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AN  OUTLINE  OF 
ENGLISH    LOCAL    GOVERNMENT 


AN    OUTLINE 


OF 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


BY 


EDWARD  JENKS,  M.A, 


FELLOW  OK   KING'S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE;     BARRISTER-AT-LAW ;     PROFESSOR   OF 
LAW  IN   UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  LIVERPOOL. 


<4ttethttett  &  C0. 

36  ESSEX  STREET,  LONDON,  W.C. 
1894 


X 

._ 


PREFACE 

THIS  little  book  is  the  outcome  of  a  course  of  lay  lectures 
delivered  in  University  College,  Liverpool,  a  few  months 
ago,  under  the  joint  auspices  of  the  Corporation  of  the 
city  and  the  Liverpool  Board  of  Legal  Studies.  Its  aim 
is  at  once  modest  and  ambitious.  On  the  one  hand,  it 
professes  to  give  nothing  more  than  the  bare  skeleton  of 
the  English  system  of  Local  Government.  On  the  other, 
it  does  attempt  to  state,  in  Christian  English  and  in  concise 
form,  the  outlines  of  a  subject  usually  relegated  to  the 
fathomless  abysses  of  those  professional  treatises  which 
Charles  Lamb  (had  he  been  required  to  pronounce  judg- 
ment upon  them)  would  assuredly  have  classed  as  biblia 
abiblia — books  which  are  no  books.  I  say  "  usually,"  for  it 
would  ill  become  me  to  ignore  the  debt  which  the  English 
citizen  of  ten  years  ago  owed  to  the  admirable  little  volume 
of  Judge  Chalmers,  now,  by  reason  of  changes  in  the  law, 
out  of  date,  and,  by  reason  of  its  own  merits,  out  of  print. 
And,  though  county  and  parish  councils  have  brought  upon 
us  a  shower  of  practical  manuals,  I  think  there  is  room 
for  a  book  which  shall  aim  at  giving  to  the  non-professional 
citizen  some  reasonably  coherent  ideas  concerning  that 


2  PREFACE 

mass  of  governmental  machinery  which  he  is  presumed 
himself  to  manage,  and  which,  whether  he  manages  it  or 
not,  does  very  substantially  affect  his  daily  life. 

My  great  temptation  has,  of  course,  been  to  take  the 
reader  behind  the  existing  machinery,  and  to  show  him  the 
rudimentary  forms  from  which  it  has  developed,  and  which 
are  of  such  intense  interest  to  all  genuine  students  of 
English  institutions.  But  this  temptation  has,  in  most 
cases,  been  sternly  resisted.  Only  in  the  matter  of  early 
municipal  history  have  I  ventured  upon  anything  like 
historical  speculation ;  and  here  it  is  a  matter  of  great 
satisfaction  to  me  that  my  tentative  suggestions  have,  on 
the  whole,  been  supported  by  the  authority  of  Mrs  J.  R. 
Green's  admirable  work  on  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth 
Century,  which  has  appeared  since  my  book  went  to  press. 
In  the  matter  of  authorities,  I  have  refrained  from  loading 
my  pages  with  that  apparatus  of  statute  and  decision  which 
is  so  painfully  familiar  to  lawyers;  but,  in  the  hope  that 
even  a  stray  lawyer  or  two  will  not  disdain  to  glance  at  my 
book,  I  have  given  such  general  references  to  Acts  of 
Parliament  and  decisions,  that  any  reader,  who  wishes  to 
know  more  concerning  any  topic,  will  easily  find  guidance 
in  his  search.  And,  whether  the  exact  authority  is  specified 
or  not,  I  beg  the  reader  to  believe  that  I  have  never  been 
guilty  of  the  rashness  of  making  a  statement  without 
verifying  it  at  the  fountain-head. 

In  giving  illustrations  from  earlier  history,  I  have  purposely 
chosen  examples  from  the  readily  accessible  works  of  the 


PREFACE  3 

Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  to  him  I  tender  (if  he  is  not  by  this 
time  weary  of  thanks)  my  best  acknowledgments  for  this 
and  much  other  help  derived  from  his  writings.  To  Mr 
William  Rathbone,  M.P.,  I  am  indebted  for  the  valuable 
loan  of  current  Parliamentary  reports.  To  Professor 
Maitland,  of  Cambridge,  I  owe  more  than  can  be  won  from 
any  books — the  inspiring  help  and  the  wise  counsel  which 
it  is  the  pleasure  of  great  teachers  to  extend  to  those 
privileged  to  come  into  personal  contact  with  them.  In 
the  hope  that  it  is  not  altogether  unworthy  of  his  teaching, 
I  send  this  little  book  into  the  world. 

E.  J. 


UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  LIVERPOOL. 

>/jK  1894. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

I N 1 RODUCTORY      .........  ^ 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PARISH 19 

CHAPTER  III. 

1  HK  SCHOOL  DISTRICT 54 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  HUNDRED *  ...  6$ 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION 68 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT 76 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  POOR  LAW  UNION 87 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  SANITARY  DISTRICT 99 


6  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHATTER  IX. 
THE  SHIRE  OR  COUNTY— Parliamentary  and  Judicial       .         .  133 

CHATTER  X. 

Till:  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY       ......  164 

CHATTER  XI. 

THE  .STANDING  JOINT-COMMITTEE  .....  178 

CHAPTER  XII. 
i  HE  lioRouc.ii  —  Parliamentary  and  Municipal         .         .         .  187 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

>l'l.<  IAI.    lYI'Es  OK  HOROI.V.H  221 


AN    OUTLINE 

OF 

ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

IN  every  civilised  State  of  any  importance  the  functions   Central 
performed  by  the  various  governing  bodies  and  individuals  Govern 
are  capable  of  one  great  and  useful  classification.     They  nient- 
are   either   central,  that  is,   exercised   by  persons  whose 
jurisdiction  extends  over  the  whole  area  ruled  by  the  State, 
or  local,  that  is,  exercised  by  persons  whose  jurisdiction  is 
limited  to  some  special  portion  of  the  State's  territory.     It 
is  not  a  question  of  the  situation,  nor  of  the  method  of 
appointment,  but  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  body  or  official 
in  question.     The  magistrates  for  the  county  of  Leicester 
might  (conceivably)  live  and  hold  their  meetings  in  London; 
but,  so  long  as  their  jurisdiction  was  limited  to  the  county 
of  Leicester,  they  would  be  a  local  not  a  central  authority. 

This  distinction  is  always  found  in  civilised  States,  but   Import- 
the  relationship  between  the  two  classes  of  governing  bodies 
varies  greatly  in  different  countries,  and  the  nature  of  the 
difference  is  of  vast  importance.     Too  much  attention  has 

7 


8  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

in  the  past  been  paid  to  the  forms  of  government,  and 
too  little  to  its  scope.  Whether  a  State  calls  itself  a 
Monarchy  or  a  Republic  may  be  of  small  consequence 
in  practical  affairs  ;  few  people  would  deny  that  there  is 
more  real  liberty  in  monarchical  England  than  in  republican 
France.  But  the  relationship  between  the  central  and  the 
local  institutions  of  a  country  must  always  be  of  great 
practical  moment ;  for  upon  it  will  depend  the  real  extent 
and  value  of  the  share  open  to  the  average  citizen  in  the 
work  of  government. 

To    illustrate.      Civilised    States  fall   roughly  into    two 
great  classes,  in  respect  of  the  relationship  between  their 
organs    of    central     and    local    government    respectively. 
Centralised   Either  the  local  organs  are  a  creation  of  and  subordinate 
to  the  central  government,  or  the  central  government  is  a 
localised     creature  of  and  historically  subordinate  to  the  local  organs. 
Of  course  very  few  States  fall   completely  on  either  side 
of  this  line  of  demarcation,  but  it  is  generally  easy  to  tell  of 
a  particular  State  to  which  side  it  inclines.     The  type  of 
the  former  class  is  the  new  country,  such  as  the  western 
States  of  the  American  Union  and  the  Australian  colonies, 
or  the  country  which  has  violently  broken  with  its  past, 
such  as  France.      The  type   of  the  latter  is    the    "  old  " 
country,    such    as    England,    Norway,    and    the    Puritan 
influenceof  colonies  of  America.     Between   the  two  classes  of  State 
on  political  tne  differences  of  political   character  are   immense  ;    and 
character.     t|,ey  are  partiy  tne  result,  partly  the  cause,  of  the  difference 
of  organisation.     It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  deal  with 
machinery,  not  with  results;  but  it  may  be  said,  briefly, 
that,  in  countries  where  the  organs  of  Local  Government 
are  under  the  thumb   of  the  central  authority,  although 
the  efficiency  of  administration  may  be  great,  the  political 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

character  of  the  people  will  be  unsatisfactory;  it  will  be 
apathetic  for  long  periods,  and  then  dangerously  excited, 
with  the  result  of  instability  and  corruption  in  the  central 
government.  On  the  other  hand,  a  country  of  strong  local 
government  may  be  slow  to  move,  and  blundering  in  its 
methods,  but  it  will  be  a  country  of  steady  progress,  and 
of  political  stability  and  honesty. 

England  is  pre-eminently  the  country  of  local  govern-  England 
ni«  nt.  True  it  is  that  the  central  legislature  has  in  recent 
times  created,  perhaps  somewhat  arbitrarily,  new  units  and  Stale- 
organs  of  local  government.  But  the  great  outlines  of  local 
government  in  England  were  drawn  ages  before  central 
government  (as  we  understand  it)  came  into  existence. 
Central  administration,  as  distinct  from  mere  political  over- 
lordship,  dates  from  the  twelfth  century,  and  is  the  work 
of  French  officials.  Local  administration  is  at  least  five 
hundred  years  older,  and  was  probably  the  unconscious 
adaptation  of  primeval  Teutonic  custom  to  the  conditions 
of  new  settlement.  Treasury,  King's  Bench,  and  Parlia- 
ment come  down  to  us  from  Angevin  and  Plantagenet 
kings.  But  Township  and  Hundred  and  Shire  carry  us 
back  to  the  days  before  Alfred,  to  the  dim  beginnings  of 
our  story,  and  it  was,  in  fact,  only  by  an  integration  or 
union  of  these  smaller  groups  that  England  became  a 
nation  at  all.  Consequently,  central  government,  when  it 
came,  had  to  reckon  with  local  government  as  an  established 
md  has  had  to  do  so  ever  since.  Even  in  its  most 
drastic  moods,  even  when  creating  sanitary  districts  and 
electoral  divisions,  Parliament  has,  in  the  great  majority  of 
,  followed  the  old  lines.  Either  it  has  given  the  old 
i  new  name,  or  it  has  given  a  new  area  the  old  name. 
Nothing  more  clearly  shows  the  profound  conservatism  of 


CNi.I.lSH    l.OTAI.   (iOYF.RNMKNT 

.    prai  tii  e.      Nothing,  it    may  be 
•     :    nd(  i  the  study  of   Kn^lish  local 

•    penalty  (and  surely  not  an 

we    pay    for    living    in    a   country 

,    1<  ipuieiit.       It  is    impossible 

•    .  •    •  MI!   maehinery  unless  we 

.:.   tiling    of    its    past.      For   the 

i 1\\  n    pe<  uliar    charm. 

:    1  ii^l; -M    p'  >litir>,  and 

the  <  entunes,  to 

'.< )  tii'    u  i  irkman's  hand, 

''t      till  »M      keels    i  ill 

lal  hi  i  >    •>!  uaM-    ashore    to 

;  P  1    has  i  \ vr  seen. 

,  has  it  >  dra\\  1  >acks. 

'    ere    are    many    IK  >ohs  to 

'    >i )  miK  h  ol 

'    Iliuent    appre 

I        !  il.      (.1    I  i     '    h  local 

d    in    statutes, 

i  .    .  lie  tiadi- 

l'.\     i  .     .   i"  "  i    '   Iti/ell 
.     the\     toliell 

i  !•  .  '  d<  p.-ndent 

mfi  -  led, 

'         '     '     ,-    111.         Yet 
:  i  i  'I     this 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

will  be  of  service  to  him  all  through  his  study.  Then  he 
ran  turn  to  examine  the  subject  piece  by  piece.  The  rest 
of  this  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  the  statement  of  five 
points  which  will,  it  is  hoped,  serve  as  a  kind  of  life-saving 
apparatus  after  the  great  plunge. 

Point  I. — Township,  Hundred,  and  Shire,  these  names  Township, 
still  give  us  the  key  to  English  local  government.  The  shire, 
township  is  now  known  by  its  ecclesiastical  name  of  parish, 
and  the  shire  by  its  Norman  name  of  county ;  but  the  old 
identity  is  substantially  preserved,  and  the  institutions 
themselves  are  as  much  alive  to-day  as  they  were  a  thou- 
sand years  ago.  With  the  hundred  the  case  is  different. 
Its  name  survives,1  but,  as  an  institution,  the  thing  is 
almost  dead.  Nevertheless  its  place  has  been  taken  by  a 
number  of  organs  which,  though  they  differ  widely  from  it 
in  scope  and  function,  still  from  the  fact  that  they  generally 
occupy  an  intermediate  position  between  the  parish  and 
the  county,  it  seems  convenient  to  group  as  analogues  of 
the  hundred. 

But  there  is  one  very  important  organ  of  local  govern-  The 
ment  which  refuses  to  be  classed  under  any  one  of  our 
three  heads.  This  is  the  Borough,  an  unit  which  formed 
no  part  of  the  original  Teutonic  scheme  of  settlement,  but 
which  very  early  began  to  insist  on  being  treated  as  a  dis- 
tinct organ.  The  borough,  in  the  course  of  its  development, 

1  In  the  counties  of  York  and  Lincoln,  the  hundreds  are  generally 
replaced  by  the  Danish  Wafxm takes ;  in  Northumberland,  Durham, 
Cumberland,  and  Westmoreland  by  Wards.  In  Kent  the  hundreds 
arc  grouped  into  Lathes^  and  in  Sussex  into  Rapes,  but  these  divisions 
!  mg  ceased  to  have  any  political  meaning.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Hidings  of  Yorkshire  and  the  Parts  of  Lincolnshire  are,  as  we  shall 
see,  almost  equal  to  counties. 


12  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

borrowed  its  organisation  indiscriminately  from  township, 
hundred,  and  shire,  but  it  never  exactly  resembled  any  one, 
and  at  last  made  good  its  claim  to  separate  recognition  by 
taking  rank  alongside  the  shire  as  a  constituency,  return- 
ing members  of  its  own  to  serve  in  the  national  Parliament. 
Since  that  date  its  history  has  been  entirely  special,  and  it 
must  be  treated  separately.  For  some  reasons  it  would  be 
convenient  to  take  it  first;  for  it  has  outrun  its  rivals  in  the 
race,  it  now  presents  the  highest  form  of  local  government, 
and  other  institutions  are  rapidly  tending  to  imitate  its 
organisation.  But  the  difficulties  would  be  too  great.  The 
borough  is  really  a  development  of  simpler  forms,  and  the 
simpler  forms  must  be  understood  first.  The  borough, 
therefore,  shall  stand  as  our  last  item. 

Here,  then,  is  our  scheme  of  the  subject — 

Group  A. — The  parish  and  its  analogues. 

1.  The  Urban  Parish. 

2.  The  Rural  Parish. 

3.  The  School  District. 

Group  B. — The  hundred  and  its  analogues. 

4.  The  Hundred. 

5.  The  Petty  Sessional  Division. 

6.  The  County  Court  District. 

7.  The  Poor  Law  Union. 

8.  The  Sanitary  District. 

9.  The  Highway  District. 

Group  C. — The  county  and  its  analogues. 

10.  The  Parliamentary  County. 

1 1 .  The  Military  and  Judicial  County. 

12.  The  Administrative  County. 

13.  The  Joint-Committee. 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

Group  D. — The  borough. 

14.  The  Parliamentary  Borough. 

15.  The  Municipal  Borough. 

This  is  not  quite  chaos. 

Point  II. — We  classify  the  functions  of  government  into  Ciassifica- 
the  four  groups  of  legislative,  administrative,  executive,  and  functions 
judicial.    Though  not  logically  defensible,  this  classification  ^vern~ 
is   practically  useful.     By   legislation    we   understand  the 
business  of  laying  down  express  general  rules  for  the  guid- 
ance of  conduct.     By  administration  we  mean  the  discre- 
tionary  use    of    powers    conferred    by    legislation,    more 
especially  the  important  power  of  raising  and  expending 
money.      By  execution   we    understand  the  enforcement, 
through  officials  who  are  not  allowed  much  discretion,  of 
the  provisions  of  imperative  law ;   and  by  judicature  we 
mean  the  business  of  deciding  whether  the  general  provi- 
sions of  the  law  apply  to  particular  cases. 

Now,  these  functions  are  generally,  though  not  always, 
in  different  hands,  and  the  persons  to  whom  the  work  of 
local  government  is  entrusted  can  be  classified  accordingly. 
And,  as  a  rule,  we  shall  find  that  persons  who  do  legislative  Legislation 
or  administrative  work  are  elected  to  their  positions  by  a  Adminis- 
suffrage  more  or  less  popular,  and  receive  no  remuneration  tration. 
for  their  labours,  while  the  executive  and  judicial  officials  Executive 
are  usually  appointed  by  some  small  body  or  by  an  indivi-  ?Jjicature 
dual  without  any  popular  vote,  while  they  receive  pecuniary 
return  for  their    services.      This  rule    is    not,  of  course, 
universally  true,  but  it  tends  to  become  more  and  more 
true  as  time  goes  on.       The  Justice  of  the  Peace  is  an 
apparent  exception  to  the  rule,  but  in  truth  he  is  one  of  its 
most  striking  illustrations.     When  the  Justice  of  the  Peace 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


The  legal 
character 
of  English 
local 
govern- 
ment. 


was  created,  he  was  first  an  executive  and  then  a  judicial 
person.  He  was  fairly  well  paid,  and,  by  strict  law,  he 
can  still  claim  to  receive  wages.  As  most  people  know,  he 
has  long  ceased  to  do  so.  But  if  we  look  back  on  his 
history  we  shall  perhaps  notice  that  the  time  at  which  he 
ceased  to  draw  his  wages  corresponds  pretty  closely  with 
the  time  at  which  administrative  functions  were  first  com- 
mitted to  him ;  while  the  fact  that  a  person  with  so  many 
administrative  powers  as  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  till 
recently  possessed  should  never  be  subjected  to  the 
"  baptism  of  popular  election,"  has  long  been  denounced  as 
an  anomaly  in  our  system.  It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out 
that  the  separation  between  election  and  remuneration 
makes  our  politics  vastly  different  from  others  which, 
at  first  sight,  they  appear  to  resemble — from  American 
politics,  for  example. 

Point  III. — English  local  government  is  legal,  not  pre- 
rogative. No  local  body,  no  local  official,  can  act  without 
definite  legal  authority.  If  it  be  alleged  that  such  a 
body  or  person  has  committed  what  in  private  hands 
would  be  a  wrongful  act,  the  accused  must  prove  specific 
legal  authority.  No  general  plea  of  discretion  or  justi- 
fication will  suffice.  And,  moreover,  the  accused  will  be 
judged  in  precisely  the  same  courts  and  in  precisely  the 
same  way  as  a  private  individual.  If  the  charge  be  proved, 
doubtless  reprimand  or  dismissal  will  come  from  the  official 
superior.  But  the  ordinary  legal  punishment  comes  too. 
This  rule,  which  extends  even  to  the  organs  of  the  central 
government,  and  to  which  there  are  but  very  few  excep- 
tions, is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  keynotes  of  the 
English  political  system.  The  acts  of  the  sovereign  body, 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

the  Queen  in  Parliament,  can,  of  course,  never  be  legally 
questioned  ;  the  acts  of  every  other  official  person  or  body 
can  be  questioned  in  the  same  way  as  those  of  a  private 
citizen.  A  Secretary  of  State,  with  the  highest  motives,  but 
without  legal  authority,  breaks  into  X's  house  to  search  for 
papers.  He  can  be  sued  in  trespass  precisely  as  if  he  were 
a  coal-heaver.  Contrast  this  with  the  state  of  things  in 
some  continental  countries,  where  any  dispute  between  an 
official  and  a  private  person  is  remitted  to  an  administrative 
bureau. 

Point   IV.  —  English  local  government  is  independent,  independ- 
not  hierarchical.     Generally  speaking,  each  organ  is  free  acter  of 


to  act  as  it  pleases  within  its  authority,  provided  that  it 

acts  bona-fde.     Each  organ  is  under  the  special  care  of  govern- 

some  department  of  the  central  government,  whose  duty 

it  is  to  see  that  local  powers  are  not  abused.     Thus,  if  a 

Justice  of  the  Peace  should  palpably  misconduct  himself, 

the  Lord  Chancellor  will  remove  or  otherwise  censure  him. 

If  a  Board  of  Guardians  neglects  its  duty,  it  will  be  taken 

to  task  by  the  Local  Government  Board.     But  the  control 

thus  exercised  is  critical  or  censorial  only,  not  absolute.     So 

long  as  the  local  authority  does  its  best,  and  keeps  within 

the  law,  however  mistaken  that  best  may  be,  the  central 

government  has  no  right  to  interfere,  even  at  the  request 

of  a  person  suffering  from  the  consequences  of  the  mistake. 

To  this  rule  there  are  some  exceptions,  the  most  important 

being  the  power  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  to  entertain 

appeals  on  questions  of  law  from  the  County  Court  judges 

in  all  but  very  trifling  cases.     But  the  rule  is  generally 

followed,  and  it  is  of  great  political  importance.     Without 

it  local  government  would  be  a  mere  shadow,  a  convenient 


l.ISll    l.(  H'AI.  cnYKRNMKNT 


Point    V.       I  ..  ;!\,    there    is    one    \sarniny    \\hich    should 

•    •      tin-    mind  of  the   student    of   Knglish 

*  t.      As   has   been   before   hinted,    Knglish 

.    :.   apl    to   .•;•.'.'  different  institutions  by  the 

\  :•  in  thi    ;  uinl  ct    \ie\v  of  the  la\'in;in  this  is 

.  In]   it   leads  \\ith  almost  dcadl)'  certainty 

1    tic-    institutions    thus   similarly  named. 

known   a>   the    "rounty"  exists  in  at 

ii-nl    i  ,!]  .ai  ii  n  s      as    a    inililan   and    judicial 

unit,  and  as  an  administrative  unit. 

t.il   area    cxA'ered    hy  the  exj)ression    "  the 

ina\    he    totally    different    for   all    these 

obvious  that  a    student   mav  tall  into 

;t    he    .1-  -IMIH  >    thf    K  lentil  \    i  >\    all    the  three 

•  \j>rr«   ion    "tin-  count)  of  X—  —  ." 

\ainple,   lh.it   a    man  ca ii;ihl   j  n  lachint; 

•  e     .1!  il\    he     liri)Ui;lit     In-fore    the 

.:  ii  \     a       t  ti.i!     to    u  hi .  ~c    (  '.  )iint\- 

•  '  \\  In  lea       tin      \  ill.me 

O 

i  he    <  .  Hint  \    i  >i    \    -  —  t 

i  o  1 1  n  t  \   ut    /        — . 

l.     MII    the    alert 

! '  i       .1      .  i  \  i  :  i     ;  1 1  •  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1     is 


GROUP    A 
THE  PARISH  AND  ITS  ANALOGUES 


1.  THE  URBAN  PARISH        .  .         ) 

>  CHAPTER  II. 

2.  THE  RURAL  PARISH         .  .         j 

3.  THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  .  .  CHAPTER  III. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    PARISH 

IT  has  been  incidentally  remarked  that  the  Parish  is  the 
ecclesiastical  name  of  the  Township.  This  statement, 
though  not  strictly  accurate,  is  true  enough  for  general 
purposes.  The  original  unit  of  settlement  among  the 
Saxons  in  England  was  the  tun  or  town,  which  originally  The 
meant  simply  an  enclosure  surrounded  by  a  wall  or  hedge ; 
and  the  township  (tun-stipe)  was  merely  the  area  claimed  by 
the  town — its  jurisdiction  as  we  should  say — just  as  the 
lordship  is  the  jurisdiction  of  the  lord,  the  stewardship  of 
the  steward,  and  so  on.  The  township  is  the  very  kernel 
of  English  local  government,  and  though  most  of  its 
ancient  history  has  perished,  enough  survives  to  show  that 
it  was  once  a  real  political  organism,  with  a  distinct  life  of 
its  own.  It  consisted  of  a  group  of  householders  carrying 
on  agriculture  and  industry  on  a  co-operative  plan,  com- 
bining together  also  for  purposes  of  defence  and  administra- 
tion of  justice.  The  discussions  necessary  to  shape  the  , 
policy  of  the  township  were  carried  on  in  the  town  moot,  meeting, 
or  meeting,  which  was  at  first  probably  held  under  some 
sacred  tree  or  on  a  sacred  hill.  There  the  assembled 
townsmen  appointed  the  officials  of  the  township — the 
reeve  or  headman,  the  pindar  or  common-keeper,  the  beadle 
or  messenger — by  the  mouths  of  their  elders  declared  folk- 

»9 


20  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

right,  i.e.,  customary  law,  and,  with  uplifted  hands,  "  held 
men  to  witness,"  i.e.,  recorded  certain  transactions  in  their 
memories.  Somewhat  later,  the  township  began  to  send 
its  reeve  and  four  best  men  to  represent  it  in  the  courts  of 
the  hundred  and  shire,  and  the  best  men  were  probably 
chosen  in  the  town  meeting.  As  to  the  origin  of  this 
primitive  organisation  there  is  keen  dispute,  and  we  do  not 
deal  here  with  controversial  matters.  But  the  existence  of 
the  organisation  seems  indisputable.  How  did  this  secular 
organisation  acquire  the  ecclesiastical  name  of  "  parish  "  ? 

The  ancient  Britons  had  been  more  or  less  Christianised 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Saxons,  but  the  latter  were  pure 
heathens,  and  utterly  refused  to  acknowledge  the  British 
Church,  probably  because  it  was  organised  on  a  tribal 
model  unsuited  to  their  ideas.  So  they  remained  heathens 
until,  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  century,  the  Benedictine 
monk  Augustine  converted  Ethelbert  of  Kent,  and  founded 
the  see  of  Canterbury.  From  that  time  Christianity 
spread  rapidly  throughout  the  Saxon  kingdoms,  until, 
before  the  lapse  of  a  century  from  the  landing  of  Augus- 
tine, the  Church  was  ripe  for  organisation  on  a  national 
basis.  The  work  of  organisation  was  undertaken  by 
The  parish  Archbishop  Theodore,  and  he,  in  making  his  plans,  wisely 
township,  adopted  existing  institutions.  The  bishops'  sees  were 
already  identical  with  the  heptarchic  kingdorris  ;  though  he 
subdivided  them,  he  carefully  followed  the  lines  of  the  older 
sub-kingdoms,  out  of  which  the  heptarchic  kingdoms  had 
been  formed.  Later  on,  the  archdeaconries  and  rural 
deaneries  corresponded  with  the  shires  and  the  hundreds. 
But  in  Theodore's  time  there  was  little  between  the  bishop 
of  the  kingdom  and  the  priest  whose  sphere  was  a  township, 
and  accordingly  priest  and  township  were  by  him  treated  as 


THE  PARISH  21 

natural  correlatives.  And  as  the  early  missionaries  were 
often  at  least  as  much  Greek  as  Latin  (Theodore  himself 
came  from  Tarsus  in  Macedonia),  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
township  comes  to  be  called,  by  ecclesiastics,  a  parish,  that 
is,  the  dwelling-place  (paroikid)  of  a  priest.  True  that 
township  and  parish  were  in  many  cases  not  identical,  even 
in  ancient  times.  But  the  very  differences  show  how  the 
two  were  connected  *•»  men's  minds.  In  the  south  of 
England,  where  population  was  comparatively  thick,  two 
parishes  were  often  formed  out  of  one  township  ;  in  the 
north,  where  population  was  scanty,  and  the  supply  of 
priests  apt  to  run  short,  two  or  three  townships  go  to  a 
parish,  always,  however,  preserving  their  ancient  identity. 
Very  rarely  did  the  boundaries  of  parishes  and  townships 
cut  one  another  until  recent  changes  took  place.  A  town- 
ship not  included  in  a  parish  came  to  be  stigmatised  as 
"  extra-parochial,"  and  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion. 

Then  came  the  decay  of  the  township  as  an  institution.   Decay  of 
This  process,  due  to  the  corresponding  rise  of  the  feudal  Ship°W 
institution  known  as  the  manor,  need  not  be  more  than  The 
hinted  at  here,  for  the  manor  has  practically  ceased  to  be 
an  organ  of  local  government.     Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the 
rise  of  that  peculiar  social  system  which  we  call  feudalism, 
the  main  idea  of  which  is  the  dependence  of  the  vassal 
upon  the  lord  above  him,  as  opposed  to  the  inter-dependetice 
of  the  members  of  a  co-operative  group  like  the  township, 
gradually  drew  away  the  life  from   the  town   meeting  on 
the  hill  to  the  Leet  held  in  the  hall  of  the  lord  who  had  The  Court 
his   manor    or    dwelling    in    the    township,1    until    at   last 

1  A  section  (the  7th)  of  the  Vestries  Act  of  1818  raises  a  strong  pre- 
sumption that  in  extra-parochial  places  the  town  meeting  survived  the 
introduction  of  the  vestry  system  elsewhere. 


22  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

the  town-meeting,   as   a   separate    institution,    almost    dis- 
appeared. 

Meanwhile  the  parish  priest  had  not  been  idle.  At  first, 
no  doubt,  he  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  town  meeting, 
and  ecclesiastical  and  secular  matters  were  there  discussed 
indiscriminately.  But  the  Church  did  not  in  the  least 
intend  to  allow  her  affairs  to  be  settled  in  the  manorial 
courts.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  she 
began  to  draw  more  and  more  away  from  secular  affairs, 
and  to  aim  at  isolated  and  purely  ecclesiastical  organisation. 
This  is  the  meaning  of  the  great  struggle  between  the  kings 
and  the  archbishops,  which  lasted  from  Henry  I.  to  Edward 
I.,  and  which  was  revived  once  more  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  One  result  of  this  great  movement  was,  that 
the  parish  priest  now  gathered  his  flock  round  him  in  the 
vestry  or  robing-room  of  the  church,  when  he  wished  them 
to  dispose  of  ecclesiastical  business.  Here  he  was  secure 
from  secular  interference,  for  the  lord  and  his  steward 
would  not  venture  to  dispute  his  pre-eminence  in  the 
sacred  building.  Thus  was  the  town  meeting  deserted  on 
both  sides. 

But,  in  course  of  time,  the  feudal  system  itself  decayed, 
and  local  government  in  England  became  almost  extinct. 
The  parish  vestry  came  to  be  recognised  as  a  regular  meet- 
ing, and  gradually  acquired  a  few  of  the  powers  which  had 
fallen  away  from  the  decaying  courts  of  the  manor.  But 
its  position  with  regard  to  them  was  purely  traditional ;  the 
vestry  had  no  legal  powers.  It  was  not  till  the  general 
break  up  of  medieval  conditions  brought  to  the  front  a 
question  of  appalling  magnitude,  requiring  wholesale  treat- 
ment, that  the  parish  vestry  secured  a  recognised  position 
in  secular  matters. 


THE  PARISH  23 

This  great  question  was  the  relief  of  the  poor.  The 
Great  Plague  of  the  fourteenth  century,  which  had  practi- 
tically  abolished  serfdom,  had  given  the  bondsman  a  liberty 
which  frequently  meant  liberty  to  starve.  It  was  no  lord's 
interest  to  feed  the  man  whom  he  could  not  keep  to  labour. 
The  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  thrown  a  crowd  of  destitute 
and  idle  soldiers  on  the  country.  The  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries  added  its  quota  to  the  general  distress,  by 
drying  up  a  source  of  relief  which  had  mitigated,  while  at 
the  same  time  it  had  probably  encouraged,  the  social  evil. 
Something  had  to  be  done,  and  the  Elizabethan  statesmen, 
following  up  the  tentative  suggestions  of  their  predecessors, 
laid  down  a  comprehensive  scheme  which  made  each  parish 
responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  its  own  poor  and  for  the 
administration  of  its  own  poor-relief.  There  was  no  other 
local  machinery  available,  and  it  seemed  natural  to  associate 
the  work  of  relief,  which  had  always  been  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  primary  duties  of  the  Church,  with  an  ecclesias- 
tical institution.  So  the  parish  became  the  Poor-Law  unit; 
the  Poor-Law  official,  the  overseer,  was  to  be  chosen  from, 
if  not  by,  the  parish  vestry;  and  the  funds  necessary  to 
enable  him  to  carry  out  his  duties  were  to  be  raised  by  a 
rate  levied  upon  the  householders  of  the  parish. 

From  the  date  of  the  great  Poor  Law  of  1601  we  mark  The  first 


the  revival  of  the  parish  or  township  as  an  organ  of  local  .  l 
government.  One  matter  after  another  —  highways,  bridges, 
drainage,  police,  education  —  became  parochial,  until  all,  and 
more  than  all,  the  old  powers  of  the  town  meeting  were 
won  back.  But  the  township  still  retained  its  adopted 
name  of  parish,  and  its  meeting  was  still  the  parish  vestry. 

1  Hiring  the  present  century  a  counter-movement  has  set  Separation 

in,  which  tends  again  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  andUown- 

ship. 


24  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

secular  and  ecclesiastical  aspects  of  the  township  or  parish. 
The  great  increase  of  population  which  followed  upon  the 
industrial  revolution  of  the  eighteenth  century  created  a 
necessity  for  the  sub-division  of  areas.  New  churches  were 
required  to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  population,  and 
new  ecclesiastical  districts  (ultimately  called  parishes)  were 
carved  out  of  the  old  parishes  for  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  poor-law  unit  needed  sub-division,  and  new  "poor- 
law  parishes  "  (as  they  came  to  be  called)  were  created. 
But  the  two  movements  did  not  follow  the  same  lines. 
Whereas  the  new  poor-law  parishes  virtually  revived  the 
older  townships,  of  which  two  or  three  had  gone  to  form 
the  old  northern  parishes,  the  new  ecclesiastical  districts 
proceeded  upon  other  methods.  Again,  the  removal  of  the 
administration  of  the  poor-relief  from  the  parish  to  the  poor- 
law  Union,  by  the  Act  of  1834,  tended  to  weaken  the  con- 
nection between  civil  and  secular  business  in  the  parish. 
The  introduction  of  "  select  vestries  "  and,  still  more,  of  the 
recent  "  parish  councils,"  has  done,  and  will  do  yet  more  to 
emphasise  the  distinction.  So  that,  in  a  work  on  local 
government,  we  are  entitled  to  leave  the  ecclesiastical 
parish  altogether  out  of  account,  and  proceed  to  consider 
what  is  still  called  the  parish  or  the  civil  parish,  but  what 
is  really  the  old  township  in  disguise.  And  the  connection 
of  this  unit  with  the  subject  of  poor-relief  may  be  best 
judged  from  the  fact  that,  by  virtue  of  a  recent  Act  of 
Parliament,  the  official  definition  of  a  civil  parish  is  now 
"  a  place  for  which  a  separate  poor-rate  is  or  can  be  made, 
or  for  which  a  separate  overseer  is  or  can  be  appointed." 
Recent  legislation  compels  us  to  consider  civil  parishes  as 
divided  into  two  classes — urban  and  rural. 


THE  PARISH  25 

A. — The  Urban  Parish. 

It  follows  by  clear  implication  from  the  terms  of  the 
Local  Government  Act,  1894  (generally,  but  most  mis- 
leadingly,  called  The  "Parish  Councils"  Act)  that  an 
urban  parish  may  now  be  defined  as  a  parish  situated 
within  an  urban  sanitary  district,  or,  as  it  will  be  called 
when  the  Act  of  1894  comes  into  operation,  an  "urban 
district."  Of  the  nature  of  urban  sanitary  districts  we 
shall  have  to  speak  later  on.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  an  urban  sanitary  district  may  be  at  present  either  a 
municipal  borough,  an  Improvement  Act  area,  or  an  area 
governed  by  a  Local  Board  of  Health.1  Any  parish 
falling  within  the  limits  of  one  of  these  areas  is  an  urban 
parish  ;  any  parish  not  so  situated  will  be  a  rural  parish. 
Where  a  parish  at  present,  or  at  the  passing  of  the  Act 
of  1894,  lies  or  lay  partly  in  a  rural  and  partly  in  an  urban 
sanitary  district,  it  will  have  to  be  divided  in  accordance 
with  the  sanitary  line,  and  will  henceforth  constitute  two 
distinct  parishes,  rural  and  urban  respectively. 

The  chief  organ  of  an  urban  parish  is  still  the 
(i)  Vestry,  which,  in  the  absence  of  special  custom  or 
provision,  is  not  a  representative,  but  a  primary,  body, 
consisting  of  all  occupiers  (male  and  female)  of  pro-  Members, 
perty  within  the  parish  who  are  rated  or  are  liable  to 
be  rated  to  the  relief  of  the  poor  in  respect  thereof, 
whether  the  rates  are  actually  paid  by  them  or  by 
their  landlords.     But  no  one  may  vote  in  respect  of 
property  the  rates  of  which  are  in  arrear.     Questions 
in  the  vestry  are  usually  settled  by  a  show  of  hands,   Voting. 

1  After  November  next  (1894)  these  will  all  be  included  in  the  term 
'urban  district."     See  post,  p.  104. 


26  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

but  if  a  poll  is  demanded  the  members  vote  on  a 
cumulative  scale,  the  first  vote  representing  property 
rated  at  ^50  a  year  or  less,  with  an  additional  vote 
for  each  ,£25  till  a  maximum  of  six  is  reached,  beyond 
which  no  voter  can  go.1 

Select  Sometimes,  however,  a  vestry  is  representative,  or, 

as  it  is  called,  select.  In  a  few  cases  a  select  vestry 
has  sprung  spontaneously  into  existence,  and  it  is 
then  said  to  be  a  select  vestry  by  custom,  and  its 
constitution  is  governed  by  the  traditions  of  the 
parish.  But,  more  often,  the  select  vestry  has  been 
deliberately  created  under  the  provisions  of  an  Act 
Hob-  of  the  year  1831,  known  as  "  Hobhouse's  Act." 

house  ,pkjs    statute,    which    is    only    permissive,    not    com- 

pulsory, enables  the  ratepayers  of  any  parish  in  a 
city  or  town,  or  of  any  other  parish  having  not  less 
than  800  ratepaying  householders,  to  adopt  its  pro- 
visions for  erecting  a  select  vestry.  If  the  ratepayers 
so  resolve,  there  will  be  formed  a  select  vestry  of 
resident  householders,  each  occupying  property  within 
the  parish  in  respect  of  which  he  is  rated  upon  a 
rental  of  at  least  ;£io.  The  number  of  the  vestrymen 
will  vary  from  12  to  120,  according  to  the  number 
of  rated  householders  in  the  parish, — 12  for  every 
thousand  householders,  — and  the  vestrymen  will  hold 
office  for  three  years  from  the  date  of  election,  retiring 
annually  by  thirds.  The  electors  are,  of  course,  the 
ratepayers  of  the  parish, — they  vote  by  ballot  if  a  poll 

1  The  chief  authority  on  the  subject  of  vestries  is  still  the  Vestry  Act 
of  1818,  but  it  does  not  apply  to  parishes  in  London  or  Southwark. 
Speaking  generally,  the  London  parishes  are  regulated  by  the  Metro- 
polis Local  Management  Act  of  1855  and  its  amendments. 


THE  PARISH  27 

is  demanded, — and  it  is  presumed  that  they,  and 
likewise  the  vestrymen  in  meeting  assembled,  have 
each  but  one  vote.  In  addition  to  the  elected 
vestrymen,  the  minister  and  churchwardens  of  each 
ecclesiastical  parish  within  the  civil  parish  are  ex-offitio 
members  of  the  select  vestry. 

The  duties  necessarily  falling  upon  the  vestry  of  an 
urban  parish  may  be  very  light,  being  practically 
confined  to  an  Easter  meeting,  at  which  officials  are 
elected  and  parish  affairs  discussed.  But  by  adopting 
the  provisions  of  various  statutes  (hereafter  to  be 
noted),  the  parish  may  give  its  vestry  a  good  deal  of 
work.  It  will,  however,  be  better  to  treat  of  these 
matters  separately.  The  vestry  can  be  summoned  to 
meet  at  any  time  by  the  churchwardens.  The  minister 
has  generally  a  prescriptive  right  to  take  the  chair ;  if 
he  is  not  present,  the  meeting  elects  a  chairman. 
(2)  The  churchwardens  of  the  parish,  two  in  number,1  are 
its  recognised  officials.  It  is  said  that  the  minister 
and  parishioners  "  ought  to  agree "  in  appointing 
them ;  but  this  is  a  counsel  of  perfection,  and  in 
practice  the  minister  appoints  one  and  the  vestry 
elects  the  other.  The  churchwarden  may  be  any 
ratepaying  householder  of  the  parish,  man  or  woman, 
churchman  or  dissenter.  His  term  of  office  is  one  Compul- 
year,  but  he  may  be  re-appointed  or  re-elected.  It  is  sory  ol 
said  that  no  parishioner  can  refuse  to  serve  once  with- 
out possessing  one  of  the  special  qualifications2  which 

1  It  has  been  held  that  by  custom  a  parish  may  have  only  one  church- 
warden. Rex  v.  Inhabitants  of  Hin<kley>  12  East.  365. 

3  These  are,  principally,  peerage,  membership  of  Parliament,  service 
of  public  office,  and  actual  engagement  in  professional  practice.  No 
clergyman  is  bound  to  serve  as  a  churchwarden. 


28 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Parish 
property. 


Accounts. 


Summon- 
ing vestries. 

Burial  of 
bodies 
washed 
ashore. 


(3) 


Gilbert's 
Act. 


exempt  from  the  duty  of  serving  parish  offices.  But  a 
Catholic  or  a  Dissenter  may,  if  he  pleases,  execute  the 
office  by  deputy,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  church- 
wardenship  could  be  forced  on  a  really  unwilling 
parishioner. 

The  chief  secular  duties  of  a  churchwarden  (with 
his  ecclesiastical  duties  we  have  here  nothing  to  do) 
are  to  see  that  the  nave  of  the  church  and  the  church- 
yard are  kept  in  repair,  to  act  as  ex-officio  overseer  of 
the  poor  (as  to  whom  see  hereafter),  to  manage,  in 
conjunction  with  the  overseers,  the  secular  property 
of  the  parish  (such  property  being,  in  the  absence  of 
special  provision,  legally  vested  in  the  churchwardens 
and  overseers),  to  return  annual  accounts  of  parochial 
expenditure  to  the  Local  Government  Board,  and  to 
summon  vestry  meetings  when  necessary.  By  a  very 
recent  statute1  the  duty  of  burying  bodies  cast  up  by 
the  sea  or  tidal  rivers  has  been  expressly  re-imposed 
upon  him.  Under  the  various  Church  Building  Acts 
he  has  financial  duties  of  a  more  or  less  secular 
character  to  perform  in  connection  with  pew-ren 
and  stipends. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  churchwardens  come  t 
Overseers  of  the  poor,  virtually  the  creation   of  t 
great  Poor  Law  scheme  of  1601,  and  for  two  centuri 
the  actual  administrators   of  that   scheme.      By  t 
statute  of  1 60 1   they  were  to  raise  in  each  parish 
stock   "for  setting  the  poor  on  work,"  to  put  poo 
children  out  as  apprentices,  and  to  furnish  relief  for 
the  impotent  poor.     But  their  administrative  functio 
were  virtually  abolished  by  the  new  Poor  Law  sche 
1  49  Vic.,  c.  20. 


THE  PARISH  29 

of  1834,  and  the  overseers  themselves  reduced  to  the 
position  of  executive  officials  obeying  the  behests  of 
(iiiardians  and  other  authorities.1  Their  duties  are, 
however,  still,  especially  in  populous  parishes,  onerous 
and  difficult,  and  require  the  exercise  of  some  dis- 
cretion. 

It  was  the  scheme  of  1601  that  the  churchwardens 
of  every  parish  should  be  ex-offido  overseers  of  the 
poor  for  the  same,  and  that,  in  addition,  there  should  seers- 
be  not  less  than  two,  nor  more  than  four  "substantial 
householders"  specially  appointed  as  overseers  each 
year  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  "  dwelling  in  or  near 
the  same  Parish  or  division  where  the  same  Parish 
doth  lie."  A  statute  of  the  year  1662  provided  that 
"  by  reason  of  the  largeness  of  the  Parishes  "  within 
the  eight  northern  counties  of  England,  overseers 
should  in  those  counties  be  appointed  for  each  town- 
ship and  village,  and  in  many  places  overseers  are 
still  appointed  by  virtue  of  this  statute.  But  the 
Poor  Law  Amendment  Act  of  1844  prohibited  any 
extension  of  the  practice  to  parishes  which  had  not 
by  that  time  adopted  it,  and  the  definition  of  the 
civil  parish  now  adopted  by  statute  (see  page  24) 
will  include  the  township  which  has  its  own  over- 
seers. 

The  policy  of  the  statute  of  1601  was,  as  we  have  Overseers 
seen,  to  place  the  appointment  of  overseers  in   the 
hands  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  and,  so  far  as 
regards  urban  parishes,  this  policy  is  still  in  force. 
True  that  by  the  provisions  of  the  Local  Government 

1  A  somewhat  different  view  has  been  expressed  by  a  high  legal 
authority,  but  as  a  general  statement  the  text  may  pass. 


30  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Act,  1894,  it  will  be  open  to  the  Local  Government 
Board,  upon  the  application  of  any  urban  sanitary 
authority,  to  confer  upon  the  authority,  or  any  other 
representative  body  within  its  district,  the  power  of 
appointing  overseers,  as  well  as  any  other  of  the 
powers  which  (as  we  shall  see)  are  conferred  upon 
rural  parish  councils ;  but  it  is  quite  impossible  at 
present  to  say  how  far  those  provisions  will  be  exer- 
cised. It  is  stated  that,  in  practice,  retiring  overseers 
submit  to  the  Justices  lists  of  "substantial  house- 
holders "  to  guide  them  in  their  selection.1  And  the 
vestry  of  a  parish  may,  if  it  pleases,  elect  and  pay 
Assistant  out  of  the  poor-rate,  persons  known  as  "assistant 

overseers,"  who  virtually  do  the  work  of  the  overseer's 
office.  But  even  these  officials  must  be  formally 
appointed  by  the  Justices.  By  a  modern  statute,2 
where  two  fit  overseers  cannot  be  found  in  a  parish, 
the  Justices  may  be  content  with  one,  and  may  even, 
if  need  be,  appoint  a  stranger  to  the  parish.  But  in 
this  case,  contrary  to  the  usual  rule,  the  overseer 
cannot  be  compelled  to  serve,  and  he  may  be  paid  a 
salary  out  of  the  poor-rate  of  the  parish  which  he 
serves,  if  he  does  consent  to  act. 

Like  that  of  churchwarden,  the  office  of  the  ordinary 
overseer  is  annual,  compulsory  (in  the  absence  of 
special  exemption),  open  to  all  ratepaying  house- 
holders, male  and  female,  and  no  remuneration 
attaches  to  it.3  An  appeal  against  the  appointment 

1  Steer  :  Parish  Law,  5th  ed.,  p.  377. 

2  29  and  30  Vic.,  c.  119. 

8  In  addition  to  the  usual   exemptions,   there  are  certain   express 
disqualifications  for  service  of  the  post  of  overseer.     The  chief  are — 


i  HE  PARISH  31 

by  the  Justices  lies  at  the  suit  of  any  party  aggrieved 
to  Quarter  Sessions,  and,  indirectly,  to  the  High 
Court  of  Justice.  But,  of  course,  in  the  latter  case, 
only  on  a  real  question  of  law. 

Now  that  the  power  of  the  overseer  to  give  relief  Rates, 
has  been  restricted  to  cases  of  urgent  and  temporary 
necessity,  his  most  important  function  is  the  making 
and  levying  of  rates.  The  position  of  the  overseers 
is  briefly  this,  that  they  must  be  prepared  to  supply 
money  to  any  extent  (within  certain  limits)  upon  the 
demand  of  authorities  entitled  to  call  upon  them  for 
funds.  For  this  purpose  they  must  know  the  exact 
rateable  value  not  only  of  their  parish  as  a  whole, 
but  of  each  occupant  of  land  within  it ;  and  they  must 
be  able  to  distribute  the  liability  to  payment  with 
absolute  impartiality.  The  process  by  which  they 
satisfy  these  requirements  is  briefly  as  follows. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  record  of  the  rateable  value  of  Valuation 
their  parishes,  the  overseers  draw  up  and  sign  a  list  of 
all  the  "  rateable  hereditaments,"  which,  after  being 
open  to  public  inspection  for  fourteen  days  at  the 
offices  of  the  Guardians  of  the  Poor  for  the  Union 
(as  to  whom  see  post,  p.  89),  is  transmitted  to  the 
special  committee  of  the  Guardians,  known  as  the 
Union  Assessment  Committee.  This  committee,  chosen 
annually  by  the  Guardians  for  the  express  purpose  of 
investigating  and  supervising  the  valuations  made  by 
the  overseers,  and  consisting  of  not  less  than  six  and 
not  more  than  twelve  members,  proceeds  to  hear  any 

holding  a  paid  office  in  the  poor-law  administration  of  the  parish  or 
union  in  question,  dealing  with  the  authorities  as  a  contractor,  convic- 
tion for  certain  crimes. 


32  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

objections  which  may  be  made  to  the  amount  of  the 
rating  of  any  particular  hereditament,  or  to  the  omission 
of  any  hereditament.  When  the  committee  is  satisfied 
of  the  correctness  of  the  valuation  it  approves  it,  and, 
until  altered  or  superseded  by  a  new  list,  it  remains  in 
the  custody  of  the  overseers  as  the  valuation  list,  or 
official  basis  of  rating  of  the  parish.  A  copy  is  also 
sent  to  the  clerk  of  the  peace  for  the  county,  for  the 
county  rate  may  also  be  framed  upon  it.  But  the 
overseers  may,  with  the  consent  of  their  vestry,  appeal 
to  Quarter  Sessions  on  the  ground  of  over-valuation 
of  their  own  parish,  or  under-valuation  of  any  other 
parish  in  the  same  Union ;  and  any  occupier  or  owner 
may  indirectly  appeal  to  Petty,  and  ultimately  to 
Quarter  Sessions,  from  a  decision  of  the  committee 
upon  an  objection  duly  taken  by  him.  If,  in  any  of 
these  cases,  the  appeal  goes  against  the  committee,  the 
list  must  be  altered  accordingly.1 

The  list  being  now  complete,  it  becomes  the  duty 
of  the  overseers  to  estimate  the  demands  likely  to  be 
made  upon  them  by  various  authorities.2  They  then 
proceed  to  "  make  "  a  rate — i.e.,  to  calculate  how  much 
in  the  pound,  having  regard  to  the  total  rateable  value 
of  the  parish,  will  be  sufficient  to  produce  the  sum 
required — and  to  assess  it  upon  the  different  heredita- 
ments in  accordance  with  the  valuation  list.  In 
theory,  the  overseers,  although  they  must  specify  in 

1  For  the  general  law  on  the  subject  of  the  valuation  list  the  authority 
is  the  Union  Assessment  Committee  Act,  1862  (25  and  26  Vic.    c.  103). 

2  The  chief  of  these  are — the  School  Board,  the  parish  council,  the 
Guardians  of  the  Poor,  the  rural  district  council,  the  county  council, 
and  (if  the  parish  is  situated  in  a  borough)  the  borough  council.     The 
urban  council  collects  its  own  rates. 


THE  PARISH  33 

each  rate  the  period  which  it  is  estimated  to  cover,  are 
not  bound  by  this  statement,  but  may  make  another 
at  any  time.  In  practice  they  make  a  rate  once  a 
year,  supplementing  deficiencies  by  increasing  the  next 
year's  rate,  and  conversely.  Before  the  rate  can  be 
enforced,  it  must  be  "allowed"  by  two  or  more  Allowance. 
Justices  dwelling  in  or  near  the  parish,  but  this  duty 
of  the  Justices  is  ministerial  only,  and  the  allowance 
cannot  be  refused.  The  "  making  "  of  the  rate  is  held 
to  date  from  its  allowance  by  the  Justices,  and  im- 
mediately thereupon  the  overseers  must  give  public 
notice  of  it.  It  is  then  open  to  any  party  aggrieved 
by  the  rate  to  appeal  to  Quarter  Sessions  against  the 
rate  as  a  whole  or  any  item  of  it ;  but,  subject  to 
appeals,  the  overseers  may  proceed  to  collect  the  rate 
from  the  parties  liable,  and  may  "  levy "  or  enforce  Levy, 
their  demands,  if  necessary,  by  summons,  distress,  and, 
ultimately,  imprisonment.  If  the  Justices  perceive 
that  a  parish  is  not  able  to  maintain  its  own  poor, 
they  may  assess  any  other  parishes  in  the  same 
hundred,  or,  if  the  hundred  is  too  poor,  in  the  same 
county,  or  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  such  parishes,  to  a 
"  rate  in  aid  "  of  the  poor  parish. 

The   person   primarily    responsible    for    the   rates  Occupant 
assessed  upon  a  particular  hereditament  is  the  occu- 
pier   thereof,   i.e.,    the   person    entitled    to    exclusive  rates- 
possession.     But  it  is  only  an  occupation  which  may 
possibly  be  pecuniarily  beneficial  in  its  character l  that 

1  The  decisions  as  to  what  is  pecuniary  benefit  appear  to  be  some- 
what conflicting.  A  place  used  exclusively  for  divine  worship  or  for 
the  "charitable"  education  of  the  poor  is  not  rateable.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  Board  School  and  a  hospital  are. 

C 


34  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

renders  the  occupier  liable  to  rates,  although,  of 
course,  it  is  immaterial  whether  or  not  the  occupier 
actually  makes  a  profit  out  of  it.  And  in  the  case  of 
small  tenements  let  for  periods  less  than  a  year,  the 
vestry  may  resolve,  either  with  or  without  his  consent, 
to  hold  the  owner  responsible,  in  which  case  the  latter 
will  be  entitled  to  deduct  a  commission  for  collection 
if  he  pays  his  rates  promptly.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  owner  in  such  cases  simply  raises  the  rent  of  the 
occupier,  technically  known  as  the  "  compound  house- 
holder," to  an  extent  sufficient  to  cover  the  estimated 
amount  of  the  rates.  But  recent  legislation  has  pro- 
vided that  the  fact  of  payment  (or  non-payment)  of 
rates  by  an  owner  shall  not  damage  an  occupier's 
claim  to  the  parliamentary  or  municipal  franchise. 
The  importance  of  the  machinery  wielded  by  the 
overseers  of  the  poor  may  be  estimated  from  the  fact 
that  the  total  amount  of  poor  rates  raised  during  the 
year  ending  Lady  Day,  1892,  was  between  fifteen  and 
sixteen  millions  sterling,  of  which  upwards  of  thirteen 
millions  were  actually  collected  by  the  overseers.  Of 
this  sum,  however,  only  about  one-half  was  needed  for 
the  purposes  of  strict  poor  relief.1 

It  is  only  possible  to  touch  very  briefly  upon  the 
other  duties  of  an  overseer,  though  they  are 
numerous  and  important.  In  conjunction  with  the 
churchwardens  he  manages  the  parish  property,  and 
with  the  trustees  of  allotments  he  carries  out  the  pro- 
visions of  the  older  Allotment  Acts,  in  so  far  as  they 
have  not  been  superseded  by  later  legislation.2  He 

1  Local  Government  Board  Report,  1892-3.     Appendix  F,  p.  293. 

3  e.g.,  The   Allotments  Act,   1887,   which   transfers   much   of  the 
management  of  allotments  to  sanitary  authorities  and  elective  managers. 


THE  PARISH 


35 


must  keep  a  register  of  persons  in  receipt  of  poor 
relief  from  his  parish,  and  an  annual  register,  duly 
published,  of  persons  residing  in  his  parish  who  are 
liable  to  serve  on  juries.  He  has  many  important 
duties  with  respect  to  the  preparation  and  publica- 
tion of  lists  of  voters  for  parliamentary,  municipal, 
county,  and  poor-law  elections ;  in  fact,  he  may  be 
said  to  be  the  official  Registrar  of  the  parish  for 
electoral  purposes.  In  all  the  duties  of  the  overseer's 
office  the  acts  of  a  majority  are  the  acts  of  the  whole 
body. 

The  remaining   officials  of  the  urban  parish  may 
be  very  briefly  disposed  of.     They  are — 
(4)  The  Clerk,  who,  in  the  absence  of  special  custom,  is 
appointed  by  the  minister  and  licensed  by  the  bishop. 
He  was  originally,  and  has  again  very  nearly  become, 
a  purely  ecclesiastical  official ;  but  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  various  civil  duties, 
such  as  the  custody  of  plans  for  various  public  works, 
were  imposed  upon  him,  and  a  few  of  these  duties 
still  survive.     The  office  is  one  of  great  historical  in- 
terest.    The  parish  clerks  of  London  appear  to  have 
formed  themselves  into  a  gild  or  brotherhood  of  St 
Nicholas  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  and  in 
Stow's  day  they  were  an    important  and  influential 
body,  whose  musical  talents  were  greatly  in  demand 
at  weddings  and  funerals.      With  the  introduction  of 
printing  they  immediately  acquired  an  important  posi- 
tion, being  licensed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
to  keep  a  printing  press  in  their  common  hall  for  the 
purpose  of  publishing  the  weekly  record  of  births  and 

deaths,  or   "  Bills  of   Mortality,"  in   the  metropolis.   Bills  of 

Mortality. 


36  ENGLISH   LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

This  was  perhaps  the  first  scientific  attempt  to  record 
vital  statistics  made  in  England.  It  is  said  that  a 
parish  clerk  holds  his  office  for  life,  unless  expressly 
appointed  for  a  shorter  period.  But  he  may  be  de- 
prived by  the  archdeacon  for  misconduct.  He  is  paid 
by  fees,  the  amount  of  which  is  regulated  by  statute. 
(5)  The  Beadle,  an  ancient  official  of  humble  character, 
is  found  attached  to  courts  of  justice  and  deliberative 
assemblies  far  back  in  Teutonic  history.  In  origin  he 
was  probably  the  messenger  or  summoner  of  the  town- 
ship moot,  and  the  subordinate  of  the  leet  constable. 
With  the  introduction  of  the  Poor  Law  scheme  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  he  acquired  new  importance  as  the 
agent  of  the  overseers,  but,  with  the  transference  of  poor- 
law  administration  to  the  guardians,  and  the  virtual 
abolition  of  the  parochial  system  of  police,  he  has 
dwindled  to  a  shadow  of  his  former  self.  Where 
appointed,  he  is  appointed  by  the  vestry,  which  also 
fixes  the  amount  of  his  remuneration.  His  principal 
occupation  is  the  service  of  notices  and  summons. 
The  apotheosis  of  beadleship  is  to  be  found  in  the 
person  of  the  Esquire  Bedell  of  the  older  English 
Universities,  who,  on  any  Sunday,  may  be  seen  carry- 
ing the  silver  mace  before  the  Vice-Chancellor  as  he 
proceeds  in  state  to  the  University  church. 

B.— The  Rural  Parish. 

