THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex Ubris 
 [ C. K. OGDEN
 
 THE 
 
 ENGLISHMAN AT HOME 
 
 HIS RESPONSIBILITIES AND 
 PRIVILEGES 
 
 EDWARD PORRITT 
 
 LONDON 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 24 lirurnKi) STKKFT, W.I.'. 
 
 NKW YORK 
 THOMAS V. CKOUKl.I. iS: CO.
 
 "JW3/8 
 
 ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL BY G. P. PUTNAM s SONS. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY T. V. CROWELL & Co. 
 
 TYPlKiKAPHY BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
 FRKSSV.'ORK BY WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
 
 PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 NEITHER a lawyer nor an expert who has been 
 long and exclusively engaged in any one depart- 
 ment of English public life is responsible for this 
 book. It is written by a journalist, and is the out- 
 come of the observations, experiences, and accu- 
 mulated information of a newspaper-world career 
 extending over nearly twenty years, which began in 
 boyhood with the reporting of the proceedings of 
 Town Councils and Town Improvement Commis- 
 sioners; Boards of Guardians for the Relief of the 
 Poor; Rural Sanitary Authorities; Parochial Com- 
 mittees ; School-Hoards ; Police, Coroners', County, 
 Board of Trade, and Revising Barristers' Courts ; 
 Petty Sessions ; Quarter Sessions, and Assizes, and 
 political and public meetings of every variety, and 
 which has included ten or twelve years of newspaper 
 work in London, with regular attendance at the 
 Houses of Parliament, and a varied experience of 
 the working of the State Departments, and the
 
 IV PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 insight into politics and political life in the Metrop- 
 olis, which falls to the lot of a London editor of a 
 provincial daily journal. 
 
 In describing the various departments of our 
 municipal and national life, I have dealt at greatest 
 length with municipal institutions as they exist 
 in provincial England ; for, notwithstanding the 
 County Government Act of 1888, the local govern- 
 ment of London in many important particulars still 
 differs from the local government of Manchester 
 or Liverpool, of Leeds or Birmingham. London's 
 local institutions, the Guildhall, the County Coun- 
 cil, and the Vestries, have been described ; but not 
 with the same fulness of detail as municipal insti- 
 tutions in the provinces, all of which stand on prac- 
 tically the same basis, and in the working of which 
 there is more or less uniformity. 
 
 I have had in mind the local life of a town of 
 forty or fifty thousand inhabitants, and my idea has 
 been to begin with those institutions which are 
 nearest to the people, and with which the people 
 are most frequently in touch. This has been the 
 plan generally followed, not only in the order of 
 the chapters, but also in the arrangement of the 
 chapters themselves. It was with this idea in mind 
 that I commenced with Municipal Administration, 
 and afterwards dealt with the Poor Law System,
 
 PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION. v 
 
 with Elementary Education, with the Administration 
 of Criminal and Civil Justice, and with the collec- 
 tion of Imperial Taxation, before dealing with Par- 
 liament and the methods by which it is elected, 
 with Parliament at work, and with the State De- 
 partments in London. 
 
 Throughout, my idea has been to begin at the 
 bottom and work upward ; and in describing the 
 various municipal institutions, I have endeavored 
 to show how we came by them, what existed before 
 the more modern institutions were established, how 
 these institutions are worked, their relations to the 
 Central Government, what they cost, how the cost is 
 raised, the general interest taken in them, the class 
 of men who work them, and the spirit in which 
 these men go about their work. 
 
 Although written in America, and in the first 
 place for Americans, I have endeavored to make 
 the book acceptable to English readers ; and with 
 this in mind, I have carefully avoided any compari- 
 son of our institutions with those of the United 
 States. 
 
 FARMINGTON, CONNF.CTICUT, U.S.A., 1893. .
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The division into boroughs, county boroughs, and counties. History of 
 the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 and of the County Government Act 
 of 1888. Political position of the working-classes prior to 1884. 
 County Government the exclusive monopoly of the landed and 
 territorial classes. The laborer a nonentity in county politics. 
 The enfranchisement of the laborer in 1884 ; given a share in County 
 Government in 1888. Municipal Government prior to 1835. 
 The Royal Commission and the prevailing municipal corruption. 
 Popular Control the keynote of the Reform Act of 1835. A typical 
 English borough. How the Town Council is elected. Council- 
 lors, aldermen, and mayor ; their relations to each other and to the 
 ratepayers. Municipal and social duties of the mayor. The class 
 of men who engage in municipal politics. Imperial and municipal 
 politics. Tenure of municipal officers. A meeting of a Town 
 Council. The Press and Municipal Politics. Committees of the 
 Town Council. Relations of the Town Council to the Local Gov- 
 ernment Board and to Parliament. The Municipal Revenue. 
 Rates as distinct from taxes. Rating assessments. Poor Law 
 valuation. Rates paid by occupier. A typical case. Overseers 
 of the 1'oor and their relations to municipal life. Relations of 
 Borough to County Government. Local government in the country 
 districts. Rural Sanitary Authorities and Boards of Health. 
 Local Government in London. The County Council and the Ves- 
 tries. The Guildhall, the Lord Mayor, and the Common Council of 
 the City. The City and Greater London. Water and gas monopo- 
 lies. Comparative cost of local administration in London and in 
 
 the Provinces J' l 'S< 
 
 vii
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Antiquity of the Poor Law. The Church and early Poor Law Sys- 
 tems. The " Pig-Sty Era." Poor Law Relief and Laborers' 
 Wages. Sir Erskine May's description of Rural England at the end 
 of the " Pig-Sty Era." Reform of 1834. Local Government Board 
 and Poor Law Administration. Local Poor Law Administration. 
 
 An Election of a Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Poor. 
 
 Safeguarding of Property Owners. The New Democracy and 
 Poor Law Politics. Recent concessions to the Democracy. 
 Women as Poor Law Guardians. The principle of the Poor Law 
 System. In-door and Out-door Relief. The Workhouse and its 
 internal management. Tenure of Poor Law Officers. A Board of 
 Guardians in session. Typical applicants for relief. Poor Law 
 and Old Age. Pauper Children. Medical Relief outside the Work- 
 house. Treatment of Tramps. Some characteristics of the Eng- 
 lish Tramp. Women and Children of the tramp class! Cost of 
 the Poor Law system. Rating for Poor Law purposes. Parlia- 
 ment and Poor Law Boards Pagt 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Ancient Grammar Schools. First Elementary Day Schools. Estab- 
 lishment of the British and Foreign School Society and the National 
 School Society. Parliamentary Grants to Elementary Education. 
 Establishment of Education Department. Appointment of Govern- 
 ment Inspectors. Payment by Results. Schoolhouses and Gov- 
 ernment Grants. Training Colleges for Teachers. Teachers' Cer- 
 tificates. Voluntary effort inadequate. Forster Act of 1870. 
 Position of Voluntary Schools. School Boards, and Attendance 
 Committees established in every District. Relations of School At- 
 tendance Committees to Voluntary Schools. Difference between 
 Voluntary and Board Schools. Compulsory Education and Default- 
 ing Parents. Conditions under which School Boards are Estab-
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 lished. Objections to School Boards; Economy and the interests 
 of Religious Denominations. Religious Teaching in Voluntary 
 Schools. School Board Elections and Politics. Tenure of School 
 Board Officers. Legal definition of Elementary School. Non- 
 sectarian Religious Instruction in Board Schools. Grants from Edu- 
 cation Department. School Board Rates. Training of Teachers. 
 
 Queen's Scholarships. The Colleges. Teachers' Credentials. 
 
 Salaries of Teachers. Evening Classes. Science and Art De- 
 partment. Technical Education and Manual Instruction. Total 
 annual cost of State-aided Education Page 5^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 Municipal Control of Police. London Police Force. Local Police 
 Force and the Home Office. Borough Magistrates. Licensing 
 Laws. Stipendiary Magistrates. Solicitors and Barristers. Eti- 
 quette of the Bar. Quarter Sessions and Assizes. Preliminary 
 Stages of a Criminal Trial. Coroner's Court. Recorders and 
 Chairmen of Quarter Sessions. Grand and Common Jurymen. 
 Quarter Sessions and Appeal Cases. County and Borough Magis- 
 trates. The Lord Lieutenant and the Appointment of Magistrates. 
 
 Property Qualifications for Magistrates. Administration of Jus- 
 tice in Rural Districts. Assizes. Judges and their Appointment. 
 
 Judges on Circuit. High Sheriffs, Grand, Special, and Common 
 Jurymen at Assizes. Criminal Procedure at Assizes. Final Stages 
 of a Criminal Trial. Capital Sentences. No Appeal in Criminal 
 Cases. Home Secretary and Condemned Prisoners. Celerity of 
 the Criminal Law. Treatment of Condemned Prisoners. Exe- 
 cutions. The Cost of Criminal Trials. Civil Justice. Local 
 Courts and the Courts in London. County Court Judges. County 
 Court Cases. The Bankruptcy. Laws. Meetings of Creditors. 
 Certificates of Discharge to Bankrupts. The High Court of Justice; 
 the Chancery, Queen's Bench, and Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty 
 Divisions. Appeal Courts and the Judicial Functions of the House 
 of Lords. Lord Chancellor. A Civil Trial. Queen's Councillors. 
 
 Board of Trade Courts. Inquiries into Losses of Vessels at Sea 
 and Railway Accidents. The Railway Commissioners . . . Page 88
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 
 
 Taxes and Rates Direct and Indirect Taxation. Customs Houses, 
 and the Departments of Excise and Inland Revenue. Taxes for 
 Revenue only. Excise Duties and the Liquor Trade. Inland 
 Revenue, and the Sources from which raised. Income Tax and In- 
 habited House Duty. Income Tax Schedules. Typical Cases. 
 Taxation of the Middle Classes. Impossibility of Escaping the 
 Income Tax. Collection of Inhabited House Duty. Collection 
 ot Property Tax. Taxes paid by Householders with Incomes of 
 ji,ooo per year. Taxation of Smaller Incomes. No Direct Taxa- 
 tion paid by Artisans and Laborers P<*gt 126 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 
 
 County and Borough Constituencies. Membership of the House of 
 Commons. University Seats. Parliamentary Franchise. Three 
 Great Reform Acts. Parliamentary Franchise before 1832. Nomi- 
 nation and Rotten Boroughs. Early Agitation for Reform. Strug- 
 gle in Parliament over the Act of 1832. Creation of Middle Class 
 Electorate. Reform Act of 1867. Working Classes in Towns 
 receive the Franchise. The Acts of 1884 and 1885. Enfranchise- 
 ment of the Working Classes in Rural Districts. Increase in Mem- 
 bership of the House of Commons. Qualifications of Voters. 
 Registration. Local Political Organizations. Revising Barristers' 
 Courts. Political Contests in the Revision Courts. Procedure at 
 Parliamentary Election. A Contested Election in a Typical Borough. 
 
 Political Clubs. Selection of Parliamentary Candidates. Local 
 Candidates and Carpet Baggers. Party Headquarters in London. 
 Reception of Candidate by Local Committee. Candidates' Activities 
 in the Constituency. The Canvass. Working of Ballot and Cor- 
 rupt Practices Acts. Cost of Elections. Limitations of Cost. 
 Dissolution of Parliament and the Issue of New Writs. Nomination 
 and Election Days. The House of Lords and a General Election. 
 
 Constitution of the House of Lords. Law Lords and Lords 
 Spiritual fcg e *43
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 
 
 The High Court of Parliament. Opening of a New Parliament. 
 Election of Speaker. A New Administration. Formation of New 
 Cabinet. Typical Cabinet. Re-elections after Acceptance of Office. 
 
 Seating of Members and Arrangement of House of Commons. 
 Commencement of New Session. Speech from the Throne. De- 
 bate on the Address to the Crown. Opening of a Sitting of the 
 House of Commons. Orders of the Day. Private Business, Peti- 
 tions, Questions, and Motions for Adjournment. Introduction of 
 New Members. Stages of a Bill. Introduction and First Reading, 
 
 Second Reading. The Speaker's Eye. Whips and their Duties. 
 
 Divisions. Instructions to Committees. Proceedings in Com- 
 mittee. Chairman of Committees. Piloting a Bill through Com- 
 mittee. The Government and the Time of the House. Third 
 Reading. Messages between the House of Commons and the House' 
 of Lords. The Royal Assent. An Act of Parliament. Voting 
 Money for Public Services. Quorum. Counts out. Procedure in 
 Committee of Supply. Committee of Ways and Means. The 
 Budget and Taxation. Private Members' Bills. Select Commit- 
 tees, Committees on Private Bills, and Standing Committee. Pro- 
 cedure before Private Bill Committees. Parliamentary Barristers. 
 
 Royal Commissions. The Life of a Parliament. The Chiltern 
 Hundreds. Elevation to the Lords. Expulsion of Members. 
 Deceased Members. Members and their Constituents. Character 
 of Membership of House of Commons. Changes due to the Later 
 Reform Acts. Politics as a Career. Prizes open to Lawyers. 
 Nouveaux Riches and Parliamentary Life. Baronetcies as Rewards 
 for Political Service. Journalism and Politics. Labor and Social- 
 ism in the House of Commons P*g* 
 
 CHAPTER VIII, 
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Departments most in Touch with the People. Local Government Board : 
 Poor I. aw and Municipal Administration. The Committee of Coun- 
 cil for Education : Distribution of Parliamentary Grants ; Educa-
 
 xil CONTENTS. 
 
 tion Code. The Home Office: London Police; Factory and Mines 
 Legislation ; Prisons ; Naturalization. Board of Trade : Joint Stock 
 Undertakings: Bankruptcy Laws; Railways, Canals, and Harbors; 
 Trade Statistics; Labor Department; the Boar d of Trade Journal, 
 and the Labor Gazette. The Post-Office: Telegraph System and 
 Savings Banks. Board of Agriculture: Cattle Disease and Impor- 
 tation of Cattle. Office of Public Works: Royal Palaces, Public 
 Buildings, and Parks. Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 War Office. The Admiralty. The Foreign Office. The Colonial 
 Office : Crown Colonies ; Colonies Possessing Representative Institu- 
 tions but not Responsible Government, and Colonies with Respon- 
 sible Government. The India Office : the India Council ; Executive 
 Authority in India ; the Governor General ; the Legislative Coun- 
 cil. Salaries of Cabinet Ministers and Heads of Departments. 
 Ministers and Pensions Page 227 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 
 
 Constitutional Position of the Church of England. The Church of 
 the Whole People. The Old Division Line between the Church and 
 Nonconformity. Civil Disabilities of Nonconformists. What re- 
 mains of the Old Dividing Line. Religious Equality Legislation 
 during the Present Century. The Marriage Laws. Civil Marriages. 
 
 Registration of Marriages. Admission of Jews to Parliament. 
 
 Abolition of Compulsory Church Rates and University Tests. 
 Opening of Churchyards to Nonconformists. Offices which may not 
 be held by Roman Catholics. The Universities and Church Livings 
 in the gift of Roman Catholics. Bishops in the House of Lords. 
 Parliament and Church Legislation. Provinces of Canterbury and 
 York. Appointment of Archbishops, Bishops, and Deans. The 
 Prime Minister and Ecclesiastical Appointments. Convocation. 
 Ecclesiastical Courts. A Parish. The Legal Check on the Ritual. 
 
 Negligent Clergymen. An Incumbent and his Parishioners, Page 243 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 
 
 The Army and the Reserve Forces. All Military Service Voluntary. 
 Parliament and the Army. Short Service System. Pay of a Private 
 Soldier. Officers and their Commissions. The Militia. Militia
 
 CONTENTS. X11I 
 
 Officers. The Yeomanry Cavalry. Popular Idea of a Yeomanry 
 Troop. The Volunteer Force. Nature of Volunteer Service. 
 Royal Navy. Relations of Navy to Parliament. Civil Service. 
 Competitive Examinations and Security of Tenure. Higher and 
 Lower Divisions. Nonpartisan Character of the Service. Pen- 
 sions. Women in the Post-office Page 260 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 Home Office and the Administration of Labor Legislation. The First 
 Factory Act. An Old-time Working-day for Children. A Saturday 
 Half-holiday Three-quarters of a Century Ago. The FirstMines 
 Regulation Act. Women prohibited from working Underground. 
 
 Employment of Women Above Ground. Half-time System for 
 Children introduced. The Age of commencing Work advanced 
 from Ten to Eleven. Indirect Interference with the Hours of Labor 
 of Adult Males. Protection to Health, Limbs, and Pocket. Sani- 
 tary Laws, Truck Acts, Check-weighmen at Collieries and Weavers' 
 Particulars. Legal Relations of Employers and Employed. The 
 Harshness of the Old Labor Laws. Employers and Employed now 
 on a Level before the Law. Employers' Liability for Accidents ; the 
 Measures of 1880 and 1893. The House of Lords' Inquiry into the 
 Sweating System. The Government Departments and the Munici- 
 pal Authorities adopt Contract Forms which regulate Sub-contracting. 
 
 The Reform Acts, of 1884 and 1885 and Labor Politics . . Page 276 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 
 
 The Land held by Few Owners. Entail. Leases. Yearly Tenancies. 
 Compensation for Improvements. Mining Royalties and Way- 
 Leaves. Copyhold. Common Land. Allotments. Small Hold- 
 ings. Peasant Proprietors of the Fenlands. Game Laws. Privi- 
 leges attaching to Large Estates. Voting with the Landlord. 
 Decline of Landlords' Power in Politics and Local Government. 
 Privileges still remaining to Owners of I .arge Estates . . . /'</<.v 292
 
 Xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 
 
 Establishment and Development of Modern Daily Newspapers. 
 Reports of Parliamentary and Political Speeches. Non-Partisan 
 Reporting. Government Organs of the Past. Rewards from Gov- 
 ernment to Newspapers. Honors for Proprietors and Editors. 
 Government Publications Page 314 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 pAr.s 
 
 A. The Aggregate Cost of Local Government in England 329 
 
 B. Municipal Indebtedness 3^1 
 
 C. Salaries under the Municipalities 333 
 
 D. The Aggregate Annual Cost of the Poor Law System 334 
 
 E. The Distribution of Pauperism ; the Relative Positions of the 
 
 Agricultural and Manufacturing Counties 335 
 
 F. Curriculum of the Elementary Day Schools 337 
 
 G. The Duties of the Home Office and the Local Magistrates on 
 
 Occasions of Tumult and Riots 341 
 
 H. The Queen's Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and 
 
 Virtue 344 
 
 I. Distribution of Parliamentary Representation 346 
 
 K. Parliamentary Whips 347 
 
 L. The Relative Strengths of the English and Other European Navies, 353 
 
 M. Hours of Labor in Factories 354 
 
 N. Government and the Savings Banks 355
 
 ERRATA AND NOTES. 
 
 PAGE 147, LINE 3. For "Assessed to the Relief of the Poor on a 
 rating basis," read, " of a clear annual value." 
 
 PAGE 162, LINE 24. For " 1881," read, " 1880." 
 
 PAGE 180. Add to List of Cabinet, "17, Secretary for the Colonies," 
 and, " 18, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster." 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 78, LINE 12. In London and several of the large 
 cities the instruction of pupil teachers is carried on at local centres, 
 and not by the school-masters under whom they teach. 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 196, LINE i. A division was taken in the House of 
 Commons on the motion for leave to introduce the Crimes (Ireland) 
 Act of 1882. This, however, was not done by the Opposition, but 
 by the independent Irish Nationalist party, and was supported by 
 only twenty-two members.
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The division into boroughs, county boroughs, and counties. History of 
 the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 and of the County Government Act of 
 1888. Political position of the working-classes prior to 1884. County 
 Government the exclusive monopoly of the landed and territorial classes. 
 The laborer a nonentity In county politics. The enfranchisement of 
 the laborer in 1884; given a share in County Government in 1888. 
 Municipal Government prior to 1835. The Royal Commission and the 
 prevailing municipal corruption. Popular control the keynote of the 
 Reform Act of 1835. A typical English borough. How the Town 
 Council is elected. Councillors, aldermen, and mayor ; their relations to 
 each other and to the ratepayers. Municipal and social duties of the 
 mayor. The class of men who engage in municipal politics. Imperial 
 and municipal politics. Tenure of municipal officers. A meeting of a 
 Town Council. The Press and Municipal Politics. Committees of the 
 Town Council. Relations of the Town Council to the Local Govern- 
 ment Board and to Parliament. The municipal revenue. Rates as 
 distinct from taxes. Rating assessments. Poor Law valuation. 
 Rates paid by occupier. A typical case. Overseers of the poor and 
 their relations to municipal life. Relations of Borough to County Gov- 
 ernment. Local government in the country districts. Rural Sanitary 
 Authorities and Boards of Health. Local Government in London. 
 The County Council and the Vestries. The Guildhall, the Lord Mayor, 
 and the Common Council of the City. The City and Greater London. 
 Water and gas monopolies. Comparative cost of local administration 
 in London and in the i'rovinces. 
 
 ENGLAND is divided for the purposes of muni- 
 cipal administration into boroughs, county 
 boroughs, and counties. The two last-named divis- 
 ions, county boroughs and counties, as regards local 
 
 i
 
 2 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 government, are of recent date, and owe their origin 
 to the County Government Act of 1888. This long- 
 delayed Parliamentary measure took the government 
 out of the hands of the squirearchy and placed the 
 rural districts on nearly the same level, in respect of 
 popular local government, as that upon which the 
 incorporated boroughs were placed by the Municipal 
 Reform Act of 1835, the nineteenth century founda- 
 tion of all municipal life in England. Until the Act 
 of 1888, there had been no such distinction as bor- 
 oughs and county boroughs. Whatever the size and 
 population of a town, if it had a charter of incorpo- 
 ration under the Act of 1835, or a charter of an ear- 
 lier date, as many of them had, it was known as a 
 borough. Some additional powers were conferred by 
 Parliament upon the large towns by the Act of 1888. 
 All towns with a population of over fifty thousand 
 received these new privileges ; and with these new 
 privileges they took upon themselves the new title 
 of county boroughs, which was intended to distin- 
 guish them on the one hand from incorporated towns 
 with a population of less than fifty thousand, and on 
 the other from all the territory lying outside the 
 boroughs and the county boroughs, and known for 
 local government purposes as the county. 
 
 It may be well for present purposes to take the 
 case of one of the smaller towns, one of the boroughs 
 with a population of from forty-five to fifty thousand. 
 There is not much difference between the govern- 
 ment of a county borough and a borough ; for the 
 Local Government Act of 1888 did not greatly dis-
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 3 
 
 turb the uniformity of administration in the bor- 
 oughs and county boroughs, which had existed since 
 the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. 
 
 Two dates stand out prominently in the history of 
 English local government. These are 1835 and 
 1888 ; and it is worthy of note that both these dates 
 come just after dates which stand out with equal 
 prominence in the Parliamentary and constitutional 
 history of England. In 1832, three years previous 
 to the passage of the Municipal Reform Act, Parlia- 
 ment itself had been reformed. For half a century 
 before this time the reform of the Parliamentary 
 franchise had been the subject of intermittent agita- 
 tion. The agitation became widespread and serious 
 after Waterloo and the establishment of peace on 
 the continent of Europe; and it culminated, in 1832, 
 in a measure which established a uniform electoral 
 system, abolished the numerous rotten and nomina- 
 tion boroughs which had been the scandal of English 
 political life during the eighteenth century, and, by 
 conferring the vote on all householders whose houses 
 or other premises in their occupation were rated to the 
 relief of the poor at ten pounds per annum, created 
 what was essentially a middle class Parliamentary 
 electorate. 
 
 After the Reform Act of 1832 came first the 
 measure of 1834, which reformed the Poor Laws, 
 and then, in 1835, the Act which has ever since 
 been the basis of all municipal life in England. The 
 working classes were practically excluded from the 
 Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832, because few of
 
 4 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 them occupied houses assessed to the relief of the 
 poor at ten pounds, and it was not until 1867 that 
 they were given a Parliamentary franchise. Then it 
 was conferred only on those living within the areas 
 of the boroughs incorporated under the Municipal 
 Reform Act of 1835, and it was not until 1884 that 
 the Parliamentary franchise was conferred upon the 
 working classes living in the rural districts. Until 
 this time these people those living in small houses 
 outside the boundaries of municipal towns had no 
 votes. They had no share in the election of mem- 
 bers to represent the county or the division of the 
 county in the House of Commons ; and as for local 
 government, they had had nothing whatever to do 
 with it. County government was in those days 
 a matter exclusively for the landed and wealthy 
 classes ; and the rural laborer or artisan had no more 
 to do with the choice of the magistrates who dis- 
 pensed justice in the petty sessional courts, and met 
 in quarter sessions to administer the affairs of the 
 county, than he had with the elevation of a member 
 of the House of Commons to the House of Lords, or 
 the distribution of seats in the Cabinet. For Parlia- 
 mentary and local government purposes the laborer 
 living outside the towns was a nonentity. 
 
 In 1884 the Parliamentary franchise was conferred 
 upon the rural laborer ; and in the second Parliament 
 elected after his coming into possession of his politi- 
 cal privilege, in 1888, the magistrates who for gener- 
 ations past had administered county government, 
 were deprived of these governmental duties and
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. $ 
 
 exclusive privileges, and in each county a popularly 
 elected body was established, in the election of which 
 the rural laborer now has a vote, as his fellows in 
 the incorporated towns have had for nearly two 
 generations. 
 
 There is always a quickening of political life in 
 England after a measure widening the Parliamentary 
 franchise. It was so after the Act of 1832, which 
 enfranchised the middle classes. It was so after the 
 Act of 1867, which gave the franchise to all house- 
 holders in the towns ; and again it was so after the 
 Act of 1884, which enfranchised the small house- 
 holders in the rural districts. After the Act of 
 1832 came the Municipal Reform Act ; after the Act 
 of 1867, the Elementary Education Act of 1870; and 
 after the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1884, the 
 measure which swept away some of the relics of 
 feudalism, and in particular the exclusive privileges 
 of the landed classes in county government. 
 
 It was inevitable that this should be so. The old 
 boroughs those which existed under royal charters, 
 some of them dating back to Tudor times were the 
 centres of the political corruption which was swept 
 away by the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832. 
 These boroughs were corrupt both in a municipal 
 and in a Parliamentary sense, and it was impossible 
 for their corrupt municipal goverments long to sur- 
 vive the great measure which did so much to purify 
 English national politics. This purification was not 
 completed by the Act of 1832 ; it needed the further 
 Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884, and the Corrupt Prac-
 
 6 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 tices Act of 1883, to bring English national politics 
 to their present high level of purity. But the 
 Reform Act of 1832 was undoubtedly the first step 
 in this direction ; and the corruption which had char- 
 acterized English municipal politics, as well as Eng- 
 lish national politics, could not long withstand the 
 change which the Act of 1832 brought about. As a 
 consequence of this Act, there was an end almost at 
 once of the wholesale corruption of national politics, 
 to the buying of votes, and the open sale of Parlia- 
 mentary seats ; and in the first House of Commons 
 elected under the new system a demand was made 
 that there should be a thorough-going reform of the 
 government of the municipalities. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the caution with which the 
 English Parliament proceeds with measures of re- 
 form. Nearly all great constitutional changes are 
 preceded by commissions of inquiry. In 1832 no- 
 body except the persons who profited by the plunder- 
 ing of the municipalities questioned the need of 
 reform ; but Parliament, as is its wont in matters of 
 this kind, appointed a Commission of inquiry, and 
 the report of the Commission confirmed all the alle- 
 gations which for years had been made against the 
 existing municipal corporations. 
 
 These bodies were shown to be self-elected and 
 altogether irresponsible. They were composed of 
 local and often hereditary cliques and family con- 
 nections, and were absolute masters over their own 
 townspeople. 
 
 " Even where these institutions exist in their least
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. J 
 
 imperfect form, and are most rightfully administered," 
 read the report of the Royal Commission, " they are 
 inadequate to the wants of the present state of 
 society. In their actual condition, when not pro- 
 ductive of evil, they exist in a great majority of 
 instances for no purposes of general utility. The 
 perversion of municipal institutions to political ends 
 has occasioned the sacrifice of local interests to 
 party purposes which have been frequently pursued 
 through the corruption and demoralization of the 
 electoral bodies. In conclusion, we report that there 
 prevails among the inhabitants of a great majority of 
 the incorporated towns a general and, in our opinion, 
 a just dissatisfaction with their municipal institu- 
 tions, a distrust of the self-elected municipal 
 councils whose powers are subjected to no popular 
 control, and whose acts and proceedings being secret 
 are unchecked by the influence of public opinion, 
 a distrust of the municipal magistracy, tainting with 
 suspicion the local administration of justice, and 
 often accompanied with contempt for the persons by 
 whom the law is administered, and a discontent 
 under the burdens of local taxation ; while revenues 
 that ought to be applied for the public advantage 
 are diverted from their legitimate use, and are some- 
 times squandered for purposes injurious to the char- 
 acter and morals of the people. We therefore feel 
 it to be our duty to represent to your Majesty that 
 the existing corporations of England and Wales 
 neither possess nor deserve the confidence and 
 respect of your Majesty's subjects, and that a
 
 8 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 thorough reform must be effected before they can 
 become, what we humbly submit to your Majesty 
 they ought to be, useful and efficient instruments of 
 local government." 
 
 Little that was new was revealed by the report of 
 the Royal Commission. Corruption of the munici- 
 palities was as notorious as the corruption at Parlia- 
 mentary elections which had been swept away by 
 the Reform Act. The report served, however, to 
 bring the question fully and immediately before Par- 
 liament, and a bill was introduced into the House of 
 Commons to remedy the abuses and to effect the 
 thorough-going reform which the Royal Commission 
 had insisted was imperatively necessary. The meas- 
 ure was introduced by Lord John Russell, who three 
 years earlier had carried the Reform Act through 
 the House of Commons, and had compelled William 
 IV. to help him to force the Parliamentary Reform 
 Bill through the House of Lords by a threat on the 
 part of the king to over-ride opposition there by 
 creating new peers. 
 
 There was no attempt in the Municipal Reform 
 Act to improve the existing corporations. Most of 
 them were beyond improvement. Popular control 
 was the keynote of the measure. The old close cor- 
 porations were replaced by town councils, in whose 
 election every householder, male or female, who pays 
 rates to the relief of the poor now has a vote ; 
 and to these bodies were intrusted all town affairs, 
 except the administration of the poor laws, which, 
 under an Act of 1834, had been placed in the hands
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 9 
 
 of what are known as Boards of Guardians for the 
 Relief of the Poor. This Municipal Reform Act 
 was passed in 1835. It has been added to and 
 amended by numerous Acts of Parliament passed 
 since that time ; new duties and increased responsi- 
 bilities have been thrown upon the town councils ; 
 but the fundamental principles of the Act have not 
 been altered, and it remains to-day the foundation of 
 all municipal government in England. In 1835 one 
 hundred and eighty-three towns of various sizes at 
 once came within its provisions. Every year since 
 then the number has been added to ; for all that is 
 now necessary to a charter of incorporation is a 
 petition to the Privy Council in London, by which 
 body the charters are granted. If the population of 
 a town is sufficient to warrant incorporation, and if a 
 majority of the ratepayers are in favor of it, the 
 petition to the Privy Council is little more than a 
 matter of form. 
 
 In a town of 40,000 or 45,0x30 inhabitants, which 
 may be taken as the type of a borough illustrating 
 municipal life in England, the town council will 
 probably consist of thirty-six councillors and nine 
 aldermen. The councillors are elected directly by 
 the people. The town is divided into wards for 
 electoral purposes, and the voting is by ballot. The 
 councillors are elected for three years, one-third of 
 the total number retiring each year. The aldermen 
 and the mayor are elected by the councillors, and 
 may be chosen from within or without the council. 
 The mayor is elected for one year ; the aldermen,
 
 IO THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 who always number one-fourth of the councillors, 
 are elected for six years. When the Municipal Re- 
 form Act of 1835 went forward from the House of 
 Commons to the House of Lords, there was no pro- 
 vision in it for the election of aldermen. Aldermen 
 had been of the old close corporations ; but it was 
 not the intention of Lord John Russell and the 
 friends of the new order of things in municipal gov- 
 ernment to continue the aldermanic principle. The 
 House of Lords, however, acting in behalf of the 
 property-owning classes, insisted on its retention ; and 
 to obviate a controversy between the two Houses, 
 the Government gave way. In 1888, when the 
 County Government bill was before the House of 
 Commons, the Radical members made a determined 
 effort to prevent the perpetuation of the aldermanic 
 idea in the governing bodies of the counties. Like 
 the Whigs of 1835, the Radicals of 1888 desired an 
 administrative body elected entirely by the people ; 
 but they, were not able to prove to the satisfaction of 
 Lord Salisbury's government that the aldermanic 
 principle had worked ill in the Act of 1835, and now 
 the plan is common to all three forms of local gov- 
 ernment- the borough, the county borough, and the 
 county. 
 
 No pay nor allowances of any kind attach to 
 the office of town councillor, alderman, or mayor ; 
 nor is any qualification, beside that of residence 
 and the payment of rates, necessary for any of these 
 offices. The only distinction office confers upon the 
 mayor, apart from the mayorality itself, is that the
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. II 
 
 holder of the office during his term is chairman of 
 the borough bench of magistrates, or justices of the 
 peace, and has a right to a place on the bench for 
 one year following that in which he has acted as 
 mayor. When on the bench, or when presiding at 
 the meetings of the town council, the mayor wears 
 a robe trimmed with ermine and also a gold badge 
 of office, which is handed on from one mayor to 
 another. The robe and the badge of office are also 
 worn on ceremonial occasions outside the council 
 chamber. 
 
 The mayor is expected to give up a considerable 
 portion of his time to the municipal and social duties 
 of the office. On the occasion of a Parliamentary 
 election, he receives the writ from the Crown Office 
 at Westminster, and acts as returning officer. If 
 there is an important public meeting of a non- 
 partisan character, he is expected to preside. He is 
 also invited to most of the public dinners and ban- 
 quets ; and his presence is generally looked for at 
 church and chapel bazaars, at school prize distribu- 
 tions, and kindred gatherings. In towns of the size 
 of the one taken to illustrate municipal life, the line 
 between Church and Dissent between the mem- 
 bers of the Established Church of England and the 
 adherents of the numerous nonconformist or dissent- 
 ing bodies is usually well drawn; but, no matter 
 whether the mayor is a churchman or a dissenter, 
 during the year of mayoral ity he treats all alike, and 
 will open a Congregational or a Wcsleyan Methodist 
 bazaar one day, and on the next attend the laying
 
 12 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 of the foundation stone of a school-house belonging 
 to the Church of England. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these claims upon the mayor, 
 and the fact that there is no pay whatever for the 
 work, and no patronage of any kind, not so much as 
 the appointment of a paid private secretary, the 
 office is one which is greatly coveted by well-to-do 
 business men ; and a man will give his spare time for 
 years, sometimes even neglect his business, in order 
 to serve as a town councillor, and ultimately fill the 
 office of mayor for a year, or perhaps for two years ; 
 for a mayor who is popular, and fills the office with 
 dignity and with satisfaction to his fellow-townsmen, 
 is frequently elected for a second term. His election 
 is always by the town council ; but the standing of 
 the mayor with the general body of the ratepayers 
 has much to do with his being asked to accept office 
 for a second year. 
 
 National politics that is, Liberalism and Conser- 
 vatism have considerable influence in municipal 
 politics. In some towns and cities the ward elections 
 for councillors are managed by the same political 
 committees and the same political organizations as 
 manage the Parliamentary contests in the borough 
 when the General Election comes round. Party 
 politics affect a town council mainly at the elec- 
 tions of aldermen and mayor. When the Conserva- 
 tives are in a majority in a town, and the municipal 
 elections are on party lines, if the Conservatives 
 elect a majority of the town councillors, it usually 
 follows that a majority of the aldermen are Conser-
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 13 
 
 vatives, and that the mayor is of the same political 
 party. It sometimes happens that one political party 
 thus controls the town council for years. In other 
 towns, where the political parties are evenly divided, 
 or in towns in which party feeling does not run high, 
 an understanding is arrived at by which a Conserva- 
 tive mayor is elected one year and a Liberal mayor 
 the next. In other towns for instance, in Man- 
 chester even where the elections of councillors 
 are contested on party lines, it is the custom of 
 the town council, when vacancies occur among the 
 aldermen, to elect the senior councillors, irrespective 
 of politics. 
 
 Except so far as concerns the election of the 
 mayor and aldermen, party politics have not much 
 to do with the actual proceedings of the town coun- 
 cil. All the officers hold their appointments during 
 good behavior, which practically means for life, or 
 until the holder sees an opportunity of moving to a 
 more highly paid and more dignified position under 
 another municipality. When a town clerk, a borough 
 surveyor, a manager of a municipal gas or water 
 works, or an inspector of nuisances or of weights 
 and measures, or a collector of market tolls, is about 
 to be appointed, no one would think of asking appli- 
 cants whether they are Liberals or Conservatives. 
 These appointments are all made by the town coun- 
 cil in open meeting, usually upon the recommenda- 
 tion of the committee within whose department and 
 under whose direction the officer to be appointed 
 will have to work. The fact that the appointments
 
 14 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 are to be made is advertised for some weeks before- 
 hand ; applications are in order from residents and 
 non-residents of the borough, and, as a general rule, 
 the best man is appointed. 
 
 The mayor presides at all the meetings of the town 
 council. The aldermen and the town councillors 
 meet and deliberate together, and the votes of the 
 two classes of members are of equal value. The 
 mayor has nothing in the nature of a veto over 
 the actions of the town council. In the event of 
 a tie on any question he can give the casting vote. 
 The meetings of the town council are open to the 
 public and to the press ; and such is the interest in 
 the discussions which engage the council, that in these 
 towns of forty to forty-five thousand inhabitants, the 
 weekly and bi-weekly newspapers frequently devote 
 a page or more to the report of the council's pro- 
 ceedings. Towns of this size are without daily 
 journals ; but in cities like Liverpool and Manches- 
 ter, in which the daily press is almost as cosmopoli- 
 tan as that of London, three or four columns are 
 frequently devoted to the meetings of the council. 
 Speeches and votes on all important municipal ques- 
 tions are fully reported and recorded. They are read 
 by the rate-payers ; and it is beyond question that the 
 publicity thus given to the proceedings of the town 
 council, and the other local administrative bodies, 
 largely accounts for the interest taken in English 
 municipal politics, their uniformly high character, and 
 for the generally disinterested way in which the men 
 who give their time to municipal work discharge 
 their duties.
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 15 
 
 The executive business of the council is chiefly in 
 the hands of the various committees into which the 
 council divides itself at the commencement of the 
 municipal year. These committees are formed of 
 both aldermen and councillors. Since the aldermen 
 usually have longer experience of municipal work, 
 they are frequently elected chairmen of the com- 
 mittees. One of these committees devotes itself 
 to sewering and paving ; another to new buildings, 
 for which it passes all plans ; another to finance ; 
 another to police ; others to gas and water works, in 
 towns where these undertakings are in the hands of 
 the municipalities ; while the management of the 
 markets, the parks, the cemeteries, the public baths 
 and wash-houses, and the free libraries and reading- 
 rooms, are assigned to other committees. 
 
 The committees meet as frequently as the work as- 
 signed them demands ; but they have no power to act 
 without the sanction of the council. Each committee 
 draws up minutes of its proceedings and recommen- 
 dations, which are discussed and accepted or rejected 
 by the council at its monthly meetings. The recom- 
 mendations are brought forward by the chairman of 
 the committee, who usually explains them with some 
 little detail, answers any inquiries in regard to them, 
 and moves their adoption by the council. Another 
 member of the committee seconds the motion, and 
 all subsequent discussion in regard to the proceed- 
 ings and work of the committee is upon the question 
 that the minutes or recommendations be adopted. It 
 is open to any member of the council who differs from
 
 1 6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the majority of the committee, as it is to any member 
 of the minority of the committee on any particular 
 question, to move the rejection of the recommenda- 
 tions, or the reference of the matter under discus- 
 sion back to the committee. 
 
 The powers of the town council are defined by the 
 charter of incorporation and by the numerous Acts 
 of Parliament imposing duties and responsibilities 
 upon the corporation. The council is responsible to 
 the ratepayers, and also to the Local Government 
 Board, the State Department in London which ex- 
 ercises an oversight over municipal government 
 and the administration of the poor laws. No large 
 expenditure of money, involving capital outlay and 
 the exercise of borrowing powers, can be entered 
 upon without the sanction of the Local Government 
 Board ; and before this sanction is given, the Board, 
 through one of its inspectors, holds a public inquiry 
 in the borough, at which the ratepayer can lodge his 
 objections. Municipal schemes are often nipped in 
 the bud as the result of these inquiries. In cases 
 where compulsory powers of purchase are sought, 
 such, for instance, as the taking over of a local 
 water-works or a gas supply from a private com- 
 pany, the sanction of Parliament has to be obtained. 
 When this is sought, what is known as a private bill 
 is promoted by the town council. 
 
 The term private bill is used in two senses. It is 
 applied, first, to the legislative measures introduced 
 in either the House of Commons or the House of 
 Lords by private members ; that is, by members who
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. I/ 
 
 are not of the Ministry, and for whose measures the 
 Government takes no responsibility. It is also ap- 
 plied to the measures introduced by town councils 
 seeking powers to take over water and gas works, 
 to carry out drainage schemes, or to add to the area 
 of the borough, and also to the measures introduced 
 in behalf of railway and other companies seeking 
 powers to carry out new works. These bills are 
 not introduced in the same way as a private mem- 
 ber's bill. In his case the permission of the House 
 has to be first obtained. No such permission is 
 needed in regard to bills introduced by a municipal- 
 ity or a public company. A number of preliminaries, 
 such as advertising in the London Gazette, the official 
 newspaper, and in the local newspapers, have to be 
 complied with, and then the bill is lodged at the Pri- 
 vate Bill Office at Westminster. In due course it 
 is read a first and a second time in the House of 
 Commons, and afterwards sent to a private bill com- 
 mittee, when the whole matter is debated, as it 
 were, in open court. The promoters of the bill 
 retain lawyers who are known as Parliamentary Bar- 
 risters, and the opponents of the measure do the 
 same. Witnesses are called for and against, and are 
 examined and cross-examined in much the same way 
 as witnesses are examined and cross-examined in the 
 civil courts. The whole procedure, in fact, is very 
 similar to that at the trial of a civil suit in the law 
 courts. If the measure passes the private bill com- 
 mittee, it goes through both Houses in the usual way, 
 being read a third time, and receiving the royal assent
 
 1 8 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 like any ordinary bill introduced by a private mem- 
 ber or by a member of the Ministry in behalf of the 
 Government. 
 
