already adverted to. As population has increased, parish churchyards have become insufficient to meet the requirements of the parish. In towns, moreover, churchyards are frequently ordered to be closed for sanitary reasons. When the parish churchyard is no longer accessible, provision is made for the burial of the dead in three ways :

First, there are cemeteries made and maintained as commercial undertakings under special Acts of Parliament. These undertakings were sufficiently numerous, even in 1847, to make it expedient to pass the Cemeteries Clauses Act, which contains a series of model clauses for adoption into the special Acts.

Secondly, by an Act of 1879, the provisions of the Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847, are incorporated into the Public Health Act. The effect of this is, that any sanitary authority may now make and maintain a cemetery for its own district,1 and exercise all the powers given by the Act of 1847. A cemetery may therefore now be provided for a borough, an Improvement Act district, a local board district, or the extra-urban parts of a union.

Thirdly, burial grounds may be provided under a series of eleven Acts, extending from 1852 to 1875, commonly known as the "Burial Acts." Any parish or township may adopt the provisions of these Acts, and as a fact 552 burial boards have been constituted under them. The burial board is elected by the vestry. It must consist of from three to nine ratepayers of the parish. The members hold office for three years, onethird retiring annually. As vacancies occur, the board

1 The cemetery for the district may, in certain cases, be situated outside the district.

may fill them up, if the vestry do not. The board, with the consent of the Home Secretary, may mortgage the rates in order to pay for a burial ground. The management of the burial ground and the fixing of fees for interments is entrusted to the board, subject to regulations made by the Home Secretary. Parishes may concur in providing a common burial ground; and a burial board, instead of providing a cemetery, may contract for accommodation in the cemetery of some other authority. There are some rather complicated provisions under which a town council or other urban sanitary authority may acquire the powers of a burial board within its own area. The Select Committee on Poor-Law Guardians, 1878, were "clearly of opinion that in urban districts the separate existence of burial boards ought at once to cease, and that whenever any new duties are imposed by the legislature on such districts they should be carried out by the existing authorities."

There are other local authorities besides those which have been described within whose jurisdiction the English citizen may occasionally find himself. He may be the inhabitant of a drainage-board district or a Land Drainage Act district; but it would merely confuse the reader, without answering any practical purpose, to go into these special authorities and occasional jurisdictions.

CHAPTER X.

THE METROPOLIS.

Areas and Rating-Police-Licensing-Poor-Law Administration -The Metropolitan Asylums Board-The Metropolitan Board of Works-The Vestries and District Boards-The City Corporation.

THIS volume would be incomplete without some reference to the Metropolis, but it would be impossible within the limits of space assigned to me to describe its system of government.1 The Metropolis has no defined area, or rather its area differs for different purposes. The metropolitan police district differs from the metropolitan management district or postal district. What is generally understood by the Metropolis is the area under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The confusion which reigns supreme over local affairs in the rest of England is only worse confounded in the case of the Metropolis. The only part of the Metropolis which has a definitely-organised system of government is the City of London. The City has an area of some 700 acres and a "sleeping population" of about 50,000 persons.

1 For information as to London government, see Report of Municipal Corporations Commission, 1837; Norton's City of London; Woolrych's Metropolitan Management Acts; Cobden Club Essays, 1882, Paper by J. B. Firth, M.P.

The greater London of the Registrar-General sprawls over some 120 square miles of ground, extends into four counties, and has a population of 3,814,371 persons. The constitution of the City of London is regulated by 120 charters, some 50 general Acts, and an unknown quantity of special Acts. London outside the City is regulated by about 120 general Acts, supplemented by an unknown quantity of special Acts. The fact that the Metropolis is so well governed as it is speaks well for the practical sagacity and honesty of purpose of those that rule the monster city. There are not infrequent hitches in the cumbrous machinery, but the marvel is that it moves at all. The amount collected by rates is about £5,500,000. The revenues of the City Corporation, including tolls and dues, come to about £1,500,000 more. There are nine different kinds of rates collected. The number of distinct rating authorities does not appear in any official return. Besides the City Corporation, the Metropolitan Board of Works, and the London School Board, there are twenty-eight boards of guardians and forty-three incorporated vestries and district boards. It is often said that there is no system in metropolitan government, and that legislation respecting it has proceeded on no settled principle. It may be doubted whether either of these statements is accurate. The theory of London government appears to be this :-There is in the centre a compact town of small dimensions, namely, the City; around the City walls there is a fringe of country villages, which for the most part can be governed like other country parishes. Unfortunately the facts do not square with the theory. Hitherto so much the worse for the facts. When the facts have beAll

come obstreperous, some exceptional expedient has been resorted to some special authority has been created to meet the need of the hour. The plan of putting a new legislative patch on to the old garment has been consistently pursued with the usual result. To give a methodical account of London government would be as difficult as to describe the pattern on a patchwork quilt. that can be done is to give some description of the local authorities which constitute the more important patches. Before saying anything about the local authorities, it may be well to mention some exceptions to their jurisdiction. National buildings and most of the public parks are under the Office of Works, a State department consisting of a permanent staff and a parliamentary Chief Commissioner, who is appointed by the Government of the day, and goes out with his party. The Metropolitan Police Force, which consists of about 10,000 men, is under the direct control of the Home Secretary and is quite distinct from the City Police. The cost of the Metropolitan Police for 1881 was £1,148,000, while the cost of the City Police was about £100,000. The theatres in certain parts of London are licensed by, and are under the control of, the Lord Chamberlain. In the rest of the Metropolis, except the City, they are under the control of the various county justices. Music and dancing licenses and public-house licenses are in the hands of the county justices or city magistrates, as the case may be. The supply of gas and water for the most part is in the hands of private companies with special statutory powers.

The administration of the poor law is in several respects peculiar. In addition to the ordinary elective and ex officio guardians, there are guardians nominated