The  Local  Government  Act,  1894,  has  created  a  new 
^  legal  entity,  the   "rural   parish."     In   defining  an  urban 
Antt,  p.  25.  parish  we  described  it  as  any  parish  which  is  contained 
within  the  area  of  an  urban  sanitary  district,  that  is  to  say, 


THE  PARISH  37 

of  a  municipal  borough,  an  Improvement  Act  district,  or  a 
district  governed  by  a  Local  Board  of  Health.1  Negatively, 
then,  we  may  define  a  rural  parish  as  a  parish  which  does 
not  fall  within  any  one  of  these  areas ;  positively,  as  a 
parish  which  falls  within  a  rural  sanitary  district.  A  rural 
sanitary  district  may  be  defined  as  a  Poor  Law  Union  or 
any  part  of  a  Poor  Law  Union  which  does  not  fall  within 
an  urban  sanitary  district  as  above  defined ;  or,  putting  it 
in  another  way,  an  area  in  which  the  Guardians  of  the  Poor 
have  hitherto  acted  as  the  sanitary  authority.2 

From  the  day  on  which  the  first  elections  under  the  new  Act  Two 
take  place,  rural  parishes  will  fall  into  two  classes — (a)  those  rurai 
which  have  parish  meetings  and  parish  councils ;  (£)  those  P*1"151165' 
which  have  only  parish  meetings.     The  lines  of  separation 
are  thus  drawn  by  the  Act.    Every  rural  parish  which,  by  the 
census  of  1891,  had  a  population  of  300,  falls  into  class  (a)  • 
every  other  rural  parish  falls  primd  facie  into  class  (b).    But 
the  parish  meeting  of  a  parish  having  a  population  between 
99  ancj  299  may  compel  its  county  council  to  provide  for 
the  establishment  in  it  of  a  parish  council,  and  even  in  the 
case  of  a  parish  with  a  still  smaller  population,  the  county 
council  may  (if  it  thinks  fit),  with  the  consent  of  the  parish 
meeting,  make  a  similar  provision.3     Small  parishes4  may 

1  After  November  next  (1894)  we  shall  have  to  say,  "of  a  municipal 
borough,  or  of  any  other  urban  district."  See  post,  p.  104. 

5  For  practical  purposes  the  easiest  way  to  discover  whether  a  parish 
is  urban  or  rural  is  to  look  at  one  of  Mr  Edward  Stanford's  excellent 
sixpenny  Diagrams  of  Sanitary  Districts,  which  show  also  the  civil 
parishes.  If  the  parish  is  not  coloured  it  is  rural.  Care  must,  how- 
ever, be  taken  to  ascertain  that  no  changes  have  been  made  since  the 
Diagram  was  drawn. 

8  The  Act  of  1894  expressly  makes  the  census  of  1 891  the  criterion; 
but  it  is  presumed  that  this  will  be  altered  on  the  taking  of  the  next 
census. 

The  section  does  not  in  express  terms  confine  the  power  of  grouping 


The  Parish 
Meeting. 


38  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

also,  but  with  their  own  consent,  be  grouped  by  the  same 
authority  under  a  common  parish  council ;  but  every  rural 
parish  will  have  its  distinct  parish  meeting. 

Obviously,  then,  we  must  first  examine  the  parish  meet- 
ing. This,  like  the  old  parish  vestry,  is  a  primary,  not  an 
elective  body ;  but  the  terms  of  membership  are  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  vestry. 

All  persons,  male  and  female,  who  are  on  the  roll  of 
electors  entitled  to  vote  at  elections  to  Parliament  or 
County  Council,  will  be  entitled  to  attend  and  vote  at  the 
parish  meeting  of  that  parish  in  respect  of  which  their 
names  appear  on  the  parliamentary  or  county  registers. 
Practically  speaking,  this  means  that  all  male  owners  of 
landed  property  worth  ^5  a  year,1  all  male  occupiers  of 
land  to  the  value  of  £,10  a  year,  all  resident  occupiers 
(male  or  female)  of  any  house  within  the  parish  rated  to 
the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  whose  rates  have  been  duly  paid, 
and  all  male  lodgers  occupying  rooms  within  the  parish  to 
the  value  of  £10  a  year  unfurnished,  will  be  entitled  to 
attend  and  vote  at  a  parish  meeting,  provided  only  that 
they  are  not  under  age,  are  not  aliens,  and  have  not, 
within  the  twelve  months  preceding  the  time  at  which  the 
electoral  registers  are  made  up,  been  in  receipt  of  poor 
relief.  Such  persons  are  now  to  be  technically  known  as 
"  parochial  electors."  At  a  parish  meeting  each  elector  is 
to  have  one  vote  and  no  more,  and  the  same  rule  holds 

to  the  parishes  with  a  population  of  less  than  300,  but  the  context  im- 
plies that  this  limit  must  be  adopted. 

"  Property  "  in  this  sense  includes  freeholds,  copyholds,  and  lease- 
holds, which  were  originally  created  for  sixty  years  or  upwards.  Lease- 
holds originally  for  less  than  sixty  but  for  twenty  years  or  more  do  not 
qualify  unless  they  are  of  the  value  of  £50  a  year.  Certain  freeholds 
of  the  value  of  406.  a  year  also  qualify. 


THE  PARISH  39 

even  upon  a  poll,  which,  if  demanded,  is  to   be   taken 
by  ballot. 

Every  parish  meeting  is  to  assemble  at  least  once  a  year,  Annual 
within  seven  days  of  Lady  Day,  and  its  proceedings  are  not  a 
to  commence  before  6  p.m.     Other  meetings  may  at  any 
time  be  summoned  by  the  chairman  or  any  two  members 
of  the  parish  council,  or  by  the  chairman  or  any  six  members 
of  the  parish  meeting.     Usually  the  chairman  of  the  parish  Chairman, 
council  will  be  chairman  of  the  parish  meeting,  but  if  for  any 
reason  he  is  not  present,  the  meeting  will  elect  a  chairman. 

Where  the  parish  has  a  council  as  well  as  a  meeting,  the 
chief  business  of  the  latter  body  will  be  the  annual  election  Functions 
of  parish    councillors.     But  it  will  have  other  important  meeting1-— 
functions.     In  the  first  place,  it  will  act  as  a  critical  body,  (a)  Where 
having  the  right  to  "  discuss  parish  affairs  and  pass  resolu-  parish 
tions   thereon."       Inasmuch    as    every   parish    councillor  counal- 
will  know  that  he  must  (if  he  wishes  to  keep  his  seat)  face 
the  parish  meeting  in  less  than  a  year's  time,  he  will  pro- 
bably pay  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  the  discussions  and 
resolutions  of  a  parish  meeting.     But,  in  the  second  place, 
there  are  certain  acts  which  a  parish  council  will  be  able  to  Consent  to 
do  with,  but  not  without,  the  consent  of  its  parish  meeting;  p^sh 
and  upon  such  matters  the  parish  meeting  will,  of  course,   c°unci1' 
have  a  decisive  voice.    Such  are,  for  example,  the  adoption 
of  certain  reforms  which  could  formerly  only  be  introduced 
with  the  goodwill  of  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants,  but  which 
are  now  left  to  the  decision  of  the  parish  meeting,1  and  the 
incurring  of  expenditure  which   will   amount  in  any  one 
year  to  a  sum  exceeding  a  threepenny  rate  or  involve  a 
loan.     And,  finally,  even  where  a  parish  council  exists,  the 
parish  meeting  will  still  exercise  certain  independent  powers. 
1  These  contingencies  are  discussed  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


40  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

It  will  be  able  to  forbid  the  parish  council  to  consent  to 
the  stopping  up  of  a  public  right  of  way,  or  to  declare  that 
a  highway  is  unnecessary.  It  will  also  succeed  to  the 
position  of  those  "  owners  and  ratepayers  "  who,  at  the  pre- 
sent time,  are  entitled  to  put  in  motion  the  machinery  of 
the  Elementary  Education  Acts  and  similar  statutes.  The 
annual  accounts  of  the  parochial  charities  will  have  to  be 
laid  before  it,  and  its  consent  will  be  necessary  to  enable 
the  parish  council  to  oppose  or  support  any  scheme  for  the 
readjustment  of  a  parochial  charity. 

But  it  is  in  parishes  where  there  is  no  parish  council 
that  the  powers  of  the  parish  meeting  will  be  greatest. 
Then  it  will,  virtually,  exercise  all  the  rights  which,  as 
we  shall  immediately  see,  are  usually  exercised  by  the 
parish  council  in  respect  of  appointing  committees,  per- 
forming the  secular  business  formerly  belonging  to  the 
vestry,  appointing  overseers,  assistant  overseers,  and  charity 
trustees,  and  in  regulating  the  stopping  up  of  footpaths; 
but  the  property  belonging  to  the  parish  will  legally  vest 
in  the  chairman  and  overseers,  not  in  the  meeting,  and 
the  power  of  the  meeting  to  incur  expenses  will  be  limited 
to  a  sixpenny  rate.  It  will  be  possible,  however,  for  the 
county  council  to  confer  on  the  parish  meeting,  at  its 
own  request,  any  other  of  the  powers  of  a  parish  council. 
Where  there  is  no  parish  council  the  parish  meeting  must 
assemble  at  least  twice  a  year. 

The  parish  council  will  lie  a  representative  body  which 
will  exist  in  every  rural  parish  having  a  population  at  the 
last  census  of  300  souls,  and  in  those  other  rural  parishes 
or  groups  of  parishes  where  it  may  be  created  by  order 
of  the  county  council.  It  will  consist  of  not  less  than 
five  nor  more  than  fifteen  councillors,  as  may  be  from 


THE  PARISH  41 

time   to   time  determined    by   the    county   council.     Its 
members  will  be  annually  elected  by  the  parish  meeting 
at  its  Lady  Day  assembly,  and  will  come  into  office  on 
the   1 5th   April.     Any  "elector"  of  the  parish  (/>.,  any  Qualifica- 
one  entitled  to  take  part  in  the  parish  meeting),  male  or  members, 
female,  who  has  resided  for  the  preceding  twelve  months 
within   the  parish,  or  within  three  miles   thereof,  will  be 
eligible  for  election,  unless — 

(i.)  Since  a  year  preceding  the  election  he  or  she  has  been   Disqualifi- 

/        /  cations, 

in  receipt  of  poor  relief, 

(ii.)  Since  five  years  preceding  the  election  he  or  she  has 
been  sentenced  to  imprisonment  with  hard  labour  or 
any  greater  punishment,  or  has  been  made  bankrupt 
or  compounded  with  creditors, 

(iii.)  He  or  she  holds  paid  office  under  the  parish  council, 
or  is  pecuniarily  interested  in  any  contract  made  with 
the  council.  (But  in  the  latter  case  the  disqualifica- 
tion may  be  removed  by  the  county  council  if  it 
thinks  that  such  removal  will  be  beneficial  to  the 
parish.) 

Where  the  full  number  of  places  in  the  council  is  riot 
filled  up  at  the  annual  election,  such  of  the  retiring 
councillors  as  are  willing  to  serve,  in  order  of  their  votes 
at  the  last  election,  will  be  entitled  to  retain  their  seats 
until  the  list  is  full.  Casual  vacancies  occurring  at  other 
times  will  be  filled  up,  from  duly  qualified  persons,  by 
the  council  itself.  All  retiring  councillors  are  re-eligible 
at  any  election. 

In  the  absence  of  special  provision,  each  councillor  will   Parish 

wsuxis* 

be  elected  by  the  electors  of  the  whole  parish,  but,  upon 
the  application  of  one-tenth  of  the  electors,  the  county 
council  may  divide  a  parish  into  electoral  wards,  each  of 


42  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

which  will,  for  electoral  purposes,  constitute  a  separate 
parish,  with  a  separate  parish  meeting,  and  the  councillors 
will  be  distributed  amongst  the  different  wards.  It  is  a 
little  difficult  to  tell  whether  it  is  intended  that  the  wards 
shall  be  considered  separate  parishes  for  any  other  than 
electoral  purposes,1  but  it  seems  clear  that  no  division 
into  wards  can  be  made  in  a  parish  which  has  not  a 
council.2  Apparently  there  is  no  rule  that  a  councillor 
must  reside  in  the  ward  which  he  actually  represents. 

The  parish  council  must  hold  an  annual  meeting 
within  seven  days  after  coming  into  office,  and  at  such 
annual  meeting  elect  a  chairman  (or  chairwoman),  who, 
in  the  absence  of  contingencies,  will  continue  in  office 
until  his  or  her  successor  is  appointed.  It  is  his  duty  to 
summon  the  annual  meeting  and  any  other  (not  less  than 
three  in  the  year)  which  he  may  think  desirable,  and  he 
may  be  compelled  by  two  councillors  to  summon  a  meeting 
at  any  time.  The  council  may  also,  if  it  pleases,  elect  a 
vice-chairman,  to  act  in  the  chairman's  absence.  A 
council  meeting  cannot  proceed  to  business  unless  at 
least  one-third  of  its  members  (with  a  minimum  of  three) 
are  present. 

Immediately  upon  coming  into  office  every  parish 
council  will  become  a  legal  corporation,  with  power  to 
hold  property  and  to  signify  its  acts  by  document  executed 
by  the  chairman  and  any  two  members  present  at  a 
meeting.  It  will  immediately  take  over  certain  powers 
and  interests  formerly  belonging  to  other  bodies  or  persons, 
and  it  will  also  acquire  certain  new  powers.  Perhaps  we 
should  distinguish  between  these  two  classes  of  acquisitions. 


1  See  Locnl  Government  Act,  1894,  §  49  (b). 


2  /*.,  §  18. 


THE  PARISH  43 

Class  A.  The  powers  and  interests  now  to  be  transferred  A.  Trans- 
to  the  parish  council  may  be  summarised  thus —  powers 

(i.)  The  powers,  duties,  and  liabilities  of  the  vestry  of  Of  vestry, 
the  parish  (except  those  which  relate  to  the  affairs  of 
the  church  or  to  ecclesiastical  charities,  or  are  specially 
given  to  other  bodies  by  the  Act). 

(ii.)  The  powers,  duties,  and  liabilities  of  the  church-  Of  church- 
wardens (other  than  those  belonging   to  them  as  wardens- 
overseers),  with  similar  exceptions. 

(iii.)  The  powers,  duties,  and  liabilities  of  the  overseers  Ofover- 
with  respect  to — 
(a)  Appeals  or    objections  in   respect  of  valuation  Ante,  pp. 

list  or  rates.  32'  33' 

(|8)  The  provision  of  parish  books,  parochial  orifices,1 

fire  engines,  and  fire  escapes, 
(y)  The    holding   and    management    of    parish    or 

public  property  (other  than  ecclesiastical), 
(iv.)  The  powers  of  the  guardians  in  respect  of  the  sale,   Of 
exchange,    or   letting    of    parish    property.       [This  * 
virtually  means  that  the  council  will  be  able  to  dis-  p.  89. 
pose  of  any  parish  property,  subject,  in  the  case  of 
dealing  with  land  (other  than   the  letting  of  allot- 
ments), to  the  approval  of  the  central  government, 
and,  in  the  case  of  the  sale  or  exchange  of  land,  to 
the  consent  of  the  parish  meeting.] 

(v.)  The  power  of  making  complaints  and  representations  Of  in- 
conferred    upon    inhabitant    householders    by   the 
Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act,  1890,2  and  on  holders- 
1  By  the  existing  law  overseers  may  provide  parochial  offices  at  the 
expense  of  the  poor  rate  in  any  parish  containing  a  population  of  4000, 
but  only  with  the  consent  of  the  vestry  and  the  Local  Government 
Board.     (The  Parochial  Offices  Act,  1861.) 
-  By  the  provisions  of  this  Act,  four  or  more  inhabitant  householders 


44  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

parliamentary  electors  by  the  Allotments  Acts,  1887 
and  1890*  (but  without  prejudice  to  the  rights  of 
such  persons). 

(vi.)  The  powers  and  duties  of  any  allotment  wardens, 
committee,  or  managers  constituted  by  any  Act  of 
Parliament. 

(vii.)  The  power  and  duty,  formerly  exercised  by  the 
Justices  of  the  Peace,  of  appointing  overseers  of  the 
poor,  and  of  appointing  and  dismissing  assistant 
overseers.2  Churchwardens  are  no  longer  to  be  ex- 
officio  overseers,  but  overseers  appointed  by  the 
parish  council  may  take  their  places.  The  election 
of  overseers  is  to  be  the  first  business  of  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  parish  council,  after  the  appointment 
of  a  chairman.  The  parish  property  (other  than 
ecclesiastical)  now  vested  in  the  overseers,  or  in  the 
churchwardens  and  overseers,  will  pass  to  the  parish 
council.3 

Class  B.  The  new  powers  and  interests  conferred  upon 
the  parish  council  are  chiefly  these — 

(i.)  To  provide  and  manage  buildings  and  land  for  parish 

may  compel  a  medical  inspection  and  report  upon  buildings  alleged  to 
be  unhealthy  or  obstructive. 

1  These  Acts  enable  six  registered  electors  or  ratepayers  to  represent 
to  the  sanitary  authority  (or,  failing  that,  to  the  county  council)  the 
necessity  for  the  provision  of  land  for  allotment  purposes. 

2  If  the  parish  council  does  not  signify  the  names  of  its  appointed 
overseers  to  the  guardians  of  the  poor  within  three  weeks  from  the  I5th 
April  in  any  year,  the  guardians  may  proceed  to  fill  up  the  vacancy. 
The  same  rule  holds  in  the  case  of  casual  vacancies. 

8  This  rule  will  apply  even  where  the  overseers  are  jointly  entitled 
with  other  persons  as  trustees  of  a  parochial  charity ;  and  the  council 
may  appoint  a  similar  number  of  its  members  as  trustees  in  the  place  of 
the  overseers. 


THE  PARISH  45 

purposes  (including  recreation),  and  even  (with  the 
consent  of  the  county  council)  to  acquire  land  com- 
pulsorily  for  such  purposes. 

(ii.)  To  utilise  any  water  within  the  parish  for  purposes  Water 
of  water  supply,  to  take  measures  for  preventing  the 
spread  of  danger  from  stagnant  water  or  refuse,  and 
to  acquire  by  agreement  any  right  of  way  for  the 
benefit  of  the  parish.  (But  these  proceedings  must 
respect  private  rights,  and  there  is  no  compulsory 
power  of  acquisition.) 

(iii.)  To  hire  land   for  the  purposes  of  allotments.     (If  Allotments, 
necessary,  the  parish  council  may  obtain  leave  from 
the  county  council  to  hire  land  compulsorily  for  a 
period  of  from  fourteen  to  thirty-five  years.) 

(iv.)  To  borrow,  with  the  approval  of  the  county  council   Loans, 
and  the  Local  Government  Board,  such  sums  as  may 
be  necessary  for  executing  permanent  works. 

(v.)  To  undertake  the  repair  and   maintenance  of  any  Footpaths, 
public  footpaths  within  the  parish,  other  than  foot- 
paths at  the  side  of  public  roads. 

(vi.)  To  accept  any  property  offered  for  the  benefit  of  the  Public 
inhabitants  of  the  parish,  and  especially  to  receive  a  {£"gfac 
transfer  of  their  property  from  any  trustees  who  may 
hold  it  "for  any  public  purpose  connected  with  a 
rural  parish,  except  for  an  ecclesiastical  charity." 

(vii.)  To  oppose  or  support  any  scheme  relating  to  any  Charities, 
charity  (other  than  an  ecclesiastical  charity)  which 
affects  the  parish.     But  to  take  any  such  step  the 
consent  of  the  parish  meeting  is  required, 
(viii.)  To  complain  to  the  county  council  in  the  event  of  a  Sanitary 

J    .  ,     .        .        ,        authorities. 

rural  sanitary  authority  neglecting  its  duties  in  the 
matter  of  water  supply  or  the  repair  of  highways. 


46  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

To  enable  it  to  perform  these  functions  the  parish 
council  may  appoint  one  of  its  number  to  act  as  clerk, 
without  remuneration  ;  or  may  impose  the  duty  upon  an 
assistant  overseer,  or  (if  there  be  none)  upon  a  collector  of 
rates  or  other  fit  person  at  a  remuneration.  The  clerk  of 
the  council  will  succeed  to  the  powers  of  the  parish  clerk 
in  the  matter  of  the  custody  of  documents  ordered  by 
statute  or  standing  order  of  Parliament  to  be  deposited ; 
but  he  will  not  have  the  right  to  the  custody  of  the  registers 
of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages,  and  other  ecclesiastical  or 
quasi-ecclesiastical  documents.  When  there  is  no  clerk, 
the  chairman  of  the  council  acts  as  custodian  of  docu- 
ments. The  parish  council  may  also  appoint  one  of  its 
own  members  to  act  as  treasurer  without  remuneration. 

The  parish  council  will  have  no  direct  power  to  make  a 
rate,  but  it  will  be  able  to  incur  expenses  to  an  amount 
not  exceeding  in  any  one  year  a  threepenny  rate  without 
any  special  sanction.  For  expenses  involving  a  larger 
amount  it  will  require  the  consent  of  the  parish  meeting, 
but  the  extreme  limit  (exclusive  of  expenses  under  "  adop- 
tive" Acts)  will  be  a  sixpenny  rate,  which  will  have  to 
include  all  annual  charges  payable  in  respect  of  loans.  If 
a  loan  is  contemplated,  the  consent  not  only  of  the  parish 
meeting,  but  of  the  county  council,  will  be  necessary  before 
the  expense  is  incurred.  The  expenses  of  the  parish 
meeting  will  be  included  in  the  expenses  of  the  parish 
council.  The  amount  chargeable  on  the  rates  will,  pre- 
sumably, be  raised  by  precept  or  demand  to  the  overseers, 
who  will  include  the  amount  in  their  poor  rate  for  the  year. 
This  is,  in  outline,  the  scheme  of  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1894.  Its  object  is,  evidently,  to  add  largely  to  the 
powers  of  self-government  possessed  by  the  rural  parish, 


THE  PARISH  47 

and  to  concentrate  those  powers  in  the  hands  of  a  single 
authority.  How  the  scheme  will  work  it  is  impossible 
to  say ;  but  it  may  be  permissible  to  point  out  the 
vast  extent  of  its  application.  There  are  about  14,900 
civil  parishes  and  separate  parts  of  parishes  in  England 
and  Wales.  Of  these  13,235  were  at  the  last  census 
comprised  in  rural  sanitary  districts.1  Allowing  for  the 
creation  of  new  urban  districts  since  1891,  some  13,000 
rural  parishes  will  still  remain.  In  about  6880  of  these 
parish  councils  will  have  to  be  elected  in  November  next, 
and  then  the  whole  machinery  of  the  Act  will  be  put  to  the 
test.  It  is  a  great  experiment  in  politics.2 

Before  concluding  the  subject  of  the  parish,  it  is  Optional 
necessary  to  point  out  that,  while  the  sphere  of  the  normal 
parish  is  confined  to  the  subjects  previously  described  or 
alluded  to,  a  parish  may  be  an  unit  for  the  regulation  or 
administration  of  other  matters.  Whether  any  particular 
parish  is  in  fact  such  an  unit,  is  a  matter  for  enquiry  in 
each  case.  These  matters  are,  briefly,  police,  highways, 
and  certain  sanitary  and  educational  matters  provided  for 
by  "  adoptive  "  Acts  of  Parliament,  i.e.,  Acts  which  may  or 
may  not  be  adopted  by  any  parish  according  to  its  discre- 
tion. Of  these  in  order. 

i .  Police. — The  control  of  the  police  arrangements  of  the 
country  appears  originally  to  have  been  in  the  hands 
of  the  Hundred,  whose  leet  jury,  or  petty  criminal 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  a  Return  furnished  to  the  House  of 
Commons  in  July  1893  by  the  Local  Government  Board. 

8  One  of  the  most  curious  results  of  the  scheme  appears  to  be  that 
(unless  other  legislation  intervenes),  when  a  rural  parish  becomes  so 
populous  that  it  has  to  be  made  urban,  its  self-governing  powers  will 
hrgely  cease  to  exist  and  its  council  be  extinguished. 


48 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Parish 
constables. 


Paid 
constables. 


Main 
roads. 


Footpaths. 


court,  appointed,  or  enforced  the  appointment,  of  the 
constable  and  watch  in  each  parish  or  township.     This 
is    the    primitive    institution    pourtrayed    with    such 
humour  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  and  it  is  clear 
that,  even  in    Shakespeare's   day,  Dogberry  and  his 
companions  were  regarded   as    somewhat  antiquated 
machinery.     Recent  legislation  has  practically  trans- 
ferred police  matters  to  the  authorities  of  the  county 
and  the  large  borough,  but  there  are  still  two  cases  in 
which,  under  the  provisions  of  the  Parish  Constables 
Act,  1872,  a  parish  may  have  its  own  police, 
(a)  When  a  county  or  borough  force  is  certified  as  in- 
sufficient by  the  authorities,  the  Justices  at  Petty 
Sessions  must  appoint  parish  constables,  who  are 
(in  the  absence  of  proper  excuse)  compellable  to 
serve,  and  are  paid  small  fees  out  of  the  poor  rate. 
(/3)  When  the  vestry  or  (in  the  case  of  a  rural  parish) 
the  parish  meeting  or  council,  of  a  parish  which  is 
not  within  a  borough?-  resolves  that  the  appoint- 
ment  of    a    paid    constable    or    constables    is 
desirable,  it  may  require  the  Justices  to  appoint 
accordingly,  and  the  salaries  of  such  constables 
will  be  payable  out  of  the  poor  rate. 

2.  Highways. — The  history  of  roads  in  England  is  some- 
what obscure,  but  the  old  rule  appears  to  have  been 
that  the  great  high  roads  of  the  country  were  kept  in 
repair  by  the  adjoining  landowners,  while  the  paths 
and  lanes  which  practically  existed  for  the  convenience 
of  the  internal  business  of  the  township  were  looked 
after  by  the  township  or  parish  officials.  Still,  a  good 

1  It    must   be   carefully   remembered   that   there   are   many   urban 
parishes  which  are  not  comprised  within  the  limits  of  boroughs. 


THE  PARISH  49 

deal  of  uncertainty  prevailed  on  the  subject,  and  in 
the  sixteenth  century  it  became  necessary  to  deal  with 
the  matter  comprehensively.  After  some  little  hesita- 
tion the  Tudor  policy  declared  itself  in  favour  of 
making  the  parish  primarily  liable  for  the  repair  Highway 
of  all  highways,  but  without  releasing  any  private  par 
liabilities  which  could  be  proved  to  exist.  This 
policy  was  in  the  main  continued  until  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  though  an  immense  number 
of  local  exceptions  existed  by  virtue  of  various  Acts  of 
Parliament.  The  enclosures  of  the  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  centuries  brought  a  good  many  new  roads 
into  existence  ;  but,  with  the  great  increase  of  popula- 
tion, it  became  necessary  to  make  further  provision 
for  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  new  roads.  The 
plan  adopted  was  that  of  local  "  Turnpike  Trusts,"  so  Turnpikes, 
called  from  the  nature  of  the  gate  or  barrier  erected 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  those  who  had  not  paid  the 
tolls  or  dues  by  which  the  managers  of  the  trust  re- 
couped themselves  their  expenses.  This  plan,  after 
being  extensively  used  for  upwards  of  a  century,  has 
been  thoroughly  discredited,  and  has  virtually  ceased 
to  operate.  The  turnpike  and  other  roads  in  urban  Sanitary 
parishes  have  been  taken  over  by  the  urban  sanitary 
authority,  which  is  now,  under  the  Public  Health 
Act,  1875,  tne  s°le  authority  in  the  matter;  and  by 
the  provisions  of  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894 
a  similar  transfer  in  favour  of  the  rural  sanitary  author- 
ity is  contemplated  in  the  case  of  the  roads  in  a  rural 
parish.1  But,  inasmuch  as  this  consummation  may  be 

1  The  roads  in  the  six  southern  counties  of  Wales  are  under  a  special 
scheme  of  management. 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Highway 


postponed  by  a  county  council  in  any  part  of  their 
county  for  a  period  of  three  years  (or  even  longer, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Local  Government  Board), 
it  becomes  necessary  to  state  very  briefly  what  is  at 
present  the  machinery  employed  when  a  parish  main- 
tains its  own  highways. 

This  machinery  is  regulated  by  the  Parish  High- 
ways Act  of  1835,  a  fragment  only  of  which  is  directly 
repealed  by  the  new  Local  Government  Act.  The 
vestry  (now  the  parish  council),  at  its  annual 
meeting,  elects  a  surveyor  from  among  the  resident 
owners  or  occupiers  of  property  in  the  parish,  and  he 
is  bound  to  serve,  unless  he  has  one  of  the  usual 
grounds  of  exemption  from  parochial  office.  But  he 
may  appoint  a  deputy,  or  the  council,  if  it  pleases, 
may  appoint  instead  of  him  a  paid  professional 
surveyor. 

The  surveyor  of  a  parish  is  bound  to  maintain  the 
highways  in  an  efficient  manner,  and,  to  enable  him 
to  do  so,  he  is  authorised  (with  the  allowance  of  two 
Justices)  to  make  and  levy  a  rate  on  the  basis  of  the 
poor  rate.  But  the  amount  of  the  rate  must  not, 
without  the  consent  of  four-fifths  of  the  "  inhabitants  " 
of  the  parish  assembled  at  a  meeting  specially  sum- 
moned for  that  purpose,  exceed  two-and-sixpence  in 
the  pound  in  any  one  year.  The  accounts  of  the  sur- 
veyor are  open  to  inspection,  and  must  be  produced 
annually  before  a  district  auditor  of  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board. 

Moreover,  in  parishes  having  a  population  by  the 
last  census  of  upwards  of  five  thousand,  the  vestry  (or 
council)  may  (or  might)  appoint,  instead  of  a  surveyor, 


THE  PARISH  51 

a  Board  of  from  five  to  twenty  resident  ratepaying 
householders,  and  such  Board  and  its  officials  would 
then  have  the  powers  of  the  surveyor  in  a  smaller 
parish. 

The  number  of  parishes  which,  at  the  close  of  the  Highway 
financial  year   1890-91,  maintained  their  own  high-  j8^sh< 
ways  was  6501  ;J  it  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the 
change  contemplated  by  the  Act  of  1894  is  of  a  very 
sweeping  character. 

We  now  come  to  those  improvements  which  it  is  in  the 

power  of  the  parish  to  adopt  or  not,  as  it  pleases. 

3.  Burials. — Where  the  accommodation  provided  by  the 
churchyard  or  other  cemetery  is  insufficient  for  the 
wants  of  a  parish,  the  vestry  (in  rural  parishes,  the 
parish  meeting)  has  the  power  of  adopting  the  "  Burial 
Acts,  1852  to  1885,"  />.,  a  series  of  statutes  aimed  at 
providing  increased  burial  accommodation.  If  the  Burial 
vestry  or  council  so  decides,  it  appoints  a  Burial  l 
Board  of  from  three  to  nine  ratepayers,  one-third  of 
whom  retire  annually,  and  this  Board  provides  and 
maintains  a  new  burial  ground  under  the  regulations 
of  the  Acts.  To  pay  its  expenses,  the  Board  is  entitled 
to  demand  from  the  overseers  such  sums  as  the  vestry 
or  council  shall  approve,  and  these  sums  are  raised 
out  of  the  poor  rate  in  the  usual  way.  The  accounts 
of  the  Burial  Board  are  audited  by  two  auditors, 
annually  elected  by  the  vestry  or  council.  But  an 
order  of  the  Privy  Council  may  constitute  any  urban 
sanitary  authority  the  sole  burial  authority  within  its 
district;  and,  by  consent  of  all  parties,  without  an  order, 

1  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3.    Appendix  P.,  p.  409. 


52  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

a  Burial  Board  may  transfer  all  its  property  and  func- 
tions to  the  urban  sanitary  authority  in  whose  district 
its  parish  is  situate.  At  the  close  of  the  financial  year 
1890-1,  there  were,  in  England  and  Wales,  997  Burial 
Boards,  with  an  expenditure  during  the  previous  twelve 
months  of  nearly  .£430,000.  Where,  on  the  coming 
into  office  of  a  parish  council,  the  area  of  a  Burial 
Board  is  identical  with  that  of  a  rural  parish,  the 
Burial  Board  will  merge  in  the  council ; 1  but  where 
parishes  have  joined  (as  they  may  do  under  the  Burial 
Acts)  to  provide  a  cemetery,  it  is  presumed  that  the 
provisions  above  described  will  still  apply. 
4.  Public  Libraries,  Museums,  &c. — Any  ten  electors  in  a 
rural  parish  may  call  upon  the  overseers  to  ascertain 
by  a  poll  of  the  parochial  electors  whether  or  not  they 
are  favourable  to  the  adoption  of  the  "  Public  Libraries 
Act,  1892,"  and  the  electors  may  decide  the  question 
by  a  simple  majority.  If  they  decide  in  favour  of 
adoption,  they  may  also  (if  asked)  specify  the  limit  of 
expense  to  be  incurred  in  carrying  out  the  scheme  ; 
but  in  any  case  the  expenditure  will  be  limited  to 
a  penny  rate.  Upon  the  adoption  of  the  Act  the 
parish  council  will  proceed  to  carry  out  the  scheme  by 
the  provision  of  free  libraries  and  museums,  schools 
for  science,  art  galleries,  and  schools  for  art,  to  the 
Library  extent  of  its  means.  At  present,  in  rural  parishes,  the 

loners.5  scheme  is  worked  by  a  special  body  of  triennially  ap- 

pointed "  Commissioners  " ;  but  on  the  coming  into 
existence  of  the  parish  council,  the  latter  body  will 
become  the  executive  authority.  When  there  is  no 

1  Doubtless  the  council  will  appoint  a  Burial  Committee,  which  will 
be,  virtually,  the  old  Burial  Board. 


THE  PARISH  53 

council,  presumably  the  parish  meeting  will  act.  In 
urban  areas  it  is  the  sanitary  district  and  not  the  parish 
which  constitutes  the  Library  district. 

Other  "  adoptive  "  Acts  there  are,  by  which  a  parish  can 
provide  itself  with  conveniences  and  luxuries,  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  go  into  details.    The  chief  examples  are  lighting  Lighting 
and  watching  (Act  of  1833),  baths  and  wash-houses  (Acts  fnn^  wau 
of  "1846  to   1882"),  and  walks  and  recreation  grounds   Baths  and 
(Public    Improvements    Act,    1860).     For  particulars  the  fj^ses 
reader  is  referred  to  the  statutes  themselves.     Enough  has  walks  and 
i'Lvn  said  to  show  how  such  parochial  machinery  works. 
Broadly  speaking,  in  the  urban  parish  the  vestry  is  the 
authority  for  adopting  the  Acts,  whilst  they  are  executed 
by  a  special  body  appointed  by  the  vestry  ;  in  the  rural 
disricts,   the   parish   meeting   adopts,   the   parish   council 
executes. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE    SCHOOL    DISTRICT 

FOR  the  history  of  State  education  (unless,  indeed,  we 
consider  the  Established  Church  as  part  of  the  State)  we 
need  not  go  far  back.  Although  the  State  had  from 
time  to  time  made  donations  toward  educational  purposes, 
and  likewise  from  time  to  time  had  held  enquiries  into  the 
working  of  existing  institutions,  it  did  not  directly  under- 
take the  work  of  education  till  the  year  1870.  Before  that 
time  the  bulk  of  such  education  as  there  was  had  been 
provided  by  the  Established  Church  and  other  religious 
bodies,  by  eleemosynary  foundations,  and  by  private  enter- 
prise. But  in  1870  was  set  on  foot  a  great  national 
scheme  which,  in  its  main  features,  is  in  force  at  the 
present  day. 

The  attitude  of  the  State  towards  elementary  education 
(for  at  present  the  State  undertakes  little  more  than 
elementary  or  primary  education)  is  double.  On  the 
one  hand  it  does  not  force  into  its  own  schools  those 
children  who  are  being  properly  educated  elsewhere.  On 
the  other,  it  insists  that  every  child  not  thus  provided 
for  shall  attend  its  own  schools.  Thus  it  is  at  once  artist 
and  critic. 

The  whole  of  England  and  Wales  is  mapped  out  by 
the  Education  Department  into  School  Districts.  Every 


THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  55 

municipal  borough  (except  Oxford)  is  a  School  District ; 
every  parish  or  part  of  a  parish  not  lying  within  the  limit 
of  a  borough  is  primarily  a  School  District;1  the  metropolis 
of  London  is  a  School  District ;  and  the  area  of  the  Oxford 
Local  Board  is  a  School  District.  It  might,  perhaps,  be 
urged  that  the  borough  and  not  the  parish  is  the  true 
analogue  of  the  School  District  ;  but  although  the  borough 
is  the  area  frequently  adopted  as  the  School  District,  the 
parish  is  the  model.  The  machinery  employed  is  mainly 
parochial  in  character.  It  must  be  carefully  noted  that  a 
division  between  boroughs  and  parishes  outside  boroughs 
by  no  means  coincides  with  our  former  division  between 
urban  and  rural  parishes;  for  there  are  many  urban  parishes 
which  are  not  within  boroughs. 

But  School  Districts  are  divisible,  quite  independently 
of  their  geographical  position,  into  two  great  classes,  which 
correspond  with  the  double  functions  of  the  State  in 
respect  of  elementary  education.  In  the  one  class  the 
State  actually  provides  the  education  (or  the  great  bulk 
of  it) ;  in  the  other,  the  State  merely  watches  to  see  that 
education  is  properly  provided.  We  may,  for  the  con- 
venience of  distinction,  call  these  the  Board  District  and 
the  Committee  District  respectively. 

A. — The  Board  District. 

In  this   case   elementary   education  is   provided   by  a 
public  body,  called  the  School  Board.     A  School  Board  Creation  of 
may  be  brought  into  existence  in  any  School  District  in 
one  of  two  ways.     Either  the  Education  Department  (/>., 
the  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  on  Education)  may, 

1  But  parishes  may,  and  do,  unite  for  purposes  of  administration. 


56  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

of  its  own  motion,  after  due  enquiry,  resolve  to  create  a 
School  Board;  or  local  demand  takes  the  initiative.  If 
in  the  latter  case  the  School  District  is  a  borough,  the 
municipal  council  decides  that  a  School  Board  is  desirable. 
If  it  is  a  parish  or  group  of  parishes  outside  a  borough,  a 
meeting  of  ratepayers,  which  must  be  summoned  by  the 
clerk  to  the  Guardians  of  the  Poor  if  fifty  ratepayers  desire 
it,  resolves  that  a  School  Board  is  necessary.  The  original 
number  of  the  Board's  members  (not  less  than  five  nor 
more  than  fifteen)  is  fixed  by  the  Education  Department, 
but  it  may  subsequently,  with  the  approval  of  the  Depart- 
ment, be  altered  by  the  Board.  Apparently  there  are  no 
special  qualifications  required  for  membership,1  and  men 
and  women  are  equally  eligible. 

The  election  of  members  takes  place  every  three  years, 
and  is  conducted  by  ballot  if  a  contest  is  necessary.  In 
boroughs  the  burgesses  alone  have  the  right  to  vote,2 
in  all  other  School  Districts  the  ratepayers  elect.  Each 
elector  has  as  many  votes  as  there 'are  vacancies  to  be 
filled ;  and  may  give  all  or  any  number  of  his  votes 
to  one  candidate.  Members  of  the  Board  are  re-eligible 
at  the  expiry  of  their  term  of  office.  Casual  vacancies 
are  filled  up  by  the  Board  itself.  It  is  presumed  that  the 
new  parish  councils  will  not  in  any  way  supersede  the 
School  Boards. 

Immediately   upon    coming    into   existence,    a    School 

1  But  non-attendance  without  leave  for  six  months,  imprisonment  for 
crime,  bankruptcy,  and  composition  with  creditors  vacate  a  member's 
seat. 

9  In  the  ordinary  municipal  borough  the  burgess  roll  includes  women, 
but  owing  to  the  special  wording  of  the  Elementary  Education  Act  of 
1870  (section  37  (6)),  women  cannot  vote  in  the  election  of  the  City 
members  of  the  London  School  Board. 


THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  57 

Board  must  elect  a  chairman  and  vice-chairman,  who  hold 

office  during  the  three  years  of  the  Board's  continuance. 

The  Board  may  also  (and  usually  does)  appoint  a  clerk  and 

treasurer,  and  these  officials  may  be  salaried.     The  Board  Teachers. 

also  appoints  the  teachers  in  its  schools  and,  if  necessary, 

"  attendance  officers,"  to  enforce  the  law  upon  the  subject  Attendance 

of  compulsory  school  attendance. 

It  is  very  rarely  that  a  School  Board  is  called  into  exist-  Schools, 
ence  unless  there  is  need  of  further  provision  of  public 
elementary  schools.  The  primary  duty  of  a  School  Board 
is  therefore  to  provide  such  schools,  i.e.,  schools  whose  main 
object  is  elementary  education,  and  which  impose  no 
religious  or  other  unreasonable  restrictions  upon  the  entry 
of  scholars,  and  which  satisfy  the  regulations  of  the  Educa- 
tion Department  in  the  matters  of  sanitation  and  efficiency. 
To  enable  it  to  perform  this  duty,  a  School  Board  has 
power  to  hire,  purchase,  or  build  suitable  premises  both  for 
schools  and  offices,  and  to  furnish  them  with  proper  equip- 
ment and  staff.  It  is,  moreover,  responsible  for  the  due 
control  and  administration  of  its  schools,  but  it  may  delegate 
some  or  all  of  its  powers  in  this  respect  (and  in  some 
others)  to  a  body  of  Managers  of  not  less  than  three,  who  Managers, 
practically  undertake  the  ordinary  administration  of  the 
schools.  Any  persons  may  (apparently)  be  appointed 
managers,  but  any  manager  may  be  removed  by  the  Board, 
or  may  resign  by  notice  in  writing. 

In  addition  to  providing  and  maintaining  schools,  the  School 
School  Board  also  acts  as  a  School  Attendance  Committee, 
t.f.,  a  body  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  law  with  regard  m'««- 
to  compulsory  attendance.     Broadly  speaking,  every  child 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  must  (in  the  absence 
of  reasonable  excuse)  attend  school    regularly ;   and    any 


58  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

person  who  employs  such  a  child  in  a  manner  inconsistent 
with  the  regulations  of  the  local  School  Board  on  the 
subject  of  attendance,  is  guilty  of  a  criminal  offence,  and 
liable  to  a  penalty.  After  the  child  has  reached  the  age  of 
eleven  years,  however,  he  may  be  granted  a  certificate  of 
exemption  or  proficiency  which  will  excuse  or  modify  his 
further  attendance.  The  duty  of  seeing  that  the  child 
complies  with  the  law  is  cast  primarily  on  the  parent  or 
other  person  having  charge  of  him,  but  its  enforcement  is 
left  to  the  local  School  Board  and  its  officials. 

The  funds  requisite  for  the  performance  of  its  duty  by  a 
School  Board  are  obtained  from  various  sources. 
(a)  Fees,  paid  by  the  children  or  their  parents,  the  amount 
being  fixed  by  the  local  School  Board,  with  the 
approval  of  the  Education  Department.  But  from 
the  first  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  excuse,  wholly 
or  partially,  the  payment  of  fees  in  certain  cases,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  they  could  not  be  recovered. 
Various  expedients  have  been  adopted  to  meet  the 
deficiency  thereby  occasioned,  but  the  matter  has  now 
been  dealt  with  in  a  sweeping  manner  by  the  Act  of 
1891,  which  provides  that  a  parliamentary  grant  shall 
be  made  to  the  managers  of  every  public  elementary 
school  who  shall  be  willing  to  receive  it,  at  the  rate  of 
ten  shillings  per  annum  for  every  child  between  the 
ages  of  three  and  fifteen  in  regular  attendance.  If 
such  grant  is  accepted,  no  fees  may  be  charged  at 
all,  except  in  cases  in  which  in  the  year  next  before 
the  passing  of  the  Act  the  average  fees  charged 
exceeded  ten  shillings  a  head,  and  even  then  only  the 
excess  may  be  charged.  It  is  probable  that  Guardians 
of  the  Poor  will  no  longer  consent  to  pay  the  fees  of 


THfe  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  59 

poor  children  out  of  the  poor  rates,  and  then,  if  a 
School  Board  refuses  the  grant,  it  will  do  so  at  its 
own  risk. 

(b)  Parliamentary  grants,  which,  in  addition   to  the  Fee  Parlia- 

Grant,  may  be  made,  upon  any  conditions  prescribed 
by  Parliament  or  the  Education  Department,  towards 
the  purchase  of  land,  buildings,  or  other  permanent 
objects.  The  amount  so  granted  during  the  year 
1890-1,  amounted  in  all  to  £1,445, °&5-1 

(c)  Loans,  which  may  only  be  raised  with  the  consent  of  Loans. 

the  Education  Department,  and  for  permanent  objects, 
such  as  buildings  and  plant. 

(d)  The  School  Rate,  which  must  be  resorted  to  for  final   Rates. 

deficiencies.     The  School  Board  directs  its  "  precept " 
to  the  municipal  council  in  the  case  of  a  borough,  or 
to  the  overseers  in  the  case  of  a  parish,  bidding  them 
pay  to  the  Board's  treasurer  the  sum  required,  and 
these  authorities  recoup  themselves  out  of  the  borough 
fund  or  the  poor  rate  as  the  case  may  be.      The 
process  is  beautifully  simple  and  easy — for  the  Board  ; 
and  apparently  there  is  no  limit  to  the  exten    of  its 
demands.       But   it    must   be   remembered   that   the 
members  of  the  Board  are  elected  by  the  very  persons 
who  pay  the  rates  ;  and  extravagance  of  administration 
would  doubtless  have  its  weight  at  the  elections. 
All  the  receipts  of  a  School  Board,  from  whatever  source,  School 
go  into  the  School  Fund,  the  accounts  whereof  are  annually  F 
audited  by  the  Local  Government  Board,  and  then  sub- 
mitted to  the  Education  Department. 

On  the   ist  April    1893,   there  were>  'n   England  and 

1  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3.     Appendix  P.,  pp. 
505-507. 


60  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Wales,  1 68  School  Boards,  representing  as  many  boroughs, 
and  2163  Boards  representing  3207  parishes.  The  total 
population  in  these  School  Districts  was  18,764,565,  or 
about  three-fifths  of  the  total  population  of  England  and 
Wales.1 

B. — The  Committee  District. 

In  School  Districts  where  there  is  no  School  Board  the 
duty  of  enforcing  attendance  at  school  is  undertaken  by  a 
special  School  Attendance  Committee.  But  the  nature 
of  this  committee  varies  with  the  character  of  the  District. 
If  the  latter  is  a  municipal  borough,  the  committee  will  be 
appointed  by  the  municipal  council  from  amongst  its  own 
members.  If  the  District  is  a  parish  or  group  of  parishes 
outside  a  borough,  the  Guardians  of  the  Poor  for  the 
Union  in  which  it  is  situated  will  usually  appoint  the 
committee  from  their  own  ranks.  But  if  an  urban  sanitary 
district  (other  than  a  borough)  consists  wholly  of  parishes 
which  have  no  School  Boards,  and  whose  population 
amounted  to  5000  at  the  last  census,  its  authority  may  be 
empowered  by  the  Education  Department  to  appoint  a 
school  attendance  committee  for  its  district  in  like  manner 
as  if  it  were  a  borough  council ;  and  the  sanitary  authority 
will  be  able  to  raise  the  expenses  of  its  committee  out  of 
the  poor  rates  of  its  constituent  parishes.  And  even  where 
the  urban  sanitary  district  is  partly  (but  not  wholly)  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  School  Board  or  School  Boards, 
or  where  its  population  is  less  than  5000,  the  sanitary 
authority  may  be  empowered  by  the  Department  to  appoint 
not  more  than  three  of  its  own  members  to  act  with  the 
Attendance  Committee  appointed  by  the  Guardians.  Inas- 
1  Report  of  Education  Department,  1892-3,  p.  xxxi. 


THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT  61 

much  as  these  provisions  have  been  largely  acted  upon,  and 
inasmuch  as,  even  after  the  coming  into  operation  of  the 
Local  Government  Act  of  1894,  the  sanitary  authority  and 
the  Guardians  of  the  Poor  will  continue  to  be  identical  in 
rural  districts,  it  is  clear  that  the  tendency  is  to  place  the 
appointment  of  the  School  Attendance  Committee  in  the 
hands  of  the  sanitary  authorities,  or,  as  they  will  in  future 
be  called,  the  District  Councils.  In  the  absence,  however, 
of  express  provision  by  the  Education  Department,  the 
Guardians  of  the  Poor  will  continue  to  appoint  the  School 
Attendance  Committee  in  urban  districts  not  comprised 
within  municipal  boroughs.  But,  as  will  be  seen,  there 
will  be  in  the  future  no  ex-officio  or  nominated  Guardians. 

The  duty  of  the  School  Attendance  Committee  is  to  pub-   Duties  of 
lish  the  provisions  of  the  Elementary  Education  Acts,  to  Attendance 
report  infringements  of  the  "  conscience  clause  "  in  public  Committee, 
elementary  schools,  and  to  enforce  attendance  in  the  same 
way   as    the    School    Board  within  its  district.     Like  the 
School  Board,  it  must  frame  by-laws  upon  the  subject  of 
school  attendance,  and,  if  necessary,  it  may  appoint  officials 
to  carry  them  out ;  but  the  consent  of  its  own  appointing 
body  is  in  all  cases  required  for  this  latter  step. 

On  the  ist  April  1893,  there  were,  in  England  and 
Wales,  781  School  Attendance  Committees,  representing 
the  remaining  two-fifths  of  the  population.  Of  these,  131 
were  appointed  by  municipal  councils,  7  2  by  urban  sanitary 
authorities,  and  578  by  Poor  Law  Guardians.1 
1  Report,  p.  xxxi. 


GROUP    B. 
THE  HUNDRED  AND  ITS  ANALOGUES. 

4.  THE    HUNDRED         .  .  .  CHAPTER    IV. 

5.  THE    PETTY    SESSIONAL    DIVISION  CHAPTER    V. 

6.  THE   COUNTY    COURT    DISTRICT  CHAPTER    VI. 

7.  THE    POOR    LAW    UNION    .  .  CHAPTER    VII. 

8.  THE    SANITARY    DISTRICT  .        ) 

>  CHAPTER    VIII. 

9.  THE    HIGHWAY    DISTRICT  .        j 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    HUNDRED 

THE  Hundred,  or  Wapentake,  has  to-day  only  an  antiquarian 
interest.  It  is  impossible  to  trace  with  certainty  the  origin 
either  of  the  institution  or  of  the  areas  which  now  bear  its 
name.  As  to  the  former,  historians  are  divided  between 
views  which  assign  to  the  Hundred  the  character  of  an 
ancient  tribal  division,  corresponding  with  the  Continental 
gau  (the  pagus  of  Tacitus),  and  other  views  which  regard  it 
as  the  deliberate  creation  for  administrative  purposes  of  a 
German  or  English  monarch.  Perhaps  the  orthodox  view  is 
that  the  Hundred  represents  an  ancient  tribal  organization 
which  Prankish  kings  in  the  sixth  century,  and  our  own 
Edgar  in  the  tenth,  revived  for  police  purposes.  An  institu- 
tion which  needed  to  be  revived  in  the  sixth  century  must 
be  aged  indeed,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  actual 
hundreds  add  weight  to  the  theory  of  the  hoary  antiquity 
of  the  institution ;  for  the  arrangement  of  them  seems  Distribu- 
te be  based  on  no  uniform  or  reasonable  plan  that  we 
can  account  for  by  historical  evidence.  Their  extent  and 
numbers  appear  to  be  quite  arbitrary.  The  county  of 
Leicester  has  but  six  hundreds,  the  county  of  Sussex  (less 
than  twice  its  size)  has  sixty-four.  The  small  county  of 
Oxford  has  exactly  the  same  number  as  the  far  larger 
in  Shropshire,  Devon  has  thirty-three  hundreds ; 


66 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


the  adjoining  county  of  Somerset  (far  smaller)  has  forty- 
three.  All  that  one  can  say  is,  that  apparently  the  hundreds 
were  more  numerous  in  the  parts  in  which  the  early  Teutonic 
invaders  settled  most  quickly  and  thickly.  The  same  pre- 
sumption of  antiquity  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that 
the  places  from  which  a  vast  number  of  hundreds  derive 
their  names  have  dwindled  into  insignificance,  or  disappeared 
entirely ;  while  gigantic  towns  have  grown  up  beside  them. 
London  is  locally  situated  in  the  hundred  which  took  its 
name  from  (or  gave  its  name  to)  the  forgotten  village  of 
Ossulston.  The  great  city  of  Liverpool  is  within  the 
hundred  of  West  Derby,  the  latter  being  a  village  which, 
after  centuries  of  obscurity,  is  again  rising  into  some  im- 
portance as  a  suburb  of  Liverpool.  Birmingham  appears 
to  be  in  the  hundred  of  Hemlingford.  Where  is  Hemling- 
ford? 

As  we  have  said,  the  Hundred  comes  first  into  authentic 
history  as  a  police  district,  whose  inhabitants  were  made 
liable  for  the  discovery  of  the  perpetrators  of  theft  and 
other  crimes  committed  within  their  district.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  their  court,  or  leet,  should  have  the 
power  of  enforcing  and  regulating  the  still  older  system  of 
village  police,  and  that  their  hundredman,  or  elder,  should 
be  looked  upon  as  the  head  of  the  police  force  of  his 
district. 

The  hundredman  of  Saxon  times  seems  to  have  de- 
veloped imperceptibly  into  the  High  Constable  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  an  official  who,  as  the  leet  jury  sank  into 
oblivion,  gradually  acquired  great  powers.  The  Tudor  policy, 
however,  subordinated  him  to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  by 
whom  (in  default  of  special  franchise)  he  was  appointed, 
whose  rates  he  collected,  and  whose  duties  in  connection 


THE  HUNDRED  67 

with  the  Statutes  of  Labourers  he  aided  by  holding  statute 
sessions  for  the  hiring  of  servants.      Meanwhile  the  old 
police  character  of  the  Hundred  survived  in  the  liability 
of  its  inhabitants  for  the  repair  of  certain  roads  and  bridges,   Roads  and 
and  for  the  making  good  of  damages  done  by  riot.     The  R"otBC! 
latter  liability  was  transferred  to  the  county  or  the  borough 
by  a  statute  of  1886,  but  the  former  remains  in  a  few  cases, 
and  is  expressly  recognised  by  the  Local  Government  Act 
of  1888  (the  "County  Councils"  Act).     The   most   im- 
portant session  of  the  Hundred  Court,  that  of  the  Sheriff,   Sheriff's 
who  held  his  "  Tourn  "  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  that  the 
police  machinery  was  in  full  working  order,  has,  after  long 
decay,  now  been  expressly  abolished  by  statute.     But  other  The 
hundred  courts  do  occasionally  exist,  and  the  caprice  of  Act,  1887. 
the  legislature  has,  within  the  last  half  century,  made  of  one 
or  two  hundreds  special  areas  for  probate  purposes.     But, 
virtually,  the  Hundred  is  extinct  as  an  institution,  and  we 
have  only  referred  to  it  because  its  decay  has  led  to  the 
appearance  of  certain   substitutes.     The   High  Constable 
himself  is  in  process  of  painless  extinction,  by  virtue  of  a 
statute  of  the  year  1869,  and  while  he  remains  perhaps  the  The  High 
utmost  one  can  say  of  him  is — that  he  is  a  High  Constable.  Act^is^* 
His  surviving  duties  will  in  future  be  divided  between  the 
clerk  of  the  Petty  Sessional  Division  and  the  Chief  Con-  See/oj/, 
stable  of  the  county.     Still,  we  cannot  say  that  the  Hun-  £  ^Oanti 
dred  is  quite  dead.     Less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
it  was  thought  advisable  to  pass  a  solemn  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment for  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  a  part  of  the  hamlet 
of  South   Town,    in    the    parish    of    Gorleston,    into    the 
hundred  of  East  Flegg. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION 

THE  four  great  institutions  which  have  taken  the  place  of 
the  decaying  Hundred  are  the  Petty  Sessional  Division, 
the  County  Court  District,  the  Poor  Law  Union,  and  the 
Sanitary  District.  With  the  exception  of  the  last,  each  of 
these  institutions  serves  at  least  one  of  the  purposes  for 
which  the  Hundred  was  formerly  used ;  and  the  last 
is  so  intimately  bound  up  with  the  Poor  Law  Union, 
that  it  must  plainly  be  treated  as  a  member  of  the  same 
group.  The  Sanitary  District  in  most  cases  (but  not 
all)  coincides  in  area  with  some  older  institution,  such  as 
the  Poor  Law  Union  or  the  parish ;  the  Petty  Sessional 
Division,  the  County  Court  District,  and  the  Poor  Law 
Union  have  no  necessary  connection  in  area,  though,  for 
obvious  convenience,  they  are  frequently  made  to  approxi- 
mate, or  even  to  become  identical. 

*  Hen.  The  Petty  Sessional  Division,  or  at  least  the  idea  of  it, 

appears  to  date  from  1541.  By  a  statute  of  that  year  the 
Justices  of  every  county  were  directed  to  divide  themselves 
according  to  "  Hundreds,  Wapentakes,  Rapes,  Commotes, 
or  Number  of  Towns  and  Villages,"  assigning  at  least  two 
of  their  number  to  each  division,  and  holding  frequent 
sessions  therein,  in  addition  to  their  "ancient  Quarter 
Sessions  "  for  the  whole  county.  Although  this  statute  was 

OS 


THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION  69 

repealed  in  1545,  the  notion  which  it  propounded  has  con-  37  Hen. 
stantly  been  revived,  and  it  gives  us  a  very  good  idea  of 
the  Petty  Sessional  Division  of  the  present  day.  The 
Petty  Sessional  Division  is,  primarily,  a  division  of  a 
judicial  county  made  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  that 
county  in  Quarter  Sessions  assembled,  and  alterable  every 
three  years.  Although,  in  theory,  every  Justice  of  the 
Peace  can  act  in  any  part  of  his  county,  in  practice,  and 
for  convenience'  sake,  he  acts  only  in  that  Petty  Sessional 
Division  in  which  he  resides,  and  in  the  General  Quarter 
Sessions  for  the  whole  county.  But  it  will  be  seen  here- 
after that  there  are  Justices  of  the  Peace  not  only  for  the 
county,  but  for  some  boroughs,  and  that  some  boroughs 
have  also  professional  Justices  known  as  "  stipendiary 
magistrates."  And  it  must  be  remembered  that  every 
"  sitting  and  acting  "  of  borough  justices  or  a  stipendiary 
magistrate  is  deemed  to  be  a  Petty  Sessions,  and  the  dis- 
trict for  which  it  is  held  a  Petty  Sessional  Division. 

When  we  come  to  deal  with  the  County  we  shall  con-  Post, 
sider  the  nature  of  the  office  of  Justice  of  the  Peace.  At  F 
this  point  we  are  concerned  with  the  Justice  only  as  the 
resident  magistrate  of  a  Petty  Sessional  Division,  and  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  is  a  magistrate 
with  minor  criminal  and  some  administrative  jurisdiction, 
appointed  by  the  Crown  to  act  within  the  limits  of  a  county 
or  a  borough,  receiving  in  fact  no  remuneration  for  his 
services,  and  being,  in  the  majority  of  instances,  without 
professional  training  in  the  law.  The  Justices  who  act  in 
Petty  Sessional  Division  are  those  who  reside  within  its 
limits,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  borough,  those  who  live  suffi- 
ciently near  to  be  able  to  act.  But  this  is  no  rule  of  law, 
merely  a  doctrine  of  practice.  In  theory  (be  it  again  stated) 


70  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

every  Justice  can  act  in  every  part  of  his  county  or  borough. 
There  is,  however,  a  real  rule  of  law  that  for  most  purposes 
a  Petty  Sessional  Court  cannot  be  constituted  by  less  than 
two  ordinary  Justices ;  although,  by  the  terms  of  legal 
arithmetic,  one  stipendiary  magistrate  is  generally  equivalent 
to  two  ordinary  Justices.  The  Justices  "acting  in  and 
for "  a  Petty  Sessional  Division  elect  their  own  chairman, 
either  pro  hdc  vice  or  permanently,  and  appoint  their  own 
clerk,  who  must  not  act  as  clerk  to  the  Guardians  of  any 
Poor  Law  Union  in  which  any  part  of  his  Division 
is  situated.  The  salary  of  the  clerk  and  the  other 
expenses  of  the  Division  are  paid  by  the  county  or 
borough  council  out  of  the  county  rate  or  borough  fund. 