 The origin of the municipal system, the manner of 
 electing town councils, the way in which the councils 
 do their work, their relations to the ratepayers, to the 
 Local Government Board, and to Parliament, having 
 thus been explained, it remains now to turn to the 
 manner in which the revenue of the town council is 
 assessed and collected. At this point a distinction 
 must be made between ratepayers and taxpayers. 
 So far there have been no references to taxpayers, 
 for the reason that the word taxpayer has no place in 
 municipal phraseology. 
 
 In England, the sums of money a citizen is called 
 upon to pay towards the cost of maintaining the 
 Crown, the army and the navy, the diplomatic and 
 the civil services, and for meeting the other charges 
 which are classed as imperial, are known as taxes. 
 On the other hand, those he pays for municipal pur- 
 poses, for public education, and for the relief of the 
 poor, are known as rates. The plan under which 
 rates, or local taxes, are assessed is the same all over 
 England. It is based upon the Poor Law valuation. 
 The valuation is fixed by an assessment committee, 
 elected from the local board of guardians for the 
 relief of the poor ; and on this valuation every house- 
 holder pays rates for the support of the poor, for the 
 administration of municipal government, and for the 
 maintenance of the public schools established and 
 carried on under the Elementary Education Act of
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 1 9 
 
 1870. With the aid of a surveyor or an expert in 
 real-estate values, the assessment committee deter- 
 mines what is the fair rental value of a house or a 
 shop, settles its assessment for rating purposes at 
 about two-thirds of the rental value ; and upon this 
 basis, until the next assessment revision, all local 
 rates are determined. When the assessment com- 
 mittee is in session, the owner or occupier of prop- 
 erty about to be assessed may submit evidence in 
 rebuttal of the evidence of the surveyor acting for 
 the committee ; and if after this hearing he is dis- 
 satisfied with the assessment, he may carry his ap- 
 peal to the law courts, first to the quarter sessions 
 for the hundred or division of the county in which 
 his property is situated, and, if need be, on to the 
 higher courts in London. 
 
 All rates are paid by the occupier of the property. 
 There is an exception to this rule, made in the case 
 of cottage property, in respect of which, with a view 
 to saving time and loss in collection, a system of 
 compounding is adopted. Under this arrangement 
 the owner agrees to be responsible for the rates, and 
 is allowed a considerable discount for carrying the 
 responsibility. He recoups himself by adding the 
 amount of the rates to the weekly rentals paid by 
 his tenants. This system applies only to the smaller 
 houses occupied by the laboring classes. It is well 
 to explain this exception to the rule; but, generally 
 speaking, the occupier is responsible for the rates, 
 and it is his property which is liable to seizure in 
 case of default.
 
 6 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 Churches and public schools form the only class 
 of property which is exempt from rating. Rates are 
 paid in respect of all Government property, such 
 as post-office buildings, custom-houses, prisons, mili- 
 tary barracks, and fortifications. In some of these 
 cases, as in case of railways and machinery in use in 
 factories, forges, and collieries, a somewhat different 
 system of assessment is adopted from that based on 
 rental values. 
 
 Perhaps the simplest way of explaining the rating 
 system is to take the case of an individual, place him 
 in a house of a given rental value and an ascertained 
 ratable value, and show what would be his contribu- 
 tion to the municipal and Poor Law charges of the 
 borough. The Poor Law system and its working will 
 be dealt with in a later chapter ; but, while dealing 
 with rates and the manner of their assessment and 
 collection, it may save repetition to take the munici- 
 pal and Poor Law charges together. 
 
 An example easily followed is that of a middle- 
 class householder living in a house rented at fifty 
 pounds per annum. A house of this rental would 
 be assessed for rating purposes at, say, thirty-eight 
 pounds per annum. Rates in the provincial towns 
 of England range from five shillings in the pound, 
 to as high as eight shillings and twopence in the 
 pound. By "in the pound" is meant that this sum 
 this five shillings, or this eight and twopence, as 
 the case maybe has to be paid by the householder 
 on every pound of the assessed rental value of his 
 house. The householder, taken as an illustration,
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 is living in a moderately rated borough, one in 
 which the total rates amount to five shillings and 
 eightpence in the pound, made up as follows : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Improvement Rate 3 o in the 
 
 Sewers Rate 04 " 
 
 Borough Rate 13! " 
 
 Poor Rate i oi 
 
 Total 5 8 in the 
 
 In this case the householder whose rent is fifty 
 pounds, and who is assessed for rating at thirty-eight 
 pounds, would have to pay a total amount in rates of 
 ;io \$s. 4//. His bill would stand thus : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Improvement Rate, 3*. x 38 5 14 o 
 
 Sewers Rate, 4//. x 38 0128 
 
 Borough Rate, is. $d. x 38 2 9 ioi 
 
 Poor Rate, is. 04^x38 i 18 94 
 
 Total 10 15 4 
 
 Three of these rates the Improvement, the Sew- 
 ers, and the Borough Rate are for municipal pur- 
 poses. Only two of them, however, except in special 
 cases, are collected by an officer in the service of the 
 town council. The Borough Rate and the Poor 
 Rate are collected by what are known as Overseers 
 of the Poor. These officials are elected every year 
 by the ratepayers in open meeting. Their offices 
 are entirely honorary ; but the actual work of collect- 
 ing the rates is undertaken by an assistant overseer,
 
 22 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 who is appointed by the guardians of the poor. 
 When the guardians of the poor have determined 
 what sum will meet their expenditure for the year, 
 and the town council have determined what charges 
 will come against the borough fund as distinct from 
 the improvement fund, they each serve their precept 
 upon the overseers, who levy the necessary rates, 
 obtain for them a legal sanction by securing the 
 indorsement of the local magistrates, and then pro- 
 ceed to their collection. 
 
 Certain charges in connection with the adminis- 
 tration of the county that is, the rural district lying 
 outside the boundaries of the borough and under the 
 control of the county council come against rate- 
 payers living within the borough. In the borough 
 which has been taken as an example, these charges 
 amount to a rate of two pence and three-eighths in 
 the pound, and are included in the Poor Rate. 
 Representatives from the borough are elected to 
 the county council, by which body this rate is levied 
 and the sums accruing from it are expended. All 
 rates in the municipalities are collected in two 
 instalments. 
 
 In most of the large towns the gas and water 
 undertakings are in possession of the municipali- 
 ties. Where this is the case, water is either sup- 
 plied by metre, or a water-rate is paid on the same 
 basis as the improvement-rate. The Poor Law valua- 
 tion again comes in, plus extra charges for baths and 
 high-level services. As regards the gas supply, that 
 of course is paid for by metre. None of the water
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 or gas undertakings have been established by the 
 municipalities. They were all started originally by 
 joint-stock companies, and have been taken over by 
 the municipalities under compulsory powers obtained 
 from Parliament. Manchester led the way in the 
 acquirement of water-works in 1847; Liverpool fol- 
 lowed in 1850; and the movement has been going 
 on, until, in 1893, Bristol was the only large pro- 
 vincial city in which the water-works were in the 
 hands of a private company. 
 
 The municipalities of England had enjoyed popu- 
 lar representative local governing institutions for 
 nearly forty-five years before a similar system of gov- 
 ernment was established for the counties. It was 
 not until 1888 that Parliament took county adminis- 
 tration out of the hands of the magistrates and placed 
 it in the hands of a body elected on a popular fran- 
 chise. The magistrates, who still exist, but who are 
 now shorn of nearly all their powers of local govern- 
 ment, were, and still are, appointed by the Lord 
 Chancellor on the nomination of the Lord Lieuten- 
 ant, who is the Queen's representative in each county. 
 They met in quarter sessions and administered the 
 local affairs of the county. They exercised control 
 over the county police force, had the management of 
 the county lunatic asylums and the industrial schools, 
 the county bridges and main roads, and had vested 
 in their care the county halls, the assize court build- 
 ings, the judges' lodgings, the court-houses, and the 
 local justice rooms and lock-up houses. They also 
 dispensed all the county patronage, and generally
 
 24 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 speaking acted for the county in the same manner 
 that a town council acts for a municipality. There 
 was, however, this difference, a town councillor 
 was elected for three years, and was responsible to 
 his constituents, while the county magistrate, when 
 once placed on the bench by the Lord Chancellor, 
 was appointed for life, and was responsible to no 
 constituents. 
 
 The Act of 1888 disestablished the nominated 
 local governing body, and left to the county magis- 
 trates only their duties as justices of the peace, 
 and a part of their duties in relation to the county 
 police force. Their place for local governing pur- 
 poses was taken in 1889 by an elected body called 
 the county council. This body is elected every 
 three years on a franchise similar to that on which 
 members of the House of Commons have been 
 chosen since 1885, with the difference that women 
 householders vote for county councillors, while they 
 do not vote for members of Parliament. The rates 
 levied by the county council are assessed like those 
 in the borough on the Poor Law valuation of houses, 
 farms, and other landed property, and are collected 
 through the overseers of the poor in the same way 
 as the rates for the Poor Law guardians are collected. 
 
 The work of the county council is divided among 
 committees ; and, as with the town councils, the 
 county councillors and the county aldermen deliber- 
 ate and vote together. The chairman has no other 
 title than that of chairman, and exercises almost 
 exactly the same powers as the mayor of a borough.
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 2$ 
 
 The county council meets at the county town, 
 where the shire hall and the county offices are 
 established. No pay attaches to the office of county 
 councillor, nor is there any allowance for travelling 
 expenses to and from the county town to attend the 
 council meetings and those of its committees. A 
 county council does not discharge quite all the duties 
 that are discharged by a town council. Some of the 
 more local duties connected with the administration 
 of sanitary laws are discharged by what are known 
 as rural sanitary authorities. These bodies are 
 elected from the members of the local boards of 
 guardians for the relief of the poor, and exercise ju- 
 risdiction within the areas or unions in which the 
 board of guardians with which they are associated 
 discharges its duties in connection with the poor 
 laws. It is over the widely scattered and thinly pop- 
 ulated country that the rural sanitary authority exer- 
 cises its powers over the isolated little villages 
 and hamlets which are not large enough to maintain 
 local governing bodies of their own. 
 
 Between the villages and hamlets, and the towns 
 large enough to be incorporated under the borough 
 system, there are small towns in which municipal 
 government is carried on by local boards of health. 
 These boards are elected annually by open voting. 
 Their powers are not nearly so varied or extensive 
 as those of a town council ; but the boards serve 
 their purpose until the towns become sufficiently 
 large to apply to the Privy Council for incorporation. 
 All these smaller places, both the villages and
 
 26 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 hamlets under the rural sanitary authorities and the 
 towns governed by local boards of health, are policed 
 by the county constabulary, a force which is under 
 joint control of the county council and a committee 
 of the county justices. 
 
 London, as regards its municipal government, is 
 unlike any other city in England. It was left out 
 of the great measure of reform passed in 1835, 
 which, as has been shown, is the basis of muni- 
 cipal life in all the other large towns and cities of 
 the municipal life, in fact, of every town which has 
 a mayor and corporation ; and it was not until 1888, 
 when Lord Salisbury's administration undertook 
 the reform of county government, that London, with 
 its five million inhabitants, was given a great central 
 governing body, elected on a popular franchise. 
 Even then the whole of London was not included 
 in this long delayed measure of municipal reform. 
 
 The City of London the square mile or so of 
 territory of which the Mansion House or the Bank 
 of England may be taken as the centre is now, as 
 for centuries past, governed from the ancient Guild- 
 hall by the lord mayor, aldermen, and common 
 councillors, elected on a franchise the like of 
 which has no existence elsewhere in England. It is 
 confined to the freemen of the city who pay rates 
 to the amount of thirty shillings per annum. What 
 is known as the City has no connection with the 
 county council which governs Greater London. The 
 City of London this city within a city has its 
 own municipal life and privileges, its own peculiar
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 2.J 
 
 way of electing its common councillors, its aldermen, 
 and its Lord Mayor. It has its own police force, 
 and shares nothing in common with Greater Lon- 
 don, except the Fire Department, the administration 
 of the Elementary Education Acts by the London 
 School Board, and that of the hospitals for the 
 insane and for infectious diseases by the Metropoli- 
 tan Asylums Board. 
 
 Before the reform of 1888, which for the first 
 time gave Greater London a popularly elected cen- 
 tral governing body, all the vast portion of the 
 metropolis which lies outside the ancient city 
 boundaries was governed by nearly a hundred sep- 
 arate local bodies. The majority of them all the 
 older ones, in fact were known as vestries ; the 
 newer ones as boards of works. Each vestry and 
 each board of works was responsible for the local 
 government of a defined area, and elected from 
 its own membership representatives to a central 
 authority known as the Metropolitan Board of 
 Works. 
 
 The vestries took their names from the rate- 
 payers' meetings held in the parish churches in the 
 clays now gone by when, all over England, ecclesias- 
 tical, municipal, and poor-law affairs were closely 
 connected, and when the rector or the vicar had 
 duties towards his parishioners other than those 
 which were ecclesiastical and spiritual. In most 
 cases the modern London vestry, now no longer 
 connected with the church, has administrative con 
 trol for municipal purposes over an area which is
 
 28 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 identical with the geographical limit of the old eccle- 
 siastical parish. 
 
 As London has grown, and as population has 
 become more congested, the ecclesiastical parishes 
 have been divided and subdivided ; but the area of 
 the administrative vestry, the vestry charged with 
 local government, has remained the same. Some of 
 these vestries, like that of St. Pancras on the north 
 side of the Thames, or Lambeth on the south side of 
 the river, exercise powers for municipal purposes 
 over populations almost as large as those of Man- 
 chester or Liverpool, and over electorates which 
 have three or four representatives in the House of 
 Commons. All ratepayers vote at the elections for 
 these vestries ; but for membership there is a rat- 
 ing qualification, limiting it to the comparatively 
 well-to-do classes. 
 
 The Act of 1888, which established the London 
 County Council, did not greatly interfere with the 
 local governing duties of these vestries. The Act 
 abolished the Metropolitan Board of Works which 
 was elected from the vestries, and established in its 
 stead a popularly elected council, with one hundred 
 and thirty-seven members. Two of these are elected 
 from each of the fifty-nine divisions into which Lon- 
 don is divided for Parliamentary elections, while the 
 other nineteen are aldermen, and are elected, as in 
 the case of the provincial town councils, by the coun- 
 cil itself. The aldermen are elected for six years, 
 the county councillors for three. 
 
 To this new representative body were transferred
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 2$ 
 
 such powers as the old Metropolitan Board of Works 
 had exercised over the vestries and the district boards 
 of works, and had also enjoyed in connection with 
 the administrative affairs of Greater London. These 
 powers are extremely varied, as will readily be under- 
 stood when the area and the vast population of Lon- 
 don are called to mind. The County Council has 
 charge of all metropolitan as distinct from local and 
 district improvements, of the Thames Embankments, 
 of the bridges and ferries, the fire brigade, the parks 
 and recreation grounds, the main drainage works, 
 and also the issuing of licenses for theatres and 
 music halls. Unlike the large municipalities in the 
 provinces, the London Council has no control over 
 either the police force, or the water and gas supplies. 
 The Metropolitan Police, as distinct from the City of 
 London police, the police of Greater London, in 
 short, are under the direct and absolute control of 
 the Home Office, a government department at 
 Whitehall, charged with the administration of crimi- 
 nal law, the prisons and penal establishments, the 
 carrying out of factory legislation, and the regulation 
 and inspection of mines. 
 
 Londoners are rated to the amount of fivcpcnce 
 in the pound on their Poor Law valuation towards 
 the cost of maintaining the police force ; but their 
 representatives on the County Council have no direct 
 voice in the organization or management of the force. 
 For all practical purposes the Metropolitan Police is 
 as much an Imperial force as either the army or the 
 navy. The Home Office is responsible to Parliament
 
 3O THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 for its management, as the War Office or the Admi- 
 ralty is responsible for the army and the navy respec- 
 tively ; but the force is in no sense under municipal 
 control, as is the police force of Manchester or Liver- 
 pool. When the bill establishing the London County 
 Council was before Parliament, the Radicals, who 
 were then in Opposition, sought to put the London 
 Council in the same position towards the police as 
 that held by all the larger provincial municipalities. 
 It was argued, however, that the London police, from 
 the nature of things, could not be put on this muni- 
 cipal level, and the Government successfully resisted 
 the attempt of the Radicals to amend the bill in this 
 direction. 
 
 London, which at the present time requires some- 
 thing like 200,000,000 gallons of water a day, 
 receives its supplies from eight dividend paying 
 companies. Some of these companies take their 
 water from the non-tidal portion of the River Thames, 
 and from the River Lea. The others take theirs 
 from wells in Kent. The aggregate capital of these 
 concerns is fourteen or fifteen millions of pounds. 
 Several Parliamentary projects for taking over these 
 companies, and investing their works in a public 
 trust, have been discussed, and have even reached 
 a Parliamentary stage; but London is still behind 
 Manchester and Liverpool in this respect, and Lon- 
 doners are still paying ; 1,700,000 a year for their 
 water supply ; the share-holders are still receiving 
 dividends which average seven per cent ; and as 
 water rates in London, like so many other rates all
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 31 
 
 over England, are paid on the Poor Law valuation of 
 the property, the shares' of the water companies 
 automatically rise in value with every quinquennial 
 increase in the ratable value of the metropolis, and 
 each year which goes by makes the water problem 
 more difficult of solution ; that is, of a solution which 
 shall take the form of putting the municipality in 
 possession of the monopolies which have been so 
 long and so bountifully enjoyed by the stock-holders 
 in the water companies. It is the same with the gas 
 supply, although the question of taking over the gas 
 works and working them in the interests of the rate- 
 payers has not been discussed to anything like the 
 same extent as the taking over of the water supply. 
 
 The meetings of the London County Council are 
 held weekly, sometimes twice in a week when busi- 
 ness is pressing ; but, as is the case with all municipal 
 councils in England, the actual work is done in com- 
 mittee. Of these committees there are twenty-four 
 or twenty-five. Politics have from the first entered 
 largely into the proceedings of the London Council. 
 At the first election in 1889, the London Radicals 
 stole a march on the Conservatives, and carried all 
 before them. They elected a Radical chairman, 
 Radical aldermen, and generally organized the Coun- 
 cil to their own liking. Later on the Radicals took 
 the name of Progressives, while the Conservatives 
 were given the name of Reactionaries by their oppo- 
 nents. In Parliament in 1893, the Conservatives 
 representing London were thirty-eight to twenty-five 
 Gladstonian Liberals. London, as regards national
 
 32 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 politics, is Conservative ; but the London Conserva- 
 tives, who are largely of the middle classes, are always 
 apathetic as regards local government. The Radicals, 
 on the other hand, have been extremely active since 
 the County Council was established ; and to this fact, 
 and to the indifference of the London middle-class 
 householder to local politics, is due the control which 
 the Radicals, the Socialists, and the Labor Party 
 obtained and held during the first six years of the 
 existence of the London County Council. 
 
 Politics have little to do with the appointment of 
 office-holders under the County Council. A large 
 number of the heads of departments, clerks, and other 
 employes were taken over from the old Metropolitan 
 Board of Works. Others have been since appointed 
 to fill vacancies or to add to the staffs ; but it is 
 doubtful if a single appointee owes his position to 
 political influence or anything of the nature of a 
 "pull." Influence and "pulls" have not much to 
 do with local politics in England, whether as con- 
 cerns the larger or the smaller municipalities ; and 
 seldom, if ever, is a man put in a salaried office as an 
 acknowledgment or a reward of political service. 
 
 The London vestries are in a measure subordinate 
 to the County Council, and are charged with the 
 administration of affairs of local as distinct from 
 metropolitan concern, such as sewering, cleaning, 
 repairing, and lighting the streets, and the enforce- 
 ment of the numerous sanitary laws. The County 
 Council and the vestry are the two bodies with which 
 a Londoner who is the occupier of a house or shop,
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 33 
 
 a warehouse or an office, outside the City of London, 
 comes into contact in respect to all municipal affairs. 
 These tw.o bodies have powers to tax him for local 
 and metropolitan purposes respectively ; and through 
 the vestry he pays all his rates. It is through the 
 person of the collector from the vestry that the rate- 
 payer comes into financial relationship with all the 
 administrative bodies in London which have powers 
 to tax the householder. These bodies include (i) the 
 vestry itself ; (2) the London County Council ; (3) the 
 Local Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Poor, 
 (4) the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the body which 
 has charge of all the hospitals in London maintained 
 out of the rates ; (5) the London School Board, which 
 administers the Elementary Education Acts in the 
 metropolis ; (6) the police commissioners, and (7) 
 the commissioners of public baths and wash-houses. 
 
 There are six of these bodies, in addition to the 
 vestry; and for all of them the vestry acts as collector 
 of rates. Most of these rates, and in particular those 
 levied for the School Board, the London Council, the 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board, and for the expenses of 
 the police force, are uniform in all the vestry and 
 local board of works areas. Those which vary in 
 different districts of the metropolis are the rates 
 levied for the expenses of the vestry, and for the 
 administration of the Poor Laws. 
 
 Five shillings in the pound may be taken as the 
 average of the total rates paid by the householder 
 in the nearer residential districts of the metropolis. 
 As was explained in describing the rating system of
 
 34 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the provincial towns, this means that the house- 
 holder has to pay five shillings in respect of every 
 pound of his Poor Law valuation. This, rate may 
 appear low in comparison with the average rate in 
 provincial towns ; but in London, house rents are 
 much higher than in the provinces ; hence the total 
 rates paid by a householder average more in London 
 than in most provincial towns. If a man occupies 
 a house in London rented at fifty pounds and 
 assessed at thirty-eight pounds, his total contribu- 
 tion to the various local administrative bodies, his 
 quota towards the cost of municipal government, 
 the administration of the Elementary Education 
 Acts and of the Poor Laws will be nine pounds ten 
 shillings, or in round figures a sum approximating 
 to one-fifth of his rent. 
 
 In London, as in the provinces, all local rates are 
 paid by the occupier. If a man owns the house he 
 occupies, it is rated on its assessed rental value. 
 London rates are collected quarterly, and each 
 quarterly instalment is paid in advance. In case 
 of default, the rate-collector can obtain a distress 
 warrant from the magistrates, and seize the de- 
 faulter's household goods or his stock in trade. All 
 electoral franchises in England are based upon the 
 payment of rates ; and if a householder fails to pay 
 them, he loses his vote not only for the town council 
 or the vestry, the board of guardians for the relief of 
 the poor and the school board, but also for a member 
 of Parliament.
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Antiquity of the Poor Law. The Church and early Poor Law Systems. 
 The "Pig-Sty Era." Poor Law Relief and Laborers' Wages. Sir 
 Erskine May's description of Rural England at the end of the " Pig Sty 
 Era." Reform of 1834. Local Government Board and Poor Law 
 Administration. Local Poor Law Administration. An Election of a 
 Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Poor. Safeguarding of Property 
 Owners. The New Democracy and Poor Law Politics. Recent conces- 
 sions to the Democracy. Women as Poor Law Guardians. The prin- 
 ciple of the Poor Law System. In-door and Out-door Relief. The 
 Workhouse and its internal management. Tenure of Poor Law Officers. 
 A Board of Guardians in session. Typical applicants for relief . Poor 
 Law and Old Age. Pauper Children. Medical Relief outside the Work- 
 house. Treatment of Tramps. Some characteristics of the English 
 Tramp. Women and Children of the tramp class. Cost of the Poor 
 I-aw system. Rating for Poor Law purposes. Parliament and Poor 
 Law Boards. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the present Poor Law system dates 
 only from 1834, two years later than the 
 measure- which gave England a representative House 
 of Commons, and one year earlier than the establish- 
 ment of the system of municipal government which 
 has been described in the preceding chapter, England 
 has had a Poor Law system of one kind or another for 
 nearly three centuries and a half. An Act of Parlia- 
 ment passed in 1551 threw upon the Church the duty 
 of systematically relieving the poor, and imposed upon 
 the rectors and vicars of parishes the work of collect- 
 ing alms for this purpose. This measure, so far as
 
 36 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 the alms-giving was concerned, seems to have been 
 voluntary, and not to have worked satisfactorily ; for 
 in 1601 the law was made compulsory. The Church 
 still remained the centre of the Poor Law administra- 
 tion, as under the Act of 1551 ; and in Easter week 
 each year at meetings of the parishioners held in the 
 church vestry, overseers were elected to carry out the 
 provisions of the law. Overseers are still annually 
 elected at meetings of the ratepayers, and still levy 
 the rates for the relief of the poor, and are respon- 
 sible for their collection. In the municipal boroughs 
 the Church has no longer any part in the election of 
 these overseers of the poor ; but in the smaller 
 villages, in which sanitary laws are administered by 
 the rural sanitary authorities, the annual meetings of 
 the ratepayers are still held in the vestry of the 
 parish church, and the rector or the vicar is, by 
 virtue of his office, chairman of the vestry meeting. 
 
 The history of "the English Poor Law system 
 easily divides itself into four epochs. The first 
 commenced with the semi-voluntary system, which 
 lasted from 1551 to 1601. The second dates from 
 the Act of 1 60 1, providing for the election of over- 
 seers of the poor, and lasted until 1760. Then comes 
 the epoch from 1760 to 1834, and finally the one 
 which embraces the existing system. 
 
 The leading characteristics of the epochs from 
 1551 to 1601, and from 1601 to 1760, have been 
 briefly touched upon. The new era of the Poor 
 Law will be described presently. The third of these 
 epochs, that from 1760 to the reform of the system
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 37 
 
 in 1834, is known in history as the " Pig Sty 
 Era " of the Poor Law System. During the three- 
 quarters of a century over which it extended, it 
 seems to have been the intention of Parliament by 
 its Poor Law legislation to restrict the wages of the 
 laborer for the benefit of the employer, and to have 
 been regarded as the duty of the legislature to 
 provide for all who were destitute ; to take it for 
 granted that the laboring population was chronically 
 and irretrieveably destitute, and that consequently it 
 was the duty of the State to provide for all the labor- 
 ing classes by' means of the Poor Law. From 1760 
 until the end of the eighteenth century, the Poor 
 Laws were framed and administered in this spirit ; 
 so much so that the self-relying and independent 
 laborer had been practically legislated out of existence 
 by the commencement of the nineteenth century, and 
 a condition of things almost appalling was exposed 
 by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws which 
 reported in 1833, and upon whose report Parliament 
 at once took action. In the year that the. Royal Com- 
 mission presented its report, the enormous sum of 
 ;8,6oo,ooo was expended on Poor Law relief, and 
 in many parts of England the sums due from farmers 
 for poor rates equalled those which they paid the 
 landlords for rent. In 1833 the population of Eng- 
 land was about 1 5,000,000 ; in 1891 it was 29,000,000, 
 and the total amount expended in the relief of the 
 poor was ^8,643, ooo. 
 
 How the ^8,600,000 expended in the last year of 
 the " Pig Sty Era " was disbursed, is graphically told
 
 38 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 by Sir Erskine May in his " Constitutional History 
 of England." "The fund intended for the relief of 
 want and sickness, of age and impotence," he writes, 
 "was recklessly distributed to all who begged for a 
 share. Every one was taught to look to the parish 
 and not to his own honest industry for support. 
 The idle clown, without work, fared as well as the 
 industrious laborer who toiled from morning to night. 
 The shameless slut with half a dozen children, the 
 progeny of many fathers, was provided for as liber- 
 ally as the destitute widow and her orphans. But 
 worse than this, independent laborers were tempted 
 and seduced into the degraded ranks of pauperism 
 by payments freely made in aid of wages. Cottage 
 rents were paid and allowances given according to 
 the number of a family. Hence thrift, self-denial, 
 and honest independence were discouraged. The 
 manly farm laborer who scorned to ask for alms 
 found his own wages artificially lowered, while im- 
 providence was cherished and rewarded by the 
 parish. He could barely live without encumbrance ; 
 but boys and girls were hastening to church without 
 a thought of the morrow, and rearing new broods of 
 paupers to be maintained by the overseers." 
 
 The new Poor Law was passed by Parliament in 
 1834; and the oversight of its administration was 
 placed in the hands of a special board of commis- 
 sioners, then known as the Central Poor Law Board. 
 This board, which was not represented in Parliament, 
 was continued until 1847. In that year it was re- 
 constructed and placed under the presidency of a
 
 THE POOR LA W AND ITS ADMINISTRA T2ON. 39 
 
 minister with a seat in the House of Commons a 
 reconstruction putting it on a political level with the 
 Home Office and the other important Government 
 Departments at Whitehall. The Department was 
 henceforward known as the Poor Law Board, and 
 continued to be so named until 1871, when there 
 was another reconstruction. This time the Poor 
 Law Board took over from the Home Office various 
 duties in respect of municipal government and pub- 
 lic health, and from the Privy Council the oversight 
 of the administration of the vaccination laws and 
 other powers, and its title was changed to that of 
 the Local Government Board. Since then hardly a 
 session of Parliament has passed in which its duties 
 and responsibilities have not been added to, until at 
 the present time the Local Government Board is 
 more directly in touch with the people of England 
 and Wales than any other Government Department. 
 There is not a village in the land which its inspectors 
 do not visit or to which the official communications 
 of the Board are not addressed. 
 
 What the Central Poor Law Board did in 1834 
 was to divide England and Wales into eleven Poor 
 Law districts, to subdivide these districts into union 
 counties, and again subdivide these into unions, 
 which are the local units for Poor Law administra- 
 tion. There were in 1892, 648 of these Poor Law 
 unions, with an average population of 45,000 per 
 union. Each union is independent of its neighbors, 
 and answerable only to the Local Government Board 
 for the way in which it administers the Poor Law
 
 40 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 within the territory over which it exercises jurisdic- 
 tion, and within which it has the power of levying 
 poor rates. A number of parishes or townships are 
 grouped together to form one union. They jointly 
 bear the cost of building and maintaining the work- 
 house, and of relieving the resident and vagrant poor. 
 The superintendence of the local administration of 
 relief is in the hands of the Board of Guardians for 
 the Relief of the Poor. In the majority of unions 
 this board is elected annually. Annual elections 
 were at first the invariable rule ; but within the last 
 few years some of the unions, with the sanction of 
 the Local Government Board, have adopted the plan 
 of triennial elections, and claim to have effected 
 some economy, and secured a better and more uni- 
 form administration of the law, by the change. 
 
 The voting at the election of a board of guardians 
 is not by ballot, as at an election of a town council or 
 a school board. Papers are delivered by the police at 
 the house of every ratepayer who has paid his or her 
 quota to the relief of the poor, and are collected after 
 they have been filled up by the householder. The 
 householder may vote for as many members as there 
 are to be elected from the township in which his house 
 is situated. Thus, if there are seven members to be 
 elected for a certain township, the ordinary elector 
 may vote for seven out of the total number of candi- 
 dates nominated. Plural voting is part of the sys 
 tern, and a ratepayer's votes are in proportion to the 
 annual sum which is levied upon him for the main- 
 tenance of the poor. Plural voting was intended by
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 4! 
 
 Parliament as a protection to the property-owning 
 classes; and to the same end the Act of 1834 pro- 
 vided that all county magistrates living within the 
 area of the union should by virtue of their being 
 of the magistracy be also members of the board of 
 guardians. Nor were plural voting and the privileges 
 of county magistrates in connection with Poor Law 
 relief the only protection to property owners. Until 
 1892 in most unions there was a property qualifica- 
 tion which limited membership of the board exclu- 
 sively to the landed and well-to-do middle classes. 
 
 The fixing of the amount of the qualification was 
 left by Parliament in the hands of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board. All that the law stipulated was that 
 the property qualification should not exceed a ratable 
 value of forty pounds. Usually the guardians of 
 the union reported to the Local Government Board 
 what would be a convenient and a desirable qualifica- 
 tion in their union, and the Board almost invariably 
 acted upon this local recommendation. Thus it came 
 about that the qualification varied from a ten pound 
 ratable value in some of the smaller provincial unions 
 in which house rents were low, to the maximum figure 
 of forty pounds in some of the unions of London, 
 where there is a wealthy residential population, or 
 where the professional and trading middle classes 
 desired to retain the administration of the poor law 
 in their own hands, and to keep off the board those 
 who paid but small amounts to the poor rate. 
 
 Until after the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1884, 
 the Act which enfranchised the small householders
 
 42 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 in the rural districts, there were no serious com- 
 plaints about this rating qualification for Poor Law 
 guardians. But as the result of this Act, the num- 
 ber of workingmen members of the House of Com- 
 mons was increased from two to eleven or twelve; 
 and between the 1885 General Election, the first at 
 which the new rural voters exercised the Parliament- 
 ary franchise, and the General Election in the sum- 
 mer of 1892, which returned Mr. Gladstone to power, 
 after he had been in Opposition for seven years, a 
 large number of workingmen had gone into local poli- 
 tics, and had been elected to town councils, .county 
 councils, and school boards all over the country. 
 
 Workingmen had also turned their attention to 
 the boards of guardians, only to find themselves 
 warned off by the high rating qualification. There 
 is no property qualification for membership of the 
 House of Commons, or of a town council, or a school 
 board ; and the Radicals complained that it was un- 
 reasonable and archaic that such a qualification was 
 maintained in connection with Poor Law boards. 
 Accordingly, when Mr. Gladstone's government came 
 into office, Mr. Henry Fowler, M.P., the President 
 of the Local Government Board, reduced the qualifi- 
 cation to five pounds. Up to this time national 
 politics had had little to do with Poor Law guardians' 
 elections. Men were usually elected to the boards 
 because they had time to give to the board's busi- 
 ness, because they were trusted by their neighbors, 
 and frequently because they were large ratepayers, 
 and on this account, it was assumed, would work
 
 THE POOR LA W AND ITS ADMINISTRA TION. 43 
 
 for an economic administration of the Poor Laws. 
 " Keep down the rates " is the maxim of these men, 
 and it is the maxim of the large ratepayers who sup- 
 ported them at the elections. It was the desire of 
 the Radicals to share more largely than heretofore 
 in the work of administering the Poor Laws, which 
 led to Mr. Fowler's order of 1892, reducing the 
 rating qualification ; and from this order, or rather 
 from the agitation which preceded it by two or three 
 years, must be dated the introduction of national 
 politics into the administration of the Poor Law 
 system. 
 
 No pay, no perquisites, no patronage, and no priv- 
 ileges of any kind, attach to the office of Poor Law 
 guardians ; and as a general thing there is no great 
 competition for places on the boards. " A member 
 of a town council usually takes the platform when he 
 is seeking re-election, and goes over his votes and 
 actions in the council before meetings of his consti- 
 tuents. Meetings, however, are seldom held for the 
 purpose of discussing the acceptability of this or 
 that candidate for membership of a board of guardi- 
 ans, for reviewing the work of a retiring board, or 
 influencing or directing the policy of a board about 
 to be elected. The elections, as a rule, take place 
 without evoking any enthusiasm or stir among the 
 ratepayers, and none of the local governing bodies 
 go about their work more quietly and unobtrusively 
 than the Poor Law guardians. 
 
 Women vote at the elections of Poor Law guardi- 
 ans. There is no law prohibiting women from acting
 
 44 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 as members of the boards ; but it was not until 
 1875 tnat a woman was elected. In that year Miss 
 Martha Merington was elected to the Kensington 
 Board, London ; and since that time there has been 
 a gradual increase in the number of women elected 
 as guardians. 
 
 The duties of a board of guardians are strictly ad- 
 ministrative, and are all defined with great care by 
 the Local Government Board. The principle of the 
 Poor Law is to relieve destitution, but in so doing, to 
 take care not to place the recipient of relief in a 
 better position than that of the lowest class of self- 
 supporting and independent laborers. All who are 
 destitute are entitled to relief without any question 
 as to character or antecedents. It lies with the 
 board of guardians only to determine in what form 
 the relief shall be given. There are two systems of 
 relief under the Poor Law in-door and out-door, and 
 both Parliament and the Local Government Board 
 have always left it to the unions to decide whether 
 they will work both systems. It is within the power 
 of a board of guardians to say that in their union 
 there shall be no out-door relief, and that all persons 
 in need shall go into the workhouse, or look to other 
 sources than the rates. In the majority of unions, 
 while both systems are maintained, the tendency is 
 to confine relief as much as possible to that admin- 
 istered within the workhouse ; in some, out-door re- 
 lief has been abolished altogether, and the workhouse 
 is all that is offered to the applicant for relief. 
 
 A union in which both the in-door and the out-door
 
 THE POOR LA W AND ITS ADMINISTRA TION. 45 
 
 system are in force affords the best illustration of 
 the working of the Poor Laws. Each union main- 
 tains a workhouse of its own, built in some central 
 part of the union area. A municipal borough is 
 often included in a union, as well as a number of the 
 outlying rural townships. In this case the work- 
 house is usually situated within the limits of the 
 borough. The house is in charge of a master and a 
 matron, aided by a porter who has charge of the 
 gates, and usually acts as labor master. The doctor 
 and relieving officers have offices within the work- 
 house ; but their duties, especially those of the reliev- 
 ing officers, are mainly on the outside. 
 
 The master has almost absolute control within 
 the workhouse. The other officers in the service of 
 the board are the clerk, who is generally a lawyer ; the 
 assistant overseers who collect the poor rate, under 
 the supervision of the overseers, appointed at the 
 town meeting ; the public vaccinator, and the regis- 
 trar of births and deaths. All the officers under the 
 board are appointed without any reference whatever 
 to their political opinions. They hold office during 
 good behavior, and the board of guardians may not 
 discharge the humblest of them without the sanction 
 of the Local Government Hoard. In this respect 
 they are in a better position than officers in the ser- 
 vice of the municipal authorities who have not this 
 appeal to the Local Government Hoard. 
 
 A board of guardians in an ordinary-sized union 
 meets fortnightly, as a rule, for the purpose of pass- 
 ing on the work of the several committees into which
 
 46 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the board divides itself, and for hearing and deter- 
 mining all applications for relief. Relief cases are 
 heard in private ; reporters are admitted when the 
 other business is under consideration. The meet- 
 ings are regularly reported in the newspapers ; but 
 Poor Law politics do not command the same news- 
 paper attention as the proceedings of a town coun- 
 cil. The difference is due to the fact that much 
 of the work of the Poor Law guardians is purely 
 routine. The guardians when sitting for the dispen- 
 sation of relief are compelled to give a hearing to all 
 who apply. The only condition is that a preliminary 
 application shall have been made to one of the reliev- 
 ing officers. The intention of this rule is to permit 
 a full inquiry before the cause is adjudicated upon. 
 
 A few typical cases will serve to show the mode 
 of procedure of the board in dealing with applicants 
 for relief. The first shall be that of a married man 
 with a wife and family who is out of work, or broken 
 in health, and is at the end of his means. Although 
 the union may be one in which both out-door and in- 
 door relief is granted, this applicant would not be at 
 all likely to receive out-door relief. After he had 
 stated his case, he would be told that he and his 
 family might go into the workhouse ; for none but 
 medical relief, except in special circumstances, is 
 ever given outside the workhouse to able-bodied pau- 
 pers. If the applicant accepted this offer, and went 
 with his family into the workhouse, he would be sep- 
 arated from his wife and children, but allowed to see 
 them once each day. Husband and wife would have
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 47 
 
 to work in the house. The husband could discharge 
 himself at any time on giving a few hours' notice to 
 the workhouse master ; but when he left he would be 
 compelled to take his wife and family with him, and 
 if he desired to return, he would have to make a 
 second application to the board of guardians. 
 
 Another case which will illustrate the administra- 
 tion of relief, is that of a widow who has been left 
 with three or four young children. If she could 
 show to the guardians that she was making an effort 
 to maintain her home, and that her relatives were 
 helping her, the guardians would probably vote her 
 an allowance of three or four shillings a week, and 
 a small allowance for each child. If the applicant 
 appeared to be a shiftless and ill-managing woman, 
 with an indifferent character, she would be offered 
 the house as the only alternative. When once in 
 the workhouse, until a pauper discharges himself, he 
 is practically a prisoner, and is compelled to observe 
 rules and regulations almost as stringent as those en- 
 forced in a penitentiary. He is allowed out occa- 
 sionally ; but the time of his going and returning is 
 rigidly fixed, and any tardiness in returning will 
 bring upon him a sharp punishment. Uniforms are 
 worn by all inmates, men, women, and children. 
 
 There is another class of cases which may be 
 cited as illustrating the working of the Poor Law. It 
 is that of married women who have been deserted 
 by their husbands. Usually when a woman so de- 
 serted applies to the guardians for relief, she is 
 offered the house ; and as soon as she has become
 
 48 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 an inmate, and thereby become chargeable to the 
 Poor Law, the relieving officers and the police officers 
 for miles around are on the look-out for the runaway 
 husband. When he is arrested, he is taken before 
 the magistrates and ordered to repay to the guardi- 
 ans the amount which they have expended on his 
 wife and children. If he fails to do so, he is sent to 
 prison for three weeks or a month. The machinery 
 in the hands of the Poor Law is practically the only 
 means by which a married woman of the working- 
 class can obtain redress against a husband who has 
 deserted her for another woman. There is no crimi- 
 nal law under which she can secure her husband's 
 punishment, and the guardians cannot take action 
 until the deserted wife has become chargeable upon 
 the funds of the union. 
 
 Two classes of resident poor give the guardians 
 great trouble. These are the able-bodied, but lazy 
 and good-for-nothing men who will not maintain 
 their wives, except when compelled to do so by fear 
 of imprisonment, and the women who are mothers 
 without being wives. The guardians act towards the 
 putative fathers of the children of these women as 
 they do towards recreant husbands ; and if the men 
 fail in the payments which the magistrates have de- 
 creed they shall make, they are sent to prison, but can- 
 not be detained there for more than a month at a time. 
 When these men come out of prison at the end of 
 one month, they are allowed another free month in 
 which to make some attempt to pay off arrears. If 
 they fail to do this, back again they go to prison.
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 49 
 
 As in the case of a woman deserted by her hus- 
 band, these mothers who are not wives have to 
 become chargeable upon the poor fund before the 
 guardians can take action against the putative 
 fathers. Over the women themselves the guardi- 
 ans have no very effective control. The women can 
 practically come and go into and out of the work- 
 house as they like. They can discharge themselves 
 whenever it suits them to do so, and can come back 
 when their condition renders their return absolutely 
 necessary. Destitution is the only condition neces- 
 sary to their admission to the workhouse, and the only 
 condition attendant upon their discharging themselves 
 is the one which compels them to take their children 
 with them. 
 
