Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/64

 12 THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — UNITED KINGDOM

sanitation, police, bridges, justice, &c, in the City of London. London comprises the ancient city with an area of one square mile, and an area of 118 square miles beyond the city, which is divided into 28 metropolitan boroughs, under the London Government Act, 1899, each with a mayor, aldermen, and councillors (women are eligible). The Councils have powers in regard to public health, highways, rating, housing, education, &c, but they are not boroughs in the statutory sense as in the rest of the Kingdom. The County Council has certain powers of control over them. It sanctions loans, approves the construction of sewers and the carrying out of local improvements, and has considerable public health duties in connection with the boroughs.

In all the great towns, local business is administered by a municipal Corporation, which derives its authority from charters granted by the Crown, as modified by the Great Municipal Corporations Act of 1837, and the Act of 1882. There are three kinds of boroughs, county boroughs, quarter session boroughs, and small boroughs of special and generally ancient jurisdiction. The County Boroughs are outside the jurisdiction of the County Councils, but in other Municipal Boroughs these Councils have certain powers and duties. A municipal Corporation consists of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, and acts through a Council elected by the burgesses — practically by the ratepayers. The councillors serve for three years (women are eligible), one- third retiring annually ; the aldermen are elected by the Council, and the mayor, who serves for one year, also by the Council. A municipal Corporation has practically all the powers of an urban district council, and in some cases municipal boroughs have a separate commission of the peace and maintain their own police force. As to Poor Law and Education administration, see 'Pauperism' and 'Instruction.'

Scotland. — By the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894, a Local Govern- ment Board for Scotland was constituted. It consists of the Secretary for Scotland as President, the Solicitor-General of Scotland, the Under-Secretary for Scotland, and three other members nominated by the Crown. The Local Government Act which was passed for Scotland in 1889 followed in its main outlines the English Act of the previous year. The powers of local administra- tion in counties formerly exercised by the Commissioners of Supply and Road Trustees were either wholly or in part transferred to the new Councils, which took over their duties and responsibilities in 1890. The Act of 1894 provided that a Parish Council should be established in every parish to take the place of the Parochial Boards and to exercise powers similar to those of the Parish Councils in England. Municipal bodies exist in the towns of Scotland, as in those of England, with bailies and provosts instead of aldermen and mayors. There are in Scotland five kinds of burghs — (1) Burghs of barony ; (2) Burghs of regality (no practical distinction between these two) ; the councils of these two classes of burghs ceased to exist in 1893 by statutory enactment ; (3) Royal Burghs, representatives of which meet together annually in a collective corporate character, as the ' Convention of Royal Burghs,' for the transaction of business ; (4) Parliamentary Burghs, which possess statutory constitutions almost identical with those of the Royal Burghs ; (5) Police Burghs, constituted under genera] or local Police Acts, in which the local authority is the Police Commissioners. These two latter burghs, by Acts passed in 1879 and 1895, are enabled to send repre- sentatives to the convention.

Ireland. — The principal county authority for local government used to be the grand jury, appointed under the Act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 11G ; but, by the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, provision was made for the establishment of popularly elected Councils for counties and rural districts. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1919, the councillors are