The  jurisdiction  of  a  Petty  Sessions  is  two-fold.  It 
acts  as  a  minor  court  of  justice  in  criminal  and  (though 
rarely)  in  civil  matters ;  and  it  also  performs  the  duties  of 
an  administrative  board.  We  must  keep  these  two  func- 
tions distinct. 

(a)  Justice. — There  are  certain  breaches  of  the  law  which 
are  taken  in  hand  directly  by  the  State,  whether  or  no  they 
appear  to  result  mainly  in  damage  to  individuals.  These 
breaches  of  the  law  we  call  crimes.  Other  offences  are  left 
to  be  remedied  upon  the  application  of  the  injured  party ; 
these  we  call  civil  wrongs.  With  this  latter  class  Justices' 
Courts  have  rarely  much  to  do ;  with  the  former  they  are 
much  concerned. 

Crimes  again  fall,  according  to  English  law,  into  two 
great  classes  of  (a)  indictable  offences,  and  (l>)  offences 
punishable  on  summary  conviction.  With  each  of  these 
classes  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  has  much  to  do,  but  its 
functions  differ  greatly  according  to  the  class  of  offences 
involved.  Broadly  speaking,  it  may  be  said  the  jurisdiction 


THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION  71 

of  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  with  regard  to  indictable 
offences  is  only  preliminary  ;  in  respect  of  offences  punish- 
able upon  summary  conviction  it  is  final. 

First,  with  respect  to  indictable  offences.  Here  the  Indictable 
duty  of  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  is  to  see  whether  there  is  ° 
a  prima  facie  against  the  prisoner  who  is  accused,  either 
by  the  police  authorities  or  by  a  private  individual,  of 
having  committed  such  an  offence  within  the  county.  With 
this  object  the  Court  hears  the  witnesses  for  the  accuser, 
records  their  evidence,  and  makes  up  its  mind  whether,  in 
the  absence  of  contradiction,  there  is  reasonable  ground 
for  believing  that  a  jury  might  convict  the  prisoner.  The 
latter  is  always  present  at  the  enquiry,  and  may,  if  he  pleases, 
cross-examine  the  prosecutor's  witnesses,  or  call  witnesses  of 
his  own.  But  if  there  is  no  reasonable  hope  that  the  Court 
will  dismiss  the  charge  as  groundless,  he  usually  avoids 
doing  so,  preferring  not  to  shew  his  hand.  If  the  Court  Committal 
thinks  that  there  is  a  prima  facie  case,  it  "  commits  "  the 
prisoner  for  trial  at  the  next  Quarter  Sessions  or  Assizes 
(according  to  the  nature  of  the  case),  and  he  is  there 
solemnly  accused  (or  "  indicted  "),  unless  indeed  the  grand 
jury  should  decline  to  allow  the  proceedings  to  go  on. 
During  the  preliminary  proceedings  the  Petty  Sessional 
Court  has  often  to  decide  whether  it  will  "remand"  the  Remand, 
prisoner  to  custody  or  release  him  on  bail^  i.e.,  security  to  Bail, 
appear  again  when  wanted ;  and  a  similar  question  arises 
if  the  Court  decides  to  commit  the  prisoner  for  trial.  More- 
over, other  matters  of  considerable  importance,  such  as  the 
binding  over  of  prosecutor  and  witnesses  to  appear  at  the 
trial,  the  disposal  of  property  found  on  the  prisoner,  and 
so  on,  continually  arise  to  be  dealt  with  in  this  part  of 
1  As  to  the  meaning  and  rules  of  bail,  see/w/,  p.  160. 


72  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Petty  Sessional  jurisdiction.  Inasmuch  as  the  list  of  in- 
dictable offences  includes  all  the  graver  crimes  in  the 
category — such  as  murder,  arson,  rape,  burglary,  forgery, 
perjury,  and  the  like — the  duties  of  a  Petty  Sessional  Court 
involve  heavy  responsibility.  For  it  would  be  equally 
disastrous  to  commit  an  innocent  man  to  stand  his  trial 
upon  a  disgraceful  charge,  and  to  allow  a  guilty  one  to  go 
free.  It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  in  the  opinion  of  the 
late  Sir  J.  F.  Stephen  (and  few  persons  were  better  qualified 
to  pronounce  an  opinion  on  the  subject),  innocent  persons 
are  very  rarely  committed  for  trial  by  the  magistrates.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  about  three-fourths  of  those  committed 
are  ultimately  convicted ;  and  doubtless  a  good  number  of 
those  who  escape  are  really  guilty. 
Crimes  In  the  second  place,  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  has  an 

summarily     .  .....  . 

punishable,   important  summary  jurisdiction  to  hear  and   decide  petty 

criminal  cases.  By  virtue  of  the  numerous  "Summary 
Jurisdiction  Acts"1  and  other  statutes,  a  long  list  of  offences 
can  be  tried  and  completely  disposed  of  by  a  Petty  Sessional 
Court.  Such  offences  are  common  assaults,  small  wilful 
injuries  to  property,  small  larcenies,2  offences  relating  to 
game,  offences  against  railway  and  municipal  by-laws,  minor 
revenue  offences,  and  many  others.  These  are  punishable 
on  summary  conviction  in  all  cases.  But  there  is  also  a 
growing  class  of  offences  which  are  primarily  the  subject  of 
indictment,  but  which,  under  certain  circumstances,  may  be 
summarily  disposed  of.  These  circumstances  may  consist 

1  The  principal  of  these  are  the  Acts  of  1849,  1879,  and  1884;  but 
there  have  been  many  amendments. 

a  The  reader  must  not  be  tempted  to  use  in  this  connection  the 
obsolete  term  "  petty  larceny."  It  would  be  very  delightful  to  be  able 
to  define  petty  larceny  as  a  larceny  punishable  by  a  Petty  Sessional 
Court.  But  the  facts  are  against  us. 


THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION  73 

in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  offender's  first  appearance  before 
a  court  of  justice,  that  he  is  a  juvenile  offender,  or  that, 
being  an  adult,  he  pleads  guilty,  or  requests  to  be  dealt 
with  at  once,  and  so  on.  But  it  would  be  misleading  to 
attempt  to  lay  down  the  rules  accurately.  It  is  a  nice 
point  of  casuistry  whether  the  father  of  an  illegitimate 
child  is  being  punished  for  an  offence  when*  an  affiliation 
order  is  made  against  him,  or  whether  he  is  merely  having 
his  pecuniary  relations  adjusted  by  a  State  which  has  ideas 
on  the  subject  of  paternal  duty.  But,  whatever  the  view 
taken  of  his  case,  it  forms  an  important  item  in  the  cause 
list  of  the  Petty  Sessional  Court. 

The  great  difference  between  the  procedure  in  summary 
jurisdiction  and  that  upon  indictment  is  that  in  the  former 
case  there  is  not,  while  in  the  latter  there  is,  recourse  to  a 
jury.  Whatever  may  be  said  in  defence  of  the  jury  system, 
its  advocates  cannot  argue  that  it  is  expeditious.  In  cases 
of  summary  jurisdiction,  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  hears 
the  advocates  and  witnesses  of  prosecutor  and  prisoner,  and 
comes  to  its  own  conclusion  upon  the  evidence.  When  it 
has  decided,  it  pronounces  sentence  forthwith.  The  de- 
cision of  the  majority  is  the  decision  of  the  Court,  the 
chairman  having  a  casting  vote.  But  there  lies  an  appeal, 
as  a  general  rule,  from  every  decision  of  a  Petty  Sessional 
Court  to  the  Quarter  Sessions  for  the  county,  by  which  the 
case  is  reheard.  Further,  on  a  point  of  law,  the  opinion  of 
the  High  Court  may  in  most  cases  be  taken. 

We  have  spoken  as  though  the  composition  of  the  Petty  Different 
Sessional  Court  were  the  same  in  preliminary  and  summary  acterofYhe 
jurisdiction.     In  practice  it  is.     But,  in  theory,  much  of  Sj^!^ 
the  preliminary  work  usually  performed    by  a    Petty  Ses-  and  sum  - 
sional  Court  may  be  done  by  a  single  Justice  in  his  own  diction. 


74  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

house ;  while  a  final  decision  can  never  be  given  anywhere 
but  in  a  court  house,  and  only  in  rare  cases  by  less  than 
two  Justices.  A  "  court  house  "  is  either  a  Petty  Sessional 
Court  house,  />.,  "  a  place  at  which  Justices  are  accustomed 
to  assemble  for  holding  special  or  petty  sessions,"  or  a 
place  appointed  by  the  Justices  as  an  "  occasional  court 
house."  And  the  authority  of  a  single  Justice,  as  well  as 
the  authority  of  any  number  of  Justices  sitting  in  an 
"occasional  court  house,"  is  limited  to  awarding  a  fine  of 
2 os.  or  imprisonment  for  fourteen  days;  while  a  Petty 
Sessional  Court,  sitting  in  a  regular  court  house,  can  inflict 
much  severer  punishments. 

(f)  Administration. — Quite  apart  from  all  this  judicial 
business,  and  in  spite  of  recent  changes  in  the  law,  to  be 
hereafter  noticed,  the  Justices  in  Petty  or  (as  it  is  some- 
times called  "  Special ")  Sessions  perform  a  good  deal  of 
purely  administrative  or  discretionary  work.  Good  examples 
of  this  work  are  the  granting  and  transfer  of  liquor  licences, 
the  hearing  of  objections  to  and  the  sanctioning  of  rates 
and  valuations,  the  revision  of  jury  lists,  and  (where  over- 
seers have  not  been  made  elective)  the  appointment  of 
overseers  of  the  poor.  At  the  present  time  the  Justices 
also  grant  licences  to  gang  masters,  game  dealers,  passage 
brokers,  and  emigrant  runners ;  they  issue  pawnbrokers' 
certificates,  they  regulate  fairs,  and  they  enforce  the  statutes 
relating  to  petroleum  and  infant  life  protection.  But  in  so 
far  as  they  have  at  present  power  to  deal  with  such  matters 
out  of  session^  their  power  will,  on  the  coming  into  opera- 
tion of  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894,  be  transferred 
to  the  sanitary  authority.  As  in  the  case  of  the  preliminary 
judicial  enquiry,  much  (though  not  by  any  means  all)  of  the 
administrative  duty  of  a  Justice  which  is  now  done  in  Petty 


THE  PETTY  SESSIONAL  DIVISION  75 

Sessions,  might,  as  a  matter  of  law,  be  performed  by  a 
single  Justice  in  his  own  house.  The  advantages  of  the 
existing  practice  are  obvious.  Had  it  been  adopted  a 
little  earlier,  the  present  decided  tendency  to  deprive  the 
Justice  of  his  administrative  character  might  not  have  set 
in.  In  some  cases  there  is,  in  others  there  is  not,  an  appeal 
from  a  resolution  of  Petty  Sessions  upon  a  matter  of  dis- 
cretion. It  would  be  impossible  to  state  details.  Where 
an  appeal  lies  it  is  to  the  Quarter  Sessions  of  the  Justices 
for  the  county  or  borough,  of  which  the  Petty  Sessions  is, 
virtually,  a  local  committee. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    COUNTY    COURT    DISTRICT 

THE  first  thing  to  be  remembered  about  a  modern  County 
Court  is  that  it  derives  its  name,  not  from  the  area,  but 
from  the  nature  of  its  jurisdiction.  The  County  Court 
District  is  very  much  smaller  than  the  county  ;  while  there 
are  but  52,  or,  at  the  most  (reckoning  divided  counties), 
59  judicial  counties  in  England  and  Wales,  there  are  up- 
wards of  500  County  Court  Districts.  Moreover,  a  County 
Court  District  may  cut  across  the  boundaries  of  a  judicial 
county  (which  a  Petty  Sessional  Division  may  never  do),  and 
thereby  shew  its  entire  independence  of  the  county  system. 
The  origin  of  the  name  must  be  looked  for  elsewhere. 
History  of  For  some  generations  after  the  village  and  hundred 
Court?Unty  moots  had  fallen  into  decay,  the  sheriff's  court  of  the 
county,  holden  at  monthly  intervals,  was  the  recognised 
tribunal  for  the  disposal  of  petty  cases,  both  civil  and 
criminal.  The  tide  was  setting  in  favour  of  the  royal 
administration  of  justice,  and  the  sheriff  was  a  royal  official. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  old  local  feeling  was  strong,  and 
the  county  court  of  those  days  was  a  more  or  less  popular 
assembly,  in  which  the  freemen  of  the  county  took  sub- 
stantial part.  But  the  lawyers  who  were  growing  up  round 
the  king's  central  courts  at  Westminster  had  no  special  love 
for  the  sheriff.  The  sheriff  fell  into  disgrace  in  the  twelfth 


THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT  77 

century,  and  his  criminal  jurisdiction  was  strictly  limited  by 
the  new  procedure,  which  reserved  the  trial  of  graver  crimes 
to  the  king's  judges  on  circuit.     In  civil  business,  a  statute 
of  the  year    1278   practically  (though    indirectly)  limited 
the    sheriffs    jurisdiction    to   cases    involving    not   more 
than  405.  value.      Then   the  growing  importance  of  the  See  A"/, 
Justices  of  the  Peace  swept  away  the  remaining  powers  of 
the  sheriff  as  a  judge  in  criminal  cases,  and  left  him  only 
the  small  civil   business.     Even   this  was  shared   by  the  Manorial 
usurping  franchises  of  the  manorial  courts,  by  the  mercan- 
tile courts  of  the  staple,  and  by  the  special  local  tribunals  courts, 
of  the  boroughs  and  other  privileged  places.  Municipal 

No  wonder  that  the  county  court  dwindled  into  insig- 
nificance ;  the  startling  fact  is  that  its  rivals  in  civil 
business  dwindled  too.  The  manorial  courts  ceased  to 
decide  suits  that  did  not  directly  affect  manorial  rights; 
the  organisation  of  the  staple  disappeared ;  the  borough 
courts  decayed  along  with  other  municipal  institutions. 
And  it  remains  one  of  the  puzzles  of  English  legal  history 
to  find  out  how  the  yeoman  or  small  tradesman  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  who  had  a  petty 
claim  for  the  value  of  goods  or  services,  could  proceed  to 
enforce  it.  Had  he  actually  to  try  the  case  at  assizes  ? 

But,  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  cry 
for  cheap  local  tribunals  for  civil  business  made  itself 
strongly  felt,  and  was  met  in  a  most  unscientific  way 
by  the  creation  of  isolated  Courts  of  Requests  (or  Con-  Courts  of 
science,  as  they  were  sometimes  called)  in  such  parts  of  the 
country  as  seemed  most  to  need  them.  In  most  cases 
each  court  had  its  own  private  Act  of  Parliament,  which 
prescribed  its  powers,  and  although  these  numerous  private 
Acts  were,  by  a  statute  of  1754,  declared  to  be  "public  " 


78  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

(/.*.,  part  of  the  general  law  of  which  judges  are  bound  to 
take  notice,  even  though  their  attention  is  not  specially 
called  to  it),  the  evils  of  the  original  plan  continued 
manifest.  Accordingly,  the  present  uniform  system  was 
started  by  a  comprehensive  statute  of  the  year  1846,  which 
swept  away  about  a  hundred  Courts  of  Requests.  The 
County  Court  system  was,  therefore,  called  into  existence, 
to  fill  the  gap  left  by  the  disappearance  of  the  old  sheriffs 
County  Court ;  and  hence  its  name.  But  its  scheme  is 
very  different  from  that  of  its  predecessor.  It  has  had 
palpable  success,  its  scope  has  been  more  than  once  en- 
larged, and  the  law  concerning  it  is  now  mainly  to  be  found 
in  the  provisions  of  the  County  Courts  Act  of  1888. 

The  modern  County  Court,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Petty  Sessional  Court,  is  a  court  of  civil,  not  of  criminal 
jurisdiction.  That  is  to  say,  it  disposes  of  small  disputes 
between  one  private  citizen  or  corporation  and  another ;  it 
does  not  deal  with  the  punishment  of  offenders  by  the 
State.  On  the  other  hand,  it  resembles  the  Petty  Sessional 
Court  in  deciding  suits  which  are  too  small  to  take  up 
the  time  of  the  superior  courts ;  and  which,  for  the 
sake  of  litigants  and  the  public  alike,  require  to  be 
dealt  with  cheaply  and  speedily.  But  it  has  no  juris- 
diction (or  only  in  a  few  cases)  corresponding  with  that 
which  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  exercises  in  preparing  the 
preliminaries  of  a  case  for  the  superior  tribunal. 

The  County  Court  District  is,  then,  an  area  of  local 
civil  jurisdiction,  constituted,  under  powers  conferred  by 
statute,  by  an  Order  of  the  Privy  Council,  which  may  re- 
arrange or  destroy  it  altogether.  The  five  hundred  and  odd 
County  Court  Districts  of  England  and  Wales  are  grouped 
into  fifty-five  circuits,  each  comprising  from  one  to  fifteen 


THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT  79 

"court  towns,"  according  to  the  area  and  density  of 
population.  The  thickly  populated  Liverpool  circuit,  with 
its  small  area,  has  but  five  court  towns ;  the  large  and 
sparsely  settled  Aberystwith  circuit  has  eighteen. 

The  County  Court  judge,  who  is  a  barrister  of  at  least  The  judge. 
seven  years'  standing,  appointed  by  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
is  the  judge  of  the  circuit?-  not  of  the  district,  and  holds 
his  sittings  at  one  or  other  of  the  court  towns  of  his 
circuit  as  often  as  the  exigencies  of  business  demand  it. 
He  tries  cases  upon  oral  evidence,  and,  generally  speaking, 
without  a  jury,  although  in  cases  where  the  value  involved 
exceeds  ^£5,  either  party  may,  if  he  pleases,  demand 
a  jury.  (If  his  case  be  an  honest  one,  he  will  be 

very   foolish    to    do    so.)      But    although    the   judge    has   Import- 

. .    o      i        i       •  ...  ance  of  the 

jurisdiction    over   the  circuit,-   the   business   arising  in   a  District. 

district  must,  as  a  rule,  be  disposed  of  in  that  same 
district.  That  is  to  say,  the  district  in  which  the  de- 
fendant resides  or  carries  on  business,  or  where  the  property 
in  dispute  is  situated,  or  where  the  bankrupt  or  deceased 
lived,  is  the  district  in  which  proceedings  must  be  taken. 
The  plaintiff  cannot  choose  a  particular  court  town  in  the 
circuit  because  he  has  a  fancy  for  the  air  of  it. 

Besides  its  judge,  each  County  Court  has  its  own  Registrar. 
Registrar,  High  Bailiff,  and  other  officials  for  conducting 
its  clerical  and  executive  business.  The  Registrar  is 
a  solicitor  of  at  least  five  years'  standing,  appointed  by 
the  judge  with  the  approval  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and 
paid  by  salary  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  Court's 
business.  As  a  rule  the  Registrar  may  engage  in  private 

1  Occasionally,  e.g.,   in   the  Liverpool  circuit,  there  are  two  con- 
current ju<lges,  who  divide  the  business  between  them  by  arrangement. 
*  And,  if  necessary,  he  may  be  directed  to  act  in  any  County  Court. 


So  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

practice  not  connected  with  the  Court,  but  if  the  Court 
business  is  very  heavy,  it  may  be  made  a  condition  of  his 
appointment  that  he  is  not  to  practise  at  all.  He  may  be 
defined  as  the  chief  clerical  official  of  the  Court.  He 
issues  all  summonses  and  orders,  keeps  an  account1  of  the 
proceedings  which  take  place,  receives  and  accounts  for  all 
fees  and  other  monies  paid  in,  and,  generally  speaking,  is 
responsible  for  the  routine  business  of  the  Court.2  The 
High  High  Bailiff  is  appointed  by  the  judge,  without  special 

approval  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  but  the  latter  may,  if  he 
think  fit,  remove  him.  The  High  Bailiff  is  charged  with 
the  execution  of  the  orders  and  proceedings  of  the  Court, 
e.g.,  he  or  his  assistant  delivers  the  summonses,  warrants, 
and  so  on  to  the  parties  affected,  enforces  judgment  by 
seizure  and  sale  of  goods,  and  compels  the  attendance  of 
witnesses.  The  High  Bailiff  is  paid  partly  by  salary  and 
partly  by  fees.  No  person  may  be  appointed  to  act  as 
Registrar  or  High  Bailiff  in  more  than  one  County  Court ; 
but  it  is  the  policy  of  the  legislature  to  provide  for  the 
future  combination  in  one  person  of  the  offices  of  Registrar 
and  High  Bailiff  of  the  same  court. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  County  Court  has  been  steadily 
growing  during  the  last  forty  years,  and  is  now  very  ex- 
tensive. It  may  be  most  clearly  outlined  under  six 
heads — 

(i.)  "  Common  Law"  jurisdiction — i.e.,  in  matters  formerly 
cognisable    by    the    old    Courts    of    King's    Bench, 

1  The  County  Court  is  not,  technically,  a  "Court  of  Record,"  i.e., 
a  court  whose  account  of  its  own  proceedings  cannot  be  questioned. 
Presumably  the  correctness  of  a  document  issued  from  a  County  Court 
might  be  questioned. 

a  He  may  even,  on  the  application  of  the  parties,  and  by  leave  of  the 
judge,  decide  disputed  claims  which  do  not  amount  to  405. 


THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT  81 

Common   Pleas,   and    Exchequer.     Here  the   Court 

has  jurisdiction  to  try  any  claim   not  exceeding  in 

value  £$o,  except  cases  involving 

(a)   Ejectment^    i.e.,    recovery   of  possession  of  land. 

Here  the  limit  of  jurisdiction  is  ^50  annual 

value  of  the  land   in   question,  which  must  be 

within  the  District.     (The  claim  to  possession  of 

land  of  far  greater  value  may  be  only  worth  ^50.) 

(/3)  Title  to  land  or  rights  in  connection  with  land.1 

Here  the  limit  is  ^50  annual  value  or  rent,  but 

the  property  need  not  be  situated  in  the  District. 

But  with  the  consent  of  the  parties,  a  judge  may 

decide  such  a  question  beyond  the  limits  stated. 

His  decision  will  not,  however,  be  binding  on 

persons  not  represented  in  the  proceedings. 

(y)  Claims   for   libel,  slander,  seduction,   or  breach  of 

promise  of  marriage.     These  claims  can  never  be 

brought  directly  into  the  County  Court. 

But  claims  beyond  the  ^50  limit  may  be  "  remitted"  by   Remitted 

a  superior  Court  for  trial  in  the  County  Court  in  certain 

cases.     Thus,  in  an  action  brought  upon  a  contract  in  the 

High  Court  to  recover  a  sum  not  exceeding  ^100,  either 

party  may  apply  to  have  the  case  remitted  to  a  County 

Court,  and   the  High  Court  Judge   must,  unless  there  is 

good  cause  to  the  contrary,  grant  the  request.     And  in  any 

action  of  tort2  brought  in  the  High  Court,  if  the  defendant 

1  "  Corporeal  or  incorporeal  hereditaments  .  .  .  toll,  fair,  market, 
or  franchise."  The  words  in  the  text  are  a  sufficiently  correct  render- 
ing for  general  purposes.  It  is  doubtful,  on  the  wording  of  the  Act, 
whether  a  County  Court  can  try  the  title  to  a  "  toll,  fair,  market,  or 
franchise  "  of  any  value,  without  consent ;  but  it  is  clear  from  decisions 
that  at  present  the  view  is  that  it  cannot  do  so. 

*  Civil  wrongs  fall  into  two  great  classes  ;  those  which  are  breaches 

F 


82  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

will  swear  that  the  plaintiff  has  no  apparent  means  of  pay- 
ing costs,  should  he  be  defeated,  the  High  Court  may  order 
the  plaintiff  to  give  security  for  costs,  or  to  submit  to  a 
transfer  of  the  action  to  a  County  Court.  Moreover,  the 
Consent  County  Court  has  a  general  jurisdiction  to  try  any  common 
law  cases  if  both  parties  agree  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction. 
RemoviU  to  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  claim  on  contract  exceeding  £20, 
o5Srt°r  or  on  tort  exceeding  ;£io,  is  brought  in  the  County  Court, 
the  defendant  may,  if  he  can  persuade  the  judge  that  an 
important  question  of  law  or  fact  is  to  be  tried,  and  upon 
giving  security,  have  the  proceedings  in  the  County  Court 
stayed.  The  value  of  the  remitting  power  of  the  High 
Court  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  the  year  1892,  1778  cases 
were  compulsorily  sent  down  to  the  County  Court,  and 
that  of  these  only  1070  were  tried.  For  if  a  plaintiff  who 
brings  his  action  in  the  High  Court  is  not  prepared  to 
enforce  it  by  the  simpler  and  cheaper  machinery  of  the 
County  Court,  it  is  probable  that  his  proceedings  are  not 
bona  fide. 

(2.)  "  Equity  "  jurisdiction — i.e.,  in  certain  matters  formerly 
dealt  with  by  the  old  Court  of  Chancery,  such  as  the 
winding  up  of  the  estates  of  deceased  persons,  the 
execution  of  trusts,  the  enforcement  of  mortgages,  the 
"specific  performance"1  of  contracts,  the  rectification 
and  setting  aside  of  contracts,  proceedings  affecting 
the  conduct  of  trustees,  the  administration  of  the 

of  agreement  entered  into  between  the  parties,  and  those  which  do  not 
arise  directly  out  of  agreements.     The  latter  are  called  "  torts." 

1  The  rule  of  the  Common  Law  is  that  if  A  will  not  perform  his 
contract  with  B,  all  that  B  can  do  is  to  make  him  pay  damages.  But 
B  may  much  prefer  to  have  the  contract  performed  "  specifically,"  i.e., 
actually  ;  and  in  a  few  cases  a  court  of  equity  will  enforce  such  per- 
formance. 


THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT  83 

affairs  of  infants,  and  the  dissolution  of  partnership. 
Many  of  these  matters  are  not  litigious  at  all ;  the 
Court  acts  as  genial  adviser  and  supervisor,  rather 
than  as  judge.  And  the  general  rule  is  that  the 
County  Court  judge  may  in  these  matters  do  all  that 
a  judge  of  the  Chancery  Division  might  do,  provided 
only  that  the  property  in  question  does  not  exceed 
^"500.  Chancery  proceedings  commenced  in  the 
High  Court  may,  as  in  common  law  cases,  be  remitted 
to  a  County  Court;  but  the  power  to  remit  exists 
only  where  the  case  might  originally  have  been  brought 
in  the  County  Court.  During  the  year  1892  the 
County  Courts  dealt  with  723  equitable  cases,  in- 
volving property  to  the  value  of  ,£83,000. 

(3)  "Admiralty"  cases — i.e.,  claims  for  salvage,  towage, 
necessaries  supplied  to  a  ship,  seamen's  wages,  damage 
by  collision  at   sea,  for  hire  of  ship,  or  carriage  of 
goods.     Here  the  claim,  if  for  towage,  necessaries,  or 
wages,    must    not    exceed   ^150;    if  on    any   other 
account,  ^£300 — unless,  indeed,  the  parties  agree  to 
submit    larger    claims.     Moreover,    it    is    only   those 
County  Courts  specially  appointed  by  Order  in  Council 
which  have  Admiralty  jurisdiction ;  and  no  Order  in 
Council  can  confer  upon  a  County  Court  any  jurisdic- 
tion in  prize  or  slave-trade  cases.     In  the  year   1892 
there  were  23  County  Courts  (including  the  City  of 
London  Court)   having  Admiralty  jurisdiction ;   and 
between  them  they  entertained   proceedings  in  545 
cases,   of  which   225   were  in  the  City  of  London 
Court. 

(4)  "  Bankruptcy  "  jurisdiction. — Here,  in  ordinary  cases, 

the  jurisdiction  of  the  County  Court  is  unlimited  in 


84  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

amount,  and  the  County  Court  has  full  powers  to 
conduct  bankruptcy  proceedings.  But  many  County 
Courts  are  expressly  excluded  from  bankruptcy  juris- 
diction by  the  Bankruptcy  Act,  1883,  and  in  the  year 
1892,  apparently  only  400  did  bankruptcy  business, 
imprison-  disposing  of  2700  cases.  Besides  the  ordinary  cases  of 

debtors.  bankruptcy,  the  County  Court  may  exercise  the  rare 

power  of  committing  to  prison  a  debtor  who  refuses  to 
obey  the  order  of  the  Court  for  payment  of  a  sum  of 
money.  The  Court,  however,  will  never  take  such  an 
extreme  step  unless  satisfied  that  the  debtor  really  can 
pay  if  he  chooses.  A  new  and  useful  branch  of 
bankruptcy  business  is  the  power  conferred  upon  the 
County  Court  by  the  Act  of  1883,  in  any  case  in 
which  judgment  has  been  obtained  against  a  man  who 
alleges  that  he  cannot  pay  and  that  his  total  indebted- 
ness does  not  amount  to  ,£50,  to  make  an  order  for 
the  administration  of  his  estate.  2112  such  orders 
were  made  in  the  year  1892,  and  the  Courts  succeeded 
in  realising  a  sum  of  ^3378  for  the  creditors. 
(5)  "  Testamentary"  jurisdiction. — No  County  Court  can 
grant  a  Probate,  i.e.,  the  official  authority  to  an 
executor  to  act,  nor  can  it  make  an  administrator  of 
the  estate  of  a  person  who  has  died  intestate.  A 
fortiori,  it  cannot  collect  the  "  death  duties "  of  any 
estates.  But  where  there  is  any  dispute  as  to  the 
existence  or  genuineness  of  a  will,  or  the  identity  of 
an  executor,  or  the  claim  of  a  person  to  be  adminis- 
trator, the  County  Court  in  whose  District  the  deceased 
died  can  decide  the  question,  provided  that  the  gross 
personalty  to  which  the  deceased  died  entitled  in  his 
own  right  did  not  exceed  ^"200,  and  his  realty  did 


THE  COUNTY  COURT  DISTRICT  85 

not  amount  to  ^300,  and  provided  that  the  deceased's 
abode  was  not  in  the  Metropolitan  District.  Moreover, 
by  certain  useful  provisions  of  recent  statutes,  where  a 
man  or  a  widow  dies  intestate,  worth  only  ;£ioo  or 
less,  the  County  Court  officials  of  the  District  in  which 
he  or  she  lived  may  fill  up  the  necessary  papers  and 
apply  for  administration  on  behalf  of  any  applicant 
who  is  the  widow  or  child  of  the  deceased,  and  who 
lives  more  than  three  miles  from  the  Probate  Registry 
having  jurisdiction  in  the  matter. 

(6)  "  Miscellaneous  "jurisdiction. — Finally,  by  the  provisions 
of  a  large  number  of  modern  statutes,  e.g.,  the  Em- 
ployers' Liability  Acts,  the  Friendly  Societies  Acts, 
the  Agricultural  Holdings  Act,  and  others,  jurisdiction 
in  a  vast  number  of  special  cases  is  conferred  upon 
the  County  Court.  No  generalisations  upon  the  sub- 
ject can  usefully  be  made  ;  the  terms  of  the  jurisdiction 
can  only  be  learned  by  reference  to  the  statutes  them- 
selves.1 

Judged  by  the  use  made  of  them,  the  County  Courts 
have  been  an  unqualified  success.  In  the  year  1892, 
1,101,075  plamts  (i.e.,  initial  steps  in  legal  proceedings) 
were  issued  by  them.  1,087,300  of  these  were  for  amounts 
under  £20,  12,621  for  sums  between  £20  and  £50,  and 

1  One  of  the  most  important  branches  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  County 
Court  is  in  replevin  cases,  i.e.,  where  goods  which  have  been  seized  in 
legal  process  against  A  are  claimed  by  B.  If  B  will  give  security  to 
cover  the  value  of  the  goods  and  the  costs  of  the  proceedings,  the  goods 
will  be  handed  over  to  him,  and  he  will  be  bound  to  commence  an  action 
at  once  against  A's  creditor  to  justify  his  claim.  This  action  may  be 
brought  either  in  the  High  Court  or  in  the  County  Court,  but  in  any 
case  the  preliminary  steps  will  be  taken  in  the  County  Court. 


86  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

1154  for  claims  exceeding  £50.  The  total  sum  recovered 
for  litigants  was  £1,689,824,  exclusive  of  cases  settled 
out  of  court.  It  seems  possible,  on  the  face  of  it,  that 
the  cry  for  the  localisation  of  justice  will  be  met  by  a 
further  increase  in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  County  Courts. 
The  great  objection  to  this  course  is  that,  at  present, 
County  Court  proceedings  do  not  pay  a  fair  working 
remuneration  to  solicitors,  and  they  are  therefore  unpopular 
with  the  abler  members  of  that  profession.  Cheap  law  is 
good,  but  law  may  be  too  cheap,  i.e.,  nominally  too  cheap, 
as  litigants  in  France  and  America  know  to  their  cost. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  the  law  administered 
by  the  County  Courts  is  precisely  the  same  as  that  ad- 
ministered by  the  superior  courts  in  parallel  cases.  It  is 
only  the  procedure  which  is  different. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    POOR    LAW    UNION 

THE  Poor  Law  Union,  as  a  normal  institution  of  English 
Local  Government,  dates  from  the  Poor  I^aw  Amendment  Gilbert's 
Act   of   1834.       But    the   cost   of    maintaining   separate  Act- 
machinery  for  the  administration  of  poor  relief  in  every 
parish,  and  the  other  evils  attendant  upon  a  too  minute 
subdivision  of  authorities,  had,  even  before  the  legislation 
of  1834,  induced  the  State  to  sanction  and  even  encourage 
the  union  of  parishes  for  purposes  of  poor  law  administra 
tion.     These  tentative  measures  date  from  the  year  1662. 

Two  points  should  be  especially  remembered  with  regard 
to  the  scheme  of  1834.     In   the  first  place  it  was  not  Act  of  1834 
compulsory  in  character.      It   merely  enabled  parishes  to  pJjsSry!" 
combine  together  for  purposes  of  poor  law  administration  ; 
and,  although  the  central  Government  may  compel  parishes 
to  unite  if  it  appears  obviously  better  that  they  should  do 
so,  there  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  many  large  parishes  which 
(either  with  or  without   special    legislative  sanction)  still 
administer   their  own    poor  relief.      This   fact   has    been 
recognised  by  very  recent  legislation,  which  defines  a  Poor 
Law  Union  as  "  any  parish  or  union  of  parishes  for  which   interpreta- 
there  is  a  separate  Board  of  Guardians." 

In   the   second    place,    though   the   great   majority   of  ^J-^jjyj 
parishes  are  united  for  the  purpose  of  poor  law  administra-  jndividual- 
,  there  are,  practically,  none  which  unite  for  purposes  Joshes. 

87 


88  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

of  poor  law  maintenance.  The  cost  of  poor  relief,  and  the 
expenses  incident  to  the  machinery  of  administration,  are 
paid  out  of  the  Union's  common  fund ;  but  this  common 
fund  is  (in  the  absence  of  special  order)  collected  by  the 
overseers  in  each  parish.  The  amount  which  a  parish  con- 
tributes depends  entirely  upon  its  rateable  value,  and  the 
authorities  of  the  Union  have,  prima  facie,  nothing  to  do 
with  the  sources  from  which  it  comes,  or  the  mode  in 
which  it  is  collected.  Under  the  legislation  of  1834,  the 
distinction  between  the  several  parishes  composing  a  Union 
was  still  stronger,  for  unless  they  agreed  (which  they, 
practically,  never  did)  to  consolidate  for  all  purposes  of 
poor  relief,  each  parish  contributed  only  to  the  extent  of 
the  cost  incurred  in  maintaining  its  own  poor,  i.e.,  those 
paupers  who,  by  virtue  of  the  law  of  "  settlement,"  belonged 
to  its  own  area,  together  with  a  share  of  the  general  work- 
ing expenses  of  the  Union.  But  the  Union  Chargeability 
Act  of  1865  abolished  this  excessive  particularity,  though 
it  by  no  means  extinguished  the  individuality  of  the  com- 
ponent parishes  of  a  Union. 

The  general  supervision  of  the  administration  of  the 
poor  relief  throughout  England  and  Wales  was  placed  by 
the  Act  of  1834  in  the  hands  of  a  body  known  as  the 
Poor  Law  Commissioners.  This  body  was  superseded  in 
the  year  1847  °Y  a  new  Commission,  generally  known  as 
the  Poor  Law  Board ;  and  this  again,  on  the  formation  of 
the  Local  Government  Board  in  1871,  gave  up  its  powers 
to  the  newly  created  body,  which  now  remains  the  central 
authority  in  Poor  Law  matters. 

The  Poor  Law  Union  then  (of  which  there  appear  to  be 
648  in  England  and  Wales l)  is  an  area  for  the  administra- 

1  Rrport  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3.     App.  P.,  p.  490. 


THE  POOR  LAW  UNION  89 

tion  of  poor  relief,  being  usually  a  combination  of  parishes 
formed  either  by  agreement  or  by  order  of  the  central  govern- 
ment, but  occasionally  still  a  single  parish.  A  comparison  of 
figures  shews  that  there  is  an  average  of  between  twenty- 
two  and  twenty-three  parishes  to  every  Union  ;  but  such  a 
result  is  necessarily  fallacious.  The  actual  number  of 
parishes  in  a  Union  is  purely  arbitrary,  being  settled  by 
such  considerations  as  those  of  size,  density  of  population, 
and  the  like.  Whether  the  Union  be  a  single  parish  or  a 
number  of  parishes,  the  poor  law  authority  is  always  a 
Board  of  Guardians,  and  at  the  present  time  a  Board  of  Present 
Guardians  (in  the  absence  of  special  legislation)  consists  of 
the  Justices  of  the  Peace  resident  in  the  Union  (who  are 
ex-officio  members)  and  a  number  of  representative  guardians 
elected  by  the  owners  and  ratepayers  of  the  constituent 
parishes  of  the  Union,  upon  a  cumulative  vote  ranging 
from  one  to  six,  according  to  the  value  of  the  property  for 
which  they  are  respectively  rated.  There  must  be  at  least 
one  elective  Guardian  for  each  constituent  parish  contain- 
ing a  population  of  300,  but  smaller  parishes  may  be 
united.  A  property  qualification  for  the  elective  Guardians 
(not  exceeding  a  ratal  value  of  ^40)  is  fixed  by  the  Local 
Government  Board,  and  the  Guardians  sit  for  one  year 
only,  unless  the  Board,  with  the  consent  of  a  majority  of 
the  ratepayers,  resolves  that  it  will  sit  longer.  Even  under 
the  present  law  women  are  (it  is  said)  entitled  to  act,  both 
as  electors  and  Guardians. 

But  by  the  law  which  will  come  into  force  in  November  The 
next  (1894)  great  changes  will  be  introduced  into  the  con- 


stitution  of  Boards  of  Guardians.     In  the  first  place,  there  jjj^" 

will  be  no  more  nominee  or  ex-officio  Guardians  \  and  the  Guardians. 

property  qualification   for  the  office  is  impliedly  (though  pJrtyquali- 
not  expressly)  swept  away. 


90  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

No  one  will  be  eligible  as  a  Guardian  for  any  parish 
unless  he  is  either  a  parochial  elector  of  or  has  for  twelve 
months  resided  in  some  parish  (not  necessarily  that  for 
which  he  is  standing)  within  the  Union ;  or  unless,  in  the 
case  of  a  candidate  for  a  parish  wholly  within  a  borough, 
he  is  qualified  to  be  a  member  of  the  borough  council. 
On  the  other  hand,  neither  sex  nor  marriage  will  disqualify 
for  voting  or  for  election,  but,  generally  speaking,  the 
disqualifications  for  the  office  of  parochial  councillor  apply 
to  that  of  Guardian,1  and,  in  addition,  the  fact  of  serving 
as  a  paid  Poor  Law  officer  anywhere  is  a  bar.  It  is  said 
that  the  office  of  a  Guardian  is  not  compulsory. 

Again,  all  Guardians  (with  the  exception  to  be  hereafter 
noted)  will  be  elected  on  an  uniform  plan  by  the  parochial 
electors  of  each  parish,  or,  if  the  parish  is  very  large,  of 
the  wards  into  which  it  has  been  subdivided  for  purposes 
of  election.  In  the  case  of  Guardians  for  a  rural  parish, 
the  parochial  electors  will  be  the  persons  who  will  elect 
the  parish  councillors ; 2  and,  in  an  urban  parish,  the 
persons  who,  if  the  parish  were  rural,  would  elect  the 
councillors.  Who  those  persons  are  we  have  already  seen. 
As  in  the  case  of  parish  elections,  each  elector  will  have 
one  vote  for  each  vacancy,  and  cumulation  will  not  be 
allowed.  If  there  is  a  contest,  the  poll  will  be  taken  by 
ballot,  and  not,  as  at  the  present  time,  by  voting  papers 
left  at  the  houses  of  the  electors. 

1  The  disqualification  for  crime  is  wider  than  in  the  case  of  a 
parish  councillor.  Any  conviction  for  felony,  fraud,  or  perjury,  how- 
ever long  ago,  will,  apparently,  disqualify  a  candidate  for  the  office  of 
Guardian. 

9  There  will  not,  in  fact,  be  any  election  of  Guardians  as  Guardians 
in  a  rural  parish,  but  there  will  be  an  election  of  (rural)  District  Coun- 
cillors who  will  act  as  Guardians.  (See/<v/,  p.  105.) 


THE  POOR  LAW  UNION  91 

Once  more,  the  term  of  office  of  a  Guardian  will  be  Te""  of 
three  years,  and,  usually,  one-third  of  the  Board  will  retire 
annually ;    but,   upon   the  application   of  the   Board,   the 
County  Council  will  be  able  to  sanction  the  simultaneous 
retirement  of  all  the  members. 

Finally,  by  a  curious  provision,  intended,  doubtless,  to  Additional 
soothe  the  feelings  of  the  ejected  ex-officio  guardians,  a 
Board  of  Guardians  will  be  able  to  elect  its  chairman 
and  vice-chairman,  and  not  more  than  two  other  persons, 
as  "  additional "  members  of  the  Board,  from  outsiders 
who  are  qualified  to  hold  the  office  of  Guardian  ;  but  if, 
on  the  first  of  such  occasions,  there  are  existing  ex-officio 
or  nominated  Guardians  (who  have  actually  served),  and 
they  are  willing  to  accept  office,  the  preference  must  be 
given  to  them. 

Thus  much  for  the  constitution  of  Boards  of  Guardians. 
A  word  now  as  to  their  powers  and  duties. 

The  primary  object  of  the  existence  of  Guardians  is,   Poor  relief. 
of  course,   the  relief  of  the   poor.     If  we  leave  out  of 
account  the  very  limited  powers  of  granting  relief  still 
vested  in  the  overseers,  all  the  distribution  of  the  seven  or 
eight  millions  annually  spent  in  the  official  relief  of  the 
poor  is  in  their  hands.     Roughly  speaking,  there  are  two 
ways  in  which  a  pauper  may  be  relieved,  and  opinion 
is  very  much  divided  as  to  their  respective  merits.     Either 
he  may  be  taken  into  a  workhouse  or  asylum  provided  by 
the  authorities,  and  there  housed,  clothed,  and  fed  at  the  indoor 
expense  of  the  rates ;  and  this  either  as  a  casual  occur- 
rence, on  occasions  of  temporary  necessity,  or  as  a  per- 
manent provision.     Or,  relief  may  be  granted  by  doles,  Outdoor 
provision  of  work,  or  other  means,  to  applicants  who  live 
in  their  own  homes.     Certainly  it   may  be  said   that  it 


92  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

never  was  the  intention  of  the  law  that  any  but  the 
"  impotent  poor,"  i.e.,  those  persons  who  had  no  reason- 
able prospect  of  earning  their  livings  independently,  should 
be  permanently  isolated  from  ordinary  life,  and  maintained 
at  the  expense  of  the  rates.  But  "  impotency "  is,  of 
course,  a  relative  term,  and  the  extreme  difficulty  of  gaug- 
ing the  genuineness  of  applicants  for  outdoor  relief  has 
inclined  the  authorities  to  strain  somewhat  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  term,  and  to  use  admission  to  the  workhouse 
as  a  test  of  real  bona  fide  poverty.  Needless  to  say,  the 
inmate  of  the  workhouse  is  not  entitled  to  spend  his  days 
in  idleness ;  but  the  low  standard  of  task  work,  com- 
bined with  the  unwillingness  of  Poor  Law  authorities  to 
compete  with  independent  labour,  and  the  growing  feeling 
of  industrial  organisations  against  allowing  protected  goods 
to  be  put  upon  the  market,  tend  to  reduce  the  value  of 
the  workhouse  output.  Notwithstanding,  however,  the 
feeling  of  Guardians  in  favour  of  indoor  relief,  its  amount, 
both  actually  and  relatively  to  the  amount  spent  in  outdoor 
relief,  has  shewn  a  perceptible  diminution  in  the  last  few 
years. 

The  extreme  importance  of  the  subject  of  indoor  relief 
is  that  it  cannot  legally  be  refused  to  those  who  genuinely 
stand  in  need  of  it,  and  shew  the  necessary  title.  This 
title  is  technically  known  as  settlement  within  a  parish 
comprised  in  the  Union.  The  law  of  settlement,  at  any 
rate  in  its  simpler  form,  dates  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  Poor  Law  itself,  but  its  evil  reputation  arises  from  the 
complications  introduced  into  it  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  and  there  can  be  small  doubt  that  grave 
suffering  and  wrong  were  inflicted  in  its  name  for  many 
generations.  So  long  as  a  parish  administered  its  own 


THE  POOR  LAW  UNION  93 

poor  relief,  so  long  even  as  it  was  responsible  for  the 
actual  cost  of  the  paupers  who  claimed  "settlement" 
in  it,  the  object  of  the  parish  authorities  was  to  reduce 
by  every  possible  means  the  number  of  its  inhabitants 
who  were  at  all  likely  ever  to  fall  into  poverty.  A  certain  Removal 
statute  of  the  year  1662  gave  the  parish  authorities  power  i^te 
to  apply  to  two  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  an  order  to 
remove  from  the  parish,  within  forty  days  after  their  arrival, 
all  persons  likely  to  become  chargeable  to  the  poor 
rate,  unless  they  inhabited  a  tenement  of  the  annual 
value  of  ;£io,  or  gave  security  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
Justices.  By  refusing  to  build  or  allow  to  be  built  any 
cottages  of  less  annual  value  than  £10  (a  safe  margin 
in  days  when  the  average  yearly  wage  of  a  labourer  was 
about  the  same  sum),  the  landowners  of  a  "  close  "  parish 
(i.e.,  a  parish  in  which  all  the  land  belonged  to  one  or  two 
large  proprietors)  could  pretty  effectually  keep  down  the 
increase  of  population,  and  the  zeal  of  the  parish  officers 
would  do  the  rest.  Since  the  abolition  of  specific  parochial 
liability  in  1865,  the  desire  of  a  parish  to  rid  itself  of 
possible  paupers  has  been  less  marked,  but  as  the  law  of 
settlement  still  determines  the  liability  of  a  Union,  it  is 
necessary  to  state  it  here  in  bare  outline.  The  grounds 
upon  which  settlement  in  a  parish  may  be  claimed 
are — 

(i.)  Birth. — In  the  absence  of  proof  of  any  other  settle- 
ment,   the   old   rule    holds,    that   a   man   is   legally 
"  settled  "  in  the  parish  in  which  he  was  born.     But  Derivative 
if,  in  the  case  of  a  child  under  the  age  of  sixteen,  it  setllement* 
be   proved    that    its    father    or   (if  he   be  dead)    its 
widowed  mother  has  or  had  a  settlement  in  another 
parish,  the  presumption  is  shifted   to  the  parish  of 


94  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

settlement  of  the  parent  in  question.1  A  similar  rule 
holds  with  regard  to  the  settlement  of  a  married 
woman,  who  takes  that  of  her  husband  instead  of  that 
of  her  birth.  But,  of  course,  in  either  of  these  cases 
of  "  derivative "  settlement,  the  pauper  may  have 
acquired  a  settlement  of  his  or  her  own  by  any  other 
title. 

(ii.)  Ownership  of  property. — Towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century  it  was  decided  by  the  Courts  that 
a  man  could  not  be  removed  under  the  statute  of 
1662  from  a  parish  in  which  he  had  an  estate  in  land. 
If,  therefore,  such  a  man  resided  in  the  parish  for 
forty  days  (the  limit  of  time  allowed  by  the  statute  for 
application  for  an  order  of  removal),  he  acquired  a 
legal  settlement.  And  the  rule  still  holds ;  but  the 
Poor  Law  Amendment  Act  of  1834  has  provided 
that  a  settlement  acquired  by  the  ownership  of  pro- 
perty shall  last  only  so  long  as  the  claimant  resides 
within  ten  miles  of  the  parish.2 

(iii.)  Occupation  of  a  tenement  of  the  yearly  value  of  £10.— 
By  a  similar  course  of  reasoning,  a  man  who  came  to 
occupy  a  tenement  of  the  value  of  ^10  a  year  could 
not  be  removed  under  the  statute  of  1662,  and  he, 
therefore,  acquired  a  settlement  after  forty  days.  And 
this  rule  still  holds,  modified,  however,  by  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Poor  Law  Amendment  Act  of  1834, 
which  requires  one  year's  payment  of  poor  rates  in 
respect  of  the  qualifying  tenement. 

1  In  the  case  of  an  illegitimate  child  the  settlement  derived  is  that  of 
the  mother. 

2  The  wording  of  the  section  left  it  doubtful  whether  the  limit  of 
residence  was  ten  miles  from  the  parish  or  from  the  estate.     But  it  has 
been  decided  that  the  view  stated  in  the  text  is  the  correct  one. 


THE  POOR  LAW  UNION  95 

(iv.)  Apprenticeship  under  a  deed,  followed  by  residence  for 
forty  days  under  its  provisions  in  any  parish,  confers  a 
settlement. 

(v.)  Residence. — Finally,  after  a  voluntary  residence  in  a 
parish  for  a  period  of  one  year,  a  person  cannot  be 
removed ;  and,  after  a  similar  residence  for  three  years, 
he  is  to  be  deemed  to  be  settled  in  the  parish  of 
residence  until  he  has  acquired  some  other  settlement. 
There  were  formerly  other  means  of  acquiring  a  settle- 
ment, e.g.,  by  payment  of  highway  rates,  hiring  and  service, 
service  of  office,  and  so  forth ;  but  these  have  all  been 
abolished.  The  chief  difficulty  of  the  law  of  settlement 
now  appears  to  be  in  ascertaining  the  priority  of  liabilities. 
If  a  man  or  a  single  woman  applies  for  relief,  and  he  or 
she  can  be  proved  to  have  resided  in  a  parish  of  the  Union 
for  a  year,  there  cannot,  as  a  general  rule,  be  any  removal. 
If  this  cannot  be  proved,  the  enquiry  must  be  directed  to 
find  the  parish  in  which  the  applicant  last  resided  for  three 
years.  Failing  this,  settlement  by  ownership,  occupation, 
or  apprenticeship  may  be  proved,  the  latest  being  (presum- 
ably) the  test  of  liability.  If  no  such  settlement  can  be 
established,  the  place  of  birth  is  the  last  resort.  Wives,  as 
we  have  seen,  take  the  settlements  of  their  husbands,  and 
children  under  sixteen  of  their  father,  in  the  absence  of 
proof  to  the  contrary.  But  the  Guardians  are  not  allowed 
to  postpone  the  giving  of  temporary  relief  on  the  ground 
that  the  applicant  is  not  settled  in  the  Union.  They  must 
give  immediate  relief  in  cases  of  urgency,  and  then  apply 
for  an  order  of  removal. 

Outdoor  relief  may  take  the  form  of  medical  attendance  Outdoor 
in  cases  of  sickness,  payment  of  funeral  expenses,  allow- 
ance in   money  or  kind  to  widows,  women   deserted  by 


96  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

their  husbands  or  whose  husbands  are  in  the  army  or  navy, 
payment  of  expenses  of  children  attending  pauper  schools, 
or  the  provision  of  work  for  able-bodied  males.  The  last- 
named  form  of  relief  is  rendered  almost  compulsory  by  an 
old-standing  Order  of  the  Poor  Law  Board,  which  directs 
that  "  every  able-bodied  male  person,  if  relieved  out  of  the 
workhouse,  shall  be  set  to  work  by  the  Guardians  and  be 
kept  employed  under  their  direction  and  superintendence 
so  long  as  he  continues  to  receive  relief."  This  Order  has 
been  somewhat  liberally  construed,  and  of  late  years  there 
has  been  a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  "  un- 
employed "  artisan  or  labourer  to  demand  the  institution  of 
relief  works  as  a  right.  So  long  as  a  Board  of  Guardians 
(either  in  their  primary  capacity  or  in  their  character  of 
rural  sanitary  authority)  can  really  find  useful  work,  not 
branded  with  the  stigma  of  pauperism,  for  decent  men  who 
are  in  temporary  difficulties,  they  will  perform  a  great  ser- 
vice to  the  community.  But  it  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  Boards  of  Guardians  are  exactly  the  authorities 
best  fitted  to  introduce  an  era  of  collective  production. 
And  it  is  quite  certain  that,  as  the  law  at  present  stands, 
no  man  has  a  legal  right  to  outdoor  relief  of  any  kind. 
He  may  go  into  the  workhouse  if  he  pleases,  and  (subject 
to  certain  exceptions)  come  out  when  he  pleases.  More 
than  this  he  cannot  claim. 

Poor  rates.  To  provide  themselves  with  funds  for  carrying  out  their 
duties  the  Guardians  of  a  Union  are  entitled  to  make  such 
demands  upon  the  overseers  of  their  constituent  parishes 
as  may  be  necessary.  The  proportionate  liability  of  each 

See  ante,  parish  being  settled  beforehand  by  the  valuation  list  drawn 
up  by  the  assessment  committee,  the  question  is  merely 
one  of  distributing  the  amount  required  at  any  time  in 


THE  POOR  LAW  UNION  97 

accordance  with  the  rateable  value  of  the  constituent 
parishes  as  shown  by  the  list.  Overseers  who  fail  to  comply 
with  an  order  of  the  Guardians  for  payment  of  money  can 
be  proceeded  against  in  a  summary  way,  either  by  convic- 
tion and  fine,  or  by  levy  against  their  goods.  The 
Guardians  have  a  similar  right  to  proceed  summarily 
against  any  person  through  whose  neglect  or  default  they 
have  been  put  to  expense.  Absconding  husbands,  absent 
soldiers  and  sailors,  and  others  who  have  failed  to  provide 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  relatives,  can  be  proceeded 
against  by  the  Guardians  for  the  recovery  of  the  expendi- 
ture incurred  in  relieving  those  for  whom  the  defaulters 
should  have  made  provision. 

Moreover,  for  the  performance  of  works  of  permanent  Loans, 
value,  a  Board  of  Guardians  is  sometimes  entitled  to  raise 
money  by  way  of  loan,  repayable  by  instalments.  Such 
works  are  workhouses,  hospitals,  ambulance  stations, 
asylums,  schools,  and  the  like,  objects  whose  benefit  will 
obviously  last  over  a  long  term  of  years.  The  security  for 
the  repayment  of  these  loans  is  the  prospect  of  forthcoming 
poor  rates.  But  no  loan  can  be  raised  without  the  sanction 
of  the  Local  Government  Board,  and  the  total  indebtedness 
of  the  Guardians  must  not  exceed  one-fourth  of  the  annual 
rateable  value  of  the  Union,  or,  in  cases  specially  considered 
by  the  Local  Government  Board,  one-half  of  such  value. 

The  ministerial  duties  of  a  Board  of  Guardians  are  per-  Union 
formed  by  a  staff  of  paid  officials,  medical  officers,  relieving  s 
officers,  valuers,  masters  and  matrons  of  workhouses,  col- 
lectors, and  clerks.     These  officials  are  appointed  by  the 
Guardians  with  the   consent   or  by  the  direction  of  the 
Local  Government  Board,  but  they  can  only  be  dismissed 
by  the  last-named  authority.     This  provision  is  necessary 


98 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Other 
functions 
of  a  Board 
of  Guar- 
dians. 


Registra- 
tion of 
births, 
deaths,  and 
marriages. 


in  order  to  secure  the  independence  and  safety  of  the 
officials.  But  it  renders  it  sometimes  very  difficult  for  a 
Board  of  Guardians  to  get  rid  of  an  incapable  servant. 

In  addition  to  their  primary  duties  in  connection  with 
the  administration  of  poor  relief,  Guardians  of  the  Poor 
have  or  may  have  various  duties  in  connection  with  sanitary 
matters,  highways,  elementary  education,  and  other  sub- 
jects. But  these  either  have  been  or  will  be  discussed  in 
connection  with  the  subjects  to  which  they  specially  relate. 
It  may,  however,  here  be  remarked  that  upon  the  Guardians 
falls  the  somewhat  invidious  task  of  enforcing  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Vaccination  Acts.  The  Poor  Law  Union  con- 
stitutes primd  facie  the  vaccination  district,  which  may, 
however,  be  divided  if  the  necessities  of  the  case  require  it. 
The  vaccination  officers  are  the  officers  of  the  Guardians, 
and  at  least  one  paid  vaccination  officer  must  be  appointed 
for  each  Union.  Finally,  the  Poor  Law  Union  constitutes  the 
district  for  the  registration  of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages, 
presided  over  by  a  Superintendent  Registrar,  who  is  usually 
the  clerk  to  the  Guardians.  Each  Union  is  divided  into  as 
many  sub-districts  as  the  Registrar  General  may  deem 
necessary,  and  a  Registrar  is  appointed  for  each  by  the 
Guardians.  But  both  Superintendent  Registrar  and  Regis- 
trar may  be  dismissed  by  the  Registrar  General,  who  is,  of 
course,  an  official  of  the  central  government,  having  his 
headquarters  in  London. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    SANITARY    DISTRICT    AND    THE    HIGHWAY    DISTRICT 

IT  is  no  light  task  to  attempt  even  the  barest  outline  of  the 
vast  and  complicated  scheme  of  English  sanitary  adminis- 
tration. Even  if  we  put  aside  (as  we  must  do)  the  special 
peculiarities  of  Metropolitan  management,  in  themselves 
almost  sufficient  for  the  study  of  a  lifetime,  we  are  bound 
to  face  the  fact  that  the  Legislature  has  deemed  it  im- 
possible to  state  the  law  on  the  subject  in  less  bulk  than 
a  great  codifying  statute  of  343  clauses,  and  some  forty  Public 
amending  Acts,  to  say  nothing  of  Orders  in  Council  in- 
numerable.  If  we  add  to  this  reflection  the  consideration 
of  the  fact  that  in  a  few  months  the  whole  existing  scheme 
will  be  cut  across  and  re-shaped  by  legislation  which  is  not 
yet  in  force,  we  shall  realise  something  of  the  magnitude  of  mem  Act, 
the  task  before  us.  l894' 

But  there  is  one  gleam  of  comfort.     The  Law  of  Public  Health 
Health  is  statutory,  not  traditional.     Our  forefathers  were  JjJJJJJj 
not  morbidly  anxious  about  drains,  offensive  trades,  con-  **<* statu- 
tagious    diseases,    overcrowding,    and    the    like.      Their 
sanitary  efforts  rarely  extended   beyond  feeble  and  spas- 
modic attempts  to  provide  a  system  of  usable  roads,  if 
indeed  unsewered  roads  can  be  deemed  a  department  of 
sanitation.      It  was  not  until  the  cholera  had  more  than 
once  wrought  havoc  in  the  land  that  any  decently  com- 

99 


ioo  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Act  of  prehensive  scheme  of  sanitation  was  adopted.  The  Public 
Health  Act  of  1848  (brought  into  existence  by  the  cholera 
of  1847),  which  constituted  a  Board  of  Public  Health  with 
numerous  local  authorities  working  under  it,  is  the  first 
great  sanitary  statute  on  the  English  statute  book.  It  was 
followed  by  revised  schemes  in  1858,  1866,  and  1872,  till, 
in  the  year  1875, tne  Sreat  statute,  which  is  the  basis  of  the 
present  law,  came  into  existence.  Consequently,  the  law 
upon  the  subject  of  sanitation,  complex  and  voluminous  as 
it  is,  is  modern  and  easily  accessible.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  pore  over  Littleton  and  Coke  to  discover  the  duties  of  a 
Local  Board  of  Health.  Patience,  not  great  antiquarian 
learning,  is  the  essential  qualification  for  the  task. 