 The cases which have been cited are typical of 
 many of those which come before the Poor Law guar- 
 dians when they are in session for the administration 
 of relief. There is still another class of cases to be 
 cited, that of old people of good character, who have 
 reached the time of life when they are no longer 
 able to work, but whose misfortunes or poor circum- 
 stances all through life have not admitted of their 
 making any provision for old age, or indeed of 
 more than meeting their immediate and pressing 
 demands. The case of these old people in unions 
 where out-door relief is not granted is peculiarly hard. 
 In such unions nothing is offered to them but the 
 workhouse ; and once inside the workhouse, no dis- 
 tinction is drawn between them and the men and 
 women whose lives have been vicious or criminal.
 
 5O THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 In unions like the one which has been taken to illus- 
 trate the working of the relief system, in which both 
 out-door and in-door relief is administered, old people 
 of good character who are living with members of 
 their family, or with friends who can partially sup- 
 port them, would receive a small weekly allowance 
 from the guardians, varying from three shillings and 
 sixpence to five shillings per week. In all cases of 
 this kind, where there are sons, the guardians seek 
 to recover some contribution from them towards the 
 allowance which is made from the union fund to their 
 parents. If a son fails to come to some arrangement 
 with the guardians, he is summoned before the ma- 
 gistrates. The guardians will follow a man to any 
 part of the country, to recover some contribution 
 towards the cost which they may have incurred in 
 making an allowance to his father or his mother, or 
 in maintaining one or both of them in the work- 
 house. 
 
 The only other class of resident poor who are dealt 
 with by the guardians inside the workhouses, or in 
 institutions managed by the guardians, are orphan or 
 deserted children and the children of pauper parents 
 who are themselves in the workhouse. Great care is 
 given to the education of these children. In some 
 unions the children attend school within the work- 
 house ; in others they are sent out to the elementary 
 day schools in the neighborhood. In other unions 
 schools and homes for the children are established 
 apart from the workhouse ; and in others, again, the 
 children are boarded-out in the homes of laboring
 
 THE POOR LAW AND 2TS ADMINISTRATION. 51 
 
 families. The aim of the guardians who adopt either 
 of the last two plans the separate school system, 
 or the boarding-out system is to eradicate the 
 pauper taint and to give the children a good start in 
 life ; but no matter which of the four plans is adopted, 
 all the children who come under the care of the Poor 
 Law guardians are given as good an elementary edu- 
 cation as is given in the free elementary day schools 
 established under the school boards. In the case of 
 boys, more care is taken as to their apprenticeship to 
 trades than is bestowed on thousands of the boys of 
 the laboring, artisan, and lower middle classes. Few 
 of the boys from the Poor Law schools are allowed to 
 grow up without a trade or handicraft, and thus drift 
 into the ranks of clerks of a poor grade, or of unskilled 
 day laborers. Domestic service claims most of the 
 girls from the Poor Law schools. 
 
 The guardians of the poor are intrusted with the 
 care of pauper lunatics; that is, of those lunatics 
 whose friends are not sufficiently well off to be able 
 to maintain them in private asylums. Pauper luna- 
 tics are not maintained in. the workhouses, but in 
 asylums which are common to all the unions in a 
 county. A fixed charge is made upon each union 
 for every pauper from its area who is confined in the 
 county asylum. Until 1888 the asylums were man- 
 aged by the county magistrates ; but in that year 
 this duty was turned over to the county council. A 
 committee from each board of guardians pays periodic 
 visits to the patients from its union who are detained 
 in the county asylum. The preliminaries connected
 
 52 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 with sending a patient there, such as the obtaining 
 of the necessary order from the magistrates, and the 
 conveyance of the patient from his home to the asy- 
 lum, are in the hands of the officers of the board of 
 guardians. In cases in which the patient's friends 
 can afford to make some payment for his main- 
 tenance, the money is collected by the board of 
 guardians in much the same way as money is col- 
 lected from a man who is compelled to pay for 
 the maintenance of his father or mother in the 
 workhouse. 
 
 With one exception all the methods of relief appli- 
 cable to the resident poor have now been described. 
 The exception is the medical relief granted to per- 
 sons outside the workhouse. For outdoor medical 
 relief purposes, each Poor Law union is divided into 
 districts, and to each district a medical officer is 
 appointed, who is known as the parish doctor. Peo- 
 ple who are in need of medical aid, and who are too 
 poor to call in an ordinary doctor, procure in the first 
 instance an order from the local relieving officer. 
 This is then presented to the medical officer, whose 
 duty it is to act upon it at once. The order of the 
 Local Government Board to each of these parish 
 doctors is that he " attend duly and punctually upon 
 all poor persons requiring medical attendance, and 
 supply the requisite medicines whenever he may be 
 lawfully required by an order of the guardians, or of 
 a relieving officer, or of an overseer." When articles 
 of food are necessary for a patient, they are supplied 
 on the recommendation of the medical officer. The
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 53 
 
 receipt of medical relief in this way, whether by a 
 man or his wife, pauperizes the man, and may result 
 in the loss of his vote. The payment of poor rates 
 is the only qualification for a Parliamentary franchise ; 
 and when a man ceases to pay rates, or ceases to 
 occupy rooms or a house in respect of which they 
 are paid, and in any form whatever receives from 
 instead of contributing to the poor fund, his name is 
 struck off the roll of electors, and he is disfranchised 
 for at least one year, often for a longer period, no 
 matter how small the relief he may have had from 
 the union. 
 
 One department of every workhouse is arranged 
 for the reception of non-resident poor; that is, for 
 vagrants who are passing through the union. Orders 
 for admission are obtained from the relieving offi- 
 cers, sometimes from the police, and they may also 
 be issued at the workhouse by the master or the 
 superintendent of the vagrant ward. In winter the 
 vagrants are admitted to the workhouse after six 
 o'clock ; in summer after eight o'clock. Tramps have 
 always been a source of trouble and perplexity to 
 the Poor Law guardians. While the proportion of 
 ordinary paupers to population has been falling for 
 the last thirty or thirty-five years, the number of 
 vagrants has been increasing. From 1858 to 1871 
 the number increased at such an extraordinary rate 
 that more stringent regulations were deemed neces- 
 sary in dealing with them; and in November, 1871, 
 new orders were issued by the Local Government 
 Board, Under these rules, when a tramp was
 
 54 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 received at the casual ward, he was searched and 
 bathed, his clothes were taken from him, and, if they 
 appeared to need it, were dried and disinfected. He 
 was lodged in a separate cell, and detained until 
 eleven o'clock the next day, or until he had broken a 
 certain weight of stone for use on the highway, or 
 picked a certain quantity of oakum, a task demanded 
 of him in return for the supper and breakfast of 
 bread and gruel, or bread and soup, and the shelter 
 the workhouse had afforded him. Women vagrants 
 were compelled to pick oakum. 
 
 In 1882, about ten years after these rules were 
 adopted, another endeavor was made to reduce the 
 number of tramps applying for relief. This time the 
 Local Government Board asked further powers from 
 Parliament. What is now known as the Casual Poor 
 Act was passed, and under its provisions a tramp may 
 be detained until nine o'clock on the morning of the 
 second day following that on which he is admitted 
 to the casual ward. If he appears for a second time 
 in the same ward within the space of a month, he 
 may be detained until the fourth day. For a time 
 these stringent regulations served to keep down the 
 number of tramps ; but as years went on the num- 
 ber again mounted up. The English tramp goes 
 about the country with his womankind and his chil- 
 dren. Once of the tramp fraternity, he seldom 
 leaves it, and generally ends his life in a workhouse 
 hospital, or in the old men's ward of a union in which 
 he has managed to secure a settlement. 
 
 Each Poor Law union is self-contained, and defrays
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. 55 
 
 the cost of maintaining its own poor and its own 
 workhouse. When urban and rural townships are 
 comprised in the same union, as is frequently the 
 case, two poor rates are levied, one for the muni- 
 cipal area, and the other for the rural townships. 
 The accompanying extracts from the rate papers of 
 a large union in Lancashire, partly urban and partly 
 rural, show how the system of assessment for Poor 
 Law purposes works. The first sets out the demands 
 upon the householders in the urban districts of the 
 union. 
 
 s. d. 
 Relief of the poor and other expenditure 
 
 by the guardians o 9 in the 
 
 County rate 02! " 
 
 Borough rate I 3! " 
 
 Other expenses of the overseers ... oj ' 
 
 Total 24 " 
 
 Only the first of these demands is for money ex- 
 pended in the relief of the poor. The county rate 
 is collected by the overseers of the poor as the 
 representatives of the county council, the body which 
 administers local government in its larger sense all 
 over the county. The borough rate is collected by 
 the overseers, and turned in to the municipal treasury. 
 It supplements the charges known as the improve- 
 ment rate and the sewers rate, which are collected 
 directly by the town council through its own officers. 
 The fourth item on the rate paper goes to the fund 
 out of which is paid the salary of the assistant over-
 
 $6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 seers who actually collect the rates, and which covers 
 the other expenses incidental to the offices of the 
 overseers of the poor. The overseers themselves 
 receive no pay or compensation of any kind. 
 
 The statement on which the rural householder in 
 the union pays his rates is drawn up thus : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Relief of the Poor and other Expenditure 
 
 by the Guardians o 9 in the 
 
 County Rate o 2 " 
 
 Expenses of School Attendance Commit- 
 tee o of " 
 
 General Expenses of Rural Sanitary Au- 
 thority o ij " 
 
 Other Expenses of the Overseers . . . o oj " 
 
 Total 12 
 
 As in the case of the ratepayer living in the urban 
 district, only the first of these charges is for the re- 
 lief of the poor ; and it will be noted that this charge 
 is uniform all over the union area, the same in the 
 town as in the country districts. The second of the 
 charges is collected by the overseers for the county 
 council. As regards the third, the Elementary Edu- 
 cation Acts are administered (i) by school boards 
 specially elected for this purpose ; (2) in urban dis- 
 tricts by town councils ; and (3) in rural districts by 
 boards of guardians. When a board of guardians 
 administers the Acts, it appoints a school attendance 
 committee from its membership, and this committee 
 has nearly all the powers of a school board. The 
 fourth of the charges represents the outlay in the
 
 THE POOR LAW AND ITS ADMINISTRATION. $? 
 
 rural townships by the rural sanitary authority in 
 connection with the administration of the health and 
 sanitary laws. 
 
 In the ordinary course of things, there is no con- 
 nection between the Poor Laws and the administra- 
 tion of education and sanitary laws ; but as each union 
 has a board of Poor Law guardians, and every parish 
 or township in the country has its representatives on 
 one of these boards, Parliament has always been dis- 
 posed to put this local machinery to other uses be- 
 sides that of administering relief to the poor. This 
 disposition of Parliament is seen in connection with 
 the Compulsory Vaccination Acts, the administra- 
 tion of which was thrown upon the Poor Law boards ; 
 in the duties under the various Health Acts which 
 have also been imposed on the guardians ; and in con- 
 nection with the Elementary Education Acts passed 
 since 1870. It has always been the tendency of Par- 
 liament in passing any new law to look around for an 
 existing local authority upon which the duties of its 
 administration misht be thrown.
 
 58 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Ancient Grammar Schools. First Elementary Day Schools. Establish- 
 ment of the British and Foreign School Society and the National School 
 Society. Parliamentary Grants to Elementary Education. Establish- 
 ment of Education Department. Appointment of Government Inspec- 
 tors. Payment by Results. Schoolhouses and Government Grants. 
 Training Colleges for Teachers. Teachers' Certificates. Voluntary ef- 
 fort inadequate. Forster Act of 1870. Position of Voluntary Schools, 
 School Boards, and Attendance Committees established in every District. 
 Relations of School Attendance Committees to Voluntary Schools. 
 Difference between Voluntary and Board Schools. Compulsory Educa- 
 tion and Defaulting Parents. Conditions under which School Boards are 
 Established. Objections to School Boards ; Economy and the interests of 
 Religious Denominations. Religious Teaching in Voluntary Schools. 
 School Board Elections and Politics. Tenure of School Board Officers. 
 Legal definition of Elementary School. Non-sectarian Religious Instruc- 
 tion in Board Schools. Grants from Education Department. School 
 Board Rates. Training of Teachers. Queen's Scholarships. The 
 Colleges. Teachers' Credentials. Salaries of Teachers. Evening 
 Classes. Science and Art Department. Technical Education and 
 Manual Instruction. Total annual cost of State-aided Education. 
 
 THE elementary day school system of England 
 has been of slow growth. From the time of 
 George III. to within four or five years of the com- 
 mencement of Queen Victoria's reign in 1837, ele- 
 mentary education was entirely in the hands of 
 societies established by benevolent and public-spir- 
 ited people societies which received neither sanc- 
 tion nor aid from Parliament. All over England 
 there were grammar schools with foundations and
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, 59 
 
 endowments, dating back for about three centuries ; 
 but these were almost exclusively in the hands of the 
 well-to-do, and at the commencement of the century 
 few schools were available for the children of the 
 laboring classes. 
 
 The first society organized to meet this need was 
 the British and Foreign School Society, established 
 in 1808 ; while the second was the National Society, 
 a Church of England organization, founded in 1811, 
 and strongly supported by the bishops and clergy of 
 the Church. Both these societies are still in existence, 
 and each is now a great power in the educational 
 world. The British and Foreign Society is, and al- 
 ways has been, an undenominational organization sup- 
 ported by people who are dissenters from the Church 
 of England, and largely by Congregationalists and 
 members of the Society of Friends. These two or- 
 ganizations, which in their early days were in a 
 position of rivalry, established elementary day schools 
 in as many places as their funds would permit, and 
 also founded colleges for the systematic training of 
 teachers of elementary day schools. 
 
 The societies had been at work, each in its own 
 sphere, for a little more than twenty years before 
 they received any recognition from the Government. 
 In 1833 a grant of .20,000 from the National Treasury 
 was divided between them, to be used in the building 
 of school-houses. The grant was continued each year 
 by Parliament, and in 1839 it was increased to ^"30,000. 
 There was then established the Committee of the 
 Privy Council on Education, which from that time to
 
 6O THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 the present has been the Government Department 
 responsible to Parliament for all matters connected 
 with state-aided education. Government inspectors 
 of schools were then appointed ; the Education Code 
 was then first drawn up, and what is now known as 
 the payment by results system was then established. 
 Under this system the Government makes a grant 
 for each child who passes the examination held by 
 its inspectors under the provisions and conditions of 
 the Education Code. 
 
 The new departure of the Government in regard to 
 elementary education led to the establishment of a 
 large number of day schools, and by 1850 over two 
 thousand schools were in existence, providing accom- 
 modation for about half a million children. In 1853, 
 when the Committee of the Council for Education 
 was reorganized, and given a more independent posi- 
 tion than it had held from 1839, tne annual grant 
 based on the payment on results system had increased 
 to .150,000. By 1861, the number of children in 
 attendance at elementary schools was 700,000, and 
 the Government grant had reached .840,000. Up to 
 this time, and in fact for fifteen years later, there was 
 no compulsory school attendance, except in the case 
 of children who worked half the day in the mills, and 
 were compelled to attend school during the other half. 
 Nor was there any direct attempt on the part of 
 the Government Department administering the fund 
 which Parliament assigned for elementary education, 
 to provide school accommodation in the towns and dis- 
 tricts in which it was lacking. Everything was left
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 6 1 
 
 to voluntary effort. This meant that elementary 
 education was in the hands of the two great soci- 
 eties whose origin and work have been described, or 
 of local voluntary committees working outside 
 those societies, or sometimes in association with 
 them, which established schools and obtained about 
 half the cost of maintaining them by presenting the 
 children at the examinations held by the inspectors 
 of the Education Department. 
 
 In addition to the Government grants for children 
 who passed the examinations, the Committee of the 
 Council on Education in its early years made grants 
 of from ^15 to ^30 in augmentation of teachers' sal- 
 aries, on condition of their obtaining certificates of 
 merit. Grants were also made to the two educa- 
 tional societies to aid them in maintaining their col- 
 leges for the training of teachers. The training 
 college grants are still continued, and take the form 
 of Queen's Scholarships, which are competed for by 
 pupil teachers every year. The grants in augmenta- 
 tion of teachers' salaries have long been discontinued, 
 as nowadays none but teachers with certificates arc 
 ever placed in charge of schools which receive the Gov- 
 ernment grants. A teacher must have a certificate 
 recognized by the Education Department to obtain 
 work in any of these schools. 
 
 Voluntary effort, aided by Government grants, had 
 done much for education in the first sixty or seventy 
 years of the century ; but between 1860 and 1870 it 
 began to be realized that voluntary effort alone could 
 not be relied upon to provide the country with a
 
 62 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 national system of education. It was evident that 
 Parliament must do something more to this end than 
 allocate a certain sum of money each year, and allow 
 it to be expended by the Committee of the Council 
 for Education in the manner which had been followed 
 since 1833. In 1867 there was a great measure of 
 Parliamentary Reform. The Parliamentary franchise 
 was given to all male householders in the incorporated 
 boroughs. Political life was quickened all over the 
 country as the result of this extension of the elector- 
 ate, and one immediate outcome of the new activity 
 was the Elementary Education Act of 1870. 
 
 The Act of 1870 is known as the Forster Act, for 
 the reason that it was carried through Parliament by 
 the late W. E. Forster, one of the members for Brad- 
 ford, who, in Mr. Gladstone's 1868-74 Administration, 
 was Vice-President of the Committee of the Council 
 for Education. The Forster Act was supplemented 
 in 1876 by a measure which established permissive 
 compulsion ; that is, compulsion not at the instance 
 of Parliament, but at the instance of the local au- 
 thority administering the Education Acts. It was 
 amended in 1880 by an act which made compulsory 
 attendance at school general all over the country, 
 and again in 1891 by a measure which practically 
 established free elementary education. The original 
 machinery for carrying out the Education Act of 
 1870 was left untouched by these successive amend- 
 ing acts, and the Forster Act remains the foundation 
 of the present elementary education system in 
 England.
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 63 
 
 The difficulty which faced the framers of the Act 
 of 1870 was how to set up a new system without 
 damaging the voluntary schools, and particularly 
 those of the Church of England, which had grown 
 up since the beginning of the century, and in which, 
 in 1870, accommodation was found for nearly two 
 million children. The difficulty was overcome by a 
 compromise, by which school boards were established, 
 not necessarily in every town and village, but only 
 in those places where the elementary school accom- 
 modation was inadequate to the needs of the com- 
 munity. The Act of 1870 sets forth that "in every 
 school district there shall be provided a sufficient 
 amount of accommodation in public elementary 
 schools, available for all the children resident in such 
 district, for whose elementary education efficient and 
 suitable provision is not otherwise made, and where 
 there is an insufficient amount of such accommoda- 
 tion the deficiency shall be supplied in the manner 
 provided by the Act." "The manner provided by 
 the Act " means that where voluntary schools are 
 inadequate to the needs of the district, a school board 
 with power to levy local rates shall be established to 
 build and maintain the necessary schools. 
 
 Under the Acts of 1870 and 1876 no corner in the 
 land, however remote, was left without some authority 
 to carry out the provisions of the new education law. 
 In an incorporated borough where the school accom- 
 modation provided by voluntary effort is deemed ade- 
 quate, and there is consequently no need for a school 
 board, the town council, through its school attendance
 
 64 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 committee, exercises most of the powers which the 
 law confers on the school board ; in a rural district, 
 where for the same reason the accommodation is 
 adequate, the duties of carrying the Education Acts 
 into force are imposed on the board of guardians for 
 the relief of the poor, which, like the town council 
 in a borough, delegates its powers to a school attend- 
 ance committee, for whose expenses the board is 
 empowered to levy a rate. 
 
 In places where the accommodation is sufficient, 
 and where it is provided by the Church of England, 
 the Wesleyan Methodists, the Congregationalists, 
 the Unitarians, and the Roman Catholics, the school 
 attendance committees, whether of the town council 
 or the board of guardians, have no direct control 
 over the elementary schools and their management. 
 The control and management remain where they 
 were prior to 1870 in the hands of private com- 
 mittees, consisting usually of representatives of the 
 subscribers to the school funds. A school of this 
 class owes its existence to subscriptions as distin- 
 guished from rates ; for although the Government 
 now makes two grants towards schools, one for 
 each child submitted at the annual examination, and 
 the other to replace the school fee abandoned in the 
 majority of schools under the Assisted Education 
 Act of 1891, the amount from these two sources 
 would not be sufficient to maintain the school. 
 The difference must be made up either from rates 
 levied according to the Poor Law valuation on all 
 property in the school board area, or by means of
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 65 
 
 private subscriptions. It is in this respect that a 
 voluntary school mainly differs from a board school. 
 The teaching in the two classes of schools is the 
 same. The Government requirements as regards at- 
 tendance, certificated teachers, equipment, and ex- 
 aminations, are exactly the same ; but in the case of 
 a board school, the difference between the Govern- 
 ment grants and the total cost of maintaining the 
 school is raised in the same way as the rate for the 
 relief of the poor, or for the expenses of a town 
 council, while in the case of a school not under a 
 board, voluntary subscriptions are relied upon to 
 make up the difference. 
 
 Where the voluntary school system is in force, the 
 committee of each school carries on its own corre- 
 spondence with the Education Department in Lon- 
 don ; it appoints its own teachers without any local 
 outside interference, and raises its own subscriptions. 
 All that the school attendance committee of the town 
 council or the board of guardians does for the schools 
 in its area is to carry out the compulsory provisions 
 of the law. It maintains a staff of inspectors to 
 hunt up children who attend irregularly, and pro- 
 ceeds against parents who are in default in regard 
 to the attendance of their children. In these cases 
 parents are first summoned before the school attend- 
 ance committee, and if the default continues, they 
 are summoned before the magistrates at the local 
 police court who are empowered to inflict small fines. 
 Poverty of the parent is not a sufficient excuse for 
 the non-attendance of the child at school. Before
 
 66 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 the establishment of free schools, in cases in which 
 poverty was pleaded, a school board or a school 
 attendance committee might remit the fee, and such 
 remittance of the fee did not pauperize the parent. 
 
 Every parent is compelled to send his child to 
 school. Under the Act of 1891, he can, however, 
 demand that a free place be found for his child in 
 some school in the town. Only on three grounds 
 can attendance be excused: (i) that the child is 
 under efficient instruction in some other manner, 
 that it is taught at home or attends a school where 
 the instruction given is at least equivalent to that 
 given in the elementary schools ; (2) that the child 
 is prevented from attending school by sickness or any 
 unavoidable cause, and (3) that there is no public 
 elementary school within a reasonable walking dis- 
 tance from his home. 
 
 All the compulsory powers can be exercised by a 
 school attendance committee in a town in which the 
 voluntary school system is still maintained. The com- 
 mittee, however, have no power to order any of the vol- 
 untary school managers to extend the accommodation 
 of their school. When the accommodation becomes 
 inadequate, the managers on their own responsibility 
 bestir themselves to enlarge their school-houses. 
 They do so in order to obviate the establishment 
 of a school board ; for when once the Committee 
 of the Council for Education at Whitehall is satis- 
 fied that the school accommodation of a town or 
 a parish is inadequate, it can issue an order for the 
 election of a school board. Before this order is
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 6/ 
 
 issued, every opportunity is given to the friends of 
 voluntary education to- make good the existing de- 
 ficiency in the school accommodation. The prelimi- 
 naries to the order for the establishment of a school 
 board extend over nearly a year. The final notice 
 runs over six months ; and at the expiration of that 
 time, to quote the words of the Act, " if the Depart- 
 ment are satisfied that all the accommodation re- 
 quired by the final notice to be supplied has not been 
 so supplied, nor is in course of being supplied with 
 due despatch, the Department shall cause a school 
 board to be formed for the district, as provided by 
 the Act, and shall send a requisition to the school 
 board so formed, requiring them to take proceedings 
 forthwith for supplying the accommodation mentioned 
 in the requisition, and the school board shall supply 
 the same accordingly." 
 
 In many towns where the friends of voluntary 
 education are numerous and are liberal with their 
 subscriptions, school boards have been altogether 
 avoided. In 1891, after the Forster Education Act 
 had been in force twenty years, there were no fewer 
 than 723 municipal and rural districts in which the 
 education laws were being carried out by school at- 
 tendance committees of town councils and boards of 
 guardians, as compared with 1983 boroughs and 
 parishes in which the Committee of the Council for 
 Education had, since 1871, ordered the election of 
 school boards. 
 
 Economy in the saving of rates is usually put for- 
 ward as a reason for doing without a school board,
 
 68 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 and placing the administration of the Elementary 
 Education Acts in the hands of the municipal or 
 Poor Law authorities. Another reason is the tena- 
 city with which the religious bodies, especially the 
 Church of England, the Roman Catholics, and the 
 Wesleyan Methodists, hold on to the day schools they 
 have established. So long as the voluntary system is 
 maintained in a town, and the town council is charged 
 with carrying out the school laws, so long can the 
 various religious bodies draw two-thirds of the cost 
 of maintaining their schools from the Imperial Ex- 
 chequer and still retain almost full control over 
 them. As soon, however, as these schools are turned 
 over to a school board, and the remaining one-third 
 of their cost is raised by a rate and not by private sub- 
 scriptions, the religious denominations lose their con- 
 trol of the schools, and those members who desire 
 to retain their influence in elementary education 
 must obtain seats on the school board. 
 
 It does not necessarily follow that when a school 
 board is established, all the elementary schools in the 
 town are placed at once under its management. In 
 many towns the voluntary schools and the board 
 schools exist side by side ; but the voluntary schools 
 are almost necessarily handicapped by reason of the 
 larger funds at the disposal of the school board. If 
 a school is continued as a voluntary school after the 
 establishment of a board, it continues to receive the 
 Government grants under the Acts of 1870 and 
 1891 ; but the subscription lists of a voluntary school 
 usually begin to suffer when every householder in
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 69 
 
 the town is called upon by law to pay his quota to 
 the schools conducted by the school board. The 
 Roman Catholics continue their schools under these 
 conditions, and so do the Church of England and the 
 Wesleyan Methodists. Before the Act of 1870 the 
 Congregationalists and the Unitarians in many places 
 maintained what were known as British Schools. 
 This name was given because they were open to all 
 creeds, and no denominational teaching was given to 
 the children. Since the Education Acts have been 
 in force, these denominations have generally turned 
 their schools over to the boards. 
 
 In the Church of England and the Catholic schools 
 denominational religious teaching is given. In the 
 Church of England schools the children are examined 
 in religious knowledge by inspectors appointed by the 
 bishop of the diocese, acting independently of the 
 Committee of the Council for Education ; but it is a 
 condition of such a school receiving any share of the 
 annual Parliamentary grant, that no child shall be 
 compelled to attend the sectarian instruction. 
 
 When a school board is first established, the num- 
 ber of its members is determined by the Education 
 Department. Afterwards the number is determined 
 from time to time by a resolution of the Board, ap- 
 proved by the Department. The members are elected 
 for three years. All householders who have paid 
 rates are entitled to vote. Women vote and women 
 are eligible for membership. The voting is by bal- 
 lot. Every elector is entitled to a number of votes 
 equal to the number of members of the board to be
 
 7O THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 elected, and may give all his votes to one candidate, 
 or may distribute them among the candidates as he 
 thinks fit. 
 
 School board politics differ greatly from municipal 
 politics. Liberalism or Conservatism, as such, does 
 not crop out at school board elections as it does at 
 elections of town councillors. Sometimes candidates 
 are elected on account of their avowed sympathy 
 with the Education Acts, and their desire to in- 
 terpret them as freely and as widely as possible. 
 Others are elected as reactionaries, and are so called 
 on account of their disposition to put as narrow an 
 interpretation as possible on the Acts. As a general 
 thing, however, candidates are nominated as the rep- 
 resentatives of this or that religious denomination, 
 or, on the other hand, as unsectarian candidates. 
 Sectarianism and non-sectarianism form the common 
 dividing line in school board politics. Sectarian 
 members usually endeavor to shape the policy of the 
 board with an eye to the interests of the voluntary 
 schools ; while the unsectarian members favor a for- 
 ward policy, and are disposed to go to the full length 
 of the board's powers, without any care for the in- 
 terests of the denominational schools. 
 
 There is no payment attaching to membership of 
 a school board ; although in the case of the London 
 Board, where the calls upon the time of all the mem- 
 bers are peculiarly heavy, the law allows the Board to 
 grant a salary to its chairman. The salary, however, 
 has never been voted to a chairman, as the office has 
 hitherto been held by men who were sufficiently
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. "Jl 
 
 well-to-do to give up their time to the work of the 
 Board without payment. The clerk, the treasurer, 
 and all the officers of the school board, including the 
 teachers, hold office during the pleasure of the board. 
 This means, as it does in the case of town councils, 
 that all officers hold their positions during good be- 
 havior. Politics in no way influence the appoint- 
 ment of an officer. Appointments are made by the 
 boards in open meeting, of which every member has 
 had at least four days' notice in writing ; and the rule 
 is to advertise in the newspapers some weeks before- 
 hand that an appointment is to be made. Com- 
 petitive examinations precede appointments to the 
 clerical staff of the London School Board. 
 
 There is only one School Board for London. It 
 has charge of some six hundred schools, and is re- 
 sponsible for an expenditure of nearly two million 
 pounds sterling annually on elementary education. 
 In 1870, when the Education Act became law, Lon- 
 don was divided for the purposes of Parliamentary 
 representation into eleven boroughs. These were 
 the City of London, Chelsea, Finsbury, Greenwich, 
 Hackney, East Lambeth, West Lambeth, Mary- 
 lebone, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, and Westmin- 
 ster. The Act for the Redistribution of Seats, which 
 followed the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1884, did 
 away with these divisions so far as representation in 
 the House of Commons is concerned, and gave Lon- 
 don a large increase in its Parliamentary representa- 
 tion. For school board purposes these divisions have 
 been continued ; and there are now five members
 
 72 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 of the Board for each of the old London boroughs, 
 giving a total membership of fifty-five. It is alto- 
 gether impossible for a single board to undertake 
 the detailed management of all the schools in the 
 London area. When the London School Board was 
 established, a system of local management was intro- 
 duced which has worked with admirable success. 
 This system has also been adopted by the School 
 Board of Liverpool. 
 
 In London the schools are all placed under the 
 care of committees of local managers, to whom the 
 Board delegates the control and management, sub- 
 ject to such conditions and restrictions as it may 
 from time to time impose. The members of the 
 School Board from each of the eleven divisions form 
 local committees, and divide among themselves the 
 various groups of schools in their districts. The 
 managers of new schools are appointed by the Board 
 upon the nomination of a majority of the divisional 
 members present at the meeting at which the nom- 
 ination is made. There is no pay for the work. 
 Each new manager must fill up a form undertaking 
 to discharge the duties of the office, including the 
 visitation of the schools and attendance at managers' 
 meetings. It is the duty of the divisional members 
 of the School Board to see that, if possible, two or 
 more women are nominated to serve on every body of 
 managers. The members are also recommended to 
 see that at least two persons are nominated whose 
 children have attended the schools of the Board. A 
 list of persons desirous of becoming managers is
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 73 
 
 kept at the head office of the School Board. Vacan- 
 cies in existing local committees are filled up by the 
 Board upon the nomination either of a majority of 
 the divisional members or of the managers, with the 
 assent of a majority of the divisional members at 
 the meeting at which the nomination is considered. 
 
 Schools are managed by a committee of managers, 
 either singly or in groups. When a local committee 
 has the management of only one school, its member- 
 ship must not be less than eight nor more than 
 twelve. When a committee manages a group of 
 schools, it must number not less than eight nor 
 more than twenty members. Not more than three, 
 nor, except under special local circumstances, less 
 than two schools may be placed under one committee 
 of managers. Three managers form a quorum for a 
 meeting. The members of the School Board are 
 members of all committees and sub-committees of 
 local managers of all schools in their division. The 
 local managers once a year elect their chairman and 
 vice-chairman. 
 
 In addition to such duties as fixing the fees to be 
 charged, where any are still paid, the managers have 
 the appointment of school keepers, and are respon- 
 sible for the selection of pupil teachers and proba- 
 tioners. They must see that the staff of teachers is 
 sufficient ; that the regulation for Bible instruction 
 in the schools is carried out ; they must keep an eye 
 on the cookery kitchens and laundries attached to 
 the schools ; give attention to the physical education 
 of the children ; carefully note that the time-table of
 
 74 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 the school is observed; distribute the prizes and 
 medals which are awarded by the Board ; examine 
 from time to time the punishment book ; supervise 
 the lending libraries ; and generally set themselves 
 to help the schools under their care by every means 
 in their power. " They must also see," to quote 
 further from the instructions of the School Board 
 to the local managers, " that the rules laid down for 
 the guidance of teachers are adhered to ; must smooth 
 down the difficulties of teachers by constant encour- 
 agement and sympathy; have at heart the mental, 
 moral, and physical welfare of the scholars ; and see 
 that they are brought up to habits of punctuality, 
 of good manners and language, of cleanliness and 
 neatness ; and also that the teachers impress upon 
 the children the importance of cheerful obedience 
 to duty, of consideration and respect for others, and 
 of honor and truthfulness in word and act." 
 
 An elementary school, within the meaning of the 
 Education Act of 1870, is "a school or department 
 of a school at which elementary education is the 
 principal part of the education there given, and does 
 not include any school at which the ordinary pay- 
 ments in respect of the instruction from each scholar 
 exceed ninepence per week." All schools examined 
 by the inspectors of the Education Department, and 
 receiving the Parliamentary grant, must come within 
 this definition, whether they are managed by a vol- 
 untary committee, as is the case in places where a 
 school attendance committee of the town council 
 administers the Education Acts, or whether they are
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. ?$ 
 
 under the control of school boards elected by the 
 ratepayers. The law also provides that it shall not 
 be required as the condition of any child being ad- 
 mitted into, or continuing in any elementary school, 
 that he shall attend, or abstain from attending, any 
 Sunday-school or place of religious worship ; that 
 when religious instruction is being given in any 
 school, any scholar may be withdrawn by his parent 
 from such instruction without forfeiting any other 
 benefits of the school, and that it shall be no part of 
 the duties of the Government inspectors of schools 
 to inquire into any instruction in religious subjects 
 given at such school, or to examine any scholar 
 therein in religious knowledge, or in any religious 
 subject or book. 
 
 These three provisions are the embodiment of 
 what is known as the Conscience Clause, a clause 
 which was inserted in the Act of 1870 at the instance 
 of the Nonconformists, after a struggle which at that 
 time threatened a serious split in the Liberal party. 
 Religious observances may be practised, and instruc- 
 tion in religious subjects may be given, in voluntary 
 schools to those children whose parents are willing 
 that they should attend the observances or receive 
 the instruction ; but these observances and this teach- 
 ing " shall be cither at the beginning or at the end, 
 or at the beginning and the end of the school session, 
 and shall be inserted in the time-table to be approved 
 by the Department." This arrangement is intended 
 to facilitate the withdrawal, for the time being, of 
 those children whose parents object to their attending
 
 76 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the observances or receiving the religious instruc- 
 tion. These regulations apply only to the voluntary 
 schools, those supported by the religious bodies. As 
 regards the board schools, maintained entirely by 
 rates and grants from the Imperial Exchequer, the 
 law on the same subject is explicit. It declares that 
 in board schools no religious catechism or religious 
 formulary distinctive of any particular denomination 
 shall be taught. It is a disqualification for appoint- 
 ment as a Government inspector of schools that the 
 candidate is in holy orders, that is, has been ordained 
 by a bishop of the Church of England, or is a minis- 
 ter of any other denomination. 
 
 All schools receiving the Parliamentary grant are 
 governed by the Code, which is drawn up each year 
 by the Education Department and sanctioned by 
 Parliament. The school age is from five to thirteen. 
 The scholars, except those in the infant departments, 
 are grouped in standards from one to seven, and in 
 ordinary circumstances the child is advanced a stand- 
 ard every year. For twenty years after the Forster 
 Act came into force, the Parliamentary grant de- 
 pended entirely upon the results of the annual exam- 
 inations. Since 1890, however, there has been a 
 fixed grant on the average attendance, and a variable 
 grant depending on the result of the examinations. 
 The total from these sources is twelve shillings and 
 sixpence, or fourteen shillings a head, according to 
 the report of the school inspector. By teaching 
 extra subjects in the higher standards, and by excel- 
 lent discipline and organization, a school may earn
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. TJ 
 
 a total grant equal to seventeen shillings and six- 
 pence a head. When this maximum grant is earned, 
 and the school is also in receipt of ten shillings a 
 scholar under the Free Education Act of 1891, its 
 total receipts from the Imperial Exchequer are thus 
 one pound, seven shillings, and sixpence a head 
 per annum. In addition to these sums, grants of 
 three pounds are made by the Department for each 
 pupil teacher who passes the annual examinations 
 to which all teachers in their apprenticeship years 
 have to submit themselves. 
 
 In all schools, whether voluntary or under a school 
 board, the managers are bound to provide a proper 
 supply of books and other school apparatus, and 
 they cannot compel a parent to provide books, either 
 by periodical payment or by purchase, nor refuse 
 admission to a scholar whose parents refuse to 
 do so. 
 
 In the case of a school board, the difference be- 
 tween the total grant from the Imperial Exchequer 
 and the total cost of conducting a school, plus the 
 general expenses of administering the Education 
 Acts, is met by a local rate. In London in 1892, 
 the school board rate was eleven pence in the pound. 
 In the provincial towns where there are school 
 boards, the rate varies from fivepcnce to tenpence in 
 the pound. In places where the school attendance 
 committee of the town council administers the Edu- 
 cation Acts, and all the schools are voluntary, the 
 cost is much less. Usually no special rate is levied 
 to meet it. It is paid for out of the borough rate,
 
 78 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 that raised for municipal government purposes, and 
 seldom amounts to more than an extra penny in the 
 pound. 
 
 By far the majority of the teachers employed under 
 the Education Acts receive their early education and 
 training in elementary schools. After passing the 
 seventh standard, the boys or girls who are to be 
 trained for school-teachers are apprenticed to the 
 school managers, or to the school board, as the case 
 may be, for a term of four years. During this time 
 they act as pupil teachers. They receive lessons 
 from a certificated master for an hour or an hour 
 and a half in the morning before the ordinary ses- 
 sion of the school commences, and help with the 
 teaching of the classes during the remainder of the 
 day. Each year they are examined by the inspectors 
 of the Education Department, and at the end of 
 their pupil teacher years they sit at examinations 
 for what are known as Queen's Scholarships. These 
 are granted by the Education Department out of 
 the Parliamentary fund, and serve to pay the way of 
 a pupil teacher through the final stages of his train- 
 ing. Those who are successful in securing these 
 scholarships spend the next two years in one of the 
 training colleges. 
 
 In the early days of the elementary education 
 system only two societies, the British and Foreign 
 School Society and the National School Society, con- 
 ducted these training institutions for teachers. As 
 the elementary day school system developed, other 
 societies took up the work ; and at the present time,
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. ?Q 
 
 in addition to the training colleges maintained in var- 
 ious parts of the country by the two parent societies, 
 colleges are maintained by the Home and Colonial 
 School Society, by the Roman Catholics, and also 
 by the Wesleyan Methodists. Colleges exist for 
 both men and women teachers. There are fifty-six 
 of them altogether ; and the courses at all the colleges 
 are practically the same, as are also the examinations 
 which take place at the end of the student's two 
 years' term. Provisional certificates are issued to 
 those who pass these examinations ; and at the end 
 of two years' teaching in one school, these certifi- 
 cates are exchanged for a parchment, which after- 
 wards serves as a teacher's permanent credential. 
 
 The training colleges do not afford accommodation 
 for all the pupil teachers who complete their appren- 
 ticeship terms each year. The examinations for the 
 Queen's Scholarships are competitive, and the schol- 
 arships granted are awarded in accordance with the 
 students' positions on the examination list. Candi- 
 dates who pass the examinations, but who do not suc- 
 ceed in obtaining a Queen's Scholarship, usually go 
 back to work in the schools as ex-pupil teachers, con- 
 tinue their own education, and at the end of two or 
 three years sit for their certificates at examinations 
 similar to those at which the college-trained students 
 obtain their certificates. They are at some disad- 
 vantage in these examinations as compared with the 
 pupil teachers who have taken the college course ; 
 and when in possession of their certificates, their 
 standing with the Education Department is hardly
 
 80 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 so good as that of the college-trained teachers. 
 Teachers who have received a college training can- 
 not leave the profession of elementary school-teach- 
 ing within five years of the end of their college 
 career without indemnifying the college at which 
 they were trained for the outlay on their college 
 courses. No teacher can become the master of an 
 elementary school unless he has obtained a certifi- 
 cate in one or other of the ways described ; nor can 
 he be permanently employed as an assistant master 
 until he is in possession of a certificate. 
 
 The salaries of head masters of elementary schools 
 range from ^460 a year, the maximum paid by the 
 London School Board, to 90 or 100 a year paid 
 by school boards in the rural districts. The salaries 
 for head mistresses range from 300 in London to 
 70 or 80 a year paid by the smaller boards in the 
 provinces. 
 
 The figures as to salaries, which have been quoted, 
 apply only to head masters and mistresses. The 
 salaries of certificated assistant masters are much 
 smaller. In the board schools all over England they 
 average ^"100 a year. In the voluntary schools they 
 are still lower. The average in those of the Church 
 of England is 67 a year ; in the Roman Catholic 
 schools, ^"73 ; and in the Wesleyan, 76 a year. As 
 regards assistant mistresses, their salaries under 
 boards average 77 ', in Roman Catholic and Wes- 
 leyan schools, ^"48; and in those of the Church of 
 England, 47. Most of the Roman Catholic and 
 Wesleyan schools are in the large towns ; while the
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 8 1 
 
 majority of the Church schools are in the thinly 
 populated rural districts, where the payment for all 
 classes of work is lower than in the large towns. 
 School boards in these country districts pay only 
 slightly higher rates than Church of England school 
 managers. The higher average of salaries paid by 
 school boards is due to the fact that the majority of 
 teachers under school boards are engaged in the 
 large cities. 
 
