Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/51

 10 s. x. JULY ii, im]] NOTES AND QUERIES.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &a

English Local Government : the Manor and the

Borough. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. 2 vols.

(Longmans & Co.)

MB. WEBB and his accomplished wife here continue the subject of English Local Government, on which they have already given us a volume regarding the parish and the county. The monumental quality of that section of the work was fully recognized by those best competent to judge, and now the authors have given us another two parts of their history, which are entitled to equal praise. To Teutonic powers of research, duly testified in the abundant foot-notes, they add an enthusiasm and an instinct for the orderly arrangement of facts which make a book of the first rank. Their work is one of which the historians of any country might be proud. It will be a revelation to the expert in its wealth of detail, and it clears up many of the puzzling points which are, to use a scientific term, " sur- vivals in culture," and surprise us in later history and even in the world of to-day. Every library of any pretensions must possess the book, and we hope that there will be many to read it.

The Courts of various hundreds, Forest Courts, the Court of the Manor, and the Prevalence and De- cay of the Lord's Court, are all considered, with many curious details. Then come the Manorial Borough, the City and Borough of Westminster, the Boroughs of Wales, the administration of Municipal autho- rities and Close Corporations, and the progress of decay and reform that led to the Municipal Cor- porations Act which followed the Parliamentary struggles in the thirties of the nineteenth century, and which is fairly described as " the Municipal Revolution."

One of the most interesting chapters is that devoted in vol. ii. to ' The City of London,' though it is to be noticed that many other noteworthy centres in diverse parts of the kingdom are also examined with a thoroughness which is rare in this sort of volume.

It is pointed out that for the first time we have a history of the constitutional development of the City of London, and the mass of materials to be consulted is certainly formidable enough to frighten any but the most determined and enthusiastic student. The City, even in 1689 a very crowded and busy district, has a curiously anomalous his- tory, and briefly defined for purposes of self-govern- ment as a resident democracy of ratepayers, it has kept its own ways and privileges to a remarkable extent, not, however, so remarkable when one con- siders that the power of the purse was always behind it in days when the world of finance was nothing like so stable as it is to-day. We select a few things out of the mass of details laid before us in the text and the notes to show the interest of the subject. The Corporation of the City did not include within its jurisdiction the residence of the king or the offices of his ministers; so, "actually adjoining the seat of government, it could yet shut its gates against the king and his officers." The freedom of the City, belonging to most householders from 1689 to 1835, prevented a man from being seized by the pressgang for service in the Navy. The twenty-six little police forces of the City, not being under a general control, were in many cases incom-

petent, yet the wards claimed that people of their jwn choosing and locality were likely to do best. The ward beadle was gorgeously dressed, but would do no active service ; and the ancient bellman who- once called the hours confined his rounds in 1811 to a night or two before Christmas, with a view to a Christmas-box. The Court of Common Council was- a very powerful body, proud of its views, especially when they represented popular feeling against Parliament. The Councillors feasted at great expense on the slightest excuse, and jobbery of offices was unusually prevalent, the Standing Orders being suspended with the greatest freedom For one applicant after another. There is much, as might be expected, concerning the "Lord Mayor." This title was not in use before 1540, though York had its Lord Mayor as early as 1389." In the eighteenth century the head of the City was supposed not to leave it for a single day, and had to ask leave in 1731 to " go sometimes for a day or two to my house in Middlesex." The general verdict of the writers is that the Corporation of the City of London from 1689 to 1835 tell below the Municipal Corporations of other large centres in energy and efficiency. The neglect to supply proper docks or look after the safety of property on the- river is one clear instance of want of thought and enterprise. The Guildhall Library was not opened! to the public till 1873, and the City of London School, based on an old endowment, was not established until 1835.

IN The. Cornhill for July Mr. H. W. Lucy begins- a series of recollections, ' Sixty Years in the Wilderness,' which are full of interest and humour. In the sixties Mr. Lucy worked very hard as a, journalist, starting with two papers in Shrews- bury, the Chronicle and the Observer. He learnt shorthand laboriously, and "pegged away, making: applications " whenever he saw an advertisement. His reminiscences should be useful to those aspi- rants who think themselves qualified to write with- out any practice. In * Francis Thompson's Cricket Verses ' Mr. E. V. Lucas opens up an unexpected side of the mystical poet. Feeble in physique and general health, and himself unable to play, he yet glorified cricket in unforgettable style, and his verses deserve to be added to all anthologies of the subject. Mr. MacHugh on ' The Winning of Canada ' writes of history which is little known, but ought to be familiar to all Englishmen. Lady Robert Cecil reviews * The Man-Eaters of Tsavo,' a noteworthy book ; and C. J. D. has a neat set of verses ' At Christie's.' ' The Electric Theory of Matter ' is a posthumous article by W. A. Shen- stone, who has done much to popularize science in The Cornhill. * Hampden and Hampden's Country/ by Mr. Marcus Dimsdale, is almost entirely con- cerned with the patriot's history ; more about the country would have been pleasing. We cannot conceive a writer who has been on Little Hampden Common, for instance, refusing a word or two to- its charm.

IN The Nineteenth Century the Bishop of Burnley has a short but trenchant article on ' The Present Stage of Church Reform.' He points out that Convocation and the so-called " Representative Church Council" are both very unsatisfactory bodies. Prof. Barnes follows with some remarks on * The Lambeth Conference and the " Athanasian Creed"' which will meet, we think, with general sympathy. The " omission of the rubric requiring