Every  square  inch  of  land  in  England  and  Wales  (with 
the  exception  of  the  metropolitan  area)  is  supposed  to  lie 
within  the  area  of  a  sanitary  district.  All  sanitary  districts 
are  either  urban  or  rural,  but,  by  virtue  of  special  provisions 
of  the  Public  Health  Act,  a  sanitary  district  of  a  peculiar 
kind,  known  as  a  Port  sanitary  district,  may  be  constituted 
by  Order  in  Council,  and  its  administration  will  be  of  such 
a  special  kind  that  it  will,  practically,  constitute  a  third 
class.  Sanitary  districts  may  then  be  classified  as  urban, 
rural,  and  port. 

(i)  An  Urban  Sanitary  District  may  at  the  present  time 
consist  of  any  one  of  the  three  following  areas,  each 
with  its  different  sanitary  authority, 
(a)  A  Municipal  Borough. — We  have  not   yet  con- 
See/^/,  sidered  the  nature  and  constitution  of  a  muni- 
cap-  X1K  cipal  borough ;  but  for  present  purposes  it  may 
be  defined  as  an  area  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  a  town  or  city  council,  exercising  its  functions 
by  virtue  of  a  Crown  Charter.      Almost  every 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     101 

municipal  borough  is  an  urban  sanitary  district, 
and  the  borough  council  (of  the  constitution 
of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  later  on)  is 
its  sanitary  authority.  Legally  speaking,  the 
borough  council  acts  in  the  double  capacity  of 
municipal  council  and  urban  sanitary  autho- 
rity;  practically,  it  is  one  body  whose  powers 
come  from  various  sources.  There  are  at  present 
some  300  municipal  boroughs  in  England 
and  Wales ;  consequently  some  300  sanitary 
districts  and  sanitary  authorities  already  pro- 
vided for.1  The  Local  Government  Act  of 
1894  makes  practically  no  change  in  the  case 
of  the  urban  sanitary  district  which  coincides 
with  a  borough,  except,  perhaps,  that  it  will  be 
more  correct  in  the  future  to  speak  of  "  urban 
district"  than  of  "urban  sanitary  district,"  and 
that  it  will  be  lawful  to  describe  a  town  council, 
when  acting  in  its  sanitary  capacity,  as  an  "  urban 
district  council."  But  it  will  not  be  lawful 
to  alter  the  "  style  or  title  of  the  corporation  or 
council  of  a  borough." 

(ft)  An  Improvement  Act  District,  i.e.,  an  area  consti- 
tuted, prior  to  the  passing  of  the  Public 
Health  Act,  1875,  as  a  separate  sanitary  district, 

1  This  statement  is  not  strictly  true.  When  a  borough,  at  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Public  Health  Act,  1875,  lay  wholly  within  a  larger  urban 
sanitary  district,  the  authority  of  the  larger  district  is  continued.  Thus 
Oxford,  Cambridge,  Blandford,  Calne,  Wenlock,  Folkestone,  and 
Newport  (Isle  of  Wight)  are  within  larger  urban  sanitary  districts. 
This  rule  appears  to  reduce  the  actual  number  of  borough  sanitary  dis- 
tricts to  292.  (Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3,  Appendix 
P.,  p.  490). 


102  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

by  virtue  of  a  local  Improvement  Act,  and  not 
since  transformed  into  a  borough  or  a  Local 
Board  District.  Here  the  sanitary  authority  is 
the  local  Improvement  Commissioner -s,  appointed 
in  manner  provided  by  the  local  Act,  and  charged 
with  the  duty  of  carrying  out  its  provisions. 
Quite  naturally,  these  provisions  differ  in  various 
cases,  but  as  only  thirty-four  Improvement  Act 
Districts  remain,  and  as  their  distinctive  constitu- 
tions will  be  swept  away  when  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Act  of  1894  comes  into  force,  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  dealing  with  them  in  detail.  Ex- 
amples of  existing  Improvement  Act  Districts 
are  Lytham,  Fleetwood,  Birkdale,  Downham 
Market,  Hove,  Llandudno,  and  Maryport. 
(y)  A  Local  Board  District,  i.e.,  an  area,  other  than 
a  borough,  constituted  as  an  urban  sanitary  dis- 
trict by  the  Local  Government  Board  (which  has 
succeeded  to  the  functions  formerly  exercised  by 
the  Board  of  Public  Health),  under  the  provi- 
sions of  some  general  Act  of  Parliament,  such  as 
the  Public  Health  Act,  1875,  or  its  predecessors. 
Here  the  sanitary  authority  is  a  Local  Board  of 
Health,  consisting  of  a  number  of  members  fixed 
by  the  Local  Government  Board  (but  always 
divisible  by  three),  elected  by  thirds  in  each 
year,  and  serving  for  three  years.  A  member  of 
a  Local  Board  of  Health  must,  at  the  present 
time,  be  qualified  by  residence  within  seven 
miles  of  the  District,  and  by  the  possession  of 
property  or  by  the  payment  of  rates  within  the 
District  to  an  amount  varying  with  the  popula- 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     103 

tion  of  the  District.1  Apparently  there  is  no 
disqualification  on  account  of  sex,  or  on  any 
other  ground  than  existing  insolvency ;  but  a 
member  of  a  Local  Board  who  absents  himself 
from  the  meetings  for  six  months  (unless  in  case 
of  illness),  or  accepts  paid  office  under  the 
Board,  or  has  an  interest  in  a  contract  with  the 
Board,  thereby  loses  his  seat.  The  Local  Board 
is  elected  by  the  registered  owners  and  rate- 
payers of  the  District  (not  necessarily  resident), 
who  vote  in  accordance  with  the  amount  of  pro- 
perty owned  or  occupied  by  them  in  the  District, 
on  a  scale  which  rises  from  one  to  six  votes.2 
The  District  may  be  divided  into  wards  for  elec- 
tion purposes,  and,  if  there  is  a  contest,  the  poll 
is  taken  by  means  of  open  voting  papers  left  at 
the  houses  of  the  voters,  and  collected  by  the 
returning  officer's  messengers.  Local  Board 
Districts  may  be  united  under  Joint  Boards  for 
administrative  purposes.  In  the  year  ending 
Lady  Day,  1891,  there  appear  to  have  been 
682  Local  Boards  and  thirty-three  Joint  Boards 
in  England  and  Wales.3 

1  The  exact  figures  are — in  districts  containing  less  than  20,000  in- 
habitants, ^500  (realty  or  personalty),  or  ^15  rating;  in  larger  dis- 
tricts, £1000  ownership,  £30  rating. 

8  Both  for  ownership  and  occupation  property  rated  at  less  than  ^50 
confers  one  vote,  and  each  additional  ^50  an  additional  vote.  Six  is 
the  limit  for  ownership  or  occupation  ;  but  electors  who  are  both  owners 
and  bond  fide  occupants  may  vote  in  both  capacities.  Apparently  the 
possessor  of  six  votes  may  give  six  each  to  as  many  candidates  as  there 
are  vacancies,  but  not  twelve  to  one  candidate. 

*  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3,  Appendix  P.,  p. 
490. 


104 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


The  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  aims  at  providing 
an  uniform  scheme  of  constitution  for  all  urban  sanitary 
authorities  other  than  borough  councils.  Every  such 
authority  is  to  be  an  "  urban  district  council,"  and  to  con- 
sist wholly  of  elective  councillors,  who  are  either  parochial 
electors  of  some  parish  within  the  District  or  who  have 
resided  in  the  District  for  the  whole  twelve  months  preced- 
ing their  election.  No  property  qualification  whatever  will 
be  required,  and  neither  sex  nor  marriage  will  disqualify ; 
but  the  same  disqualifications  which  apply  to  the  parish 
councillor  will  apply  to  the  district  councillor.  Urban 
district  councillors  will  be  elected  by  the  parochial  electors 
of  their  district,  or,  if  the  district  is  divided  into  wards,  of 
their  ward,  and  each  elector  will  have  one  vote  and  no 
more  for  each  vacancy.  The  urban  district  councillor  will 
hold  his  office  for  three  years,  and,  generally  speaking,  the 
councillors  will  retire  by  thirds  in  each  year ;  but  upon  a 
resolution  passed  by  two-thirds  of  the  members  of  an  urban 
council  present  at  a  meeting,  the  county  council  may 
order  that  all  the  district  councillors  shall  go  out  of  office 
together  in  every  third  year.  Finally,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  fact  of  being  within  an  urban  district 
(borough  or  otherwise)  constitutes  a  parish  an  "urban 
parish,"  and,  generally  speaking,  excludes  it  from  those 
provisions  of  the  new  Local  Government  Act  which  relate 
specially  to  parishes. 

(2)  A  Rural  Sanitary  District  may  at  the  present  time 
be  defined  as  the  area  of  any  Poor  Law  Union 
which  is  wholly  outside  the  boundaries  of  all  urban 
sanitary  districts,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  Poor  Law 
Union  partly  coincident  with  an  urban  sanitary 
district  or  districts  that  part  of  it  which  is  outside 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     105 

such  district  or  districts.  The  sanitary  authority  in 
a  rural  sanitary  district  is  the  Board  of  Guardians 
of  the  Union  with  which  it  is  identical  or  in  which 
it  lies.  But  the  ex-offido  member  of  a  Board  of 
Guardians,  who  is  resident  in  an  urban  parish  of 
the  Union,  is  not  entitled  to  act  in  sanitary  matters 
for  the  Union,  unless  he  has  property  in  a  rural 
parish  of  the  Union,  which  would  qualify  him  as 
elective  Guardian  therefor ;  and  an  elective  Guardian 
who  represents  an  urban  parish  cannot  act  at  all  for 
the  Union  in  sanitary  matters. 

The  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  does  not  The 
make  much  change  in  this  state  of  affairs.  The 
rural  sanitary  authority  will  henceforward  be  known 
as  a  "  rural  district  council,"  and  its  district  as  a 
"  rural  district."  There  will  be  no  ex-officio  members 
of  the  council,  and  all  property  qualifications  will 
cease.  But  the  identity  of  the  rural  district  with  the 
rural  area  of  a  Poor  Law  Union  will  be  preserved, 
and  likewise  the  identity  between  the  rural  Guardians 
and  the  rural  district  councillors.  In  point  of  fact 
the  rules  relating  to  the  election,  qualification,  term 
of  office,  and  retirement  of  a  Guardian  of  the  Poor, 
will  apply  equally  to  the  rural  district  councillor,  p>  ^ 
and,  in  rural  parishes,  the  Guardians  will  be  elected 
as  district  councillors  and  not  as  Guardians.  Only, 
it  is  presumed  that  when  a  Board  of  Guardians  is 
acting  as  a  sanitary  authority,  those  of  its  members 
who  represent  urban  parishes  will  retire,  although  See  a*/*, 
it  seems  clear  that  the  "additional"  Guardians  (if  p' ' 
any)  elected  by  the  Board  itself  will  take  part  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  rural  district  council. 


io6  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Powers  of  So  much  for  the  constitution  of  ordinary  urban  and  rural 
authorities,  sanitary  districts  and  their  respective  authorities.  Re- 
serving the  special  "  Port "  Districts  for  the  end  of  the 
chapter,  we  come  now  to  the  powers  exercised  by  sanitary 
authorities.  It  would  be,  of  course,  a  hopeless  attempt 
to  aim  in  this  place  at  anything  like  a  complete  statement 
of  the  vast  powers  exercised  by  local  authorities  in  sanitary 
matters.  All  that  can  be  done  is  to  enumerate  a  few  of 
the  more  important  heads  of  their  jurisdiction,  taking  first 
the  objects  for  which  local  powers  exist,  and,  subsequently, 
the  machinery  by  which  they  are  exercised.  We  must  be 
careful  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  urban  authority  possesses 
a  good  many  powers  which  cannot  be  exercised  by  a  rural 
authority.1 

Urban.  (a)  Roads. — For  some  years  the  urban  sanitary  authority 
has  been  the  exclusive  local  authority  in  the  matter 
of  maintaining  and  making  highways  within  its  district. 
It  may  agree  to  take  over  private  roads,  either  from 
turnpike  trustees  or  from  private  owners,  and  all 
streets  within  an  urban  district  which  are  repairable 
by  the  inhabitants  at  large  vest  ipso  facto  in  the  urban 
authority. 

Rural.  Hitherto,  however,  the  rural  sanitary  authority  has 

not  necessarily  had  any  jurisdiction  in  highway  matters. 
The  rural  highways  not  falling  under  the  care  of  the 
parish  or  the  county,  and  not  being  the  subject  of 
Turnpike  Trusts,  have  been  administered  by  Highway 
Boards  formed  under  the  provisions  of  the  Highways 

1  But  it  must  be  also  remembered  that  upon  the  application  of  a 
rural  sanitary  authority  or  of  the  ratepayers  representing  one- tenth  in 
value  of  the  rateable  property  of  the  district,  the  Local  Government 
Board  may  confer  any  one  or  more  of  the  special  powers  of  an  urban 
authority  upon  a  rural  authority. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     107 

Acts,  1862  and  1864.  These  statutes  empowered 
the  county  authorities  to  combine  parishes  into  High- 
way Districts,  governed  by  Highway  Boards,  con- 
sisting of  the  resident  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  of 
"  waywardens "  annually  elected  by  the  inhabitants  Way- 
in  vestry  assembled  of  the  constituent  parishes.  The  wardens- 
Highway  Board  has  its  own  treasurer,  clerk,  and 
district  surveyor,  and  is  entitled  to  impose  a  Highway 
Rate,  payable  by  the  overseers  of  the  constituent 
parishes  upon  precept  of  the  Board.  It  may,  more- 
over, with  the  approval  of  the  Local  Government 
Board,  raise  money  by  way  of  loan  upon  the  security 
of  its  rates.  At  present  there  are,  apparently,  360 
of  such  Highway  Boards  in  England  and  Wales. 

But  there  has  for  some  time  been  an  evident  desire  Disappear 
on  the  part  of  the  legislature  to  get  rid  of  the  Highway  H^hway ' 
Board  as  a  separate  body.     By  a  significant  provision   Board- 
of  the  Highways  Act  of  1878,  it  was  enacted  that  The  Act  o 
county  authorities,  when  forming  or  altering  a  High- 
way District,  should,  so  far  as  possible,  follow  the  lines 
of  the  rural  sanitary  districts  ;  and,  by  another  section 
of  the  same  statute,  it  was  provided  that,  upon  the  ap- 
plication of  a  rural  sanitary  authority  whose  area  was 
identical  with  that  of  a  Highway  District,  the  sanitary 
authority  might  be  constituted  the  highway  authority 
for  the  district,  and  the  separate  Highway  Board  be 
extinguished.     Under  these  provisions,  forty-one  rural 
sanitary  authorities    have   taken  over  the  powers  of 
Highway  Boards,  and   the  Guardians  of  the  Union 
have  in  these  cases  become  the  highway  authority. 

The    Local   Government   Act   of   1894   puts   the  The  Act  oi 
finishing  stroke  to  this  policy.     By  its  provisions  the 


ro8  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

rural  district  council  will  in  every  case  take  over  the 
powers  not  only  of  the  Highway  Board,1  but  of  any 
other  highway  authority  within  its  district,  and  will, 
moreover,  acquire  all  the  powers  previously  stated  as 
belonging  to  the  urban  sanitary  authority  in  the 
matter  of  the  management,  making,  and  taking  over 
of  highways.2  Further  than  this,  it  will  be  the  special 
duty  of  both  urban  and  rural  district  councils  to 
protect  all  public  rights  of  way,  and  prevent  encroach- 
ments upon,  or  obstructions  to,  all  roads  situated  in 
or  serving  their  districts,  and  being  within  the  limits 
of  their  county.  But,  with  regard  to  the  newly  con- 
ferred highway  powers,  it  is  expressly  provided  that 
the  operation  of  the  statute  may  be  deferred  by  a 
county  council  in  any  part  of  their  county  for  a 
period  of  three  years,  and  even  (with  the  consent  of 
the  Local  Government  Board)  for  a  longer  period.  It 
is,  therefore,  still  necessary  to  know  the  outlines  of  the 
existing  system.  But,  subject  to  this  reservation,  we 
may  say  that  when  the  new  Local  Government  Act 
comes  into  operation,  the  sanitary  authority,  urban 
and  rural,  will  be,  saving  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
county  (of  which  more  hereafter),  the  sole  authority 
in  the  matter  of  public  roads  within  its  district. 
(/3)  Servers. — For  upwards  of  four  hundred  years  the 
English  legislature  has  dealt  with  the  subject  of 
sewers ;  but  we  must  not  therefore  suppose  that 

1  It  is  expressly  provided  that  "  highway  boards  shall  cease  to  exist." 
(Sec.  25). 

2  Apparently  the  roads  will  not  become  the  property  of  the  rural 
district  council,  for  the  powers  conferred  by  the  new  Act  do  not  include 
that  section  (149)  of  the  Public  Health  Act,  which  vests  the  urban 
highways  in  the  urban  authority. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS    109 

sanitary  legislation  has  had  so  long  a  history.  Until 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  sewer  was 
simply  a  ditch  or  cutting  containing  nothing  worse 
than  fen  water;  and  the  various  "Commissions  of 
Sewers  "  which  have  from  time  to  time  been  created, 
were  merely  concerned  with  the  reclamation  or  (as  it 
was  called)  "  inning  "  of  marsh  and  fen  lands,  and  the 
maintaining  of  them  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
sea.  The  cesspool  and  the  midden  were  almost  the 
only  sanitary  contrivances,  and  the  notion  of  the  sewer, 
as  of  a  pipe  or  channel  to  carry  away  the  impurities  of 
domestic  existence,  is  as  modern  as  the  Public  Health 
Acts  themselves.  But,  broadly  speaking,  one  may 
now  lay  it  down  that  all  sewers  and  drains1  within 
any  sanitary  district, — except  those  constructed  by 
private  persons  or  companies  for  their  own  profit, 
irrigation  channels  made  and  used  for  draining  land 
under  a  special  Act  of  Parliament,  and  sewers  under 
the  control  of  Commissioners  of  Sewers, — belong  to 
and  are  managed  by  the  sanitary  authority.  The 
same  authority  enforces  the  provision  and  proper 
management  of  privy  accommodation  in  all  inhabited 
buildings,2  and  an  urban  authority  (but  not,  apparently, 

1  A  "drain"  appears,  for  Local  Government  purposes,  to  be  a  pipe 
or  channel  used  merely  to  communicate  between  a  single  building  or 
block  of  buildings,  and  a  general  receptacle  for  sewage  matter  ;  a 
"sewer"  includes  all  channels  for  the  carrying  off  of  refuse  except 
"drains,"  and  except  pipes  under  the  control  of  a  special  road 
authority.  "Main  drain  "  would  therefore  appear  to  bean  incorrect 
expression. 

8  Including  factories  and  workshops.  But  the  special  provisions  of 
the  Factory  Acts,  with  regard  to  overtime,  employment  of  women  and 
children,  and  the  like,  are  not  enforced  by  the  sanitary  authority,  but 
by  inspectors  directly  appointed  by  the  Local  Government  Board. 


i  io  ENGLISH   LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

a  rural)  is  entitled  to  provide  urinals  and  other 
accommodation  for  the  use  of  the  public.  The 
sanitary  authority  may  (and  if  ordered  by  the  Local 
Government  Hoard,  must),  either  by  its  own  servants 
or  through  contractors,  undertake  the  removal  of 
refuse  from  houses,  and  the  cleansing  of  ashpits  and 
privies  in  its  district,  and  construct  proper  sewage 
works  for  the  disposal  of  such  refuse  matter.  More- 
over, the  sanitary  authority,  in  making  new  sewers, 
may  cany  them  through  any  land  laid  out  as  a  street, 
and  even  (if  necessary)  through  strictly  private  land. 
Kvery  owner  or  occupier  of  premises  is  entitled  to 
drain  into  the  sewers  belonging  to  the-  sanitary 
authority  of  his  district,  subject  to  the  observance 
of  proper  conditions  ;  but  there  are  various  statutory 
regulations  to  prevent  occupiers  turning  into  sewers 
any  matter  likely  to  cause  an  obstruction,  or  any 
chemical  refuse-,  or  even  hot  water,  which  is  likely  to 
create  a  nuisance.  The  sanitary  authority  itself  is  not 
permitted  to  foul  a  natural  stream  by  allowing  the 
escape  into  it  of  sewage  matter. 

(y)  Infectious  Diseases. — The  Local  Government  Board 
has  power,  by  virtue  of  various  statutes,  to  make 
regulations  tor  preventing  the  spread  of  epidemic, 
endemic,  or  infectious  disease,  and  in  [(articular,  to 
order  such  steps  as  the-  speedy  interment  of  dead 
bodies,  the  visitation  and  inspection  of  houses  believed 
to  contain  persons  suffering  from  contagious  diseases, 
the  provision  of  hospitals  and  oilier  medical  attend- 
ance  for  relief  purposes.  Upon  the  sanitary  authority 
is  cast  the  duly  of  enforcing  such  regulations.  J3ut, 
even  in  the  absence  of  special  regulations  applying  to 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS    in 

its  district,  a  sanitary  authority  may  provide  itself  with 
hospitals  and  medical  officers  for  the  reception  and 
treatment  of  any  sickness.  Moreover,  it  may  enforce 
the  disinfection  of  houses  and  conveyances  which 
have  been  occupied  by  persons  suffering  from  infec- 
tious disease ;  and  may  provide  mortuaries  and  places 
for  post  mortem  accommodation.  It  may  call  upon 
any  Registrar  of  deaths  to  supply  it  with  information 
as  to  the  particulars  of  any  death  registered  by  him. 
And  where  the  sanitary  authority  has  expressly  adopted 
the  provisions  of  recent  legislation,1  it  will  have  even 
wider  powers  of  compelling  heads  of  households  and 
medical  practitioners  to  notify  its  officers  of  the  exist- 
ence of  any  cases  of  infectious  disease  in  their  families 
or  practices,  of  inspecting  and  controlling  dairies 
suspected  to  be  the  source  of  disease,  of  ordering  the 
disinfection  of  houses,  bedding,  and  clothing,  and  of 
making  temporary  provision  for  the  shelter  of  persons 
who  have  been  compelled  to  leave  their  homes  for 
purposes  of  disinfection.  Under  the  head  of  infectious 
disease,  we  may  also  refer  to  the  important  powers 
possessed  by  the  officers  of  a  sanitary  authority  to  in- 
spect and  examine  at  all  reasonable  times  any  meat,  Food 
vegetables,  milk,  fruit,  flour,  and  the  like,  exposed  or  ""P**0 
prepared  for  sale,  and  to  obtain  from  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace  an  order  for  the  destruction  of  such  of  it  as 
shall  prove  to  be  unfit  for  human  food.  Similar  Aduitera- 
powers  exist  under  the  Adulteration  Acts  in  cases  in  uon- 
which  the  articles  in  question  are  not  necessarily  in- 

1  The  Infectious  Disease  (Notification)  Act,  1889,  and  the  Infectious 
Disease  (Prevention)  Act,  1890.  The  provisions  of  the  Acts  arc  ipso 
facto  in  force  in  London  ;  elsewhere  they  require  special  adoption. 


ii2  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

jurious  to  health,  but  are  so  different  from  their  apparent 
character  as  to  constitute  a  fraud  upon  the  public. 
(S)  Water  Supply. — Every  rural  sanitary  authority  must  see 
that  there  is  a  due  supply  of  water  to  every  house 
within  its  district,  and,  if  necessary,  provide  such  a 
supply  at  the  expense  of  the  owner,  unless  the  cost 
would  exceed  a  sum  which,  at  5  per  cent,  would  pro- 
duce twopence  a  week.  An  urban  sanitary  authority 
may,  unless  there  is  in  existence  a  public  company 
authorised  by  Act  of  Parliament  which  is  able  and 
willing  to  supply  the  district  at  a  reasonable  cost, 
provide  or  contract  for  the  supply  of  water,  and  may 
charge  water  rents  or  rates  upon  the  occupiers  of  the 
houses  supplied.  Moreover,  the  obligation  resting 
upon  a  rural  authority  in  the  matter  of  water  supply 
may  be  imposed  also  upon  any  urban  authority  by 
the  Local  Government  Board,  and  this  obligation  in- 
cludes the  duty  of  periodically  inspecting  the  condi- 
tion of  the  supply.  Any  sanitary  authority  whose 
water  is  fouled  by  any  person,  has  the  remedies 
belonging  to  an  ordinary  waterworks  company  under 
the  "Waterworks  Clauses  Acts,"  and  the  sanitary 
Rivers  authority  may  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  Rivers 

Pollution  Prevention  Act,  and  other  statutes  intended 
to  prohibit  the  fouling  of  running  water  by  sewage, 
rubbish,  and  other  nuisances.1 

(e)  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes. — A  great  consolidating 
statute  of  the  year  1890  has  collected  together  the 
scattered  provisions  of  the  law  upon  the  various  sub- 

1  Concurrent  jurisdiction  now  belongs  to  the  county  council  by  virtue 
of  the  Local  Government  Act,  1888.  But  the  power  of  the  sanitary 
authority  is  not  taken  away. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     113 

jects  included  under  this  head.  The  general  result 
may  be  said  to  be  that  the  sanitary  authority  is  in 
every  case  the  body  entrusted  with  the  execution  of  the 
provisions  of  the  statute  applicable  to  its  area.  But  the 
powers  of  urban  and  rural  authorities  are  not  the  same. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  sanitary  authority  to  inspect   insanitary 
its  district  periodically  with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of 
houses  unfit  for  human  inhabitation,  and  upon  such 
discovery  or   upon    representation    by  their  medical 
officer  of  health,  or  by  four  inhabitant  householders, 
and  upon  due  proof  of  the  facts,  to  order  the  house 
in  question  to  be  closed,  and  ultimately,  if  the  defects 
are  not  remedied,  to  be  demolished.     Even  though  a  Obstruc- 
building  is  not  in  itself  unfit  for  human  habitation,  if  [ngCsbuild 
it   prevents  due  ventilation,   or  otherwise  causes  or 
prevents  the  removal  of  a  nuisance  in  other  buildings, 
the  sanitary  authority  may  compel  the  owner  to  sell 
to  it  both  the  building  in  question  and  its  site  for 
purposes  of  demolition,  unless  the  owner  chooses  to 
retain  the  site,  in  which  case  he  gets  compensation 
only  for  the  demolished  building.     In  the  case  of  the 
insanitary  house  the  owner  who   executes   improve- 
ments to   the  satisfaction   of  the   sanitary  authority 
merely  gets  a  charge  upon  the  property  to  the  extent 
of   his   outlay   as    against    other   persons    interested. 
Where  buildings  have  been  demolished,  or  are  about 
to   be  demolished,  the  sanitary  authority  may,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Local   Government  Board,  and 
after  enquiry  held,  take  up  a  scheme  for  reconstruction 
and  re-arrangement  of  the  area  in  question.     If  a 
rural  or  Metropolitan  sanitary  authority  declines  to 
pull  down  an  unhealthy  or  obstructive  building  after 
H 


114  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

due  representation,  the  county  council  in  whose  county 
the  district  is  may  order  it  to  do  so,  and,  in  the  event  of 
further  neglect,  may  itself  do  the  work  at  the  expense 
of  the  sanitary  authority.  But  this  rule  does  not  extend 
to  the  undertaking  of  a  scheme  of  reconstruction,  nor 
does  it,  apparently,  affect  the  ordinary  urban  authority. 

Furthermore,  any  urban  sanitary  authority  may,  if 
satisfied  that  any  part  of  its  district  constitutes  an 
"  unhealthy  area,"  that  is,  an  area  so  unhealthy  that 
its  defects  cannot  be  remedied  otherwise  than  by  a 
comprehensive  scheme  of  improvement,  including  re- 
arrangement and  reconstruction  of  streets  and  houses, 
adopt  a  scheme  accordingly,  and,  having  given  notice 
of  the  fact  to  every  owner  or  occupier  affected,  and 
advertised  the  existence  of  the  scheme,  may  apply  to 
the  Local  Government  Board  for  a  provisional  order 
confirming  the  same.  The  Local  Government  Board, 
if  satisfied  that  the  preliminaries  have  been  duly  com- 
plied with,  may  hold  an  enquiry,  and,  being  satisfied 
of  the  soundness  of  the  scheme,  may  make  an  order 
accordingly,  which,  upon  being  confirmed  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  will  be  carried  out  by  the  sanitary  authority. 

Finally,  any  sanitary  authority  which  adopts  Part 
III.  of  the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act, 
may  purchase  or  build  working-class  lodging-houses, 
and  manage  them  according  to  regulations  made 
under  the  general  conditions  affecting  local  sanitary 
legislation.  But  no  rural  sanitary  authority  can 
adopt  Part  III.  without  the  consent  of  its  county 
council,  and  before  the  expiry  of  a  certain  time  after 
that  consent  has  been  given.  The  provisions  in  Part 
III.  are,  however,  in  addition  to  and  not  in  derogation 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     115 

of  the  duties  imposed  upon  every  sanitary  authority 
by  the  Public  Health  Act  of  1875,  with  respect  to  the 
registration,  management,  and  inspection  of  all  com-  Common 
mon  lodging-houses  kept  by  private  persons  within  its 


district.  Even  houses  of  a  superior  class  let  in  private 
lodgings  may  be  placed  by  the  Local  Government 
Board  partially  under  the  control  of  a  sanitary  authority. 

({)  Recreation  and  general  public  convenience.  —  Under  this 
somewhat  elastic  description  we  may  class  a  mis- 
cellaneous group  of  powers,  exerciseable,  generally 
speaking,  only  by  an  urban  sanitary  authority,  and 
which  aims  at  providing  something  more  than  the 
bare  necessaries  of  civic  life.  For  example,  an  urban 
sanitary  authority  may  acquire,  either  by  purchase, 
gift,  or  hire,  public  walks  and  pleasure  grounds,  and 
may  even  contribute  to  the  expense  of  maintaining 
such  places  though  they  belong  to  private  individuals. 
It  may  fix  up  clocks  in  conspicuous  places,  plant 
trees  in  public  roads,  provide  boats  to  be  used  in  a 
place  of  public  recreation,  and  erect  baths  and  wash- 
houses  for  public  use.1  The  statues  and  monuments 
in  any  street  or  public  place  within  its  district  are 
under  its  control,  and  it  may  authorise  the  erection  of 
new  ones.  It  shares  to  some  extent  with  the  Justices 
the  duty  of  protecting  the  public  against  danger  from 
defects  in  places  of  public  entertainment.  It  may 
(under  certain  conditions)  provide  and  manage  public 
markets. 
Finally,  a  special  word  must  be  given  to  the  new  powers  Certain 

conferred  upon  the  sanitary  authority  by  the  Local  Govern- 


transferred 

1  In  rural  districts  the  power  to  provide  public  baths  and  wash-house*   to  sanitary 
may  be  acquired  by  the  parish  council. 


ii6  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

ment  Act  of  1894.  They  have  been  before  incidentally 
referred  to,  but  it  is  well  also  to  state  them  directly.  All 
sanitary  authorities  will,  then,  after  the  coming  into  opera- 
tion of  the  new  Act,  take  over  the  powers  at  present 
exercised  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  out  of  session  in 
respect  to  the  licensing  of  gangmasters,  dealers  in  game, 
passage  brokers,  and  emigrant  runners,  and  the  granting  of 
pawnbrokers'  certificates,  the  abolition  and  alteration  of  the 
days  for  holding  fairs,  and  the  execution  of  the  Acts  relating 
to  petroleum  and  infant  life  protection.1  They  will  also 
acquire  the  powers  of  Quarter  Sessions  with  respect  to  the 
licensing  of  knackers'  yards.  And  by  an  important,  though 
not  very  generally  known  section  of  the  new  Act,  the  Local 
Government  Board  will  have  power,  on  the  application  of 
any  urban  council  outside  the  Metropolis,  to  confer  on 
that  council,  or  any  other  representative  body  within  the 
district,  any  of  the  powers,  duties,  and  liabilities  of  a  parish 
council,  including  the  important  power  of  appointing  over- 
seers, and  of  appointing  and  dismissing  assistant  overseers. 
If  this  section  of  the  Act  is  used  to  any  extent,  it  will  go 
far  to  remove  the  differences  which  will  otherwise  exist 
between  the  urban  and  the  rural  parish,  for,  at  least  outside 
boroughs,  the  urban  sanitary  district  is  often  coincident  in 
area  with  a  parish. 

We  have  now  spoken  of  the  objects  for  which  sanitary 
authorities  exist.  It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  of  the 
machinery  by  which  they  seek  to  accomplish  these  objects. 

1  It  is  difficult  to  say  shortly  what  is  done  by  magistrates  in  and  out 
of  sessions  respectively  in  regard  to  these  matters.  Perhaps  it  may  be 
accepted  that,  as  a  rule,  the  grant  of  a  licence  is  made  in  sessions,  but 
that  revocation  or  endorsement  may  be  ordered  by  magistrates  out  of 
sessions. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS    117 

This  machinery  may  be  considered  under  the  three  heads 
of  legislation,  officials,  and  finance. 

Legislation. — A  sanitary  authority  has  a  general  power 
(within  defined  limits)  of  enacting  local  legislation  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  it  to  fulfil  the  objects  of  its  existence. 
Such  legislation  may  take  the  name  of  by-laws  or  of  regula- 
tions, according  to  its  nature,  and,  although  the  differences 
between  these  two  methods  of  local  legislation  are  not  great, 
they  have  some  distinctive  characteristics  of  their  own. 
(a)  By-laws  may  perhaps  be  defined  as  the  normal  type  of 
local   sanitary  legislation,   the  form  adopted  by  the 
authority  which  is  acting  upon   its   general  powers. 
By-laws  are,  practically,  the  statutes  or  general  rules 
laid  down  by  a  local  authority  l  for  the  guidance  of  its 
subjects,   just  as  Acts  of   Parliament  are  the  great 
means   by  which  the   central  authority  controls  the 
conduct  of  its  subjects.     No  by-law  must,  of  course, 
conflict  with  "  the  laws  of  England,"  />.,  with  the  law 
recognised  by  the  courts  of  the  central  authority,  and 
this  rather  elastic  rule  practically  gives  the  central 
authority  a  fairly  tight  grip  upon  the  vagaries  of  local 
legislation.2     And,    particularly,   the   sanitary   by-law 
must,  both  in  letter  and  spirit,  conform  to  the  provisions 
of  the  great  statute  from  which  the  bulk  of  sanitary 
powers  are  derived,  the  Public  Health  Act  of  1875. 
But   beyond   this,  the   latitude   allowed   to   sanitary 

1  It  U  said  that  the  term  by-law  is  derived  from  the  Danish  word  by 
(township  or  hamlet),  so  often  found  as  the  termination  of  place-names 
(\Vhitby,  Ferriby,  &c.).  The  by-law,  if  this  derivation  be  correct,  U 
the  law  of  the  by  or  town. 

1  The  central  courts  have  long  established  their  right  to  quash  a  by- 
law for  "unreasonableness, "consequently  a  litigant  must  always  be 
prepared  to  defend  the  validity  of  a  by-law  upon  which  he  relies. 


u8  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

authorities  is,  in  theory,  considerable.  Only,  every 
sanitary  by-law  requires  confirmation  by  the  central 
government,  generally  by  the  Local  Government 
Board,  occasionally  by  the  Board  of  Trade,1  and 
public  notice  of  intention  to  apply  for  such  confirma- 
tion must  be  given.  Moreover,  every  by-law  must,  so 
far  as  possible,  when  made,  be  brought  to  the  notice 
of  the  public.  In  particular,  every  by-law  of  a  sanitary 
authority  must  be  printed  and  hung  up  in  its  office, 
and  a  copy  given  to  every  ratepayer  who  applies  for  it, 
while  every  rural  sanitary  authority  must  send  copies 
of  its  by-laws  to  the  overseers  of  its  constituent 
parishes,  to  be  deposited  among  the  parish  records. 
Moreover,  all  by-laws  must  be  authenticated  by  the 
common  seal  of  the  authority  which  makes  them,2 
and  no  sanitary  by-law  can  impose  a  penalty  of 
more  than  ^£5  for  a  single  offence,  or,  in  the 
case  of  continuing  offences,  a  further  penalty  of 
405.  for  each  day  during  which  the  offence  is 
continued. 

(/3)  Regulations  may  be  defined  as  being  special  rules  made 
by  a  sanitary  authority  by  virtue  of  particular  powers 
conferred  upon  it,  and  applicable  only  to  a  limited 
area  or  class  of  people  within  its  jurisdiction.  Thus, 
when  a  new  street  is  being  built,  an  urban  sanitary- 
authority  may  prescribe  the  line  of  frontage  to  be 
followed  by  those  who  build  houses  in  the  street ; 
any  sanitary  authority  may  make  regulations  for  the 
use  of  its  own  post-mortem  rooms,  or  for  the  perfor- 

1  E.g.>  in  the  matter  of  telegraph  wires. 

2  But  a  copy  of  such  by-laws,  certified  by  the  clerk  to  the  authority,  is 
evidence  in  all  legal  proceedings  until  its  genuineness  is  disproved. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS    119 

mance  of  their  duties  by  its  own  officials.  Such 
regulations  do  not  primarily  affect  the  general  public, 
and  do  not  (as  a  rule l)  require  the  sanction  of  the 
Local  Government  Board,  nor  the  official  publication 
demanded  of  a  by-law. 

Officials. — There  are  some  officials  which  every  sanitary 
authority  must  appoint,  others  which  an  urban  authority 
must  appoint,  but  which  a  rural  authority  need  not,  and 
others  whose  employment  is  optional  with  either  class  of 
authority.  The  chief  officials  of  a  sanitary  authority 
are — 

(i.)  The  Chairman. — The  rules  as  to  the  election  of  chair- 
man, both  in  urban  and  rural  sanitary  authorities,  are 
in  the  main  untouched  by  the  new  Local  Government 
Act.  And  as,  according  to  the  existing  law,  the  chair- 
man of  a  Local  Board  is  elected  annually  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Public  Health  Act,  and  the  chair- 
man of  the  Guardians  for  a  similar  period  by  virtue 
of  the  Order  of  the  late  Poor  Law  Commissioners,  it 
is  presumed  that  the  chairman  of  the  ordinary  urban 
or  rural  district  council  will  continue  to  be  so  elected. 
The  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  indeed  expressly 
provides  that  neither  sex  nor  marriage  shall  disqualify 
for  election,  and  it  is  therefore  quite  possible  that  we 
shall  have  chairwomen  of  district  councils  as  well  as 
chairmen.  But  whereas  every  chairman  of  a  district 
council  will  be  ex-officio  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  the 
county  within  which  his  district  is  situated,  a  chair- 
woman will  enjoy  no  such  privilege.  The  mayor  of 

1  But  regulations  compelling  the  removal  to  a  particular  hospital  of 
foreign  patients  arriving  In  the  district  by  water,  require  the  approval 
of  the  Local  Government  Board. 


120  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

a  borough  will  of  course  continue  to  be  the  chairman 
for  all  purposes  of  the  borough  council ;  and  we  must 
remember  that  a  rural  council  may  elect  its  chairman 
from  outside  its  own  body.  Every  urban  council  (not 
being  a  borough  council)  and  every  rural  council  may 
appoint  a  vice-chairman,  and  in  the  case  of  the  rural 
council,  the  vice-chairman  may  also  be  imported  from 
outside. 

(ii.)  The  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  who  is  an  essential 
official  of  every  sanitary  authority,  though  he  need  not 
be  specially  appointed  by  the  authority  if  he  is  already 
acting  in  the  district  for  some  other  body.  He  must 
be  a  legally  qualified  medical  practitioner,  and  his 
special  qualifications  are  now  prescribed  by  statute, 
while  the  Local  Government  Board  may  to  some 
extent  define  the  manner  in  which  his  duties  are  to  be 
discharged. 

(iii.)  The  Inspector  of  Nuisances,  likewise,  is  essential  both 
to  the  urban  and  the  rural  authority,  but  the  functions 
of  medical  officer  and  inspector  of  nuisances  may  be 
combined  in  one  person. 

(iv.)  The  Surveyor,  whose  appointment  is  only  incumbent 
on  the  urban  authority,  and  even  here  the  same  person 
may  unite  the  offices  of  surveyor  and  inspector  of 
nuisances. 

(v.)  The  Clerk,  who  is  specially  appointed  only  by  an 
urban  sanitary  authority  which  is  not  also  a  borough 
council.  In  the  case  of  the  rural  authority  the  person 
who  acts  as  clerk  to  the  Guardians  acts  also  as  clerk  to 
the  sanitary  authority,  and  may  receive  an  extra  allow- 
ance on  that  account.  In  the  case  of  the  borough, 
the  Town  Clerk  is  clerk  of  the  council  for  all  purposes. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     121 

(vi.)  The  Treasurer  •,  who,  similarly,  is  specially  appointed 
only  for  the  non-borough  urban  sanitary  district,  the 
treasurer  of  the  Guardians,  as  in  the  case  of  the  clerk, 
acting  in  a  double  capacity.  It  is,  however,  specially 
provided  that  no  one  individual  may  in  any  way, 
wholly  or  partially,  combine  the  duties  of  clerk  and 
treasurer  of  a  sanitary  authority. 

But  beyond  these  officers,  every  sanitary  authority  has  Other 
power  to  employ  such  officials,  expert  or  clerical,  as  shall  officials. 
be  necessary  in   its  particular  circumstances  ;   and  some 
sanitary  authorities,  whose  districts  are  densely  populated, 
are  obliged  to  maintain  a  most  elaborate  and  costly  staff. 
To  all   sanitary  officials  certain  rules  apply.     No  official  Must  not 
may  directly  or  indirectly  be  concerned  in  any  contract 


made  with  his  authority.      Every  official  entrusted   with  sanitary 

3  }  contracts. 

money  must  give  security  for  his  honesty,  and  must  account,   Must  ^VG 
whenever  called   upon,  for  all  moneys  received  by  him.  security. 
Any  officer  failing  in  his  duty  in  this  respect  is  liable  to  account*1 
severe  punishment  on  summary  conviction,  in  addition  to  Executive 
his  ordinary  civil  liabilities.     One  feature  of  special  im- 
portance in  the  position  of  the  sanitary  official  is  that  he 
may  be  (and  generally  is)  entrusted  with  the  personal  duty 
of  enforcing,  as  representative  of  his  authority,  the  various 
provisions  of  the  law  upon  the  subject  of  sanitation.     Inas- 
much as  there  is  now  an  express  statutory  duty  upon  every 
local  authority  to  exercise  the  powers  conferred  upon  it  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  secure  the  proper  sanitary  condition  of 
all  premises  within  its  district,  the  duties  of  the  sanitary 
official  have  lately  become  increasingly  onerous.     Unless   Prosecu- 
the  law  otherwise  specially  provides,  all  sanitary  offences  sanitary 
must  be  prosecuted  within  six  months  of  their  commission,   offences- 
and  the  tribunal  which  enforces  the  complaints  of  sanitary 


122  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

officials  is  a  court  of  summary  jurisdiction,  consisting  of  at 

least  two  Justices  of  the  Peace  sitting  in  Petty  Sessions,  or 

of  a  stipendiary  magistrate.     There  is,  however,  an  appeal 

to  Quarter  Sessions,  which  may,  if  it  thinks  fit,  state  a  case 

Protec-        for  the  opinion  of  a  superior  court.     A  sweeping  protec- 

members      tion,   of  a  kind   very  rare  in    English  law,   exempts    the 

authorities,   members  of  a  sanitary  authority  and  their  officials  from 

personal  liability  for  acts  bonft  fide  done  in  the  execution  of 

their  public  duties  and  with  the  sanction  of  their  respective 

authorities  ;  and  all  proceedings  against  a  sanitary  authority, 

its  members,  or  officials,  must  be  commenced  within  six 

months  of  the  happening  of  the  act  or  default  complained 

of,  while  due  opportunity  must  be  given  for  the  tender  of 

amends.1 

Finance. — The  subject  of  sanitary  finance  is  complicated 
by  the  differences  between  the  constitution  of  the  urban 
and  the  rural  sanitary  district.  For  whilst  the  urban  dis- 
trict is  as  a  rule  a  single  or  consolidated  area,  the  rural 
district  is  a  composition  of  more  or  less  disconnected  units, 
whose  separate  individuality,  especially  in  the  matter  of 
finance,  has  always  to  be  reckoned  with.  Nevertheless  it 
is  possible,  with  care,  to  treat  the  subject  of  sanitary  finance 
as  a  whole.  The  income  (using  the  word  in  its  largest 
sense)  which  a  sanitary  authority  may  possibly  receive  is 
derived  from  five  sources — 

(i.)  Property. — Rents  of  land  and  houses,  market  and 
bridge  tolls,  harbour  dues,  water  and  gas  rents, 
may  be  regarded  either  in  the  light  of  income  from 
investments  or  as  cash  equivalents  for  work  and 

1  The  rule  as  to  time  of  commencing  proceedings  and  allowing  tender 
of  amends  has  been  very  recently  extended  to  all  public  authorities  by 
the  Public  Authorities  Protection  Act,  1893. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     123 

labour  done.  It  is  but  rarely,  of  course,  that  any 
sanitary  authority  except  a  borough  council  owns 
invested  property  to  a  large  extent ;  but  a  few 
parishes  have  land  devoted  specially  to  the  main- 
tenance of  highways,  and  this  will  (indirectly)  become 
the  property  of  rural  councils  under  the  new  Act, 
while  any  sanitary  authority  may  be  allowed  by  the 
Local  Government  Board  to  retain  permanently  any 
land  which  it  has  been  obliged  to  acquire  for  sanitary 
purposes,  even  though  it  may  no  longer  be  actually 
needed  for  such  objects. 

(ii.)  Subsidies. — Until  the  institution  of  county  councils  See^ 
it  had  long  been  the  practice  for  the  central  govern-  F 
ment  to  assist  local  authorities  by  direct  treasury 
subventions  towards  the  maintenance  of  roads,  lunatic 
asylums,  sanitary  officials,  teachers  in  poor  law  schools, 
registrars  of  births  and  deaths  ;l  and  the  practice, 
though  there  are  objections  to  be  urged  against  it, 
is  likely  to  continue  in  some  form.  One  of  its  great 
merits  is  that  it  enables  the  central  government  to 
maintain  the  standard  of  local  administration  by 
laying  down  conditions  of  efficiency  as  the  basis 
of  grant.  For  the  future,  however,  the  subventions 
to  the  local  authorities  will  not  come  (except  in 
the  case  of  county  councils  themselves)  directly 
from  the  treasury,  but  through  the  county  councils 
to  whom  the  "local  taxation  grant"  is  now,  as  will 
be  seen  in  a  later  chapter,  payable  by  virtue  of  the 
provisions  of  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888. 

1  Many  of  these  sums  are  payable  to  Poor  Law  Guardians,  rather  as 
Guardians  than  as  sanitary  authorities,  but  it  is  difficult  to  separate  the 
two  functions. 


124  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

The  sums  actually  received  by  the  non-metropolitan 
sanitary  authorities  (other  than  boroughs)  under  this 
head  during  the  year  1890-1  amounted  to  upwards  of 
;£i  70,000. 

(iii.)  Penalties. — The  fines  inflicted  by  the  courts  of  sum- 
mary jurisdiction  for  ordinary  sanitary  offences,  as 
well  as  those  larger  sums  which  in  the  case  of  certain 
graver  offences  are  directly  recoverable  as  debts  by 
the  sanitary  authorities,1  are,  after  payment  of  the 
informer's  share  where  a  private  person  brings  the 
matter  to  light,  payable  into  the  general  funds  of  the 
sanitary  authority. 

(iv.)  Loans. — Where  a  sanitary  authority  deems  it  neces- 
sary to  undertake  works  of  permanent  utility,  for  the 
expense  of  which  its  ordinary  income  is  insufficient, 
or  which  it  is  obvious  ought  in  fairness  to  be  at 
least  partly  paid  for  by  future  ratepayers,  it  may, 
but  always  with  the  sanction  of  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board,  borrow,  either  from  private  individuals 
by  the  issue  of  debenture  stock  or  certificates,  or 
from  the  Public  Works  Loan  Commissioners,  such 
sums  as  may  be  necessary  to  effect  the  desired  im- 
provements. The  money  so  borrowed  will  be  repay- 
able by  instalments  at  dates  agreed  upon  (with  the 
sanction  of  the  Local  Government  Board)  between 
the  sanitary  authority  and  its  creditors,  and  are,  in 
the  meantime,  a  charge  upon  the  rates.  But  no  loan 

1  E.g.,  if  any  person  deliberately  fouls  any  public  water  with  gas 
washings,  he  incurs  a  penalty  of  £200  for  the  first  offence,  and  ^20  a 
day  during  its  continuance,  and  these  penalties  may  be  directly  re- 
covered in  any  of  the  superior  courts  by  the  sanitary  authority  or  the 
person  primarily  injured. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     125 

may  extend  over  a  longer  period  than  sixty  years, 
and  the  total  unsecured  indebtedness  of  a  sanitary 
authority  must  not  exceed  two  years'  assessable  value 
of  the  district.1  A  sanitary  authority  may,  however, 
mortgage  its  sewage  land  or  plant  in  much  the  same 
way  as  an  ordinary  owner  of  property,  and  up  to 
three-fourths  of  the  cost  of  such  works  the  money 
borrowed  upon  them  will  not  be  counted  in  reckon- 
ing the  unsecured  debt  of  the  authority.  The  extent 
to  which  sanitary  authorities  have  availed  themselves 
of  their  borrowing  powers  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  at  the  close  of  the  financial  year  1890-1 
their  total  outstanding  indebtedness  exceeded  one 
hundred  millions  sterling,  which  sum  did  not  include 
the  debts  of  metropolitan  sanitary  authorities.2 
(v.)  Rates.  —  Finally,  any  sums  required  by  a  sanitary 
authority,  after  all  its  other  sources  of  income  have 
been  exhausted,  must  inevitably  be  obtained  from 
the  ratepayers  of  its  district.  This  rule  holds  for 
urban  and  rural  authorities  alike,  but  the  methods 
employed  by  the  two  classes  of  authority  differ  con- 
siderably. 

In  the  case  of  the  urban  authority  the  sums  re-  Urban 
quired    are    assessed    and    levied    directly    by    the  ^^ 
authority  either   as   a    General  District   Rate  or  as 
a  Private  Improvement  Rate.     The  expenses  included 
in    the    General    District    Rate    comprise    all    those 
expenses    incurred    by   an    urban    sanitary   authority 

1  A  loan  which  would  bring  the  total  debt  above  one  year's  value  of 
the  district  must  not  be  sanctioned  by  the  Local  Government  Board 
before  it  has  held  a  local  enquiry. 

3  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3.  Appendix  P., 
p.  511. 


126  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

which  are  not,  either  by  established  custom  or  the 
express  provisions  of  some  statute,  payable  out  of  a 
special  fund.  The  General  District  Rate  is  assessed 
and  levied  by  the  urban  authority  upon  the  basis 
of  the  poor  rate,  and  is  published,  both  before  and 
after  making,  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  poor 
rate.  But  the  allowance  of  the  Justices  is  not  re- 
quired for  any  rate  made  by  an  urban  authority, 
and  the  sums  due  from  the  ratepayers  are  collected 
by  the  agents  of  the  sanitary  authority,  not  by  the 
overseers.  As  in  the  case  of  poor  rates,  the  General 
District  Rate  is  primarily  payable  by  occupiers,  but 
provisions  somewhat  similar  to  those  which  affect 
the  poor  rate  enable  the  sanitary  authority  to  rate 
the  owner  instead  of  the  occupier  of  premises  which 
are  either  of  small  value  or  are  let  on  short  tenancies 
or  in  apartments.  But  a  very  important  section  of 
the  Public  Health  Act  provides  that  the  owners  of 
tithes,  and  the  occupiers  of  lands  used  exclusively 
for  agricultural,  pastoral,  or  horticultural  purposes, 
or  as  a  canal  towing  path,  or  as  a  public  railway,1 
shall  be  assessed  for  sanitary  rates  only  to  the  ex- 
tent of  one-fourth  of  the  net  annual  value  of  their 
properties,  on  the  ground,  presumably,  that  sanitary 
improvements  are  chiefly  for  the  benefit  of  occupiers 
of  dwelling-houses.  A  General  District  Rate  may 
be  made  for  the  purpose  of  covering  expenses  in- 
curred or  to  be  incurred ;  but  in  the  former  case 
the  liability  must  have  arisen  within  six  months  before 
the  making  of  the  rate. 

1  Recent  statutes  have  included  orchards  and  allotment  gardens  in 
the  partially  exempted  list. 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS    127 

A  private  Improvement  Rate  is  a  rate  imposed  upon 
the  occupier  or  (if  there  be  none)  upon  the  owner  of 
premises  in  respect  of  which  the  expenses  which  the 
rate  is  designed  to  meet  have  been  specially  in- 
curred.1 But  an  occupier  who  holds  at  rack  rent  is 
entitled  to  deduct  from  the  amount  payable  to  his 
landlord  three-quarters  of  the  amount  paid  by  him  on 
account  of  private  improvement  rate,  and  an  occupant 
who  holds  at  less  than  a  rack  or  full  rent  may  make  a 
proportionate  deduction.  The  private  Improvement 
Rate  may  be  payable  by  instalments,  and  it  remains  a 
charge  upon  the  premises  until  it  is  paid  off;  but  it  may 
be  redeemed  at  any  time  by  the  owner  or  occupier. 

A  rural  sanitary  authority  has  no  direct  power,  ex-  RUJ-J 
cept  in  the  case  of  private  improvement  rates,  as  to  ^j^17 
which  it  stands  in  the  same  position  as  an  urban 
authority,  to  make  and  levy  its  own  rates.  The  sums 
which  an  urban  authority  would  raise  by  direct  levy, 
the  rural  authority  obtains  by  means  of  precepts 
directed  to  the  overseers  of  the  "  contributory  places  " 
within  its  district,  />.,  to  the  separate  parishes  of  which 
it  is  composed,  or  to  the  special  drainage  districts 
formed  within  its  area  by  the  rural  authority  itself  with 
the  sanction  of  the  Local  Government  Board.  But 
the  expenses  of  a  rural  sanitary  authority  (other  than 
private  improvement  expenses)  are  divided  by  the 
Public  Health  Act  into  two  classes  of  "  general "  and  General 

and  special 

1  A  common  example  of  a  private  Improvement  Rate  occurs  when  a 
new  street  of  houses  is  built  upon  what  was  formerly  a  field,  and  the 
owners  of  the  houses  do  not  properly  make  the  roadway,  which  is 
thereupon  completed  by  the  sanitary  authority,  at  the  expense  of  the 
owners. 


128  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

"  special,"  the  former  including  the  cost  of  establish- 
ment and  officials,  of  disinfection,  and  the  conveyance 
of  infected  persons,  and,  in  fact,  all  other  expenses  not 
expressly  directed  to  be  charged  in  some  particular 
area.  General  expenses  are  paid  out  of  a  "  common 
fund  "  raised  equally  from  each  contributory  place  in 
proportion  to  its  assessable  value.  Special  expenses 
are  a  separate  charge  on  the  contributory  place  in 
respect  of  which  they  are  incurred,  and  every  precept 
directed  by  the  rural  authority  to  the  overseers  of  a 
contributory  place  must  specify  whether  the  sum  de- 
manded is  on  account  of  general  or  special  expenses. 
The  sums  demanded  of  the  overseers  in  respect  of 
general  expenses  are  paid  by  them  out  of  the  poor 
rate  of  their  parish ;  and  the  sums  demanded  in 
respect  of  special  expenses  are  raised  by  the  overseers 
by  the  levy  of  a  separate  rate  in  the  same  way  as  a 
poor  rate,  except  that  the  rule  previously  mentioned, 
exempting  the  occupiers  of  non-residential  land  from 
three-quarters  of  their  assessable  value,  is  observed  in 
the  levy  of  a  separate  rural  rate.1 

Finally,  it  may  be  observed  that  the  accounts  of  every 
urban  sanitary  authority,  not  being  a  borough  council,  and 
of  every  rural  authority,  are  audited  annually  by  an  officer 
of  the  Local  Government  Board. 

The  Port  Sanitary  District. 

Although  for  the  purposes  of  the  Public  Health  Act  with 
respect  to  nuisances,  infectious  diseases,  and  hospitals,  any 

1  An  appeal  lies  to  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  against  the  making 
of  any  sanitary  rate.  In  rural  parishes  the  parish  council  will  hence- 
forth be  entitled  to  appeal, 


THE  SANITARY  AND  HIGHWAY  DISTRICTS     129 

ship  lying  in  waters  within  the  district  of  an  ordinary  sani- 
tary authority  is  deemed  to  be  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
that  authority,  yet  the  peculiarities  of  port  towns  frequently 
require  a  special  method  of  treatment,  more  particularly 
where,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  river  ports,  the  town  is 
subject  to  two  distinct  sanitary  jurisdictions.  In  order  to 
obtain  this  special  treatment,  the  Local  Government  Board 
may  provisionally l  or  even  (if  there  is  no  opposition)  finally 
order  that  the  area  of  any  port  recognised  as  such  by  the 
Customs  Acts  shall  constitute  a  separate  Port  Sanitary 
District,  to  be  governed  in  manner  provided  by  the  Order. 
But  in  selecting  its  port  sanitary  authority,  the  Local 
Government  Board  must  choose  either  an  existing  sanitary 
authority  whose  district  abuts  on  the  port,  or  must  make  a 
port  sanitary  authority  by  a  combination  of  two  or  more 
such  riparian  authorities.  The  port  sanitary  authority  thus 
created  may  exercise  within  its  district  such  of  the  powers 
of  the  Public  Health  Act  as  are  assigned  to  it  by  the  order 
of  constitution ;  but  no  port  sanitary  authority  can,  in  that 
capacity,  directly  raise  any  revenue.  If  it  is  already  a  sani- 
tary authority,  it  can  raise  within  its  own  district  such  parts 
of  its  expenses  as  are  fairly  chargeable  to  it  in  respect  of  its 
interest  in  the  port ;  but  for  the  shares  of  the  other  parts  of 
the  port  area,  it  must  resort  to  the  sanitary  authorities 
within  whose  districts  those  parts  happen  to  lie,  and  such 
authorities  must  respond  to  the  claim.  If  they  do  not,  the 
amounts  claimed  can  be  recovered  from  them  as  debts. 
Under  the  provisions  of  the  Public  Health  Act  there 
are  at  present  constituted  58  port  sanitary  authorities,  10 
temporary,  48  permanent.  The  port  of  London  is  under 
the  control  of  the  Corporation  of  the  city. 

