“Three councillors are allotted to and elected by each of the sixteen wards into which the borough is divided, and each councillor is elected for three years, the elections being so arranged that one-third of the councillors (one in each ward) retire every year, and elections for the choice of their successors are held on the first of November. The aldermen are chosen by the members of the Council, and are elected for six years; they may be chosen from amongst the members of the Council, or from fit persons not members of the Council, but who are qualified for election to it. The Mayor is chosen by the Council, on the ninth of November, for a term of one year. Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, it was obligatory that, at the time of being elected, he should be a member of the Council; but by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882 it is provided (sec. 15) that ‘the Mayor shall be a fit person elected by the Council from among the aldermen or councillors, or persons qualified to be such.’ There is now no property qualification required for any members of the Council. “The Council, as a whole, is the rating and controlling authority for the Borough. In all matters subjected to its authority it acts upon communications from the Mayor, upon motions made upon its own initiative (regulated by its standing orders for the conduct of business) and upon reports and proposals from the Committees it appoints, and to which it delegates specified branches of municipal work, under such regulations and with such limitations as it may direct. “These Committees have varied from time to time; at present they are sixteen in number, and are named, constituted, and empowered as follows, taking them in the order in which they are stated in the ‘Borough of Birmingham Municipal Diary,’ issued by the Town Clerk, under the direction of the Council:-- 1.--Baths and Parks Committee.--“To have charge of the public baths, parks, gardens, and recreation grounds, and the buildings thereon (excepting the recreation ground in St. Clement’s Road, in charge of the Gas Committee, and the buildings in Adderley Park, in charge of the Free Libraries Committee); to have charge of the trees planted in the streets; to lay out disused burial grounds acquired by the Council; and to arrange for supplies of coal and coke to the several departments of the Corporation, excepting the Lunatic Asylum, Public Works, Gas and Water Committees. 2.--Estates Committee.--“To take charge of all estates and buildings belonging to the Corporation, not in charge of other Committees (including the Council House); to make rules for granting the use of the Town Hall; to sell, let or exchange lands or buildings not required for public purposes, as the Council may resolve; to superintend the arrangements of the Borough Cemetery, and perform the functions of the Burial Board; and to arrange for the acquisition of closed burial grounds.