 In all schools receiving the Parliamentary grant, 
 the work of the men and women teachers is the 
 same. Nothing but custom can be advanced as the 
 reason for the smaller salaries which are paid to 
 women teachers. 
 
 A number of the larger school boards during the 
 winter months maintain evening schools, in respect 
 of which the Education Department also makes 
 grants based on attendance and the results of exam- 
 inations. In these schools it is not necessary that 
 the teachers should have certificates ; but in most 
 towns the work of the evening schools is undertaken 
 by teachers engaged in the elementary schools. 
 
 Payment for this work is by the hour, and ranges 
 from two shillings and threepence an hour, paid by 
 the London School Board to its teachers, to one 
 and threepence an hour, paid by the Manchester 
 School Board. Except in London and Leicester, 
 women also receive less pay than men for evening 
 school teaching. Their payment ranges from one 
 shilling and fivepence an hour in Leeds, to one 
 shilling an hour in Manchester. The Manchester
 
 82 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 School Board pays a bonus of three pounds a ses- 
 sion. To obtain it a teacher must conduct a class 
 with .an average attendance of thirty pupils three 
 nights a week for six months. 
 
 The object of these evening schools is to afford 
 opportunities to scholars, formerly in the elementary 
 day schools, of continuing their general studies after 
 they have left school and commenced work. The 
 curricula are so arranged as to make it easy for a 
 boy who left school for work when in the fifth or 
 sixth standard, to resume at the point where his edu- 
 cation in the day school came to an end. In 1893, 
 at the instance of the trade unionists whose societies 
 are federated with the Trades Congress, and also at 
 that of the members of the numerous co-operative 
 societies which flourish in the North of England and 
 the Midlands, the teaching of the duties of the citi- 
 zen was included in the courses of the evening 
 schools, and the Education Department drew up an 
 additional Code, suggesting the subjects to be taught 
 under this head. 
 
 These subjects are grouped in five divisions: (i) 
 Local Government ; (2) Central Government ; (3) 
 the Duties of Citizens in relation to Local and Cen- 
 tral Government ; (4) the Empire ; and (5) Indus, 
 trial and Social Life and Duties. The key-note of 
 the new Code is struck in its initial and concluding 
 paragraphs. The initial paragraph emphasizes the 
 need that " those who are growing up into citizenship 
 should realize their debt to the men and women who 
 have served the nation generously and wisely in the
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 83 
 
 past, and their own duty to their country in the pres- 
 ent." " Self-interest and class-interest," it is added, 
 " should be subordinate to general and national inter- 
 est." The concluding paragraph dwells on " the duty 
 of the community to sympathize with every effort of 
 the workers to improve their condition and develop 
 their intelligence." 
 
 Thus far only the public elementary day school 
 system has been described. It is not proposed to 
 deal with the universities, the great public schools, 
 such as Eton and Harrow, or the middle class 
 schools, over which Parliament has no control, and 
 to which no grants from the National Exchequer are 
 made. There are still, however, two other depart- 
 ments of state-aided education to which reference 
 will be made. The first of these is the Science and 
 Art Department, South Kensington, and the other 
 the system of Technical Education. 
 
 The Science and Art Department was established 
 about 1840 as the National School of Design. It 
 was then under the control of the Board of Trade, 
 the State Department which now has the oversight 
 of railways, canals, and harbors, and the administra- 
 tion of the navigation laws, the laws as to trade- 
 marks, and the collection of statistics and informa- 
 tion in regard to trade, emigration, and labor. In 
 1853, when the Council for Education was reorgan- 
 ized, the Science and Art Department was trans- 
 ferred to it from the Hoard of Trade ; and since then 
 it has been under the management of the President 
 and the Vice-President of the Council for Education,
 
 84 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and a separate branch of the Education Department. 
 In the House of Commons, the Vice-President is 
 responsible for the Science and Art Department, as 
 he is for the administration of the Education Acts. 
 
 For half a century past, Parliament has made a 
 grant to the Science and Art Department. This 
 grant has increased as the work of the Department 
 has assumed larger proportions, until in 1893 it had 
 reached .5 3 5,000. These annual grants are expended 
 (i) in the maintenance of the National Art Train- 
 ing School and the Normal School of Science, 
 South Kensington ; the Royal School of Mines in 
 Jermyn Street, London ; the South Kensington, In- 
 dian, Bethnal Green, and Geological Museums ; the 
 Science and Art Libraries ; the museums of Edin- 
 burgh and Dublin, and the Geological Survey of the 
 United Kingdom ; and (2) in grants to teachers of art 
 and science, whose students pass the examinations 
 held under the auspices of the Department. Grants 
 are also made to elementary schools whose scholars 
 pass the Department's examinations in drawing. 
 
 Classes in connection with South Kensington are 
 held all over the country ; and every year thousands 
 of young men and women who have gone through 
 the elementary schools, and are at work or in busi- 
 ness, continue their education in the evening classes 
 organized in connection with the Science and Art 
 Department. The department carries on this branch 
 of its work with the help of local voluntary commit- 
 tees. When it is desired to establish a local centre 
 for science and art teaching, all that is necessary is
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 85 
 
 that several of the townspeople should form them- 
 selves into a committee, elect a chairman and a 
 secretary, and put themselves in communication 
 with the Department. A certificated teacher is then 
 appointed and classes organized. At the end of the 
 session an examination is held in the presence of 
 two or more members of the committee. The exam- 
 ination papers are sent from South Kensington. 
 They are collected at the expiration of the time 
 allowed for each subject, and returned in a sealed 
 packet to headquarters, where they are checked and 
 examined by the inspectors of the Department. Pay- 
 ment is by results ; and the allowance in the case of 
 students who pass the examination is so liberal that 
 a teacher with a class of ordinary size and with 
 students who are worth teaching can afford to under- 
 take the science and art evening classes without 
 charging the students any fees. 
 
 The Department of Science and Art at South 
 Kensington has also the oversight of technical edu- 
 cation, so far as it is given out of funds provided by 
 Parliament or raised by local rates. The system of 
 technical education dates only from 1889. Under 
 the provisions of an Act passed in that year, supple- 
 mented by another Act passed in 1891, town councils 
 and county councils may " from time to time, out of 
 the local rates, supply or aid the supply of technical 
 or manual instruction." Technical instruction is 
 defined by the Act of 1889 as " instruction in the 
 principles of science and art, applicable to industries, 
 and in the application of special branches of science
 
 86 THE ENGLISHAfAN A T HOME. 
 
 and art to specific industries or employments." It 
 is stipulated that it is " not to include teaching the 
 practice of any trade or industry or employments." 
 
 Manual instruction is defined to be " instruction in 
 the use of tools, processes of agriculture, and model- 
 ling in clay, wood, or other material." Grants are 
 made by the local authority administering the Tech- 
 nical Instruction Acts in proportion to the nature 
 and amount of the efficient instruction supplied by 
 the schools or institutions within its district ; but no 
 grant can be made to any institution on the govern- 
 ing body of which the council making the grant is 
 not represented, nor can any grant be made in aid of 
 a school conducted for private profit. Certain taxes 
 which are collected by the Imperial Exchequer 
 through the Inland Revenue Department are allo- 
 cated to the town and county councils for carrying 
 out the Technical Education Acts ; and, in addition, 
 these local governing bodies are empowered to raise 
 a rate not exceeding one penny in the pound on the 
 Poor Law valuation to supplement the fund received 
 from the treasury. 
 
 In 1892 the total sum received from the Imperial 
 Exchequer for technical education was ."734,000, 
 ^"535,000 was disbursed by the Science and Art 
 Department, and the ^5,000,000 expended on ele- 
 mentary education by the Committee of the Council 
 for Education, made up a total of ^"6,269,000 paid 
 out of the Imperial Exchequer for national education. 
 
 The whole of this sum was raised as taxes. In addi- 
 tion, about one and three-quarters millions sterling
 
 NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 87 
 
 were raised by school boards and other local author- 
 ities by means of rates for the same purpose, to say 
 nothing of the total sum which was subscribed by 
 the friends of the voluntary schools, those schools 
 which receive from one pound, two shillings and six- 
 pence, to one pound, seven shillings and sixpence per 
 scholar from the annual Parliamentary grants, but in 
 respect of which the difference between the total 
 cost of the education given and the amount received 
 from the Government has to be raised by the friends 
 of the school.
 
 88 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 Municipal Control of Police. London Police Force. Local Police Force and 
 the Home Office. Borough Magistrates. Licensing Laws. Stipen- 
 diary Magistrates. Solicitors and Barristers. Etiquette of the Bar. 
 Quarter Sessions and Assizes. Preliminary Stages of a Criminal Trial. 
 Coroner's Court. Recorders and Chairmen of Quarter Sessions. 
 Grand and Common Jurymen. Quarter Sessions and Appeal Cases. 
 County and Borough Magistrates. The Lord Lieutenant and the Ap- 
 pointment of Magistrates. Property Qualifications for Magistrates. 
 Administration of Justice in Rural Districts. Assizes. Judges and their 
 Appointment. Judges on Circuit. High Sheriffs, Grand, Special, and 
 Common Jurymen at Assizes. Criminal Procedure at Assizes. Final 
 Stages of a Criminal Trial. Capital Sentences. No Appeal in Criminal 
 Cases. Home Secretary and Condemned Prisoners. Celerity of the 
 Criminal Law. Treatment of Condemned Prisoners. Executions. 
 The Cost of Criminal Trials. Civil Justice. Local Courts and the 
 Courts in London. County Court Judges. County Court Cases. The 
 Bankruptcy Laws. Meetings of Creditors. Certificates of Discharge to 
 Bankrupts. The High Court of Justice; the Chancery, Queen's Bench, 
 and Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Divisions. Appeal Courts and the 
 Judicial Functions of the House of Lords. Lord Chancellor. A Civil 
 Trial. Queen's Councillors. Board of Trade Courts. Inquiries into 
 Losses of Vessels at Sea and Railway Accidents. The Railway Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 IN the three preceding chapters, explanations have 
 been given of the working of the system of 
 municipal government, of the administration of the 
 Poor Laws, and of the state-aided system of educa- 
 tion. An explanation has also been given of the 
 manner of electing the various local authorities 
 charged with the administration of these systems
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 89 
 
 of the town council, the board of guardians for the 
 relief of the poor, and the school board. In explain- 
 ing the system of local self-government, a municipal 
 borough was taken as an example, and the difference 
 was shown between the administration of local gov- 
 ernment in a borough and in a county. The same 
 plan will be followed in explaining the organization 
 of the police force, the appointment and duties of the 
 magistrates who sit in the local courts, and the admin- 
 istration of criminal justice in the courts beyond 
 in the Courts of Quarter Sessions and of Assize. 
 
 In all the large boroughs, the town council has 
 almost complete control of the police. London is 
 the only place in which the representatives of the 
 ratepayers, elected to discharge the duties of muni- 
 cipal government, are denied the management of the 
 force. One-half the cost of maintaining a borough 
 force is paid out of the Imperial Exchequer, the 
 other half is raised by means of the borough rates. 
 The force is inspected each year by a Government 
 inspector, and it is within the power of the Home 
 Office to call upon a borough to keep the police force 
 up to what is regarded as an adequate strength. The 
 town council usually deputes the care of the police 
 force to a watch committee, in the same way that the 
 markets and public baths and the other departments 
 of municipal work are assigned to committees. The 
 chief constable is appointed by the town council ; the 
 rank and file by the watch committee on the recom- 
 mendation of the chief constable. The building 
 in which the lock-ups and the justice room, the
 
 90 THE ENGLISHMAN AT IfOAfE. 
 
 office of the chief constable, and the parade room 
 for the police are contained, is built and maintained 
 at the expense of the ratepayers living within the 
 borough. In the counties, the police are under the 
 control of a joint committee consisting of representa- 
 tives of the county council, and of representatives 
 of the county magistrates. The county council is 
 an elective body ; the county magistrates are ap- 
 pointed by the Lord Chancellor, on the nomination 
 of the lord-lieutenants of the county. 
 
 Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, 
 every incorporated borough may have its own com- 
 mission of the peace, or, in other words, its own 
 bench of magistrates. The mayor is the chairman 
 of the bench, and continues to be a magistrate for 
 one year after he vacates the office of mayor. He 
 is a magistrate by virtue of his election as mayor. 
 The other members of the borough bench are 
 appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and hold office 
 "during good behavior," which means as long as 
 they are good citizens, are solvent, and have any 
 connection with the borough. A borough magis- 
 trate's duties are strictly limited to the area over 
 which the borough extends. He has no place on the 
 bench of the county in which the borough is situated, 
 unless he is also a county magistrate, which, as 
 regards mode of appointment and duties, is a some- 
 what different office from that of the borough magis- 
 trate. There is no pay to the office of borough 
 magistrate ; but the position is much coveted by men 
 who have succeeded in business, who are locally
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. gi 
 
 prominent, and who desire the slight social conse- 
 quence which attaches to a justice of the peace. 
 The Lord Chancellor is the head of the whole judi- 
 cial system of England. He goes out of office in the 
 same way as the other members of the Cabinet on a 
 change of administration, and in his appointments 
 to both the borough and the county benches, partisan 
 considerations have some weight. 
 
 Borough justices of the peace are appointed some- 
 times on the suggestion of the town council ; at 
 other times on the suggestion of the member who 
 represents the borough in the House of Commons, 
 and it frequently happens that a man is appointed in 
 return for local political services. The majority of 
 the borough magistrates appointed in a given year 
 are always men of the same political opinions as the 
 Government in power. 
 
 A member of Parliament has no patronage in his 
 own disposal, and little or no influence in the dispo- 
 sition of the exceedingly few non-competitive paid 
 appointments which are in the gift of the Govern- 
 ment. For a needy constituent, he can do absolutely 
 nothing in the way of helping him to office ; and 
 about the only service he can render to a well-to- 
 do supporter to a man who has helped him in his 
 election by contributions to his campaign fund, and 
 by active personal service, is to get his name sub- 
 mitted to the Lord Chancellor for appointment as 
 a borough magistrate. In the case of county magis- 
 trates, nominations are made exclusively by the lord- 
 lieutenant.
 
 92 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 In the boroughs, no property qualification is re- 
 quired. The ordinary qualification possessed by 
 every householder who pays poor rate is all that is 
 needful. It is not necessary that a borough or a 
 county magistrate should be trained in the law in the 
 same way as a barrister or a solicitor. The require- 
 ments of the office are common-sense, and some 
 little knowledge of the principles of law, and of the 
 customs and habits of the people among whom the 
 magistrate resides. 
 
 The clerk to the bench is always a lawyer, and he 
 is in attendance at every sitting of the magistrates. 
 After a case has been heard, the magistrates con- 
 sult with the clerk, who informs them of the law on 
 the point, and then the magistrates give their judg- 
 ment. In a large number of cases the magistrates 
 are empowered to administer summary justice, and 
 to impose fines and short terms of imprisonment. 
 In the more serious cases, they hear the evidence, 
 and determine whether or not a prima facie case has 
 been made out, on which the person charged may 
 be committed to take his trial before a jury at Quar- 
 ter Sessions or Assizes. The court to which the 
 accused is sent is determined by the character and 
 seriousness of the charge made against him. 
 
 An important duty of both borough and county 
 magistrates is the maintenance of the peace during 
 times of excitement. When disorder occurs, and the 
 military are summoned to the aid of the police, the 
 officers commanding the troops take all their orders 
 from the magistrates. The duty of reading the Riot
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 93 
 
 Act is discharged by a magistrate. Until the Riot 
 Act has been read and a reasonable time allowed for 
 the rioters to disperse, the military cannot act. The 
 officers of the army are governed by what are known 
 as the Queen's Regulations. They provide for al- 
 most any contingency ; and in connection with the 
 employment of troops in maintaining the peace the 
 Queen's Regulations are explicit. They instruct 
 the officers in command to place themselves under 
 the orders of the magistrates, and to fire on the riot- 
 ers only when expressly ordered to do so by the 
 magistrates. Damage to property caused by riots 
 is compensated by means of a special rate levied on 
 the district in which the disturbance has occurred. 
 
 In municipal boroughs the magistrates act as the 
 authority for granting licenses to beer-house keepers, 
 publicans, and wholesale and retail dealers in beer, 
 wines, and spirits. For this purpose they hold a 
 court in August each year, which is known as the 
 Brewster Sessions. There are four different classes 
 of licensed premises for the retailing of liquors, under 
 the Acts passed by Parliament in 1872 and 1874, when 
 the licensing system was overhauled and amended. 
 These are: (i) fully licensed houses at which beer, 
 wines, and spirits are sold, and may be drunk on the 
 premises; (2) houses licensed only for the sale and 
 consumption of beer, and known as beer and ale 
 houses; (3) restaurants, oyster-bars, and refreshment- 
 rooms which are licensed for the sale and consump- 
 tion of beer, wines, and spirits ; and (4) grocery stores, 
 to the keepers of which licenses are granted for the
 
 94 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 sale of beer, wines, and spirits, not to be drunk on 
 the premises. The holders of these licenses must 
 obtain a renewal of them each year from the magis- 
 trates sitting in Brewster Sessions, and all new appli- 
 cations for licenses are dealt with at the same court. 
 Before the court hears any of these applications, the 
 chief constable of the borough submits a report as to 
 the proceedings in the police colirt under the Licens- 
 ing Acts during the preceding year. 
 
 In the large towns, public houses are compelled by 
 law to close at eleven o'clock at night, at ten o'clock 
 on Sunday night, and also until after the hours of 
 church service in the morning and afternoon of Sun- 
 day. Any failure to observe these hours of opening 
 and closing, or any infringement of the laws against 
 serving people who are drunk, or harboring unde- 
 sirable characters, men or women, may result in a 
 publican or a beer-house keeper's appearance before 
 the magistrates at the police courts. If the charge is 
 substantiated, a fine is inflicted, and the magistrates 
 may also indorse the publican's license. All these 
 cases are reported to the magistrates at Brewster 
 Sessions before they commence the business of re- 
 newing existing licenses and granting new ones. 
 
 When a license has been indorsed during the year, 
 the holder is usually summoned at the Brewster Ses- 
 sions to receive an admonition and a caution from 
 the bench. If the indorsements have been numer- 
 ous, he may forfeit his license. Until 1890 it was 
 a popular opinion with brewers and license-holders 
 that when once a license had been granted to a
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 95 
 
 house, the renewal of it could not be refused by the 
 magistrates, except on account of flagrant miscon- 
 duct on the part of the holder. A case which was 
 heard in the Appeal Courts about that time, however, 
 served to break down this feeling of security on the 
 part of the publicans ; and since then the magistrates 
 have refused to renew old standing licenses solely on 
 the ground that a licensed house was no longer 
 needed in the neighborhood. 
 
 New licenses are granted with extreme caution. 
 There are many towns in England in which a new 
 license has not been issued by the magistrates for 
 fifteen or twenty years. When an application for a 
 new license is before the court, the applicant calls 
 witnesses to speak as to the need of a public house 
 in the neighborhood of the premises for which a 
 license is sought, and also witnesses as to his own 
 personal character. On the other hand, neighbors 
 who are opposed to the license attend, and give evi- 
 dence denying the need of a licensed house, and 
 testifying as to the damage which the opening of a 
 public house is likely to cause to their property. In 
 these cases both the applicant and the opponents of 
 the license are often represented by lawyers. The 
 vote of a majority of the bench decides the matter. 
 
 The ratepayers have no control over the magis- 
 trates, either as regards their ordinary police court 
 duties, or in connection with the administration of 
 the licensing laws. There is no way of calling the 
 magistrates to popular account. The watch com- 
 mittee, which has charge of the police, and is respon-
 
 96 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 sible for the way in which the licensing laws are 
 enforced, is in a different position. Each of its 
 members is a member of the town council, and can 
 be called to account by the electors in his ward when 
 he seeks re-election. 
 
 In a number of the large towns, such as Manches- 
 ter, Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham, stipendiary 
 magistrates are appointed who hold courts daily ; and, 
 with the exception of granting licenses under the 
 licensing laws, they discharge the same duties as 
 the unpaid magistrates. These stipendiary magis- 
 trates are appointed by the Crown through the Home 
 Office. Their salaries are paid out of the borough 
 funds, collected as rates, and their appointment is 
 always at the instance of the town council. The 
 number of these magistrates all over England, exclu- 
 sive of London, has never reached more than twenty ; 
 for in most of the incorporated boroughs no diffi- 
 culty is experienced in finding men who are willing 
 to give their services as unpaid magistrates. 
 
 The police courts in London are presided over by 
 stipendiary magistrates. All these magistrates are 
 barristers. In England, those who follow the pro- 
 fession of the law are divided into two classes. In 
 the first are those who have passed the examinations 
 of the Inns of Court in London, and have been 
 called to the Bar by one of these Inns, the Temple, 
 the Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn. 
 These lawyers are called barristers. None but bar- 
 risters are allowed to plead in the higher courts ; that 
 is, in the courts, criminal and civil, which rank higher
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 97 
 
 than those in which the unpaid magistrates sit, or 
 than the civil courts in which county court judges, 
 with or without juries, try cases involving sums of 
 not exceeding fifty pounds. 
 
 The second class of lawyers are known as solici- 
 tors. They are admitted to practice by the Incor- 
 porated Law Society, a body to which Parliament 
 has delegated certain powers over this branch of the 
 legal profession, after serving articles or indentures 
 with solicitors in practice, and after passing two ex- 
 aminations. The etiquette of the Bar divides the 
 work of the law between these two branches of the 
 profession in such a way that a litigant in the higher 
 courts is compelled to employ both a solicitor and a 
 barrister. Solicitors appear as advocates only in the 
 lower courts. All the courts are open to barristers 
 as advocates ; but a barrister can appear in none ex- 
 cept on instructions from a solicitor. A barrister 
 takes no instructions from a client direct. 
 
 Cases which are sent for trial from the borough 
 police courts, go either to Quarter Sessions or to the 
 Assizes. The more serious cases, such as charges of 
 manslaughter, murder, perjury, forgery, and criminal 
 libel, go to the Assizes. The less serious charges go 
 to Quarter Sessions. To whichever of the two courts 
 a case is sent, an important preliminary duty in regard 
 to it is discharged by the borough magistrates. 
 
 Take, for example, the case of a man who is 
 charged with murder. After the coroner and his 
 jury have determined the cause of death, and re- 
 turned a verdict against the accused, the accused is
 
 98 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 arrested on the warrant of the coroner, and appears 
 before the magistrates at the police court. All the 
 witnesses called at the inquest appear before the 
 magistrates and repeat their evidence on oath. 
 The evidence is taken down in long hand by the 
 clerk of the court, as are also the answers given in 
 any cross-examination to which the witnesses may 
 be subjected by the solicitor or by the barrister on 
 behalf of the accused. When all the evidence for 
 the prosecution has been tendered, the chairman of 
 the magistrates cautions the accused in regard to 
 any admission or denial of his guilt which he may 
 make at this stage in the proceedings. 
 
 The caution is delivered in the same words in every 
 police court in England. " Having heard the evi- 
 dence," it runs, " do you [the accused] wish to say 
 anything in answer to the charge ? You are not 
 obliged to say anything unless you desire to do so ; 
 but whatever you say will be taken down in writing, 
 and may be given in evidence against you upon your 
 trial." ' 
 
 If the accused makes a statement denying his guilt, 
 he can call witnesses in support of it ; and their evi- 
 dence is put upon the depositions which are sent to 
 the Grand Jury at the Assizes. If he makes no 
 statement, it goes upon the record that " the accused 
 reserved his defence." The procedure in the police 
 court is the same in respect of every case which is 
 sent to Quarter Sessions or Assizes. In many cases 
 which come before the magistrates in which they 
 are empowered to administer summary justice, the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 99 
 
 accused is given the option of having his case dis- 
 posed of in the police court, or sent for trial before 
 a jury at Quarter Sessions. 
 
 No sketch of the immediately local courts would 
 be complete without an explanation of the coroner's 
 court. Excepting the clerks to some of the London 
 vestries, the coroner is about the only local official 
 in receipt of a salary who is directly elected by the 
 people, and it is only in the counties that he is so 
 elected. He is chosen by the freeholders, and holds 
 office for life. In the Quarter Session boroughs the 
 coroner is appointed by the town council. The office 
 is usually held by a lawyer or a doctor, more fre- 
 quently a lawyer. His duties are to inquire into 
 cases of sudden or violent death, and concerning 
 deaths which occur in prisons or in lunatic asylums ; 
 to hold inquiries concerning the finding of treasure 
 trove ; and to act as the sheriff's substitute in execut- 
 ing processes from the High Court of Justice, when 
 the sheriff is personally interested in the suit, or is 
 related either to the plaintiff or to the defendant in 
 the action. The coroner, except in London, has no 
 fixed court-house, and usually holds his inquiries in 
 public houses, or in any other public room which 
 may be available. The police in the borough or 
 petty sessional division in which he is holding an 
 inquest act as his officers, and summon the jury and 
 the witnesses. Twelve men constitute a coroner's 
 jury. As a rule, they receive no pay for their attend- 
 ance at an inquest. The coroner has powers to compel 
 the attendance of witnesses, and also to inflict fines
 
 IOO THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 on jurymen who fail to respond to the summonses 
 served upon them by his officers. In cases of murder 
 or manslaughter, the coroner can order the police to 
 arrest any persons against whom his jury has returned 
 a verdict, and the person so arrested can be com- 
 mitted for trial at the Assizes, without any further 
 preliminary hearing. This, however, is nowadays 
 seldom done ; the usual procedure being for the cor- 
 oner to send the accused before the local magis- 
 trates, who, in their turn, send him for trial at the 
 Assizes. 
 
 Treasure trove is the term used in England for all 
 valuables found beneath the surface of the land. 
 When a find of this kind takes place, whether on 
 private or common land, the coroner holds a court to 
 determine the ownership. If the rightful owner is 
 not ascertained, the whole of the find is turned over 
 to the Treasury, as the representative of the Crown. 
 
 There are two classes of Quarter Session Courts. 
 Every borough with over fifty thousand inhabitants 
 may, if it so desires, have its own court of Quarter 
 Sessions. In these towns the court is held before a 
 recorder, who, with the aid of grand and common 
 juries, tries prisoners committed on charges occur- 
 ring in the borough within whose boundaries the 
 court's jurisdiction is confined. The recorder is ap- 
 pointed by the Crown ; and, as in the case of stipen- 
 diary magistrates in the large cities, his salary is 
 paid by the town council. It is a much smaller 
 salary than that of a stipendiary ; for a stipendiary 
 gives all his time to his court, while the recorder,
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. IOI 
 
 whose office is one of some dignity and largely 
 honorary, holds court only four times a year, and 
 is seldom engaged with its business for more than 
 a week at a time. Like the stipendiary, the re- 
 corder must be a barrister of at least seven years' 
 standing ; but his holding of a recordership interferes 
 to no serious extent with his ordinary practice at the 
 Bar. 
 
 The other class of Quarter Sessions Courts is that 
 which is held for a county or a division of a county, 
 for the territory lying outside the Quarter Session 
 boroughs. This court is much older than the court 
 of Quarter Sessions for a borough, and is differently 
 constituted. All the members of the county magis- 
 tracy are of this court, which is presided over by 
 a permanent chairman elected by the magistrates. 
 The chairman so elected is usually a barrister, and 
 may receive a salary for the office. Two classes of 
 jurymen are summoned, those of the grand jury, 
 and those of the common juries, the jury of which 
 a man is summoned depending upon the nature of 
 his rating qualification and the amount at which he 
 is assessed to the relief of the poor. 
 
 The grand jury goes over the depositions sent 
 from the police and petty sessional courts at which 
 the prisoners to be tried were committed, and in each 
 case either finds a true bill or throws out the bill. 
 In the event of a true bill being found, the case goes 
 to the common jury for trial. When a bill is thrown 
 out, there is an end of the case against the accused. 
 
 Before the grand jury undertakes this duty, it is
 
 IO2 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 addressed by the chairman of Quarter Sessions. 
 This is known as the charge. In it the chairman 
 remarks on the state of crime in the county, and 
 explains the leading points in the more important 
 cases on which the grand jury will have to pass 
 judgment. The charge is delivered in open court. 
 The grand jury deliberates in secret session, and 
 afterwards makes a report of its proceedings to the 
 court. The chairman presides during the trial of 
 cases by the common juries; and after the evidence 
 has been tendered for and against the accused, and 
 counsel has been heard in his behalf, the chairman 
 sums up the evidence to the jury. All that the jury 
 does, is to find the verdict on the facts, whether 
 the accused is guilty or not guilty. After the 
 guilt of the accused has been thus established, the 
 chairman determines the sentence, and announces 
 it to the prisoner. 
 
 In addition to hearing criminal cases committed 
 from the borough and petty sessional courts, appeals 
 from sentences at these local courts are heard and 
 determined at Quarter Sessions. Appeals arising 
 out of the Licensing Acts and their administration, 
 and against assessments for Poor Law purposes, are 
 also heard at these courts. These appeal cases are 
 heard without juries. In years gone by, the magis- 
 trates in Quarter Sessions administered all depart- 
 ments of county government. They were deprived 
 of most of these duties by the Local Government 
 Act of 1888; but under that Act the county magis- 
 trates still share with the county council in the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 1 03 
 
 management of the county constabulary. Until a 
 few years ago, the magistrates also had in their 
 hands the management of the prisons. The prisons, 
 however, have of late been greatly reduced in num- 
 ber, and are now all under the control of the Home 
 Office in London. 
 
 While dealing with the county magistrates and 
 their duties at Quarter Sessions, it may be well to 
 make clear the difference between the borough and 
 the county magistrates. Both classes of magistrates 
 discharge almost the same duties ; the difference in 
 their position is largely a social one, and is due to the 
 mode of appointment. The Lord Chancellor appoints 
 both the borough and the county magistrates ; but in 
 the case of the county magistrates, he appoints only 
 on the nomination of the lord-lieutenant. The lord- 
 lieutenant is the Queen's representative in the 
 county. His office, which is entirely honorary, is 
 held for life. There is no law as to the nomination ; 
 but it has long been the practice that no county 
 magistrate is appointed by the Lord Chancellor 
 unless he is nominated by the lord-lieutenant. In 
 this respect there is only a difference of usage be- 
 tween the appointment of the borough and the county 
 magistrate. There is, however, an important differ- 
 ence in law. A borough magistrate need have no 
 property qualification as distinct from a rating quali- 
 fication ; while a man cannot be nominated by the 
 lord-lieutenant for the county magistracy unless he 
 has an income of 100 a year from landed property, 
 or lives in a house in the county assessed for rating
 
 104 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and taxation purposes at^ioo a year. It is also the 
 practice of the lord-lieutenant not to nominate to the 
 Lord Chancellor for appointment as a county magis- 
 trate any man who has been engaged in retail trade. 
 
 The object of this unwritten law, and of the law as 
 to qualification, is to confine the county magistracy 
 as much as possible to the landed classes. To a 
 great extent the magistracy is confined to the landed 
 classes ; and it often happens that a man who for 
 years has done good service as an unpaid magistrate 
 in a large borough, is thus practically held to be un- 
 fit for a place on the roll of magistrates for the 
 county in which the borough is situated. 
 
 As regards judicial duties, the only difference be- 
 tween a borough and a county magistrate is that a 
 county magistrate can attend and take part in the 
 proceedings at Quarter Sessions, while the duties of 
 a borough magistrate are confined to those he dis- 
 charges at the borough police court. For police 
 purposes, counties are divided into petty sessional 
 divisions. There is a court-house in each division, 
 at which the magistrates meet either weekly or fort- 
 nightly, as the needs of the division demand, to dis- 
 charge almost exactly the same duties as those 
 discharged by a borough bench. These stated 
 periodical meetings of the magistrates, whether in a 
 borough or in a county, are known as petty sessions. 
 At- these sessions in the county, some cases are 
 dealt with summarily, as in the borough police 
 courts, while the more serious cases "are sent to 
 Quarter Sessions or to the Assizes.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 1 05 
 
 Brewster Sessions are held in each petty sessional 
 division, at which the procedure in regard to the re- 
 newal of existing licenses and the granting of new 
 licenses is the same as in the municipal boroughs. 
 The licensing laws are uniform all over the country, 
 except as concerns the hours of closing in the even- 
 ing. In the rural districts, the public houses close 
 an hour earlier than in the towns, and two hours and 
 a half earlier than in London. 
 
 For the purpose of Assizes, the fifty-two counties 
 of England and Wales are grouped together so as to 
 form eight circuits. Each of these circuits is made 
 four times a year by two judges of the High Court 
 of Justice in London. The judges are appointed by 
 the Crown. They hold office during good behavior, 
 and can be removed only on an address to the Crown 
 presented by Parliament. Their salaries are paid out 
 of the Imperial Exchequer. All the judges of the 
 High Court are barristers of not less than ten years' 
 standing. When a man is called to the Bar, he 
 elects which circuit he will practise upon; and when 
 the judges leave London for the Assizes at the vari- 
 ous county towns, they are attended by the barristers 
 who are members of the circuit on which the judges 
 are travelling. Some of the judges on circuit hold 
 court at as many as eight or nine county towns. 
 Circuits of this kind include the sparsely populated 
 agricultural counties where the amount of business, 
 civil and criminal, awaiting the judges, is necessarily 
 much smaller than in the thickly populated manu- 
 facturing and mining counties in the North of Eng-
 
 106 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 land. On two of the northern circuits, the Northern 
 and the North-Eastern, there are only three counties 
 to each circuit ; but in the Northern Circuit one of 
 these counties is Lancashire, with the three assize 
 towns of Manchester, Liverpool, and Lancaster ; 
 while on the North-Eastern Circuit there is the 
 great county of Yorkshire, the largest of English 
 counties, with its assize towns of York and Leeds. 
 
 At the assize towns on each circuit, the judges 
 are received and entertained by the high sheriff of 
 the county. The high sheriff, like the lord-lieuten- 
 ant, is appointed by the Crown, but holds office only 
 for one year. It is an honorary office; and, as the 
 position entails some considerable expenditure, it is 
 not greatly sought except by men of wealth, of landed 
 property and social standing in the county. The 
 mode of appointment is peculiar. After the autumn 
 Assizes each year, the judges draw up a list contain- 
 ing the names of men in the counties in which they 
 have held their courts, whom they consider fit and 
 qualified to act as high sheriffs. These names are 
 submitted at a joint council, attended by the judges 
 and by three or four of the members of the Cabinet, 
 held in London, in the Royal Courts of Justice, at 
 which it is possible for any man who knows that his 
 name is on the list for his county, to attend and 
 give reasons why he should not serve in the office. 
 
 Each year a number of county gentlemen so attend 
 this council with their excuses. One man urges that 
 he is not sufficiently well-to-do to serve as high 
 sheriff ; .another, that his health is bad, or that his
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. IO/ 
 
 wife is in ill health, and that he is compelled to ac- 
 company her on her travels ; while another makes as 
 his excuse the fact that he is to contest one of the 
 Parliamentary divisions of the county at the approach- 
 ing General Election. This is always a sufficient 
 excuse ; for, among the duties of high sheriff, are 
 those of returning officer at all Parliamentary elec- 
 tions in the county. Three of the names submitted 
 by the judges for each county are finally entered 
 upon a list, which is then submitted to the Queen, 
 who signifies her choice by pricking a hole with a 
 bodkin opposite the name of the gentleman who is 
 to serve. Usually this name is the first of the three 
 submitted for each county. 
 
 Numerous duties are thrown upon the high sheriff, 
 from the receiving of the judges at the assize towns, 
 to the hanging of criminals condemned to death. 
 Most of the duties are discharged by the under- 
 sheriff, who is generally a solicitor, and receives pay- 
 ment out of the county treasury for his services. 
 The high sheriff, however, always receives the judges, 
 and when they are spending a Sunday in the county 
 town, accompanies them in state to church. 
 
 A grand jury, special juries, and common juries 
 are summoned for Assizes. The grand jury at 
 Assize discharges much the same duties that a grand 
 jury at Quarter Sessions discharges, and in much 
 the same way. Usually thirty gentlemen are of the 
 grand jury. None but men who possess the qualifi- 
 cation of county magistrates that is, who own land 
 which brings them in^ioo a year, or live in a house
 
 108 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 assessed at^" 100 a year are summoned of the grand 
 jury. 
 
 Special juries are summoned for the hearing of 
 civil cases, in which the parties concerned have asked 
 for a special jury; and the jurors receive \ or one 
 guinea a day for their services. Occasionally extra 
 special juries are summoned for civil cases of unusual 
 importance. These juries are drawn from the spe- 
 cial jurymen of the entire county, not from the lim- 
 ited area tributary to the assize town from which the 
 special jurymen are drawn. Common juries are sum- 
 moned for criminal cases and for the ordinary civil 
 cases which come on for trial at Assizes. They re- 
 ceive no pay. The difference between a special and 
 a common juror is a matter determined by the 
 amount at which a man is assessed for rating pur- 
 poses. If he is described as a merchant or a 
 banker, and assessed at over ^"50 a year, he is liable 
 for service on special juries. If a man is assessed 
 at 2 a year and upwards, he is liable for service 
 on a common jury. Peers, judges, clergymen of 
 the Church of England, pastors of non-conforming 
 churches, doctors, barristers, lawyers, officers of 
 the army and navy, parish clerks, and all persons 
 above sixty years of age, can claim exemption from 
 service on juries. In some courts of recent years 
 the exemption has been extended to journalists. As 
 yet, however, there is no uniform rule as to the 
 excusing of them from jury service. 
 
 The procedure at a criminal trial at Quarter Ses- 
 sions and at Assize is practically identical. The
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. ICX) 
 
 grand jury in each case determines whether or not 
 there is sufficient evidence to send the case to the 
 common or petty jury. If there is, a true bill is re- 
 turned ; if not, the bill is thrown out, and the accused 
 is liberated. As soon as the grand jury has com- 
 pleted this preliminary work, all the persons who are 
 accused are brought into court ; the indictment 
 against each is read over to him, and the prisoner is 
 called upon to plead. If he pleads guilty, he is sen- 
 tenced at once. If he makes a plea of not guilty, he 
 is put back to await his trial. 
 
 To illustrate a trial at Assize, it may be well to 
 take up again the case of a man who is charged with 
 murder, in regard to whom the procedure in the police 
 court has been already described. The depositions 
 which were taken at that stage have been forwarded 
 by the magistrates' clerk to the clerk of assize, who 
 has framed the indictment against the accused some 
 days before his trial. Should he require them, the 
 accused can also have copies of the depositions made 
 by the clerk at the police court. If the grand jury, 
 after an explanation of the case by the judge in his 
 charge to it, and after its deliberations in its room, 
 has found a true bill, the accused is called upon to 
 plead. If he pleads "not guilty," the trial proceeds. 
 
 The prosecution is undertaken by the county, and 
 in the court is conducted by a barrister. If the accused 
 or his friends can raise money to engage a solicitor, 
 and through him instruct a barrister, he will be de- 
 fended by counsel. If the accused is too poor to do 
 this, the judge will call upon one of the barristers in
 
 IIO THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the court to act in his behalf. This is a compliment 
 from the bench to the barrister, and is generally so re- 
 garded, especially by the younger members of the Bar. 
 A barrister so called upon by the judge undertakes the 
 case without fee or reward, and invariably acts with 
 as much loyalty towards his client as though a heavy 
 fee had been paid him beforehand. 
 
 There are twelve members of the jury, taken from 
 the panel which has been summoned by the sheriff. 
 They are sworn one by one ; and before the oath is 
 administered the accused may either challenge the 
 whole number empanelled, or challenge individual 
 jurymen. In a case of murder, he can challenge 
 twenty jurymen without assigning any reason for so 
 doing. The Crown can also challenge in the same 
 way. After challenges to this number have been 
 made without assigning reasons, reasons must be 
 assigned in the case of other members of the panel 
 who are challenged. When the jury as a whole is 
 challenged, it is on the ground that the sheriff is sup- 
 posed to have made an unfair panel ; when an indi- 
 vidual juryman is challenged, it is on the ground that 
 he is supposed to be actuated by ill feeling or favor 
 towards the prisoner who is about to be tried. Either 
 the defence or the prosecution can challenge in this 
 way. Challenging, however, is very seldom resorted 
 to, and it rarely happens that any delay is occasioned 
 by difficulties in empanelling the jury. 
 
 As soon as the jury has taken its place in the box, 
 the form of giving the prisoner in charge to the jury 
 is gone through. The officer of the court calls the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. Ill 
 
 prisoner to the front of the dock, and then turning 
 to the jury, reads the charge upon which the pris- 
 oner is arraigned. " Upon this arraignment," reads 
 the formula in use in the courts, " he has pleaded 
 that he is not guilty, and so for trial has put himself 
 upon his country, which country you are. Your 
 charge, therefore, is to inquire whether he be guilty 
 or not guilty, and to hearken to the evidence." 
 
 The trial then begins. It is opened by a state- 
 ment of the case by the prosecuting barrister, who 
 calls witnesses in support of the charge. Before 
 each witness leaves the witness-box, it is left to the 
 barrister who is conducting the defence to determine 
 whether he will cross-examine him or not. When all 
 the evidence for the prosecution has been given, if 
 witnesses for the defence are to be called, they are 
 examined at this stage ; and after their evidence the 
 prisoner's counsel addresses the jury on his behalf. 
 The judge next sums up the case to the jury, going 
 with much detail and minuteness over all the evi- 
 dence ; and at the end of the judge's summing up, 
 the jury is dismissed to its room to decide upon 
 its verdict. All the jurymen have to do is to decide 
 upon the facts from the evidence which has been sub- 
 mitted to them. The law is laid down by the judge. 
 In a case of murder, if the accused is found guilty, 
 he is sentenced as soon as the jury has returned into 
 court with its verdict. 
 
 The judge wears a wig and an ermine-trimmed 
 robe during the hearing of the case. When a prisoner 
 has been found guilty of murder, and sentence of
 
 1 12 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 death is about to be pronounced, the judge removes 
 his wig, and replaces it by a black cap during the few 
 minutes in which he is occupied in delivering sen- 
 tence. A sentence of death is delivered in 'the fewest 
 possible words. The judge usually remarks on the 
 fairness of the trial which the prisoner has had, and 
 then in set words informs the prisoner that the sen- 
 tence of the court is that he be " taken hence [from 
 the court of trial] to the place from whence he came, 
 [that is, from the jail in which he was detained while 
 awaiting trial], and there be hanged by the neck until 
 he be dead, and his body buried within the precincts 
 of the jail." 
 
