The inquiry into the charges brought against Mr. Higgin- bottom
at Manchester has been concluded in a manner which will satisfy all who are concerned in the maintenance of a high standard of municipal integrity. Mr. Higginbottom, an Alder- man, member of the City Council, and Mayor-designate for the ensuing year, was charged with having exploited his position as chairman of the Electricity Committee and member of the Gas Committee of the Corporation to farther his private interests, and a Special Committee was appointed to investi- gate and report on these charges. Some of these proved to be groundless, but it was established that contracts had been assigned by the Gas Committee to a company which sublet the contract to a firm of which he was a partner, and the Committee having stigmatised his action in the matter as im- proper, Mr. Higginbottom has resigned his Aldermanship and forfeited his succession to the Mayoralty. Manchester is to be congratulated on this summary vindication of the principle on which we have insisted in these columns, that public officials should never deliberately combine functions in such a way as to open the door to the charge of an improper use of their opportunities.
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