1  A  provisional  Order  requires  confirmation  by  Parliament. 


GROUP     C. 

THE    COUNTY. 

10.  &   II.    THE      PARLIAMENTARY,      JUDICIAL, 

AND    MILITARY    COUNTY    .  .  .  CHAPTER  IX. 

12.  THE    ADMINISTRATIVE   COUNTY  .  .  CHAPTER     X. 

13.  THE    JOINT    COMMITTEE     .  .  .  CHAPTER  XI. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    SHIRE    OR    COUNTY PARLIAMENTARY,    MILITARY,  AND 

JUDICIAL 

THE  terms  "county"  and  "shire,"  though  now  almost  County 
synonymous,  have  not  by  any  means  the  same  history. 
Shire  (scir)  appears  to  be  an  Anglo-Saxon  (or  at  least 
Teutonic)  word,  originally  used  to  signify  any  district  or 
jurisdiction  under  the  control  of  a  special  or  distinctive 
authority,  possibly  with  a  notion  of  subdivision  from  a 
larger  unit.  Thus  a  bishop's  diocese  is  called  his  "  scir  "  ; 
the  hundreds  of  Cornwall  were  at  one  time  known  as 
"  shires " ;  at  the  time  of  Domesday  there  were  seven 
"  shires,"  that  of  the  archbishop  and  six  others,  within  the 
city  of  York.  Distinct  traces  of  this  vague  use  of  the  term 
survive  in  the  purely  nominal  shires  of  the  present  day — 
Hexhamshire,  Hallamshire,  Richmondshire,  Allertonshire. 

Gradually,  however,  the  word  shire  became  peculiarly 
appropriated  to  the  district  ruled  by  an  earl  or  ealdorman, 
or,  as  he  was  called  by  the  Latin-writing  chroniclers  and 
clerks,  the  conies  or  count ;  and,  before  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, the  existing  English  counties  had  for  the  most  part 
made  their  appearance.  The  actual  origins  of  these  differ 
considerably ;  one  thing  only  we  may  assert  with  tolerable 
confidence,  that  their  boundaries  were  not  fixed  arbitrarily, 
in  the  way  that  a  modern  colony  is  mapped  out,  nor  «. 

133 


134  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

by  natural  geographical  features,  though  these  may  have 
been  remotely  connected  with  their  original  formation. 
Thus,  some  of  our  existing  counties  (Sussex  and  Essex, 
for  example)  represent  heptarchic  kingdoms,  kingdoms 
of  the  south  and  east  Saxons.  Dorsetshire,  Wiltshire, 
and  Somersetshire  are  probably  ancient  tribal  settlements, 
which  once  had  an  independent  or  semi-independent 
existence.  Yorkshire  and  Cheshire  stand  for  the  territories 
governed  from  great  Roman  cities,  and  show  the  difference 
between  the  Roman  and  the  Teutonic  methods  of  colonisa- 
tion. Durham  is  the  patrimony  of  the  great  Cathedral  of 
St  Cuthbert,  and  long  maintained  its  peculiar  individuality. 

Even  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  too,  the  county  had 
acquired  a  peculiarly  royal  character.  No  doubt  the  shire 
moot  or  county  court  was,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  popular 
institution  ;  no  doubt  the  historic  background  of  the  shire 
tended  to  keep  alive  strong  feelings  of  independence.  But 
the  earl  or  count,  though  probably  designated  by  local 
popularity  or  claims  of  blood,  was  formally  appointed  by 
the  Witan  of  the  kingdom,  in  which  the  royal  influence 
was  great,  and  the  sheriff  (shire-reeve),  whose  growing  im- 
portance is  one  of  the  special  features  of  late  Anglo-Saxon 
history,  was  a  purely  royal  official. 

The  Norman  policy  added  powerfully  to  the  existing 
tendency.  The  great  idea  of  the  greatest  Norman  kings — 
the  Conqueror,  his  son  Henry,  and  (so  far  as  he  can  be 
called  a  Norman)  Henry  II. — was  to  make  the  county 
court  the  great  engine  for  bringing  the  native  population 
into  conscious  touch  with  the  royal  government.  To  the 
great  ecclesiastics  and  landowners  licence  of  exemption 
from  attendance  at  other  local  gatherings  was  freely 
granted  ;  but  from  the  half-yearly  county  court,  where  the 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  135 

sheriff  proclaimed  the  king's  dues,  and  the  royal  judges 
administered  the  king's  justice,  no  one  was  allowed  to 
absent  himself.  The  great  landowners  and  ecclesiastics 
came  in  person,  the  villagers  "were  represented  by  their 
reeve  and  four  men.  Edward  I.,  the  great  organiser  of 
English  political  life,  did  but  strengthen  still  further  the  genets. 
tendency  when  he  added  to  the  duties  of  the  county  court 
the  election  of  knights  of  the  shire  to  serve  in  the  newly- 
created  Parliament.  His  grandson,  when  he  brought  into 
existence  his  Justices  of  the  Peace,  added  yet  another 
storey  to  the  edifice  of  royal  county  administration  ;  and 
the  Tudor  monarchs,  who  built  up  a  new  county  aristocracy 
on  the  ruins  of  the  plundered  church,  to  replace  the  old 
feudal  families  which  had  gone  to  pieces  in  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses,  put  the  coping  stone  upon  the  great  political 
fabric.  From  Tudor  times  to  our  own,  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  who  is  above  all  things  a  royal  county  official,  has 
been  the  great  governmental  factor  in  the  life  of  rural 

England.      Lancashire  and    the  other    northern   counties  Compietior 

of  county 
were  definitely  arranged  soon  after  the  Conquest ;  six  of  the  system. 

Welsh  counties  emerged  from  the  conquest  of  Wales  by 
Edward  I. ;  the  remaining  six  and  the  border  county  of 
Monmouth  were  formed  by  the  Parliament  of  Henry  VIII. 
By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  tale  of  the 
counties  was  complete,  and  though  survivals  of  old 
palatine  privileges  have  lingered  to  our  own  time,  for 
upwards  of  four  centuries  the  county  system  has  been,  in 
the  main,  uniform  and  definite.  Oddly  enough,  the  race 
of  kings  which  did  most  for  the  county,  abolished  the 
count.  The  count  or  earlbecomes  ,  after  the  Conquest,  a 
mere  titular  grandee,  with  a  pension  out  of  the  revenues  of 
the  county  from  which  he  takes  his  title.  The  sheriff  is  in 


136  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

name  vice-comes  or  earl's  deputy,  but  practically  he  is  an 
official  of  the  royal  Exchequer.  Presently,  he  too  sinks 
into  comparative  insignificance,  and  the  king's  travelling 
judges  and  his  resident  Justices  rule  the  county  in  the 
king's  name. 

The  county  has  at  the  present  day  at  least  four  distinct 
political  aspects — parliamentary,  military,  judicial,  adminis- 
trative. The  first  is  foreign  to  our  present  purpose,  and 
may  be  briefly  dismissed.  The  second  and  third  may  be 
treated  together.  The  fourth,  by  reason  of  recent  legis- 
lative changes,  will  require  separate  handling. 


A. — The  Parliamentary  County. 

This,  as  we  have  said,  is  the  creation  of  Edward  I.,  or 
of  the  politicians  whose  ideas  he  borrowed.  It  is  no  part 
of  this  enquiry  to  deal  with  the  subject  of  Parliament,  the 
great  organ  of  central  government.  It  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  the  idea  of  a  Parliament  representing  the  local  units 
of  counties  and  boroughs  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  the 
troubles  of  the  Barons'  War,  and  to  have  been  definitely 
realised  by  Edward  I.  or  his  ministers  at  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  When  the  scheme  appears  in  its  com- 
plete form,  it  is  found  that  the  national  Parliament  is  a 
collection  of  lay  and  ecclesiastical  grandees,  and  of  elected 
deputies  from  counties,  boroughs,  and  dioceses.  In  theory 
it  is  so  still ;  but  the  clerical  deputies  have  practically  dis- 
appeared, and  the  lay  deputies,  though  still  retaining  the 
names  of  county  and  borough  members,  are  no  longer 
elected  by  Quarter  Sessions  or  even  County  Council,  still 
less  by  burgesses  acting  as  such.  The  sheriff  is  still  return- 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  137 

ing  officer  for  the  county,  and  the  mayor  for  the  borough  ;L 
but  each  member  of  Parliament  is  member  for  a  mere 
geographical  area  which  may  or  may  not  coincide  with  a 
local  government  district,  and  the  distinction  between 
county  and  borough  member  tends  rapidly  to  disappear. 
According  to  the  Census  Returns  there  are  now  fifty-seven 
Parliamentary  counties  for  England  and  Wales,  viz.,  the 
fifty-two  traditional  or  (as  they  have  been  well  called) 
"  geography  book  "  counties,2  two  extra  for  the  "  ridings  " 
of  Yorkshire,  and  three  extra  for  the  "  districts  "  of  Lanca- 
shire ;  but  a  reference  to  the  Redistribution  of  Seats  Act, 
1885,  the  statutory  authority  on  the  subject,  apparently 
discloses  only  forty-five.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
Local  Government  Act  of  1888  has  transferred  the  powers 
formerly  exercised  by  the  county  justices  in  the  matter  of 
Parliamentary  polling  and  registration  arrangements  to  the 
new  county  councils.  Further  than  this  it  is  not  necessary 
to  go. 

B.  —  The  Military  and  Judicial  County. 

From  time  immemorial  the  constitutional  defensive  force  The 
of  the  country,  the  fyrd  or  militia,  has  been  a  county  force, 


An  ancient  theory,  pertinaciously  adhered  to,  laid  it  down  systein- 
that  while  every  freeman  was  bound,  if  need  were,  to 
serve  the  state  in  arms,  his  service  could  not  be  demanded 
beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  county,  at  least  unless  the 
safety  of  his  county  was  threatened  from  without.  In 
ancient  days  the  county  militia  was  led  by  the  earl  in 

1  A>  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  only  during  the  present  century  that  the 
mayor  has  acquired  the  position  of  returning  officer.  For  centuries  the 
sheriff  acted  for  the  boroughs  in  his  county. 

-  M.iithnd,  /TO/MY  and  Police,  p.  1  12,  n.  I. 


138  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

person ;  when  the  local  earldoms  disappeared,  the  sheriff 
took  his  place  as  leader  of  the  county  force.  But  when, 
after  the  chaos  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  the  Tudors  set 
about  the  re-organisation  of  the  militia,  they  determined  to 
create  new  officials  of  greater  social  dignity  than  the  sheriff 
to  command  the  county  forces.  Hence  we  begin  our  list 
of  county  officials  with — 

(i.)  The  (Lord)  Lieutenant,1  who  is  recognised  as  a 
normal  official  of  the  county  by  a  statute  of  the  year  1559, 
but  whose  duties  are  now  mainly  regulated  by  the  Militia 
Act  of  1882.  By  the  latter  statute  the  Lieutenant  is 
deprived  of  almost  all  authority  in  connection  with  the 
militia,  except  the  power  of  recommending  candidates  for 
a  first  commission  to  Her  Majesty's  notice,  and  the  power 
of  conducting  any  ballot  which  may  be  necessary  to  fill  a 
deficiency  in  voluntary  enlistment.  In  other  respects  the 
militia  is  under  the  control  of  the  War  Office,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  professional  army.  In  spite,  however,  of  this 
diminution  of  his  authority,  the  Lieutenant  may  still  appoint 
deputy -lieutenants,  in  fact  must  appoint  twenty,  if  so  many 
there  be  duly  qualified  in  his  county.  This  is  almost  like 
saying  that,  the  Lieutenant  having  nothing  to  do,  must 
appoint  twenty  people  to  help  him  to  do  it.  And,  in  fact, 
the  office  of  deputy-lieutenant  is  more  ornamental  than 
important.  It  is  reserved  for  peers  or  heirs  apparent  of 
peers  having  a  place  of  residence  within  the  county  for 
which  they  are  appointed,  and  for  persons  possessing  a  life 
interest  at  least  in  property  within  the  United  Kingdom 
producing  ^£200  a-year,  or  the  heirs  apparent  of  such 
persons.  The  Lieutenant  must  not  finally  grant  the  com- 
mission of  his  deputy  until  he  hears  that  the  latter  is  "  not 

1  The  "  Lord  "  is  a  mere  courtesy  addition  not  officially  recognised. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  139 

disapproved  by  Her  Majesty."  And  Her  Majesty  may 
signify  to  any  Lieutenant  Her  pleasure  that  any  of  his 
deputy-lieutenants  be  dismissed.  On  the  other  hand,  Her 
Majesty  may  appoint  any  three  deputy-lieutenants  of  the 
county  to  act  in  the  place  of  the  Lieutenant  during  his 
absence,  and  the  Lieutenant  himself  may,  with  Her 
Majesty's  approbation,  appoint  any  deputy-lieutenant  to 
act  as  vice-lieutenant  during  his  own  inability  to  act  Vice-lieu- 

But,  besides  his  military  position,  the  Lieutenant  occu- 
pies important  posts  in  the  county  as  head  of  the  Commis- 
sion of  the  Peace  and  Gustos  Rotulorum.  In  the  former 
capacity  he  has  the  right  to  recommend  to  Her  Majesty 
the  names  of  candidates  for  the  office  of  Justice  of  the 
Peace ;  in  the  latter  he  is  officially  entrusted  with  the  care 
of  the  county  archives.  The  position  of  custos  rotulorum 
is  often  spoken  of  as  identical  with  that  of  Lieutenant,  but 
as  a  matter  of  theory  it  is  quite  distinct,  having  been  in 
existence  long  before  the  Lieutenancy  was  created.  It 
was  as  custos  and  not  as  Lieutenant  that  the  official  head  of 
the  county  formerly  appointed  the  clerk  of  the  peace. 

(2.)  The  Sheriff,  an  official  whose  exact  origin  it  is  im- 
possible to  trace,  was  at  an  early  date,  as  we  have  said,  the 
special  permanent  representative  of  royalty  within  the 
county.  At  first,  perhaps,  he  was  merely  a  local  tax- 
gatherer,  who  collected  the  gifts  of  food  and  other  produce 
due  to  the  king  by  immemorial  custom — a  relic  of  the 
days  when  the  king  was  entitled  to  be  entertained  by  his 
subjects  in  his  royal  progresses,  and  long  surviving  in  the 
vexed  claim  of  purveyance.  But  as  the  power  of  royalty 
increased,  the  power  of  the  sheriff  increased  with  it.  He  increase  of 
held  the  tourn  or  view  of  frankpledge,  for  inspection  of  the  power, 
police  system  of  the  Hundred  invented  or  re-organised  by 


140  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Edgar.  He  administered  the  vast  estates  which,  by  the 
great  confiscations  of  the  Conquest,  had  become  the 
demesnes  (or  direct  property)  of  the  Crown.  He  ferreted 
out  and  enforced  the  growing  feudal  claims  of  the  Crown 
to  treasure-trove,  wrecks,  strays,  deodands,1  royal  fish,  and 
the  like.  He  exacted  the  fines  for  breaches  of  the  king's 
peace,  and  the  other  penalties  imposed  by  the  new  criminal 
jurisdiction  of  the  king's  courts.  For  all  these  receipts  he 
accounted  twice  a  year  at  the  king's  Exchequer,  and  his 
Accounts  accounts  and  reports  were  the  means  by  which  the  king 
Exchequer,  kept  himself  informed  of  the  state  of  the  country.  As  the 
feudal  system  hardened,  and  the  claims  of  the  Crown  as 
lord  paramount  to  wardships  of  heirs,  to  escheats  and  for- 
feitures, to  fines  for  leave  to  sell,  and  the  like,  became  a 
chief  part  of  the  royal  revenue,  it  was  the  sheriff  who  re- 
ported to  the  Exchequer  officials  the  windfalls  which  chance 
had  brought  in  their  way.  As  the  Saxon  ealdorman  dis- 
appeared, the  sheriff  took  his  place  as  marshal  and  leader 

Acts  as         of  the  county  militia.     But,  most  of  all,  as  the  criminal 
criminal 

judge.  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown  ousted  the  old  popular  system  of 
wer-gilds 2  and  purgation  oaths,  the  sheriff  became,  not 
merely  an  administrative  official,  but  a  criminal  judge,  who 
tried  the  pleas  of  the  Crown,  as  well  as  presided  in  the 
popular  court  of  the  shire.  The  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  may  be  regarded  as  the  culminating  point  of  the 

1  A  deodand  (a  thing  to  be  given  to  the  gods)  is  the  instrument  by 
which  homicide  (wilful  or  accidental)  is  committed— the  axe  which 
wounds  a  man,  the  arrow  which  pierces  his  heart.     Heathen  piety  de- 
voted it  to  the  gods ;  royal  reforms  secured  it  for  the  Crown.     The 
deodand  only  disappeared  in  1846. 

2  A  wer-gild  was  a  payment  in  the  nature  of  compensation  for  a 
wrong  committed.     Its  great  importance  in  the  history  of  law  is  that  it 
is  almost  the  first  successful  step  in  the  supersession  of  the  blood  feud. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  141 

sheriffs  history.  He  was  then,  indeed,  as  has  been  well 
said,  a  "  resident  provincial  viceroy,"  a  king  in  his  own 
county.  What  he  could  become  was  shown,  even  so  late 
as  the  early  thirteenth  century,  by  the  career  of  the  turbu- 
lent Falkes  de  Breaute*,  the  sheriff  of  six  midland  counties,  Falkesde 
who,  during  the  minority  of  Henry  III.,  set  at  nought  the 
authority  of  Hubert  de  Burgh,  Regent  of  the  kingdom, 
and  actually  imprisoned  the  king's  judges  in  Bedford  Castle. 
It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that,  up  to  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century,  the  history  of  the  sheriff  is  the  history  of 
central  government.1 

The  outbreak  of  Falkes  de  Breaute*  was,  however,  a  mere   Decline 
spasmodic  revival  of  anarchy,  due  to  the  bad  reign  of  John  the  sheriff. 
and  the  weakness  of  his  successor.      The  death-blow  to 
the  sovereignty  of  the  sheriff  had  been  dealt  by  the  second 
Henry,  who  would  tolerate  no  rival  in  power.    Even  before 
his  day  the  itinerant  judges  of  his  grandfather  had  created  a 
powerful  counter-influence  to  the  sheriff's  authority,  but  the 
famous  enquiry  held  by  Henry  II.  in  1170,  and  the  policy  inquest  of 
which  followed  upon  it,  are  the  real  turning-points  in  the  ll 
history  of  the  sheriff.     From  that  time  the  decline  of  the 
sheriff  begins.     He  ceases  to  be  a  prosecutor  of  offenders 
against  the  king's  law ;  that  duty  is  handed  over  to  a  local 
jury.     By  the  Great  Charter  he  is  roundly  forbidden  to 
hold  any  pleas  of  the  Crown.     He  ceases  to  be  a  criminal 
judge,  he  sinks  into  the  position  of  an  executive  official. 
The  change  was  vital,  not  only  to  the  history  of  the  sheriff, 
but  to  the  history  of  England.     Another  reign  such  as  that 
of  Stephen,  and  England  would  have  been  covered  with 

1  A  list  of  the  sheriffs  iniquities  may  be  read  in  the  articles  of  the 
enquiry  of  1 170,  printed  in  Stubbs'  Select  Charters  and  other  Illustrations 
of  English  Constitutional  History. 


142 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Fall  of  the 
sheriff. 


hereditary  sheriffs  of  the  Gascon  type,  defying  royal  autho- 
rity, bent  upon  petty  local  independence,  only  to  be 
crushed  at  last  by  an  absolutism  like  that  of  Louis  XL 
From  this  fate  England  was  saved  by  the  reforms  of  Henry 
Fitz-Empress. 

The  decline  of  the  sheriff  continued.  Such  shadow  of 
judicial  power  as  he  possessed  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century  disappeared  before  the  new  Justices  of  the  Peace 
created  by  Edward  III.  The  growth  of  direct  Parliamen- 
tary taxation  deprived  his  fiscal  position  of  much  of  its 
importance,  and  although,  as  Parliamentary  returning  officer, 
he  had  opportunity  for  a  good  deal  of  quiet  misbehaviour, 
his  illegality  was  no  longer  open  and  avowed.  Finally,  the 
creation  of  County  Lieutenants  by  the  Tudors  deprived 
him  of  his  duties  as  leader  of  the  county  militia,  and  left 
him,  as  he  now  is,  the  shadow  of  a  great  name,  a  splendid 
wreck. 

It  seems  almost  an  insult  to  say  that  the  position  and 
duties  of  an  official  with  such  a  history  are  regulated  by  the 
provisions  of  a  mere  modern  statute.  Yet  such  is  the  case. 
The  Sheriffs  Act  of  1887,  which  repealed,  wholly  or  in 
part,  some  eighty  previous  enactments,  is  our  main  source 
of  information  concerning  the  present  position  of  the  sheriff. 
There  is  a  sheriff  for  each  of  the  fifty-two  traditional 
counties  of  England  and  Wales,  except  that  Cambridge  and 
Huntingdon  may  be  united  in  one  Shrievalty.  It  is  said 
that  there  once  was  a  woman  sheriff  of  Westmoreland,1  but 

1  The  Shrievalty  of  Westmoreland  was  long  an  anomaly.  From  the 
reign  of  John  to  1849  it  was  hereditary  in  the  family  of  the  Veteriponts, 
sometime  Earls  of  Thanet.  In  1849  the  male  line  became  extinct, 
but  the  last  male  holder  of  the  office  endeavoured  to  devise  it  by  will. 
This  attempt,  however,  was  defeated,  and  the  appointment  of  sheriff 
placed  on  a  normal  footing  by  a  statute  of  the  year  1850. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC,  COUNTY  143 

the  precedent  has  not  been  repeated  for  many  years,  and 

judicial  opinion  is  inclined  to  hold  that  a  woman  cannot  be 

appointed  sheriff.     Every  sheriff  (save  the  sheriff  of  Lan-  Pricking  of 

caster    and    the    sheriff    of    Cornwall l)    is   appointed — 

"  pricked  "  is  the  correct  term — by  Her  Majesty  in  person, 

on  the  nomination  of  a  court  which  sits  every  year  on  the 

1 2th  November  at  the   Royal  Courts  of  Justice.      This  Thenom- 

inating 

court,  in  theory  the  mere  creation  of  a  modern  statute,  is  Court, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  survivals  in  English  history. 
It  consists  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  (representing  the  vanished  Lord  Treasurer),  the 
President  "and  others"  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  the 
Chief  Justice,  or  any  two  of  these  persons,  assisted  by  two 
judges  of  the  High  Court.  This  apparently  arbitrary  col- 
lection of  great  personages  is  really  a  desperate  attempt 
(thoroughly  characteristic  of  English  law)  to  reproduce  the 
old  Royal  Exchequer  of  the  twelfth  century,  where  the 
sheriffs  laid  their  accounts  before  the  royal  revenue  officials 
after  the  manner  of  a  game  of  draughts  ("  chequers  "),  upon 
a  cloth  marked  out  into  squares  by  rods,  where  little  heaps 
of  money  represented  counters  in  a  game.  The  old  court 
of  Exchequer  has  gone,  even  its  colourless  substitute,  the 
"  Exchequer  Division "  has  disappeared,  and  no  more 
Exchequer  "barons"  will  be  created.  But  the  intense 
tenacity  of  official  conservatism  is  marked  by  the  fact  that, 
when  possible,  one  of  the  seats  allotted  to  the  "  two  judges 
of  the  High  Court "  at  the  nomination  of  sheriffs,  is  always 

1  Till  the  year  1888  the  Corporation  of  London,  by  immemorial  cus- 
tom, elected  the  sheriff  of  Middlesex.  Really,  the  two  sheriffs  of 
London  acted  as  the  sheriff  of  Middlesex.  This  little  anomaly  escaped 
the  besom  of  the  Act  of  1887,  but  was  swept  away  by  the  Local 
Government  Act  of  1888. 


144 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Office  com- 
pulsory. 


occupied  by  the  learned  judge  who  is  now  affectionately 
termed  the  "  last  of  the  Barons." 

Service  in  the  office  of  sheriff  is  compulsory  upon  any 
one  who  cannot  plead  a  legal  exemption,  but  a  man  who 
has  once  served  must  not  be  chosen  again  within  three 
years  if  there  are  other  suitable  persons  in  the  county. 
No  one  may  be  appointed  sheriff  unless  he  "  have  sufficient 
land  within  his  county  to  answer  the  Queen  and  her 
people,"  i.e.,  to  be  responsible  for  any  damages  which  may 
be  awarded  against  him  for  neglect  of  duty.  Apparently 
there  is  no  other  positive  qualification  ;  but  an  officer  of  the 
regular  forces  on  the  active  list  is  incapable  of  serving,  and 
a  militia  officer,  whilst  actually  on  duty,  may  execute  the 
office  through  his  under-sheriff. 

At  the  present  day  the  sheriff  may  be  described  as  the 
chief  executive  official  of  the  superior  courts,  civil  and 
criminal,  and  as  still,  to  some  extent,  an  agent  of  the 
Treasury.  In  the  former  capacity  he  arrests,  either  with 
or  without  warrant,  any  person  suspected  to  have  committed 
a  felony,  and  every  person  in  the  county  must  be  prepared, 
if  called  upon,  to  assist  him  in  so  doing.1  When  the 
assizes  are  being  held,  the  sheriff  is  responsible  for  the 
maintenance  of  order  in  the  court,  unless  the  Quarter 
Sessions  has  specially  committed  the  duty  to  the  police. 
The  sheriff  prepares  the  "  panel "  or  list  of  jurors,  taken 
from  the  jury  lists  already  prepared,  and  sees  that  sufficient 
jurors  are  in  attendance.  The  sheriff  also  executes  the 
judgment  of  the  superior  court,  whether  criminal  or  civil, 
either  by  enforcing  the  sentence  of  death  or  imprisonment, 

1  The  inhabitants  so  assisting  are  known  as  the  fosse  comitatus,  and 
it  is  express  modern  law  that,  for  default  of  being  "ready  and 
apparelled  "  to  assist  the  sheriff,  any  person  may  be  fined. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC,  COUNTY  145 

by   levying    fines,    by   selling   goods   under   "  execution," 
or,  in  the  rare  cases  in  which  a  committal  order  is  made 
against  a   man    for   a   civil    debt,   by  arresting  the  body 
of  the  debtor.     The   sheriff  also   may  have   to   hold  an   Inquiry 
"  inquest  "  for  the  assessment  of  damages  under  a  judgment  damages, 
of  a  superior  court,1  or  under  the  statutes  giving  compen- 
sation   to    a    man    whose    land    is    wanted    for    public 
improvements,  but  he  is  expressly  forbidden  to  hold  any 
inquest  whereby  any  one  is  indicted. 

As  a  revenue  official,  the  sheriff  collects  debts  which  are  Crown 
due  to  the  Crown  under  recognisances,  fines,  bonds,  and  debts, 
other  instruments.  As  a  rule,  the  Crown  has  the  privilege 
of  enforcing  its  claims  in  a  summary  way,  without  the 
formality  of  an  action.  This  course  is  never  adopted  where 
there  is  any  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the  amount  owing ;  but 
there  rarely  is  any  such  doubt,  and  the  Crown,  after  "  for- 
feiting "  or  "  estreating  "  the  bonds  or  recognisances,  simply 
directs  its  officer  to  collect  the  amount  due.  In  theory 
there  is  still  a  "  ferm  of  the  shire,"2  or  rather  a  shire 
revenue  (for  the  sheriff  is  expressly  forbidden  to  let  his 
county  "  to  ferm,"  and  he  never  receives  it  to  ferm) ;  and 

1  Thus,  if  there  is  an  undefended  case  in  which  the  plaintiff  claims 
"  unliquidated,"  i.e.,  non-specific  damages,  the  court  may  give  judgment 
generally  for  the  plaintiff,  and  direct  an  enquiry  to  ascertain  the  amount 
of  damages.  The  defendant  may  appear  before  the  sheriff  and  give 
evidence  in  mitigation  of  damages,  but  he  may  not  dispute  the  correct- 
ness of  the  judgment. 

3  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  practice  of  commuting  a  number  of  mis- 
cellaneous liabilities  of  uncertain  value  for  a  fixed  amount  (Jtrttia) 
was  very  common,  and  the  sheriff  generally  accounted  for  the  normal 
receipts  of  his  office  at  a  fixed  sum,  known  as  the  "  ferm  of  the  shire." 
The  practice  was  the  origin  of  our  modem  word  "farmer" — i.e.,  the 
man  who  pays  a  fixed  rent,  as  opposed  to  the  bailiff  who  accounts  for 
the  balance  of  income  and  outgoings  in  detail. 

K 


i46 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


the  accounts  thereof  are  to  be  presented  for  audit  at  the 
Treasury  within  two  months  after  the  expiry  of  the  sheriffs 
office. 

The  most  unpleasant  part  of  the  sheriff's  position  is  that 
he  is  personally  liable  for  mistakes  committed  either  by 
himself  or  by  his  officials,  in  the  performance  of  his  office. 
One  section  of  the  Sheriffs  Act  is  so  thoroughly  character- 
istic of  what  we  have  called  the  "  common-law  "  character 
of  our  local  government,  that  it  may  be  quoted  in  full.  "  A 
person  unlawfully  imprisoned  by  a  sheriff  or  any  of  his 
officers  shall  have  an  action  against  such  sheriff  in  like 
manner  as  against  any  other  person  that  should  imprison 
him  without  warrant." *•  He  is  liable,  not  only  for  wrongful 
imprisonments,  but  for  escapes  of  persons  imprisoned  in 
civil  actions,  and  for  unlawful  executions  against  property. 
For  misconduct  of  a  positive  character,  he  may  be  sum- 
marily punished  by  any  of  the  superior  courts.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  sheriff  is  entitled  to  a  percentage  on  Crown 
debts  collected  by  him,2  and  to  certain  fees  and  poundages 
in  the  course  of  his  other  duties. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  sheriff  performs  none  except  the 
purely  ceremonial  duties  of  his  office  in  person,  and  takes 
none  of  its  remuneration.  Every  sheriff  must  appoint  an 
under-sheriff  and  a  deputy-sheriff.  The  former  is  the  local 
representative  of  the  sheriff  in  all  legal  business,  3  and  re- 
ceives the  fees  and  commission,  giving  security  to  the 

1  Presumably,  however,  the  Sheriff  would  be  entitled  to  the  protec- 
tion afforded  by  the  Public  Authorities  Protection  Act,  1893.  (See  ante 
p.  122). 

-  One  shilling  and  sixpence  in  the  pound  up  to  ^100,  one  shilling 
beyond. 

3  As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  the  duties  of  under-sheriff  may,  and  gener- 
ally are,  put  out  to  a  firm  of  solicitors  accustomed  to  do  them,  upon 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  147 

sheriff  to  indemnify  him  from  all  claim*  an  ing  from  non- 
performance  or  improper  performance  of  official  duties.1 
The  latter,  the  sheriffs  London  agent,  having  a  residence 
or  office  within  three  miles  of  the  Inner  Temple  Hall,  and 
receiving  and  answering  writs.  Other  officials  of  the 
sheriff  are  bailiffs  and  sub-bailiffs,  who  do  the  purely 
ministerial  work  of  the  office. 

Finally,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  there  are  still  a  few 
exceptional  "  franchises  "  or  "  liberties  "  in  which  the  duties 
normally  belonging  to  the  sheriff  are  vested  in  some  other 
person,  known  as  the  "  bailiff."  In  such  cases  the  sheriff 
is  not  responsible  for  mistakes  which  occur  in  the  execution 
of  process  ;  but  the  Sheriffs  Act  contains  provisions  by 
virtue  of  which  he  may  obtain  practical  control  of  the  ma- 
chinery, and  it  is  express  law  that  the  sheriff,  with  or  with- 
out his  posse,  may  pursue  a  felon  within  the  limits  of  a 
franchise.2 

(3.)  The  Coroner  appears  first  in  the  year  1 194  as  part  of 
the  new  machinery  devised  to  check  the  power  of  the 
sheriffs;  but  he,  unlike  the  sheriff,  was  from  the  first 
an  elective  not  an  appointed  official,  although,  as  his  name 
implies,  he  was  principally  concerned  with  the  interests  of 
the  Crown.  The  Great  Charter  includes  him  in  the  clause 
which  prohibits  the  sheriffs  from  holding  pleas  of  the  Crown  ; 
but  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  petitioning  barons,  upon  whose 
"  Articles  "  the  Charter  is  founded,  had  no  wish  to  exclude 

such  terms  as  may  1*  agreed  between  them  and  the  real  undcr-iheriff. 
The  latter  appears  on  ceremonial  occasions  only. 

1  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  practice  does  not  relieve  the  shcim 
of  personal  liability  to  the  public.     It  is  merely  a  private  arrangement 
between  himself  and  his  under-sheriff. 

2  So  far  as  regards  police,  the  powers  of  the  exceptional  franchises 
have  been  swept  away  by  modern  statutes. 


i48 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


the  jurisdiction  of  the  coroner.  A  statute  of  the  year  1276 
enumerates  the  'duties  of  the  coroner,  and  shows  him  to 
have  been,  even  at  that  early  date,  a  merely  inquisitorial 
officer,  having  no  power  to  award  punishment.  Very  recent 
legislation  has  transferred  the  election  of  the  coroner  from 
the  freeholders  of  the  shire  or  district  (for  there  may  be 
more  coroners  than  one  in  a  county)  to  the  members  of  the 
county  council ;  but  in  many  respects  the  coroner  retains 
the  ancient  characteristics  of  his  office.  Apparently  the 
only  qualifications  demanded  by  the  law  are  that  he  be  "  a 
fit  person,  having  land  in  fee  sufficient  in  the  same  county 
whereof  he  may  answer  to  all  manner  of  people."  He  ap- 
pears still  to  hold  his  office  for  life,  or  rather,  during  good 
behaviour,  being  removable  by  the  Lord  Chancellor  or  the 
convicting  court,  on  conviction  of  offence  in  the  perform- 
ance of  his  duties.  Every  county  coroner  must  appoint,  in 
writing,  a  deputy,  approved  by  the  chairman  of  the  county 
council  which  elected  him,  to  act  in  case  of  his  own 
incapacity. 

It  is  the  duty  of  a  coroner  to  hold  an  enquiry  or  inquest 
by  the  oaths  of  at  least  twelve  and  not  more  than  twenty- 
three  good  and  lawful  men  in  all  cases  of  sudden  and 
unaccounted  for  deaths  where  there  is  the  least  suspicion 
of  foul  play,  in  all  cases  of  death  in  prison  (whether 
sudden  or  not),  and  in  cases  of  deaths  in  a  lunatic  asylum 
or  a  baby  farm,  unless  certain  medical  certificates  are 
forthcoming,  and  in  all  cases  of  treasure  trove  occurring 
within  his  district.  It  is  said  also  that,  by  strict  law,  the 
coroner  must  hold  an  inquest  in  cases  of  housebreaking, 
but  in  practice  this  duty  has  long  been  neglected. 

The  jury  finds  the  cause  of  the  death,  or  the  fact  of 
the  discovery  of  treasure,  but  the  verdict  need  not  be 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  149 

unanimous,  provided  only  that  twelve  oaths  concur.  If 
the  verdict  is  "murder"  or  "manslaughter"  by  any  person, 
the  coroner  must  apprehend  the  person  named  and  com- 
mit him  for  trial  at  the  next  assizes.  In  the  case  of 
manslaughter,  the  coroner  may,  if  he  thinks  fit,  release  See /a*/, 
the  accused  on  bail. 

The  coroner  also  acts  as  substitute  for  the  sheriff  in 
certain  cases  in  which  the  sheriff  is  personally  interested. 

(4.)  The  Justice  of  the  Peace.  —  The  judicial  power 
formerly  belonging  to  the  sheriff  has  now  largely  passed 
to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  in  their  corporate  capacity. 
Herein,  possibly,  lies  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  the 
Crown,  after  its  experience  of  the  sheriff's  misdemeanours, 
was  once  more  willing  to  entrust  judicial  duties  to  local 
officials.  The  sheriff  was  a  single  person,  and  could  take- 
secret  counsel  with  himself  when  on  evil  bent ;  the  Justice 
of  the  Peace  could  only  act  in  important  matters  as 
member  of  a  body  of  his  fellows,  and  in  the  multitude 
of  counsellors  there  lay  safety — for  other  people. 

But   the   Justice   of  the   Peace  was   not,  originally,  a   Early 
judicial   officer   at   all.     Historians   trace   the   beginnings 
of  his  existence  in  the  knights  assigned  by   Hubert  de 
Burgh  to  enforce  the  taking  of  the  oath  of  peace  pro-  The  peace 
claimed   in   the  year   1195.     Less  than  a  century  later,   c 


guardians    of  the   peace    (custodes   pacis\    one   for   each  Guardians 

of  the 
peacr. 


county,  are  regularly  elected  in  the  shire  court,  to  carry  c 


out  the  provisions  of  the  great  statute  of  Winchester,1 
issued  in  the  year  1285.  But  the  commencement  of  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.  saw  these  officers  turned  into  royal 
nominees,  and  this  character  they  have  ever  since  retained. 

1  This  statute  revived  many  of  the  decaying  institutions  of  Saxon 
England — such  as  \\icfy rdt  the  watch,  the  hue  and  cry,  &c. 


ISO 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Later  in  the  same  reign,  the  guardians  of  the  peace  are 
empowered  by  statute  to  hear  and  determine  felonies; 
and  thus,  before  the  fourteenth  century  has  run  out, 
they  acquire  their  present  title  of  Justices  of  the  Peace. 

The  career  of  the  Justice  from  the  days  of  Edward  III. 
to  our  own  has  been  one  long  triumph,  at  least  if  growing 
importance  can  be  regarded  as  a  test  of  success.  Towards 
the  end  of  Edward's  reign  came  the  terrible  visitations 
of  the  Plague,  shaking  the  social  fabric  to  its  very  founda- 
tions. The  working  classes,  reduced  to  half  their  former 
numbers  by  the  pestilence,  seized  the  opportunity  of 
demanding  enhanced  prices  for  their  labour.  The  old 
regime  of  lord  and  serf  broke  down ;  the  era  of  free 
labour  had  come.  Quite  naturally,  and,  to  some  extent 
at  least,  in  perfect  good  faith,  the  capitalist  classes 
attempted  by  repressive  legislation  to  check  what  they 
deemed  to  be  the  outrageous  demands  of  the  manual 
workers.  One  Statute  of  Labourers  after  another  provided 
an  elaborate  system  for  the  regulation  of  wages  and  hours 
of  labour,  and  the  enforcement  of  these  statutes  was  in- 
variably committed  to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace.  Some- 
times they  were  merely  directed  to  enforce  the  scale  of 
wages  definitely  fixed  by  statute ;  oftener  they  were  en- 
trusted with  the  more  delicate  task  of  "  assessing "  and 
proclaiming,  at  annual  intervals,  the  limits  beyond  which 
wages,  either  by  piece  or  time,  might  not  rise.  This  latter 
policy,  after  vibrating  backwards  and  forwards  during  the 
two  centuries  and  a  half  immediately  following  the  Black 
Death,  was  definitely  affirmed  by  a  great  Elizabethan 
statute  of  the  year  1563,  and  continued  in  practice  till 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  theory  till  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth.  Not  only  were  the  Justices 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  151 

the  authority  for  the  assessment  of  wages ;  to  them  was 
committed  all  jurisdiction  in  disputes  between  master  and 
workman. 

The  break  up  of  medieval  society  which  followed  upon  The  Poor 
the  Black  Death  ultimately  led  to  the  appearance  of  the  Law> 
great   Poor   I^iw  question.     We  have  seen  in  an  earlier 
chapter    how,    when    the   statesmen    of    Elizabeth's    reign 
definitely  placed  the  administration  of  poor  relief  on  the 
basis  which  it  continued  to  occupy  till  the  beginning  of 
this  century,   they  deliberately   made  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace   the   corner   stone   of  the    system.       The   Justices  Overseers' 
appointed  the  parochial  overseers  and  approved  the  poor  *  °°r  rates* 
rate  made  by  them,  or  heard  objections  against  it.     The 
Justices  compelled  negligent  parishes  to  do  their  duty,  and 
helped  the  feeble  parish  with  "rates  in  aid."     Later  on,   Settlement 
the  Justices  enforced  the  law  of  settlement  by  ordering 
the  removal  from  a  parish    of  new-comers  who  seemed 
likely  to  come  upon  the  rates.     And,  as  we  have  seen, 
the   position    of  the    Justice   in    the    Poor    Law   system 
remains  almost  untouched  at  the  present  day;  although 
the   appearance    of  factories   and    trades    unions,    county 
courts  and   Boards  of  Conciliation,  have  robbed  him   of 
much  of  his  importance  in  industrial  matters. 

Generally  it  may  be  said  that  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  Enforce- 
was,  until  the  passing  of  very  recent  legislation,  the  presid- 
ing  deity  of  that  religion  of  parochial  self-government  and 
county  administration  which  was  initiated  by  the  Tudors 
and  developed  by  their  successors.  In  addition  to  his 
judicial  or  quasi-judicial  duties  in  criminal  matters,  the 
Justice  of  the  Peace  was  the  great  maintainer  of  order, 
religion,  and  morality  in  his  neighbourhood.  He  enforced 
the  statutes  for  uniformity  of  worship,  hunted  out  dissenters, 


152  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

licensed  alehouses,  repressed  profanity  and  disorderliness, 
prohibited  Sunday  trading  and  the  like.  It  is  the  custom 
for  poets  and  novelists  to  speak  of  the  squire  as  though  he 
were,  qud  squire,  the  "  God  Almighty  of  the  country  side." 
This  is  a  mistake.  Since  the  disappearance  of  feudal  rights 
in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  the  mere  landowner  has  had  no 
other  advantages  than  those  which  wealth  and  social  status 
could  give  him.  It  was  as  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  not  as 
squire  that  he  reigned.  Let  him  but  be  obnoxious  to  the 
Government,  let  him  be  excluded  from  the  Commission  of 
the  Peace,  and  his  power  was  gone.  The  governing  caste 
in  English  country  life  since  the  Reformation  has  not  been 
a  feudal  but  an  official  caste.  The  first  great  blow  struck 
at  the  position  of  the  squire  has  not  been  an  attempt  to 
deprive  him  of  his  acres.  It  has  been  a  great  shearing 
away  of  the  powers  of  the  Justice  of  the  Peace.  Let  us  see 
what  is  left. 

The  Justice  of  the  Peace  is  now  appointed  by  the  Crown, 
upon  the  advice  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,1  and  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  (Lord)  Lieutenant,  who  is  himself  the  head 
of  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  for  the  county.  Various 
suggestions  have  been  made  as  to  the  motives  which  do,  or 
should,  influence  the  Lieutenant  in  his  recommendations ; 
but  they  are  foreign  to  our  purpose.  Only  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  no  one  can  be  appointed  a  Justice  for  any 
county  unless  he  have  an  income  of  £100  a  year  in 
possession,  or  ,£300  in  expectancy2  from  freehold,  copy- 
hold, or  long  leasehold  property  within  the  county,  or 

1  In  the  palatine  counties  the  advice  is  tendered  to  Her  Majesty  by 
the  chancellor  of  the  duchy. 

2  That  is,  of  course,  legally  secured  expectancy,  not  merely  anticipa- 
tion. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  153 

unless  he  have  occupied  for  two  years  previously  to  his 
appointment  a  dwelling-house  within  the  county,  in  respect 
of  which  he  is  duly  rated  and  taxed,  and  which  is  assessed 
to  Inhabited  House  Duty  at  £100  per  annum.  But  peers, 
privy  councillors,  judges,  law  officers,  and  eldest  sons  of 
peers  do  not  require  any  special  property  qualifications; 
nor  are  such  qualifications  demanded  of  persons  who  are 
by  virtue  of  their  offices  Justices  of  the  Peace,  a  notable 
example  being  the  chairmen  of  district  councils.  There  is  Residence, 
still  a  theory  that  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  must  be  resident 
in  his  county,  but  in  practice  the  rule  is  disregarded.  In 
theory,  also,  the  county  Justice  can  claim  four  shillings  a 
day  for  attendance  at  sessions;  in  practice  he  does  not, 
any  more  than  the  Member  of  Parliament,  claim  his  wages. 
He  holds  office  simply  "during  pleasure";  and  can  be 
struck  off  the  roll  by  Her  Majesty  at  any  time,  without 
reason  assigned.  We  use  the  masculine  pronoun  through- 
out our  description  of  the  Justice,  and  rightly,  for  no 
woman  can  be  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  Neither  can  a 
man  found  guilty  of  corrupt  practices  at  elections,  a 
person  who  is  an  uncertificated l  bankrupt,  nor  a  solicitor 
practising  in  the  county ;  and  a  sheriff,  during  his  year  of 
office,  may  not  act  as  a  Justice,  though  his  name  remains 
on  the  commission. 

Formerly   there    was   a    highly   appreciated   distinction   Quorum, 
between  Justices  of  the  Quorum  and  not  of  the  Quorum, 
as  witness  the  well-known  scene  in   Sheridan's   Scheming 
Lieutenant.     For  in  days  when  the  education  of  a  country 

1  The  mere  fact  of  discharge  from  a  bankruptcy  does  not  remove  the 
disqualification,  unless  the  bankrupt  has  received  a  certificate  exonerating 
him  from  personal  blame.  But  a  disqualification  by  bankruptcy  only 
lasts  for  five  years  from  discharge. 


154 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Justice  was  apt  to  be  peculiar  rather  than  extensive,  it  was 
the  habit  of  the  Crown  officers,  in  framing  the  Latin  Com- 
mission of  the  Peace  (the  authority  for  the  execution  of  his 
office  by  the  county  Justice),  to  draw  a  line  between  those 
simpler  duties  which  any  Justice  was  thought  capable  of 
performing,  and  those  more  difficult  functions  which 
required  the  handling  of  the  more  skilled.  More  especially 
was  this  the  case  when  the  duty  in  question  required  the 
presence  of  more  than  one  Justice  (as  most  of  the  heavier 
duties  did).  The  Commission  then,  in  conferring  the  per- 
formance of  such  duty  upon  "  you  or  any  two  of  you," 
would  add,  "of  whom"  (quorum)  "  X,  Y,  Z,"  &c.,  "shall 
be  one."  The  persons  thus  flatteringly  distinguished 
held  their  heads  a  shade  higher  than  their  less  honoured 
brethren  at  Quarter  Sessions,  and  much  jealousy  was  the 
result.  As  the  education  of  Justices  (or,  perhaps  one 
should  say,  of  Justices'  clerks)  has  improved,  the  practice 
has  fallen  into  abeyance ;  though,  again  with  the  famous 
conservatism  of  English  law,  the  tradition  is  kept  up  by  the 
omission  of  one  unfortunate  name  from  the  list  of  the 
favoured  Quorum. 

Duties  of  Of  the  multitude  of  duties  which  still  fall  to  the  lot  of 
the  Justice  of  the  Peace,  it  will  only  be  possible  to  give 
the  barest  outline.  They  can  be  most  conveniently  treated 
of  under  two  heads — those  which  are  performed  in  Sessions, 
and  those  which  are  performed  out  of  Sessions.  Inasmuch 

Ante,  p.  as  we  have  already  discussed  the  position  of  the  Justice 
when  acting  in  Petty  (or  Special)  Sessions,  we  can  here 
confine  our  remarks  on  Sessions  to  the  great  Quarter 
(or  General)  Sessions  of  the  Peace  for  the  county. 

Quarter  Sessions. — By  a  statute  of  the  year  1362,  it  is 
provided  that  all  Commissions  of  the  Peace  shall  expressly 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC,  COUNTY  155 

direct  the  Justices  to  "  make  their  Sessions  four  times  by 
the  year,"  viz.,  at  Epiphany,  Lent,  Pentecost,  and  Michael- 
mas ;  and  from  that  day  to  this,  the  Quarter  Sessions  has 
been  an  established  institution  of  English  county  life. 
Strictly  speaking,  there  should  be  sixty  courts  of  county 
Quarter  Sessions  in  England  ;  for  the  three  ridings  of  York- 
shire and  the  three  "  Parts "  of  Lincolnshire,  the  sake  or 
liberty  of  Peterborough,  the  Isle  of  Ely,  and  the  two  divi- 
sions of  East  and  West  Sussex,  have  each  a  separate  Com- 
mission of  the  Peace  and  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  while 
Suffolk,  though  having  but  a  single  Commission  of  the 
Peace,  has  two  Courts  of  Quarter  Sessions.1  Nevertheless, 
the  unity  of  the  traditional  county  was,  until  lately,  pre- 
served in  the  special  Gaol  Sessions  which  were  held  every  Gaol 
year  in  the  divided  counties,  and  at  which  the  Justices  of 
all  the  Divisions  attended  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  the 
matter  of  the  maintenance  and  due  regulation  of  the 
county  gaol  and  house  of  correction,  as  well  as  the  re- 
formatories and  industrial  schools.  But  a  statute  of  the 
year  1877  has  transferred  the  control  of  prisons  and  houses 
of  correction  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  Local 
Government  Act  of  1888  has  handed  over  to  the  county 
councils  the  management  of  reformatory  and  industrial 
schools  ;  so  that  Gaol  Sessions  are  no  longer  necessary. 

Since  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888  has  expressly  Quarter 
taken  away  from  the  Justices  in  Quarter  Sessions  the  greater  W0rk°n 
part  of  the  vast  administrative  duties  which  they  formerly 
exercised,   the   main   bulk  of  Quarter  Sessions  work  has 
become  of  a  judicial  character.     Nevertheless,  in  spite  of 

1  On  the  other  hand,  Hampshire  appears  to  have  two  Commissions 
of  the  Peace  (one  for  the  Isle  of  Wight),  but  only  one  Court  of  Quarter 
Sessions. 


56 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


the  Act,  some  administrative  duties  remain,  and  will  re- 
quire a  word  of  reference. 

But  first,  let  it  be  premised  that  the  Court  of  Quarter 
Sessions,  consisting  as  it  does  of  all  those  Justices  for 
the  county  who  choose  to  attend,  is  often  a  numerous 
body,  incapable  of  conducting  proceedings  in  an  orderly 
manner  without  some  organisation.  Accordingly  it  elects 
a  chairman,  usually  some  one  having  special  legal  know- 
ledge, who  acts  as  president  and  mouthpiece  of  the  Court. 
But  the  decisions  of  the  Court  are  the  decisions  of  the 
majority  of  its  members,  even  where,  as  in  Middlesex,  the 
chairman  is  a  professional  judge,  appointed  by  the  Crown, 
and  paid  by  the  County  Council. 

The  judicial  business  of  the  Quarter  Sessions  falls  into 
two   great   branches,    which    require    separate    treatment. 
These  branches  may  be  defined  as  original  and  appellate. 
(i.)  The  original  or  primary  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  is 
chiefly  concerned  with  the  trial  of  those  crimes  which 
are  deemed  too  serious  for  disposal   by  a  court   of 
summary  jurisdiction,  but  not  serious  enough  impera- 
tively to  demand  trial  by  a  judge  of  assize.1     "  Indict- 
able offences  not  specially  reserved  for  the  assizes," 
we  may  term  them.     It  is  a  theory  of  English  law 
that  no  offence  can  be  tried  by  Quarter  Sessions  unless 
there  be  express  statutory  authority  for  the  practice. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  statutes  which  confer  general 
jurisdiction   upon   Quarter  Sessions  are    so  wide    in 
their  terms  that  the  Justices  try  all  indictable  offences 

1  Presumably,  an  assize  judge  has  a  perfect  right,  if  he  pleases,  to 
try  all  criminals  awaiting  trial  by  a  court  of  high  criminal  jurisdiction  ; 
but  prosecutors  and  prisoners  have  no  longer  the  right  to  insist  on  a 
trial  before  a  judge  of  assize  of  offences  triable  at  Quarter  Sessions. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  157 

except  those  which  are  expressly  reserved  by  statute 
for  the  assizes.1  These  offences  are  treason,  capital 
felony,  felonies  punishable  with  penal  servitude  for 
life  on  a  first  conviction  (such  as  manslaughter,  arson, 
burglary),  also  perjury,  bribery,  bigamy,  forgery,2  and 
many  others. 

Offences  properly  triable  at  Quarter  Sessions  are 
tried  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  offences  tried  at 
assizes.  The  accusation  is  (in  the  majority  of  cases) 
first  examined  by  the  "  grand  "  or  accusing  jury,  who 
find  a  "  true  bill,"  or  "  throw  out  the  bill "  accordingly 
as  they  believe  or  do  not  believe,  after  reading  the 
evidence  taken  before  the  committing  magistrates,  that 
there  is  a  reasonable  probability  of  conviction.  If  the 
grand  jury  find  a  true  bill,  the  prisoner  is  then  tried 
by  a  petty  jury,  the  magistrates,  that  is,  virtually,  the 
chairman,  acting  as  judge  and  pronouncing  sentence 
in  accordance  with  the  finding  of  the  jury.3 

1  Principally  by  a  statute  of  the  year  1842. 

3  Some  forgeries  are  punishable  with  penal  servitude  on  a  first  con- 
viction, but  others  are  not. 

8  It  seems  almost  necessary  to  say  a  word  about  the  duty  of  the  citizen 
to  serve  on  juries.  The  matter  is  now  regulated  mainly  by  two  statutes, 
of  the  years  1825  and  1870.  In  counties,  all  male  persons  between  the 
ages  of  twenty-one  and  sixty,  having  j£io  a  year  in  freehold  or  copyhold 
lands,  or  £20  in  leaseholds  above  twenty-one  years,  all  householders 
assessed  to  poor  rate  or  inhabited  house  duty  at  £>2O,  or  who  occupy 
a  house  of  not  less  than  fifteen  windows,  are  qualified  and  bound  to 
serve  on  all  petty  juries  in  trials  held  by  superior  courts,  and  on  both 
grand  and  petty  juries  in  sessions  cases  tried  in  the  county  where  they 
reside.  In  boroughs  all  the  burgesses  are  qualified  and  liable  to  serve 
both  on  grand  and  petty  juries.  Qualifications  in  Middlesex  and 
London  are  slightly  higher.  "  Special "  jurors  (for  civil  cases)  must  be 
either  esquires,  bankers,  or  merchants,  or  persons  of  higher  degree,  or 
occupants  of  premises  of  value  varying  with  the  place  in  which  they  are 


1 58 


ENGLISH   LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Appellate,  (ii.)  The  appellate  jurisdiction  of  Quarter  Sessions  is  per- 
haps equally  important  with  its  primary  jurisdiction. 
Generally  speaking,  there  lies  an  appeal  to  Quarter 
Sessions  from  every  order  of  a  court  of  summary  juris- 
diction which  inflicts  a  sentence  of  imprisonment,  as 
well  as  from  many  other  magisterial  decisions.  Ap- 
peals also  lie  from  orders  allowing  rates  or  approving 
valuation  lists,  and  in  these  cases,  too,  the  appeal  lies 
to  Quarter  Sessions.  Appeals  to  Quarter  Sessions  are 
in  the  nature  of  rehearings,  and  the  appellant  is  en- 
titled (subject  to  certain  provisions  as  to  giving  notice) 
to  deal  with  matters  of  fact  as  well  as  of  law.  The 
Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  may  reverse  or  amend  the 
order  appealed  from,  and  award  costs.  In  fact,  an 
appeal  to  Quarter  Sessions  is  a  strong  illustration  of 
the  truth  that  the  Petty  Sessional  Court  is  really  only 
a  local  committee  of  the  county  Justices,  whose  pro- 
ceedings may  be  varied  in  any  way  by  the  full  body. 
Beyond  Quarter  Sessions  there  is  no  direct  appeal ;  but 
the  Sessions  may  voluntarily  state  a  case  on  a  point 
of  law  for  the  opinion  of  a  superior  court,  or  the 
latter  may  itself  order  the  court  of  Quarter  Sessions 
to  do  so.  When  sitting  as  a  court  of  appeal  the 
Quarter  Sessions  acts  without  a  jury. 
The  administrative  side  of  Quarter  Sessions  has,  ad- 


Adminis- 
trative 

work  of 
Quarter 
Sessions. 


situated.  County  Court  jurors  are  taken  from  the  ordinary  jurors'  book, 
but  there  is  a  limit  to  the  number  of  times  they  may  be  called  upon  to 
serve.  Jurors  at  an  ordinary  coroner's  inquest  require  no  special  quali- 
fication. There  are  numerous  exemptions  from  the  duty  of  serving, 
e.g.,  barristers,  conveyancers,  solicitors,  medical  practitioners  in  actual 
practice,  clergymen  and  Nonconformist  ministers,  peers,  members  of 
Parliament,  &c.  Burgesses  of  a  borough  which  has  its  own  Quarter 
Sessions  are  not  liable  to  serve  at  Quarter  Sessions  for  the  county. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  159 

mittcdly,  been  robbed  of  the  bulk  of  its  importance  by  the 
Local  Government  Act  of  1888.    Still,  Quarter  Sessions  has 

n  administrative  work  to  do.     It  appoints  a  "county  Licensing 
licensing  committee  "  from  amongst  its  own  members,  a  com-  tees.™' 
mittee  without  whose  approval  no  new  liquor  licence  is  good. 
It  appoints  another  committee  to  visit  and  inspect  the  county   Prison 
gaol  and  to  bring  any  abuses  found  there  to  the  notice  of 
the  Secretary  of  State,  as  well  as  to  carry  out  the  regulations  tec- 
laid  down  by  the  latter  for  the  conduct  of  prisoners  and 
the  prison.     It  appoints  a  third  committee  to  carry  out  the  Asylums 
provisions  of  the  Lunacy  Act,   1890,  with  respect  to  non- 
pauper  lunatic  asylums.     By  a  curious  irony  it  was  the  tee. 
body  entrusted  with  the  marking  out  of  the  electoral  divi- 
sions for  the  first  elections  under  that  scheme  which  did  so 
much  to  diminish  its  own  importance — the  County  Coun- 
cils scheme  of  1888.     And,  although  its  powers  in  relation 
to  Parliamentary  election  matters  have  been  transferred  to 
its  new  rival,  it  is  presumed  that  Quarter  Sessions  still  -re- 
tains the  right  of  marking  out  its  county  into  Petty  Ses- 
sional   divisions.       But    the    financial    duties    of    Quarter 
Sessions,  once  so  important,  have  now  absolutely  gone. 