 At least two clear Sundays elapse between the 
 sentence and the date of its execution ; but the 
 condemned prisoner knows within three or four days 
 after his trial the date on which he will be exe- 
 cuted. There is no court of appeal in criminal 
 cases; and after a death sentence has been pro- 
 nounced, only the Home Secretary stands between 
 the prisoner and the carrying out of the law. All 
 efforts to secure a reprieve must be addressed to the 
 Home Office. The Home Secretary does not re-try 
 the case in a formal way ; but when he does take 
 action to prevent an execution and commute a death 
 sentence to one of imprisonment, he invariably does 
 so after a consultation with the judge who tried the 
 case at the Assizes. Technically speaking, the pre- 
 rogative of mercy is exercised by the Crown ; but 
 the final decision in all capital cases rests with the 
 Home Office.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION 1 OF JUSTICE. 113 
 
 There is little delay in administering criminal jus- 
 tice in England. Every stage of a capital trial is 
 taken methodically and in order. There is no hurry 
 at any stage ; neither is there any undue delay be- 
 tween the stages, between the coroner's court, the 
 police court, and the final trial at the Assize courts, 
 or at the Central Criminal Court in London, which 
 for the whole of the metropolis answers to the 
 Assize courts held in the county towns in the prov- 
 inces. More than three months seldom elapse be- 
 tween the apprehension of a murderer and his 
 execution, if found guilty of the charge. In London, 
 a less period usually elapses, as there are sessions 
 of the Central Criminal Court every six weeks. 
 
 After a murderer has been condemned, he is con- 
 signed to a part of the prison set apart for prisoners 
 under sentence of death ; and only a limited number 
 of his relatives and friends are permitted to see him. 
 Orders have to be obtained for all these interviews, 
 the time of which is limited ; and no interviews are 
 allowed for several clays immediately before the exe- 
 cution. All executions are in private; and it rests 
 with the high sheriff or the under-sheriff whether 
 the newspaper reporters shall be admitted. If the 
 sheriff decides that the execution shall be private, 
 the representatives of the press have no appeal from 
 his decision. Whether the execution is entirely pri- 
 vate, or is attended by reporters, a black flag is always 
 hoisted above the jail to inform the outside world 
 that the execution has taken place. 
 
 An hour after the execution the coroner attends
 
 114 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the jail. A jury is summoned, and an inquest is 
 held. The governor of the jail, and the prison sur- 
 geon, are usually the only witnesses called ; and the 
 jury find a formal verdict in accordance with their 
 evidence. The next step is a publication of a notice 
 of the execution at the entrance of the prison. This 
 notice takes the form of two certificates. One is made 
 out by the prison surgeon, who certifies that he has 
 examined the body of the person executed, and ascer- 
 tained that he was dead ; the other is signed by the 
 under-sheriff, the magistrate who attended the execu- 
 tion, the governor of the jail, and the chaplain, and 
 is to the effect that the sentence of death was exe- 
 cuted in their presence. The dead bodies of prison- 
 ers who are executed are always buried within the 
 walls of the jail. 
 
 Until 1893 it was the custom to bury them with- 
 out any religious ceremony. This custom, however, 
 was departed from for the first time in August, 1893, 
 at Stafford jail, when the prison chaplain, with the 
 permission of the bishop of the diocese, read a ser- 
 vice over the body of an executed prisoner. 
 
 There is no official executioner, no man in re- 
 ceipt of a regular salary from the Home Office for 
 carrying out the last sentence of the law. Men 
 usually unconnected with the prison service volunteer 
 for the office, and are paid a fee for each execution 
 by the under-sheriff of the county in which the 
 accused was tried and condemned. 
 
 A case of murder has been taken with a view to 
 showing the working of the English criminal law,
 
 THE ADMINISTRA TION OF JUSTICE. \ I 5 
 
 because the stages are more numerous than in a case 
 of a less serious character tried at the Assizes, and 
 followed by a sentence of imprisonment or penal 
 servitude. All sentences of imprisonment are served 
 in prisons or convict establishments which are under 
 the control of the Home Office ; and when once a 
 prisoner has been sentenced, the Home Secretary 
 alone has power to interfere with the sentence, and 
 then only in the way of remitting some portion 
 of it. 
 
 The cost of trials at Quarter Sessions and at As- 
 sizes is borne by the county. Since 1879 there has 
 been a Director of Public Prosecutions, or rather the 
 Solicitor to the Treasury in London acts as director 
 of public prosecutions. He does not, however, take 
 up ordinary cases, but only those of unusual diffi- 
 culty, and those in which there is a reason to fear a 
 failure of justice. For the most part, the Solicitor to 
 the Treasury confines his duties as public prosecutor 
 to taking up cases in which criminal charges are 
 made against persons who are passing through the 
 Bankruptcy Court, and those in which persons are 
 charged with corrupt or illegal practices at local or 
 Parliamentary elections. 
 
 The courts in which civil suits are heard may be 
 divided into two classes, the county and local courts, 
 and the High Court of Justice. England and Wales 
 are divided into some five hundred county court dis- 
 tricts. A number of these districts are grouped to- 
 gether to form a circuit, and to each circuit a county 
 court judge is appointed. These appointments are
 
 Il6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and carry salaries 
 ranging from .1,500 to 1,800 per annum. Only 
 barristers of at least seven years' standing are eligi- 
 ble for county court judgeships. A county court 
 judge gives all his time to his duties, and holds a 
 court at least once a month in each district in his 
 circuit. Attached to each court is a registrar, and 
 also a high bailiff. The registrar is a solicitor. He 
 is appointed by the county court judge, with the 
 approval of the Lord Chancellor. 
 
 The majority of the cases which come before the 
 county court are for the recovery of debts. When 
 there is no dispute as to the amount, and practically 
 no defence, the case is heard and determined by the 
 registrar. In these cases the procedure is simple 
 and inexpensive. Each party appears before the 
 registrar; the plaintiff proves that the debt is due; 
 the debtor or the defendant is questioned as to his 
 means of paying it ; and then the registrar makes an 
 order, usually directing the debt to be paid at so 
 much a month. These instalments are paid into 
 the treasury of the court, and handed over by the 
 court officials to the plaintiff. If the defendant fails 
 to pay the instalments, the plaintiff can obtain an 
 order for the seizure and sale of the defendant's 
 household furniture and other belongings, an order 
 which is carried out by officers acting under the 
 direction of the high bailiff of the court. If a 
 debtor is possessed of no furniture which can be 
 seized, and is able but unwilling to pay, the court 
 issues an order for his arrest and imprisonment.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 1 1/ 
 
 Until about 1883 persons were imprisoned for non- 
 payment of debts. The law has been reformed since 
 then ; and the theory now is that a person is not im- 
 prisoned for debt, but for contempt, the contempt 
 consisting in the refusal to obey an order of the 
 court. In these cases of imprisonment some fees 
 are paid by the creditor at whose instance the com- 
 mittal is made, but the cost of maintaining the pris- 
 oner is borne by the state. 
 
 In the county court itself that is, in the court at 
 which the county court judge presides cases can 
 be entered in which the amount involved does not ex- 
 ceed fifty pounds. These suits, when they come to 
 a trial, are heard either with or without a jury, gen- 
 erally without a jury. When there is a jury, it num- 
 bers only five members, and their verdict must be 
 unanimous. Nearly all the cases under the fifty 
 pound limit which come into the county court arise 
 out of disputes in trade. These courts are em- 
 powered to try actions for damages under the Em- 
 ployers' Liability Act, even when the sum claimed 
 exceeds fifty pounds. 
 
 County court judges sit on the bench in wig and 
 gown, and most of them insist upon the barristers 
 and solicitors who attend their courts appearing in 
 the robes and head-gear which the rules of the Bar 
 assign to the two branches of the legal profession. 
 Solicitors and barristers have equal rights as advo- 
 cates in these courts, as they have in the police 
 courts ; but in the civil courts beyond, only barris- 
 ters are allowed to appear as advocates. The pro-
 
 Il8 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 cedure in the county courts is much simpler than in 
 the higher courts, and plaintiffs and defendants fre- 
 quently conduct their own cases without any help 
 from a lawyer. In the large towns the amount of 
 business coming before these courts is very con- 
 siderable. In Birmingham, for instance, about fifty 
 thousand cases a year are tried, of which quite 
 ninety-five per cent are for sums under twenty 
 pounds. The county court system and the mode of 
 procedure is the same all over the country. 
 
 Bankruptcy is a matter which comes within the 
 province of the county court. The administration 
 of the bankruptcy laws, which, in their present form, 
 date from 1883, is in the hands of the Board of 
 Trade, the Government Department in London, 
 which also exercises Parliamentary powers in con- 
 nection with the railways, canals, and harbors, and 
 with every department of the mercantile marine. 
 For the working of the bankruptcy system England 
 is portioned out into sixty-five districts ; and for each 
 of these districts there is appointed a representative 
 of the Board of Trade, who is known as the Official 
 Receiver. 
 
 When a manufacturer, a merchant, a tradesman, 
 or a private individual becomes insolvent, it is open 
 to any of his creditors to appear before the county 
 court judge, and obtain a receiving order. This is 
 directed to the local receiver in bankruptcy, the rep- 
 resentative of the Board of Trade, who at once calls 
 the creditors together, and at the same time takes 
 possession in their behalf of all property of the debtor.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. IIQ 
 
 At the creditors' meeting which follows, and which 
 is open to the press, the debtor explains his affairs, 
 and can be examined by any of his creditors as to 
 the cause of his embarrassment, his mode of doing 
 business, and other matters which affect or concern 
 his relations and dealings with his creditors. 
 
 It is then for the creditors to decide whether the 
 debtor shall be made a bankrupt, or whether they will 
 accept some arrangement which he may offer, or 
 which may be offered in his behalf. Whichever 
 course is adopted must have the sanction of the 
 county court judge. This is not given until a re- 
 port to the court has been made by the official 
 receiver. When no arrangement is made, the debtor 
 is adjudged a bankrupt ; the fact is advertised in 
 the official London Gazette ; and the winding-up of 
 his affairs and the payment of dividends to his cred- 
 itors are left in the hands of the official receiver. 
 
 The debtor remains a bankrupt until his affairs 
 are finally settled. When the settlement is complete, 
 provided the examinations by the official receiver and 
 the creditors have brought out no charges against 
 his honesty and character as a tradesman or a man 
 of business, he is granted a certificate of discharge, 
 and thereafter no creditor can make any claim against 
 him. Until he is in possession of this certificate 
 of discharge the law subjects a bankrupt to a num- 
 ber of disabilities. If he obtains credit to the amount 
 of twenty pounds without telling his creditor that 
 he is an undischarged bankrupt, he is liable to a 
 criminal charge; nor during this time can he hold
 
 120 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 any property. All that he possesses from the date of 
 his bankruptcy to the date of his discharge is the 
 property of his creditors, and must be turned over to 
 the official receiver. 
 
 In a case where bankruptcy is due to misconduct, 
 the court will sometimes withhold its certificate of 
 discharge for several years. When criminal miscon- 
 duct is charged against a bankrupt, he can be com- 
 mitted for trial by the court by which his bankruptcy 
 is adjudged, and he is tried in the ordinary way at 
 the Assizes. If a member of the House of Com- 
 mons, of a town council, or of a school board be- 
 comes a bankrupt, he must at once vacate his seat. 
 
 The High Court of Justice, to which civil cases 
 outside the province of the county court are taken, 
 consists of three divisions : the Chancery Division, 
 the Queen's Bench Division, and the Probate, 
 Divorce, and Admiralty Division. The High Court 
 together with the Court of Appeal constitute what 
 is known as the Supreme Court of Judicature. The 
 High Court exercises both civil and criminal jurisdic- 
 tion ; its headquarters are in the Law Courts in the 
 Strand, London; but its members are the judges 
 who go on circuit to hold Assizes in the county 
 towns. Generally speaking, to the Queen's Bench 
 Division of the High Court go the civil actions in 
 which debts over fifty pounds are claimed, and in 
 which damages are claimed for libel, slander, breaches 
 of promise to marry, and other cases arising out of 
 breaches of contract and agreement. Questions of 
 electoral and municipal law are also dealt with in the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 121 
 
 Queen's Bench Division. To the Chancery Division 
 are assigned actions arising out of partnerships and 
 trusts, and out of disputes as to the rights and privi- 
 leges connected with all kinds of property. The 
 Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division deals with 
 three widely different classes of actions. All dis- 
 putes as to wills are heard in this division ; so are 
 all cases arising under the Divorce and Matrimonial 
 Causes Acts, which have been passed by Parliament 
 since 1857; and also all suits arising out of towage 
 and salvage services at sea. 
 
 Appeals from all the courts in these three Divis- 
 ions go to the Court of Appeals, the second great 
 division in the Supreme Court of Judicature, and 
 from the Court of Appeals to the Law Lords of the 
 House of Lords, who constitute the final court of 
 appeal for cases coming before the law courts. The 
 Law Lords who are of this court of last resort are 
 the Lord Chancellor, the Lords of Appeal in Ordi- 
 nary, who are appointed by the Queen and hold 
 office during good behavior, and the ordinary mem- 
 bers of the House of Lords who have been judges of 
 the superior courts in England, Ireland, or Scotland. 
 
 In connection with the High Court of Justice 
 there are local registries in most of the large towns 
 in which county courts and assize courts are held. 
 The cases arising in the locality to be tried by the 
 judges of the High Courts are entered at these regis- 
 tries, and many of them are heard and disposed of 
 when the judges come into the county to hold the 
 Assizes. Wills are proved at the local registries,
 
 122 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and if they are undisputed, are there passed for pro- 
 bate. If they are disputed, the suits arising out of 
 them are heard in London. 
 
 With two exceptions, all the judges are appointed 
 by the Crown on the recommendation of the Lord 
 Chancellor. The exceptions are those of Lord Chan- 
 cellor and Lord Chief Justice. The Prime Minister 
 submits the recommendations to the Queen for these 
 two appointments. The Lord Chancellor's is a polit- 
 ical as well as a judicial office. He is a member of 
 the Cabinet. He acts as Speaker in the House of 
 Lords, and presides at the sittings of the Law Lords. 
 The office is always held by a lawyer of the highest 
 distinction, usually by one who has been Attorney- 
 General in the House of Commons. Its occupancy 
 ceases with the end of the Administration ; but its 
 holder remains a member of the House of Lords, and 
 is entitled to a large pension. 
 
 The mode of procedure in the trial of an action at 
 Assizes or in London is the same, and the hearing 
 of a civil suit differs but little from the hearing of a 
 criminal charge. The judge and jury, the counsel 
 and the witnesses, take practically the same parts in 
 both trials. In a civil suit of any importance two 
 or more barristers are engaged on either side. One 
 of these is usually a Queen's Counsel, that is a bar- 
 rister of long standing and reputation at the Bar, on 
 whom the title of Q.C. has been conferred. 
 
 No duties attach to this title ; it is bestowed upon 
 its holder as a mark of honor and distinction, and 
 entitles him to a number of privileges in connection
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 123 
 
 with his profession. One of these is the wearing of 
 a silk in place of a stuff gown; another is the aid 
 of a junior barrister when the Q.C. appears in court 
 to conduct a case. 
 
 The etiquette of the Bar lays it down that a junior 
 barrister that is, one who has not taken "silk" 
 may conduct a case without a Queen's Counsel or 
 leader, or a junior may lead another; but as a gen- 
 eral rule, a Queen's Counsel cannot appear without 
 a junior when acting for a plaintiff, although he may 
 do so for a defendant. Both counsel receive briefs 
 from the solicitor instructing them ; but the fee of 
 the Queen's Counsel is of course much larger than 
 that of his junior. What this fee is to be is always 
 marked on the brief when it is handed to the barris- 
 ter's clerk. Another rule of the Bar is that this fee 
 is a free gift, or honorarium, and cannot be recov- 
 ered at law like an ordinary debt. 
 
 When the case opens the junior barrister reads 
 the pleading, that is, the short matter-of-fact state- 
 ment setting out the object .of the action. The 
 Queen's Counsel then proceeds to lay the case in 
 detail before the jury, and witnesses follow with 
 their testimony. One witness is examined by the 
 Queen's Counsel and the next by the junior, and so 
 on in turn until all the witnesses have given their 
 evidence. If the jury fail to agree, the action has 
 to be tried over again. When a verdict is rendered 
 for the plaintiff, the damages which are awarded are 
 collected by the sheriff of the county in which the 
 action arises.
 
 124 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 In the principal seaport towns of England another 
 court which has not yet been described is frequently 
 in session. It is held in connection with the Board 
 of Trade for the purpose of ascertaining the causes 
 of wrecks and disasters at sea, and dealing with the 
 certificates of the officers of the ships concerned. 
 The court consists of a stipendiary magistrate, 
 assisted by two nautical assessors. Evidence is 
 taken as in an ordinary court, and the owners of 
 the ships and their officers are usually represented 
 by lawyers. It is within the power of these courts 
 to suspend the certificate of a captain or a ship's 
 officer who is proved to have been negligent or other- 
 wise in default. The certificates in the first instance 
 are issued by the Board of Trade, after examinations 
 held by the Board's inspectors, and no ship is per- 
 mitted to go to sea unless its master holds a Board 
 of Trade certificate. The Board of Trade also grants 
 certificates to the engineers of sea-going steamers. 
 
 In addition to these marine courts the Board of 
 Trade, through its inspectors, holds inquiries as to 
 railway accidents. Unlike the courts in which 
 wrecks and shipping casualties are investigated, 
 these railway inquiries are conducted in private, and 
 all that results from them is a detailed technical 
 report, which is published later on as a Parliament- 
 ary paper. If a railway accident is attended by loss 
 of life, and the accident is due to culpable carelessness 
 on the part of any of the railway officials, the crimi- 
 nal law is set in motion, not by the Board of Trade 
 inspector, but by the local coroner. Where a loss
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 125 
 
 of life results from an accident, two independent 
 inquiries are thus held, one by the coroner and the 
 other by the representative of the Board of Trade. 
 
 For the hearing of cases arising between railway 
 cpmpanies, between canal and railway companies, 
 or between firms or individuals and a railway or a 
 canal company, there is a special court. It holds its 
 sessions in London, and consists of three members 
 who are known as the Railway Commissioners. One 
 of them is an expert in railway matters. This court 
 has been in existence since 1873. It is chiefly en- 
 gaged with cases arising between companies whose 
 railway systems are connected.
 
 1 26 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 * 
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 
 
 Taxes and Rates. Direct and Indirect Taxation. Customs Houses, and 
 the Departments of Excise and Inland Revenue. Taxes for Revenue 
 only. Excise Duties and the Liquor Trade. Inland Revenue, and the 
 Sources from which raised. Income Tax and Inhabited House Duty. 
 Income Tax Schedules. Typical Cases. Taxation of the Middle 
 Classes. Impossibility of Escaping the Income Tax. Collection of 
 Inhabited House Duty. Collection of Property Tax. Taxes paid by 
 Householders with Incomes of ji,ooo per year. Taxation of Smaller 
 Incomes. No Direct Taxation paid by Artisans and Laborers. 
 
 ALL contributions to the Imperial Revenue are 
 known as taxes or duties, and are collected 
 either by the Inland Revenue Department or the 
 Departments of Excise or Customs. Rate is a term 
 used exclusively in connection with local as dis- 
 tinct from imperial government ; and all rates are 
 levied and collected by town councils, boards of 
 guardians for the relief of the poor, school boards, 
 and other local bodies, under powers delegated to 
 them or to the parish overseers and their agents. 
 
 Taxation divides itself into two departments, 
 direct and indirect. The Customs and the Excise 
 Departments collect the indirect taxation. Direct 
 taxation is collected by the Department of Inland 
 Revenue. Custom-houses are established only at 
 the seaports, while in every parish the Government 
 is represented by collectors of Excise and Inland
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 12? 
 
 Revenue. The custom-house system can be ex- 
 plained in a few words. England is a free-trade 
 country, and levies duties on less than a score of art- 
 icles and commodities received from abroad. The 
 theory is, that customs duties are levied only on arti- 
 cles of luxury ; and for years past the number of 
 articles on the custom-house list has been gradually 
 decreasing. Almost every year when the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer submits his financial statement to 
 the House of Commons, he proposes the reduction 
 or the abolition of some particular customs duty. In 
 the financial year ending April, 1893, the only arti- 
 cles on which duties were charged were, cocoa, coffee, 
 chiccory, tea, dried fruits, tobacco, wine, beer, spirits, 
 strong waters, and playing-cards. On tea, the duty 
 was fourpence on the pound ; on unmanufactured 
 tobacco, three shillings and sixpence a pound ; on 
 manufactured tobacco, from four to five shillings a 
 pound ; on wines, from one shilling to two shillings 
 and sixpence a gallon ; on spirits, ten shillings and 
 tenpence a gallon ; while on playing-cards, there was 
 a duty of three shillings and ninepence a dozen packs. 
 All these duties are for revenue only. In the year 
 named, they contributed nearly twenty millions ster- 
 ling to the Imperial Exchequer, or about two-ninths 
 of the total revenue from all sources. 
 
 The excise duties consist mainly of those paid by 
 brewers and distillers and other persons engaged in 
 the liquor trade. In 1892-93 twenty-five and a half 
 millions sterling were collected from excise sources. 
 
 All the officers engaged in the collection of both
 
 128 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 customs and excise duties are appointed during good 
 behavior, and after competitive examinations at 
 which their fitness for the Civil Service is supposed 
 to be adequately tested. 
 
 Inland Revenue is raised from a hundred or more 
 different sources, from taxes on land and on prop- 
 erty, from taxes on income, from taxes collected from 
 the occupiers of houses, from stamps on checks, on 
 receipted bills, and on numerous other commercial 
 and legal documents, as well as from stamps on 
 patent medicines, and for licenses issued to auction- 
 eers, house-agents, pawn-brokers, plate-dealers, game- 
 keepers, hawkers and pedlers, and for licenses to 
 carry guns to kill game, and to keep dogs and liveried 
 men servants. A number of these taxes and duties 
 are assigned by the Government as grants-in-aid to 
 various local bodies, such as town and county coun- 
 cils and Poor Law guardians ; but they are all col- 
 lected by the officers of the Inland Revenue, who are 
 in the service of the Government. 
 
 The Income Tax and the House Duty are among 
 the more important taxes, and afford good examples 
 of the working of the system of direct taxation. In 
 describing the working of the local rating system, 
 that under which a man is called upon to pay his 
 quota to municipal, Poor Law, and school board 
 expenditure, an individual case was taken as an illus- 
 tration. The same plan will be adopted in explain- 
 ing the Income Tax and the Inhabited House Duty. 
 
 Income Tax assessments are made under five sched- 
 ules, lettered for distinction, A, B, C, D, E. Incomes
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 129 
 
 from land and houses are assessed under schedule 
 A ; incomes from the occupation of land, that is, 
 from farmers and graziers, are assessed under sched- 
 ule B ; incomes from investments in railway com- 
 panies, manufacturing companies, and all kinds of 
 commercial concerns organized on a joint-stock basis, 
 under schedule C ; those from profits in trade and 
 professions are assessed under schedule D ; while 
 under schedule E, are assessed incomes received as 
 salaries from private employers and from offices 
 under public companies. 
 
 The simplest form of schedule is that under which 
 a person in receipt of a fixed and regular income as 
 salary is assessed. Take, for example, the case of a 
 man who is in receipt of a thousand pounds a year 
 as a bank manager. Sometime about the middle of 
 November in each year he will receive a communi- 
 cation from the surveyor of taxes. It will come 
 addressed to the office of the bank, to the business 
 address of the recipient of it ; for the law directs that 
 " persons engaged in any trade or profession, or 
 exercising any employment or vocation, must make 
 their returns for assessment in the parish or place 
 where the trade, profession, or vocation is exercised." 
 
 It may be asked, " How docs the surveyor of taxes 
 know to whom to address his communications in a 
 bank or a commercial office ? " This question is 
 easily answered. Some little time before he sends 
 out his circulars he has served a form upon the re- 
 gistered secretary of the banking company, who is 
 called upon, under heavy penalties, to enter upon it
 
 1 30 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 the names of every clerk or officer who is receiving a 
 salary from the bank. The exact salary as it appears 
 in the company's books is stated in each case, so that 
 before the surveyor of taxes puts himself in commu- 
 nication with a clerk he knows the exact amount he 
 is receiving as salary. There is nothing in the form 
 which the surveyor sends out to the taxpayer to sug- 
 gest this knowledge on his part ; all the blanks are 
 left open, to be filled in by the person to whom it is 
 addressed. In one of these blanks, headed " Schedule 
 of Particulars of Income," the taxpayer is called upon 
 to state, first, his income derived from his trade, pro- 
 fession, or other employment, and then to set out his 
 income from "other sources." "Other sources," in 
 the comprehensive phraseology of the Department of 
 Inland Revenue, include profits derived from buying 
 and selling stocks and shares, letting furnished houses 
 or furnished apartments, interest on money on loan or 
 deposit, including interest on banking account the 
 duty on which is not deducted by the party paying 
 such interest, and sums derived from railway and 
 other investments " out of the United Kingdom." 
 
 The Income Tax assessors throw their nets very 
 widely. Nothing can escape them, if the taxpayer 
 means what he says when he declares over his signa- 
 ture "that all the particulars required in this notice 
 to be returned as appertaining to me, in relation to 
 the duties on profits on property, trade, profession, 
 employment, or vocation, are in every respect fully 
 and truly stated herein, according to the best of my 
 judgment and belief, and according to the rules and
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 131 
 
 regulations of the Act of Parliament in that behalf 
 made." The term "out of the United Kingdom," 
 as it occurs in the schedule of particulars of income, 
 is important to note ; for it is only on investments of 
 this character that the taxpayer has any opportunity 
 of cheating the Imperial Exchequer. In respect of 
 all investments in public companies of any descrip- 
 tion within the United Kingdom, the income tax is 
 deducted before the dividend warrants reach the 
 hands of the investor ; and the net sum so deducted 
 is paid in a lump to the collector of Inland Revenue 
 by the treasurer of the company. 
 
 The same rule is followed in respect of interest on 
 money on deposit with banks. In the case of small 
 investors, whose total income from all sources does 
 not bring them within the range of Income Tax, the 
 money so deducted at the headquarters of the com- 
 pany in which they are shareholders may be refunded 
 by the revenue authorities; but there is much official 
 red-tape about the process, and people of small means 
 are often taxed in this way when they should escape 
 the Income Tax altogether. A case incidentally 
 reported by Mr. Charles Booth, ex-president of the 
 Royal Statistical Society, in his pamphlet "Old Age 
 in the Villages," illustrates the hardship which some- 
 times attends this mode of collecting income tax on 
 investments. It is that of a domestic servant, eighty- 
 two years of age, who had been for many years in 
 one household, and had saved enough money to main- 
 tain her in old age. Her savings were invested in 
 railway stocks. "Her little dividends," writes Mr.
 
 132 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Booth, " came for a long time ' less Income Tax.' 
 Only by accident, through a neighbor, she discovered 
 not long ago that she could claim repayment ; but the 
 vouchers not being forthcoming, the past payments 
 were lost." 
 
 To continue with the case of the bank manager, 
 assessed under schedule E. In the first blank in the 
 schedule of particulars of income he must enter the 
 sum of one thousand pounds. If his wife has an in- 
 come in her own right, that also must be entered in 
 the schedule ; as the income of a married woman liv- 
 ing with her husband is deemed by the Income Tax 
 Acts to be the husband's income, notwithstanding 
 any settlement or the provisions contained in the 
 Married Woman's Property Act of 1882, the law 
 which protects the separate estates of married wo- 
 men ; and the husband is responsible for making to 
 the Income Tax Commissioners a due return of any 
 profits belonging to his wife. If the bank manager's 
 salary represents his sole income, he writes the word 
 " None " under the heading " Income from other 
 Sources." If, on the other hand, his wife has an 
 income of, for example, two hundred pounds a year, 
 if this is not already taxed as an investment in the 
 United Kingdom, he enters it in the schedule, and 
 it goes to swell the amount on which he must pay 
 taxes. 
 
 Only one deduction is allowed in the case of a man 
 with a total income of over four hundred pounds a 
 year. This is in respect of life insurance ; and to 
 secure this deduction the taxpayer must fill up his
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 133 
 
 schedule, setting forth the amount of premium he 
 pays to the life-insurance company, make another 
 declaration in support of his claim for this relief, and 
 send his last receipt from the insurance company to 
 the surveyor of taxes. 
 
 When the form has been duly filled in, and the 
 necessary declarations made, it is returned to the 
 surveyor of taxes, and then goes before the Com- 
 missioners of Income Tax, who act as assessors. 
 These are local officers appointed by the Board of 
 Inland Revenue. They examine the statements 
 made by the taxpayer in the form sent to him by 
 the surveyor of taxes ; and if, in their judgment, the 
 statements are correct and in order, they pass on the 
 papers to the collector of Income Tax, who serves a 
 demand for payment on the taxpayer. If a man 
 ignores the schedules he receives from the surveyor 
 of taxes, and submits no particulars to the commis- 
 sioners, they assess him on any amount they deem 
 reasonable and fair, and pass on this assessment to 
 the collector. Notwithstanding his early default in 
 regard to the schedules from the surveyor of taxes, 
 the taxpayer so assessed, even at this late stage, can 
 appeal to the commissioners against their assessment, 
 by giving prompt notice to the collector and at the 
 same time furnishing him with the details which 
 ought at an earlier date to have been given to the 
 surveyor of taxes. If notice is not given within 
 ten days, the right of appeal against an Income Tax 
 asessment is lost. 
 
 From 1863-6410 1892-93 the Income Tax in Kng-
 
 134 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 land varied from threepence to eightpence in the 
 pound. In 1893 it was sixpence ; so that the bank 
 manager with ,1,000 a year would have to pay in 
 that year one thousand sixpences less sixpence for 
 every pound he paid out of his income for life insur- 
 ance. If his life insurance cost him sixty pounds a 
 year, the demand note he would receive from the 
 collector of Income Tax would be made out in some- 
 thing this form : 
 
 AMOUNT OF DUTY 
 
 ASSESSMENT. PAYABLE. 
 
 Under Schedule E on Profits of . s. d. . s. d. 
 
 Office and Employment . . . 1,000 o o 
 
 Deduct Life Insurance .... 60 o o 
 
 Net Amount 940 o o 23 10 o 
 
 The case of a man with a salary of ,1,000 per 
 annum has been taken as illustrating the working of 
 the Income Tax system. This should be supplemented 
 by one illustrating its working in the case of a man 
 receiving two hundred or three hundred pounds a 
 year; for in the case of an income below four hun- 
 dred pounds a year a modified system of assessment 
 is adopted. From 1843 to 1853 what was known as a 
 differential rate of income tax was imposed. Thus 
 in 1863 there were two rates, one of sixpence in the 
 pound, and one of ninepence in the pound. All in- 
 comes under one hundred pounds were then free of 
 Income Tax ; on those between one hundred pounds 
 and one hundred and fifty pounds the sixpenny tax 
 was imposed ; while on incomes of more than one 
 hundred and fifty pounds the tax was ninepence in
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 135 
 
 the pound. In 1863 the differential system was 
 abolished ; all incomes above one hundred pounds 
 were taxed ; and this limit was continued until 1876, 
 when it was advanced to one hundred and fifty 
 pounds, a concession made to the lower middle 
 classes during Lord Beaconsfield's 1874-81 Admin- 
 istration. Since 1876 all incomes below one hun- 
 dred and fifty pounds have been exempt from taxation ; 
 and in the case of those above one hundred and 
 fifty pounds, but less than four hundred pounds, a 
 deduction of one hundred and twenty pounds is 
 made, in arriving at the sum upon which taxation 
 is paid. 
 
 The foregoing table shows the form of demand 
 which a man in receipt of ^"1,000 a year would re- 
 ceive from the income tax collector in a year when 
 the tax stood at sixpence in the pound. The follow- 
 ing table shows the form of demand note which a 
 man in receipt of a salary of three hundred pounds 
 a year, and paying sixteen pounds a year for life 
 insurance, would receive from the collector. 
 
 AMOUNT OF DUTY 
 
 ASSESSMENT. I'AVABLK. 
 
 Under Schedule E on Profits of s. if. s. d. 
 
 Office and Employment 300 o o 
 
 Deduct Abatement of ; 1 20 .... 120 o o 
 
 Deduct Life Insurance 1600 
 
 Net Amount 164 o o 420 
 
 The mode of filling up the five different schedules 
 differs somewhat ; but the two cases coming under 
 schedule E, which have been cited, will serve to
 
 I$6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 illustrate the working of the Income Tax Acts, 
 as they apply to men in receipt of salaries. There 
 is little or no chance of escaping the Income 
 Tax. 
 
 The ramifications of the Inland Revenue Depart- 
 ment make escape almost impossible. Although the 
 law requires that a man shall pay his tax in the parish 
 in which his salary is earned, he does not go unheeded 
 by the collector of taxes in the parish in which he 
 lives. In the ordinary course of things, he comes 
 into relationship with the collector of the parish in 
 which he has his home in connection with the Inhab- 
 ited House Duty ; but the surveyor of taxes for his 
 parish will also serve him with a demand for particu- 
 lars as to income, exactly similar to that he receives 
 at his business address. This duplicating of the de- 
 mand for particulars is intended to meet the cases of 
 doctors, artists, literary men, and people living on 
 their means, whose home address is the only address 
 they have. When a man who pays his Income Tax 
 at his business address receives the papers of the 
 surveyor of taxes at his home address, he returns 
 them with a statement as to the parish in which he 
 is already taxed. This statement is verified, and if 
 found correct, no further demand for Income Tax is 
 made upon him from this quarter. 
 
 The taxpayer, however, has not yet done with the 
 collector in his home as distinct from his business 
 parish. If he occupies a house rented at more than 
 twenty pounds a year, he is taxed for it. The 
 amount of the tax depends on the rental. There
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 137 
 
 are two schedules under which the Inhabited House 
 Duty is assessed and collected, each with three dif- 
 ferent scales. In the first schedule are classed shops, 
 inns, and farmhouses ; private houses are in the second 
 schedule. All local rates in England are assessed on 
 the Poor Law valuation, which may be taken as equal 
 to two-thirds of the rental value ; but the Inhabited 
 House Duty is chargeable upon the full rental value 
 of a house. There is little yearly variation in the 
 duty. In 1892-93, for houses in the first schedule, 
 that is for shops and inns, it was twopence in the 
 pound for houses rented at twenty pounds and less 
 than forty pounds; fourpence in the pound for those 
 rented at forty and less than sixty pounds ; and six- 
 pence in the pound for those rented at sixty pounds 
 and upwards. Under this assessment a country 
 innkeeper occupying a house which rented at forty 
 pounds a year would pay six shillings and eightpence 
 as Inhabited House Duty. The keeper of a hotel 
 in a small town paying sixty pounds as rent would 
 pay one pound, while the keeper of a hotel in 
 London rented at five hundred pounds would pay 
 twelve pounds ten shillings. 
 
 The scale for private houses is higher. In re- 
 spect of those rented at sums between twenty and 
 forty pounds, the tax in 1892-93 was threepence in 
 the pound ; between forty and sixty pounds, sixpence 
 in the pound ; and above sixty pounds, ninepence in 
 the pound. 
 
 The bank manager whose case was taken to 
 illustrate the working of the Income Tax system
 
 138 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 would, if he made his home in any of the better class 
 London suburbs, occupy a house of a rental value of 
 about one hundred pounds. His annual contribu- 
 tions to the Imperial Exchequer in the way of 
 Income Tax and Inhabited House Duty would there- 
 fore amount to twenty-seven pounds five shillings, 
 made up thus : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Income Tax on jiooo, less ^60 for Insurance, at 
 
 sixpence in the pound ........ 23 10 o 
 
 Inhabited House Duty ninepence in the pound 
 
 on ^100 ............. 3 15 o 
 
 27 5 o 
 
 If he were an occupier only, that is, if he rented 
 the house, this sum of twenty-seven pounds five 
 shillings would represent his net payment to the 
 Inland Revenue on account of these two taxes. If 
 he owned his house, another charge of sixpence in 
 the pound, also based on the rental value, would be 
 levied upon him by the collector of Imperial taxes. 
 In this case his account, as regards direct taxation, 
 would stand thus : 
 
 Income Tax on ^1000, less 60 for Insurance, 
 at sixpence in the pound ....... 23 10 o 
 
 Inhabited House Duty, ninepence in the pound 
 on ^100 ............. 3150 
 
 Income Tax in respect of property house of the 
 rental value of ^100 a year, at sixpence in 
 the pound ............ 2100 
 
 29 15 o
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 139 
 
 Whether the taxpayer is the owner and occupier 
 of the house, or only the occupier of it, in the first 
 instance both the Inhabited House Duty and the 
 Property Tax are levied upon him, and must be paid 
 by him. In the case of the Property Tax, however, 
 the law directs that the tenant shall withhold it from 
 the owner, and the owner is bound under a penalty 
 of fifty pounds to allow out of rent the tax which 
 the tenant has thus paid in his behalf. Under this 
 arrangement the surveyors of taxes are saved much 
 trouble in tracing the ownership of property, when 
 ownership and occupancy are in different hands. The 
 occupier of a house may not know who is the actual 
 owner ; but he knows to whom he must pay the rent, 
 and the intention of the law is to secure the tax out of 
 the rent before the rent passes into the hands of the 
 landlord. If there is a mortgage on the property, 
 it is possible for the landlord later on to claim some 
 abatement on that account, and also in respect of 
 ground rent ; but the tenant has nothing to do with 
 these abatements, and must pay the full amount 
 of the tax on the annual rent when he pays the 
 Inhabited House Duty. 
 
 An income of J^iooo will not permit its recipient 
 to keep up much style, or make any great display ; 
 but for the purpose of carrying out the illustration 
 of the English system of direct taxation, it may be 
 assumed that the bank manager keeps a horse ami 
 carriage ; that a boy who wears buttons attends to 
 the horse ; and that the bank manager also keeps a 
 dog, and is in possession of a gun, with which on two
 
 140 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 or three days in the autumn or the winter he goes 
 out shooting. These indulgences will make a seri- 
 ous difference in his accounts with the collector of 
 Inland Revenue. His total account, irrespective of 
 his license to kill game, will then stand thus: 
 
 , s. d. 
 Income Tax on ^1000 less 60 for insurance, at 
 
 sixpence in the pound 23 10 o 
 
 Inhabited House Duty, ninepence in the pound 
 
 on ^100 3 '5 
 
 Income Tax in respect of property house of the 
 
 rental value of ^100 a year, at sixpence in the 
 
 pound 2 10 o 
 
 Armorial bearings i i o 
 
 Use of the same on carriage 220 
 
 Tax on man-servant '5 
 
 License for dog 76 
 
 Gun license 10 o 
 
 Total 34 10 6 
 
 This sum of ^34 los. 6d. would represent the bank 
 manager's total contribution to direct taxation. And 
 yet not quite all ; for every time he pays his grocer 
 or his butcher by check, the Inland Revenue Com- 
 missioners, by means of their stamp, collect a penny 
 on each and every transaction. 
 
 When once a man is in receipt of an income over 
 five hundred pounds a year, the collectors of Inland 
 Revenue are always lying in wait for him. They are 
 with him in his periods of prosperity and in his times 
 of depression. They are waiting to collect a toll when 
 he apprentices his son to an engineer, or gives another 
 a start in life as a lawyer. When he receives a check
 
 IMPERIAL TAXATION. 14! 
 
 from abroad, tribute must be paid to the Imperial 
 Exchequer before it can be placed to his account 
 with a banker ; and if the banker should fail, tribute 
 must be paid before the creditor's claim can be 
 lodged with the Official Receiver. Nor do these 
 charges end with a man's lifetime. When a man 
 dies, probate duty must be paid on his estate, and 
 succession and legacy duty by those who benefit 
 tinder his will. A man in receipt of less than one 
 hundred and fifty pounds a year, is far less frequently 
 reminded of the existence of a Government with 
 powers to tax him. He escapes altogether the In- 
 come Tax, and seldom occupies a house for which the 
 Inhabited House Duty is paid. In the long run, he 
 pays his quota to imperial taxation, but almost en- 
 tirely in an indirect way, through the grocer, the 
 retailer of beers and spirits, and the tobacconist. The 
 surveyor of taxes, the Income Tax commissioners, 
 and the collector of Inland Revenue are all unknown 
 to the artisan earning two pounds a week, who lives 
 in a house rented at twelve or fifteen pounds a 
 year. For years past, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer's annual statement and his financial pro- 
 posals have had little direct interest for the laborer 
 and the artisan. It is not until a man pushes his 
 way into the lower middle class, and finds himself 
 with an income of two hundred pounds a year, or 
 more, and a house rented at more than twenty pounds, 
 that he experiences any feeling of personal interest 
 as Budget Night comes round in the House of Com- 
 mons. When he reaches this stage of prosperity, an
 
 142 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 additional penny on the Income Tax is a matter of 
 more than academic interest to him ; for, on an in- 
 come of two hundred pounds, it means an additional 
 six or seven shillings to his annual contribution to 
 direct taxation.
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 143 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 
 
 County and Borough Constituencies. Membership of the House of Com- 
 mons. University Seats. Parliamentary Franchise. Three Great 
 Reform Acts. Parliamentary Franchise before 1832. Nomination and 
 Rotten Boroughs. Early Agitation for Reform. Struggle in Parliament 
 over the Act of 1832. Creation of Middle Class Electorate. Reform 
 Act of 1867. Working Classes in Towns Receive the Franchise. The 
 Acts of 1884 and 1885. Enfranchisement of the Working Classes in Rural 
 Districts. Increase in Membership of the House of Commons. Quali- 
 fications of Voters. Registration. Local Political Organizations. 
 Revising Barristers' Courts. Political Contests in the Revision Courts. 
 Procedure at Parliamentary Election. AContested Election in a Typical 
 Borough. Political Clubs. Selection of Parliamentary Candidates. 
 Local Candidates and Carpet Baggers. Party Headquarters in London. 
 Reception of Candidate by Local Committee. Candidates' Activities i n the 
 Constituency. The Canvass. Working of Ballot and Corrupt Practices 
 Acts. Cost of Elections. Limitations of Cost. Dissolution of Par- 
 liament and the Issue of New Writs. Nomination and Election Days. 
 The House of Lords and a General Election. Constitution of the 
 House of Lords. Law Lords and Lords Spiritual. 
 
