GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM OF. 



rule was made more stringent, the numbers of 

 the majority required to put it iii force being 

 reduced from 200 to 100. When this proposal 

 was put to the vote, the dissentients mustered 

 only 134 against 256. The Government was 

 also supported by large majorities in the pro- 

 posals to strengthen the rules against disorder- 

 ly conduct, irrelevance, repetition, dilatory 

 motions for adjournment, and vexatious divis- 

 ions. The revival of the standing committees 

 provisionally appointed in 1883 led to a propo- 

 sition from the Home Rulers for constituting 

 the representatives of Scotland and Wales re- 

 spectively standing committees for dealing with 

 Scotch and Welsh bills. The revised rules 

 were made standing orders on the 7th of March. 



The resignation of Lord Charles Beresford, 

 Junior Naval Lord of the Admiralty, shortly 

 before the meeting of Parliament, weakened 

 the party in power, which had lately lost seats 

 to the Gladstonian Liberals in by-elections. He 

 resigned because the First Lord, after agreeing 

 to the creation of a regular naval intelligence 

 department, nullified the measure by reducing 

 the pay of the officers detailed for this service. 

 In common with other naval men, Lord Charles 

 Beresford considered the system of administra- 

 tion of the navy wasteful and inefficient, and 

 held that in technical matters like this it should 

 be made the duty of the civilian who is now 

 the sole autocrat of the navy to be guided by 

 the opinion of the naval authorities. Later in 

 the year, Lord Wolseley, who testified before 

 a royal commission that the defenses of the 

 country were in an unsatisfactory condition, 

 repeated his assertions in public, and was 

 taken to task by the Prime Minister ; where- 

 upon he brought the matter forward again in 

 the House of Lords, reasserting that the de- 

 mands of military and naval men did not re- 

 ceive proper attention. The Government, 

 although the financial situation was critical, 

 could not withstand the assaults of the tnilitnry 

 and naval experts. Both the War Office and 

 Admiralty promised amendment, and eventually 

 large expenditures were proposed. 



A bill to reorganize the Irish Land Commis- 

 sion met with little favor in any quarter. A 

 bankruptcy bill for Ireland became law, but 

 the opposition of the Parnellites and Liberals 

 caused the abandonment of Mr. Balfour's meas- 

 ure for the arterial drainage of the basins of 

 the rivers Bann, Barrow, and Shannon. 



The Lotal Government Aft. The government 

 of counties in England and Wales is entirely 

 reconstituted by the new act, which was signed 

 on August 13, and the functions of the govern- 

 ing bodies have been much enlarged. A great 

 part of the powers of the justices of Quarter 

 Sessions is transferred to a county council, 

 which consists of county councilors, elected 

 for three years by the freeholders, and county 

 aldermen, elected by the councilors. The 

 council has power to levy and expend all rates, 

 borrow money, pass the accounts of the county 

 treasurer, license houses for music and danc- 



ing and race-courses, establish and direct lunatic 

 asylums for paupers, establish and maintain 

 reformatory and industrial schools, erect and 

 repair bridges, keep the highways in repair, 

 fix the fees of inspectors and analysts, appoint 

 the county treasurer, county surveyor, public 

 analysts, and coroners and health officers, and 

 determine their salaries, divide the county into 

 polling districts for parliamentary elections, 

 execute laws relating to contagious diseases of 

 animals, destructive insects, the pollution of 

 rivers, the keeping and sale of explosives, fish 

 conservancy, wild birds, weights and measures, 

 and gas-meters, assess damages for riots, and 

 provide for the registration of scientific socie- 

 ties, places of worship, charitable gifts, and 

 loan societies. Appeals again?t the amount of 

 rates in any locality can be made to the Quar- 

 ter Sessions. The county council and the 

 Quarter Sessions have joint control over the 

 police. The Local Government Board can at 

 any time confer new powers on the county 

 councils. The receipts from local taxation 

 licenses are to be paid over to the county 

 councils, and the Government is empowered 

 to transfer to them the authority to levy these 

 duties. The county councils also have the 

 disposal of 40 per cent, of the receipts from 

 probate duties, but are required to pay school 

 fees for pauper children, half the salaries of 

 health officers, the maintenance of pauper luna- 

 tics, half the cost of the police, etc. Any of 

 the powers of the county council, except that 

 of raising money by taxation or loan, may be 

 delegated to committees. Boroughs contain- 

 ing a population in June, 1888, of over 50,000 

 were created by the act into administrative 

 counties, and are called county boroughs. In 

 these, however, the mayor, aldermen, and 

 burgesses, who occupy the place of the chair- 

 man, aldermen, and county councilors of other 

 counties, do not have the appointment of county 

 officers, but can appoint the coroner when his 

 district does not extend beyond the borough 

 limits. The power of dividing the county into 

 election districts and some other rights of the 

 county council are withheld. A borough with 

 10,000 inhabitants or upward retains its muni- 

 cipal administrations, but is assessable by the 

 county council, like the rest of the county in 

 which it lies. In the case of boroughs of fewer 

 than 10,000 inhabitants having their separate 

 courts of quarter sessions, the county council 

 assumes the administration in regard to luna- 

 tic asylums, reform schools, coroners, and some 

 other matters, and in all boroughs of fewer 

 than 10,000 inhabitants the control of the po- 

 lice, the appointment of analysts, and the exe- 

 cution of the laws relating to contagious dis- 

 eases of animals, weights and measures, and 

 gas-meters is transferred to the county council. 

 The metropolis is created into an administra- 

 tive county, in which the sheriff and the jus- 

 tices of the peace and of quarter sessions are 

 appointed by the Crown. The city of London 

 loses the privilege of electing the sheriff of 