Single  Justices. — The  duties  which  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace  may  be  called  upon  to  perform  out  of  Sessions  are 
still  very  numerous  and  important,  though  they  are  tending, 
perhaps,  to  diminish.  Strictly  speaking,  all  the  preliminary 
enquiry  which  we  have  previously  described  as  preceding 
the  committal  for  trial  of  an  alleged  offender,  though  it 
usually  takes  place  at  Petty  Sessions,  may  be  done  by  a 
single  Justice  sitting  in  his  own  parlour.  And  the  very 
fact  that  so  much  of  this  preliminary  work  goes  to  Petty 
Sessions,  has  rendered  the  duty  of  the  single  magistrate 
with  regard  to  one  important  subject  more  critical  than 


i6o  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

ever.  This  is  the  subject  of  bail.  The  law  of  England  is 
rightly  tender  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and  refuses  to 
allow  a  man  to  be  detained  in  prison,  even  for  a  few  days, 
merely  because  he  happens  to  be  charged  with  some 
offence.  The  rules  on  the  subject  of  Habeas  Corpus  are 
familiar,  at  least  in  outline,  to  most  Englishmen,  but  the 
Habeas  Corpus  procedure  requires  the  interference  of  a 
superior  judge,  and,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  the  pro- 
cedure by  simple  application  for  bail  is  quicker  and 
cheaper.  The  Justice  (in  some  cases  the  mere  police- 
officer)  before  whom  an  alleged  offender  is  brought,  at  any 
time  before  his  actual  trial,  may  (in  some  cases  must)  allow 
him  to  go  at  large  on  bail,  that  is,  upon  the  undertaking 
of  certain  sureties  to  pay  a  sum  named  if  he  is  not  forth- 
coming when  wanted.  The  law  upon  the  subject  of  the 
right  to  bail  is  very  simple.  When  a  man  is  charged  with 
treason,  no  magistrate  may  grant  bail  without  an  order  of 
a  Secretary  of  State  or  the  Queen's  Bench  Division.  When 
the  charge  is  of  felony,  or  some  one  of  about  a  dozen 
specified  misdemeanours,1  the  magistrate  may  grant  or  re- 
fuse bail  according  to  his  discretion.  In  all  other  cases  of 
alleged  misdemeanours,  the  magistrate  must  grant  bail,  even 
though  he  be  perfectly  aware  that  the  accused  is  contem- 
plating flight  to  America.  But  he  may  fix  the  sum  to  be 
given  as  security  at  a  pretty  high  figure,  the  only  restraint 
on  his  power  being  the  somewhat  vague  declaration  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights,  "that  excessive  bail  ought  not  to  be  re- 

1  The  distinction  bet  ween  felony  and  misdemeanour  is  arbitrary,  and 
can  only  be  found  by  reference  to  law  books.  Formerly  every  convic- 
tion for  felony  involved  forfeiture  of  the  offender's  goods.  Almost  all 
the  more  serious  offences  are  felonies  ;  but  sometimes  the  line  is  very 
arbitrarily  drawn.  Forgery  is  a  felony,  perjury  is  not. 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  161 

quired."  And  he  may  enquire  sharply  into  the  solvency 
of  the  proffered  sureties.  Moreover,  the  surety  may  lay 
forcible  hands  on  the  accused  if  he  be  evidently  attempt- 
ing an  escape  ;  for,  in  legal  theory,  the  body  of  the  accused 
has  been  bailed,  i.e.,  handed  over  to  him  —  the  accused  is, 
in  fact,  his  bondsman. 

Also,  the  single  Justice  issues  warrants  to  arrest  alleged  Wan-ants. 
offenders,  to  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses,  and  to 
search  suspected  places.     Various  statutory  declarations  or  Taking  of 
assertions  may  be  made  before  him,  and  he  may  even   tionsand 
administer  oaths  in   matters  within   his   own  jurisdiction.   oatns- 
He  is  the  authority  in  the  matters  of  billeting  and  impress-  Billeting 
ment  of  carriages  for  military  purposes  under  the  Army 


Act,  1  88  1.     He  is  entitled,  notwithstanding  the  transfer  of 

prisons  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  to  visit  and  inspect  the   Prisons. 

prisons  within  his  county.     In  the  matter  of  his  ancient 

and  original  duty,  the  keeping  of  the  peace,  he  is  still  the   Keeping 

first  resort  of  the  law-abiding  citizen  ;  we  see  him  reading  * 

the  Riot  Act  before  the  sterner  hand  of  the  central  Govern- 

ment takes  up  the  reins  of  authority.    Although  the  control  Constables. 

of  the  county  police  as  a  whole  is  now  vested,  as  we  shall 

see,  in  a  newly  created  body,  the  single  Justice  is  still 

entitled  to  command  the  allegiance  of  the  individual  con- 

stable,  and   the    latter  is  quite   safe  in  acting  upon   the 

Justice's  warrant,  unless  it  is  manifestly  illegal. 

By  reason,  no  doubt,  of  the  facts  that  he  is  practically  Special 
an  unremunerated  official,  and  that  he  is,  in  the  majority  of  justices. 
of  cases,  not  a  professional  lawyer,  the  Justice  of  the  Peace 
enjoys  a  special  protection  somewhat  anomalous  in  English 
law.     No  action  may  be  brought  against  a  Justice  on  the 
mere  ground  that  he  has  wrongly  exercised  a  discretion 
given  him   by  statute  ;  in  order  to  succeed,  the  plaintiff 

L 


162  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

must  prove  that  the  Justice  acted  maliciously  and  withoui 
probable  cause.  No  action  at  all  will  lie  against  a  Justice 
for  an  act  which  he  was  ordered  by  a  superior  court  to  do, 
nor  for  the  granting  of  a  warrant  of  arrest  or  distress, 
where  the  grant  has  been  confirmed  on  appeal.  Even 
where  the  plaintiff  alleges  the  doing  by  a  Justice  of  a 
wholly  illegal  act,  he  must  wait  until  the  act  has  been 
formally  quashed  by  a  superior  authority  before  bringing 
his  action.  And  yet  he  must,  as  must  all  persons  bringing 
actions  against  public  authorities,  bring  his  action  within 
six  months  after  the  doing  of  the  act  complained  of,  or 
from  the  ceasing  of  the  damage  which  accrued  therefrom— 
for  in  all  cases  the  plaintiff  must  prove  actual  damage — 
and  he  must  give  the  offending  Justice  opportunity  of 
tendering  amends.  If  he  does  not,  he  is  liable  to  be 
condemned  in  costs. 

We  may  conclude  our  account  of  the  judicial  county 
with  a  brief  word  concerning — 

(5.)  The  Clerk  of  the  Peace,  whose  statutory  history 
reaches  back  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
who  was  formerly  appointed  (apparently  during  pleasure 
only)  by  the  Lieutenant  of  the  county  in  his  capacity  of 

Custody  of  custos  rotulorum.  It  was  his  duty  to  take  charge  of  all 
documents  belonging  to  the  county,  amongst  others,  papers 
deposited  pursuant  to  Standing  Orders  of  Parliament  or 
the  Lands  Clauses  Consolidation  Acts,  the  warrants  of  the 
appointment  of  sheriffs  of  his  county,  the  accounts  of 

Jurors'  and  public  water-works,  and  so  on.  Moreover,  he  set  in  motion 
the  machinery  for  filling  up  the  lists  of  county  jurors  and 
voters,  and  kept  the  lists  when  completed.  Further  than 
this,  he  was  not  only  the  mouthpiece  of  the  county  for 
business  purposes,  its  agent  in  legal  proceedings,  and  the 


PARLIAMENTARY,  ETC.,  COUNTY  163 

registrar  of  its  Quarter  Sessions ;  but  the  property  of  the  Trustee 
county  was  deemed  to  be  legally  vested  in  him.  But  the 
Local  Government  Act  of  1888  has  transferred  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  Joint  Committee  of  Quarter  Sessions  and 
County  Council,  his  salary  is  paid  by  the  County  Council, 
and  in  the  latter  is  now  vested  all  the  property  of  the 
county  save  certain  ornamental  possessions  such  as  por- 
traits. The  Clerk  of  the  Peace  is  expressly  disqualified 
from  acting  as  clerk  to  any  bench  of  Justices  for  a  division 
of  his  county. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY 

THE  administrative  county,  as  a  separate  unit  of  local 
government,  is  the  creation  of  the  Local  Government 
Act,  1888,  a  statute  which  had  for  its  obvious  (though 
not  avowed)  object,  the  transfer  of  county  business  from 
Quarter  Sessions  to  elective  councils. 

The  division  of  England  and  Wales  into  administrative 
counties  is  supposed  to  follow  the  boundaries  of  the 
parliamentary  counties,  except  that,  for  purposes  of  co- 
ordination with  judicial  boundaries,  there  are  additional 
administrative  counties  for  Suffolk  and  Sussex,  the  Isle 
of  Ely,  and  the  soke  of  Peterborough,  making  sixty  in 
all,  or,  with  the  addition  of  the  Metropolitan  area,  which 
ranks  as  a  separate  administrative  county,  sixty-one. 

In  each  administrative  county  there  is  an  elective 
county  council,  consisting  of  such  a  number  of  persons 
as  the  Local  Government  Board  directs.  Each  county 
is  divided  for  election  purposes  into  two  classes  of  con- 
stituencies—  boroughs  and  county  divisions,1  but  each 

1  The  number  of  combinations  now  possible  with  the  name  "county" 
is  apt  to  be  rather  bewildering.  A  ' '  county  division  "  under  the  Act 
of  1888  must  be  distinguished  from  a  "county  district"  under  the  Act 
of  1894,  and  yet  the  county  division  is,  so  far  as  possible,  to  follow  the 
lines  of  the  county  district.  The  "county  at  large  "  appears  to  be  the 
"  geography -book  county";  the  "entire  county"  is  much  the  same 
164 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  165 

borough  which,  in  the  allotment  of  seats,  is  entitled  on 
the  basis  of  population  to  more  than  one  member,  must 
be  sub-divided  into  as  many  "wards"  or  "electoral 
divisions"  as  there  are  members,  so  that  there  may  be 
one  member  and  no  more  for  each  ward  or  electoral 
division.  In  the  boroughs  the  sub-divisions  follow  the 
lines  of  the  municipal  wards,  and  the  county  divisions 
those  of  the  county  districts  (/>.,  sanitary  districts),  and 
where  it  is  necessary  to  sub-divide  a  county  district,  the 
boundaries  of  parishes  are,  where  possible,  followed. 

The  electors  to  the  County  Council  are  likewise  divided 
into  two  classes,  corresponding  with  the  distinction  be-  mcnt 
tween  boroughs  and  county  divisions.  In  the  borough  c 
constituencies  the  electors  will  be  the  burgesses  enrolled 
under  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1882  as  electors 
to  the  borough  council ;  in  the  county  divisions,  persons 
who,  if  their  place  of  abode  or  occupation  were  a  borough, 
would  be  qualified  to  be  enrolled  as  burgesses,  together 
with  £IQ  occupiers  of  property  within  the  division.  We 
need  not  here  discuss  the  nature  of  burgess  qualifica- 
tion —  that  will  come  later  on.  But  it  may  be  said 
generally,  that  under  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888, 
all  persons  who  have  for  twelve  months  occupied  rated 
premises  within  a  borough  or  parish  (as  the  case  may  be), 
who  have  paid  their  rates,  and  who  have  resided  within 
seven  miles  of  their  borough  or  parish,  are,  if  registered 
on  their  borough  or  parish  roll  of  electors,  entitled  to  vote 
at  County  Council  elections.  The  only  general  disquali- 

thing,  but  the  expression  is  only  used  of  a  county  at  large  in  which 
there  are  more  than  one  administrative  county.  The  expression 
"division  of  a  county  "  appears  to  be  reserved  for  the  older  institutions, 
such  as  hundred,  lathe,  uapentake, &c. 


i66 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


See /or/, 
p.  228. 


fications  appear  to  be  infancy,  alienage,  and  receipt  of 
poor  relief.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered,  that 
the  burgesses  of  certain  large  boroughs,  known  as  "  county 
boroughs,"  will  take  no  part  in  elections  for  the  county 
council  of  their  "  county  at  large " ;  their  borough  being 
for  most  purposes  independent  of  the  council  for  the 
county  at  large,  being,  in  fact,  almost  an  administrative 
county  in  itself. 

Besides  the  elective  councillors,  the  County  Council 
contains  "  county  aldermen  "  and  a  chairman.  The  alder- 
men, one-third  in  number  of  the  ordinary  councillors,1  are 
elected  by  them  for  six  years,  but  retire  by  halves,  so  that 
there  is  an  election  of  aldermen  every  three  years.  The 
chairman  is  elected  annually  by  the  whole  council.  The 
ordinary  councillors  are  elected  for  three  years,  and  retire 
together.  Chairman  and  aldermen  may  be  chosen  either 
from  among  the  existing  councillors,  or  from  other 
persons  qualified  to  be  councillors.  But  whereas  the 
election  as  alderman  vacates  the  seat  of  an  ordinary 
councillor,  election  as  chairman  does  not. 

This  brings  us  to  the  qualifications  of  councillors.  No 
one  can  be  elected  an  ordinary  councillor  nor  (therefore) 
an  alderman  or  chairman  of  a  county  council,  unless  he  be 
either  qualified  to  be  councillor  of  a  borough  within  the 
county,  or  be  a  peer  owning  property  in  the  county,  or  be  a 
parliamentary  voter  registered  as  such  in  respect  of  the 
ownership  of  property  in  the  county.  To  be  qualified  as  a 
borough  councillor  a  man  must  be  either  entitled,  by  virtue 
of  burgess  qualification,  to  be  registered  as  an  elector,  or  be 
qualified  in  all  respects  save  that  of  residence  within  the 

1  This  virtually  makes  it  necessary  to  fix  the  number  of  the  ordinary 
councillors  at  some  multiple  of  three. 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  167 

seven  mile  limit,  and  (being  resident  within  fifteen  miles) 
be  entitled  to  or  rated  in  respect  of  property  of  a  certain 
value.1 

The  only  disqualifications  for  election  as  a  councillor,   \>. 
other  than  those  which  disqualify  as  an  elector,  appear  to  c 
be— 

(a)  Sex. — It  has  been  expressly  decided  that  no  woman 

can  be  a  county  councillor. 

(b)  Office. — No  person  holding  paid  office  in  the  gift  of  the 

council  can  be  a  member  thereof. 

(f)  Contractor  ship. — No  person  who  has  any  interest, 
direct  or  indirect,  in  a  contract  with  the  council  can 
be  a  councillor. 

(d)  Bankruptcy. — No   uncertificated    bankrupt   can    be   a 
member  of  a  county  council  for  five  years  after  his 
discharge  from  bankruptcy. 
But  possession  of  Holy  Orders  is  not  (as  with  a  borough 

councillor)  a  disqualification. 

The  matters  entrusted  to  county  councils  by  the  Act  of 

1888  and  subsequent  statutes  may  be  grouped  under  nine 

heads — 

(i)  Locomotion. — All  main  roads  within  the  area  of  an 
administrative  county  belong  to  and  must  be  main- 
tained by  the  county  council,  unless  an  urban  council 
should  expressly  insist  on  maintaining  that  portion 
which  runs  through  its  district.  It  seems  somewhat 
difficult  to  define  a  main  road  otherwise  than  by  say- 
ing that  it  is  a  road  which  a  county  authority  has 
declared  to  be  such  ;  but  probably  there  will  be  no 

1  Ownership  of  £1000  value  (realty  or  personalty)  where  the 
borough  has  four  wards,  ,£500  where  it  has  less ;  rating  in  respect  of 
.£30  a  year  where  it  has  four  wards,  ,£15  where  it  has  less. 


168  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

great  anxiety  on  the  part  of  county  councils  unduly 
to  enlarge  their  liabilities  in  this  respect.  A  county 
council  has,  in  respect  of  its  main  roads,  all  the 
powers  of  a  highway  board  with  respect  to  ordinary 
highways.  And  even  where  an  urban  council  insists 
on  maintaining  its  portion  of  a  main  road,  the  county 
council  must  contribute  towards  the  expenses  of  main- 
tenance. A  county  council  is  also  the  authority 
for  the  management  and  repair  of  existing  county 
bridges,  and  for  the  purchase  and  erection  of  new 
ones. 

(2)  Health. — Besides  having  a  general  power  to  make  by- 

laws for  the  prevention  and  suppression  of  nuisances, 
not  otherwise  summarily  punishable,  the  County 
Council  is  expressly  constituted  an  authority  for  the 
prevention  of  river  pollution  within  its  county,  and 
for  the  execution  of  the  statutes  relating  to  the  conta- 
gious diseases  of  animals  and  to  destructive  insects. 
It  is  also  the  fish  conservancy  authority,  and  the 
protector  of  wild  birds  for  the  county,  though  these 
functions  may  possibly  have  more  regard  to  sport  than 
to  health. 

(3)  Education. — The  management  and  support  of  reforma- 

tory and  industrial  schools  is  now  transferred  from 
Quarter  Sessions  to  the  County  Council.  But,  in 
addition  to  this,  the  position  of  the  County  Council 
as  an  educational  organ  has  been  rendered  very 
important  since  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  1888,  not 
merely  by  the  entrusting  to  it  of  a  general  power 
(shared  by  the  urban  council)  of  assisting  technical 
instruction  by  means  of  a  "  rate  in  aid,"  but  also  by 
the  practice  adopted  by  Parliament  during  the  last 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  169 

three  or  four  years  of  making  large  grants  to  it  from 
the  general  Inland  Revenue,  with  the  object  of  enabling 
it  to  subsidise  or  organise  technical  instruction. 

(4)  Poor.  —  Although  the  County  Council  is  not,  technically, 

a  poor-law  authority,  it  has  duties  which  touch  very 
closely  upon   the  administration  of  poor   relief.     It 
provides  and  maintains  pauper  lunatic  asylums  for  its   Pauper 
county,  it  may  advance   money  for   the  purpose  of  l 
assisting  emigration,   it   may  contribute  towards  the  Emigra- 
expense  of  holding  enquiries  by  the  Charity  Commis-  ^"'rit 
sioners,  and  it  may,  in  default  of  action  by  a  district  enquiries. 
council,  take  over  the  powers  belonging  to  that  body 
in  the  matter  of  providing  allotments. 

(5)  Records.  —  The  County   Council   is  a  great   recording 

body  for  various  purposes.     It  has  taken  over  the 
functions  formerly  belonging  to  the  Quarter  Sessions 
in  respect  of  the  registration  of  the  rules  of  scientific  Scientific 
societies,1    the    particulars    of    charitable    gifts,2   the 
existence  of  places    for   religious    worship  ;  3   and    it  gifts. 
confirms   and   records    the    rules   of   loan    societies.4 


Loan 

1  By  an  act  of  the  year  1843,  learned  societies  whose  rules  have  been    societies. 
duly  certified  to  the  clerk  of  the  peace  for  their  county,  are  exempt  from 
payment  of  rates. 

2  By  the  Charitable  Donations  Registration  Act,  1862,  trustees  who 
hold  property  for  charitable  purposes  are  required  to  register  particulars 
with  the  clerk  of  the  peace  or  Quarter  Sessions. 

8  By  various  statutes  of  the  end  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  dissenters  who  desired  protection  for  their  places  of 
worship  were  required  to  register  them  with,  and  get  them  certified 
by,  Quarter  Sessions.  But  they  have  now  the  option  of  transmitting 
particulars  to  the  Registrar  General. 

4  By  the  Loan  Societies'  Act,  1840,  the  rules  of  a  loan  society  must 
be  transmitted  by  the  certifying  barrister  to  the  clerk  of  the  peace  to  be 
lai«l  before  Quarter  Sessions. 


1 70  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Moreover,  it  is  now  the  polling  and  registra- 
tion authority  for  the  county  in  parliamentary 
elections. 

Music  (6)  Public  amusements. — The  granting  of  music  and  danc- 
ing licences,  and  of  licences  for  race-courses,  is  now 

courses.  vested  in  the  County  Council. 

(7)  Trade. — The  County  Council  is  the  local  authority  for 

the  enforcement  of  the  statutes  which  aim  at  ensuring 

Weights  the  uniformity  of  weights  and   measures  throughout 

measures.  tne   kingdom,   and,   by  a  very  recent    statute,   it    is 

empowered  to  purchase  the  peculiar  "franchise"  or 

privilege    claimed    within    its    county    by   any   other 

person  or  body  in  respect  of  examining,  testing,  and 

regulating  any  weights  or  measures. 

(8)  Supervision  of  other  local  authorities. — This  is  a  very 

important  branch  of  the  County  Council's  jurisdiction, 
which  recent  legislation  has  made  somewhat  promi- 
nent. The  Local  Government  Act  of  1888  gave  the 
County  Council  a  substantial  voice  in  the  constitution 

^TCW  of  any  new  borough  within  its  county,  in  the  alteration 

boroughs.  / 

Bound-  of  district  and  parish  boundaries,  in  the  division  of 

aries-  urban  districts  into  wards,  and  in  the  conversion  of 

rural  into  urban  districts.  But  the  new  Local  Govern- 
ment Act  has  gone  much  further.  Under  the  provisions 
of  that  statute,  the  County  Council  fixes  the  number 

Parish  of  members  of  the  parish  councils  within  its  county, 

decides  whether  certain  small  parishes  shall  or  shall 
not  have  councils,  lends  money  to  the  parish  council 
or  authorises  it  to  borrow  money  elsewhere,  hears 
complaints  of  the  parish  council  against  the  district 
council,  divides  parishes  into  wards,  is  the  general 
boundary  authority  in  disputed  questions  within 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  171 

the  county,  and,  broadly  speaking,  has  to  do  its 
best  to  bring  the  somewhat  complicated  scheme  of 
the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  into  working 
order. 

(9)  Finance. — But  perhaps  the  most  important  duties  of 
the  County  Council  are,  after  all,  those  connected  with 
finance.  For  its  financial  powers  are  not  merely 
those  which  are  given  to  all  public  bodies,  to  enable 
them  to  fulfil  their  primary  duties ;  the  County 
Council  is  a  financial  authority  even  for  matters 
with  which  it  is  not  immediately  or  exclusively 
concerned.  Not  only  has  it  to  find  money  for  its 
own  proper  wants,  the  payment  of  its  own  officials, 
and  the  performance  of  its  own  special  work ; 
but  it  has  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  judicial 
authorities,  of  assizes  and  Quarter  Sessions,  Justices' 
clerks,  coroners,  police,  and  petty  sessions,  for  poor- 
law  officials,  and  even  for  some  officials  of  the  central 
government. 

To  enable  it  to  fulfil  these  functions,  in  the  County 
Council  is  vested  all  (or  nearly  all)  the  property 
belonging  to  the  county,  the  power  to  borrow  money 
for  county  purposes,  to  make,  assess,  and  levy  all 
county  rates,  to  examine  and  pass  the  accounts  of  all 
county  officials,  and  to  fix  the  fees  which  they  may 
take  ;  to  appoint,  remove,  and  determine  the  salaries 
of  all  county  officials,  except  the  clerk  of  the  peace 
and  the  Justices'  clerks.  It  must,  at  the  beginning  of 
every  financial  year,1  consider  an  estimate  or  budget  Budget, 
of  probable  income  and  liabilities  for  the  current  year, 
and  must  again  consider  the  budget  at  the  expiration 
1  The  financial  year  of  the  county  begins  on  the  1st  April. 


172 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


of  the  first  six  months  of  the  year.  All  its  financial 
business  is  in  the  special  charge  of  a  finance  com- 
mittee, which  it  is  bound  "  from  time  to  time "  to 
appoint ;  and  no  payment  (except  in  pursuance  of  an 
Act  of  Parliament  or  an  order  of  a  competent  court) 
can  be  made  by  the  county  treasurer  without  an  order 
of  the  council  signed  by  at  least  three  members  of  the 
finance  committee  ;  nor  can  any  liability  exceeding 
^50  be  properly  incurred  without  an  estimate  sub- 
mitted by  the  finance  committee. 

The  question  naturally  arises  :  Whence  does  the  County 
Council  get  the  money  for  all  these  purposes  ?  And  we 
may  say  that,  apart  from  its  revenue  from  property,  which 
may  come  in  the  form  of  rents,  tolls,  royalties,  and  so  on, 
and  from  such  casual  sources  as  penalties  for  breach  of 
statutes  and  by-laws  which  it  is  entitled  to  enforce,  the 
County  Council  derives  its  revenue  from  loans,  contributions, 
and  rates.  A  word  as  to  each  of  these. 

(i.)  Loans. — For  any  purpose  of  permanent  utility  within 
the  scope  of  its  duties,  such  as  the  consolidation  of  existing 
debts,  the  purchase  of  land  and  buildings,  and  even  for  the 
assistance  of  emigration  from  its  county,  the  County  Council 
may,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Local  Government  Board, 
borrow  money  by  way  of  loan,  repayable  by  instalments 
extending  over  a  period  not  longer  than  thirty  years. 
But  even  the  Local  Government  Board  cannot,  without  the 
express  approval  of  Parliament,  sanction  any  loan  which 
will  bring  the  total  debt  of  a  county  above  a  tenth  of  the 
rateable  value  of  the  property  within  its  area.  The  loan 
may  be  secured  either  by  "  county  stock  "  issued  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888,  by  de- 
bentures or  annuity  certificates  under  the  Local  Loans 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  173 

Acts,  1875  (a  statute  which  prescribes  general  rules  for  the 
management  of  loans  to  local  authorities),  or  by  mortgage   Mortgage, 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Public  Health  Act ;  but  every 

loan   must  be  repaid  by   means  of  equal  yearly  or  half-  Instal- 

}        /  ments. 

yearly  instalments,  or  by  means  of  a  sinking  fund.  Sinking 

(ii.)  Contributions. — One  of  the  most  important  financial  fund> 
duties  of  a  County  Council  is  to  receive  and  distribute  cer- 
tain sums  of  money  which,  though  in  many  cases  actually 
raised  within  its  area,  are  collected  by  the  officials  of  the 
central  government,1  and  subsequently  handed  over  by  the 
Exchequer.     The  chief  of  these  sums  are  ( i )  the  proceeds 
of  "  local  taxation  licences,"  i.e.,  licences  for  the  sale  of  Local 
intoxicating  liquors,  for  dealing  in  game,  for  keeping   or  }U^^" 
using  dogs,  horses,  guns,  armorial  bearings,  and  many  other 
purposes,  (2)  a  proportional   share,  amounting    to  about  Probate 
two-fifths  of  the  whole  amount  collected,  of  the  sum  re-  duty&rant- 
ceived    during   the  year  for  probate  duty  by  the  central 
government,  and  (3),  by  a  statute  of  the  year  1890,  certain   inland 
specified  Customs  and  Excise  duties.    The  amount  actually  gr^nt™6 
distributed  under  this  head  to  county  councils  during  the 
year  1890-1  was  upwards  of  a  million  and  a-half  of  money  ; 
and,  at  the  end  of  that  year,  there  remained  a  still  larger 
sum  undistributed,  which  has  by  this  time  probably  found 
its  way  to  the  county  treasurers.2     But  sums  received  in 
this  way  from  the  central  government  are  not  applicable  to 
the  general  purposes  of  the  county  fund.     They  must  be 
paid   into  a  separate  account  known  as  the  "  Exchequer  Exchequer 
Contribution  Account,"  and  are  primarily  devoted  to  pur-  tion 

1  It  is  expressly  provided,  however,  that  Her  Majesty  may,  by  Order 
in  Council,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Treasury,  transfer  to  County 
Councils  the  power  to  collect  the  proceeds  of  "local  taxation  licences" 
within  their  respective  counties. 

1  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  1892-3.  App.  P.,  pp.  505,  507. 


174  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

poses  prescribed  by  statute,  such  as  poor  law  officers, 
medical  officers  of  health  for  districts  within  the  county, 
registrars  of  births  and  deaths,  pauper  lunatics,  police,  and, 
in  the  case  of  the  Customs  and  Excise  duties,  to  technical 
instruction.  Only  in  the  event  of  all  these  claims  being 
satisfied  is  the  Exchequer  Contribution  Account  liable  to 
be  devoted  to  general  purposes,  or  even  divided  among 
the  district  councils  within  the  county. 

(iii.)  Rates. — Again,  in  the  event  of  prior  sources  of  in- 
come failing,  resort  to  the  ratepayers  is  the  ultimate  method 
adopted  by  a  County  Council  to  make  both  ends  meet. 
The  provisions  on  the  subject  of  county  rates  are  mainly  to 
be  found  in  a  statute  of  the  year  1852,  known  as  the 
County  Rates  Act.  Only  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
statute  treats  the  Justices  in  Quarter  Sessions  as  the  rating 
authority ;  whereas,  as  we  said,  all  the  powers  formerly 
exercised  by  Quarter  Sessions  in  the  matter  of  making, 
levying,  and  assessing  rates  are  now  bodily  transferred  to 
the  County  Council.  The  basis  or  standard  of  rating  is 
fixed  by  an  "Assessment  Committee"  of  the  County 
Council,  which  may  either  adopt  the  existing  valuation 
made  by  the  Guardians  for  the  purposes  of  the  poor  rate, 
or  may  direct  a  new  valuation ;  and  any  valuation  adopted 
may  be  changed  from  time  to  time  when  necessary.1  The 
Council  then  directs  a  "  fair  and  equal "  rate  to  be  made 
and  assessed  upon  every  parish  in  proportion  to  its  value  as 
appearing  in  the  Valuation  List,  and  the  amount  for  which 
each  parish  is  liable  is  primarily  obtained  by  precept  of  the 
Council  directed  to  the  Guardians  of  the  Union  in  which  the 

1  The  liability  is  the  same  as  that  for  poor  rate ;  but,  of  course, 
county  and  poor  law  authorities  may  take  different  views  as  to  what  is 
the  rateable  value  of  a  particular  property. 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  175 

parish  is  situated,  who  collect  the  sums  demanded  from  their 
various  constituent  parishes  in  the  same  manner  as  the  poor 
But  if  the  Guardians  fail  to  pay  the  sums  demanded 
within  the  time  specified  in  the  precept,  the  Council  may- 
order  the  amounts  to  be  collected  by  the  overseers  of  the 
parishes  from  which  they  are  due,  at  the  expense  of  such 
parishes.  And  if  the  overseers  fail  to  do  so,  the  sums  in 
question  may  be  exacted  from  them  personally  by  distress 
and  sale.1  But  although  the  right  to  make,  assess,  and  Rating 
levy  county  rates  now  belongs  to  the  County  Council,  still  to5 
appeals  in  the  matter  of  rates,  either  against  a  proposed  S^OTS 
valuation,  or  against  an  actual  rate  itself,  or  its  manner  of 
distribution,  still  go,  as  heretofore,  to  the  Justices  in  Quarter 
Sessions  assembled.  The  total  amount  of  rates  levied 
during  the  year  1890-1  by  the  County  Councils  exceeded 
one  million  and  a-half  sterling,  being  an  average  of  about 
,£28,000  for  each  county;  but  it  is  interesting  to  notice 
that  the  transference  of  the  power  to  levy  rates  from  Quarter 
Sessions  to  the  County  Councils  has  not  as  yet  resulted  in 
any  increase  of  demands  upon  the  ratepayers.  In  fact  the 
tendency  is  the  other  way.  The  county  rates  for  1890-1 
were,  on  the  average,  lower  than  in  any  previous  year  of 
the  decade  save  one.2 

The  accounts  of  every  county  council  are  made  up  and 
published  at  the  close  of  each  financial  year ;  and  any  rate- 
payer may  inspect  and  verify  them.  They  are  then  audited 

1  It  is  perhaps  as  well  to  state  here,  though  we  are  rather  anticipat- 
ing matters,  that  the  power  of  the  county  authorities  to  levy  rates  does 
not  extend  to  the  larger  "  Quarter  Sessions  Boroughs  " — i.e.,  boroughs 
which  have  their  own  courts  of  Quarter  Sessions.  But  even  these  may 
have  to  contribute  indirectly  to  county  expenses.  (See/<w/t  p.  219.) 

*  Report  of  Local  Government  Board  for  1892-3.     App.  P.,  p.  503. 


i;6  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

at  the  expense  of  the  county  by  a  district  auditor  appointed 
by  the  Local  Government  Board. 

Finally,  it  is  necessary  to  say  a  few  words  respecting  the 
machinery  by  which  a  County  Council  effects  the  objects 
of  its  existence.  This  machinery  may  be  considered  under 
the  two  heads  of  by-laws  and  officials. 

By-laws. — A  County  Council  possesses,  in  addition  to  its 
power  to  make  by-laws  for  the  suppression  of  nuisances  not 
otherwise  summarily  punishable,  a  general  power  of  legisla- 
tion "for  the  good  rule  and  government"  of  its  county. 
By-laws  made  under  this  power  must  observe  the  rules  fol- 
lowed by  a  municipal  council  in  making  by-laws  for  its 
borough ;  that  is  to  say,  they  must  be  passed  by  a  meeting 
consisting  of  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  members  of 
council,  they  must  be  published  for  at  least  forty  days  before 
coming  into  operation,  and  all  by-laws  (except  those  made 
for  the  suppression  of  nuisances  under  the  Public  Health 
Act)  must  be  submitted  to  a  Secretary  of  State  before  they 
become  legally  valid.  Offences  against  a  county  by-law  are 
punishable  on  summary  conviction ;  but  no  by-law  may 
appoint  a  penalty  exceeding  ^5  for  any  one  offence,  and  no 
county  by-law  has  any  force  within  a  municipal  borough. 

Officials. — Every  County  Council  must  have  (in  addition 

to  its  chairman,  who  is  a  constituent  part  of  the  Council) 

a  clerk  and  a  treasurer,  and  it  may  (and  always  does)  have 

Clerk.          certain  other  officials.     The  clerk  of  the  Council  is  the 

Clerk.          same  person  as  the  Clerk  of  the  Peace  for  the  judicial 

Treasurer,     county,1  but  the  treasurer,  through  whom  alone  payments 

out  of  the  county  fund  can  be  made,  is  specially  appointed 

by  the  Council,  apparently  on  such  terms  as  may  be  agreed 

between  them.     But  the  Council  may  also  appoint  medical 

1  This  rule  does  not  apply  to  the  administrative  county  of  London. 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  COUNTY  177 

officers  of  health,  public  analysts,  surveyors,  auditors,  and 
such  other  officials  as  it  may  deem  necessary  ;  and,  although 
the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888  made  provision  for 
the  transfer  to  the  County  Council  of  existing  officers  of 
the  county,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  existing  claims,  in 
future  appointments  the  Council  will  have  an  entirely  free 
hand.  It  should  be  noted  that  no  paid  official  in  the 
permanent  employment  of  a  County  Council,  who  is 
required  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  his  county  duties,  is 
eligible  as  a  member  of  Parliament. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    STANDING  l   JOINT    COMMITTEE 

THE  standing  Joint  Committee  of  the  Quarter  Sessions  and 
the  County  Council  of  a  county  is  a  statutory  body  created 
by  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888,  for  the  purpose  of 
dealing  with  matters  jurisdiction  in  which  is  shared  by 
Quarter  Sessions  and  the  County  Council.  These  matters 
include  the  appointment  and  regulation  of  the  duties  of  the 
Clerk  of  the  Peace,  the  control  (but  not  the  appointment) 
of  the  Justices'  clerks  for  the  Petty  Sessional  Divisions 
within  the  county,  and  the  sharing  of  buildings  which  both 
Justices  and  Council  require  to  use.  But  its  chief  and 
most  important  function  is  the  control  and  management  of 
the  county  police. 

The  Joint  Committee  is  a  body  consisting  of  an  equal 
number  of  county  Justices  and  members  of  the  county 
council  appointed  by  Quarter  Sessions  and  County  Council 
respectively.  The  precise  numbers  are  agreed  between 
Quarter  Sessions  and  the  Council,  or,  failing  agreement, 
are  fixed  by  a  Secretary  of  State.  There  is,  apparently,  no 
statutory  rule  as  to  the  term  of  office  of  a  Joint  Committee, 
but,  as  a  County  Council  only  lasts  for  three  years,  it  is 

1  This  adjective  is  (doubtless)  inserted  by  the  Act   to  distinguish 
between  the  joint  committee  of  the  Quarter  Sessions  and  the  County 
Council,  and  the  joint  committees  which   may  from  time  to  time  be 
appointed  by  the  councils  of  neighbouring  counties. 
178 


THE  STANDING  JOINT  COMMITTEE          179 

presumed  that  its  portion  of  members  at  least  will  require 
to  be  triennially  appointed. 

It  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  present  century  that   Police. 
England    finally  gave  up  her  cherished    theory  that   the 
parish  constable  was  the  normal  and  adequate  guardian  of 
nd  order  throughout  the  realm.     Even  so  late  as  the 
1833  a  comprehensive  attempt  was  made  to  revive 
the  decaying  system  of  parish  constables ;  but  the  attempt   Pm 
was  a  failure,  and  in  the  year  1856  the  legislature  at  last  c 
faced  the  problem  of  a  new  and  uniform  police  system  for 
the  whole  kingdom — that   is,  with  the  exception  of  the 
metropolitan  area,  which  was  already  specially  provided  for. 
The  new   scheme    is    to  be  found   in   the   "County  and  County 
Borough   Police  Act,   1856,"  a  statute  which,  in  spite  of  Borough 
alterations,  still  continues  to  be  the  ruling  authority  on  the  P°lke- 
subject.     There  were  originally  two  great  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  an  uniform  scheme — the  expense,  and  the  special 
privileges  of  certain   "franchises"  or  "liberties,"1   which   Franchi* 
claimed  the  right  to  maintain  their  own  police.     The  latter 
difficulty  had  been  already  partly  got  rid  of  by  an  earlier 
statute,  the  County  Police  Act  of  1839;  but  that  Act  had 
been  only  permissive  in  its  operation,  while  the  new  one 
was  to  be  compulsory  and   universal.     The  difficulty  of 
expense  was  met  by  a  promise  of  Treasury  contributions 
towards  the  cost  of  maintaining  those  county  and  borough 
forces  which  should  be  kept  in  a  due  st;ite  of  cfficie 
'I 'his  plan  has  since  been  continued,  and  now 

that,  in  addition  t<»  the  central  police  Superannuat if >n  Fund. 

1  Thr  trim*   "  fraiirliix-"  ami   "lii'  nally  applied  to  the 

:r  j.iivileges  or  exemptions  possessed  by  a  certain  locality,  hare 
ince  become  equally  applicable  to  the  localities  in  which  they  are 
excrcUcil.     The  change  has  many  parallels  in  the  English  language. 


i8o 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Chief 
Constable. 


Superin- 
tendents. 


established  in  the  year  1890,  the  Treasury  pays  (through 
the  County  Councils)  one  half  of  the  cost  of  maintaining 
the  efficiently  kept  county  and  borough  police  forces. 

The  scheme  of  the  Act  of  1856  was  to  establish  a 
separate  police  force  in  every  county  and  in  every  borough 
possessing  a  certain  population.  Leaving  the  borough 
force  for  future  consideration,  we  may  here  sketch  in  out- 
line the  constitution  of  a  county  force. 

The  police  of  a  county  is  under  the  general  control  of 
the  Joint  Committee  of  Quarter  Sessions  and  the  County 
Council.  This  Committee,  with  the  sanction  of  a  Secre- 
tary of  State,  increases  or  diminishes  the  numbers  of  the 
county  force,  divides  the  county  into  "  police  districts,"  and 
assigns  the  proper  'number  of  constables  to  each,  appoints 
the  Chief  Constable  for  the  county,  and  provides  the  neces- 
sary buildings  for  the  discharge  of  the  police  duties.  The 
rules  as  to  the  clothing,  pay,  and  accoutrements  of  the 
police  are,  with  a  view  to  uniformity,  prescribed  by  the 
Secretary  of  State ;  but  the  carrying  out  of  these  rules  is  in 
t  he  hands  of  the  Joint  Committee.  The  ChiefConstable 
of  the  county,  with  the  approval  of  Petty  Sessions,  appoints 
the  specified  number  of  constables  in  each  police  district,1 
with  a  Superintendent  at  the  head  of  each,  and  has  even 
considerable  powers  of  dismissal  and  punishment ;  but  in 
these  and  most  other  matters,  he  is  subject  to  the  general 
control  of  the  Joint  Committee,  which  may,  with  the 
approval  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  organise  and  distribute 
the  county  force  in  such  manner  as  to  it  may  seem  fit,  pro- 
viding for  gradations  of  rank,  pay,  allowances,  promotions, 
and  other  details. 

1  Although  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  direct  statutory  provision 
on  the  subject,  the  lines  of  the  police  district  must  follow  those  of  the 
petty  Sessional  Division. 


THE  STANDING  JOINT  COMMITT1  181 

But  it  is  here  very  necessary  to  observe  that,  although 
the  general  administration  of  the  county  force  has  been 
transferred  to  the  Joint  Committee,  the  control  and 
authority  of  Quarter  Sessions  and  even  of  single  Justices 
over  individual  constables  has  been  specially  retained  by 
the  County  Councils  Act.  It  would  be  impossible  for 
daily  business  to  be  done  if  a  magistrate  had  invariably 
to  appeal  to  the  Joint  Committee  before  obtaining  the 
services  of  a  single  constable.  And  so  it  is  expressly 
provided  by  the  Act  of  1888  that  the  Quarter  Sessions 
and  even  the  County  Council  may  exercise,  concurrently 
with  the  Joint  Committee,  the  power  of  ordering  constables 
to  perform  "such  duties  in  connection  with  the  Police," 
in  addition  to  their  ordinary  duties,  as  they  may  think 
fit.1  Moreover,  it  is  also  expressly  laid  down  that  the 
change  is  not  in  any  way  to  affect  the  primary  powers 
and  duties  of  the  Justice  as  conservator  of  the  peace, 
nor  the  obligation  of  constables  to  obey  his  lawful  orders 
given  in  that  capacity.  And  it  is  presumed  that  the 
statutory  duty  formerly  laid  upon  the  chief  constable  to 
attend  every  Quarter  Sessions  court  of  his  county,  and 
upon  the  District  Superintendent  to  attend  every  Petty 
Sessional  court  in  his  district,  is  not  in  any  way  abolished 
by  the  new  Act,  though  probably  the  Joint  Committee 
will  prescribe  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  be  exercised. 

As  we  have  said,  one-half  of  the  cost  of  maintaining  cost  of 
the  county  police  force  is  paid  by  the  Treasury  through 
the  medium  of  the  Exchequer  Contribution  Account  of 
the  County  Council.     An  elaborate  statute  of  the  year 

1  This  is  a  delightfully  vague  power,  and  might,  if  exercised  by  all 
three  bodies  concurrently,  lead  to  some  friction.  The  Act  of  1888 
refers  to  the  Act  of  1856,  but  the  latter  is  equally  vague. 


182  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

1890  has  now  provided  a  scheme  by  which  every  con- 
stable who  serves  a  specified  time  or  is  incapacitated 
by  accident  or  sickness,  is  entitled  to  a  pension  or  super- 
annuation allowance  as  a  matter  of  right ;  and  the  source 

Pension  from  which  such  pension  is  to  come  is  the  "pension 
fund "  directed  to  be  established  in  every  area  for  which 
a  police  force  exists.  This  pension  fund  is  made  up 
partly  of  deductions  from  pay,  partly  of  fines  imposed  on 
the  constables  of  the  force  for  neglect  of  duty,  partly  of 
payments  made  by  other  authorities  for  extra  services 
rendered,  and  partly  by  direct  contributions  from  the 
Treasury.  If  at  any  time  a  pension  fund  is  unable  to 
meet  the  existing  claims  upon  it,  the  deficiency  must  be 
made  good  by  contributions  from  the  "  police  fund "  of 
the  same  authority,  i.e.,  from  the  fund  available  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  existing  force.  This  police  fund,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  partly  provided  (in  the  case  of  efficient 
forces)  by  Treasury  subvention ;  the  remainder  is  found 

Police  rate,  by  the  imposition  of  a  "police  rate,"-  that  is  to  say,  a 
special  rate  for  police  purposes  assessed  by  the  County 
Council  upon  each  police  district  within  its  county  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  constables  employed  in  it.1 
The  police  rate  is  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  valuation 
for  the  ordinary  county  rate,  and  is  collected  in  the  same 
way  as,  and  along  with,  the  county  rate. 

The  con-  Finally,  a  word  as  to  the  position  of  the  individual 
policeman.  But  we  must  first  point  out  that  the  word 
"  policeman  "  is,  if  not  actually  unknown  to,  at  least  very 
rarely  used  by  English  law.  The  law  knows  of  "police 
forces,"  "  police  regulations,"  "  police  authorities,"  and  so 

1  There  are,  however,  some  general  police  expenses  to  which  the 
whole  county  contributes  indescriminately. 


THE  STANDING  JOINT  COMMITTEE          183 

on ;  and  the  word  "  police "  is  used  to  qualify  those 
persons  or  institutions  who  or  which  are  managed  by  the 
legislation  we  have  recently  been  discussing,  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  older  institutions  of  the  parish  constabulary. 
Our  modern  policeman  is  technically  known  to  the  law 
as  a  "  constable,"  more  properly,  as  a  "  police  constable," 
which  qualification  distinguishes  him  from  the  "parish 
constable  "  or  "  paid  constable  "  appointed  under  the  Act  See  ante. 
of  1872,  from  the  "special  constable"  temporarily  appointed  p"48* 
by  two  Justices  in  apprehension  of  a  riot  under  the  Special 
Constables  Act  of  1831,  and  from  the  "special  constables" 
appointed  annually  in  every  municipal  borough  for  use 
in  case  the  ordinary  force  prove  insufficient. 

The  position  of  police  constable  involves  some  con-  Constable's 
siderable  disabilities,  as  well  as  substantial  privileges.  The  disabilities, 
constable  may  not  engage  in  any  private  occupation ;  and 
although  his  former  incapacity  to  vote  at  parliamentary  and 
municipal  elections  has  been  recently  removed,  he  may  not 
canvass  at  either  parliamentary  or  municipal  elections  within 
his  county  or  borough.  He  is  subject  to  special  punishments 
which  cannot  be  applied  to  the  ordinary  citizen.  On  the  Privilege, 
other  hand,  he  is  absolutely  protected  from  suits  when 
acting  upon  a  Justice's  warrant,1  even  though  the  warrant 
turn  out  to  be  defective;  he  is  exempted  from  service  in 
tin-  militia  and  on  juries  ;  assaults  made  upon  him  in  the 
execution  of  his  duty  are  punished  with  special  severity ; 
he  is  entitled  to  arrest  any  one  without  warrant  on 
suspicion  of  committing  a  felony,  and,  if  he  act  bond 
fidey  is  not  liable  for  damages,  even  though  it  turn  out 
that  no  felony  was,  in  fact,  committed  ;  and  a  superin- 
tendent or  inspector  of  police  has  almost  magisterial 

1  The  constable  must  observe  certain  rules  as  to  showing  his  warrant. 


184  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

authority  in  being  entitled  to  release  on  bail  a  person 
charged  with  an  offence  punishable  upon  summary  con- 
viction who  cannot  at  once  be  brought  before  the  Justices. 
Generally  speaking,  we  may  say  that  the  ordinary  police 
constable  looks  first  for  orders  to  his  superior  officer ;  but 
that  he  is  bound  to  obey  the  warrant  of  any  Justice  of 
the  Peace  who  professes  to  be  acting  in  the  scope  of  his 
duty. 


GROUP  D. 
THE  BOROUGH. 

14    &    15.    THE    PARLIAMENTARY    AND 

MUNCIPAL    BOROUGH.          .  .  CHAPTER    XII. 

SPECIAL   TYPES    OF    BOROUGH  CHAPTER    XIII. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    BOROUGH — PARLIAMENTARY    AND    MUNICIPAL 

A  i  i  HOUGH  it  seems  probable  that  the  body  of  traditional 
usage  which  the  earliest  Teutonic  invaders  of  Britain 
brought  with  them  made  no  special  provision  for  large 
centres  of  population,  although  the  roaming  Saxon  hated 
the  confinements  of  what  we  now  call  town-life,  yet  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  find  authentic  records  of  a  time  when 
there  was  in  England  nothing  in  the  way  of  settlement 
beyond  the  typical  agricultural  village.  Long  before  the 
Norman  conquest,  we  get  traces  of  that  burh  from  which 
both  the  character  and  the  name  of  the  modern  borough 
are  derived.  There  is  a  curious  and  suggestive  similarity 
between  the  original  names  of  the  village  and  the  borough  ; 
for  while  the  fun,  the  original  village,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  Town  and 
the  hedged  or  stockaded  place,  the  burh  was  the  strong  or 
fortified  place.  And  it  is  not  a  little  curious  that,  just 
about  the  time  when  the  country  districts  became  fairly 
peaceful  and  safe  under  the  strong  hand  of  the  Tudor 
monarchy,  the  name  trtvn  should  pass,  in  common  language, 
from  the  village  to  the  borough.  With  us,  "  town 
opposed  to  "village";  so  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  tin- 
town  was  the  village. 

\Vhen  we  ask  ourselves  the  origin  of  the  historic  centres  Origin  of 
of  population  in  England,  we  can  give,  in  many  cases,  no  Swwk 

«*7 


1 88 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


definite  answer,  certainly  no  rule  of  general  application. 
Artizan  and  merchant  life  may  have  lingered  on  in  the  old 
Roman  cities,  such  as  London,  York,  and  Chester,  and 
been  gradually  reinforced  by  in-drift  from  the  country. 
Some  German  scholars  bid  us  find  the  earliest  symbol  of 
citizen  life  in  the  market  cross  ;  but  although,  doubtless, 
facilities  for  the  exchange  of  goods  often  led  to  the  growth 
of  a  borough,  many  other  causes  were  at  work.  Small 
groups  of  houses  grew  up  round  the  castle  of  a  powerful 
official  with  a  reputation  for  clemency,  around  some  famous 
shrine  which  extended  the  peace  of  the  church  to  those 
who  lived  under  its  shadow.1  And  thus,  ere  Domesday 
Book  was  drawn  up,  there  had  established  itself  in  the  land 
a  special  class  of  burghers  (burgenses),  who  lived  in  what 
we  should  now  call  towns,  usually  under  the  protection  of 
some  great  noble,  spiritual  or  secular,  who  allowed  them 
special  privileges  in  return  for  pecuniary  assistance. 

But  one  very  remarkable  feature  is  to  be  found  in  all 
these  cases.  There  was  always  a  flavour  of  serfdom  attach- 
ing to  the  burgess,  however  wealthy.  Whether  it  was  that 
the  earliest  burgesses  had  really  commended  themselves  as 
serfs  to  the  lord  or  religious  house  under  whose  aegis  they 
had  come  to  dwell,  or  whether  it  was  that  the  peculiar 
privilege,  possessed  by  many  boroughs,  of  freeing  from  his 
lord's  claims  the  rustic  who  dwelt  unmolested  in  them  for 
a  year  and  a  day,  had  branded  the  borough  as  a  refuge  for 
escapees,  it  is  certain  that  the  theory  prevailed  that  every 

1  Those  who  wish  to  realise  how  a  town  grew  up  round  a  shrine  in 
the  Middle  Ages  should  visit  the  chapel  of  St  Anne  of  Auray,  in 
Brittany.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  a  solitary  landmark,  round  which,  at 
pilgrimage  times,  a  few  booths  were  temporarily  erected.  Now  the 
booths  have  become  shops  and  the  pathways  streets  of  houses. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    189 

burgess  had  something  servile  about  his  position,  and  that 
practical  consequences  were  drawn  from  this  theory.  Not 
only  did  the  borough-member  occupy  a  position  far  inferior 
to  that  of  the  knight  of  the  shire  in  Parliament,  when 
Parliament  had  come  to  be ;  not  only  was  the  cringing 
burgess  held  up  to  the  mockery  of  the  stout  yeoman  on  the 
Elizabethan  stage ;  but,  in  earlier  days,  the  servile  taint 
which  clung  around  burghership  had  subjected  the  boroughs 
to  the  bitter  tax  of  tallage,  and  in  the  struggle  against 
tallage  lies  the  critical  point  in  the  earlier  history  of 
boroughs. 

Now,  tallage  was  a  tax  peculiarly  hateful  on  two  grounds. 
First,  that  payment  of  it  involved  the  stigma  of  serfdom. 
Second,  that  there  were  no  limits  to  the  number  of  times 
which  it  might  be  levied,  nor  to  the  amount  which  might 
be  claimed  under  it.  The  lord  who  tallaged  "  did  what  he 
would."  In  theory,  he  was  only  taking  from  his  serfs  a 
part  of  those  chattels,  the  whole  of  which  legally  belonged 
to  him,  but  which  his  clemency  allowed  his  serfs  to  retain 
the  use  of.  No  doubt  the  theory  was  glaringly  untrue  in 
fact,  but  long  after  the  "  aids  "  and  "  scutages  "  to  which 
the  free  man  was  subject  had  been  strictly  limited  by 
the  Great  Charter  and  by  other  statute  law,  the  burgess 
remained  subject  to  the  indefinite  tallage. 

Naturally  the  burgess  revolted  against  the  hateful  imposi- 
tion, and  set  himself  to  remove  it.  His  first  step  was  to 
buy  off  the  liability  to  indefinite  taxation  by  a  promise  of  a 
fixed  annual  sum  (firma  burgi}  in  its  stead.  There  was  Tbe/nw« 
at  first  probably  no  definite  body  of  persons  responsible  to 
the  lord  for  this  annual  render;  but  the  lord  was  quite 
secure,  for,  if  the  sum  were  not  paid,  his  bailiff  simply 
harried  the  burghers  under  the  name  of  tallage.  In  this 


IQO  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

way  several  boroughs  had  won  the  first  step  towards  free- 
dom before  Domesday.  Chester  paid  ten  marks  of  silver 
(to  king  or  bishop)  ;  Lincoln  one  hundred  pounds  of  silver 
by  tale,  half  to  the  king  and  half  to  the  earl ;  Oxford  sixty 
pounds.  But  there  is  no  hint x  as  to  who  actually  paid  the 
sums,  or  how  they  were  collected  inside  the  walls.  Some 
one  found  the  money,  or  king's  sheriff  and  earl's  bailiff 
would  know  the  reason  why. 

So  the  process  went  on  for  some  two  centuries.  But 
meanwhile,  a  most  formidable  theory  made  its  appearance. 
Boroughs  It  often  happened  that,  owing  to  deaths  or  failure  of  a 
King's  feudal  line,  or  perhaps  because  in  reality  the  borough  had 
grown  up  without  special  protection,  the  burgesses  of  a 
particular  place  had  in  fact  no  feudal  superior  who  claimed 
tallage.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  their  position 
was  peculiarly  fortunate.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Norman  William  had  firmly  established  the  theory  that  the 
land  which  had  a  private  lord  had  also  an  overlord  in 
the  king,  while  the  land  which  had  no  private  lord  was 
directly  "  in  the  king's  hand."  So  ran  the  feudal  maxim  : 
"  No  lord,  no  land."  And  where  no  private  lord  claimed 
to  tallage  a  borough,  that  borough  could  be  tallaged  by  the 
king. 

For  a  long  time  the  only  way  out  of  the  difficulty  was 
for  these  boroughs  to  do  as  the  private  boroughs  did,  vi/., 
to  buy  off  the  liability  to  tallage  by  agreeing  to  pay  a  fixed 
annual  sum.  Very  often  such  a  bargain  was  solemnly 
Charters.  recorded  in  a  charter^  i.e.,  simply,  a  parchment  scroll,  in 
which,  in  return  for  the  annual  payment,  the  king  or  lord 
granted  to  the  borough  freedom  from  all  other  claims,  and 

1  Except  the  vague  statement  that  certain  houses  in   the   borough 
were  "  tax-paying  "  (geMantes). 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    191 

the  uses  of  certain  special  privileges  carefully  specified  in 
the  charter.  Thus  the  whole  land  gradually  became  dotted 
over  with  chartered  boroughs,  each  relying  upon  its  own 
special  charter.  Thus,  too,  the  history-  of  municipal 
privileges  acquired  that  peculiarly  anomalous  character 
which  it  retained  down  to  the  great  reform  of  1835.  But 
the  boroughs  which  received  no  charters  (and,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  sometimes  those  which  did)  were  still  in  evil  plight. 

At  last  brighter  days  came.  A  national  parliament  was  The  pariu- 
established,  and,  from  the  very  first,  set  itself  steadily  to  n 
acquire  the  sole  right  of  taxation  throughout  the  land. 
That  any  authority  should  now  attempt  to  tax  Englishmen 
without  the  approval  of  Parliament  is  so  impossible,  that 
we  are  apt  to  forget  the  slowness  and  the  bitterness  of  the 
struggle  which  brought  this  result  about.  Though  the 
(lreat  Charter  laid  down  the  rule  that  the  free  man  should 
not  be  taxed  save  by  the  consent  of  a  "  Common  Council 
of  the  realm,"  the  wording  of  the  clause  was  narrow,  and 
the  royal  officials  found  many  a  loophole  in  it.  Still,  by 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Parliament  had  won  the 
battle  as  regards  freemen's  taxes,  only  to  find  its  flank 
turned  by  a  daring  use  of  the  claim  to  tallage.  For,  if  the 
king  could  fill  his  exchequer  by  tallaging  the  boroughs, 
where  was  the  Parliament's  dream  of  complete  control  of 
taxation,  and  pressure  upon  the  king  by  means  thereof? 

So  once  again  the  issue  was  joined.     The  kings,  fighting  Fight  over 
inch  by  inch,  fell  stubbornly  back,  and,  at  last,  before 
fourteenth  century  had  run   out,  the  victory  was  gained, 
tallage  without  consent  of  Parliament  was  declared  illegal, 
and  the  theory  of  the  serfdom  of  burgesses  had  gone  for  i 

But  this  was,  after  all,  only  a  negative  position.     The  The  cor- 
borough  was   exempt    from    tallage,  and,   probably,   from  p 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Town- 
moot. 


Leet  jury. 


feudal  jurisdiction,  but  it  was  too  vague  an  entity  to  have 
much  positive  power — to  be  able  to  govern  its  own 
members.  The  earliest  charters  are  very  general  in  their 
terms,  when  they  attempt  to  describe  the  persons  to  whom 
their  privileges  are  granted.  The  king  grants  privileges  to 
"  my  citizens  of  London,"  to  "  my  barons l  of  the  Cinque 
Ports,"  to  "  my  burgesses  of  Nottingham,"  and  so  on. 
There  seems  to  be  no  definite  body  capable  of  acting  as 
trustee  of  the  town's  privileges,  no  corporation,  as  we 
should  say.  The  townsmen  were  not  organised.  It  is,  in 
fact,  one  of  the  very  hardest  things  to  say  what  constituted 
burghership  in  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century. 

But,  although  there  was  no  one  organism  which  summed 
up  and  expressed  the  whole  life  of  the  borough,  there  were 
often  germs  which  might  well  form  the  nucleus  of  such  an 
organism.  Even  where  the  borough  had  grown  up  out  of 
a  single  township,  there  would  still  be  the  old  town-moot  of 
the  original  settlers  or  their  descendants,  who  still  held  the 
ancient  homesteads  of  the  town.  Around  them,  in  more 
recently  built  dwellings,  jealously  excluded,  no  doubt,  from 
the  sacred  circle  of  ancient  householders,  was  the  con- 
stantly increasing  group  of  newcomers,  whom  hopes  of 
profit  had  attracted  towards  the  borough.  In  these  cases 
mere  ownership  of  one  of  the  old  tenements,  without  proof 
of  descent,  often  gave  to  the  owner  and  his  descendants 
a  right  to  be  considered  members  of  the  privileged  class. 
Where  the  borough  was  originally  a  group  of  townships,  it 
seems,  in  many  cases,  to  have  organised  itself  spontaneously 
on  the  model  of  a  hundred^  with  a  representative  moot 
and  a  leet  jury  of  the  twelve  senior  landowners.  Here 
again  would  be  opportunities  for  further  development,  as 
1  The  word  "baron  "  originajly  meant  simply  "liege  man." 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    193 

the  town  court  and  the  jury  acquired  more  and  more 
distinctness.  Most  important  of  all,  the  borough  may 
have  originally  owed  its  importance  to  its  position  on  one 
of  the  great  trading  routes ;  and  then,  in  all  probability, 
there  would  be  a  gild  or  hanse  of  merchants,  an  association 
for  the  purposes  of  commerce,  existing  by  licence  of  lin- 
king ;  and  this  gild  would  have  its  elder  brother  or 
alderman,  as  well  as  its  ordinary  members. 

