CHAPTER XVII. 



GOVERNMENT AND ADSONISTRATION. 



HE United Kiugdom, in many respects, is still governed by feudal 

 institutions. Wherever we look, whether to the tenure of the 

 land or the administration of local affairs, we still find traces of an 

 order of things very different from what has been established by 

 the English colonists who have made themselves a new home in 

 Australia or New Zealand. The three kingdoms are each governed separately, 

 and in many instances their laws not only differ, but are contradictory of one 

 another. The administrative divisions of each kingdom, the counties or shires, 

 differ considerably in size, and the old county boundaries coincide in but few 

 instances with those of the Registrar- General erf Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 

 The old " hundreds " into which the counties are divided possess hardly more 

 than an historical interest at the present day. ^yhen these divisions were first 

 constituted ten free families occupied 100 hides of laud, or a " tything," and 

 ten of these tythings were formed into a hundred., But so great have been the 

 changes in the population since these early times, that whereas there are some 

 hundreds the population of which has hardly increased, there are others which 

 count their inhabitants by many thousands. In several counties the hundreds 

 are known as wapentakes, wards, laths, or liberties. These, however, are 

 not the only administrative divisions, for there is hardly a department of 

 government which has not subdivided the United Kingdom to suit its own 

 purposes, and the confusion which arises from this indiscriminate parcelling 

 out of the land is sometimes very great, and ought certainly to have been 

 avoided.* 



A very prominent position amongst the local divisions of the kingdom must be 

 accorded to the municipal boroughs, originally no doubt of Roman foundation, 

 but subsequently remodelled in accordance with the spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, 



* The 52 counties of England are separated, for parliament.ay purposes, into 95 divisions, 1S5 

 boroughs, 13 districts of boroughs, and 58 contributory boroughs; for sessional pxu poses they inchide 700 

 petty sessional divisions and 97 boroughs, having commissions of the peace. There are 818 hundreds, or 

 analogous divisions, and 621 lieutenancy subdivisions. The police know only 455 police districts of 

 counti^s, and 167 boroughs and towns, having their own police. There are alscw404 highway districts 

 721 locul board dis'.ricts, 14,916 civil par'shes, &c. 



