superseded by the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, (f) and the election of vestries subsequently regulated by order of the Local Government Board. (g) The Metropolis Management Acts, 1855 to 1890, regulated the administration of such matters as sewers, paving, lighting, highways, streetwatering, cleansing, etc., by the various metropolitan vestries and district boards, who were also the authorities for administering the Public Health Act, 1891. (h) But the powers and duties of these bodies have now been handed over to the twenty-eight metropolitan borough councils created by Order in Council under the London Government Act, 1899. (i)

Rural and Urban District Councils.-England and Wales were first divided into rural and urban districts by the Public Health Act, 1872. (k) By that Act urban districts were defined as either (1) boroughs, (2) existing improvement Act districts, (3) local government districts; rural districts were poor law unions, or such parts of them as were not included in urban districts. The sanitary authorities placed over these divisions to administer the Act were:

Borough councils.

(1) Urban Improvement commissioners.

Local boards of health.

(2) The boards of guardians for the rural districts.

The Public Health Act, 1875, gave the Local Government Board certain powers over these rural and urban sanitary authorities, and consolidated the law. The Local Government Act, 1894, (7) created the present rural and urban district councils in place of the old sanitary authorities of the Acts of 1872 and 1875, and the constitution and functions of these bodies is now briefly as follows. The Act of 1894 provided that the old urban sanitary authorities were henceforward to be known as urban district councils (borough councils excepted, which were to retain their name). At the same time the Act altered the constitutions of the old bodies in the following manner :—

(1) There are no nominated or ex-officio members. (m)

(f) 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, s. 1. (h) 54 & 55 Vict. c. 76, s. 99. (k) 35 & 36 Vict. c. 79.

(g) St. R. & O. 1898, No. 244. (i) 62 & 63 Vict. c. 14.

(1) 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73.

(m) Local Government Act, 1894, s. 23 (1).

(2) The voting power of the electors does not depend upon the amount of their property as previously, but each elector has one vote. (n) Under the Act of 1894 the rural district council consists of a chairman and councillors, who, like the board of guardians, are elected for three years, one-third of their number retiring by rotation in every year. The number of councillors is the same as the number of guardians for the parish or area. (o) The rural district councillors act as guardians of the poor, and no separate guardians as such are to be elected for the parish or area. (p) The persons eligible to be rural district councillors are subject to the qualifications provided by the Act with regard to guardians, and may be of either sex. (q) Generally speaking, the powers conferred by the Act of 1894 and various other Acts, and now exercised by the rural and urban district councils, and the corresponding borough councils in towns which have a municipal corporation, relate to the following matters: the administration of the Public Health Acts, the maintenance and repair of highways and streets, the protection of rights of way and roadside wastes, the preservation and management of commons, together with some of the duties formerly exercised by the justices out of session, such as the licensing of gang-masters and dealers in game, passage brokers and emigrant runners, the abolition of fairs, and the execution of the Acts relating to petroleum and infant life protection. (r)

Borough Councils. In towns which have a corporation the borough council takes the place of the district council, and there are no parish councils. As early as the reign of Henry III. royal charters were granted to various towns giving them power to elect their own officers and to hear their own pleas to the exclusion of the Sheriff's Court. The constitutions of all corporate boroughs were remodelled by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, and the various Acts. relating to municipal corporations were consolidated in the

(n) Local Government Act, 1894, s. 23 (4).

(0) Ib. s. 24 (2).

(p) Ib. s. 24 (3). In urban districts the poor laws are still administered by the boards of guardians, who are a body entirely distinct from the urban district council or borough council, and consisting, since the Act of 1894, entirely of elected members. (Ib. s. 20.)

(q) Ss. 20, 24.

(r) Local Government Act, 1894, s. 27.

Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, (s) by which their constitution and functions are now governed.

Under this Act a municipal corporation is created by royal charter, and may be granted by the king on the advice of the Privy Council on petition from the resident householders.

The corporation consists of burgesses (or citizens in the case of a city) who are the ratepayers of the borough, a mayor, and aldermen, (t) and acts through a council composed of the mayor, aldermen, and councillors. The councillors are appointed by the burgesses, and hold office for three years, one-third of their number retiring by rotation in every year. (u) The aldermen are chosen by the councillors from amongst their own number, and hold office for six years; their number is one-third of the number of councillors. (x) The mayor is elected annually by the council; he need not be a councillor, but must be duly qualified to be a councillor ; (y) he is a magistrate virtute officii. The council may make bye-laws for the borough subject to disallowance by the King in Council; it manages the property of the borough, and may levy a rate; in addition, it exercises the powers conferred upon it and the district councils by the Local Government Act of 1894.