 ENGLAND and Wales and Scotland and Ireland, 
 for Parliamentary elections, are divided into 
 county and borough constituencies. There are in 
 all 670 members of the House of Commons. Kng- 
 land has 465; of whom 226 are representatives of 
 boroughs, 234 of county constituencies, and 5 of uni- 
 versities that is, two each for the Universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, and one for the University 
 of London. At the elections for the university seats, 
 the voters are the graduates who have retained their
 
 144 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 names on the university books. Wales has 30 mem- 
 bers in the House of Commons, Scotland has 72, and 
 Ireland has 103. The county divisions embrace the 
 rural districts and, generally speaking, all the coun- 
 try lying outside the large boroughs. In some few 
 instances, mainly in the north of England, boroughs 
 with over 30,000 inhabitants are included in county 
 divisions; but most of the boroughs with populations 
 of 30,000 or over have members of their own. 
 
 Since 1884 the franchise has been the same in the 
 county and the borough constituencies and in all parts 
 of the kingdom. It may be exercised by every man 
 who between the month of July in one year and July 
 in the next has occupied a house or part of a house, 
 or has been in possession of other premises or land 
 for which rates have been paid for the relief of the 
 poor. Women vote at elections for Poor Law guard- 
 ians, town councils, county councils, and school 
 boards, but are not permitted to vote at elections of 
 members of the House of Commons. 
 
 It required nearly a century of agitation and three 
 great Acts of Parliament to give England its present 
 system of Parliamentary representation. The first of 
 these Reform Acts was passed in 1832, the second in 
 1867, and the third in 1884. The most important of 
 them was that of 1832, which swept away numerous 
 rotten and nomination boroughs, and bestowed the 
 electoral franchise on the middle classes. For more 
 than eighty years previous to the Act of 1832 Parlia- 
 mentary Reform had from time to time been discussed 
 in Parliament, and more or less agitated in the country.
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 145 
 
 As far back as the last Stuart rising, in 1745, 
 Sir Francis Dashwood had moved a resolution in the 
 House of Commons calling for " measures as would 
 secure to His Majesty's subjects the perpetual enjoy- 
 ment of their undoubted right to be freely and fairly 
 represented in Parliaments frequently chosen, and 
 exempted from influence of every kind." 
 
 In those days, and until after 1832, there was no 
 pretence that the people were freely and fairly repre- 
 sented in Parliament. In 1745, and increasingly as 
 time went on, the election of members of the House 
 of Commons was in the hands of the few, mainly of 
 the large landowners, the aristocratic and terri- 
 torial families ; and as late in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury as 1820 it was computed that of the 658 members 
 then composing the House of Commons, 306 were 
 returned by 160 persons. Pitt associated himself 
 with the question of Parliamentary Reform in 1782, 
 and endeavored to pledge the House to measures 
 against bribery, for the disfranchisement of the 
 numerous corrupt boroughs, and for giving additional 
 members to London, and to some of the counties in 
 which, owing to the development of mining and man- 
 ufacturing, population was increasing. Nothing 
 came of Pitt's effort. Parliamentary Reform was 
 thrown back a quarter of a century by the French 
 Revolution, and had no prominent place in Knglish 
 politics until after the peace which followed the battle 
 dl Waterloo. 
 
 There was little hope for Reform during the time 
 of the last two Georges ; but with the accession of
 
 146 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 
 
 William IV., in 1830, the outlook became brighter. 
 The new king was favorable to the Whigs, who were 
 the advocates of Parliamentary Reform ; and when 
 Earl Grey, the Whig leader, undertook in 1831 to 
 form a Government, it was on the express under- 
 standing with the king that Parliamentary Reform 
 was to become at once a Government measure. The 
 king accepted this condition; and in March, 1831, 
 Lord John Russell, the leader of the Whigs in the 
 House of Commons, introduced a measure intended 
 to give " the real property and the real respectability 
 of the different cities and towns the right of voting 
 for members of Parliament." This measure did not 
 get very far. A crisis occurred in connection with 
 it which led to a dissolution ; but at the General 
 Election which followed, the supporters of Reform 
 were returned with a large majority. The new Par- 
 liament met in June of the same year ; and, by the 
 end of September, the Reform Bill had been carried 
 through its several stages, and finally passed by a 
 majority of 116 in a division in which 584 members 
 voted. The House of Lords threw out the measure, 
 and a period of violent agitation in the country en- 
 sued. The next year the bill was re-introduced in 
 the House of Commons, sent up to the House of 
 Lords, and, on a hint from the king that opposition 
 would be overridden by the creation of new peers, 
 the Lords passed the bill, and the first stage in the 
 Reform Era came to an end. 
 
 Under the Act of 1832 the Parliamentary fran- 
 chise was conferred on large leaseholders in the
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. \tf 
 
 rural districts, and on householders in the incorpo- 
 rated boroughs, whose premises were assessed to the 
 relief of the poor on a rating basis of ten pounds 
 a year, which meant that none but persons living 
 in houses rented at fifteen or sixteen pounds a year 
 were allowed to vote. The Act, in short, created a 
 middle class electorate ; and this electorate remained 
 in possession of Parliamentary power until 1867, when 
 the second great measure of Reform was passed. The 
 Act of 1867 was preceded by several years of agita- 
 tion, and was at last hastened by a popular outbreak 
 in the metropolis, demonstratively violent in its 
 nature, but not nearly so violent as that which inter- 
 vened between the rejection of the Reform Bill by 
 the Lords in 1831, and the final passing of the Act 
 in 1832. 
 
 The second of these Acts, that of 1867, while it 
 did away with the ten-pound qualification and con- 
 ferred the franchise on all male householders who 
 paid poor rates, was applicable only to the boroughs, 
 to the large towns which were incorporated under 
 the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. It enfran- 
 chised the working-classes in these towns ; but it left 
 the working-classes in the rural districts just where 
 they were left after the middle class measure of 
 1832, and it was not until 1884 that they were in- 
 trusted with the Parliamentary franchise. Up to 
 this time the number of members of the House of 
 Commons was 658, the same as at the beginning of 
 the century; but by a measure for the redistribution 
 of seats which followed the Reform Act of 1884, the
 
 148 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 number was increased to 670, divided between Eng- 
 land and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and between 
 the counties and boroughs in the proportions stated 
 at the outset of this chapter. Such in brief outline 
 is the story of the series of legislative measures by 
 which in a period extending over slightly more than 
 half a century 1832 to 1884 Parliamentary power 
 has been transferred from the land-owning classes to 
 the democracy. 
 
 The right to vote at a Parliamentary election de- 
 pends upon two conditions : one, that a man has occu- 
 pied for a year premises rated to the relief of the 
 poor, and, two, that his name is entered upon the 
 register of electors for the borough or division of 
 the county in which the qualification exists. The 
 compiling of this register is in the hands of the over- 
 seers of the poor. It is a long and expensive busi- 
 ness, not only for the overseers whose expenditure 
 is defrayed out of the rates, but also for the political 
 organizations whose members have an interest in a 
 full and correct register of the electors of their own 
 party in the constituency in which the organization 
 carries on its work. Two lists are prepared. The 
 first is compiled in August by the overseer, and 
 comprises, or is supposed to comprise, the names 
 of all persons who have occupied houses, premises, 
 or land, rated to the relief of the poor between the 
 month of July, just passed, and the same month in 
 the preceding year. 
 
 The overseers prepare this list from the rate books ; 
 and as soon as the list is completed, copies are printed
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 149 
 
 and displayed for a certain number of days at the 
 offices of the overseers, on the outside doors of all 
 churches and chapels, at the town hall, at the offices 
 of the clerk to the Poor Law guardians, at the police 
 headquarters, at the political clubs, and in other pub- 
 lic places. Every man who is entitled to a vote is 
 supposed to examine the list. If he finds his name 
 and address are duly entered and he is otherwise 
 properly described, the matter gives him no further 
 concern, unless he is subsequently served with a 
 written notice from the agent of one of the political 
 parties that they intend to object to his being on the 
 register and furnish him with a statement of the 
 ground for that objection. In this case the elector 
 knows that he will have to make an appearance at 
 the Revising Barrister's Court to make good his 
 claim to a place on the register. If he finds that 
 his name is not on the preliminary list, he goes to 
 the office of the overseers and fills up a printed form 
 claiming a vote, and his name is then published in 
 a new list known as the claims list. The claims 
 list, together with the list of persons who Have been 
 objected to by the political agents on either side, is 
 hung on the church door and remains there, like the 
 overseers' list, for a certain number of days. 
 
 By this means of publication it is open to every 
 one to see who is on the preliminary list, who has 
 been objected to, and who is claiming a vote, and 
 the qualifications in respect of which it is claimed. 
 At the end of the period fixed for the publication of 
 the lists the work of revisintr them is commenced.
 
 1 50 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 It is undertaken by a Revising Barrister, that is, by 
 a lawyer supposed to be learned in electoral law, 
 who is appointed by the Lord Chancellor to revise 
 the lists in certain electoral divisions, and in which 
 for this purpose he holds a court like a judge. Be- 
 fore the Revising Barristers open their courts, the 
 registration agents of both political parties have dis- 
 charged a considerable amount of preliminary hard 
 work, and with the opening of the court the battle 
 over the registers begins in earnest. It is fought at 
 close range, and is frequently characterized by some 
 bitterness of feeling, especially in constituencies 
 which are evenly divided, and in which the sitting 
 member of the House of Commons holds the seat 
 by only a small majority. 
 
 The registration agents are permanent officials ; 
 and the payment of them and the maintenance of 
 their offices and staffs of assistants cost members of 
 Parliament and candidates who are before the con- 
 stituencies, or in some cases the local political parties, 
 from three hundred to eight hundred pounds a 
 year. All the year round these agents of the politi- 
 cal parties employ themselves in keeping a watch 
 over the removals of all householders known to be 
 on their side in politics, and in seeing that these 
 householders do not lose their places on the registers 
 as a consequence of changing their abodes. 
 
 As soon as the preliminary registers are out, the 
 registration agent on each side, Liberal and Con- 
 servative, goes over every name. If he finds the 
 name of a man whom he knows will vote with the
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. I 5 I 
 
 opposite party, and he has reasons for doubting his 
 qualifications, he promptly lodges an objection against 
 him, and gives him notice that his right to vote is in 
 dispute. If, on the other hand, he fails to find the 
 name of a man on the register who he has reason to 
 believe will vote with his party, and who he thinks 
 has the slightest claim to a vote, he forthwith 
 sends in a claim to the overseers in his behalf, and 
 begins to collect evidence in support of the case he 
 is to make good in the Revising Barrister's Court. 
 
 When the court opens, the man who has been 
 objected to, or in whose behalf a claim has been 
 made, appears before the barrister to show that the 
 objection is without foundation, or to prove his claim. 
 In some respects he is in a position not unlike that 
 of a litigant in an ordinary lawsuit. In the case of 
 a man who has been objected to by the Liberals, the 
 Tory agent will act as counsel, or lawyer for what 
 may be called the defence, while the Liberal agent 
 will endeavor by evidence and argument to make out 
 the case against his vote, and bring about the strik- 
 ing-off of his name from the electors' roll. If the 
 Liberals succeed, the man's name is struck off ; if 
 they fail, and the man makes good his claim, the 
 court allows him an attendance fee, and any reason- 
 able expenses to which he may have been put in 
 defending his claim. The awarding of these fees 
 and expenses, to be paid by the opposing political 
 party, is the principal check on the lodging of trivial 
 objections. 
 
 The receipt of Poor Law relief disqualifies a man
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 from voting at Parliamentary elections ; and no man 
 can claim a place on the Parliamentary register who 
 has served a term of imprisonment during the quali- 
 fying period. Lodgers must claim their votes every 
 year. They may stay a dozen years in one set of 
 rooms ; but each year they have to make a new 
 claim, and are liable to be summoned before the Re- 
 vising Barrister's Court, to prove that during the 
 qualifying period they have been the sole occupiers 
 of rooms which, if let without furniture, would com- 
 mand rents of not less than ten pounds a year. 
 
 When the Revising Barrister has gone over the 
 lists in the way described, the lists are reprinted and 
 signed, and become the official register on which all 
 elections occurring between November of one year 
 and November of the ensuing year are contested. 
 
 The mode of procedure at a Parliamentary election 
 is practically the same all over the country. In de- 
 scribing it, it may be best to take an average-sized 
 constituency of the character of that used in illus- 
 trating the working of the system of municipal gov- 
 ernment, a self-contained single-member borough. 
 There are numerous constituencies of this character, 
 with Parliamentary electoral rolls numbering from 
 five to eight thousand voters. Each of them stands 
 apart from the county or the neighboring borough 
 constituencies, and it is perhaps a little easier to fol- 
 low the methods in such self-contained and compact 
 constituencies than in a London or a county division. 
 
 It may be assumed that in the last House of Com- 
 mons, the borough was represented by a Conserva-
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 153 
 
 tive who, on a register of about 7,500 voters, was 
 elected by a majority of 250 or 300. It will be of 
 advantage, also, to assume that the member then 
 elected is now about to retire, and that at the forth- 
 coming election each political party in the constitu- 
 ency has to find a new candidate for the seat. 
 
 Since the extension of the franchise to the work- 
 ing-classes by the Reform Act of 1867, both political 
 parties have endeavored to maintain permanent clubs 
 in the borough constituencies. The effort has not 
 been attended by much success. English people, as 
 a rule, take but a quiet and passive interest in poli- 
 tics, except at election times. There are practically 
 no offices to be awarded to active local politicians. 
 There is nothing, in fact, to hold these local political 
 clubs together between one General Election and 
 another ; and if it were not for their social side, for 
 the billiard-rooms, the card-rooms, the bowling-greens, 
 and the drink ing-bars, many of these clubs would 
 collapse in the interval. They form meeting-places 
 for men of two opposite classes, although belonging 
 to the same political party. 
 
 In such a borough as the one chosen, neither 
 the Liberal nor the Conservative club will have more 
 than four hundred members. Of these, perhaps 
 thirty or forty are men who may be classed as local 
 politicians. They form the local political committee, 
 and are usually elected annually by the members of 
 the club. The voting for these members of the com- 
 mittee is about the only political duty discharged by 
 the majority of the members in connection with
 
 1 54 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 their membership of the club between one election 
 and another. The majority of the club members 
 are young men ; some of them are under age, and are 
 not voters, and their connection with the political 
 organization is entirely due to the social advantages 
 a cheap club offers them. The local clubs of both 
 political parties are conducted on the same lines, 
 and the personnel of their membership can be di- 
 vided in almost exactly the same way. 
 
 It is in the selection of the new Parliamentary 
 candidate for the borough that the local political 
 club, or its active political section, comes on the 
 scene and into touch with the party generally in the 
 constituency. First of all, the political committee 
 look about for a likely local candidate. They must 
 select a man of some wealth, for it will cost him from 
 450 to .600 to fight the election ; and if he suc- 
 ceeds it will cost him at least another ,200 or ^"300 
 to maintain his hold on the seat until the next Gen- 
 eral Election comes round. This sum is expended 
 mainly in registration work, in seeing that his parti- 
 sans are placed on the electoral roll, and, where it is 
 possible, that those of the opposition candidate are 
 kept off. 
 
 There is no salary attaching to the office of mem- 
 ber of Parliament, no mileages, and no free travelling 
 on the railways between the constituency and West- 
 minster. Every penny of his election expenses must 
 be found by the candidate himself, or by his political 
 friends. It frequently happens that local candidates 
 are not forthcoming. In such a case, the committee
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 1 55 
 
 of the local club is compelled to look abroad for a 
 candidate. To this end, it puts itself in communica- 
 tion with the Parliamentary whips of the party, who 
 in turn are in constant communication with their 
 party headquarters association in London, the 
 National Liberal and Radical Federation for the 
 Liberals, and the National Union of Conservative 
 Associations for the Conservatives. The committees 
 of each of these organizations are practically domi- 
 nated by a few of their more active members, in close 
 association with their organizing secretary, who re- 
 ceives 800 or ;iooo a year for his work. 
 
 A borough, like the one in mind, would command 
 first-class candidates from the headquarters com- 
 mittees in London ; for from the closeness of the 
 polling at the last election, either candidate would 
 have an excellent fighting chance. As the borough 
 is in the hands of the Conservatives, that party has 
 the best chance of success ; and only a candidate who 
 has fought a series of forlorn hopes in other con- 
 stituencies, and has established good claims on the 
 party whips in London, would be assigned by the 
 Conservatives to contest the seat. The Liberals 
 would select an equally good candidate, also with 
 good claims on their national organization ; for with 
 hard work and the changes which are apt to take 
 place in a constituency between one General Election 
 and another, there is every possibility of turning the 
 Conservative majority at the preceding election into 
 a minority. At headquarters in London, there is no 
 trouble in finding a candidate. The secretary of
 
 I 56 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 each national organization has a list of men who are 
 eager to contest likely constituencies. These men 
 are carpet-baggers, of course ; but as neither residen- 
 tial nor any other qualification is necessary for a 
 Parliamentary candidate, and as quite one-third of 
 the members of the House of Commons are usually 
 of this class, it is seldom to a candidate's serious dis- 
 advantage to be a carpet-bagger ; and, if he is elected, 
 the fact that he is a carpet-bagger saves him from 
 numerous local calls upon his purse, and from a hun- 
 dred petty annoyances which are the lot of the man 
 whose home is in the constituency he happens to 
 represent in Parliament. 
 
 The candidate who is thus assigned after the appli- 
 cation to headquarters, goes to the constituency with 
 letters of introduction to the chairman of the local 
 organization, and in due course has an interview with 
 the local committee. His political views are already 
 known ; all that the local committee desires to be 
 assured of, is his record as a politician, the length of 
 his purse, and his presentability as a candidate. As 
 soon as the committee is satisfied upon these three 
 points, it passes a resolution adopting him as the 
 candidate, and then calls a mass meeting of the 
 party with a view to introducing him to the constitu- 
 ency, and getting the rank and file of the party - 
 those not actively connected with the local political 
 club to approve of the choice which the local com- 
 mittee, with the aid of the headquarters association 
 in London, has made. The candidate at this mass 
 meeting makes a speech, stating his views on current
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 157 
 
 political questions ; and, at its close, the meeting 
 either indorses or repudiates the action of the local 
 committee in selecting him. It rarely happens that 
 the action of the local committee is repudiated. The 
 rank and file are disposed to take its word for every- 
 thing, and the committee invariably makes itself sure 
 about its man before introducing him in public meet- 
 ing to the constituency. 
 
 When the mass meeting has thus approved of the 
 selection, the candidate is regarded as formally 
 before the constituency, and at once begins his can- 
 vass. It frequently happens that when the present 
 member is about to retire, and this fact is well known, 
 the new candidate is before the constituency for a 
 couple of years or even longer, prior to the General 
 Election. As soon as the local Conservatives have 
 accepted their candidate, the local Liberals begin to 
 look around for theirs, and go through the same pro- 
 ceedings as the Conservatives. 
 
 If the election is eighteen months or two years off, 
 both candidates take matters easily for awhile. They 
 are in and out of the constituency as frequently 
 as possible, but content themselves so far as outside 
 work is concerned with two or three meetings in the 
 course of the year. But things brisken up as the 
 election approaches, and for three months before 
 the time the candidates and their friends are exceed- 
 ingly active. Neither of them loses an opportunity 
 of making a public or a ceremonial appearance. Any 
 kinrl of public gathering will serve their purpose 
 a church foundation-stone laying, church bazaars,
 
 158 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 friendly society dinners, or concerts and entertain- 
 ments in behalf of local charities, football games in 
 the winter and cricket matches in the summer. No 
 phase of local public charity escapes their attention. 
 As a rule, the Conservative candidate monopolizes 
 the chief place at meetings and festivals in connec- 
 tion with the Church of England ; while the Liberal 
 candidate has the foremost place in all these gather- 
 ings in connection with the various Nonconformist 
 or free churches. 
 
 As to the political work in the constituency, when 
 the election is imminent meetings are held almost 
 every night in the week; while in the daytime the 
 candidate makes a house-to-house visitation all over 
 the constituency with a view to making himself 
 personally known to the voters and obtaining their 
 pledges of support at the polls. No voter is beneath 
 the candidate's personal attention. During all this 
 time, of course, Parliament is still in session ; and 
 until the dissolution is announced, the election, 
 strictly speaking, has not commenced. These are 
 only the preliminaries ; but nowadays, when the 
 Ballot Act and the Corrupt Practices Act have 
 served to compress a General Election into two 
 weeks, or three at the outside, these preliminaries 
 are the most important part of a contested election. 
 
 The Ballot Act was passed in 1872, and superseded 
 the old system of open voting. The Corrupt Prac- 
 tices Act was passed in 1883 : its intention is to 
 check corrupt practices at elections by punishing and 
 degrading the offenders ; to facilitate the detection
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 1 59 
 
 of offenders ; to limit the extent of paid agency in 
 the conduct of elections, and also to limit by means 
 of a fixed scale the amount of expenditure at elec- 
 tions by the candidates. 
 
 With respect to expenditure by candidates, this 
 is regulated by the size of the constituency. In a 
 borough the expenses of an election, other than 
 personal expenses and sums paid to the returning 
 officer for his charges, are not allowed to exceed 
 .350, if the number of electors on the register does 
 not exceed two thousand. If it exceeds two thou- 
 sand, the maximum amount is .380, with an additional 
 ,30 for every complete one thousand electors above 
 two thousand. In a county division, if the electors 
 do not exceed two thousand, the maximum amount 
 is fixed at .650; if they exceed two thousand, ^"710, 
 and an additional 60 for every complete thousand 
 electors above two thousand. 
 
 The law also provides that no payment is to be 
 made for the conveyance of electors to or from the 
 polls, whether by hiring horses or carriages, or for 
 railway fares ; that no elector is to be paid anything 
 for the use of any house or building for the purpose 
 of exhibiting addresses or placards ; that no payment 
 is to be made for the use of any committee-room 
 beyond one room for every five hundred electors ; 
 nor on account of any band of music, torches, flags, 
 banners, cockades, ribbons, or marks of distinction. 
 
 In short, a candidate who is contesting a constit- 
 uency can expend money only (i) in paying the 
 charges of the returning officer ; (2) on his own per-
 
 l6o THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 sonal expenses; (3) on printing, advertising, publish- 
 ing, issuing, and distributing addresses and notices ; 
 (4) on stationery, messages, postage, and telegrams; 
 and (5) on the expenses of holding public meetings. 
 
 The law also limits the number of persons to be 
 employed and paid as election agents, polling agents, 
 clerks, and messengers ; and all persons so employed 
 are forbidden to vote. A candidate must employ 
 one election agent ; but he is prohibited from em- 
 ploying more than one. No money can be paid, or 
 contract made, in connection with the election, ex- 
 cept by this agent ; and within thirty-five days after 
 the election, the agent must send to the returning 
 officer a detailed account of all payments made in 
 connection with the election, together with the 
 vouchers of payment and the statement of all money 
 received by him for the purposes of the election. 
 These accounts are afterwards published in the ad- 
 vertising columns of the newspapers. 
 
 Bribery, treating, undue influence, and illegal prac- 
 tices are all severely dealt with by the Corrupt Prac- 
 tices Act. Under its provisions every person is 
 pronounced guilty of bribery who "directly or indi- 
 rectly, by himself or by any other person, gives, 
 lends, or agrees to give or lend, or offers, promises, 
 or promises to procure, or to endeavor to procure, 
 any money or valuable consideration, or any office, 
 place, or employment, to or for any voter, or to or for 
 any person on behalf of any voter, or to or for any 
 person in order to induce any voter to refrain from 
 voting, or who in any similar manner seeks to induce
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. l6l 
 
 any person to procure, or endeavor to procure, the 
 return of any person to Parliament, or the vote of 
 any voter at any election." With respect to the 
 recipient of bribes, the law sets out that every 
 elector who "directly or indirectly receives, either 
 before or during election, any consideration of the 
 kind mentioned, either for voting or refraining from 
 voting, is guilty of bribery," as also is any person 
 who after election, "directly or indirectly, by himself 
 or by any other person in his behalf, receives any 
 money or valuable consideration on account of any 
 person having voted, or refrained therefrom, or 
 having induced any other person to vote, or refrain 
 from voting." 
 
 As to treating, the law pronounces guilty of it any 
 person "who corruptly by himself or by any other 
 person, either before, during, or after an election, 
 directly or indirectly, gives, or provides, or pays wholly 
 or in part the expense of giving or providing, any 
 meat, drink, entertainment, or provision to or for 
 any person for the purpose of corruptly influencing 
 his vote, or inducing him to refrain from voting, or 
 on account of himself or any other person having 
 voted or refrained from voting, or being about to do 
 one of these things ; and every voter who accepts 
 such forbidden attentions is equally guilty." 
 
 As regards undue influence, every person is guilty 
 of exercising this, who "directly or indirectly, by him- 
 self or by any other person on his behalf, makes use 
 of or threatens to make use of any force, violence, or 
 restraint, or inflicts, or threatens to inflict, by himself
 
 1 62 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 or by any other person, any temporal or spiritual 
 injury, damage, harm, or loss, upon or against any 
 person, to induce or compel him to vote, or to refrain 
 from voting, or on account of his having done either 
 of these things, or who by abduction, duress, or any 
 fraudulent device or contrivance, impedes the free 
 exercise of the franchise of any elector." 
 
 Persons found guilty of bribery, treating, or undue 
 influence are liable to fine or imprisonment ; and for 
 a period of seven years from the date of conviction, 
 they are incapacitated from being registered as 
 electors, or voting at any election in the United 
 Kingdom, whether it be a Parliamentary election, or 
 an election for any public office; from holding any 
 public or judicial office ; or from being elected to, or 
 sitting in, the House of Commons. 
 
 The Ballot Act was expected to do much in put- 
 ting an end to the corrupt practices which had pre- 
 vailed at Parliamentary elections up to the Reform 
 Act of 1867 ; but only to a small extent was it suc- 
 cessful. Bribery and corrupt practices were common 
 at the two general elections which followed the adop- 
 tion of the ballot, the first in 1874, and the second 
 in 1 88 1. The election in 1881 was particularly re- 
 markable for corrupt practices, and some startling 
 evidence was forthcoming at the election petition 
 trials which followed before the judges of the Court 
 of the Queen's Bench. Two years later the Corrupt 
 Practices Act was carried through Parliament. Mr. 
 Gladstone and the Liberals were then in power ; but 
 after the revelations at the petitions trials, public
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 163 
 
 feeling in favor of reform was so strong that the bill 
 was allowed by the Conservatives to pass its second 
 reading in the House of Commons without a division. 
 The measure has undoubtedly served its purpose 
 well, and will do so increasingly as the election peti- 
 tion trials, which in larger or smaller number follow 
 each General Election, educate people as to the pro- 
 visions of the Act, and make better known the 
 severe penalties attaching to the violations of the 
 law. 
 
 To return to the borough in which the mode of 
 procedure at a General Election was being followed. 
 As soon as the dissolution of Parliament is an- 
 nounced, the candidates issue their electioneering 
 addresses, and the blank walls of the town become 
 radiant with electioneering literature in blue and red 
 ink. The mayor of the town acts as returning offi- 
 cer ; but he can take no steps whatever until he is 
 in actual receipt of the writ, which is issued from the 
 Crown Office, in the House of Lords, on the same 
 day that Parliament is dissolved. All the six hun- 
 dred and seventy writs go out from this office by 
 mail on the same day. They are taken by a mes- 
 senger or pursuivant attached to the Crown Office, 
 who delivers them to the Postmaster-General at St. 
 Martins-le-Grand, and receives an acknowledgment 
 in writing stating the time of delivery. The local 
 postmasters are then instructed to deliver the writs 
 and to obtain a receipt from the returning officer in 
 each case, also stating the time when delivered. 
 These receipts are immediately forwarded to the
 
 164 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Postmaster-General, who files them in a book which 
 is kept at St. Martins-le-Grand for the inspection of 
 persons interested. 
 
 The form of writ is as follows : 
 
 VICTORIA, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, to 
 the Mayor of the Borough of greeting : Whereas by 
 
 the advice of Our Council we have ordered a Parliament to be 
 holden at Westminster on the day of next : We 
 
 command you that, notice of the time and place of election being 
 first duly given, you do cause election to be made according to 
 law, of members (or a member) to serve in Parliament for 
 
 the said borough, and that you do cause the names of such 
 members, when so elected, whether they be present or absent, 
 to be certified to us in Chancery without delay. 
 
 Witness Ourselves at Westminster the day of in 
 
 the year of Our reign and in the year of Our Lord 18 
 
 The writ is printed on parchment about twelve 
 inches by eight. Nothing except the dates and the 
 particulars necessary for the different constituencies 
 is inserted by hand. In the space in the left hand 
 corner is the wafer of the Great Seal. On the right 
 is the printed signature of the Clerk to the Crown. 
 On the back of the writ the mayor or sheriff enters 
 the date when he received it. When the election 
 is over he certifies the name of the member who is 
 returned. The writ is then sent back by mail to the 
 Crown Office with the same ceremony as before. 
 
 As soon as the mayor receives the writ, he an-
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 165 
 
 nounces the date on which he will sit at the town 
 hall to receive nominations, and the date on which 
 in the event of a contest the election will be held. 
 
 In a borough not less than two clear days, and not 
 more than three, must elapse between the receipt of 
 the writ and the date of the nomination ; and the poll 
 must be taken not later than three clear days after 
 the nomination. Thus in eight days after the disso- 
 lution of Parliament all the borough elections are 
 over. A few days longer are allowed in county divis- 
 ions, as the territory embraced in county constitu- 
 encies is much larger, and longer time is necessary 
 to the high sheriff and his deputies for the organi- 
 zation of their work as returning officers. In the 
 London divisions the clerks to the vestries act as 
 returning officers. 
 
 On the nomination day the candidate and his 
 friends appear before the mayor and formally hand 
 to him the paper in which are set out the name and 
 rank of the candidate, together with the names of 
 not less than eight of his supporters. All these 
 supporters must be electors of the borough. At the 
 same time the candidate or his agent hands to the 
 mayor the sum which the mayor has stated will form 
 the candidate's share of the out-of-pocket expenses 
 incurred in the official part of the contest. When 
 only one candidate is nominated, the mayor remains 
 in attendance during the time announced for the 
 receipt of nominations, and at its expiration formally 
 announces that as only one candidate has been 
 brought forward, that candidate is duly elected.
 
 1 66 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Every detail in the official arrangement for taking 
 a poll is left to the mayor. He appoints the presid- 
 ing officer and the polling clerk for each booth in 
 which the balloting takes place, and also the staff of 
 clerks who count the ballots when the polling is over. 
 He also provides the balloting papers, and is respon- 
 sible for their safe custody before and after the elec- 
 tion. On these papers there is nothing to indicate 
 the politics of the candidate. Both names are printed 
 on the one paper, and arranged in alphabetical order. 
 When a voter is unable to read, he must make a 
 declaration to that effect, when the names of the 
 candidates are read over to him. This is all the help 
 he receives. Each political party is allowed a repre- 
 sentative in the polling booth ; but apart from these 
 men, none but electors are permitted within its 
 portals. 
 
 The ballot is absolutely secret. Various devices 
 are used for ascertaining the progress of the polling; 
 but not one of them works well, and in a closely 
 contested election the issue is doubtful to the last. 
 The polls open at eight in the morning, and remain 
 open until eight in the evening. As soon as the 
 polling is at an end, the boxes are sealed in the 
 presence of witnesses, and carried to the town hall 
 under a guard of police. There they are delivered 
 into the custody of the mayor. As soon as all the 
 boxes are in, the seals are broken and the counting 
 commences. It is done with such extreme care, 
 and the process is hedged about with so many safe- 
 guards, that tampering with ballots is impossible.
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 1 67 
 
 The counting takes place behind barred doors, and no 
 one is allowed in or out until it is at an end. The 
 announcement of the result is made orally in front of 
 the town hall by the mayor, who afterwards returns 
 to the Crown Office the writ which entitles the suc- 
 cessful candidate to a seat in the House of Commons. 
 
 Only as concerns the representative peers of Scot- 
 land is the House of Lords directly affected by a 
 General Election. The number of the members of 
 the House of Commons has been altered but once in 
 the course of a century. This was by the Redistri- 
 bution of Seats Act of 1885, which followed the ex- 
 tension of the franchise under the Parliamentary 
 Reform Act of 1884, and fixed the membership at 670. 
 The number of members of the House of Lords is 
 not so fixed. It varies from time to time, owing to 
 the deaths of peers who do not leave male heirs, to 
 the deaths of those whose successors are minors, and 
 to new creations. At the end of 1892 there were 
 545 members of the House of Lords, made up thus : 
 Peers, 469 ; Lords of Appeal and Ex-Lords of 
 Appeal, 5 ; Representative Peers of Scotland, 16 ; 
 Representative Peers of Ireland, 28 ; Lords Spirit- 
 ual, 27. 
 
 The Lords of Appeal are lawyers of great distinc- 
 tion who are appointed by the Queen and hold office 
 during good behavior. Their number is always about 
 the same. Their work is mainly judicial ; but these 
 Law Lords, as they are called, also speak and vote 
 in the deliberative and legislative proceedings of the 
 Upper House. The position of a Lord of Appeal
 
 1 68 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 differs from that of an ordinary peer in that his 
 office is not hereditary. As regards the representa- 
 tive peers, those from Ireland, who number 28, are 
 elected for life ; those from Scotland, who number 
 16, are elected at a meeting of Scotch peers, held 
 in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, after each General 
 Election, and hold office during the lifetime of a 
 Parliament. The Lords Spiritual include (i) the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, 
 the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester ; 
 and (2) twenty-two out of the other twenty-nine 
 bishops of the Church of England. The prelates 
 whose titles have been given take their seats in 
 the House immediately on appointment ; the other 
 bishops take their seats by order of seniority of con- 
 secration. The prelates who are without seats in the 
 House of Lords are known as junior bishops. The 
 Bishop of Sodor and Man has a seat in the House 
 of Lords, but no vote. His diocese is comprised in 
 the interesting little island with a national life of its 
 own almost apart from England, lying midway across 
 the Irish Sea, between Lancashire and the coast of 
 Ireland. 
 
 The members of the House of Lords are pre- 
 vented by law from interfering in any way in the 
 election of a member of the House of Commons. 
 A peer can neither vote at a Parliamentary election, 
 nor speak, nor work, nor exercise any direct influ- 
 ence in a constituency on behalf of a candidate. For 
 example, Lord Salisbury, who was Prime Minister 
 during the existence of the 1886-92 Parliament,
 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE CONSTITUENCIES. 169 
 
 could make no speeches in a constituency in aid of a 
 candidate of his own party in the General Election 
 which followed the dissolution of this Parliament. 
 Members of the House of Lords occasionally take 
 part in political demonstrations in the constituen- 
 cies ; but their presence at these gatherings would 
 be out of order on the eve of an election. 
 
 After a General Election, the new presiding officer 
 of the House of Lords is not appointed until the 
 new Cabinet has been formed. The Lord Chancellor, 
 who is chosen of the Cabinet in the same way as its 
 other members, acts as Speaker to the House of 
 Lords. His position there differs considerably from 
 that of the Speaker in the House of Commons. 
 The Speaker holds a strictly non-partisan office, and 
 takes no part in the debates and discussions except 
 when points of order and procedure are raised. In 
 the House of Lords the Lord Chancellor is always 
 of the same political party as the Government, and 
 from his place on the Woolsack addresses the House 
 like any other peer. The House of Lords elects its 
 own Chairman of Committees. His office is non- 
 partisan, and to it is attached a salary.
 
 I/O THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 
 
 The High Court of Parliament. Opening of a New Parliament. Election 
 of Speaker. A New Administration. Formation of New Cabinet. 
 Typical Cabinet. Re-elections after Acceptance of Office. Seating of 
 Members and Arrangement of House of Commons. Commencement of 
 New Session. Speech from the Throne. Debate on the Address to 
 the Crown. Opening of a Sitting of the House of Commons. Orders of 
 the Day. Private Business, Petitions, Questions, and Motions for Ad- 
 journment. Introduction of New Members. Stages of a Bill. Intro- 
 duction and First Reading. Second Reading. The Speaker's Eye. 
 Whips and their Duties. Divisions. Instructions to Committees. 
 Proceedings in Committee. Chairman of Committees. Piloting a Bill 
 through Committee. The Government and the Time of the House. 
 Third Reading. Messages between the House of Commons and the 
 House of Lords. The Royal Assent. An Act of Parliament. Voting 
 Money for Public Services. Quorum. Counts out. Procedure in Com- 
 mittee of Supply. Committee of Ways and Means. The Budget and 
 Taxation. Private Members' Bills. Select Committees, Committees 
 on Private Bills, and Standing Committee. Procedure before Private 
 Bill Committees. Parliamentary Barristers. Royal Commissions. 
 The Life of a Parliament. The Chiltern Hundreds. Elevation to the 
 Lords. Expulsion of Members. Deceased Members. Members and 
 their Constituents. Character of Membership of House of Commons. 
 Changes due to the Later Reform Acts. Politics as a Career. Prizes 
 open to Lawyers. Nouveaux Riches and Parliamentary Life. Baronet- 
 cies as Rewards for Political Service. Journalism and Politics. Labor 
 and Socialism in the House of Commons. 
 
 THE Crown, the House of Lords, and the House 
 of Commons constitute the High Court of Par- 
 liament. The two Houses, convened by royal author- 
 ity and acting conjointly with the Crown, constitute
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. I/I 
 
 the Legislature. After a general election the date 
 appointed for the return of the writs is announced 
 by a royal proclamation, and on that day the mem- 
 bers assemble at Westminster. The Lords meet in 
 their Chamber, and the Commons in theirs. The 
 preliminaries attendant upon the opening of Parlia- 
 ment take place in the House of Lords, and are 
 common to both Houses. 
 
 The Lords Commissioners, who represent the 
 sovereign, sit in the Chamber of the Lords ; and into 
 their presence the members of the House of Com- 
 mons are summoned by Black Rod, the officer in 
 attendance upon the House of Lords. When the 
 members of both Houses are present, the Lord 
 Chancellor, who is always one of the Royal Commis- 
 sioners, and the spokesman of the Commission, in- 
 forms them that as soon as the members have been 
 sworn, the sovereign will declare " the cause of their 
 being called together." Then the members of the 
 House of Commons are directed to return to their 
 own Chamber and there elect a Speaker. 
 
 The Speaker is chosen by the House from its own 
 members, and holds what is strictly a non-partisan 
 office during the lifetime of the Parliament, at the 
 commencement of which he is elected. He is pro- 
 vided with a residence within the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, and is paid a salary of five thousand pounds a 
 year. A Speaker never returns to his former posi- 
 tion as a member of the House. At the end of his 
 term he is elevated to the peerage, and is granted a 
 pension of four thousand pounds a year for two lives.
 
 1 72 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 He may, however, act as Speaker in several Parlia- 
 ments. He presides over the deliberations of the 
 House of Commons, but does not speak, except to 
 settle a point of order, or in answer to a question as 
 to procedure. Except when the House is in com- 
 mittee, when his place as presiding officer is for 
 the time taken by the Chairman of Committees, the 
 Speaker does not leave the Chair, nor does he ever go 
 into the division lobbies. Should the numbers be 
 equal on a division, the Speaker gives a casting vote. 
 When in the chair he wears a wig, a robe with a 
 long train, knee breeches, and buckled shoes. 
 
 The election of Speaker is the first duty under- 
 taken by the members of the new House of Com- 
 mons. When the members assemble after their re- 
 turn from the House of Lords, the Chair is vacant ; 
 but at the long table in front of it sits the Clerk of 
 the Commons House of Parliament, an officer ap- 
 pointed by the Crown, who, among other duties, acts 
 as president of the House during the choice of 
 Speaker. The Clerk is informed beforehand as to 
 which member is about to propose another member 
 for Speaker ; and when the Commons are assembled 
 for the election, he points to the member who has 
 been deputed to act in this way. The member so in- 
 dicated then rises, and addressing the Clerk, proposes 
 that the Honorable or Right Honorable member for 
 "do take the chair of this House as Speaker." 
 
 All members of the House of Commons are Honor- 
 able, although the title is confined to use within the 
 House ; those who are of the Privy Council or who
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 1/3 
 
 have been in the Cabinet are Right Honorable ; those 
 who are of the Bar are Honorable and Learned, or 
 Right Honorable and Learned in the case of lawyers 
 who have been of the Administration ; members who 
 have been of the army or the navy, or are still of 
 those services, are Honorable and Gallant. In pro- 
 posing a member for Speaker, who had previously 
 held the office, the proposer would speak of him as 
 the Right Honorable. 
 
 The motion for the election of the Speaker is then 
 seconded ; and on being carried, the member elected 
 announces his willingness to accept office, is con- 
 ducted to the Chair, and returns thanks to the House 
 for his election. If two members are proposed for 
 the Speakership, a debate and a division may take 
 place before election. Of late years, however, there 
 has not been a contest for the Speakership, and the 
 election usually occupies but a brief period of the day 
 set apart for the preliminaries attending the opening 
 of a new Parliament. Up to this time, that is, until 
 the Speaker is elected and takes the chair, the Mace 
 has not been in view. As soon, however, as the 
 election is over, the Mace is brought forward by the 
 Sergcant-at-Arms, who acts as its custodian. It is 
 placed on the table, and is kept there during the time 
 the Speaker is in the chair. The Mace is removed 
 when the House goes into Committee of Supply, 
 that is, to vote money for the public charges and 
 services, and also when the House goes into com- 
 mittee on a bill or a resolution. 
 
