Page:The government of London.djvu/24

 have drifted somewhat from their original moorings? London vestries have for a quarter of a century done an infinity of useful work, and for the most part done it innocuously and unpretentiously. Is it not time that with the training and experience thus acquired a higher degree of duty and responsibility should be set before the worthy and capable men who take the chief part in local business?

After considerable experience of the working of the twofold system, a select committee was appointed, on the motion of Mr. Ayrton, to inquire into the local government and taxation of London. Its report recommended that the name of the Metropolitan Board should be changed to that of Municipal Council; that the members should be chosen by direct election; that it should have control over the supply of gas and water, and generally exercise the authority of a civic corporation. Meanwhile Mr. J. S. Mill introduced a bill to incorporate the parliamentary boroughs; but before it obtained a second reading it was withdrawn, to make way for a more comprehensive measure, which the member for Westminster laid upon the table at the end of the session. It proposed to create a county of London with a common council of a hundred and seventy-one members and fifty-two aldermen, in whose jurisdiction the separate authorities of Berkeley House and Guildhall should disappear; while subordinate municipalities in the ten cities and boroughs should divide with this new central power the business of local government. Many of its provisions when discussed out of doors provoked opposition; and many vested interests prepared to resist its enactment. When reintroduced in 1868, the representatives of the City succeeded in preventing, by reference to standing orders, the consideration of the clauses that peculiarly affected the privileges of their constituents; and the debate on second reading for the most part related consequently to the other features of the scheme.

Mr. Mill argued that the great danger of democratic institutions was the want of skilled administration, and the great problem of the future was to obtain the combination of the two.

"All the defects of democratic institutions are great in proportion as their area is small, and if you wish them to work well you should never have a representative assembly for a