LONDON. 197 



house, from basin to basin, inspecting interminable rows of vessels of every size 

 and description, examining the piles of merchandise imported from every quarter 

 of the globe, and watching the loading and unloading of vessels. Liverpool 

 surpasses the capital in the value of its foreign exports, but lags far behind it as a 

 port for the importation of wine, sugar, and colonial goods of every description. 

 Altogether London is still the superior of Liverpool, even though the shipping 

 belonging to its port be of somewhat inferior tonnage. 



London, outside the Cit}^, is not in the enjoyment of municipal institutions, 

 no doubt because Parliament dreads creating a rival which might overshadow it. 

 Commercial and financial interests have their natural centres there, but not political 

 ones. For purposes of local government London is divided into a multitude of dis- 

 tricts, which in many instances overlap each other. So great are the conf usioji and 

 intricacv of these administrative jurisdictions that but few Londoners take the 

 trouble to penetrate their mystery, and are content to pay the rates and taxes 

 on condition of being troubled no further. The legislature has handed London 

 over to the tender mercies of powerfid gas, water, and railway companies, and 

 o-iven life to not a single local representative body strong and powerful enough 

 to assert the claims of the ratepayers. As recently as 1855 London was governed 

 by 300 distinct local bodies, counting 10,448 members, and exercising their 

 authority by virtue of 250 Acts of Parliament.* The City, which alone enjoys 

 municipal institutions, forms virtually a town within the town, whilst the 

 remainder of the metropolis is governed by 38 Local Boards or Vestries, 30 

 Boards of Guardians for the administration of the Poor Laws, a Metro- 

 politan Board of Works, a School Board, and several other bodies, wholly or in 

 part elected by the ratepayers. Even the Dean and Chapter of Westminster still 

 exercise a few remnants of their old municipal functions. These various bodies 

 count no less than 8,073 members, supported by an army of local officials. But 

 notwithstanding this strange complication of the official machinery, and the 

 financial confusion necessarily resulting from it, London spends less money than 

 Paris, and is burdened with a smaller debt, which is partly accounted for by 

 the fact that most of the great public works have been carried out by private 

 companies, and not by the town.t The Metropolitan Police force Î is under the 

 orders of the Home Secretary, but the City authorities maintain a police of 

 their own.§ 



The Metropolitan Board of Works, whose 44 members are elected by the 

 Corporation of the City of London, and by 38 parishes or local districts, is 

 the most important of these local governing bodies. It has charge of the main 



* Firth, " Municipal London ; " Dexter, "The Govemment of London ; " Eavenslein, " London." 



t In 1875 the local authorities of the metropolis, including the City, expended £9,071,000, or 

 £2 15s. 9d. per head of the population. Of this sum municipal and sanitary objects absorbed £6,397,000, 

 the maintenance of the poor £1,723,000, and public education £895,000. The total debt amounted to 

 £22,688,000 (Captain Craigie, Jotirnal of the Statistical Society, 1877). In 1878 the Metropolitan Board alone 

 spent £3,680,000, and had a debt of £10,310,000, whilst the School Board spent £1,189,713. 



X 10,900 officers and men. In 1879 83,914 persons wore arrested, of whom 33,892 were drunk or 

 disorderly; 14,562 were charged with burglary, robbery, &c. ; and 10,856 with assaults. 



§ 825 officers and men. 