Out  of  these  scanty  materials  there  gradually  grew  up,  Mayor, 
by  a  process  so  silent  that  we  cannot  trace  its  definite  tuuA™* 
lines,  our  familiar  organisation  of  mayor,  aldermen,  and  **•!«•• 
burgesses — not  necessarily  as  the  universal  type  of  borough, 
but   as   the   orthodox   type,   to   which   others   tended   to 
conform.     The  burgesses  include  all  the  privileged  dwellers 
in  the  borough,  sometimes  acting  in  a  primary  body,  as 
in  the  old  township  moot,  more  often  through  an  elective 
council,    like    the   courts   of    hundred   and   shire.      The 
aldermen  are  the   senior  members  of  the  gild   or  gilds, 
sometimes  chosen  by  the  burgesses  at  large,  sometimes 
only  by  the  gild  brethren,  who,  however,  must  often  have 
been   identical  with   the  burgesses.     The  mayor  (major\ 
though    his    name   probably   comes    from    I  at  in -speak  ing 
countries,  is  either  the  lord's  bailiff  or  reeve,  or  else  the 
elected    foreman   of  the  leet  jury — the   major  et  jurati. 
Between  these  two  alternatives  the  distinction  is,  of  course, 
vast ;  it  implies  all  the  difference  between  the  Government- 
appointed  maire  of  the  French  commune,  and  the  elec 
mayor  of  the  modern  English  town.     Gradually  England 
declared  in  favour  of  the  present  model.     London,  which   London. 
at    William's   death    had   only   a   "portreeve"   (probably 
appointed  by  the  bishop),  wrings  from  John  lackland  the 
right  she  has  ever  since  possessed  of  electing  her  own 

N 


194  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

mayor.  But  London  is,  of  course,  far  in  advance  of  other 
boroughs,  and  we  must  probably  allow  at  least  another 
hundred  years  before  the  leading  type  of  mayor,  aldermen, 
and  burgesses  becomes,  not  universal,  but  even  general. 
1295.  The  fact  that  Edward  I.,  in  organising  his  Parliament, 

gave  separate  representation  to  the  boroughs,  seems  to 
prove  the  importance  which  the  latter  had  acquired  by  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  though  there  is  a  certain 
very  plausible  theory  which  denies  that,  in  the  original 
scheme  of  Parliament,  it  was  ever  intended  to  give 
separate  representation  to  any  but  royal  boroughs,  i.e., 
boroughs  in  the  hand  of  the  king.1  On  the  other  hand, 
the  fact  that  the  sheriff  and  not  the  mayor  was  made  the 
returning  officer  in  the  parliamentary  boroughs,  goes  far 
to  shew  that  there  was  no  well  recognised  type  of  borough 
constitution,  even  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Legal  And  even  after  mayor,  aldermen,  and  burgesses  had 

of  the"*  f  made  their  appearance,  there  yet  remained  one  most 
borough.  important  step  to  be  taken  before  the  borough  organisation 
could  be  considered  complete.  This  was  the  recognition 
of  the  borough  as  a  legal  personality,  a  corporation,  or,  as 
the  lawyers  called  it,  persona  fcta.  Until  this  point  was 
established  there  would  be  endless  difficulties  about  power 
to  hold  lands,  power  to  make  by-laws,  power  to  use  a  seal, 
power  to  sue  and  be  sued, — about  those  ordinary  business 
acts  which  an  individual  can  do  without  question. 

1  Certain  it  is  that,  for  the  first  century  of  its  existence,  the  borough 
representation  in  Parliament  vacillates  in  a  most  mysterious  way.  In 
one  year  a  borough  will  send  members,  in  another  not.  Some 
historians  are  inclined  to  attribute  this  to  purely  casual  circumstances, 
prosperity  or  otherwise  of  the  borough  in  question.  This  is  very 
unlike  medieval  notions.  The  position  of  the  Scotch  "royal  burghs" 
considerably  strengthens  the  theory  in  the  text. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    195 

Suppose,  for  example,  a  dying  citizen  left  part  of  his 
land  "to  the  good  town  of  X."  Who  would  be  legally 
entitled  to  enforce  performance  of  the  will  ?  The  existing 
burgesses?  Suppose  one  of  them  died,  what  about  his 
?  Again,  according  to  legal  theory,  if  land  belongs 
to  several  persons  jointly,  none  of  them  can  commit 
trespass  upon  it.  In  this  way  a  handful  of  citizens  might 
appropriate  the  whole  benefit  of  the  gift.  It  was  not 
until  the  existence  of  the  fictitious  person,  or  corporation, 
comprising  all  the  burgesses  for  the  time  being,  and  yet, 
in  the  eye  of  the  law  different  from  all  of  them,  not  until 
this  legal  personality  was  recognised,  that  the  position  of 
the  borough  could  be  deemed  really  safe.  And  we  cannot 
put  this  consummation  much  before  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

Curiously  enough,  its  realisation  was  almost  immediately  Decay  of 
followed  by  a  dark  period  in  municipal  history.  The  great  [J"ni 
opportunities  for  individual  enterprise  offered  by  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  expansion  of 
trade  consequent  thereon,  seem  to  have  thrown  the  munici- 
pal offices  into  the  hands  of  inferior  men.  The  rich 
merchant  found  himself  quite  able  to  stand  alone ;  he 
ceased  to  care  much  for  the  small  affairs  of  his  borough. 
Naturally,  municipal  politics  tended  to  become  timid  and 
corrupt,  and  the  tendency  was  accentuated  by  the  new  Rouen 
practice,  adopted  by  the  later  Tudors,  of  manipulating  the 
borough  representation  to  check  the  growing  independence 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  Since  the  reign  of  Edward  IV. 
it  had  become  the  practice  to  grant  the  right  of  sending 
members  to  Parliament  in  borough  charters;  and  the 
Tudors  shrank  from  forcibly  cancelling  these  chartered 
rights.  But  it  was  easy,  in  the  then  state  of  constitutional 


196 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


The 

Commis- 
sion of 
1833- 


Ineffici- 
ency. 


law,  for  the  Crown  to  create  new  borough  constituencies 
out  of  little  towns  in  which  royal  influence  could  easily 
intimidate  or  buy  over  the  municipal  officials,  who  would 
practically  control  the  elections.  It  is  to  the  saintly  Edward 
and  the  glorious  Elizabeth  that  we  owe  our  first  wholesale 
creation  of  "  rotten  boroughs " ;  and  James  and  Charles 
followed  suit. 

But  there  was  even  worse  to  come.  For,  after  the  heroic 
attempt  and  failure  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  Cromwell 
to  purge  the  parliamentary  constituencies,  the  Restoration 
made  of  the  municipal  boroughs  not  merely  hot-beds  of 
political  corruption,  but  elaborate  engines  for  the  extortion 
of  money  and  the  persecution  of  dissenters.  By  threats, 
by  vexatious  persecutions,  by  the  forfeiture  of  older  charters 
and  the  grant  of  new  municipal  constitutions  on  a  close 
oligarchical  basis,  the  later  Stuarts  made  of  the  whole 
borough  system  an  offence  which  stank  in  the  nostrils  of 
whoever  was  honest  in  England,  and  which  lingered  on, 
in  deserved  infamy,  till  the  besom  of  a  reformed  Parlia- 
ment arrived  to  cleanse  the  Augean  stable. 

Then  came  the  great  Royal  Commission  of  1833, 
a  thorough  and  systematic  enquiry  into  the  circumstances 
of  the  246  towns  which  claimed  to  exercise  municipal 
privileges.  The  condemnation  pronounced  by  the  Com- 
missioners, after  two  years  of  patient  investigation,  is 
complete  and  sweeping.  Inefficiency,  anomaly,  cor- 
ruption were  everywhere  prevalent.  As  to  the  first 
point,  the  Commissioners  say  calmly :  "  It  has  become 
customary  not  to  rely  on  the  Municipal  Corporations  for 
exercising  the  powers  incident  to  good  municipal  govern- 
ment. .  .  .  They  have  the  nominal  government  of  the 
town ;  but  the  efficient  duties,  and  the  responsibility,  have 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    197 

passed  to  other  hands."1     Upon    the   second   point,  the  Anomaly. 
truth  of  the  Commissioners'  accusation  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  there  were,  in  one  borough  and  another, 
no  less  than  twenty-two  different  ways  by  which  admission 
to  municipal  privileges  could  be  acquired,  eleven  different 
ways  of  appointing  a  Recorder,  thirteen  of  appointing  a 
Town  Clerk,  and  at  least  seven  different  kinds  of  governing 
bodies.     As  to  the  last  charge,  we  may  simply  refer  to  the  Comip- 
facts  that   in   a  large  number  of  cases  vacancies  in  the  ll 
privileged  bodies  were  filled,  not  by  open  election,  but  by 
co-optation  by  the  surviving  members,  and  that,  of  246 
corporations,    only    tu'tnty-cight    were    in    the    liabit    of 
publishing  accounts. 

The  great  Municipal  Reform  Act  of  1835,  which  followed  The  sum 
upon  the  Report  of  the  Commission,  though  it  affirmed  the  ° 
general  principle  of  an  uniform  system  of  municipal  corpora- 
tions, only   included   in    its  scope  178  of  the   boroughs 
reported    upon,   and    left  the  rest    for   further  treatment. 
Many    of    these    have   been   since   brought    within    the  Commis- 
general  plan,  and,  after    a    second    commission  had    re-  JJJ^ 
ported   in    1876,  a  statute  of  the  year  1883  practically  Statute  of 
put   an    end    to   all    municipal   corporations    not    falling   ' 
within  the  provisions  of  the  general  scheme  formulated  by 
the  new  Act  of  the  preceding  session.     We  may,  therefore,  Statute  of 
now   say  that,   virtually    speaking,  all    the  302  municipal   ! 
boroughs  of  England  and  Wales  are  regulated  by  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1882  and  its 
amendments  (for  of  course  the  Act  has  been  amended). 
The  great  exception  is   the  City  of  London,  which  is  still 
governed  by  its  ancient  constitution. 

1  Report  of  1835,^.  17. 


I98 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


One  of  the  most  important  effects  of  the  legislation  of 
the  early  thirties  was  to  draw  a  complete  line  of  severance 
between  parliamentary  and  municipal  functions  in  the 
boroughs.  Not  only  were  the  boundaries  of  the  borough 
for  parliamentary  and  municipal  purposes  often  made 
entirely  different,  but  all  connection  between  the  parlia- 
mentary and  the  municipal  franchise  was  taken  away.  The 
mere  fact  of  burghership  no  longer  gave  even  %.prima  facie 
claim  to  the  parliamentary  franchise.  Though,  doubtless, 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the  man  who  was  a  parlia- 
mentary voter  for  a  borough  was  also  a  burgess,  he  claimed 
the  two  rights  by  totally  different  titles.  And  the  converse 
did  not  by  any  means  hold.  This  distinction  has  since 
been  strictly  maintained,  and  we  have  therefore  to  deal 
now  with  two  totally  different  kinds  of  borough,  the  parlia- 
mentary and  the  municipal.  With  regard  to  the  first,  only 
a  few  words  will  be  necessary ;  for  it  belongs  rather  to 
central  than  to  local  government. 


A. — The  Parliamentary  Borough. 

The  parliamentary  borough  is  now  simply  a  definitely 
prescribed  area  for  the  registration  of  parliamentary  electors 
and  the  election  of  members  of  parliament.  Of  these 
areas  there  appear  to  be  at  present  143  (including  the 
City  of  London).1  Many  of  them,  no  doubt,  coincide 
in  name,  and  not  a  few  also  in  area,  with  municipal 
name  with  boroughs  .  but,  for  all  that,  the  Parliamentary  and  the 

municipal  J 

boroughs,     municipal    borough    are    certainly    distinct    in    idea,    the 

former  being  a  mere  electoral  area,  while  the  latter  is  a 

self-governing    unit.     And,    in    many   cases,    there    is    no 

1  Census  Returns,  1891. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    199 

identity  at  all.  The  parliamentary  boroughs  of  Clapham 
and  Battersea,  Finsbury,  Paddington,  and  Woolwich,  for 
example,  have  no  namesakes  among  the  municipal  boroughs  ; 
while  the  parliamentary  boroughs  of  Liverpool,  Manchester, 
Birmingham,  Newcastle-under-Lyme,  and  Reading,  though 
they  assume  the  names,  yet  have  not  the  areas  of  their 
municipal  synonyms.  If  we  wish  to  ascertain  the  bound- 
aries of  a  Parliamentary  borough,  we  must  dig  them  out 
of  one  of  the  three  great  Parliamentary  Distribution  or 
Boundaries  Acts  of  1832,  1867,  or  1885,  according  to  the 
date  of  its  creation.  There  is  no  general  authority  on  the 
subject.  If  we  wish  to  know  the  boundaries  of  a  municipal 
borough,  we  have  merely  to  look  at  its  charter. 

A  parliamentary  borough    has,  however,  certain  resem-  Electoral 
blances  to,  as  well  as  differences  from,  a  municipal  borough,  and*"* 


If   it  returns  more  than  one  member  it   is  nearly  always 

split  up  into  "  single  member  "  divisions,  which  are  a  good 

deal  like  municipal  wards,  except  that  the  latter  generally 

have  three  members  instead  of  one.     Still  more  import-  Potting. 

ant,    the    preparation   of    the    lists   of  voters,    both   for 

parliamentary  and    for   municipal   elections,  goes  on    con- 

currently in    places  which  are  within   the   limits    both  of 

parliamentary  and  municipal  boroughs  ;  and,  by  a  curious 

freak  of  history,  the  parliamentary  and  municipal  franchises,   Franchise. 

so  violently  separated   in   1832,  have  since  tended   once 

more  to  uniformity.     Finally,  the  mayor,  who  is  primarily  Returning 

a  municipal  official,  is,  generally  speaking,  returning-officer 

for  any  Parliamentary  election  which  takes  place  within  the 

limits  of  his  municipal  borough. 


2co  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

B. — The  Municipal  Borough. 

All  municipal  boroughs  existing  at  the  passing  of  the 
Municipal  Corporations  Act,  1882,  which  were  then  subject 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1835,  are  now  governed  by 
the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1882;  all  boroughs  since 
incorporated  have  been  put  on  the  same  footing;  all 
boroughs  which,  though  existing  in  1882,  were  not  subject 
to  the  general  law,  have,  as  we  have  seen,  since  been 
deprived  of  their  municipal  character.  We  may  say,  there- 
fore, that  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1882  virtually 
lays  down  the  law  on  the  subject  of  municipal  corporations 
generally.  Indeed,  the  official  definition  of  a  municipal 
borough  is  now  "  any  place  for  the  time  being  subject  to 
Incorpora-  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act,  1882";  and  if  any  unin- 
corporated town  wishes  to  get  itself  made  into  a  borough, 
it  must  petition  Her  Majesty  for  a  charter  of  incorporation 
under  that  Act,  first  giving  notice  to  the  County  Council 
of  its  County,  and  to  the  Local  Government  Board.  After 
due  time  has  elapsed,  and  upon  approval  of  the  petition  by 
a  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  Her  Majesty  may  grant 
a  charter  of  incorporation,  which  may  prescribe  the 
boundaries  of  the  borough  x  and  the  wards  (if  any),  and  fix 
the  number  of  councillors  to  be  elected  for  borough  and 
wards.  But,  with  the  exception  of  making  provision  for 
temporary  arrangements,  the  charter  can  do  no  more  ;  it 
merely  extends  to  the  town  the  provisions  of  the  Municipal 
Corporation  Acts. 

In  every  municipal   borough  the  corporation   or    legal 
personality  of  the  borough  consists  of  mayor,  aldermen,  and 

1  The  Act  does  not  expressly  say  so ;  but  a  power  to  fix  the 
boundaries  of  wards  implies  a  power  to  fix  the  boundaries  of  the 
borough. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    201 

burgesses.1  But  all  powers  belonging  to  the  corporation  may 
be  exercised  by  the  council  of  the  borough,  which,  curiously 
enough,  may  contain  persons  who  are  not  burgesses.  We 
shall  therefore  have  to  speak  of  mayor,  aldermen,  council- 
lors, and  burgesses.  Taking  these  in  order  of  dignity, 
and  beginning  with  the  lowest  rank,  we  take  first  the 

(i)  Burgess,  who  may  be  defined  as  any  person  who, 
being  duly  qualified,2  is  registered  on  the  burgess  roll 
of  the  borough.  Every  person  (male  or  female)  who  Burgess 
has  during  the  twelve  months  preceding  the  i5th  July  {jlS/  ' 
in  any  year  occupied  any  building  within  the  borough 
rated  to  the  relief  of  the  poor,  has  resided  in  the  borough 
or  within  seven  miles  thereof  during  such  twelve  months, 
and  has  paid  all  rates  which  have  been  assessed  in  re- 
spect of  such  property  up  to  the  2oth  July  immediately 
following,  is  qualified  to  be  enrolled  as  a  burgess,  unless 
he  is  under  age,  is  an  alien,  has  been  within  the  preceding 
twelve  months  in  receipt  of  poor  relief,  or  is  disqualified 
by  any  specific  Act  of  Parliament.8 

The  burgesses  form  the  primary  body  of  the  corporation, 
but  a  burgess  takes  no  direct  share  in  the  administration 
of  borough  affairs  other  than  in  the  election  of  councillors, 
School  Board,  and  auditors.  Occasionally  town  meetings 

1  A  certain  complimentary  distinction  exists  between  the  "  city  "  or 
the  "  citizen,"  and  the  "  borough "  or  the  "  burgess,"  and  much 
historical  learning  has  been  expended  in  stating  the  etiquette  of  the 
point.  For  practical  purposes  there  is  no  shadow  of  difference  in 
English  law,  which  knows  nothing  of  "  citizens."  All  are  "  burgesses." 

f  An  unqualified  person  who  gets  himself  enrolled  as  a  burgess  may 
be  entitled  to  vote  as  a  burgess,  or  rather,  it  may  be  impossible  to 
prevent  him  so  voting.  But,  for  all  that,  he  is  not  a  burgess. 

*  e.g.,  The  Corrupt  Practices  Act  of  1883,  which  disqualifies  for 
certain  periods  all  borough  electors  who  have  been  found  guilty  of 
corrupt  or  illegal  practice  at  a  Parliamentary  election.  A  similar  rule 
prevails  in  the  case  of  municipal  elections. 


202  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

are  held  for  the  furtherance  of  public  objects,  and  a 
burgess  has,  prima  facie ',  a  right  to  use  any  of  the  public 
buildings  or  conveniences  provided  by  the  council ;  but 
there  is  no  direct  provision,  as  there  is  in  the  case  of 
parishes,  for  the  actual  participation  of  the  primary  body 
in  the  duties  of  administration.1  The  electoral  duties  of 
the  burgess  will  appear  when  we  speak  of — 

(2)    The    Council,    which    consists    of    a    number    of 
councillors   fixed   by  the  charter  of  incorporation,  or  by 
subsequent  Order  in  Council  or  Act  of  Parliament,  and 
distributed  amongst  the  divisions  or  wards  into  which  the 
borough  is  divided  for  electoral  purposes,  in  the  proportion 
of  three  councillors,  or  some  multiple  of  three,  to  each 
Quaiifica-     ward.     No  person  can  be  elected  a  councillor  unless  he 
ordinary       is  either  (i)  a  burgess,  or,  (2)  a  person  who  is  disqualified 
councillors.   for   enroiment  as  a   burgess   solely  by  the   fact    of   non- 
residence  within  the  seven-mile  limit,  and  who  possesses 
certain   property  qualification   in  the  borough,   whilst  he 
resides   not  more  than  fifteen  miles    from    the   municipal 
Disquaii-      boundary.2     But  no  woman,  no  one  who   is  an  elective 
auditor  or  assessor  of  the  borough,  or  who  holds  any  paid 
office  in  the  gift  of  the  council  (other  than  that  of  mayor 
or  sheriff),  or  who  is  in  Holy  Orders,  or   is   the   regular 
minister  of  a  dissenting  congregation,  or  who  is  directly 
or  indirectly  interested  in  any  contract  with  the  council, 

1  Every  burgess  has,  however,  the  right  to  criticize  the  administration 
of  the  council,  and,  if  need  be,  to  compel  it  to  perform  its  legal  duties 
and  to  abstain  from  illegal  acts. 

-  This  appears  to  be  the  effect  of  the  nth  section  of  the  Municipal 
Corporations  Act,  1882 ;  but  as  a  champion  specimen  of  puzzling 
draughtsmanship,  the  section  may  be  commended  to  the  study  of  those 
who  believe  in  Parliamentary  legislation.  The  section  first  declares 
that  every  councillor  requires  a  property  qualification,  and  then  that 
he  does  not. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH   203 

no  one  who  is  a  bankrupt,  or  who  has  been  found  guilty 
of  corrupt  practices  at  a  parliamentary  or  municipal  election, 
can  occupy  a  seat  on  the  council ;  and  if  a  burgess  ceases 
to  reside  for  six  months  within  the  borough,  he  loses  his 
qualification  as  councillor  (unless  otherwise  qualified),  even 
though  his  name  remains  on  the  burgess  roll.     Councillors  Council- 
hold  their  seats  for  three  years,  the  senior   third  of  the  (^office™ 
members  for  each  ward  (or  for  the  whole  borough  in  the 
case  of  a  borough  not  divided  into  wards)  retiring  every 
ist  November.     Any  one  who  refuses  corporate  office  is  °^com~ 
liable  to  a  fine.     Casual  vacancies  in  the  council,  caused   casual 
by  death,  refusal  to  accept  office,  disqualification,  or  re-  vacancies- 
tirement,  are  filled  up  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  ordinary 
vacancies,  by  the  electors  who,  but  for  the  vacancy,  would 
be  the  constituents  of  the  holder  of  the  seat;  but  the  person 
elected  to  fill  a  casual  vacancy  only  holds  office  till  the 
expiry  of  the  term    for  which  the  original  member  was 
elected.     The  election  of  councillors  proceeds  by  ballot,   Election  by 
and  each  elector  has  as  many  votes  as  there  are  vacancies 
to  be  filled ;  but  no  elector  may  give  more  than  one  vote 
to  one  candidate,  and  no  elector  may  vote  in  more  than 
one  ward.1 

(3)  The  Aldermen,  one-third   in  number  of  the  coun- 
cillors, are  elected  by  the  latter  from  their  own  number,  or  Qualifica- 
from  persons  qualified  to  be  of  their  number.     The  alder- 
nit  ii  are  elected   for  six  years,  but  the  senior  half  retire  office  of 
triennially.     The  aldermen  continue  to  be  members  of  the 
council,  but  the  seats  which  they  occupy  at  the  time  of 
their  election  as  aldermen  are  thereby  vacated,  and  new 

1  A  ward  may  be  divided  by  the  council  into  polling  districts,  but 
the  elected  councillors  represent  the  whole  ward,  not  any  particular 
district. 


204  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

Election.  councillors  are  elected  to  fill  them.  The  election  of 
aldermen  takes  place  on  the  Qth  November  in  the  triennial 
year,  at  the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  council,  and  is  con- 
ducted by  open  voting  papers  handed  in  to  the  chairman 
of  the  meeting.  Each  councillor  may  give  as  many  votes 
as  there  are  vacancies,  but  he  may  not  give  more  than  one 
vote  to  any  candidate.  An  outgoing  alderman  may  not 
vote  in  the  first  instance,  but  if  he  happens  to  be  chair- 
man of  the  meeting,  he  has  a  casting  vote  in  case  of 
equality.  According  to  the  general  rule  in  municipal 
elections,  a  retiring  alderman,  if  otherwise  qualified,  is 
eligible  for  re-election. 

Position  of        The  only  special  function  performed  by  the  aldermen  as 
alderman.  _          .  . 

such  appears  to  be  that  of  acting  as  returning  officers  in 

ward  elections.  An  alderman,  however,  is  not  elected 
for  a  ward,  but  for  the  whole  borough,  and  must,  therefore, 
as  returning  officer,  take  the  ward  assigned  to  him  by  the 
council.  The  aldermen  are  supposed  to  constitute  .the  ex- 
perienced or  permanent  section  of  the  council,  but  as  the 
council  itself  is,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  its  ordinary 
members  only  retire  by  thirds,  virtually  a  permanent  body, 
the  existence  of  a  special  section,  virtually  co-opted  by 
elective  councillors,  hardly  seems  necessary.  In  social 
matters  the  alderman  takes  precedence  of  the  ordinary 
councillor;  but  his  legal  qualifications  and  disqualifications 
are  the  same  as  those  of  the  ordinary  councillor. 

(4)  The  Mayor  is  the  chairman  and  president  of  the 
council,  annually  chosen  by  the  council,  either  from  among 
its  own  members  or  from  among  persons  qualified  to  be 
such.  The  mayor  is  a  member  of  the  council,  and  his 
acceptance  of  office  does  not  vacate  his  ordinary  seat. 
The  qualifications  and  disqualifications  of  the  ordinary 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH   205 

councillor  apply  to  him,  except  that  on  the  one  hand  he 
may  receive  remuneration  for  the  performance  of  his  duties, 
and,  on  the  other,  two  months'  absence  from  the  borough 
is  sufficient  to  disqualify  him  for  holding  his  office.  He 
acts  as  president  and  chairman  of  all  meetings  of  the 
council  or  any  of  its  committees  at  which  he  is  present,  he 
represents  the  borough  on  all  official  and  ceremonial  occa-  Mayor  and 
sions,  he  is  ex-officio  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  the  borough  ex'may°r- 
both  during  his  year  of  office  and  that  which  succeeds  Justices. 
it,1  and  when  engaged  in  the  business  of  the  borough,  he 
takes  precedence  of  all  ordinary  Justices  but  not  of  a  stipen- 
diary magistrate.  If  the  borough  is  not  divided  into  wards, 
he  also  acts  as  returning  officer  at  municipal  elections. 
The  mayor  may  appoint  in  writing,  from  among  the  alder- 
men or  councillors,  a  deputy  to  act  for  him  on  any 
occasion  at  which  he  may  not  be  present. 

The  mayor,  aldermen,  and  ordinary  councillors  constitute, 
as  we  have  said,  the  council  of  the  borough,  the  body 
through  which  alone  the  corporation  of  the  borough  is,  as 
a  general  rule,  capable  of  acting.  But  there  are,  or  may 
be,  two  other  groups  of  office  holders  who  are  neither 
members  nor  officers  of  the  council.  These  are  the 
auditors  and  the  revising  assessors. 

(5)  The  Auditors  of  a  borough,  three  in  number, 
are  annual  officers,  one  appointed  by  the  mayor  from 
among  the  members  of  council,  the  other  two  elected  by 
the  whole  of  the  electors  of  the  borough  acting  together, 
from  among  those  who  are  qualified  to  be,  but  are  not, 
actually  members  of  council.2  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
auditors  to  audit  half-yearly  the  accounts  of  the  borough 

1  Unless,  during  the  second  year,  he  becomes  disqualified  to  be  mayor. 
9  Neither  town  clerk  nor  treasurer  is  eligible  as  auditor. 


206  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

treasurer  before  they  are  submitted  to  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board. 

(6)  Revising  Assessors  are  only  elected  in  those  munici- 
pal boroughs  which  do  not  wholly  or  partially  coincide  with 
parliamentary  boroughs.  They  are  two  in  number,  and 
are  elected  annually  by  ballot,  in  the  same  way  as,  and, 
where  possible,  with  the  elective  auditors.  Like  the  elective 
auditors,  the  assessors  must  be  qualified  as,  but  must  not 
actually  be  members  of  the  council ;  and  neither  treasurer 
nor  town  clerk  can  be  an  assessor.  The  function  of  the  as- 
sessor is,  in  conjunction  with  the  mayor,  to  revise  the  parish 
burgess  lists  which  have  been  made  out  by  the  overseers  and 
transmitted  to  the  town  clerk.  For  this  purpose  a  court  is 
held  in  the  first  half  of  October  every  year,  and  objections  are 
stated  and  discussed.  The  lists  allowed  by  the  court  become 
the  burgess-roll  of  the  borough.  Where  the  municipal 
borough  is  wholly  or  partially  coincident  with  a  parliament- 
ary borough,  the  revising  barrister  takes  the  place  of  the 
assessors,  the  municipal  wards  are  made  to  coincide  so  far 
as  possible  with  the  parliamentary  divisions  of  the  borough, 
and  the  preparation  of  parliamentary  and  municipal  lists  of 
voters  proceed  together  in  manner  provided  by  the  Regis- 
tration Act  of  1878. 

We  have  now  to  consider,  first,  the  duties  which  fall  to 
the  lot  of  a  borough  council,  and,  second,  the  machinery 
by  which  those  duties  are  performed. 

Functions         But,  with  regard    to  the   duties  of  a  borough  council, 
much  of  our  work  has  already  been  done.     For  many  of 

As  sanitary  the  most  important  municipal  functions  arise  from  the  fact 

authority.  ,    .     /  .  ,v 

See  ante       tnat  a^most  every  borough  is  (as  we  said)  an  urban  sanitary 

p.  loo.  '      district,  and    that    its    sanitary   authority   is   the   borough 
council.     The  borough  council  will  therefore  have  all  those 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    207 

powers  and  duties  in  the  matters  of  drainage,  gas  and  water 
supply,  prevention  of  the  spread  of  disease,  registration  of 
lodging-houses,  management  and    maintenance  of  streets, 
provision  of  markets  and   public  recreation  grounds,  and 
housing  of  the  working  classes,  which,  as  we  said,  belong  to 
every  urban  sanitary  authority.     Beyond  this,  every  borough 
council  is  now  entrusted  with  many  of  the  powers  contained 
in  the  Town  Police  Clauses  Act  of  1847,  an  Act  which  AS  police 
formerly   only    applied    in    places    which    had    specially  aut 
adopted    it,    but   whose   powers   have   now    been   largely 
conferred,  by  the  terms  of  the  Public  Health  Act,  on  every 
urban  sanitary  authority,  though  they  are  naturally  of  more 
importance  in  boroughs  than  in  extra  municipal  districts. 
These  powers  include    the  management  and    direction  of 
public  traffic,  especially  on  occasions  of  public  ceremonial, 
the  prevention  of  fires,  the  oversight  of  places  of  public 
resort,  the  licensing  and  control  of  hackney  carriages,  and 
the  regulation  of  public  bathing.     It  is  as  urban  sanitary 
authority,  too,  that  a  borough  council    adopts    (after  due 
preliminaries)  the  provisions  of  the  Public  Libraries  Act  of  see  ante, 
1892,  the  Baths  and  Wash-houses  Acts,  the  Burial  Acts,  p- SI> 
and  other  optional  statutes,  and  distributes  the  technical 
education  grant  made  by  the  county  council.     In  fact,  we 
may  say  that,  whenever  any  statute  or  scheme  has    been 
passed  or  imposed  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants  of  a 
borough,  the  borough  council  will  be  the  authority  to  put 
the  statute  or  scheme  into  operation  and  to  enforce    its 
provisions.     The  one  great  exception  to  this  rule  is  in  the  Not  as 
case  of  the  elementary  education  of  the  borough,  which  is  Board, 
not  managed  by  the  council,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  by  a  See  an'e> 
separately  elected  School  Board.     But  even  here,  should   But  as 
there  be  no  School  Board,  the  School  Attendance  Com-  Attendance 
mittee  will  be  appointed  by  the  borough  council. 


208  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

This  identity  of  function  renders  it  here  only  necessary 
to  speak  about  two  very  important  branches  of  the  council's 
duty, — its  administration  of  the  borough  property,  and  its 
control  of  the  borough  police. 

Property. — Generally  speaking,  all  property  which  is 
destined  for  the  general  use  and  advantage  of  the  inhabitants 
of  a  borough,  unless  it  is  specially  vested  in  some  other 
body  or  persons,  or  unless  it  is  to  be  used  for  charitable 
purposes,  is  in  the  legal  ownership  of  the  corporation,  and 

Trust  is  administered  by  the  council.    And  where  the  burgesses  of 

a  borough  or  some  of  them  were  in  their  corporate  capacity, 
before  the  passing  of  the  Municipal   Corporations  Act 
1835,  trustees  jointly  with  any  other  persons  or  bodies,  ai 
their  continuance  as  trustees  is  not  forbidden  by  the  A< 
of  1835,  or  the  later  Act  of  1882  (as,  for  example,   ii 
the  case  of  charities),  the  power  of  appointing  new  trust< 
on  the  occurrence  of  vacancies  will  belong  to  the  council 

Power  to      Furthermore,  a  municipal  corporation,  even  where  it  h; 

Snd.ire         not  otherwise  power  to  hold  land  "  in  mortmain,"  l  maj 
buy  five  acres  of  land  for  public  purposes  without  speci; 
permission  ;    and  any  other  land  which  it  may  require  il 
may  buy    with    the    approval  of  the    Local    Governrru 
Board.     But  it  may  not    sell  or  mortgage  any  corporate 
land  without  the  approval  of  the  Local  Government  Boar 

1  It  is  an  anciently  established  rule  of  English  law  that  no  corporati 
(ecclesiastical  or  secular)  may  hold  land  without  a  permission  from  th< 
Crown  (called  a  "licence  in  mortmain  " ).  The  reason  for  the  rule 
originally  lay  in  the  fact  that  as  a  corporation,  having  perpetual  succes- 
sion, may  never  come  to  an  end,  the  ordinary  incident  of  "  escheat,"  by 
which,  on  failure  of  heirs,  a  man's  land  went  back  to  his  lord,  might 
never  occur  with  a  corporation,  and  thereby  the  lord  be  defrauded. 
But  the  rule  of  mortmain  is  much  older  than  corporations.  The  niort;ta 
mantis  was  often  that  of  a  saint  to  whose  service  land  was  given.  The 
rule  has  been  lately  relaxed  in  favour  of  various  public  objects. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH   209 

and  its  power  to  grant  leases  without  a  similar  approval  is 
restricted  within  very  definite  limits,  to  prevent  the  borough 
anticipating  its  future  revenue.1     The  council  may  borrow 
from  the  Public  Works   Loan  Commissioners,  apparently 
without  the  approval  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  any 
sums  which  it  may  require  for  building  or  rebuilding  its 
public  buildings,  and  may  mortgage  the  borough  rate  to 
secure  repayment.     Even  where  existing  works  are  being  Taking 
administered  in  the  borough  by  bodies  acting  under  special  ^k^ 
provisions,  the  borough  council  may,  if  it  thinks  fit,  agree 
to  take  over  the  assets  and  liabilities  of  such  bodies.     On   Ecclesi- 
the  other  hand,  it  is  expressly  provided  by  the  Municipal  patronage. 
Corporations  Act  that  any  ecclesiastical  patronage  belonging 
to  the  corporation,  either  in  connection  with  land  owned  by 
it,  or  in  any  other  way,  shall  be  sold  as  soon  as  possible, 
under  the  directions  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners, 
and,  until  such  sale,  shall  be  exercised  by  the  bishop  of 
the   diocese    in    which  it    is  situated.     There  are  special   improper 
provisions  which  prevent,  or  are  aimed  at  preventing  the  borough 
use  of  corporate  funds  for  the  purposes  of  parliamentary  funds> 
elections,  but  in  its  legitimate  capacity  as  trustee  of  the   Parlia- 
interests  of  the  borough,  the  council  may  support  or  oppose,   JJJJJ^J 
at  the  expense  of  the   corporate   property,  parliamentary  ings- 
proceedings    in  connection    with    measures    which  it  may 
deem  for  the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  the  borough. 
But  such  support    or    opposition    cannot    be    undertaken 
without  the  sanction  of  an  absolute  majority  of  the  whole 

1  The  rule  is  that  a  lease  without  fine  may  be  made  for  thirty-one  years, 
or,  with  or  without  fine,  of  land  used  or  to  be  used  for  building  purposes, 
for  a  term  not  exceeding  seventy- five  years.  But  there  are  savings  for 
cases  in  which  other  rules  prevailed  before  1835.  One  result  of  the  re- 
strictions is  that  municipal  property  is  often  let  much  under  its  real  value. 


210 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


council  given  at  a  meeting  the  object  of  which  has  been 
specially  advertised,  nor  without  certain  other  necessary 
preliminaries. 

Police. — As  we  have  said,  the  extra-metropolitan  police 

forces  of  the  country  are  virtually  now  either  county  or 

borough  forces,  the  parochial  constable  being  only  used  to 

Ante,  p.  48.   supply  deficiencies.     We  have  already  dealt  with  the  county 

police.     We  have  now  to  deal  with  the  borough  force. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  it  must  be  noticed  that  it  is  not 
every  borough  which  has  its  own  separate  police  force. 
The  general  idea  of  the  first  modern  police  statute,  the 
Lighting  and  Watching  Act  of  1833,  was  that  boroughs 
with  less  than  a  population  of  5000,  if  they  chose  to 
maintain  a  separate  police  force,  should  do  so  entirely 
at  their  own  expense.  The  Municipal  Corporations  Act 
of  1882  prohibits  the  establishment  of  any  new  police 
force  in  a  borough  having  less  than  20,000  inhabitants. 
And  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888  has  now  provided 
that  all  boroughs  which,  according  to  the  census  of 
1 88 1,  had  a  population  of  less  than  10,000,  shall  for  the 
future  be  considered  for  police  purposes  as  part  of  the 
administrative  counties  in  which  they  are  situated.  It 
remains,  therefore,  that  no  borough  can  maintain  its  own 
separate  police  force,  unless  in  1881  it  had  at  least 
1 0,000  inhabitants ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  less  than 
one-half  of  the  existing  municipal  boroughs  maintain 
their  own  separate  police. 

Where,  however,  a  borough  has  its  own  separate  force, 
this  force  is  under  the  special  control  of  a  Watch  Com- 
mittee, from  time  to  time  appointed  by  the  council  from 
amongst  its  own  members,  but  not  containing  more  than 
one-third  of  the  whole  number  of  councillors,  exclusive 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    211 

of  the  mayor,  who  is  ex-oj)lcio  a  member.  The  watch 
committee,  which  may  act  by  a  quorum  of  three,  appoints, 
suspends,  and  discharges  the  Chief  Constable  and  the 
ordinary  borough  constables,  passes  regulations  for  the 
conduct  of  the  force  (which  regulations  must  be  sent 
quarterly  to  the  Secretary  of  State),  and  generally  controls 
the  working  of  the  borough  police.  A  borough  constable,  Powers 
when  appointed,  has  the  powers  and  duties  by  common  offhe"1 

law  and  statute  of  an  ordinary  constable,  and  may  act  not   borough 

*  t  constable. 

only  within  the  borough  itself,  but  within  any  county  of 

which  the  borough  forms  part,  or  which  lies  within  seven 

miles  of  the  borough  limits.     Within  this  radius  he  must 

obey  the  lawful  commands  of  any  Justice  of  the  Peace, 

but    he    has   a   general    power    to   arrest    any    idle    and 

disorderly  person   whom  he    finds    disturbing  the    public 

peace,  or  whom  he  justly  suspects  of  intention  to  commit 

a   felony,   and  to  take  him   to   the  nearest   watch-house, 

where,  however,   he   may  be  bailed   by  the  constable  in 

charge,   if  he  cannot   immediately  be    brought    before   a 

magistrate.     Any  person   who  resists,  or  incites  any  one   Resisting  a 

else   to  resist,  a    borough  constable    in   the  execution    of  ^sJ^Je 

his  duty,  is   liable  (in   addition    to  other  legal   penalties) 

to   a    fine    of   ^£5,   recoverable  on    summary    conviction. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  constable  who  is  guilty  of  neglect   Punish- 

or  disobedience  may  be  suspended  by  any  two  Justices 


of  the  borough  or  by  the  Watch  Committee,  or  may  be  constables 
sentenced   to    imprisonment    for   ten    days    or    to   a    fine  proper 
of   405.    by    a   court    of    summary   jurisdiction,    or   may,  c 
finally,   be   dismissed    by   the  Watch    Committee   or   the 
convicting  court. 

With  regard  to  the  expense  of  maintaining  a  borough   cost  of 
police  force,  we  find  that  it  may  be  provided   for  from 


212  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

several  sources.  In  the  first  place,  if  the  Secretary  of 
State  shall  have  certified  that  during  the  preceding  year 
the  force  has  been  maintained  in  a  state  of  efficiency,  both 
as  regards  numbers  and  discipline,  the  county  council 

Treasury      will,  out   of  its  "  Exchequer  Contribution   Account,"  pay 

lon*   to  the  borough  council  a   sum  equal  to  one-half  of  the 

costs  of  the  pay  and  clothing  of  the  force  during  that  year, 

and    this   sum   may  even    be   augmented    if  the    County 

Council  is  very  rich  in  Government  funds. 

Watch  Furthermore,  if,  at  the  passing  of  the  Municipal  Cor- 

porations Act  of  1882,  the  borough  council  was  entitled 
to  levy  a  watch  rate  upon  the  borough  or  any  part  of  it, 
they  may  still  continue  to  do  so,  and  the  proceeds,  although 
they  will  be  payable  into  the  general  borough  fund,  will  be 
primarily  devoted  to  the  payment  of  police  expenses.  The 
watch  rate  is  levied  upon  the  occupiers  of  the  hereditaments 
liable,  not  on  the  valuation  for  poor  rate,  but  upon  a 
special  valuation  based  upon  the  net  annual  worth  of  the 
premises  to  a  tenant  on  repairing  lease  ;  and  where  a  part 
only  of  any  parish  within  the  borough  is  liable  to  watch 
rate,  the  overseers  must  make  a  "  separate  rate "  on  the 
premises  liable,  and  this  rate  must  be  allowed  by  two 
Justices  in  the  same  way  as  a  poor  rate.  Any  person 
aggrieved  thereby  may  appeal  to  the  Recorder  of  the 
borough,  if  there  be  one,  if  not,  to  the  next  Quarter 
Sessions  for  the  county.  But  no  watch  rate  may  exceed 
eightpence  in  the  pound  in  any  one  year ;  and  no  separate 
rate  may  exceed  twopence  in  the  pound  beyond  the  watch 
rate.  If  the  county  council  grant,  and  the  watch  and 
separate  rates  are  not  sufficient  to  provide  for  the  expenses 
of  the  police,  the  remainder  must  be  met  out  of  the 
general  funds  of  the  borough ;  but  the  salaries,  wages, 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH   213 

and  allowances  of  the  force,  though  fixed  by  the  watch 
committee,  are  subject  to  the  approbation  of  the  Council, 
though  a  court  of  quarter  or  petty  sessions  may,  of  its  own 
discretion,  order  special  rewards  or  compensation  to  be 
paid  to  a  borough  constable  for  special  diligence,  or  for 
injuries  received  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  borough  police  we  may  Special 
notice  that,  in  addition  to  the  borough  force,  where  it 
exists,  every  borough  must  have  in  reserve  a  force  of 
"  special  constables "  to  act  if  occasion  should  require. 
Those  special  constables  are  appointed  every  October  by 
two  Justices  having  jurisdiction  in  the  borough,  and  may 
consist  of  as  many  inhabitants  of  the  borough,  not  legally 
exempt  from  serving  the  office  of  constable,  as  the  justices 
may  think  fit.  These  constables  are  regulated,  not  by 
the  County  and  Borough  Police  Act,  but  by  the  Special 
Constables  Act  of  1831.  They  can  only  act  when  ordered 
to  do  so  by  a  warrant  of  a  Justice  having  jurisdiction  in 
the  borough,  and  this  warrant  must  state  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Justice,  the  ordinary  police  force  is  in- 
sufficient to  maintain  the  peace.  Each  special  constable 
is  entitled  to  the  sum  of  35.  6d.  for  every  day  during 
which  he  actually  serves. 

We  now  come  to  the  constitutional  machinery  by  means 
of  which  the  borough  council  performs  its  various  functions. 
This  machinery  may  be  considered  under  the  four  heads 
of  by-laws,  committees,  officials,  and  finance. 

(i)  By-laws. — In  addition  to  its  power,  as  urban  sanitary 
authority,    to    make  by-laws    and   regulations   under   the 
Public  Health  Act,  1875,  a  borough  council  has  a  general  See  <!«/*, 
power  to  make  by-laws  "for  the  good  rule   and  govern- 
ment of  the  borough,  and  for  prevention  and  suppression 


214 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


of  nuisances  not  already  punishable  in  a  summary  manner 
by  any  Act  in  force  throughout  the  borough."  This  very 
sweeping  authority,  however,  is  considerably  modified  by 
the  manner  in  which  by-laws  must  be  made,  and  their 
scope  when  made.  In  the  first  place,  no  ordinary  by- 
law can  be  passed  at  any  meeting  of  the  council,  unless 
at  least  two-thirds  of  the  council  are  present.  And  no 
such  by-law  comes  into  operation  until  forty  days  after 
a  copy  of  it  has  been  fixed  on  the  town  hall,1  and  another 
copy  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  In  the  meantime, 
Her  Majesty  may,  by  Order  in  Council,  disallow  the  by- 
law or  any  part  of  it,  which  thereupon  becomes  of  no 
effect.  But  by-laws  made  by  the  council  as  urban 
sanitary  authority  under  the  Public  Health  Act  require 
the  confirmation  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  not 
the  allowance  of  the  Secretary  of  State  ;  and  it  appears 
from  the  wording  of  the  Acts  that,  if  a  contemplated  by- 
law can  be  made  under  the  provisions  of  the  Public  Health 
Act,  it  must  not  be  made  under  the  general  power  conferred 
by  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act.  In  the  second  place, 
the  amount  of  penalty  which  can  be  inflicted  by  an 
ordinary  by-law  of  a  municipal  corporation  is  limited  to 
,£5.  Thirdly,  the  superior  courts  of  law  possess  the 
right,  upon  any  case  coming  before  them  which  involves 
reliance  on  a  municipal  by-law,  to  declare  the  by-law 
invalid,  either  because  it  plainly  transcends  the  limits  of 
the  powers  conferred  by  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act, 
or  because  it  is  an  unreasonable  exercise  of  such  powers. 
Many  of  us  will  remember  the  case  of  the  Croydon 
magistrates,  whose  by-law  prohibiting  Sunday  music  was 

1  The  Act  does  not  say  that  the  copy  is  to  remain  fixed  up  during 
the  whole  forty  days  ;  but,  presumably,  such  is  the  intention. 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    215 

uncompromisingly  set  aside  by  the  Queen's  Bench  Division. 
Where  a  by-law  is  valid  it  can  be  enforced  by  summary 
conviction  of  offenders  before  a  court  of  Petty  Sessions. 

(2)  Committees. — It  would  be  impossible,  even  if  the 
members  of  the  council  gave  their  whole  time  to  the 
performance  of  their  public  duties,  for  a  borough  council 
to  perform  all  the  duties  which  fall  to  its  lot  in  full 
meeting.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  council  divides  its 
duties  into  departments,  and  confides  the  discretionary 
or  administrative  side  of  each  department  to  a  committee 
selected  from  its  own  body,  the  executive  or  ministerial 
side  to  various  officials,  reserving  only  to  itself  the  power 
to  confirm  or  disallow  the  proceedings  of  committees  and 
officials. 

Every  borough  council  has  a  discretionary  power  to 
appoint  any  number  of  committees,  of  a  general  or 
special  character,  which  it  may  deem  necessary.  And 
in  some  cases  the  appointment  of  a  committee  is  com- 
pulsory,— e.g.,  if  the  borough  maintains  its  own  police,  a 
Watch  Committee  must  (as  we  have  seen)  be  appointed, 
and,  if  there  is  no  School  Board,  a  School  Attendance 
Committee.  But  the  proceedings  of  every  committee, 
whether  compulsory  or  not,  require  confirmation  by  the 
council.  The  minutes  of  a  committee  meeting,  duly 
confirmed  and  signed  by  the  chairman,  are  evidence  of 
what  took  place  at  the  meeting,  at  least  until  the  contrary 
is  proved.  A  committee  meets  when  summoned  by  its 
convener.  The  council  itself  must  meet  quarterly,  on  the 
9th  November,  and  such  other  days  as  the  meeting  on 
the  Qth  November  decides.  But  a  meeting  may  at  any 
time  be  summoned  by  the  mayor,  or  on  the  motion  of 
five  members. 


216 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


(3)  Officials. — In  its  municipal  character  every  borough 
council  must  appoint  a  town  clerk  and  a  treasurer,  and 
in  its  character  as  urban  sanitary  authority,  it  must  appoint 
a  medical  officer  of  health,  a  surveyor,  and  an  inspector 
of  nuisances,  as  well  as  such  assistants,  collectors,  and 
other  officials  as  are  necessary  to  enable  it  to  perform  its 
duties.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  council  of  a  great 
borough  has  a  most  elaborate  staff  of  officials,  consisting 
of  engineers,  accountants,  clerks,  messengers,  porters,  and 
so  on.  Of  these  it  is  only  necessary  to  speak  in  detail 
of  the  town  clerk  and  treasurer,  the  sanitary  officials 
having  been  already  described  in  another  chapter. 

The  Town  Clerk  is  the  head  of  the  permanent  borough 
staff,  and  his  office  is  essential  to  the  due  performance  of 
the  council's  duties,  since  no  order  for  the  payment  of 
money  out  of  the  borough  fund  is  valid  unless  counter- 
signed by  him  or  his  deputy.  Consequently  it  is  specially 
provided  that  his  office  shall  not  be  left  vacant  more  than 
twenty-one  days.  The  Town  Clerk  holds  office  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  council,  and  receives  the  salary  agreed  on 
between  him  and  them.  The  council  may  appoint  a 
deputy  to  act  during  his  absence  or  illness.  The  Town 
Clerk  is  the  Registrar  and  Secretary  of  the  council,  and 
virtually  acts  as  its  legal  adviser,  except  where  it  is 
deemed  expedient  to  have  professional  advice.  All 
documents  belonging  to  the  borough  are  in  his  custody, 
and  a  copy  of  a  borough  by-law  certified  by  him  is  primfr 
facie  evidence  of  its  existence.  He  plays  a  most  important 
part  in  the  preparation  and  custody  of  the  burgess  rolls, 
and  directs  the  prosecution  of  offenders  against  municipal 
by-laws. 

The  Treasurer,  who  must  be  a  distinct  person  from  the 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    217 

town  clerk,  is,  like  him,  appointed  by  the  council  to  act 
during  its  pleasure,  at  the  salary  and  upon  the  other  terms 
agreed  upon  between  them.  No  payment  from  the 
borough  fand  can  be  made  by  any  one  but  the  treasurer, 
and  lie,  as  we  have  seen,  can,  as  a  rule,  only  pay  money 
upon  receipt  of  an  order  signed  by  three  members  of  the 
council  and  countersigned  by  the  town  clerk.  The 
treasurer  also  prepares  the  accounts  of  the  borough,  and 
is  generally  responsible  for  the  due  execution  of  the 
financial  duties  of  the  council.  Like  all  other  borough  Security, 
officials,  but  to  a  greater  extent  than  most  of  them,  he 
must  give  security  for  the  due  performance  of  his  office, 
and,  if  he  is  guilty  of  defalcation,  he  can  be  proceeded 
against  in  a  summary  manner. 

This  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  municipal 
(4)  Finance,  which  we  may  consider  under  the  two  as- 
pects of  income  and  expenditure.     Besides  its  income  from   income, 
subventions,  from  its  property,  from  fines  and  penalties  for 
offences  against  its  by-laws,  of  which  nothing  further  need 
be  said,  the  main  sources  of  a  borough  council's  income 
are  loans  and  rates. 

The  general  power  of  borrowing  possessed  by  a  borough  Loans, 
council  appears  to  be  strictly  limited  to  loans  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enabling  it  to  acquire  land,  or  to  erect  any  building 
which  it  is  authorised  to  build.  But  it  will  be  remembered, 
that,  as  urban  sanitary  authority,  it  has  very  extensive 
powers  of  borrowing  for  sanitary  purposes,  and  this  com- 
bination of  powers  often  results  in  a  large  permanent 
indebtedness  by  a  borough  council.  Generally  speaking, 
the  council  cannot  buy  land  for  any  but  strictly  public  or 
sanitary  purposes,  but  a  recent  statute  has  given  it  the 
power,  upon  the  request  of  a  volunteer  corps,  to  acquire 


218 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Instal- 
ments. 
Sinking 
fund. 


Borough 
rate. 


Valuation. 


Separate 
rate. 


land  for  the  military  necessities  of  the  corps,  and  it  may 
borrow  money  to  enable  it  to  fulfil  such  purpose.  But 
a  loan  raised  by  a  borough  council  always  requires  the 
sanction  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  which,  as  a  con- 
dition of  its  consent,  may  stipulate  for  repayment  either  by 
instalments  or  by  a  sinking  fund.  The  loan  may  be 
secured  either  upon  the  land  proposed  to  be  purchased,  or 
upon  any  other  land  belonging  to  the  corporation,  or  upon 
the  borough  fund  or  the  borough  rate,  and  either  by  way 
of  mortgage,  or  by  debentures  or  annuity  certificates  under 
the  Local  Loans  Act  of  1875. 

Finally,  any  deficiency  in  the  borough  fund  must  be 
made  good  by  the  imposition  of  a  borough  rate,  which 
may  be  ordered  by  the  council  to  be  made  and  levied  by 
the  overseers  of  the  parishes  within  it.  Generally  speaking, 
the  council  adopts  the  valuation  for  the  time  being  in  force 
for  poor  rate  purposes,  and  it  has  a  right  to  inspect  all 
assessment  books  in  the  hands  of  the  overseers ;  but,  if 
it  pleases,  it  may  order  an  independent  valuation  to  be 
made.  The  council  divides  the  total  amount  required  for 
borough  rate  among  the  parishes  or  parts  of  parishes  com- 
prised in  the  borough,  according  to  their  respective  ratable 
values ;  and  where  the  whole  of  a  parish  is  within  the 
borough,  the  overseers  simply  add  the  amount  which  they 
are  ordered  by  the  council  to  pay  for  borough  rate  to  the 
poor  rate  collected  by  them  in  the  parish.  But  when  only 
part  of  a  parish  is  in  a  borough,  they  must  make  a  separate 
assessment  on  the  part  within  the  borough.  The  overseers 
of  any  parish,  or,  in  the  case  of  separate  assessment  in  a 
divided  parish,  any  individual  affected  may  appeal  against 
the  rate  to  the  Recorder  of  the  borough  at  the  next  Quarter 
Sessions,  or  if  the  borough  have  no  Quarter  Sessions,  to  the 


PARLIAMENTARY  AND  MUNICIPAL  BOROUGH    219 

next  Quarter  Sessions  for  the  county.  But  (probably)  the 
appeal  cannot  question  the  total  amount  of  the  rate,  only 
the  incidence  or  distribution  of  it.  All  payments  on  account  Horough 
of  borough  rates  go  to  the  borough  fund,  t.e.t  to  the  fund 
applicable  to  the  general  purposes  of  the  borough,  which 
includes  all  rents  and  profits  of  land,  all  proceeds  of 
securities  belonging  to  the  corporation,  and  all  penalties  for 
offences  against  by-laws  except  those  parts  which  are 
payable  to  informers. 

The  outgoings  from  the  borough  fund  may  be  classed   Expendi- 
into  two  great  divisions, — those  which  are  payable  as  of 
course,    without    special    order   or   authority,    and    those 
which  require  special  sanction.     The  first  class  includes   Items 
the    salaries    and    allowances    of    the    mayor,    recorder,   IShput 
stipendiary  magistrate,  town  clerk,  treasurer,  clerk  to  the  ^^ 
justices,  and  other  officials  of  the  council,  and  any  sums 
certified    by   the   Treasury   as    payable   in    respect    of    a 
municipal    election  petition.     The    second    comprises    re-  Items 
gistration   expenses,  the  expenses  of  corporate   buildings, 
coroners'  fees  and  fees  payable  to  a  clerk  of  the  peace, 
the  wages,  salaries,  and  allowances  of  the  borough  con- 
stables, the  expenses  of  prosecutions,  and  all  other  expenses 
properly  incurred  by  the  council,  or  any  other  authority 
on  behalf  of  the  borough.     Payments  on  account  of  this 
latter  division  require  either  an  order  of  the  council,  signed 
by  three  members,  and  counter-signed  by  the  Town  Clerk, 
or   (in  the   case  of  rewards  to  constables)  of  a  court  of 
Quarter  or  Petty  Sessions,  or  the  express  direction  of  an 
Act  of  Parliament.     Where  the  borough  possessed  its  own  Costs  of 
court  of  Quarter  Sessions  before  the  passing  of  the  Local  tj0n  at 
Government  Act  of  1888,  it  will  not  be  liable  to  be  assessed  assucs- 
to  the   county   rate,   unless   at    the   census   of    1881    its 


220  KNr.LISH   LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

population  had  fallen  below  10,000;  but  it  will  be 
liable  to  pay  to  tin-  county  treasurer  the  costs  of  the 
prosecution  and  maintenance  of  all  offenders  committed 
by  the  borough  magistrates  for  trial  at  the  county  assizes. 
And,  where  the  borough  was  not  before  1832  exempt 
from  contributing  to  general  county  expenses,  it  continues 
liable  to  contribute  to  such  expenses,  though  it  is  not 
assessed  to  the  count}'  rate.  Hut  when  the  grant  of  a 
court  of  Ouarter  Sessions  is  made  after  the  passing  of  the 
Local  (iovernment  Act  of  i  «S88,  the  grant  will  not  interfere 
with  the  [lower  of  the  county  council  to  assess  the  borough 
for  the  purposes  of  the  county  rate.  And  where  there  is 
no  court  of  Ouarter  Sessions  the  borough  is,  of  course, 
part  of  the  county  for  rating  purposes. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SPECIAL    TYPES    OF    BOROUGH 

IN  the  last  chapter  we  considered  the  normal  type  of 
municipal  borough,  the  type  to  which  all  places  claiming  to 
be  boroughs  must  conform.  The  one  exception  to  this 
uniformity  was,  as  we  saw,  the  existence  of  the  borough 
police  force  ;  some  boroughs  maintaining  their  own  police, 
others  being,  for  police  purposes,  part  of  the  county  in 
which  they  are  situated. 

But  now  we  must  deal,  in  conclusion,  with  certain 
special  types  of  borough,  which  possess  one  or  more  special 
features,  in  addition  to  those  already  dealt  with.  The 
special  features  may  be  enumerated  as  (i)  a  separate  Com- 
mission of  the  Peace ;  (2)  a  separate  Court  of  Quarter 
Sessions  ;  (3)  a  stipendiary  magistracy ;  (4)  a  borough  civil 
court ;  (5)  the  organisation  of  a  judicial  county ;  (6)  the 
organisation  of  an  administrative  county.  Of  these  features 
in  their  order  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  existence 
of  one  neither,  as  a  rule,  implies  nor  excludes  the  possession 
of  others.  The  distribution  is  arbitrary,  and  often  the 
result  of  historical  accident.  Whether  a  borough  does  or 
does  not  possess  such  and  such  a  feature  is  a  question  of  fact. 

(i)  Separate  Commission  of  the  Peace. — It  has  long 
been  the  practice  for  the  Crown  to  issue  a  separate  Com- 
mission of  the  Peace  for  certain  boroughs,  and  its  right  to 


222 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Concurrent 
jurisdiction 
of  county 
Justices. 


Qualifica- 
tions of 
borough 
Justice. 


do  so  on  petition  of  a  borough  council  is  expressly  reserved 
by  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  in  its  mayor  and  ex-mayor  a  borough  has 
always  one,  sometimes  two,  ex-officio  magistrates,  but  many 
boroughs  (some  120  in  all)  have  also  Justices  specially 
appointed  by  Commission  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  county  to  the  Lord  Chancellor. 
But  it  must  be  carefully  remembered  that  where  a  borough 
has  only  a  separate  Commission  of  the  Peace,  without  a 
separate  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
county  justices  is  not  excluded  from  the  borough.  In  such 
a  case  the  county  Justice  can  act  within  the  borough  in  the 
same  way  as  in  the  rest  of  the  county. 

