476 



TUE BllITISII ISLES. 



Fi>. 233.- 



-YuHKSIlIUE AND EuTLANDSHIHE CONTKASTED. 

 Scale 1 : 3,500,000. 



YORK- Co. 



and furnished witli charters by the !Norman kings. Some of these ancient 

 municipal towns have dwindled into mere villages, a few have even altogether 

 disappeared, but several of them have grown into large and important cities. 

 Other populous towns, whose rise only dates from the modern development 

 of industry, have likewise claimed incorporation, and charters have been 

 granted them by Parliament. There existed at the time of tlie 1871 census 

 2'24 of these municipal boroughs, all of them, with the exception of the City of 

 London and a few small decayed places of little note, governed by the Muni- 

 cipal Corporation Reform Act of 1832. Each corporation consists of a mayor, 

 aldermen, and councillors, the two latter being elected by the burgesses, the 



mayor by the aldermen and council- 

 lors. The mayor and ex-mayor of 

 all boroughs are justices of the 

 peace, and in many of the more 

 imjjortant amongst them stipendiary 

 magistrates have been appointed. 

 The corporation generally attends 

 to police, paving, lighting, drainage, 

 and local improvements, and in a 

 few instances supplies gas and water. 

 Almost equally extensive is the 

 power of self-government of the 575 

 towns or districts which have elected 

 to be regulated by the Local Govern- 

 ment Act of 1858, and each of which 

 has its local board. The county 

 authorities, on the other hand, are 

 appointed by the Crown. The Lord- 

 Lieutenant, in former times, had 

 command of the military forces 

 of the county, but his duties now 

 are hardly more than honorary. 

 He still recommends persons for 

 commissions in the militia, or for appointment as deputy-lieutenants and county 

 magistrates. These last, united in courts of quarter or general sessions, 

 are the real governors of the counties, for they regulate the expenditure and 

 impose the rates for its defrayal. The sheriff, who returns the juries, executes 

 the judgments of the courts, and is in his county the principal conservator of the 

 peace, is annually appointed by the Crown. Each civil parish has its overseers of 

 the poor, who look to the assessment and collection of the poor, county, police, 

 and other rates. Poor-Law Unions consist of several civil parishes united for the 

 purpose of administering relief to the poor. Each of these unions has a board of 

 guardians, partly elected by the ratepayers and owners of property, and partly 

 consisting of resident county magistrates and other cx-officio members. All these 



'--f C-» 



RUTLAND) '"'.' 



, 50 Miles 



