New volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica > Volume 30, K-MOR

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES).
LOCAL Government may be defined as the government
of a local area as distingnisbed from the kingdom
at large. It is that part of the government of the State
which the supreme legislature has thought fit to delegate
to local authorities or bodies, and it is therefore restricted
not merely in respect of area, but in respect of the char¬
acter and extent of the powers and duties entrusted to the
local body. The system of local government now exist¬
ing in England may be said to have been founded in 1888,
when the Local Government Act of that year was passed.
Since then the entire system of the government of districts
and parishes has been reorganized with due regard to the
preceding legislation. The largest area of local govern¬
ment is the county; next to that the sanitary district,
urban or rural, including under this head municipal
boroughs, all of which are urban districts. The parish is,
speaking generally, the smallest area, though, as will
hereafter be seen, part of a parish may be a separate area
for certain purposes; and there may be united districts
or parishes for certain purposes. It will be convenient to
follow this order in the present article. But before doing
so, it should be pointed out that all local bodies in England
are to some extent subject to the control of central
authorities, such as the Privy Council, the Home Office,
the Board of Agriculture, the Board of Trade, the Board
of Education, or the Local Government Board.
The subject of the Poor Law is separately treated, and the
functions and duties of the Local Government Board as the
successors of the Poor Law Board need not here be
The Local referre(j to. In 1848, pursuant to the Public Health
Govern- _^ct 0f that year, the General Board of Health was
ment established, and it continued in existence until 1854,
Board. when it was reconstituted. The existence of the new
hoard, which was originally limited to one year, was extended
from year to year until 1858, when it was allowed to expire,
its powers under the various Acts for the prevention of diseases
being transferred to the Privy Council, while those which re¬
lated to the control of local authorities passed to the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, to whose department the staff of
officers and clerks formerly under the General Board of Health was
transferred. This state of affairs continued until 1871, when the
Local Government Board was constituted. It consists of a presi¬
dent appointed by His Majesty, and of the following ex-officio
members: the president of the Privy Council, all the principal
Secretaries of State for the time being, the Lord Privy Seal, and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The board, as thus constituted,
has power to appoint such secretaries, assistant-secretaries, in¬
spectors, auditors, clerks, messengers, and other officers, as they
may with the sanction of the Treasury determine. The president
and one of the secretaries may sit in Parliament. To the board
were transferred all the powers of the Secretary of State under the
Public Health Act, 1848, and the numerous Acts relating to
sanitary matters and the government of sanitary districts which
had passed subsequently ; together with all the powers and duties
of the Privy Council under the Acts relating to the prevention of
epidemic disease and to vaccination. Its powers and duties have
been largely added to by subsequent legislation. A mere enumera¬
tion of them would be profitless. In so far as they affect local
authorities, they will be mentioned hereafter under various heads.
The Administrative County.—For purposes of local
government tbe geographical and the administrative county
The county are generally the same. But this is not always
and the the case. Thus each of the three Hidings of
county Yorkshire is an administrative county, as also is
council. 0f the three divisions of Lincolnshire, the
eastern and western divisions of Sussex, the eastern and
western divisions of Suffolk, the Isle of Ely and the
residue of the county of Cambridge, the Soke of Peter¬
borough and the rest of the county of Northampton.
The metropolis forms the county of London. The ad¬
ministrative county includes all places within its area,
with two important exceptions. The first of these consists
of the county borough. The second is the quarter sessions
borough, which forms part of the county for certain
specified purposes only. But the county includes all other
places, such as liberties and franchises, which before 1888
were exempt from contribution to county rate. For each
administrative county a county council is elected. For
purposes of election the entire county is divided into
divisions corresponding to the wards of a municipal
borough, and one councillor is elected for each electoral
division.
The electors are the county electors, i.e., in a borough
the persons enrolled as burgesses, and in the rest of the
county the persons who are registered as county County
electors, i.e., those persons who possess in a couacu
county the same qualification as burgesses must elections.
have in a borough, and are registered.
Tbe qualification of a burgess or county elector is substantially
the occupation of rated property within the borough or county,
residence during a qualifying period of twelve months within the
borough or county, and payment of rates for the qualifying
property. A person so qualified is entitled to be enrolled as a
burgess, or registered as a county elector (as the case may be),
unless he is alien, has during the qualifying period received union
or parochial relief or other alms, or is disentitled under some Act
of Parliament such as the Corrupt Practices Act, the Felony Act,
&c. The lists of burgesses and county electors are prepared
annually by the overseers of each parish in the borough or county,
and are revised by the revising barrister at courts holden by him
for the purpose in September or October of each year. When
revised they are sent to the town clerk of the borough, or to the
clerk of the peace of the county, as the case may be, by whom they
are printed. The lists are conclusive of the right to vote at an
election, although on election petition involving a scrutiny the
vote of a person disqualified by law may be struck off, notwith¬
standing the inclusion of his name in a list of voters.
The qualification of a county councillor is similar to that required
of a councillor in a municipal borough, with some modifications.
A person may be qualified in any one of the following ways : viz.,
by being (1) enrolled as a county elector, and possessed of a
property qualification consisting of the possession of real or personal
property to the amount of £1000 in a county having four or more
divisions, or of £500 in any other county, or the being rated to the
poor rate on an annual value of £30 in a county having four or
more divisions, or of £15 in any other county ; (2) enrolled in the
non-resident list, and possessed of the same property qualification
(the non-resident list contains the names of persons who are quali¬
fied for enrolment in all respects save residence in the county or
within seven miles thereof, and are actually resident beyond the
seven miles and within fifteen miles); (3) entitled to elect to
the office of county councillor (for this qualification no property
qualification is required, but the office of a councillor elected on
this qualification only becomes vacant if for six months he ceases
to reside within the county) ; (4) a peer owning property in the
county; (5) registered as a parliamentary voter in respect of the
ownership of property in the county. Clerks in holy orders and
ministers of religion are not disqualified as they are tor being
borough councillors, but in other respects the persons disqualified
to be elected for a county are the same as those disqualified to. be
elected for a borough. Such disqualifications include the holding
of any office or place of profit under the council other than the
office of chairman, and the being concerned or interested in any
contract or employment with, by, or on behalf of the council.
County councillors are elected for a term of three years, and at
the end of that time they retire together. The ordinary day of
election is the 8th March, or some day between the 1st aiul 8th
March, fixed by the council. Candidates are nominated in writing
by a nomination paper signed by a proposer and seconder, and
subscribed by eight other assenting county electors of the division ;
and in the event of there being more valid nominations than
vacancies, a poll has to be taken in the manner prescribed by the
Ballot Act, 1872. Corrupt and illegal practices at the election are
forbidden by a statute passed in the year 1894, which imposes
heavy penalties and disqualifications lor the offences which it
creates. These offences include not only treating, undue influence,
bribery and personation, but certain others, of which the following
are the chief:—Payment on account of the conveyance of electors
to or from the poll 5 payment for any committee room in excess of
a prescribed number; the incurring of expenses in and about the