Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/850

 820 LONDON [ADMINISTRATION. officials. In 1692 the lord mayor received an annual sum of 100 for his care of the market, and an ancient fee of 80 out of the chamber. He has now an annual salary of 10,000, and in addition to this his personal expenses in 1881 amounted to 4433. The salaries of the recorder, the chamberlain, the common sergeant, the town-clerk, and some other officers have risen in a somewhat similar Eroportion. The City in 1692 spent nothing on special acts of ospitality or on the promotion of literature, science, or art, while its contribution to the poor rates was only 66. It now spends several thousands annually on the reception of eminent persons, while to the London almshouses it in 1881 contributed 1884, to general charitable purposes 5179, for education 5394, for technical instruction 2000, for the Guildhall library and museum 5398, and for music 3027. The debt of the corporation, which is solely connected with the construction of improvements and public markets, was on December 31, 1881, 5,496,150, the money spent for these purposes since 1759 being nearly 10,000,000. The rate able value of the City and liberties has since 1801 increased seven fold, having risen from 507,372 to 3,535,494. Corpora- The Guildhall, rebuilt by Dance in 1789, contains the tion greater part of the walls of the old building of 1411, which build- wag damaged by the fire of 1666, and also the crypt divided into three aisles by clustered columns of marble sup porting a groined roof richly adorned with carvings. The principal front was restored in 1867 in the Gothic style. In addition to the great hall used for state banquets and receptions, the building contains the common council cham ber, the aldermen s room, and several courts of justice. Adjoining the Guildhall is the free library of the corpora tion, and a museum of antiquities relating to the City. The Mansion House at the east end of the Poultry, erected in 1740 from the designs of Dance, is the official residence of the lord mayor. In addition to the justice room and various reception rooms, it contains the Egyptian hall, in which certain special banquets of the lord mayor are held. Metro- By the Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855, the politan metropolis was divided into thirty-nine vestries or district Board, boards, which elect the forty-five members who form the Metropolitan Board of Works, the city of London electing three members, each of the six great parishes of Islington, Marylebone, St Pancras, Lambeth, St George s (Hanover Square), and Shoreditch two members, and the other dis tricts one each or one in combination. The board was originally established for the formation and maintenance of main sewers, but later Acts have made it the adminis trative authority of the metropolis in a great variety of other matters, including the construction of main thorough fares, the carrying out of great metropolitan improvements, the formation of new streets, the construction and main tenance of parks, the preservation of commons and open spaces, the maintenance of the fire brigade, and the adminis tration of certain enactments specially applicable to the metropolitan area. The total sum raised by the board for application to its various purposes since 1856 to 31st December 1881 was 28,689,749, and its net liability on the 31st December 1881 was 13,437,940. The capital required for the execution of great works is raised by the issue of stock bearing interest at the rate of 3J and 3 per cent., which has the same facilities of transfer as the Government stocks, and is redeemable in sixty years from creation. The rate per pound levied by the board has varied very greatly, being 2 09d. in 1856, and as high as 6-99d. in 1867, while for 1883 it is estimated at 6 2d. The total net charge in 1880 was 652,213, and for 1882 it is estimated at 715,822. The rateable annual value of property in the metropolis has risen from 11,283,663 in 1856 to 27,386,086 in 1882. Vestries. The vestries and district boards are entrusted with the management of local sewers, the lighting, paving, and cleaning of their own thoroughfares, and the removal of nuisances. For paving, except in the old main thorough fares, they have power to charge adjoining properties, and in several districts a small income is obtained from Other adminis realized property. The total amount of money advanced to them on loan by the Board of Works up to 31st November 1881 was 3,631,769, of which 3,297,430 was redeemable by 1929, and 334,338 by 1941. The School Board of London has in regard to education a rating and legislative authority over a district correspond- ing with that of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The metropolitan police force outside the City limits and within a radius of 12 miles of Charing Cross is under the control of the Home Secretary. The Tower of London is governed by the constable of the Tower, assisted by fifty magistrates, and the borough of Westminster is still under the nominal care of the dean and burgesses. The Metropolitan Asylums Board, the Burial Board, the Thames Conservancy Board, and the Lea Conservancy Board constitute the principal other direct governing authorities having relation to London, but the water and gas companies enjoy monopolies which imply a certain degree of irresponsible authority, and a right of taxation not sufficiently defined and limited. Within an area less than the district of the Board of Works there are ten parliamentary boroughs, which return in all twenty-two members, the City returning four members, and Southwark (from 1295), Westminster (1547), Maryle bone (1832), Finsbury (1832), Tower Hamlets (1832), Greenwich (1832, extended in 1868), Lambeth (1832), Hackney, (1868), and Chelsea (1868) two each. London University (1868) returns one member. GROWTH AND POPULATION. For some centuries after Growth. the Conquest there are almost no data for an estimate of the extent and population of London, but a great impulse was given to its increase by the settlement of Normans and the opening up of intercourse with the Continent. The statement of Fitzstephen that it furnished, in the reign of Stephen, 60,000 men-at-arms and 20,000 knights cannot be accepted as applying only to the City. Peter of Blois, under Henry II., only estimated its numbers at 40,000, although he may possibly have referred only to adults (Opera, ed. Giles, vol. ii. p. 85). In any case, previous to the great plague of 1349 it must have numbered at least 90,000, for in that year, according to Stow, as many as 50,000 persons were buried in the cemetery of Spitalcroft, specially consecrated for the purpose. There were severe ravages from the same cause in 1361 and 1369 ; and the calculation of Chalmers (Comparative Estimate of Great Britain, 1802), founded on the Subsidy Rolls of 1377, shows a population of only 34,971 ; but the emperor Manuel II., who visited it in 1400, states that it was to be preferred to every city of the West for population, opulence, and luxury (Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 611). Notwithstanding the regulations of Eliza beth for checking its growth, London had by the end of the century advanced considerably beyond its old bound aries. Giovanni Botero, writing about 1590, classes it with Naples, Lisbon, Prague, and Ghent as possessing about 160,000 inhabitants more or less, while Paris was said to possess over 400,000 inhabitants. The &quot; Bills of Mortality,&quot; which were begun in 1592, were in 1604 extended to St Bartholomew the Great, Bridewell Precinct, and Trinity in the Minories, which were partly within the City liberties, and to St Clements Danes, St Giles-in-the- Fields, St James (Clerkenwell), St Catherine (Tower), St Leonard (Shoreditch), St Mary in Whitechapel, St Martin- in-the-Fields, and St Mary Magdalen (Bermondsey). St Mary at the Savoy was added in 1606, and Westminster in 1626. The parishes of Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Newington, Rotherhithe, and Stepney, which were included in 1636, were, according to Graunt (Observations on the Bills of Mortality, 1676), still country villages in 1672, and indeed occupied an isolated position up to the middle of the 18th century. The result of the census of the