840 



REPOBT — 1887. 



The Imperial Cabinet arrangements would be little aflFected, the Home Office 

 having at present some control over county police, prisons, reformatories, &c. ; 

 the Local Government Board taking poor-law administration, public health, and 

 sanitary supervision ; and the Board of Trade having important duties with 

 regard to trade, bankruptcy, railways, and shipping. The Privy Council has 

 already been relieved of a great proportion of its local government duties by the 

 two latter comparatively new departments, and its functions in that respect are 

 now little more than the control (by committees) of the Education Acts, Phar- 

 macy, Medical, Dentists, and Veterinary Surgeons Acts, Destructive Insects and 

 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, and the consideration of charters of incor- 

 poration. Under the proposals made the new county authorities would arrange 

 the police magistrates' districts, the appointments to which would probably be made 

 by the Treasury in conjunction with the highest law officers ; and the cabinet 

 departments of the Imperial Government would still retain the regulative control 

 of the important local government matters committed to their charge. 



2, On the Distribution of Wealth in Scotland. 

 By Ralph Richardson, F.B.S.E. 

 The author gave an analysis of Scottish personalty left in 1876, which 

 he estimated at 15,102,119/., and showed how it was distributed among the various 

 counties of Scotland, more than sixty per cent, belonging to the south-western and 

 south-eastern counties as grouped in the census of 1881. He then considered the 

 average estate given up, which was 3,222/. per estate for all Scotland ; and there- 

 after the testate and intestate estates, 13,425,916/. representing the former, and 

 1,676,203/. the latter. After stating that 12,947,846/. had been left by males, and 

 2,154,273/. by females, and that the amount for the county of Edinburgh was 

 3/. IB*', per head of the female population, whilst for Lanark it was only 15s., he 



' In the case of the West Riding the numbers are approximate in the divisions, 

 though the total is correct. 