Although  a  borough  Justice  is  appointed  in  the  same 
way  as  a  county  Justice,  he  does  not  need  the  special 
property  qualifications  of  the  latter.  If  he  occupies  any 
rated  premises  in  the  borough  or  resides  within  seven  miles 
of  it,  that  will  be  sufficient.  He  need  not  even  possess 
burgess  qualification.  He  will  have  the  same  powers 
within  the  borough  as  the  county  Justice  within  the  county. 
The  borough  council  must  provide  a  suitable  Justices'  room  ; 
and  every  public  court  held  by  two  borough  magistrates  will 
be  a  court  of  Petty  Sessions  for  the  borough.  The  Justices 
of  a  borough  appoint  their  own  clerk,  who  must  riot  be  a 
member  of  the  borough  council  nor  clerk  of  the  peace  fc 
the  county. 

(2)  Separate  Quarter  Sessions. — The  grant  to  a  borough 
of  a  separate  court  of  Quarter  Sessions  is  likewise  in  the 
discretion  of  the  Crown  ;  but,  inasmuch  as  the  grant 
Quarter  Sessions  to  a  borough  will,  even  now,  seriously 
affect  the  jurisdiction  of  its  county,  a  sealed  copy  of  the 
grant  must  be  sent,  within  ten  days  after  its  receipt,  to  the 


SPECIAL  TYPES  OF  BOROUGH 

clerk  of  the  peace  for  the  county  in  which  the  borough  is 
situated. 

The   grant   of  a   court   of  Quarter   Sessions   puts   the 

borough  almost  on  the  footing  of  a  county  so  far  as  local 

judicial  business  is  concerned,  and  the  county  Justices  will 

have  no  jurisdiction  in  the  borough,  though,  by  arrangement 

with  the  borough  council,  they  may  occupy  a  Sessions  House 

jointly  with  the  borough  magistrates.     A  Quarter  Sessions 

borough  will  require  the  following  additional  officers  : — 

(a)  A    Recorder,  appointed    by  the  Crown,  but    paid    by 

the    borough    council    such    salary  as    Her    Majesty 

directs,   within   the  limits  named  by  the  council  in 

their  petition  for  a  Quarter  Sessions.     The  Recorder  Quaiifica- 

must  be  a  barrister  of  five  years'  standing ;  he  becomes 

ex-offido   a  Justice    for    the    borough,   and    he    takes 

precedence  in  the  borough  next  after  the  mayor.     He 

may    not,  during    his    term  of  office,    represent    the 

borough    in    Parliament,    nor    be   a    member   of  the 

borough    council,  nor    be   stipendiary-  magistrate  for 

the    borough.      But    he    may  be  appointed    revising 

barrister    for    the    borough,    and    he    may  represent 

any  other  constituency  in  Parliament.     The  Recorder  Duties. 

acts  as    sole  judge  of  the  court  of  Quarter  Sessions 

in  all  judicial  business,  and  sits  either  with  or  without 

a  jury,  as  the  chairman  of  a  county  Quarter  Sessions 

would  do.     But  he  does  not,  as  Recorder,  undertake 

the  administrative  business  of  Quarter  Sessions ;  he 

does  not  allow  or  make  rates  (though,  as  we  have 

seen,  he  may  hear   certain   rating  appeals),  or  grant 

liquor  licences.     But,  in    his  capacity  of  Justice  of 

the    borough,    he    may   take    part    in    any    Quarter 

Sessions  having  jurisdiction  in    such    matters.     The 


224 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


See  ante, 
p.  162. 


Deputy.  Recorder  may  appoint  a  deputy  to  act  for  him  in 

case  of  unavoidable  absence  or  sickness,  and,  upon 
request  of  the  borough  council,  he  may  appoint 

Assistant.  an  assistant  Recorder  to  preside  over  a  second  court 

when  there  is  a  pressure  of  business.  But  the  assistant 
Recorder  must  have  been  previously  approved  as  a 
suitable  person  by  a  Secretary  of  State. 

(b)  A   Clerk  of  the  Peace,  appointed  by  the  council,  who 

will  have  the  same  powers  within  the  borough  as  the 
corresponding  official  in  a  county.  But  the  borough 
clerk  of  the  peace  holds  office  during  good  behaviour, 
and  he]  may  not  be  the  same  person  as  the  clerk  to 
the  borough  justices.  He  may  be  paid  either  by  fees 
or  by  salary ;  but  any  table  of  fees  drawn  up  by  the 
council  must  be  confirmed  by  a  Secretary  of  State. 

(c)  A    Coroner,    also   appointed    by   the   council,   to   act 

in  the  borough  as  a  county  coroner  does  for  the 
county.  But  it  is  expressly  provided  by  the  Local 
Government  Act  of  1888,  that  in  the  case  of  boroughs 
with  a  population  of  less  than  10,000  at  the  census 
of  1 88 1,  the  powers  formerly  belonging  to  the 
borough  council  in  respect  of  coroners  shall  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  county  council  of  the  county  in  which 
the  borough  is  situated. 

Formerly,  too,  the  grant  of  a  court  of  Quarter  Sessions  to 
a  borough  practically  made  it  a  county  for  administrative,  as 
well  as  for  judicial  purposes.  But  substantial  exceptions  to 
this  rule  have  been  introduced  by  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1888.  In  the  first  place,  as  we  have  seen,  a  grant 
of  Quarter  Sessions  to  a  borough  after  the  coming  into 
operation  of  that  Act  will  not  in  the  least  interfere  with 
the  rights  of  the  county  council,  which  will  be  able,  as 


See  ante, 
p.  147. 


Modifica- 
tion of 
privileges 
of  Quarter 
Sessions 
boroughs. 


SPECIAL  TYPES  OF  BOROUGH  225 

before,  to  levy  the  county  rates  in  the  borough,  and  will 
exercise  the  administrative  control  formerly  exercised  in 
the  borough  by  the  Quarter  Sessions  of  the  county,  except 
in  those  matters  which,  by  the  Act,  are  specially  reserved 
to  the  Justices  at  Quarter  Sessions.  But  even  in  the  case 
of  Quarter  Sessions  boroughs  created  such  before  the 
Local  Government  Act  of  1888,  if  at  the  census  of  1881 
they  had  less  than  10,000  inhabitants,  all  the  former 
powers  of  borough  Justices  and  council  in  respect  of  pauper 
lunatic  asylums,  public  analysts,  reformatory  and  industrial 
schools,  fish  conservancy,  explosives,  and  main  roads  will 
now  be  exerciseable  by  the  county  council,  and  the 
borough  area  will  now  be  assessable  to  county  rates.  In 
such  a  case  Her  Majesty  may,  on  the  petition  of  the 
borough  council,  revoke  the  grant  of  Quarter  Sessions, 
and  even  the  Commission  of  the  Peace,  so  that  the 
borough  will  become  part  of  the  county  for  all  but  purely 
municipal  purposes.  Further  than  this,  in  the  case  of 
all  boroughs  with  a  population  by  the  census  of  1881  of 
less  than  10,000,  the  former  powers  of  the  borough 
council  in  respect  of  police,  analysts,  contagious  diseases 
of  animals,  destructive  insects,  gas  meters,  weights  and 
measures,  and  explosives,  will  be  exerciseable  only  by  the 
county  council. 

(3)  A  Stipendiary  Magistrate  may,  by  virtue  of  cer- 
tain Acts  of  Parliament,  be  appointed  in  any  urban 
district  with  a  population  of  25,000,  or  in  any  municipal 
borough.  In  a  borough,  the  stipendiary  magistrate  is 
appointed  by  the  Crown  on  the  petition  of  the  council, 
which  petition  states  the  amount  of  the  salary  which  the 
council  is  willing  to  pay.  The  stipendiary  magistrate 
must  be  a  barrister  of  seven  years'  standing,  he  holds 


226  ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 

office  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown,  receives  from  the 
borough  council  the  salary  assigned  by  the  Crown  (not 
exceeding  the  amount  named  in  the  petition  of  the 
council),  is  ex-offido  a  Justice  for  the  borough,  and,  in 
the  execution  of  his  office,  takes  precedence  of  all 
other  borough  justices,  including  the  mayor.  Generally 
speaking,  he  has  the  powers  of  two  ordinary  Justices, 
and,  when  sitting  in  his  judicial  capacity  in  a  borough 
which  has  its  own  Commission  of  the  Peace,  he  constitutes 
a  Petty  Sessional  Court  with  powers  of  summary  juris- 
diction. But  he  has  not  the  administrative  powers  of 
Petty  Sessions,  though  he  may  act  as  a  licensing  Justice 
for  any  district  wholly  or  partly  within  his  jurisdiction. 
In  the  year  1892  there  were  twenty-one  provincial 
stipendiary  magistrates  for  boroughs ;  thirteen  acting  under 
the  Municipal  Corporations  Act,  and  eight  under  local 
Acts. 

(4)  A   Borough   Civil   Court. — In   a   few  cases  (about 

twenty  in  all)  a  borough  possesses  its  own  local  court  of 

civil  jurisdiction,  whose  powers  have  not  been  superseded 

by  the  County  Courts  Acts.      These  courts  are  always 

survivals  of  ancient  institutions,  and  are  not  looked  upon 

with  much  favour  by  the  legislature.     Examples  may  be 

seen  in  the  Liverpool  Court  of  Passage,  the  Tolzey  Court 

Recorder      of  Bristol,  the  Provost's  Court  of  Exeter.     If  there  is  a 

'ud^e  Recorder  in  the  borough  to  which  such  a  court  belongs, 

ccept  in      he  will  act  as  its  judge,  unless  the  appointment  of  judge 

cases"         is   regulated   by   local    Act   of    Parliament,    or   unless   a 

barrister  of  five  years'  standing  acted  at  the  passing  of 

the   Municipal  Corporations  Act  of    1835.      If  there  is 

no   Recorder  in  the  borough,  the  official  named  in  the 

charter,    or    the    customary    official,    appointed    by    the 


SPECIAL  TYPES  OF  BOROUGH  227 

borough  council,  acts  as  judge.     The  Town  Clerk  acts  as  Town 
Registrar,  unless  the  council  appoints  some  one  specially  to  R^trar. 
the  office.     The  court  must  be  held  for  trials  of  law  and  Session*  of 
fact  at  least  four  times  a   year,  and  there  must  be  no  C 
greater    interval    than    four    months    between    any    two 
sessions. 

Where  a  borough  has  its  own  Quarter  Sessions  or  its  Borough 
own  civil  court,  the  burgesses  are  liable  to  serve  as  jurors,  J1 
unless  specially  exempt,  in  both  courts.     The  clerk  of  the 
peace    summons    jurors    for   the    Quarter    Sessions,   the 
Registrar  for  the  civil  court.       But   the  burgesses  of  a 
Quarter  Sessions  borough  are  not  liable  to  serve  as  jurors 
at  the  county  Quarter  Sessions. 

(5)  Counties  of  Cities  or  Towns. — A  county  of  a  city  or 
town  may  be  defined  as  a  borough  which  obtained  the 
full  organisation  of  a  county  before  the  passing  of  the 
Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1835.  The  institution  is 
an  anomaly,  and  only  tolerated  from  that  veneration  for 
tradition  which  is  one  of  the  most  persistent  features  of 
English  politics.  In  fact,  it  has  been  considerably 
trenched  upon  by  the  provisions  of  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1888. 

The  great  features  of  the  old  county  of  a  city  or  town  Sheriff, 
were  that  it  possessed  its  own  sheriff,  and  that  assizes  were 
specially  held  in  and  for  it.  The  former  feature  it  still  re- 
tains ;  for  by  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1882,  every 
borough  which  is  a  county  of  itself  must  appoint  a  sheriff 
on  the  9th  November  in  each  year.  Generally  speaking, 
city  and  town  sheriffs  are  governed  by  the  same  law  as 
county  sheriffs ;  but  the  property  qualification  of  the  city 
or  town  sheriff  may  be  in  personalty,  and  he  can  only 
be  called  upon  to  perform  the  customary  duties.  He  is 


228 


ENGLISH  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 


Assizes. 


Exempt 
from 
county 
administra- 
tion. 


See  ante, 
p.  167. 

Constitu- 
tion un- 
changed. 


Financial 

relations 

between 

county 

boroughs 

and 

counties. 

Contribu- 
tion to 
county  ex- 
penses. 


entitled  to  the  customary  fees  of  his  office.  As  to  the 
holding  of  assizes,  however,  it  has  long  been  the  practice, 
in  certain  cases,  to  direct  that  offences  arising  in  these 
privileged  boroughs  shall  be  tried  in  the  adjoining  counties  ; 
and  this  practice  has  been  confirmed  in  the  case  of  six 
boroughs  by  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888.  There 
are  altogether  eighteen  counties  of  cities  or  towns. 

(6)  County  Boroughs. — Finally,  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1888  constituted  a  special  class  of  some  sixty  large 
boroughs  which,  at  the  passing  of  the  Act,  were  either 
counties  of  themselves  or  had  populations  of  not  less  than 
50,000.  A  borough  in  this  class,  which  is  to  be  known 
by  the  name  of  "  county  boroughs,"  is  practically  exempted 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  county  council  of  its  county, 
and  its  borough  council  has  most  of  the  powers  which 
were  conferred  by  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888 
upon  county  councils,  except  the  powers  conferred  in 
connection  with  parliamentary  elections.  But  the  con- 
stitution of  the  borough  council  is  unchanged  by  its  new 
position,  and  for  most  purposes  the  Act  merely  operates  to 
confer  new  powers  on  the  councils  of  the  specified 
boroughs.  An  equitable  adjustment  of  the  financial 
relations  between  the  county  borough  and  its  county  in 
respect  of  local  taxation  licences  and  probate  duties  must 
be  come  to,  and  may  be  revised  by  order  of  the  Local 
Government  Board  after  every  five  years.  And  if  assizes 
are  not  held  in  the  borough,  the  latter  must  contribute  a 
proper  share  of  the  costs  of  the  county  assizes ;  while  if  it 
has  no  separate  court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  the  borough 
must  contribute  to  the  expense  of  Quarter  and  Petty 
Sessions  for  the  county,  and  to  the  expenses  of  the  county 
coroners.  It  must  be  carefully  remembered  that  there  is 


SPECIAL  TYPES  OF  BOROUGH  229 

no  necessary  connection  between  a  county  of  a  city  or  town 
and  a  county  borough,  though  the  same  place  may  be 
both.  For  there  are  many  county  boroughs  which  are  not 
counties  of  towns,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  few  counties 
of  cities  or  towns,  such  as  Lichfield  and  Poole,  which  are 
not  county  boroughs. 


INDEX 


ACCOUNTS,  28,  40,  175,  197. 

Administration,  defined,  13. 

Adoptive  Acts,  47. 

Adulteration,  in,  112. 

Aldermen,  Borough,  203,  204. 
County,  1 66. 
Gild,  193. 

Allotments,  43,  44,  45,  169. 

Annuity  Certificates,  172. 

Appeals,  31,  32,  33,  73,  75,  122, 
128  «.,  158,  175,  212,  218, 
219. 

Apprenticeship,  95. 

Assessment     Committee    (of    the 
Guardians).    See  Union  As- 
sessment Committee, 
(of  the  County  Council),  174. 

Assessors  (Borough),  206. 

Assistant-Overseers,  30,  46. 

Assizes,  71,  156,  227,  228. 

Attendance  Officers,  57. 

Audit,  128,  146,  175. 

Auditors  (Borough),  205. 

B 

BABY  FARMS,  116,  148. 
Bail,  149,  1 60,  161,  184,  211. 
Barons  of  the  Exchequer,  143. 
Beadle,  19,  36. 
Billeting,  161. 
Bills  of  Mortality,  35. 
Board  of  Guardians.      See  Guar- 
dians. 
Board  of  Trade,  118. 


Borough  (generally),  n,  100,  187- 

198. 

Parliamentary',  198,  199. 
Municipal,  200-220. 
Fund,  70,  219. 
creation  of,  200. 
council,  201,  202,  203,    206 

215- 

corporation,  200. 

aldermen,  203,  204. 

property,  208-210. 

Kate,  209,  218,  219. 

Commission     of    the    Peace, 
221,  222, 

Quarter     Sessions,     222-225, 
227. 

Civil  Court,  226-227. 
Boundaries,  170. 

Burgesses,  generally,  165,  188-195, 
227. 

Qualification  of,  201. 

Powers  of,  201,  202. 
Burials,  51. 
Burial  Boards,  51,  52. 
By-laws  (Sanitary),  117-118. 

(County),  176. 

(Borough),  213. 


I 

CAMBRIDGE,  142. 

Chairman,  of  Parish  Council,  42. 

of  Petty  Sessions,  70,  73. 

of  School  Board,  57. 

of  Sanitary  Authority,  119. 


232 


INDEX 


Chairman  of  Quarter  Sessions,  156. 

of  County  Council,  1 66. 
Charities,  45,  169. 
Charters,  190,  191,  192,  195,  200.  I 
Chester,  188,  190. 
Churchwardens,  27,  28. 
Circuits  (County  Court),  78,  79. 
Clerk,  of  the  Peace,  32,   162-163, 
176,  222,  223,  224,  227. 

of  Parish  Council,  46. 

of  Petty  Sessions,  67,  70,  222. 

of  Sanitary  Authority,  120. 

of  County  Council,  176. 

of  Borough.    See  Town  Clerk. 
Collectors,  46. 
Commissioners,  Library,  52. 
Committal  for  trial,  71. 
Committees  of  Borough  Council, 

215. 

Compound  householder,  34. 
Conscience,  courts  of,  77. 
Constable,  Parish,  48,  179. 

Paid,  48. 

High,  66,  67. 

Chief,  67,  1 80. 

Special,  183,  213. 

Police.     See  Police. 
Contagious    diseases    of   animals, 

168,  225. 

Coroner,  147-149,  224,  228. 
Corporation  (municipal),  194. 
County  (and  see  Shire). 

Council,    37,    40,    41,    108, 

112  «.,   113,   123,  137. 

Constitution  of,  164-167. 

Functions  of,  167-177. 

Districts,  165. 

Divisions,  164  «.,  165. 

Boroughs,  1 66. 

Aldermen,  166. 

Court,  68,  76-86. 

Stock,  172. 

Rate,  70,  174. 

Buildings,  179. 

Boroughs,  228. 
County  of  City  or  Town,  227-228, 

228. 
Crown  Debts,  145 


D 

DEBENTURES,  172. 
Deputy-lieutenant,  138. 
sheriff,  147. 
coroner,  148. 

Destructive  insects,  168,  225. 
Diseases.    See  Infectious  Diseases. 
Disqualifications,     for     office     of 

overseer,  30  «. 
for  office  of  parish  councillor 

41. 
for    membership    of    School 

Board,  56  «. 
for  local  government  franchise, 

166. 
for    membership     of    County 

Council,  167. 
of  county  officials,  177. 
Dorsetshire,  134. 
Drains.     See  Sewers. 
Durham,  134. 

E 

ECCLESIASTICAL  patronage,  209. 
Education  Department,  55. 
Emigrant  runners,  Il6. 
Essex,  134. 
Exchequer,  140,  143. 
Exchequer  Contribution  Account, 

173,  174,  181,  212. 
Execution,  defined,  13. 
Exemptions,    from    parish    office, 

27  «. 

Explosives,  225. 
Extra-parochial,  21. 

F 

FEE  GRANT,  58. 
Ferm  of  the  shire,  145. 
Finance,  sanitary,  122-128. 

county,  171-176. 

committee,  172. 
Firma  burgi,  189. 
Fish  conservancy,  1 68,  225. 
Footpaths,  40,  45. 
Franchises,  147. 
Frankpledge,  view  of,  139. 


INDEX 


233 


GAOLS  and  Gaol  Sessions,  155. 
Game  dealers,  116. 
Gangmasters,  116. 
Gas  meters,  225. 
General  rates,  127,  128. 
General  District  Rate,  125,  126. 
Gilds,  193. 

Guardians  of  the   Poor,  general 
15,  56,60,61,89. 

how  appointed,  89-91. 

functions,  91-98. 

H 

HANSE.     See  Gild. 

High  Bailiff  (County  Court),  79,  80. 

Highways.     See  Roads. 

Highway  Boards,  51,  106-108. 

Holy  Orders,  167. 

Housing  of  the  working  classes, 

112-115. 
Hundred,  u,  20,  33,    65-67,  68, 

139- 

Huntingdon,  142. 

I 

IMPRESSMENT,  161. 
Imprisonment  for  debt,  84. 
Improvement   Act    District,    101, 

102. 

Indictable  offences,  70,  71. 
Indoor  relief,  91. 
Infectious  diseases,  110-112. 
Inquest  (Coroner's),  148. 
Inspector  of  Nuisances,  120. 

J 

Joint-Committee,  179-184. 
Juries,  liability  to  serve  on,  157  »., 

227. 
Jurisdiction,  of  County  Court,  80- 

85. 

Jury  Lists,  74. 
Justices  of  the  Peace,  general,  13, 

14,   15,  29,  33,  66,  69,  75, 

89,  93.  "9,  122.  US.  142, 


179,    i8i,    184,   205,    211 

213,  222,  223,  226. 

Justice  of  the   Peace,  history  of, 
149-152. 

appointment  of,  152-153,  222. 
powers  of,  154-162. 


Knights  of  the  shire,  135. 


LABOURERS,  statutes  of,  150. 

Lathes,  II  n. 

Leases,  by  borough  council,  209. 

Leet,  the,  21, 

Leet  constable,  36. 

Leet  jury,  47,  66. 

Legislation,    defined,  13  (and   stc 

By-laws). 

Libraries.     Sec  Public  Libraries. 
Licensing  Committees,  159. 
Lincoln,  190. 
Liquor  licences,  74. 
Loans,  to  School  Boards,  59. 

to  Guardians,  97. 

to  sanitary  authorities,  124. 

to  County  Councils,  172. 

to  Borough  Councils,  217. 
Loan  Societies,  rules  of,  169. 
Local  Board  District,  102. 
Local  Government  Board,  15,  88, 
102,  114,  118,  1191.,  123, 
124,    127,    164,    172,    176, 
208,  218,  228. 
Local  Loans  Act,  1875,  !73»  218. 
Local  Taxation  Grant,  123,   173, 

228. 

London,  188,  193,  197. 
.Lord)  Lieutenant,  138-139. 
Lunatic  Asylums,  148,  159,  169, 
225. 

M 

MAYOR,  193,  199*  204,  aot 
Medical    Officer  of  Health,    120, 

174,  176. 
Militia,  137,  138. 


234 


INDEX 


Monasteries,    dissolution    of    the, 

23- 
Municipal   Commission  of    1835, 

196,  197. 

Municipal  Corporations  Act,  165, 

197,  200,    209,   210,  214, 

222,  226,  227. 

Municipal  Council,  59,  60. 
Museums.     See  Public  Museums. 
Music  and  dancing  licences,  170. 

N 

NEW  boroughs,  creation  of,   170, 
200. 

O 

OCCASIONAL  Court-house,  74. 
Officials,  of  parish,  27-36,  46. 

of  School  Board,  57. 

of  Hundred,  66. 

of  Petty  Sessions,  70. 

of  County  Court,  79-80. 

of  Poor  Law  Union,  97-98. 

of  Sanitary  District,  119-122. 
Outdoor  Relief,  91,  95,  96. 
Overseers  of  the  Poor,  28-35,  4^> 
59,  96. 


PARISH,  generally,  19-24,  87,  89, 
90. 

Urban,  25-36. 

Rural,  36-47. 

Clerk,  35,  36,  46. 

Meeting,  38-40. 

Council,  40-47. 
Parliamentary  Grants,  59. 
Parochial  Electors,  38. 
Part  (of  a  county)  1 1  n. 
Passage  brokers,  116. 
Pawnbrokers'  Certificates,  116. 
Penalties,  118,  124. 
Pension  Fund  (Police),  182. 
Petroleum,  116. 
Petty  Sessions,  32,  68-75,  78>  18°, 

l8l,  215,  222,  226,  228. 

Pindar,  19. 


Places  of  worship,  registration  of, 

169. 

Plague,  The  Great,  23,  150. 
Police,  County,  179-184. 

Borough,  210-213,  225- 
Police  Fund,  182. 
Police  Rate,  182. 
Poor  Law,  generally,  151. 

Board,  88. 

Commissioners,  88,  119. 

Union,  37,  68,  87-98,  105. 
Posse  (Sheriffs),  147. 
Prisons  Visiting  Committee,  159. 
Private    Improvement  Rate,   125, 

127. 

Public  analysts,  177,  225. 
Public  Health.     See  Sanitary  Dis- 
trict. 

Board  of,  loo. 
Public  Libraries,  52 

Museums,  52. 

Public     Works     Loan     Commis- 
sioners, 124,  209. 


QUARTER  SESSIONS,  32,  68,  69, 
71,  154-159,  175,  'Si,  212, 

219,     220,     222,     223,     224, 
225,  228. 

Quorum,  154. 

R 

RACE-COURSES,  licences  for,  170. 
Rapes,  ii  ».,  68. 
Rates,  Poor,  31-34,  94. 

Private     Improvement,     125, 
127. 

Separate,  128,  212,  218. 

County,  32,  174,  219,  220. 

Parish,  40,  46. 

Highway,  50. 

School,  59. 

Sanitary,  125-128. 

Police,  182. 

Borough,  209,  2 1 8,  219. 

Watch,  212. 
Rate  in  Aid,  33. 


INDEX 


235 


Recorder,  212,  218,  223,  226. 

Recreation,  45,  115. 

Reeve,  19,  20. 

Reformatory         and       Industrial 

Schools,  1 68,  225. 
Registrar,  County  Court,  79,  80. 

Births,    Deaths,    and   Marri- 
ages, 98,  in. 

Regulations  (Sanitary),  118. 
Remand,  71. 
Removal,  93,  95. 
Requests,  Courts  of,  77,  78. 
Revising  Assessors.    See  Assessors 

(Borough). 
Riding  II  n. 
Right  of  Way,  40. 
Riot,  67,  161. 

Rivers,  Pollution  of,  112,  168. 
Roads,  parish,  48-51,  106. 

high,  123. 

main,  167,  225. 
Roads  and  bridges,  67. 
Roses,  Wars  of  the,  23. 
Rotten  boroughs,  195. 


SANITARY  DISTRICT,  53,  68. 

Urban,  37,   49,  60,  100-104, 

112. 
Rural,  37,  47,  104-105,  107, 

112. 

Port,  i  oo,  128-129. 
Sanitary  legislation,  117-119. 

offences,  121. 
School  Attendance  Committee,  57, 

60,  61. 

School   Board,  how   created,    55, 
56. 

Constitution  of,  56. 

Elections  for,  56. 

Officials  of,  57. 

Compulsory  attendance,  57. 

Income  of,  58,  59. 
School  District,  54-61. 
School  Fund,  59. 
Scientific  societies,  registration  of, 

169. 
Select  Vestry.     SK  Vestry 


Separate  rate,  128,  212,  218. 

Settlement,  92-95. 

Sewers,  108-110. 

Sheriff,  67,  76,  134,  135,  136,  139- 

147»  153.  194.227. 
Shire,   u,   20,    133-136  (and    tee 

County). 

Somersetshire,  134. 
Special  rates,  128. 
Specific  performance,  82. 
Standing  Joint-Committee.       See 

Joint -Committee. 
Staple  courts,  77. 
Statute  sessions,  67. 
Stipendiary  magistrate,    70,    225, 

226. 

Subsidies,  123. 

Summary  conviction,  70,  71,  72. 
Superannuation  Fund  (Police),  179. 
Surveyor  of  highways,  50. 
Sanitary,  120. 
County,  177. 
Sussex,  134. 


TALLAGE,  189-191. 
Taxation,  191. 

Technical  instruction,  168,  169. 
Ten  pound  occupiers,  38,  165. 
Tort,  definition  of,  81  «. 

claim  on,  So,  Si. 
!  Tourn  (Sheriff's),  67,  139. 
i  Town  Clerk,   120,  206,  216,  219, 

226. 
Town   Police  Clauses  Act,  1847, 

207. 

Township,  II,  19,  20,  21,  23,  29. 
Treasurer,  of  parish  council,  46. 
of  county  council,  172,  176. 
of  borough,  216. 
Turnpikes,  49. 

U 

UNDBR-SHERIFF,  146. 

Union  Assessment  Committee,  31. 

Union  Chargeability    Act,    1865, 


236 


INDEX 


VACCINATION,  98. 
Vestry,  22,  25-27,  34,  36. 

select,  26,  27. 
Vice-Lieutenant,  139. 
Volunteer  corps,  land  for,  218. 


W 

WAGES,  assessment  of  by  Justices, 
150. 

Wapontake,  1 1  n. ,  (and  see  Hun- 
dred). 


Ward,  of  a  county,  1 1  n. 
of  a  parish,  41. 
of  a  borough,  165,  200,  202 
of  an  urban  district,  170. 

Warrant,  161,  183. 

Watch  Committee,  210,  211. 

Water  supply,  45,  112. 

Waywardens,  107. 

Weights  and  measures,  170,  225. 

Westmoreland,  142. 

Wild  birds,  protection  of,  168. 

Wiltshire,  134. 


YORK,  188. 


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Second  Edition.  Dtmy&vo.  ior.  6ct. 

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D.D.  Demy  Sva.  6s 

THE  ACTS  or  THE  APOSTLES.     Edited  by  R.  B. 


PART  II. — FICTION 


Marie  Corelli's  Novels. 

Crown  Zvo     6s.  each. 
A     ROMANCE     OF     TWO     WORLDS. 
Twenty-Fourth  Edition. 

VENDETTA.     Twentieth  Edition. 
THELMA.     Thirtieth  Edition. 


ARDATH:  THE  STORY  OF  A  DEAD 
SELF.  Fifteenth  Edition. 

THE  SOUL  OF  LILITH.  Twelfth  Edit. 
WORMWOOD.     Thirteenth  Edition. 

BARABBAS:  A  DREAM  OF  THE 
WORLD'S  TRAGEDY.  Thirty-Ninth 
Edition. 

'  The  tender  reverence  of  the  treatment 
and  the  imaginative  beauty  of  the  writing 
have  reconciled  us  to  the  daring  of  the  con- 
ception. This  "Dream  of  the  World's 
Tragedy"  is  a  lofty  and  not  inadequate 
paraphrase  of  the  supreme  climax  of  the 
inspired  narrative.' — Dublin  Review. 

THE  SORROWS  OF  SATAN.  Forty- 
Eighth  Edition. 

1 A  very  powerful  piece  of  work.  ^.  .  . 
The  conception  is  magnificent,  and  is  likely 
to  win  an  abiding  place  within  the  memory 
of  man.  .  .  .  The  author  has  immense  com- 
mand of  language,  and  a  limitless  audacity. 
. .  .  This  interesting  and  remarkable  romance 
will  live  long  after  much  of  the  ephemeral 
literature  of  the  day  is  forgotten.  ...  A 
literary  phenomenon  .  .  .  novel,  and  even 


ublime.' — W.   T.    STEAD  in  the  Review 
of  Reviews. 
THE  MASTER  CHRISTIAN. 

[i65M  Thousand. 

'  It  cannot  be  denied  that  "The  Master 
Christian  "  is  a  powerful  book  ;  that  it  is  one 
likely  to  raise  uncomfortable  questions  in 
all  but  the  most  self-satisfied  readers,  and 
that  it  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  failure  of 
the  Churches — the  decay  of  faith — in  a 
manner  which  shows  the  inevitable  disaster 
heaping  up  ...  Th«  good  Cardinal  Bonpre 
is  a  beautiful  figure,  fit  to  stand  beside  the 
goodBishopin  "  Les  Miserables."  It  is  a 
book  with  a  serious  purpose  expressed  with 
absolute  unconventionality  and  passion  .  .  . 
And  this  is  to  say  it  is  a  book  worth  read- 
ing.'— Examiner. 

TEMPORAL    POWER:    A    STUDY   IN 
SUPREMACY.  [iSoth  Thousand. 

1  It  is  impossible  to  read  such  a  work  as 
"Temporal  Power"  without  becoming  con- 
vinced that  the  story  is  intended  to  convey 
certain  criticisms  on  the  ways  of  the  world 
and  certain  suggestions  for  the  betterment 
of  humanity.  .  .  .  If  the  chief  intention  of 
the  book  was  to  hold  the  mirror  up  to 
shams,  injustice,  dishonesty,  cruelty,  and 
neglect  of  conscience;  nothing  but  praise 
can  be  given  to  that  intention.' — Morning 
Post. 

GOD'S  GOOD  MAN  :  A  SIMPLE  LOVE 
STORY. 


Anthony  Hope's  Novels. 
Crown  8vo     6s.  each. 

THE  GOD  IN  THE  CAR.  Ninth  Edition. 
1  A  very  remarkable  book,  deserving  of 
critical  analysis  impossible  within  our  limit ; 
brilliant,  but  not  superficial ;  well  con- 
sidered, but  not  elaborated  ;  constructed 
with  the  proverbial  art  that  conceals,  but 
yet  allows  itself  to  be  enjoyed  by  readers 
to  whom  fine  literary  method  is  a  keen 
pleasure.'—  The  World. 


A  CHANGE  OF  AIR.    Sixth  Edition. 

'A  graceful,   vivacious  comedy,  true  to 


human  nature.     The  characters  are  traced 
with  a  masterly  hand.' — Times. 
A  MAN  OF  MARK.     Fifth  Edition. 

'Of  all  Mr.  Hope's  books,  "A  Man  of 
Mark"  is  the  one  which  best  compares  with 
*<  T'ViA  T>rtf^nA*>  f^f  7mt-irlo  M  ( \7~t:*~s,J  /")A_ 


The  Prisoner  of  Zenda.'" — National  Ob 
server. 

THK   CHRONICLES   OF  COUNT 
ANTONIO.     Fifth  Edition. 

'It  is  a  perfectly  enchanting  story  of  love 
and  chivalry,  and  pure  romance.  The 
Count  is  the  most  constant,  desperate,  a 


nd 


FICTION 


modest  and  tender  of  lovers,  a  peerless 
gentleman,  an  intrepid  fighter,  a  faithful 
friend,  and  a  magnanimous  foe.' — Guardian. 

PHROSO.     Illustrated  by  H.   R.  MILLAR. 
Sixth  Edition, 

1  The  tale  is  thoroughly  fresh,  quick  with 
vitality,  stirring  the  blood.'— St.  James's 
Gar.ette. 

SIMON  DALE.    Illustrated.  Sixth  Edition. 

'There   is  searching  analysis  of  human 

nature,  with  a  most  ingeniously  constructed 

plot.     Mr.  Hope  has  drawn  the  contrasts 


of  his  women  with  marvellous  wbtlaty  and 
delicacy. ' —  Timtt. 

THE  KING'S  MIRROR.  F*u«k  Fditiom. 
1  In  elegance,  delicacy,  and  Uct  it  raaks 
with  the  best  of  his  novels,  wbUe  in  the  wid« 
range  of  its  portraiture  and  the  subtilty 
of  its  analysts  it  farpaam  all  bis  an  far 
ventures. ' — Spectator. 

QUISANTE.     Fourth  Edition. 

'  The  book  is  notable  for  a  very  high  liter- 
ary quality,  and  an  impress  of  power  aad 
mastery  on  every  pajre.'— />«/»>  LkrtnnU. 

TIIK  DOLLY  DULbGUIS, 


W.  W.  Jacobs'  Novels 


Crown  %vo 

MANY  C ARGOE S.  Twcnty-SeventhEdition. 

URCHINS.     Tenth  Edition. 
A     MASTER     OF     CRAFT.      Illustrated. 
Sixth  Edition. 

'Can  be  unreservedly  recommended  to 
nil  who  have  not  lost  their  appetite  for 
wholesome  laughter.' — Spectator. 

'The  best  humorous  book  published  for 
many  a  day.'— Black  and  White. 


Illustrated. 


3^.  6d.  each. 
LIGHT  FREIGHTS. 
Edition. 

1  His  wit  and  humour  are  perfectly  irresiv 

tible.     Mr.  Jacobs  writes  of  skippers,  and 

mates,  and  seamen,  and  his  crew  are  the 

jolliest  lot  that  ever  sailed.'— Daily  A/IBS. 

'  Laughter  in  every  page.'— Daily  Hail. 


Lucas  Malet's  Novels 
Crown  %>vo.    6s.  each. 


COLONEL   ENDERBY'S  WIFE.     Third 
Edition. 

A  COUNSEL  OF  PERFECTION.     Ntw 
Edition. 

LITTLE  PETER.     Second  Edition,     y .  6d. 

THE  WAGES  OF  SIN.  Fourteenth  Edition. 

THE  CARISSIMA.    Fourth  Edition. 

THE    GATELESS     BARRIER.      Fourth 
Edition. 

1  In  "  The  Gateless  Barrier  "  it  is  at  once  I 
evident  that,  whilst  Lucas  Malet  has  pre-  | 
served    her  birthright    of   originality,    the 
artistry,  the  actual  writing,  is  above  even 
the  high  level  of  the  books  that  were  born 
before.'—  Westminster  Gazette. 


THE   HISTORY  OF   SIR    RICH 

CALMADY.   Seventh  Edition.   A  Limited 
Edition  in  Two  Volumes.    Ow*  8rv 

'A  picture  finely  and  amply 
In  the  strength  and  insight  in  which  the 
story  has  been  conceived,  in  the  wealth  of 
fancy  and  reflection  bestowed  upon  its 
execution,  and  in  the  moving  mincerity  of  it* 
pathos  throughout,  "  Sir  Richard  Catmady" 
must  rank  as  the  great  novel  of  a  great 
writer. ' — Literaturt. 

'  The  ripest  fruit  of  Loca*  Malet's  genus. 
A  picture  of  maternal  Ion  by  turns  tender 
ana  terrible.' — Spectator. 

'  A  remarkably  fine  book,  with  a 
motive  and  a  sound  OTnclutK 


Gilbert  Parker's  Novels 
Crown  %vo.    6s.  each. 


PIERRE  AND  HIS  PEOPLE.    Fifth  Edi- 
tion. 

'Stories  happily  conceived  and  finely  ex- 
ecuted.    There  is  strength  and  genius  in 
Mr.  Parker's  style.'— Daily  Telegraph, 
MRS.  FALCHION.    Fourth  Edition, 
'  A  splendid  study  of  character. ' — 

Athtnaum. 
THE   TRANSLATION    OF  A  S.V- 

Second  Edition. 

THE    TRAIL    OF   THE  SWORD.     Illus- 
trated.    Eighth  Edition. 


dramatic  tale.     A  book 


'  A  rousing  and 
like  this  is  a  joy  inexpressible.'- 


WHEN  VAI.MONDCAMETO  PON 
The    Story  of   a   LoU    Napoleon.     J-tflk 
Edition. 

•Here  we  find  romance-real,  breallu.*. 
living  romance.  The  character  of  Valowod 
is  drawn  nKriMfeWto0Jfeff£MSfe 

AN  ADVENTURER  OF  THE  NORTH: 
The  Last  Adventures  of  ' Pretty  Pierre' 
Third  Edition. 


34 


MESSRS.  METHUEN'S  CATALOGUE 


c  The  present  book  is  full  of  fine  and  mov- 
ing stones  of  the  great  North.' — Glasgow 
Herald. 

THE  SEATS  OF  THE  MIGHTY.     Illus- 
trated.    Thirteenth  Edition. 

'  Mr.  Parker  has  produced  a  really  fine 
historical  novel.' — Athenezutn. 

'  A  great  book.'— Black  and  White. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  STRONG:  a 


Romance  of  Two  Kingdoms.    Illustrated. 
Fourth  Edition. 

'  Nothing  more  vigorous  or  more  human 
has  come  from  Mr.  Gilbert  Parker  than  this 
novel.' — Literature. 

THE    POMP    OF    THE     LAVILETTES. 
Second  Edition.     3*.  6<i, 

'Unforced  pathos,  and  a  deeper  know- 
ledge  of  human  nature  than  be  has  displayed 
before.  '—Pall  Mall  Gazette. 


Arthur  Morrison's  Novels 
Crown  $vo.     6s.  each. 


TALES    OF  MEAN    STREETS.      Sixth 
Edition. 

' A  great  book.  The  author's  method  is 
amazingly  effective,  and  produces  a  thrilling 
sense  of  reality.  The  writer  lays  upon  us 
a  master  hand.  The  book  is  simply  appalling 
and  irresistible  in  its  interest.  It  is  humorous 
also ;  without  humour  it  would  not  make  the 
mark  it  is  certain  to  make.' — World. 

ACHILD  OF  THE  JAGO.  Fourth  Edition. 
'The  book  is  a  masterpiece.1—  Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 

TO  LONDON  TOWN.    Second  Edition. 

'This  is  the  new  Mr.  Arthur  Morrison, 
gracious  and  tender,  sympathetic  and 
human.' — Daily  Telegraph. 


CUNNING  MURRELL. 

'Admirable.   .    .    .    Delightful  humorous 
relief  ...  a  most  artistic  and  satisfactory 
achievement. ' — Spectator. 
THE    HOLE    IN    THE    WALL.      Third 
Edition. 

'A  masterpiece  of  artistic  realism.  It  has 
ix  finality  of  touch  that  only  a  master  may 
command.' — Daily  Chronicle. 

'An  absolute  masterpiece,  which  any 
novelist  might  be  proud  to  claim.'— Graphic. 

1  "  The  Hole  in  the  Wall "  is  a  masterly 
piece  of  work.  His  characters  are  drawn 
with  amazing  skill.  Extraordinary  power.' 
—Daily  Telegraph. 


Eden  Phillpotts'  Novels 

Crown  82/0.     6s.  each. 


LYING  PROPHETS.     . 
CHILDREN  OF  THE  MIST.  FifthEdition. 
THE  HUMAN  BOY.     With  a  Frontispiece. 
Fourth  Edition 

'Mr.  Phillpotts  knows  exactly  what 
school-boys  do,  and  can  lay  bare  their  in- 
most thoughts  ;  likewise  he  shows  an  all- 
pervading  sense  of  humour.' — Academy. 
SONS  OF  THE  MORNING.  Second 
Edition. 

'  A  book  of  strange  power  and   fascina- 
tion.' — Morning:  Post. 

THE  STRIKING  HOURS.  Second  Edition. 
'  Tragedy    and    comedy,     pathos     and 
humour,   are  blended   to  a  nicety  in  this 
volume. ' —  World. 

1  The  whole  book  is  redolent  of  a  fresher 


and  ampler  air  than  breathes  in  the  circum 
scribed  life  of  great  towns.' — Spectator. 
THE  RIVER.     Third  Edition. 

'  "The  River"  places  Mr.  Phillpotts  in  the 
front  rank  of  living  novelists.  '—Punch. 

'Since  "  Lorna  Doone"  we  have  had 
nothing  so  picturesque  as  this  new  romance.' 
Birmingham  Gazette. 

'  Mr.  Phillpotts's  new  book  is  n.  master- 
piece which  brings  him  indisputably  into 
the  front  rank  of  English  novelists.'— Pall 
Mall  Gazette. 

'This  great  romance  of  the  River  Dart. 
The  finest  book  Mr.  Eden  Phillpotts  has 
written. ' — Morning  Post. 
THE  AMERICAN   PRISONER.       Third 
Edition. 


S.  Baring-Gould's  Novels 
Crown  87/0.     6s.  each. 


A  R  M I  NELL.    Fifth  Edition. 

URITH.    FifthEdition. 

IN  THE  ROAR  OF  THE  SEA.    Seventh 

Edition. 

CHEAP  JACK  ZITA.    Fourth  Edition. 
MARGERY  OF  QUETHER.    Third 

Edition. 


THE  QUEEN  OF  LOVE.    Fifth  Edition. 
J.\<  OTKTTA.     Third  Edition. 
KITTY  ALONE.    Fifth  Edition. 
KOEMI.     Illustrated.     Fourth  Edition. 
THE    BROOM -SQUIRE.    Illustrat 

Fourth  Editicn. 
DARTMOOR   IDYLLS. 


«, 


FICTION 


THE     PENNYCOMEQUICKS.        Third 

Edition. 
GUAVAS    THE    TINNER.       Illustrated. 

Second  Edition. 

BLADYS.     Illustrated.    Second  Edition. 
HO.MITIA.     Illustrated.    Second  Edition. 
PABO  THE  PRIEST. 


ROYAL  GEORGIK.    Illustrated. 

MI-S..T-I!  ]  l-T. 

W^oVX 

IN  DEWISLAND. 


Robert  Barr's  Novels 
Crown  Svo.    6s.  each. 


IN  THE  MIDST  OF  ALARMS.      Third 
Edition. 

'  A  book  which  has  abundantly  satisfied  us 
by  its  capital  humour.' — Daily  Chronicle. 
THE  MUTABLE  MANY.    Second  Edition. 
4  There  is  much  insight  in  it,  and  much 
excellent  humour.' — Daily  Chronicle. 


TH E  COUNTESS  TEK LA.  Third  Edition. 
'Of  these  medieval  romance*,  which  at« 
now     gaining     ground     "The     C 
Tekla'ris  the  very  best  we  bare  seen.'-/'*// 
Mall  Gazette. 

TIFF.  LADY  I.I.KCTRA. 


Albanesi  (E.  Maria).    SUSANNAH  AND 

ONE  OTHER.     Fourth  Edition.     Crown 

8--c.     6s. 

THE  BLUNDER  OF  AN  INNOCENT. 

Crown  Bvff.     6s. 

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37 


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Dumas,  The  Novels  of  Alexandre 

Price  6d.    Double  Volume,  u. 
THE  THREE  MUSKETEERS.  With  a  long  intuxluc-     CONSCIENCE 


39 


sn  by  Andrew  Lang.    Double  volume. 
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K"i  IN  HOOD.    A  Sequel  to  the  above. 
THE  CORSICAN  BROTHERS. 


CROP-EARED  JACQI 

YEARS  A 


UOT. 


AMAVkV. 


FTER.    Double  rolu  me. 


THE  CASTLB  op  EPPSTKIN. 

THH  SNOWBALL. 

CECILE;  OR,  THE  WEDDING  GOWN. 

ACT£ 

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THH  VISCOMTE  DE  BRACELONNE. 

THE  CONVICT'S  SON. 

THE  WOLF-LEADER. 

NANON  ;  OR.  THE  WOMEN'S  WAR. 

ULINE;  MURAT;  AND  PASCAL  BkUNO. 


i)  PraakAdaw 
HE  PRINCE  OF  TM 


TIM-  THREE  M 

T 

Frank  Adams, 
ROBIN  HOOD  THR  OUTLAW. 

by  Frank  Adams. 
THE  CORSICAN  BROTHERS 

by  A.  M.  M'l.«uan. 
FF.RNANDH.    Illustrated  m  Colour 


. 

THBBLACK  TUUP.    lUmtmedintolowbyA.Orr. 
by 


ur  by  Mawo  Orr. 
dintolowbyA. 
Garde*  BroWt* 


Gr.ORGES.    Illustrated  in  Colour  by  MBWO  Orr. 
THE  CASTLB  OP  EPTSTBm.   l&tnud  to  C<*>ar 


by  A.  Orr. 

TWENTY  YEARS  AFTER. 


THE  SNOWBALL  AND  SULTAM«TTA. 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  CAPTAIN  PAMPHILK  m  Colour  by  Frank  Adams. 

FHKNANDE.  THB  VICOMTB  DB  BRACELONXE. 

GABRIEL  LAMBERT.  Colour  br  Frank  Adans. 

THE  REMINISCENCES  OF  ANTONV.  AMAURY.  'illustrated  fa  Colour  by  Gordo. 

™'      ^^  * 


Methuen's  Universal  Library 

EDITED  BY  SIDNEY  LEE.    In  Sixpenny  Volumes. 

MESSRS.  METHUEN  are  preparing  a  new  series  of  reprints  containing  both  books  of  classical 
repute,  which  are  accessible  in  various  forms,  and  also  some  rarer  books,  of  \v  hich  no  satisfactory 
edition  at  a  moderate  price  is  in  existence.  It  is  their  ambition  to  place  the  best  books  of  all 
nations,  and  particularly  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  within  the  reach  of  every  reader.  All  the 
great  masters  of  Poetry,  Drama,  Fiction,  History,  Biography,  and  Philosophy  will  be  repre- 
sented. Mr.  Sidney  Lee  will  be  the  General  Editor  of  the  Library,  and  he  will  cor,: 
Note  to  each  book. 

The  characteristics  of  METHUEN'S  UNIVERSAL  LIBRARY  are  five  : — 

1.  SOUNDESS  OK  TEXT.     A  pure  and  unabridged  text  is  the  primary  object  of  the  series, 
and  the  books  will  be  carefully  reprinted  under  the  direction  of  competent  scholars  from  the 
best  editions.     In  a  series  intended  for  popular  use  not  less  than  for  students,  adherence  to  the 
old  spelling  would  in  many  cases  leave  the  matter  unintelligible  to  ordinary  readers,  and,  as  the 
appeal  of  a  classic  is  universal,  the  spelling  has  in  general  been  modernised. 

2.  COMPLETENESS.    Where  it  seems  advisable,  the  complete  works  of  such  masters  as  Miltoo, 
Bacon,  Ben  Jonson  and  Sir  Thomas  Browne  will  be  given.     These  will  be  issued  in  separate 
volumes,  so  that  the  reader  who  does  not  desire  all  the  works  of  an  author  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  acquiring  a  single  masterpiece. 

3.  CHEAPNESS.     The  books  will  be  well  printed  on  good  paper  at  a  price  which  on  the  whole 
is  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  publishing.   Each  volume  will  contain  from  100  to  350  pages, 
and  will  be  issued  in  paper  covers,  Crown  8vo,  at  Sixpence  net. 

4.  CLEARNESS  OF  TYPE.     The  type  will  be  a  very  legible  one. 

5.  SIMPLICITY.    There  will  be  no  editorial  matter  except  a  short  biographical  and  hiblio. 
graphical  note  by  Mr.  Sidney  Lee  at  the  beginning  of  each  volume. 

Where  it  is  possible,  each  separate  book  will  be  issued  in  one  volume,  but  the  longer  ones 
must  be  divided  into  several  volumes.  The  volumes  may  also  be  obtained  in  cloth  at  On* 
Shilling  net,  and  where  a  single  book  is  issued  in  several  Sixpenny  volumes  it  may  be  obtained 
in  cloth  in  a  double  or  treble  volume.  Thus  GIL  BLAS  may  be  bought  in  two  Sixpenny 
volumes,  or  in  one  cloth  volume  at  is.  oil.  net,  and  SHAKESPEARE  will  be  given  in  ten  Sixpenny 
volumes,  or  in  five  cloth  volumes  at  is.  6d.  each. 

The  Library  will  he  issued  at  regular  intervals  after  the  publication  of  the  fir*l  six  books,  all 
of  which  will  be  published  together.  Due  notice  will  be  given  of  succeeding  issues.  The  order 
of  publication  will  be  arranged  to  give  as  much  variety  of  subject  as  possible,  and  tf— 
composing  the  complete  works  of  an  author  will  be  issued  at  convenient  intervals. 

The  early  Books  are  in  the  Pre&s. 


MESSRS.  METHUEN'S  CATALOGUE 


Novelist,  The 

MESSRS.  METHUEN  are  issuing  under  the  above  general  title  a  Monthly  Series 
of  Novels  by  popular  authors  at  the  price  of  Sixpence.     Each  number  is  as  long  as 
the  average  Six  Shilling  Novel.    The  first  numbers  of  'THE  NOVELIST'  are  as 
follows  :— 
i.   DEAD   MEN   TELL   NO  TALES.     By  E.  w. 

Hornung. 
a.  JENNIE  BAXTER,  JOURNALIST.  By  Robert  Barr. 

3.  THE  INCA'S TREASURE.  By  Ernest  Glanville. 

4.  A  SON  OF  THE  STATE.     By  \V.  Pett  Ridge. 

5.  FURZE  BLOOM.     By  S.  Baring-Gould. 

6.  BUNTER'S  CRUISE.    By  C.  Gleig. 

7.  THE  GAY  DECEIVERS.    By  Arthur  Moore. 

8.  PRISONERS  OF  WAR.  By  A.  Boyson  Weekes. 

9.  A  FLASH  OF  SUMMER.    By  Mrs.  w.  K.  Clifford. 

10.  VELDT  AND  LAAGER  :  Tales  ot  the  Transvaal. 

By  E.  S.  Valentine. 

11.  THE  NIGGER  KNIGHTS.     By  F.  Norreys  Connel. 

12.  A  MARRIAGE  AT  SEA.    By  w.  Clark  Russell. 

13.  THE     POMP     OF      THE      LAVILETTES.         By 

Gilbert  Parker. 

14.  A  MAN  OF  MARK.    By  Anthony  Hope. 

15.  THE  CARISSIMA.    By  Lucas  Malet. 

16.  THE  LADY'S  WALK.     By  Mrs.  Oliphant. 

17.  DERRICK  VAUGHAN.    By  Edna  Lyall. 

18.  IN  THE  MIDST  OF  ALARMS.    By  Robert  IJ.irr. 

19.  HIS  GRACE.     By  W.  F..  Morris. 

20.  DODO.  By  E.  F.  Benson. 

21.  CHEAP  JACK  ZITA.    By  S.  Baring-Gould. 

22.  WHEN   VALMOND   CAME   TO    PONTIAC. 

Gilbert  Parker. 

23.  THE  HUMAN  BOY.     By  Eden  Phillpotts. 

24.  THE  CHRONICLES  OF  COUNT  ANTONIO.    By 

Anthony  Hope. 

35.  BY  STROKE  OF  SWORD.    By  Andrew  Balfour. 
26.  KITTY  ALONE.    By  s.  Baring-Gould. 

vj.  GILES  INGILBY.     By  W.  E.  Norris. 

08.  URITH.     By  S.  Baring-Gould. 

19.  THE  TOWN  TRAVELLER.     By  George  Gissing. 

30.  MR.  SMITH.     By  Mrs.  Walford. 


By 


31.  A  CHANGE  OF  AIR.   By  Anthony  Hope. 

32.  THE  KLOOF  BRIDE.   By  Ernest  Glanville. 

33.  ANGEL.    By  B.  M.  Croker. 

34.  A  COUNSEL  OF  PERFECTION.    By  Lucas  Malet. 

35.  THE  BABY'S  GRANDMOTHER.   By  Mrs.  Walford. 

36.  THE  COUNTESS  TEKLA.    By  Robert  Barr. 

37.  DRIFT.     BY  L.  T.  Meadc. 

38.  THE  MASTER  OF  BEECHWOOD.    By  Adeline 

Sergeant. 

39.  CLEMENTINA.  By  A.  E.  W.  Mason. 

40.  THE  ALIEN.    By  F.  K.  Montresor. 

41.  THE  BROOM  SQUIRE.     By  S.  Baring-Gould. 

42.  HONEY.    By  Helen  Mathers. 

43.  THE  FOOTSTEPS  OF  A   THRONE.    By  Max 

Pemberton. 

44.  ROUND  THE  RED  LAMP.     By  A.  Conan  Doyle. 

By  W.  Pett  Ridge. 
H    PEERAGE.      By  Richard 
Marsh. 

47.  HOLY  MATRIMONY.    By  Dorothea  Gerard. 

48.  THE   SIGN  OF    THE  SPIDER.      By   Bertram 

Mitford. 

49.  THE  RED  HOUSE.    By  E.  Nesbit. 

50.  THE  HOLE  IN  THE  WALL.     By  A.  Morrison. 

51.  A    ROMAN  MYSTERY.    By  Richard  Bagot. 

52.  THE  CREDIT  OF  THE  COUNTY.     By  w.  E. 

Norris. 

53.  A  MOMENT'S  ERROR.    By  A.  W.  Marchant. 

54.  PHROSO.    By  Anthony  Hope. 

55.1    CROWN  THEE  KING.    By  Max  Pemberton. 

56.  JOHANNA.    By  B.  M.  Croker. 

57.  BARBARA'S  MONEY.    By  Adeline  Sergeant. 

58.  A  NEWSPAPER  GIRL.    By  Mrs.  C.  N.  Williamson. 

59.  THE  GODDESS.     By  Richard  Marsh. 

60.  MRS.  PETER  HOWARD     By  M.  E.  Mann. 


4$.  LOST  PROPERTY. 
46.  THH   TWICKENHAM' 


Sixpenny  Library 


THE  MATABELE  CAMPAIGN.  By  Major-General 
Baden-PowelL 

THE  DOWNFALL  OF  PREMPEH.  By  Major-General 
Baden-Powell. 

MY  DANISH  SWEETHEART.    By  W.  Clark  Russell. 

IN  THE  ROAR  OF  THE  SEA.  By  S.  Baring- 
Gould. 

PEGGY  OF  THE  BARTONS.    By  B.  M.  Croker. 
THE  GREEN  GRAVES  OF  BALGOWKIE.    By  Jane 

H.  Find  later. 

THE  STOLEN  BACILLUS.    By  H.  G.  Wells. 
MATTHEW  AUSTIN.    By  W.  E.  Norris. 
THE  CONQUEST  OF  LONDON.  By  Dorothea  Gerard. 
A  VOYAGE  OF  CONSOLATION     By  Sara  J.  Duncan. 
THE  MUTABLE  MANY.    By  Robert  Barr. 
BUN  IIUR.    By  General  Lew  Wallace. 

SIR  ROBERT'S  FORTUNE.    By  Mrs.  OHphant. 
THE  FAIR  Goo.    By  General  Lew  Wallace. 
CLARISSA  FURIOSA.    By  W.  E.  Norm. 
CRANFORD.    By  Mrs.Gaskell. 
NOEMI.      By  S.  Baring-Gould. 
THE  THRONE  01-  DAVID.    By  J.  II.  Ingraham. 
ACROSS   THE   SALT    SEAS.      By  J.  Bloundelle 
Burton* 

THE  MILL  ON  THE  FLOSS.    By  G«orge  EHot. 
PETER  SIMPLE.    By  Captain  Marryat. 


MARY  BARTON.    By  Mrs.  Caskell. 

PRIDE  AND  PREJUDICE.    By  Jane  Austen. 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH.    By  Mrs.  Gaskell. 

JACOB  FAITHFUL.    By  Captain  Marryat. 

SHIRLEY.    By  Charlotte  Bronte- 

FAIRY  TALES  RE- TOLD.    By  S.  Baring  Gould. 

THE  TRUE  HISTORY  OF  JOSHUA  DAVIDSON.    By 

Airs.  Lynn  Linton. 

A  STATE  SECRET.    By  B.  M  Croker. 
SAM'S  SWEETHEART.    By  Helen  Mathers. 
HANDLEY  CROSS.    By  R.  S.  Surtees. 
ANNE  MAULEVERER.    By  Mrs.  Caffyn. 
THE  ADVENTURERS.    By  H.  B.  Marriott  Watson. 
DANTE'S  DIVINE  COMEDY.    Translated  by  H.  F. 

Gary. 

THE  CEDAR  STAR.    By  M.  E.  Mann. 
MASTER  OF  MEN.    By  E.  P.  Oppenheim. 
THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  SWORD.    By  Gilbert  Parker. 
THOSE  DELIGHTFUL  AMERICANS.  By  Mrs.  Cotes. 
MR.  SPONGE'S  SPORTING  TOUR.  By  R.  S.  Surtees. 
ASK  MAMMA.    By  R.  S.  Surtees. 
GRIMM'S  FAIRY  STORIES.     Illustrated  by  George 

Cruikshank. 

GEORGE  AND  THE  GENERAL.    By  W.  Pett  Ridge. 
THE  JOSS.    By  Richard  Marsh. 
MISER  HOADLEY'S  SECRET.   By  A.  W.  Marchraont, 


8. 


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