 The Mace is of wood, the head carved and gilt,
 
 1/4 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 with a handle about four feet long. The use of it 
 is almost as old as Parliament itself. Sir Erskine 
 May is authority for the statement that the Mace 
 now at Westminster has been there since the time 
 of Charles II. It is used on all ceremonial occa- 
 sions inside and outside the House of Commons at 
 which the Speaker attends as the representative of 
 the Commons. One of these is when he examines 
 the standards of measurement which are lodged 
 in the walls of Westminster Hall. This ceremony 
 is performed about once in twenty years, and is duly 
 recorded in the Journal of the House. Another 
 occasion is when the House summons a person 
 who has transgressed its laws, to its Bar, either for 
 admonition or for sentence of fine or imprisonment. 
 The Bar is then drawn across the entrance to the 
 House ; the Sergeant-at-Arms removes the Mace 
 from the Table, and stands with it on his shoulder 
 at the Bar, while the Speaker from the Chair de- 
 livers the admonition or passes the sentence. 
 
 On the day following his election the Speaker, 
 accompanied by such members of the House of 
 Commons as are interested in the ceremony and 
 care to witness it, attends in the House of Lords, 
 where the Royal Commissioners, who on the previous 
 day performed the ceremony of opening Parliament, 
 again attend to receive him, and convey to the House 
 of Commons the Sovereign's approval of their choice 
 of Speaker. At this ceremony in the House of 
 Lords the Speaker, for himself and for the House 
 of Commons, formally " lays claim to their ancient
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 1 75 
 
 and undisputed rights and privileges," and "espe- 
 cially to freedom from arrest and molestation for 
 their persons and servants ; to freedom of speech in 
 debate, and to free access to Her Majesty, whenever 
 occasion may require it ; and that the most favorable 
 construction may be put on all their proceedings." 
 On his return to the Commons the Speaker reports 
 that the House has been in the House of Peers, 
 "where Her Majesty was pleased by her Commis- 
 sioners to approve of the choice the House had made 
 of him to be their Speaker, and that he had in their 
 name and on their behalf, by humble petition to Her 
 Majesty, laid claim to all their ancient rights and 
 privileges, which Her Majesty had confirmed to them 
 in as full and ample manner as they have been here- 
 tofore granted or allowed by Her Majesty or any of 
 her royal predecessors." 
 
 After this ceremony the process of swearing in 
 members begins, and the Speaker " puts the House 
 in mind that their first duty is to take and subscribe 
 the oath by law required." Every member must 
 take an oath, or make a declaration or affirmation, 
 that he will be faithful and bear true allegiance to 
 Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, her heirs and succes- 
 sors according to law. " I do swear," reads the oath, 
 " that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to 
 Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and I do faithfully 
 promise to maintain and support the succession to 
 the Crown, as the same stands limited and settled by 
 virtue of the Act, passed in the reign of King Wil- 
 liam III., entitled 'An Act for the further Limitation
 
 1 76 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 of the Crown, and Better Securing the Rights and 
 Liberties of the Subject, and of the subsequent Acts 
 of Union with Scotland and Ireland.' So help me 
 God." 
 
 The Speaker is the first member to take the oath, 
 and usually goes through the ceremony standing upon 
 the upper step of the Chair. The other members 
 take the oath standing at the table, and are sworn 
 in groups. On the occasion of the meeting of a new 
 Parliament, several days are exclusively occupied 
 with the business of swearing in members. When 
 this is complete, the House immediately turns to 
 other and much less formal and ceremonial work. 
 
 Assuming, for the sake of illustration, that the 
 Conservatives were in office at the time of the dis- 
 solution, and that they were defeated at the General 
 Election, it is open to the members of the Cabinet 
 either to resign before Parliament meets, or to wait 
 until they are defeated in the House of Commons 
 on a vote of confidence. If they accept the alterna- 
 tive of meeting Parliament, a vote of want of confi- 
 dence will be proposed from the Opposition side of 
 the House by a member of the party which has 
 been victorious at the polls ; and the division, which 
 is taken upon it, will put on record, in an official way 
 as it were, the relative strength of the two parties in 
 the House of Commons. The House of Lords has 
 nothing to do with turning a ministry out of office. 
 This is a matter settled by the House of Commons, 
 whether at the commencement of a new Parliament 
 or during the lifetime of a Parliament. After the
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. \TJ 
 
 Government have been defeated on a vote of want of 
 confidence in a new House of Commons, a recess is 
 usually taken, during which the members of the old 
 Administration attend upon the Sovereign to resign 
 the seals of office, and the new Administration is 
 formed. 
 
 After the late ministers have resigned, the Sov- 
 ereign usually sends for the leading member of the 
 political party which has brought about the defeat of 
 the late Government in the House of Commons. It 
 matters little whether this leader is in the House of 
 Lords or in the House of Commons. In 1886, for 
 example, when Mr. Gladstone's Government was de- 
 feated on the Home Rule Bill, at the General Elec- 
 tion, Lord Salisbury was sent for by the Queen. 
 In 1892, when Lord Salisbury's party was defeated 
 at the General Election, and later on in the House 
 of Commons, Mr. Gladstone was sent for by the 
 Queen. 
 
 The leader so summoned is then intrusted with 
 the task of forming a new Administration. If he 
 accepts, he becomes Premier. He alone is the direct 
 choice of the Sovereign, and with him rests the privi- 
 lege of choosing his colleagues of the Cabinet and 
 the Ministry, subject to the approval of the Sovereign 
 in each case. The Cabinet consists of the supreme 
 advisers of the Crown. The Ministry includes these 
 advisers, and also those members of the Administra- 
 tion who, while they hold office as members of the 
 Government, are not of this inner circle or Cabinet. 
 In his volume on "Central Government," Mr. 11. D.
 
 1 78 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 Traill describes the Cabinet as consisting of "mem- 
 bers of the legislature, of the same political views, 
 and chosen from the party possessing the majority 
 in the House of Commons ; prosecuting a concerted 
 policy under a common responsibility, to be signified 
 by collective resignation in the event of Parliamen- 
 tary censure, and acknowledging a common subordi- 
 nation to one chief minister." 
 
 The Prime Minister usually holds the office of 
 First Lord of the Treasury in addition to that of 
 Prime Minister. To each office is attached a salary 
 of .5,000 a year. At the Treasury, however, the 
 duties of the First Lord are little more than nominal ; 
 all the important work of the Department, falling to 
 the lot of its political as distinct from its permanent 
 heads, being undertaken by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer and the Parliamentary colleagues who are 
 associated with him at the Treasury. Occasionally 
 the Prime Minister holds another Cabinet appoint- 
 ment as well as that of First Lord of the Treasury ; 
 but in this case he holds the office of First Lord 
 of Treasury in conjunction with a colleague. The 
 Marquis of Salisbury, for instance, in his second 
 Administration, that from 1886-92, was Principal 
 Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1887 to the close 
 of his Administration. Prior to that time, from 
 August, 1886, to June, 1887, the Marquis of Salisbury 
 alone held the office of First Lord of the Treasury in 
 addition to that of Prime Minister. On the death 
 of Lord Iddcsleigh, Lord Salisbury took the office 
 of Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; and for the re-
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 179 
 
 mainder of the Parliament, the office of First Lord 
 of the Treasury was held successively by the late 
 Mr. W. H. Smith and Mr. A. J. Balfour. Both Mr. 
 Smith and Mr. Balfour held the office of First Lord 
 in conjunction with that of Leader of the House of 
 Commons. The office of Leader of the House has 
 no place in the list of members of the Administra- 
 tion ; it is always held by a member of the Cabinet, 
 and frequently by the First Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 When the Prime Minister is of the House of Com- 
 mons, he always acts as Leader of the House. A 
 Prime Minister who is in the Commons seldom holds 
 any office to which any large amount of Depart- 
 mental work attaches. He is fully occupied with 
 matters of general administration an oversight of 
 all Departments and with the arrangement of the 
 business which is before Parliament. The Prime 
 Minister is in constant communication with the 
 Queen. He attends the Councils at Windsor and 
 Osborne ; and when Parliament is in session he 
 usually writes a letter to the Queen, which is de- 
 spatched at the close of each sitting, reporting to Her 
 Majesty what has transpired in the House. 
 
 The offices whose holders are of the Cabinet are 
 not always exactly the same under each Government ; 
 but Mr. Gladstone's 1892 Cabinet may be cited as 
 typical. The offices represented in this Cabinet 
 were : 
 
 I. J'rime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord 
 Privy Seal. (All these offices were held l>y Mr. 
 Gladstone.)
 
 l8o THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 2. Lord Chancellor. 
 
 3. Secretary for India, and Lord President of the Council. 
 
 (These two offices are not usually held by the same 
 Minister.) 
 
 4. Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 5. Home Secretary. 
 
 6. Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 7. Secretary for War. 
 
 8. Secretary for Scotland. 
 
 9. First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 10. Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
 
 11. Postmaster-General. 
 
 12. President of the Board of Trade. 
 
 13. President of the Local Government Board. 
 
 14. Vice-President of the Council. 
 
 15. First Commissioner of Works. 
 
 1 6. President of the Board of Agriculture. 
 
 The Ministry included in addition : 
 
 1. Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 2. Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 
 
 3. 4, 5. Junior Lords of the Treasury. 
 
 6. Financial Secretary to the Treasury. 
 
 7. Patronage Secretary to the Treasury. 
 
 8. Under-Secretary for the Home Department. 
 
 9. Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 10. Under-Secretary for the Colonies. 
 
 11. Under-Secretary for India. 
 
 12. Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade. 
 
 13. Parliamentary Secretary of the Local Government Board. 
 
 14. Attorney-General. 
 
 15. Solicitor-General. 
 
 1 6. Lord Advocate. 
 
 17. Solicitor-General for Scotland. 
 
 1 8. Attorney-General for Ireland. 
 
 19. Solicitor-General for Ireland.
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. l8l 
 
 20. Vice-Chamberlain of the Household. 
 
 21. Comptroller of the Household. 
 
 22. Secretary to the Admiralty. 
 
 23. Under- Secretary for War. 
 
 24. Financial Secretary to the War Office. 
 
 25. Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 These are the only salaried appointments in the 
 gift of the Premier on taking office. 
 
 Acceptance of office, in the Cabinet or in the 
 Ministry, by a member of the House of Commons, 
 except in the case of under-secretaries of Depart- 
 ments, involves a new election, in accordance with 
 the rule that a member of Parliament accepting 
 office under the Crown must at once submit himself 
 to his constituents. When Parliament has adjourned, 
 the writs for the new elections rendered necessary 
 by the formation of the Administration are issued 
 by the Speaker, and as soon as they are out, the 
 elections take place. Thus it may happen that a 
 member of the House of Commons is compelled to 
 go to his constituents twice in the course of six 
 weeks or two months. At one time opposition to 
 the re-election of a member who had been assigned 
 a seat in the Cabinet, or appointed to an important 
 office outside the Cabinet, was the exception ; but 
 of late years the practice of allowing these elections 
 to go uncontestecl has broken down. 
 
 Not until the Administration is formed, and the 
 members have been to their constituents for re-elec- 
 tion, does the real work of Parliament begin. Then 
 at the first meeting of the Commons the parties
 
 1 82 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 change benches in the House. The members of 
 the Administration and their following that is, the 
 party which constitutes the majority in the House 
 sit on the benches to the right of the Speaker's 
 chair, while the members of the Opposition the 
 minority sit on the benches to the Speaker's left. 
 The first bench to the Speaker's right, known as the 
 Treasury Bench, is occupied by the members of 
 the Ministry, while the corresponding bench on the 
 other side of the table and to the Speaker's left is 
 occupied by the members of the late Administra- 
 tion ; so that the parties face each other, and, as con- 
 cerns the leaders, sit with only the Clerk's table 
 between them. 
 
 Although there are 670 members of the House 
 of Commons, the Chamber in which the Commons 
 meet affords seating accommodation for only 430 ; 
 and of this number 124 seats are not on the floor of 
 the House, but in the galleries which run along the 
 two sides. Of the galleries running across the two 
 ends of the Chamber, the larger is devoted to the 
 use of visitors ; the smaller one, immediately behind 
 the Speaker's chair, contains the boxes of the news- 
 paper reporters. The Ladies' Gallery is immedi- 
 ately behind that occupied by the journalists, cut 
 off from the House by a grille. The Commons have 
 met in their present chamber since 1852. Until 
 1834 they met in St. Stephen's Chapel, the site of 
 which is now occupied by St. Stephen's Hall. In 
 1834 St. Stephen's Chapel was destroyed by fire, 
 and between that time and 1852 the Commons met
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 183 
 
 in a temporary chamber built inside the famous hall 
 at Westminster. 
 
 A Parliamentary session commences when, after a 
 General Election, the new Ministers meet Parliament 
 for the first time. The session is opened with a 
 speech from the Throne, in which the Government 
 announce their legislative programme. This is a 
 much more ceremonial occasion than when the 
 House of Commons meets immediately following a 
 General Election. On the first day of a new session 
 the members of the House of Commons usually as- 
 semble in their chamber at two o'clock in the after- 
 noon. The Speaker then takes the Chair, and 
 immediately afterwards Black Rod is announced. 
 He is a messenger from the House of Lords, and 
 comes on this occasion with a summons to members 
 of the Lower House to attend in the House of Lords 
 to hear the Royal Speech read from the Throne. 
 Sometimes the Queen is present at this ceremony ; 
 but as a rule, Parliament is opened by Lords Com- 
 missioners acting for the Queen. 
 
 Black Rod proceeds in state from the Chamber of 
 the Lords to that of the Commons. His progress 
 along the corridor and across the Hall of St. Stephen's 
 is heralded by the ushers who attend him. As soon 
 as it is known that he is approaching the Chamber of 
 the Commons, the door is locked, and the Sergeant- 
 ut-Arms takes up his position on the inner side of 
 it. Black Rod knocks at the door ; the Sergeant-at- 
 Arms looks through the sliding peep-hole in the 
 great oaken-door cutting off the Chamber from the
 
 1 84 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 Lobby, and on seeing Black Rod, turns and reports 
 his presence to the Speaker. The Speaker signifies 
 that the House is willing to receive the messenger 
 from the Lords, and then the door is opened, and 
 Black Rod slowly makes his way up the central aisle 
 to the table in front of the Chair, bowing, as he pro- 
 ceeds, to the Speaker. Standing in front of the 
 table, he delivers his message ; the Speaker reports 
 it to the House, and then invites members to attend 
 him to the House of Lords to hear the reading of 
 the Queen's Speech. The Sergeant-at-Arms, who, 
 like Black Rod, wears knee breeches and a sword, 
 goes in front of the Speaker with the Mace, and as 
 the little procession of Sergeant-at-Arms, Speaker 
 and members goes on its way through the Lobby and 
 St. Stephen's Hall, the ushers cry out, " Make way 
 for the Speaker ; " and members and visitors who are 
 in the Hall, form into lines through which the Speaker 
 and his attendants pass to and from the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 In the Upper Chamber the Speaker and the mem- 
 bers of the Commons who have chosen to accompany 
 him group themselves around the bar, and, standing 
 there, listen to the Speech from the Throne as it 
 is read by the Lord Chancellor. The Speech is not 
 drawn up by the Queen, but by the Prime Minister 
 with the aid of the Cabinet, and is little more than a 
 statement of the measures which the Government 
 would like to pass in the session then commencing. 
 It invariably contains a much longer programme than 
 it is possible for Parliament to pass in one session,
 
 PARLIAMENT A T WORK. 185 
 
 and some measures appear again and again in the 
 Queen's Speech before they are embodied in Acts 
 of Parliament and become law. The mention of a 
 measure in the Speech from the Throne is in no sense 
 a guaranty that it will ever be carried. 
 
 The Speaker and his procession return to the 
 House of Commons immediately after the reading of 
 the Queen's Speech ; and then, following an ancient 
 custom, a bill is read a first \\rcic. pro forma. This is 
 clone to preserve the right of the Commons to attend 
 to their own business first before they proceed to deal 
 with the Speech from the Throne. With this for- 
 mality the session, so far as the House of Commons 
 is concerned, commences ; and the Speaker next re- 
 ports that " he has been to the Lords, where he heard 
 the Lord Chancellor deliver Her Majesty's most 
 gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament, in pur- 
 suance of Her Majesty's commands." Following this 
 report, the Speaker reads the Speech to the House, 
 after having announced that "for greater accuracy 
 he had obtained a copy thereof." Then begins what 
 is known as the Debate on the Address to the Crown, 
 a proceeding which may extend over two or three 
 weeks. 
 
 The debate arises on a motion for an Address to 
 the Crown thanking the sovereign for the Speech 
 which has been read from the Throne. The motion 
 is moved and seconded by members on the Govern- 
 ment benches ; and it has come to be the rule or 
 etiquette of the House that the motion shall be 
 made by a borough member, and seconded by a
 
 1 86 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 representative of a county division. Both the mover 
 and seconder of the Address appear in uniform. If 
 they are of the services, the army, the navy, the 
 volunteers, or the yeomanry, they appear in the 
 uniform of the service to which they belong. If they 
 are not entitled to wear a military or a naval uniform, 
 they appear in the Windsor uniform, brown cloth 
 with gold trimming, which may be worn by all mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons on state ceremonial 
 occasions. 
 
 Almost any subject can be debated on the Address 
 to the Crown. When the Opposition desire to chal- 
 lenge the policy of the Government, the terms of the 
 challenge or indictment are embodied in a resolution 
 and proposed as an amendment to the Address. 
 The amendment is discussed and the House divided 
 upon it. Were an amendment of this kind carried, 
 it would practically amount to a vote of want of confi- 
 dence in the Government, and might bring about its 
 downfall. Several amendments are often proposed 
 to the Address to the Crown at the opening of Par- 
 liament ; for at this time almost every member with 
 a grievance or a hobby has his opportunity. After 
 all the amendments have been discussed and voted 
 upon, the House finally votes on the Address to the 
 Crown. Both parties whip up their members for 
 the series of divisions which take place during the 
 debate on the Address, and the measure of strength 
 shown by the Government in the more critical of 
 these divisions indicates the measure of support 
 which the Government may hope to have during
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 187 
 
 the session. Until the Address to the Crown has 
 been voted, no attempt can be made to deal with any 
 of the measures outlined in the Queen's Speech. 
 
 Ordinarily the House of Commons meets at three 
 o'clock on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fri- 
 days ; and except when engaged on business exempted 
 from the closing rule, the sitting comes to an end at 
 an hour after midnight, unless the House had been 
 previously adjourned. On Wednesdays the House 
 holds a morning sitting, which commences at noon 
 and comes to an end at six o'clock. Sittings are 
 usually held on Saturdays only towards the end of 
 the session, when business is much in arrears. 
 The Saturday sitting, like that on Wednesdays, is 
 from noon until six o'clock. 
 
 Prayers are read each day by the Speaker's Chap- 
 lain, a clergyman of the Church of England, be- 
 fore business is begun ; and until after prayers all 
 strangers, including the reporters in the press gal- 
 lery, are excluded from the House. A member 
 who has not a place on either the Treasury or the 
 Front Opposition Bench, or one assigned to him 
 by courtesy in some other part of the House, must 
 be in attendance at prayers, if he desires to affix 
 his name to a seat and secure it for the sitting. 
 No member's name may be so affixed to a seat 
 before prayers ; but a member who remains within 
 the precincts of the House may, by placing his hat 
 upon a seat, indicate his intention to acquire a right 
 to such a seat by a subsequent attendance at prayers. 
 " Without presence at prayers, or service on a select
 
 1 88 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 committee," reads the rule of the Commons applying 
 to this matter, " a member cannot retain a seat. By 
 courtesy, however, a seat is usually reserved for a 
 member who has left thereon a book, hat, or glove." 
 
 Hats and gloves are the only articles of attire to 
 which there is any reference in the Standing Orders. 
 Hats are worn both in the House of Commons and 
 in the House of Lords when business is proceeding. 
 In the House of Commons, however, custom decrees 
 that a member may not wear his hat on entering or 
 leaving the House, when standing at the Bar, or 
 when conversing with another member inside the 
 Chamber. By the Standing Orders, a member re- 
 moves his hat when he addresses the House. If, 
 however, a member desires to address the Chair 
 on a point of order in the interval between a division 
 being called and the tellers appointed, he must do so 
 without rising from his seat and with his hat on. 
 At other times no member is compelled to wear his 
 hat. 
 
 A considerable amount of what may be described 
 as preliminary business has to be disposed of before 
 the House reaches the "Orders of the Day" that 
 is, before it is ready to proceed with the bill or 
 other matter which the House has ordered to be taken 
 into consideration on this particular day. The pre- 
 liminaries come in this order: 
 
 1. Private Business. 
 
 2. Public Petitions. 
 
 3. Unopposed Motions for Returns. 
 
 4. Motions for Leave of Absence.
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 189 
 
 5. Giving Notices of Motions. 
 
 6. Questions, and 
 
 7. Motions at the Commencement of Public Business. 
 
 Private business includes bills to authorize muni- 
 cipal corporations, railways, and other companies to 
 undertake works requiring the sanction of Parliament. 
 These measures are read a first and a second time in 
 the House, then referred to a small committee, and 
 afterwards read a third time and passed through 
 the remaining stages like an ordinary Government 
 measure. 
 
 Petitions are the instrument or means by which 
 the electors directly address Parliament, and are 
 usually presented in favor of, or in opposition to, 
 some measure which is pending before Parliament. 
 They are ordinarily addressed "to the Honorable, 
 the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament 
 assembled," and in accordance with the traditions 
 of the House, are couched in almost stereotyped 
 language, which is exceedingly respectful, and a 
 little quaint in its character. Sometimes these peti- 
 tions are presented merely with an intimation of 
 their prayer, by the member, whom the electors 
 concerned have asked to undertake this duty. At 
 other times, by request of the member presenting the 
 petition, it is read in full by the Clerk at the table. 
 Petitions forwarded to members for presentation to 
 Parliament are about the only communications which 
 can be sent free of postage. No speeches can be 
 made in presenting petitions. After petitions have 
 been deposited upon the table, they are dropped into
 
 IQO THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 a bag, and afterwards examined by a committee 
 which periodically makes a report to the House in 
 regard to all petitions which are presented to it. 
 Years ago petitions to Parliament were regarded as 
 of value ; but the order of things has changed of 
 recent years, and it is open to doubt whether much 
 real good is gained by this old-fashioned method of 
 addressing the House. 
 
 Leave of absence is given to a member on account 
 of his own illness, or the illness or death of a near 
 relation, or of urgent business, or for other sufficient 
 cause, which must be stated to the House when the 
 motion for leave is made. While he has leave of 
 absence a member is excused from serving in the 
 House, or on a committee. A member is not sup- 
 posed to absent himself from Westminster without 
 this formal permission of the House ; but only in 
 comparatively few cases is this permission sought. 
 A member who desires to remain away for a time 
 seeks out another member of the opposite party who 
 also desires to be liberated for awhile. Together 
 they constitute a pair ; that is, they come to a mu- 
 tual understanding that during the interval agreed 
 upon neither of them will vote in any of the divis- 
 ions which may be taken in the House. A pair is 
 unknown in the written rules of Parliamentary pro- 
 cedure ; but it figures largely in the arrangements 
 of the party whips. 
 
 Notices of motion are the intimations given by 
 members of their intention to bring matters before 
 the House at a later date.
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 191 
 
 Questions are the most interesting of the prelim- 
 inaries which intervene between prayers and the 
 Orders of the Day. They are put to Ministers rela- 
 tive to public affairs, with which the Ministers 
 addressed are officially connected ; relative to pro- 
 ceedings pending in Parliament ; or any matter of 
 administration for which the Minister is responsible. 
 Questions may also be put to other members relating 
 to a bill, motion, or other public matter connected 
 with the business of the House, with which such 
 members are concerned. The rules of the House 
 stipulate, however, that " a question may not con- 
 tain statements of argument, inference or opinion, 
 imputations, ironical expressions, and hypothetical 
 cases ; nor may a question refer to debates, or an- 
 swers to questions in the same session." " A ques- 
 tion cannot be placed on the notice paper," continues 
 the rule, "which publishes the names of persons or 
 statements, not strictly necessary to render the ques- 
 tion intelligible, or containing charges which the 
 member who asks the question is not prepared to 
 substantiate." 
 
 The questions asked by members in accordance 
 with the conditions which have been quoted are 
 printed on the order paper, and the member putting 
 a question is called upon by the Speaker according 
 to the position his question occupies on the list. 
 He stands in his place and addresses his question 
 to the Minister concerned, who usually reads his 
 answer from memoranda prepared by officials in 
 his Department. Sometimes as many as sixty or
 
 1 92 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 seventy questions are on the order paper for one day. 
 It is on record that in the sessions between 1883 and 
 1892, 38,609 questions were thus asked in the House 
 of Commons ; while for the session of 1888, a session 
 made memorable by the Local Government Act for 
 the Counties, and the Act appointing the Parnell 
 Commission, the number was 5,549. 
 
 A visitor to the House of Commons should not 
 miss question time. It is often the most interesting 
 part of the sitting. If he has obtained a copy of the 
 Orders of the Day, he will be able at question time 
 to identify many of the members on both sides of 
 the House, as well as the heads of the great State 
 Departments. In every Parliament there are a 
 large number of members of the House of Commons 
 whose voices are never heard in the House except at 
 question time. Questions are asked and answered 
 in the House of Lords, but not to anything like the 
 same extent as in the House of Commons. 
 
 " Motions at the Commencement of Public Busi- 
 ness " include motions of two different kinds : (i) 
 motions for adjournment in order to call attention to 
 and discuss definite matters of urgent public impor- 
 tance ; and (2) motions relating to the conduct of the 
 business of the House. In regard to motions in the 
 first class, they are not made with any great fre- 
 quency, and only in cases of urgent importance. If, 
 for instance, the police in any city have unduly in- 
 terfered in a strike or put themselves into sharp 
 antagonism with the strikers, and their action is 
 likely to provoke disorder, it is open to any member
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 193 
 
 of the House of Commons to discuss their conduct 
 at once. To this end he lodges with the Speaker a 
 written statement of the subject to be discussed ; and 
 as soon as questions are over, he rises in his place 
 and states that he desires leave to move the adjourn- 
 ment of the House for the purpose of discussing "a 
 definite matter of urgent public importance," and 
 explains the matter in brief. The Speaker then de- 
 sires those members who support the motion for 
 adjournment to rise in their places ; and if forty mem- 
 bers support it, the Speaker immediately calls upon 
 the member to proceed with his speech and motion. 
 If less than forty members, and not less than ten, 
 have risen in support, the member may, if he thinks 
 fit, claim a division upon the question as to whether 
 the adjournment shall be moved. Some of these 
 motions for adjournment thus brought about engage 
 the House for several hours. 
 
 The motions in the second class usually have refer- 
 ence to the disposition of the time of the House, and 
 are made by its leader, or by a Minister acting in his 
 behalf. Thus if all the time of the House is desired 
 by the Government for a particular bill, a motion to 
 this effect will be made by the leader, and may be dis- 
 cussed and divided upon in the usual manner. The 
 application of the closure at a fixed time in the dis- 
 cussion of a bill would also be proposed, debated, and 
 voted upon at this stage of the day's proceedings. 
 
 The introduction of new members is also one of 
 the preliminaries which intervene between prayers 
 and the Orders of the Day, and takes place immedi-
 
 194 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 ately after questions. Up to this point in the day's 
 proceedings the new member, with the two members 
 who are to introduce him, have been standing in 
 waiting at the Bar of the House. The rule in regard 
 to this ceremonial dates back for more than two cen- 
 turies, to the 23d of February, 1688, and requires 
 that new members returned after a General Election 
 shall be " introduced to the table between two mem- 
 bers, making their obeisances as they go up (that is 
 from the Bar to the table), that they may be the bet- 
 ter known to the House." When the member so 
 introduced has been returned at a hotly contested 
 by-election, he is always cheered by his political 
 friends, as he makes his way from the Bar to the 
 table. If the last holder of the seat was a Liberal 
 and the new comer to the House is a Conservative, 
 the cheering from the Conservative benches is vehe- 
 ment and long continued, and vice versa if the seat 
 has been captured by the Liberals. On the occasion 
 of triumphs of this kind much heartiness and en- 
 thusiasm are infused into the demonstration of wel- 
 come. After the new member has taken the oath of 
 allegiance to the Throne, he passes between the 
 Treasury Bench and the table, to the right hand side 
 of the Chair, shakes hands with the Speaker, and 
 then passing behind the Chair takes his seat on the 
 benches occupied by the members with whom he 
 intends in future to act and vote. 
 
 These preliminaries bring the House to the Orders 
 of the Day, which may mean either a discussion on 
 the first, second, or third reading of a bill, proceed-
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 195 
 
 ings in committee on a bill, or proceedings in Com- 
 mittee of Supply, into which the House of Commons 
 resolves itself when it is voting money for the public 
 charges and services. 
 
 The stages of a legislative measure, which is going 
 through Parliament, are almost exactly the same in 
 both the House of Commons and the House of 
 Lords. About the only difference is at the initial 
 stage. Any bill which can originate in the House 
 of Lords may be introduced and laid upon the table 
 by an individual peer without the previous permission 
 of the House ; while in the House of Commons no 
 bill can be brought in unless a motion for leave be 
 previously agreed to. As, however, all important 
 Government bills originate in the House of Com- 
 mons, and go thence to the House of Lords, it may 
 be best to follow in detail the procedure in the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 First of all, the member introducing the bill ob- 
 tains permission of the House to do so. In the case 
 of bills introduced by private members, and for 
 which the Government is not responsible, this is 
 little more than a formal proceeding. In the case of 
 a great constitutional measure, such, for example, as 
 the Home Rule bill, or a bill like the Local Govern- 
 ment Act of 1888, the Minister introducing the 
 measure, when he is seeking permission for its intro- 
 duction, gives the House a full statement of its aim 
 and scope, and an outline of its principal clauses. 
 It is possible for the House to refuse its permission 
 for the introduction of a bill ; but this is seldom done.
 
 196 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Only once during the twenty-five years preceding 
 1893 has the House of Commons been divided on 
 a motion' for leave to bring in a bill. This division 
 occurred on the measure for suspending the creation 
 of new vested interests in the English Church in 
 Wales, a measure intended to pave the way for 
 Welsh disestablishment. Nor is a measure seri- 
 ously discussed at this stage. The speech-making 
 which follows the statement of the Minister intro- 
 ducing the bill, is usually of a complimentary rather 
 than of a critical character. 
 
 As soon as the House has signified its willingness 
 that the bill shall be introduced, the Minister respon- 
 sible for it leaves his place on the Treasury bench, 
 goes to the Bar of the House, then walks back to the 
 table and hands to the clerk a copy of the bill, or 
 more frequently a document setting out the title and 
 scope of the measure, which is known as a dummy 
 bill. There is seldom a discussion at this stage. 
 The House reads the bill a first time, orders that it 
 be printed, and the member introducing it announces 
 on what day it is proposed to read it a second time. 
 
 The fate of a measure is decided on the second 
 reading. At this stage the Minister in charge of it 
 moves that it be read a second time. If he has made 
 a long speech at the first reading stage, and he feels 
 that he has nothing more to add, he rises in his place 
 and formally moves the second reading. The strug- 
 gle on the measure then commences. If the bill is 
 a highly contentious one, and one to which the mem- 
 bers in Opposition are generally hostile, the leader
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 197 
 
 of the hostile forces will move as an amendment to 
 the motion! made by the Minister that the bill be 
 read a second time "this day six months." This is 
 tantamount to moving its rejection ; and the mover 
 of the amendment will follow with the reasons why, 
 in his opinion, the bill should not be further pro- 
 ceeded with. Another member who holds the same 
 opinion will second the amendment ; and, until the 
 division is taken, the discussion is waged on the 
 motions, or rather the motion and the amendment, 
 which are before the House. A member can speak 
 only once in a discussion ; but even with this restric- 
 tion the discussion on the second reading of a bill 
 of first importance will sometimes extend over two 
 weeks. The more important speakers, the mem- 
 bers who are of the Administration, and those who 
 sit on the Front Opposition Bench, usually make 
 their appearance in the debate between half-past four 
 in the afternoon and half-past seven in the evening, 
 and again after the dinner hour between half-past 
 nine and midnight, when the debate stands adjourned 
 until the following day, or some other day in accord- 
 ance with the arrangement made by the leader of the 
 House. 
 
 It is a tradition of the House of Commons that 
 the member who catches the Speaker's eye is called 
 upon to address the House. To a certain extent, 
 and upon some occasions, the House acts up to this 
 tradition ; but when a debate of first importance is 
 in progress, the whips and the Speaker arrange the 
 order of procedure.
 
 198 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 The whips are the officers of the several political 
 parties who are charged with the duties of muster- 
 ing members for divisions. The chief Government 
 whip holds the office of Patronage Secretary to the 
 Treasury ; his assistants are usually Junior Lords of 
 the Treasury. The Opposition whips are without 
 office, but have rooms assigned them by the Govern- 
 ment in the House of Commons for the discharge 
 of their duties. In the days when there were only 
 two parties in Parliament, Liberal and Tory, there 
 were only two sets of whips; but from 1880, when 
 the Irish Nationalists became a separate party, they 
 have had whips of their own ; and now as new groups 
 form in the House of Commons each group appoints 
 its whips. 
 
 The whips are aware that this member of the 
 Administration desires to reply in the course of the 
 debate to that member of the Opposition, and this 
 knowledge is communicated to the Speaker, who 
 generally contrives to call on the members in 
 something like the order in which they themselves 
 desire to address the House. The less important 
 speakers, the new and the young members, get their 
 opportunities at the dinner hour. The attendance 
 in the House thins between half-past seven and half- 
 past nine, and often in this interval the House is 
 attended by not more than fifty or sixty members. 
 The Speaker is seldom absent for longer than half an 
 hour, and so long as he is in the chair the debate 
 goes on. Between nine and ten o'clock the House 
 fills up again, and between ten and twelve on the
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 199 
 
 field nights it is at its liveliest. At this time, on the 
 evening of the division, the Minister in charge of 
 the bill usually makes his speech in reply, and the 
 division follows. A division and its preliminaries in 
 a full House occupies from fifteen to twenty minutes. 
 
 After the last speech in the debate has been made, 
 the Speaker puts the question to the House. A 
 question being put is resolved in the affirmative or 
 the negative by the majority of voices, " Aye," or 
 " No." The Speaker next states whether in his 
 opinion the ayes or the noes " have it ; " and unless his 
 opinion so declared be acquiesced in by the minority, 
 the question is determined by a division. When the 
 Speaker's opinion has not been acquiesced in by the 
 minority, the clerk turns over a two minute sand- 
 glass which always stands in front of him on the 
 table. After the lapse of two minutes, as indicated by 
 the sand-glass, the Sergeant-at-Arms, on the direction 
 of the Speaker, locks the outer door of the Chamber, 
 so that a member can neither enter nor leave the 
 House until after the division. When the outer 
 doors have been locked and the members are in their 
 seats or standing at the Bar, as is the custom at these 
 times, the Speaker states the question a second time ; 
 and, after the voices have been given, he declares 
 whether in his opinion the ayes or the noes have it. 
 
 No member is entitled to vote in any division unless 
 he is present in the House when the question is thus 
 put, and every member so present must give his 
 vote. If after the second putting of the question, 
 the Speaker's opinion is again challenged, he directs
 
 200 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the Ayes to go into the right lobby and the Noes 
 into the left lobby, and appoints two tellers for the 
 Ayes and two for the Noes. The tellers are always 
 members of the House. As the members pass 
 through the lobbies, the division clerks take down 
 their names and they are counted by the tellers as 
 they return to the House. When all the members 
 are again in their places, the four tellers advance 
 to the table and there report the numbers to 
 the Speaker, who declares them to the House. In 
 the case of an equality of votes the Speaker gives the 
 casting vote, " usually," reads the rule dealing with 
 this matter " in such a manner as not to make the 
 decision of the House final." The reasons for his 
 vote, if stated by the Speaker, are entered in the 
 Journal of the House. 
 
 The division on the second reading of a bill settles 
 its principle. The next stage is in committee. 
 There is, however, an intermediate stage which is 
 sometimes of importance. When the motion is 
 made that the House go into committee, it is possible 
 to move an instruction to the committee, the object 
 of which " is to effect such an extension of the scope 
 of the order of reference as will further the general 
 purpose and intention of the House in the appoint- 
 ment of the committee." The contents of the bill, as 
 read a second time, form the order of reference ; and 
 an instruction " must not be irrelevant or contra- 
 dictory to that order, nor seek to subvert its object 
 by substituting another scheme for the mode of 
 operation therein described." Occasionally on an
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 2OI 
 
 important measure one or two sittings of the House 
 are occupied in debating proposed instructions which 
 are divided upon like any other motion or resolution. 
 
 While the debate on the proposed instructions 
 is going on the Speaker is still in the chair. As 
 soon as the instructions are disposed of, and the 
 motion carried that the House go into committee, 
 the Speaker leaves the chair, the Sergeant-at-Arms 
 removes the Mace from the table, and the Chairman 
 of Committees, who, like the Speaker, is a paid offi- 
 cial, chosen from among the members of the House, 
 and the holder of a strictly non-partisan office, under- 
 takes the duties of presiding. 
 
 Much less power is invested in the Chairman of 
 Committees than in the Speaker. He does not wear 
 a robe and a wig, or any other distinctive dress, nor 
 does he sit in the Chair. The Chair is vacant while 
 the House is in committee, as the Chairman's place 
 is at the table immediately to the right of the clerk 
 of the House. At other times, when the Speaker 
 is in the Chair, the Chairman sits with the political 
 group with which he is associated, and speaks and 
 votes in the same way as any other member. The 
 Speaker, on the other hand, takes no part in the 
 proceedings of the House except as the occupant of 
 the Chair. 
 
 Proceedings in committee are much loss formal 
 than in the House. On the second reading of a hill, 
 or in any other debate when the Speaker is in the 
 Chair, a member can address the House only once. 
 In committee, whether Committee of Supply or
 
 2O2 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Committee of the Whole House on a bill, a member 
 may speak as often as he pleases. There is little 
 attempt at oratory in committee ; often the discus- 
 sions come down to the level of conversation. 
 This is especially so with bills of a non-contentious 
 character, which both parties are sincerely deter- 
 mined to make as good and as useful as possible as a 
 result of the committee stage. 
 
 With the exception of the number of times a mem- 
 ber may speak, the rules of debate are the same in 
 committee as in the House. The debates or the pro- 
 visions of bills in the House of Lords, "the other 
 House of Parliament," as the House of Peers is 
 always denominated by members of the House of 
 Commons, may not be reflected upon ; nor may the 
 name of the Sovereign be introduced for the purpose 
 of influencing the House in its deliberations. No 
 member may use offensive words against either House 
 of Parliament, nor against any statute, unless for the 
 purpose of moving the repeal of the statute to which 
 the words apply. It is also against the rules of the 
 House for a member to speak of another member by 
 name. A member is always known in the House by 
 the name of his constituency. When a member is 
 irrelevant in his speech, and, after a caution from the 
 Chair, persists in irrelevance or tedious repetition, 
 the Speaker or the Chairman of Committees may 
 direct him to discontinue his speech. 
 
 When a member objects to words used by another 
 member in debate, and desires to have them with- 
 drawn, he moves that they be taken down at the
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 203 
 
 table, and to this end " repeats the words to which he 
 objects immediately after they have been uttered, 
 stating them exactly as he conceives them to have 
 been spoken." Then the Speaker, after ascertaining 
 that the sense of the House is in accord with the de- 
 mand, directs the Clerk to take down the words. In 
 committee the objectionable words taken down have 
 to be at once reported to the House ; and to facilitate 
 this the Chairman vacates his place at the table, and 
 the Speaker resumes the Chair. A member who has 
 thus used objectionable words has either to explain 
 or retract them, or offer an apology. If he declines 
 to do so, he may be suspended. In this case his sus- 
 pension is moved by the leader of the House, and 
 seconded by the leader of the Opposition. The 
 motion is immediately voted upon without debate. 
 For a first offence a member may be suspended for a 
 week ; for a second in the same session, for a fort- 
 night ; and for a third, the suspension is for one 
 month. A member so suspended must at once with- 
 draw from the chamber. He may, however, go into 
 the Strangers' Gallery; and his suspension does not 
 exempt him from service on a committee on a private 
 bill. 
 
 The closure is applicable in the proceedings both 
 in the House and in Committee. A motion for its 
 adoption may be made by any member with the as- 
 sent of the Chair, and is decided in the affirmative if, 
 when a division is taken, not less than one hundred 
 members vote in the majority in support of the 
 motion. The closure rules date from 1882, and were
 
 204 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 adopted with a view to checking the obstructive tac- 
 tics of the Irish Nationalist members, who a year or 
 two earlier had begun to act as an independent party. 
 In the rules adopted in 1882 the responsibility of the 
 initiative rested with the Speaker, and so remained 
 until the present plan was adopted in 1888. 
 
 In the case of a Government measure, when it is 
 determined that the matter has been adequately dis- 
 cussed, and it is decided to close the discussion within 
 a given time, a motion to this effect has to be carried 
 in the House. It is usually proposed by the leader 
 of the House at the commencement of business. On 
 a resolution of this kind, the House divides as upon 
 any other resolution. 
 
 A bill consists of preamble, clauses, and schedules. 
 All Government bills are drawn up by Parliamentary 
 draughtsmen. These are barristers of high standing, 
 and are permanent civil servants, each being an ex- 
 pert in some department of law. Their duties are to 
 draw up the bill on the lines indicated by the Minis- 
 ter in charge of it, and in such a manner as not to 
 clash with any previous legislation. 
 
 At committee stage a bill is taken clause by clause, 
 sometimes line by line. Amendments are moved 
 and discussed, and, if need be, divided upon in the 
 same manner as divisions are taken on the earlier 
 stages of a bill. When a clause has been agreed 
 upon, the committee adopts a motion of which the 
 formula is " that the clause stand part of the bill." 
 When amendments have been made to the clause, 
 the formula is " that the clause as amended stand
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 2O5 
 
 part of the bill." In the case of a contentious 
 measure, wrangles and critical divisions mark the 
 progress through committee. Weeks, sometimes 
 months, of the time of the House have to be given 
 up to this stage ; and there is no greater or more 
 effective test of a Parliamentarian than the piloting 
 of a great bill through committee. Oratory in the 
 early stages of a bill, while not without its influence 
 and value in the country, has but little effect on 
 votes in the House of Commons ; but tact and dis- 
 cretion, good humor and a conciliatory mode of 
 address on the part of the Minister responsible for 
 the bill, count for much in committee, and often help 
 a measure over difficult and dangerous places. 
 
