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Rh boroughs. Of these there were originally 61, but their number subsequently increased. (4) Provision was made by the act of 1888 for including entirely within one administrative county each of such urban districts as were situated in more than one ancient county.

The various urban and rural districts are described below (Section X.). The Civil Parish is defined (Poor Law Amendment Act 1866) as “a place for which a separate poor-rate is or can be made,” but the parish council has local administrative functions beyond the administration of the poor law. The civil parish has become more or less divorced in relationship from the Ecclesiastical Parish (a division which probably served in early times for administrative purposes also), owing to successive independent alterations in the boundaries of both (see ). Poor-law unions are groups of parishes for the local administration of the Poor Laws. Within the unions the local poor-law authorities are the Board of Guardians. In rural districts the functions of these boards are, under the Local Government Act of 1894, performed by the district councils, and in other places their constitution is similar to that of the urban and district councils (see ).

Registration districts are generally, but not invariably, coextensive with unions of the same name. These districts are divided into sub-districts, within which the births and deaths are registered by registrars appointed for that purpose. Registration counties are groups of registration districts, and their boundaries differ more or less from those both of the ancient and the administrative counties. In England and Wales there are eleven registration divisions, consisting of groups of registration counties (see ).

The Reform Act of 1832 was the real starting-point for the overhauling of English local government. For centuries before, from the reign of Edward III., under a number of statutes and commissions, the administrative work in the counties had been in the hands of the country gentlemen and the clergy, acting as justices of the peace, and sitting in petty sessions and quarter sessions. Each civil or “poor law” parish was governed by the vestry and the overseers of the poor, dating from the Poor Law of 1601; the vestry, which dealt with general affairs, being presided over by the rector, and having the churchwardens as its chief officials. In 1782 Gilbert’s Act introduced the grouping of parishes for poor law purposes, and boards of guardians appointed by the justices of the peace. The municipal boroughs (246 in England and Wales in 1832) were governed by mayor, aldermen, councillors and a close body of burgesses or freemen, a narrow oligarchy. Reform began with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, grouping the parishes into Unions, making the boards of guardians mainly elective, and creating a central poor law board in London. The Municipal Corporations Act followed in 1835, giving all ratepayers the local franchise. And as a result of the failure of the Public Health Board established in 1848, the royal commission of 1869–1871 led to the establishment in 1871 of the Local Government Board as a central supervising body. Meanwhile, the school boards resulting from the Education Act of 1870 brought local government also into the educational system; and the Public Health Act of 1875 put further duties on the local authorities. By 1888 a new state of chaos had grown up as the result of the multiplication of bodies, and the new Redistribution Act of 1885 paved the way for a further reorganization of local matters by the Local Government Act of 1888, followed by that of 1894. In London, which required separate treatment, a similar process had been going on. The Metropolis Management Act of 1855 established (outside the city) two classes of parishes—the first class with vestries of their own, the second class grouped under district boards elected by the component vestries; and the Metropolitan Board of Works (abolished in 1888), elected by the vestries and the district boards, was made the central authority.

In 1867 the Metropolitan Asylums Board took over its work from the metropolitan boards of guardians. See further ,, , , , &c.

The system of local government now existing in England (see also the article ) 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 government 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 Administrative County.—The administrative 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 electors, i.e. those persons who possess in a county the same qualification as burgesses must have in a borough, and are registered.

The 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, notwithstanding 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 qualified for enrolment in all respects save residence in the county or within 7 m. thereof, and are actually resident beyond the 7 m. and within 15 m.); (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 for 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