistracy and the acting constabulary force.

The Commissioners are empowered to levy two rates, each not exceeding the amount of 6d. in the pound, yearly, upon all houses, warehouses, and other buildings, yards, gardens, orchards, and wharfs, for lighting purposes; which is assessed on property within the limits only of Burslem Proper; that for Police expences is assessed on the whole rateable property of the Parish, (Abbey Hutton excepted.)

Annual meetings of the Trustees of the Market are directed to be holden, for general purposes, on the second Wednesday in June, and of the Police Commissioners on the following day; at the latter the Chief-constable, and other Officers are appointed, and the Chief-constable usually enters on his office on the first Sunday after the 24th June, (being Burslem Wake,) and is then attended

to church by a considerable body of the Commissioners. It was a custom, for several years after the office was instituted, for the Chief-constable to invite a party of his neighbours to breakfast, on entering into office; but the practice has, of late years, been discontinued. An annual dinner, to which the outgoing Chief-constable is invited, is the only civic entertainment now kept up.

We insert the names of the gentlemen who have served the office of Chief-constable since the Act was obtained :

The passing of the Market-act was followed by various projects for enlarging and improving the Market-place. The Trustees had obtained powers to purchase, at a valuation price, within the term of five years, certain houses and buildings belonging to Thomas Wedgwood, Esq., standing near the east-side of the Town-hall; but, for want of funds, or combination of sentiment, that period was suffered to elapse, without effecting this desirable object. At length, however, in 1831, a purchase was made from Mr. Wedgwood's representatives, of a portion of the above property,* at the price of £1,400; the buildings thereon were then pulled down, and the site added to the Market-place. In the year 1834, it was resolved to purchase, and pull down, the remainder of the old buildings between the Market-place and Shoe-lane, now Wedgwood-street,† (leaving a modern house, and some cottages standing for the present,‡)

* Marked in the Ground Plan, page 225, with the letters c, d, e, g. + Viz. :-the parts marked f, h, i, k, l. Those marked a, b.

TOWN

HALL & MARKET-HOUSE OF BURSLEM.

and to erect, on this site, a covered Market-house, for the use of the butchers and provision-dealers. The price of £2600 was paid for this additional property; and hereupon the classical and beautiful edifice, shewn in the annexed plate, was erected, of which the south-west cornerstone, (above the basement,) was laid, on the 1st of December, 1835, by Enoch Wood, Esq., the Treasurer, in the presence of the whole body of the Trustees, and a very large concourse of spectators.* The building was prosecuted with great diligence, by the contractor, and completed in less than twelve months from its commencement, being opened for public use on Saturday, October 1st, 1836. The completion of the work was celebrated by an entertainment given by the Trustees, to which the Lord of the Manor, and many neighbouring gentlemen, were invited.

The building is of smooth stone, with a rustic basement, surmounted with iron pallisades along the south and west sides, and an elegant Doric portico of six fluted columns, supporting a pediment over the principal, or

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A copy of the Market-act, a ground-plan of the old buildings, of which that inserted opposite page 225 is a reduced copy, and the resolutions of the Trustees passed the same morning, (enclosed in a tin case,) several pieces of china, earthenware, and a number of coins, and a brass-plate with the following inscription deeply engraved, were embedded in the corner-stone :

"THIS FOUNDATION LAID BY THE TRUSTEES OF BURSLEMMARKET, THE FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER, ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXV. "ENOCH WOOD, Treasurer. JOHN WARD, Clerk to the Trustees. "SAMUEL LEDWARD, Architect. WILLIAM SMITH, Builder." A handsome silver trowel, for the ceremonial, was presented by the Trustees to Mr. Wood, bearing the following inscription :

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"This trowel was presented, by the Trustees of Burslem-market, to "ENOCH WOOD, Esq., their Treasurer, on the occasion of his inying the corner-stone of the covered market, 1st December, 1835, as a token "of the high estimation in which they hold his character, and to shew "their sense of the zeal he has ever manifested for the improvement of "his native town."