86 



" drop like the tower sublime 

 Of yesterday, which royally did wear 

 His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain 

 Some casual shout that broke the silent air, 

 Or the unimaginable touch of Time." 



To enable us to grasp the full import of the recent Act, it will 

 be necessary to tersely rehearse its main outlines. Fortunately 

 the task has been taken out of my hands by Mr. Alexander 

 Macmorran, one of the co-editors of the Justice of the Peace, 

 whose luminous introduction I have not scrupled largely to draw 

 from in the following explanation. The Local Government Act, 

 1888, is one of the most important measures of recent years. It 

 has been said to be the most important statute relating to local 

 government that has appeared since the Municipal Corporations 

 Act, 1835, but it may be doubted whether even that Act effected 

 greater changes in local administration. Hitherto the business 

 of a county, as distinguished from the smaller areas within the 

 county such as Poor Law Unions or Sanitary Districts, has been 

 administered by Justices in Quarter Sessions. It has been 

 admitted on all sides that the Justices have performed their 

 allotted functions with economy and efficiency. But the Justices 

 were not a representative body, and when it came to be the 

 general opinion that much of the work now done by Departments 

 of State (central authorities) might, with advantage, be trans- 

 ferred to local bodies, an opportunity arose of creating repre- 

 sentative Boards or Councils in counties, and transferring to 

 them all, or nearly all, the administrative powers and duties 

 now exercised by the Quarter Sessions, and at the same time of 

 conferring upon them other powers now exercised and performed 

 by State Departments. In addition to this it is proposed, by 

 means of Provisional Orders, to transfer to the representative 

 body many of the powers and duties which now devolve upon 

 public departments and other public authorities. In other 

 words, the powers granted to County Councils admit of great 

 future development. 



The New County CouNcms : Their Constitution and Work. 



The County Council is to be constituted and elected in most 

 respects similarly to the Council of a Municipal Borough. It is 

 to consist of a Chairman, County Aldermen and County Coun- 

 cillors. The mode of election is to be regulated by the Municipal 

 Corporations Act, 1882, but with considerable modifications. 

 County Councillors will be elected once in three years (one for 

 each electoral division), these divisions to be determined by the 

 Local Government Board or by Quarter Sessions, and in the 

 following manner. The Local Government Board determines in 

 the first place the number of Councillors to be returned by each 