By the County and Borough Councils (Qualification) Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. V. c. 21), any person of either sex may be nominated and elected councillor or alderman of a county council or borough council if he has resided within the county or borough for the whole twelve months preceding the election. But this provision does not extend to Scotland or Ireland or affect any other qualification or disqualification.

Some boroughs have a separate quarter sessions, with a recorder as judge, who must be a barrister of five years' standing, and is appointed by the king on the advice of the home secretary. Separate quarter sessions are now granted by Order in Council under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. (2)

The County Councils. By the Local Government Act, 1888, (a) a county council consisting of a chairman, aldermen, and councillors was established in every administrative (8) 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50. (t) S. 8. (u) S. 13. (y) S. 15. (z) Ss. 157, 187. (a) 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41.

(x) S. 14.

county. The regulations for the appointment and terms of office of the chairmen and councillors are the same as those relating to the mayor and aldermen under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. (b) One-third of the councillors, therefore, retire by rotation in every year. The number of councillors for each county is determined by the Local Government Board, (c) each county being divided into electoral divisions, which return one councillor each.

The persons entitled to vote at the election of county councillors are all persons, male or female, who are either (1) burgesses enrolled in pursuance of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, or (2) persons registered as county electors under the County Electors Act, 1888. (d) In London parochial electors under the Local Government Act of 1894 are also qualified to vote at county council elections. (e) The provisions of the County and Borough Councils (Qualification) Act, 1914, previously noted, by which the disqualification of women is removed, applies to the eligibility of councillors. (f) The Act of 1882 transfers to the county council most of the powers formerly exercised by the justices in quarter sessions, and some, such as the licensing of playhouses and the administration of the Explosives Act, 1874, formerly exercised by the justices out of session.

Generally speaking, the business of the county council comes under the following heads: the repair of main roads and bridges, pauper lunatic asylums, reformatories, and industrial schools; the pollution of rivers; the protection of birds and fish; the appointment of coroners; licences for music, dancing, and racecourses; the administration of the Acts relating to weights and measures; it pays the salary of the clerk to the justices, and the expenses of the assizes and quarter sessions, and levies the county and other rates; it also exercises certain supervision over parish and district councils under the Local Government Act of 1894.

(b) 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, s. 2. (d) 51 & 52 Vict. c. 10.

(c) Ib. s. 2 (3) (a).

(e) The London County Council Electors' Qualification Act, 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 29).

(f) See p. 400, ante. As to the previous ineligibility of women see Beresford Hope v. Lady Sandhurst (1889), 23 Q. B. D. 79; and see D'Souza v. Cobden, [1891] 1 Q. B. 687.

In most of these matters the council acts through committees, and its accounts are audited by a district auditor appointed by the Local Government Board.

County Officials.

The consideration of the general scheme of local government in England and Wales would not be complete without some mention of the functions of certain county officials. These are the sheriff, the lord lieutenant, the custos rotulorum, the clerk of the peace, and the chief constable. The functions of justices of the peace have already been dealt with. (g)

Sheriffs. The mode of appointment and duties of the sheriffs are now principally regulated by the Sheriffs Act, 1887. (h) Every county must have a sheriff, and they are appointed under the Act in accordance with the ancient usage in the following manner.

On the 12th of November in each year the lord chancellor, the chancellor of the Exchequer, the lord chief justice, the lord president of the Council, and certain other privy councillors, or any two of these dignitaries, attend with the judges, or any two or more of them, at the Royal Courts of Justice. (i) A list of the names of persons fitted to be sheriff of each county, who are always persons of considerable standing and importance, and, in the words of the Act, "having sufficient land within his county or bailiwick to answer the king and his people," is submitted for each county by the senior judge who visited the county on circuit at the previous summer assizes.

Excuses are considered on behalf of the persons named, and finally three names are selected for each county. The roll, so made up, is submitted to the king, who selects the sheriffs by pricking off their names upon the list. The list is then gazetted, and a royal warrant of appointment sent to the sheriff-elect, and a copy of the warrant to the clerk of the peace for the county.

The sheriff is appointed for one year, and holds office. (g) See ante, p. 265.

(h) 50 & 51 Vict. c. 55.

(i) S. 6.