 Generally in the case of an important measure, and 
 one in respect of which the committee stage is likely 
 to be protracted, at the outset the Government car- 
 ries a resolution giving it all the time of the House 
 while the measure is under consideration, and then 
 the committee stage of the measure continues day 
 by day. Work in committee is usually commenced 
 immediately after questions, and goes on until mid- 
 night, when progress is reported. This is equivalent 
 to a motion suspending work on the bill until another 
 day. When the motion has been made, the Speaker 
 is recalled to the Chair, the remaining orders of the 
 day, if they are non-contentious, are quickly carried, 
 and the House adjourns between twelve and one 
 o'clock. Only on special occasions does it sit beyond 
 one o'clock. Next day work in committee is re- 
 sumed. When all the clauses have been adopted,
 
 206 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and the preamble and the schedules agreed to, the 
 bill as a whole is reported to the House for third 
 reading. 
 
 If amendments have been made in Committee, the 
 bill as amended may be considered on report stage. 
 In this case new clauses are first offered, and then 
 amendments are proposed to the several clauses of 
 the bill. On consideration of the bill as amended, 
 the whole or any portion may be referred back to 
 Committee. A bill reported from Committee with- 
 out amendments is read a third time forthwith. The 
 Speaker is in the Chair during report stage and 
 when the third reading is taken. Only verbal amend- 
 ments can be made on third reading, and the judg- 
 ment of the House is then expressed upon the bill 
 as it finally stands. 
 
 After a bill has thus passed these five stages, first 
 reading, second reading, committee, report, and third 
 reading, the Clerk of the House of Commons is 
 directed to carry it to the House of Lords, and " de- 
 sire their concurrence." In the case of a bill which 
 has originated in the House of Lords, and then passed 
 its several stages in the Commons, the Clerk of the 
 House of Commons is directed "to carry the bill to 
 the Lords and acquaint them that the House hath 
 agreed to the same without amendment." When 
 amendments have been made, the Clerk is ordered to 
 acquaint the House of Lords " that this House hath 
 agreed to the same with amendments, to which 
 amendments this House doth desire the concurrence 
 of their Lordships."
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 2O? 
 
 The last stage of a measure is that at which it 
 receives the Royal Assent. Assent is usually given 
 by Royal Commission ; and on these occasions, as at 
 the opening of a new Parliament or at the com- 
 mencement of a new session, Black Rod, the officer 
 of the Lords, summons the Commons to the Cham- 
 ber of the Lords to hear the Royal Assent formally 
 given. The Speaker responds to this summons, and 
 with the Sergeant-at-Arms, and with a few members 
 of the House, generally members of the Administra- 
 tion, attends at the Bar of the House of Lords for 
 this final ceremony. On his return the Speaker 
 reports his attendance in the House of Lords and 
 the measure to which the Royal Assent has been 
 given. Up to this point the measure has been 
 written and spoken of as a bill. As soon as the 
 Royal Assent has been given, it is known as an 
 Act of Parliament. 
 
 Each Act is numbered by the number of the 
 year of the sovereign's reign at the time of its pass- 
 ing, and by a second number fixing the order in 
 which it receives the Royal Assent. Thus in the 
 session of 1892, held in the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth 
 years of the reign of Queen Victoria, the first Act 
 to receive the Royal Assent was one transferring 
 the site of Millbank Prison from the Prisons Depart- 
 ment of the Home Office to the management of the 
 Commissioner of Works the Department having 
 charge of Royal Palaces and Public Buildings. On 
 the Statute Books this Act appears as the Fifty-Fifth 
 and Fifty-sixth of Victoria, Chapter One, " An Act
 
 208 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 to transfer the site of Millbank Prison to the Man- 
 agement of the Commissioner of Works." Sixty 
 Acts were passed in that session. Each is described 
 and numbered after the manner of that relating to 
 the old prison at Millbank. 
 
 Votes of money for the public charges and ser- 
 vices originate in the House of Commons. When 
 these votes are under consideration the House goes 
 into what is known as Committee of Supply. The 
 Speaker then vacates the chair ; and the Chairman 
 of Ways and Means, whose office and duties were 
 explained in describing the committee stage of a 
 bill, acts as presiding officer. 
 
 It is the established usage of the House of Com- 
 mons that the redress of grievances precedes the 
 granting of money, and to some extent this usage is 
 well maintained. In the ordinary course of things 
 Supply is taken on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. 
 Mondays and Thursdays are set apart for Govern- 
 ment business. Friday is ordinarily a private mem- 
 bers' night ; and when a motion is made on Friday 
 that the House go into Committee of Supply, general 
 subjects wholly unconnected with money votes may 
 be discussed by way of amendment to the motion that 
 "the Speaker do now leave the chair for the Committee 
 of Supply." When the same motion is made on Mon- 
 day or Thursday, amendments are in order ; but they 
 must be strictly relevant to the class of votes which 
 are about to be taken in Committee of Supply. Thus 
 if the Committee were about to take a vote for the 
 Royal Palaces, it would be permissible for a member
 
 PARLIAMENT A T WORK. 2CX) 
 
 to raise a discussion, for instance, as to the times at 
 which the public are excluded from Hampton Court 
 or Bushey Park ; but he would be out of order if he 
 attempted to raise a discussion on this vote as to the 
 rate of wages and general treatment of laborers in 
 the dockyard at Chatham. This matter would have 
 to be raised when it was proposed that the House 
 should go into Committee on the estimates for the 
 naval services. On two of the three nights on 
 which the House may go into committee to vote 
 money for the public charges and services, the dis- 
 cussions prior to going into committee must be rele- 
 vant to the votes about to be passed ; on Friday, the 
 third flight, almost any subject may be discussed. 
 
 A member can discuss a question only when there 
 is a quorum in the House. If after he has given 
 notice of the motion he intends to propose, he can- 
 not get forty members to come into the House and 
 listen to him, the motion drops, the House is counted 
 out, and the sitting comes to an end. A "count out " 
 means that when the time arrived for the member 
 who had the resolution on the paper to move it, there 
 were less than forty, members present, not sufficient 
 therefore to make a House. These " counts out " 
 happen every now and again in the early weeks of 
 the Parliamentary session, and usually serve to show, 
 in a practical way, that members have no interest in 
 the question which it is proposed to discuss. The 
 motions on which "counts out " take place always 
 stand in the names of private members. The Gov- 
 ernment ordinarily take up a neutral attitude in
 
 2IO THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 regard to these motions, and leave it to the members 
 on the Government benches to please themselves as 
 to whether they will attend. It is different on Mon- 
 days and Thursdays, for on these days the Govern- 
 ment arrange the programme ; they put down the 
 votes which they are anxious to obtain, and the Gov- 
 ernment whips are always careful to see that there 
 is a quorum on these occasions, and that the House 
 is got into committee, and to the work of voting 
 money, as soon as possible. 
 
 When Supply is being voted in the House of 
 Commons for a Department, its representative takes 
 charge of the votes in Committee, and answers the 
 questions and criticisms which are raised upon them. 
 Thus, when the votes for the Education Depart- 
 ment are being obtained, the Vice-President for the 
 Council for Education, who is always of the House 
 of Commons, is in his place on the Treasury Bench 
 to take charge of the votes. Usually on this occa- 
 sion he makes his annual statement in regard to the 
 policy and action of his Department ; as also do the 
 Secretary for War and the President of the Board of 
 Trade, and the Parliamentary heads of any of the 
 other spending Departments, when the votes for the 
 respective Departments are discussed in Committee. 
 
 The estimates are prepared in the offices of the 
 several Departments. The Parliamentary heads of 
 the Departments and their permanent heads act in 
 concert in this work with the Treasury; and the 
 House of Commons neither as a whole nor through 
 any of its committees has any voice in the matter of
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 211 
 
 the estimates until they are submitted to it in Com- 
 mittee of Supply. 
 
 To return to the votes for National Education, 
 which have been taken as an illustration of pro- 
 cedure in Supply. When these are before the Com- 
 mittee, if a member of Parliament has a grievance to 
 ventilate, or a complaint to make, he can do so by 
 means of a motion to reduce the vote. If he holds 
 that the policy of the Department is wrong in regard 
 to any particular point, he will move, for instance, to 
 reduce the vote for the salary of the Vice-President of 
 the Council for Education when this item is reached 
 on the estimates. Members who think with him will 
 support his motion, while those who indorse the 
 action of the Department will speak in opposition to 
 the motion to reduce the vote. In the course of the 
 discussion the Vice-President will offer an explanation 
 or make a speech in defence of his policy. If this 
 satisfies the member who opened the discussion and 
 his friends who have supported him, the motion to 
 reduce the vote will be withdrawn, and the Committee 
 will pass the estimate and proceed to the next on the 
 list. If, on the other hand, the member is not satis- 
 fied with the explanation or defence which has been 
 tendered, he will divide the Committee on the motion 
 to reduce the vote. These motions are seldom car- 
 ried, as the Government keep their forces in reserve 
 to help them through with such of the votes in Com- 
 mittee as arc likely to give rise to contention. The 
 reduction of a vote through such a motion would be 
 tantamount to the defeat of the Government.
 
 2 1 2 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 The duties of the Committee of Supply are clearly 
 defined by the rules of the House. The Committee 
 must either "grant, reduce, or refuse the supplies 
 set forth in the estimates." A grant cannot be aug- 
 mented, nor can its destination be altered, in Com- 
 mittee or by the House itself. A large proportion 
 of the time of the House of Commons each session 
 is occupied in voting Supply. Some of the most 
 important ministerial statements are made in Com- 
 mittee of Supply. The votes passed in Committee 
 are afterwards reported to the House, and when 
 agreed upon by the House, furnish the authority on 
 which the lords of the Treasury issue the money for 
 carrying on the services of the country. At the end 
 of each session all these resolutions in Committee of 
 Supply are consolidated in the Appropriation bill, 
 which, when passed by the House of Commons goes 
 up to the House of Lords and receives the Royal 
 Assent like any other bill which has been carried 
 through Parliament. The Appropriation bill is 
 usually the closing measure of the session. After it 
 is passed, Parliament is prorogued. 
 
 In addition to Committee of Supply, there are 
 other proceedings in the House of Commons relating 
 to national finance. Early in April every session the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer makes his annual finan- 
 cial statement. This is known as the Budget, and 
 includes a statement of the income and expenditure 
 of the preceding twelve months, and an estimate of 
 the receipts and expenditure for the year which is 
 about to commence, together with proposals for the
 
 PARLIAMENT A T WORK. 2 1 3 
 
 increase or repeal of existing taxes or the imposition 
 of new ones. The Speaker leaves the chair for this 
 statement, which is made in Committee of Ways and 
 Means; and it is in this Committee that resolutions 
 are subsequently passed, levying the new taxes which 
 have been indicated as necessary by the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer in his Budget speech. 
 
 So far, in describing the proceedings of the House 
 of Commons, only Government bills and Govern- 
 ment business, such as Supply, and resolutions in 
 Committee of Ways and Means, have been dealt 
 with. Occasionally bills are carried through Parlia- 
 ment by private members ; that is, by members who 
 are not of the ministry. A private member who has 
 a bill which he desires to carry, obtains permis- 
 sion of the House for its introduction in the usual 
 way, and then takes his chance in the ballot with his 
 fellow-members who have introduced bills, for prece- 
 dence at the morning sittings on Wednesdays, which 
 in the earlier months of the session are given up to 
 private bills. 
 
 If a member is successful in obtaining a Wednes- 
 day early in the session for the second reading 
 of his bill, he whips up his friends with a view 
 to getting it safely through this stage. Sometimes 
 the Government give him their help, when mem- 
 bers on the Treasury Bench speak in support of 
 the bill. Sometimes they oppose his bill, or they 
 may stand aloof and allow their supporters to vote as 
 they please. If the second reading is carried, the 
 member in charge of the bill must watch his oppor-
 
 2 1 4 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 tunity for getting it through its remaining stages. 
 From the outset the chances of carrying the measure 
 are but small, especially if it is of a contentious 
 character ; and in the course of a session only a few 
 of these private members' bills get through all their 
 stages in the House of Commons, as well as those in 
 the Lords, and receive the Royal Assent. A hundred 
 or more of these private members' bills are intro- 
 duced each session ; the greater proportion of them 
 never get beyond the first stage ; a few pass second 
 reading; and every now and again a really useful 
 measure is added to the Statute Book as the result of 
 the energy and persistent watchfulness of a private 
 member. 
 
 Besides the Committees of the whole House, 
 Supply, Ways and Means, and Committee on a Bill, 
 the House deputes much of its work to Select Com- 
 mittees, Committees on Private Bills, and Standing 
 Committees. Select Committees, which seldom num- 
 ber more than fifteen members, are chosen for some 
 specific work, often of the nature of an inquiry with 
 a view to legislation ; while to the Committees on 
 Private Bills are assigned the most important stages 
 of the measures introduced and promoted by muni- 
 cipal corporations, railway companies, and other pub- 
 lic concerns for empowering the carrying out of works 
 for which the sanction of Parliament is required. 
 
 The procedure before the committees on Private 
 Bills is somewhat similar to that in a civil court, only, 
 instead of a judge and jury, the case for and against 
 the measure is heard by the committee, which subse-
 
 PARLIAMENT A T WORK. 2 1 5 
 
 quently reports to the House. If the report is favor- 
 able, the bill goes to third reading, and thence to the 
 House of Lords, where it is similarly dealt with by a 
 committee of that House. At these inquiries by the 
 Private Bill Committees of the two Houses, all the 
 parties interested are represented by barristers, who 
 appear in wig and gown as in the law courts ; and the 
 rules with regard to the examination and cross-exami- 
 nation of witnesses and the taking of oaths by wit- 
 nesses, as well as with regard to the speeches by the 
 various Parliamentary counsel, are almost the same 
 as in the trial of a civil action. 
 
 With regard to Standing Committees, there are 
 two of these. To one are assigned all bills relating 
 to law and the courts of justice and legal procedure, 
 and to the other all measures relating to trade, manu- 
 factures, shipping, fishing, and agriculture. Each of 
 the Standing Committees must consist of not less 
 than sixty and not more than eighty members. These 
 Committees are appointed each session. The mem- 
 bers are nominated by the Committee of Selection, 
 "which," according to the resolutions of the House 
 of Commons, creating the Standing Committees, 
 " shall have regard to the classes of bills committed 
 to such Committees, to the composition of the House, 
 and to the qualifications of the members selected." 
 The Committee also nominates a chairman's panel, 
 "to consist of not less than four nor more than six 
 members, of whom three shall be a quorum ; and the 
 chairman's panel shall appoint from among them- 
 selves the chairman of each Standing Committee."
 
 2l6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 The proceedings before the Committees on Pri- 
 vate Bills and the Standing Committees are usually 
 open to the public, and when of sufficient general 
 interest are reported in the press. 
 
 Royal Commissions are frequently constituted to 
 make inquiries and draw up recommendations with a 
 view to legislation. They differ from Select Com- 
 mittees of either the House of Commons or the 
 House of Lords, in that they are created by Act 
 of Parliament, are composed of members and non- 
 members of Parliament, and their existence is un- 
 affected by a dissolution of Parliament. 
 
 The statutory life of a Parliament, as fixed by the 
 Septennial Act of 1715, is seven years. It cannot 
 last beyond tnat time. Few Parliaments, however, 
 are continued to their statutory limit ; and a polit- 
 ical crisis, such as the defeat of the Government, 
 may bring a Parliament to an end almost at any 
 time. 
 
 Each session of Parliament is opened and closed 
 with a Speech from the Throne. As at the opening 
 of the session, the prorogation may be announced 
 either by the Sovereign in person or by Royal Com- 
 mission. Usually the prorogation is by Commission. 
 In this case the Usher of the Black Rod proceeds to 
 the House of Commons with a message that the 
 Lords, authorized by virtue of Her Majesty's Com- 
 mission, declaring Her Royal Assent to several Acts 
 of Parliament agreed upon by both Houses, and for 
 proroguing the present Parliament, "desire the im- 
 mediate attendance of the House in the House of
 
 PARLIAMENT A T WORK. 2 1 7 
 
 Peers to hear the Commission read." The Speaker 
 then goes to the House of Lords attended, as is 
 customary on these occasions, by the Sergeant-at- 
 Arms and such of the members of the House of 
 Commons as care to assist in the concluding cere- 
 mony of the session. 
 
 In the House of Lords the Commission is read, 
 and the Royal Assent is given to all the bills await- 
 ing it, including the Appropriation Bill, the final 
 measure of the session ; and afterwards, to quote 
 from an official programme of the ceremony, "Her 
 Majesty's most gracious Speech is delivered to both 
 Houses by the Lord' High Chancellor in pursuance 
 of her Majesty's commands; another Commission is 
 then read for proroguirtg Parliament ; and the Parlia- 
 ment is accordingly prorogued." At the conclusion 
 of this ceremony the Speaker returns to the House 
 of Commons, and, as with the Speech at the open- 
 ing of the session, reads the Speech preceding the 
 prorogation. The members who are present at this 
 concluding ceremony then form in line, and passing 
 the Chair, shake hands with the Speaker before dis- 
 persing. 
 
 When a dissolution is about to occur, Parliament 
 is prorogued. The Queen in Council determines 
 upon the prorogation, and also upon the dissolution, 
 and a separate Council precedes each step. At the 
 close of the second Council, the dissolution Procla- 
 mation is issued, and is published in the Loiuion 
 Gazette in this form:
 
 2l8 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 BY THE QUEEN. A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 For dissolving the present Parliament and declaring the call- 
 ing of another. 
 
 VICTORIA R. 
 
 Whereas we have thought fit, by and with the advice of Our 
 Privy Council, to dissolve this present Parliament, which stands 
 prorogued to the day of next : We do, 
 
 for that end, publish this Our Royal Proclamation, and do here- 
 by dissolve the said Parliament accordingly ; and the Lords Spir- 
 itual and Temporal, and the knights, citizens, and burgesses, 
 and the Commissioners for shires and burghs of the House 
 of Commons, are discharged from their meeting and attend- 
 ance on the said the day of next. And 
 we, being desirous and resolved, as soon as may be, to meet 
 Our people and to have their advice in Parliament, do here- 
 by make known to all Our loving subjects Our Royal will and 
 pleasure to call a new Parliament : and do hereby further 
 declare that, with the advice of Our Privy Council, we have 
 given order that Our Chancellor of that part of the United 
 Kingdom called Great Britain, and Our Chancellor of Ireland, do 
 respectively on notice thereof forthwith serve out writs, in due 
 form and accordingly to law, for calling a new Parliament. And 
 We do hereby also by this Our Royal Proclamation, under Our 
 Great Seal of Our United Kingdom, require writs forthwith to 
 be issued accordingly by Our said Chancellors respectively for 
 causing the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons who 
 are to serve in the said Parliament to be duly returned to, and 
 give their attendance in, Our said Parliament on the day 
 of next ; which writs are to be returnable in due course 
 of law. 
 
 Given at Our Court at Windsor, this day of in 
 
 the year of our Lord and in the year of Our Reign. 
 
 God save the Queen. 
 
 Members are elected for the duration of a Parlia- 
 ment. Theoretically, a member of the House of
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 2 1C) 
 
 Commons cannot resign ; he may, however, rid him- 
 self of his membership by accepting an office under 
 the Crown, and to this end the sovereign is always 
 ready to confer on a member who desires to relin- 
 quish his Parliamentary duties the Stewardship of 
 the Chiltern Hundreds. Neither pay nor duties 
 attach to the Stewardship ; but its acceptance serves 
 to liberate a member, and it is popularly supposed to 
 give him an honorable discharge, as, in receiving it, 
 he accepts office under the Crown. The Steward- 
 ship is immediately resigned. The office can be con- 
 ferred upon a member, whether Parliament is or is not 
 sitting, through the medium of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer; but only when the House of Commons is 
 sitting can a new writ of election be issued for the 
 vacancy caused by a member accepting the Chiltern 
 Hundreds. When a member is elevated to the House 
 of Lords, as soon as the letters patent conferring upon 
 him the peerage are issued, the seat he has held in 
 the Commons becomes vacant. 
 
 The bankruptcy of a member entails the immedi- 
 ate vacation of his seat ; and when a member has 
 been convicted of a misdemeanor or a felony, he is 
 expelled the House. In a case of this kind the judge 
 presiding at the trial informs the Speaker, by letter, 
 of the conviction ; the Speaker reads the letter to 
 the House, and the House thereupon takes action. 
 The motion for expulsion is moved by the leader 
 of the House, and usually seconded by the leader of 
 the Opposition. A similar course is taken in regard 
 to a member who is a fugitive from justice, with the
 
 220 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 exception that in this case the House fixes a day on 
 which the member is to attend in his place. If he 
 fails, the motion for his expulsion is made, and is 
 usually carried without a discussion or a division. 
 
 In the event of the death of a member while the 
 House is sitting, the new writ is moved for by the 
 whip of the party to which he belonged. Except in 
 the case of leading statesmen, no reference is made 
 in the House to the death of a member until the 
 new writ is moved. If the death of a member occurs 
 during the Parliamentary recess, it is certified by 
 two members to the Speaker, who, after an announce- 
 ment in the London Gazette, issues his warrant to 
 the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new writ. 
 If the deceased member represented a borough, the 
 writ is addressed to the mayor. If he represented 
 a division of a county, it is addressed to the sheriff, 
 and the election takes place as soon as the necessary 
 local preliminaries can be arranged. 
 
 There are numerous claims of a public and a semi- 
 public character upon the time of a member of Par- 
 liament in his own constituency. At Westminster, 
 with one or two exceptions, the claims of a constitu- 
 ency upon its members are confined to his actual ser- 
 vices on the floor of the House of Commons. For 
 individual constituents a member does little beyond 
 now and again asking questions in the House of 
 Commons or securing occasional orders of admittance 
 to the public galleries of the House. If, however, a 
 borough has a private bill going through Parliament, 
 such, for instance, as one empowering it to take over
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 221 
 
 from private owners the local water supply, or if a 
 borough is concerned in a private bill introduced by 
 a railway or a canal company, the local member is 
 expected to aid the municipal authorities at the com- 
 mittee stage, and to help in getting the bill through 
 its later stages in Parliament. 
 
 For groups of constituents also occasional services 
 have to be rendered. Take the case, for example, of 
 a member representing a mining constituency. If 
 the miners have a grievance arising out of the work- 
 ing of the Mines Regulation Acts, the Home Office 
 is the State Department to which they will apply for 
 redress. To this end a deputation from the constit- 
 uency will visit London, in order to wait on the 
 Home Secretary. On these occasions the local 
 member of Parliament introduces the deputation to 
 the Minister, and remains in attendance during the 
 interview. If, later on, the mine-owners desire to 
 place their views of the matter before the Home 
 Secretary, the local member will also in turn accom- 
 pany them to the Home Office, and act for their 
 deputation as he did for that representing the miners. 
 
 Most members of the House of Commons make it 
 a rule to address mass meetings of their constituents 
 at least once every year. The meeting is usually 
 held at the end of the Parliamentary session, when 
 the member reviews its work and his own share in 
 it, and receives votes of confidence and thanks from 
 the meeting. If an elector has any fault to find with 
 the action of the local member, if he desires to ques- 
 tion a vote or criticise a speech, opportunities for so
 
 222 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 doing are afforded him at this meeting. As a rule, 
 however, only a member's political supporters, those 
 who voted for him at the last election and are going 
 to vote for him at the next, attend these annual 
 gatherings. 
 
 During the last quarter of a century the character 
 of the membership of the House of Commons has 
 been gradually changing; and as one of the results of 
 the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884, a larger number 
 of men connected with Journalism, with Trade and 
 Commerce, and with Trade Unionism have been 
 chosen by the constituencies. Country gentlemen 
 and lawyers, retired army and navy officers and civil 
 servants, are no longer in as great force in the House 
 as they were during the first sixty years of the cen- 
 tury ; although in every Parliament the number of 
 lawyers is always large. Most of them are barristers ; 
 a few are of the solicitor branch of the legal profes- 
 sion ; but it is for the members of the Inns of Court 
 the Queen's counsellors, and the barristers who 
 hope to be Queen's counsellors that politics affords 
 the greatest opportunities and offers the most splen- 
 did prizes. 
 
 A lawyer who distinguishes himself in the House 
 of Commons sooner or later obtains advantage in 
 his profession, even in the way of briefs ; while to 
 one who pushes himself into the front rank of politi- 
 cians, and makes a place for himself in his party, such 
 prizes as the Lord Chancellorship, the Home Secre- 
 taryship, the Attorney and the Solicitor Generalships, 
 and the Scotch and Irish Law Officerships are open.
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 223 
 
 Most of the judicial patronage which falls into the 
 hands of the Government, either at home or in India, 
 or in the Crown Colonies, is also bestowed upon 
 their supporters of the legal profession who are, or 
 have been, in the House of Commons. The patron- 
 age which falls to the lot of any Government is not 
 large, but of what there is the lawyers invariably 
 obtain the larger share. 
 
 To lawyers and to the younger sons of peers and 
 the scions of the other landed families who enter 
 Parliament soon after leaving the University, politics 
 offers a career ; and, as a general thing, it is only men 
 of these classes who reach the Treasury Bench. In 
 Lord Salisbury's 1886-92 Administration, there were 
 two men of Cabinet rank who had made their wealth 
 in trade. One of these, the late Mr. W. H. Smith, 
 was First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the 
 House of Commons ; Mr. Ritchie, the other, was 
 President of the Local Government Board. In Mr. 
 Gladstone's 1892 Administration, there was one rep- 
 resentative of this class, Mr. Mundella, the President 
 of the Board of Trade. But both the late Mr. W. 
 H. Smith and Mr. Mundella entered Parliament at 
 a fairly early age, at a much earlier age than is usual 
 with the majority of men grown rich in trade or com- 
 merce who seek election to the House of Commons. 
 
 These men mostly enter the House after they have 
 amassed a fortune, or at least made a competency in 
 trade. Most of them are past middle age, many of 
 them well on into the sixties, before they are able 
 to retire from business and devote themselves to
 
 224 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 politics. They go into the House at too late a period 
 in life to make any mark or achieve any great suc- 
 cess. Few of them even hope for such success, and 
 merely regard service in a Parliament or two as a fit 
 rounding off of a public career which began at home 
 in the town council. 
 
 For a time these new comers are diligent in their 
 attendance at Westminster, and can always be relied 
 upon by the party whips. After a few years of the 
 House, whatever fascination it had for them begins 
 to fade, and the whips can no longer count upon 
 them as they could in their early days at Westmin- 
 ster. Many of these men abandon the life after a 
 single Parliament, and go back to what is to them 
 a more congenial work on the town council or the 
 school board. A few of them, especially those who 
 are very wealthy, who are socially ambitious, and 
 anxious to found a family, hold on for a few years 
 longer in the hope of securing a baronetcy a reward 
 frequently bestowed by Governments upon the rank 
 and file of their supporters in the House of Commons 
 to whom office of any kind has never been possible. 
 There are dozens of names in Debrett's Baronetcy 
 List which owe their presence there to political ser- 
 vice of no higher order than this, coupled sometimes 
 with an unstinted expenditure of money for political 
 campaign purposes, or may be the sinking of a fortune 
 in the effort to bolster up a partisan daily paper. 
 
 Each Parliament sees a large contingent of new 
 members, of men who are new to Westminster and 
 new to national politics. In the House of Commons
 
 PARLIAMENT AT WORK. 22$ 
 
 elected in 1892 there were two hundred and seven- 
 teen new members. In that elected in 1886 there 
 were one hundred and forty new members ; while in 
 1885, in the House of Commons elected on the ex- 
 tended franchise created by the Reform Act of 1884, 
 nearly one-half the members, or, to be exact, three 
 hundred and thirty-three were men who had had no 
 place in the preceding House of Commons. Some 
 of these changes are due to the failure of former 
 members to secure re-election ; but most of them are 
 due to the retirement of men drawn from the ranks 
 of trade and commerce with whom service at West- 
 minster during the lifetime of one Parliament abun- 
 dantly satisfies their political ambition. 
 
 Daily journalism, which greatly developed in the 
 fifties and the sixties, and the employment it affords 
 to men who are not wealthy, but who have both 
 brains and ambition, accounts for the number of 
 newspaper men who have entered the House of 
 Commons since 1885. At the 1892 election fifty 
 or sixty journalists and newspaper proprietors 
 offered themselves to constituencies, and of this 
 number about thirty-five were elected. 
 
 Labor representation in the House of Commons 
 dates back to Lord Beaconsfield's 1874 to 1880 
 Administration. Mr. Thomas Burt, Parliamentary 
 Secretary to the Board of Trade in Mr. Gladstone's 
 1892 Administration, and Mr. Alexander Macdonalcl 
 who was elected for Stafford, were the first Labor 
 Members. They were the first workingmen chosen 
 by their fellows to represent them in the House of
 
 226 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Commons. At the General Election in 1874 the 
 coal miners of Morpeth, in the County of Northum- 
 berland, elected Mr. Burt as their member, and paid 
 him a salary for his Parliamentary services out of the 
 funds of their trade union. In the next Parliament, 
 that which lasted from 1880 to 1885, and during the 
 existence of which the Liberals were in power, Mr. 
 Burt had the company of Mr. Henry Broadhurst, 
 who was elected as a Labor member for Stoke-upon- 
 Trent. Mr. Broadhurst had worked as a stone mason, 
 and was for some years in receipt of a salary as the 
 secretary of a trade union organization. Up to 
 1885 Messrs. Burt and Broadhurst were the only 
 Labor members. In the next Parliament, that 
 elected after the Reform Act of 1884, which enfran- 
 chised the small householders in the rural constitu- 
 encies, and for the first time placed thousands of 
 miners and agricultural laborers on the electoral 
 rolls, both Mr. Burt and Mr. Broadhurst were re- 
 elected, and the Labor group at Westminster was 
 increased to ten. At the General Election in 1892 
 the number of Labor members elected was sixteen, 
 including three or four avowed Socialists.
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 22/ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Departments most in Touch with the People. Local Government Board: 
 Poor Law and Municipal Administration. The Committee of Council 
 for Education : Distribution of Parliamentary Grants ; Education Code. 
 
 The Home Office: London Police; Factory and Mines Legislation ; 
 Prisons; Naturalization. Board of Trade : Joint Stock Undertakings: 
 Bankruptcy Laws; Railways, Canals, and Harbors; Trade Statistics; 
 Labor Department ; the Board of Trade Journal, and the Labor Gazette. 
 
 The Post-Office: Telegraph System and Savings Banks. Board of 
 Agriculture: Cattle Disease and Importation of Cattle. Office of Public 
 \Yorks: Royal Palaces, Public Buildings, and Parks. Chancellorship of 
 the Duchy of Lancaster. War Office. The Admiralty. The Foreign 
 Office. The Colonial Office: Crown Colonies; Colonies Possessing Rep- 
 resentative Institutions but not Responsible Government, and Colonies 
 with Responsible Government. The India Office: the India Council; 
 Executive Authority in India; the Governor General: the Legislative 
 Council. Salaries of Cabinet Ministers and Heads of Departments. 
 Ministers and Pensions. 
 
 IN describing in the earlier chapters the various 
 forms of local government in the municipalities 
 and the counties, some account was given of the 
 Local Government Board, the Committee of Council 
 for Education, the Home Office, and the Board of 
 Trade. It may be well, however, again briefly to de- 
 scribe these State Departments, together with the 
 other principal Departments of State of which up 
 to this point there has been no mention. All these 
 Departments are represented by a Minister in Parlia-
 
 228 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 ment. In describing them they will be taken in the 
 order in which they come most into touch with the 
 people. 
 
 The Local Government Board dates from the 
 establishment of the new poor-law system in 1834. 
 By the Act of Parliament which reformed the old 
 poor laws, a special Board of Commissioners was 
 created, which was then known as the Central Poor 
 Law Board. This Board was independent of Parlia- 
 ment. In 1847 it was reconstructed and placed 
 under the presidency of a Minister with a seat in 
 Parliament. From 1847 to 1871 it was known as 
 the Poor Law Board. In the latter year it took over 
 from the Home Secretary's Department numerous 
 duties in connection with municipal government and 
 public health, and its title was changed to the Local 
 Government Board. Almost every session of Parlia- 
 ment sees some addition to the powers of the Board, 
 which is now in more direct contact with the muni- 
 cipalities and with local life generally than any other 
 Government Department at Whitehall. Its Presi- 
 dent and its Parliamentary Secretary are the only 
 officials of the Board whose tenure of office is at all 
 affected by a change in the Administration. The 
 President is invariably a member of the House of 
 Commons, and in recent Governments he has had a 
 place in the Cabinet. 
 
 The Committee of Council for Education, or the 
 Education Department as it is popularly called, ex- 
 ercises supervision over the various departments of 
 state-aided education, and distributes the grants for
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 22Q 
 
 this purpose which are annually made by Parliament. 
 These grants date from 1833, but it was not until 
 1839 ^at a State Department was established to 
 supervise the distribution of the money. After the 
 passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870, 
 the Committee of Council for Education became a 
 Department of great importance. Its duties were 
 further extended by the Technical Education Acts 
 of 1889 and 1891 ; and next after the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, the Education Department is now more 
 in touch with all parts of England and Wales than 
 any other Department. There is not a village in the 
 country which does not in one way or another, either 
 through a school board, a school attendance com- 
 mittee of a town council, or a board of guardians, or 
 through a committee of a voluntary school, receive 
 some share of the annual grant made by Parliament 
 for educational purposes; and at least once a year, 
 every village receives a visit from an inspector in 
 the service of the Education Department. The De- 
 partment practically consists of the Lord President 
 and the Vice-President of the Council The Lord 
 President is a peer and a member of the Cabinet. 
 The Vice-President is always in the House of Com- 
 mons, and in recent Administrations he has also 
 been of the Cabinet. The Department each year 
 draws up a Code of Minutes which, in pursuance of 
 the Elementary Education Act of 1870, must be laid 
 on the table of the House of Commons and of the 
 House of Lords before it can be acted upon. 
 
 The Home Office has for its political head one of
 
 230 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the five Principal Secretaries of State. The other 
 four are for War, for Foreign Affairs, for the Colonies, 
 and for India. All these Secretaries are of the Cab- 
 inet. The Home Secretary is invariably in the 
 House of Commons. His department has the con- 
 trol of the Metropolitan Police Force, and also the 
 oversight of the constabulary forces in the counties 
 and the police forces in the municipal boroughs, and, 
 generally speaking, it is responsible for the internal 
 peace of the country. Prisons, convict establish- 
 ments, criminal lunatic asylums, and all matters con- 
 nected with the post-judicial administration of the 
 criminal law, are within the Department of the Home 
 Office ; as is also the administration of the Factory 
 Laws and the laws relating to mining. Parish grave- 
 yards and the burial laws also come under the Home 
 Office. 
 
 Among the numerous other duties of less impor- 
 tance discharged by the Home Office is the issuing 
 of certificates of naturalization to aliens. These are 
 granted on application to all foreigners of good ante- 
 cedents and character, who submit proofs of resi- 
 dence and of intention to continue to reside in the 
 United Kingdom. The certificates are granted free 
 of charge, and at the time of their issue are announced 
 in the London Gazette. The Home Secretary is 
 always a lawyer. In addition to the Home Secretary, 
 there is an Under Secretary for Home Affairs, who 
 is also usually in the House of Commons. The 
 Under Secretary, like the Home Secretary, retires 
 when the Administration goes out of office.
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 231 
 
 The Board of Trade in one form or another has 
 existed since the time of Charles the Second. It 
 now has the oversight of the administration of the 
 laws relating to joint-stock undertakings or limited 
 liability companies, of those relating to bankruptcy, 
 and the oversight of all matters connected with the 
 mercantile marine, harbors, railways, street-car lines, 
 and canals. The local control of harbors and rivers 
 is deputed to harbor boards and boards of river con- 
 servators, in whose election the municipalities, the 
 ship-owners, the traders, and other persons inter- 
 ested, have a voice. The Board also collects infor- 
 mation relating to trade and commerce abroad, which 
 is published monthly in the Board of Trade Journal. 
 It also compiles and publishes monthly statistical re- 
 turns as to imports and exports. The Labor Bureau 
 is a department of the Board of Trade. Its work is 
 mainly confined to the collection and compilation of 
 information of all kinds relating to labor, which is 
 published monthly in the Labor Gazette. The Presi- 
 dent of the Board of Trade is usually in the House 
 of Commons, where the Department is also repre- 
 sented by a political secretary. The President also 
 has usually a seat in the Cabinet. 
 
 The political head of the Post-Office is the Post- 
 master-General, who is invariably in the House of 
 Commons and of recent years has been a member 
 of the Cabinet. Since 1869 the Post-Office has con- 
 trolled the telegraphs. In connection with the Post- 
 Office there is also a system of savings banks, in 
 which deposits may be made not exceeding the sum
 
 232 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 of .150, of which not more than .30 may be depos- 
 ited in one year. 
 
 The Board of Agriculture is the most recently cre- 
 ated State Department. It was established by Lord 
 Salisbury during his 1886 to 1892 Administration. 
 Its duties are principally the administration of the 
 laws for preventing and stamping out cattle disease. 
 Its President has a seat in the Cabinet and is a 
 member of the House of Commons. 
 
 The Office of Public Works and Buildings is in 
 charge of a member of the Government who is 
 known as the First Commissioner of Works. His 
 Department has the custody and supervision of all 
 royal palaces, of buildings like the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment and the Law Courts, as well as the public offices 
 at Whitehall and elsewhere. A number of the 
 national parks are also under the control of the First 
 Commissioner of Works. 
 
 The Lord Chamberlain, who holds office on a tenure 
 similar to that of the other members of the Min- 
 istry, has the general supervision of the Royal 
 Household " above stairs," and also various duties 
 towards the Sovereign and the Court. He comes 
 into contact with ordinary people as the official 
 through whom presentations at Court are arranged. 
 In London and Westminster, and in other places 
 where there are Royal Palaces, he acts as the licensor 
 of theatres. The Examiner of Plays has an office in 
 the Department of the Lord Chamberlain. His sanc- 
 tion is necessary to the production of a play in 
 any theatre or hall in England at which a charge for
 
 THE .STATE DEPARTMENTS. 233 
 
 admission is made. Licenses for theatres in the 
 provinces are granted by the local magistrates. 
 
 The Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster is 
 an office more remarkable for its antiquity than for 
 its present usefulness. It dates from the time of 
 Henry the Fourth, when the County of Lancashire 
 was under a government distinct from the rest of the 
 Kingdom. About the only duty now associated 
 with the office is the appointment of magistrates for 
 the county of Lancashire. In the other English 
 and Welsh counties, these appointments are made 
 by the Lord High Chancellor, who is the head of 
 the Judicial system. The duties of the Chancellor 
 of the Duchy of Lancaster are thus exceedingly 
 light. The holder of the office is often spoken of 
 as "the maid of all work to the Cabinet," from the 
 fact that he is accorded a place in the Cabinet 
 without being assigned any special duties likely to 
 occupy the whole of his time. Usually the office 
 is bestowed upon some statesman whom it is desir- 
 able for special reasons to have in the Cabinet, but for 
 whom no other office of equal rank or importance is 
 available. The Chancellorship of the Duchy is one 
 of the two offices held by the late John Bright. 
 He held it for the first two years of Mr. Gladstone's 
 1880-85 Administration. In Mr. Gladstone's 1892 
 Administration the office was held by Professor 
 lirycc, who was assigned to it in order that the Cabi- 
 net might have the advantage of his knowledge of 
 constitutional law, and of the working of the Ameri- 
 can Constitution, in drawing up the Home Rule bill.
 
 234 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME, 
 
 A salary of 2,000 a year attaches to the Chancellor- 
 ship as large a salary, in fact, as is paid the Presi- 
 dents of the Board of Trade . and of the Local 
 Government Board and the Vice-President of the 
 Education Department. 
 
 The titles of the War Office and the Admiralty 
 are almost sufficient to explain the working of these 
 two State Departments. The political head of the 
 War Office, who is one of the five Principal Secre- 
 taries of State, has control of the army at home and 
 abroad, and is responsible for its efficiency to the 
 Sovereign and to Parliament. He directs all move- 
 ments of troops, and all appointments made by the 
 Commander-in-Chief are subject to his approval. 
 The Secretary for War is a member of the Cabinet ; 
 he is usually in the House of Commons, and has the 
 assistance of an Under Secretary, generally a mili- 
 tary man, who is also a member of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 The Admiralty, which has charge of the Royal 
 Navy, is administered by Lords Commissioners. The 
 head of the Department is known as the First Lord 
 of the Admiralty. He is of the Cabinet ; and in 
 recent administrations the First Lord has been a 
 member of the House of Lords, and his Department 
 has been represented in the House of Commons by 
 the Secretary to the Admiralty and also by one of 
 the Lords Commissioners, who is known as the Civil 
 Lord of the Admiralty. The other Lords Commis- 
 sioners, or junior lords, are admirals without seats in 
 Parliament, and are respectively at the heads of the
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 235 
 
 Departments into which the Admiralty is divided. 
 The foreign movements of ships of the Royal Navy 
 are at the instance . of the Cabinet, the Foreign 
 Office, and the Colonial Office ; and it is from these 
 authorities that the Lords of the Admiralty receive 
 their orders. In time of War the orders would come 
 from the Cabinet ; in times of peace the movements 
 of vessels are chiefly at the instance of the Foreign 
 Office and the Colonial Department. 
 
 The Treasury, of which for all practical purposes 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the political 
 head, provides the means of meeting the charges 
 for the Military, Naval, and Civil Services. The 
 Parliamentary heads of these each of the spending 
 and administrative Departments, such, for instance, 
 as the War Office and the Admiralty, the Home 
 Office and the Board of Trade, are responsible for 
 the estimates for their respective Departments ; 
 but it is part of the duty of the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer with the permanent Secretary of the 
 Treasury to check all estimates. After they have 
 been so checked for submission to the House of 
 Commons in Committee of Supply, the Cabinet is 
 supposed to be responsible for them ; and the rejec- 
 tion or reduction of an estimate would be tanta- 
 mount to a defeat of the Government. 
 
 The duties which bring the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer most prominently before the country are 
 those in connection with the Budget. This is sub- 
 mitted to the House of Commons in April each 
 year. When there is a deficit, the Chancellor of the
 
 236 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Exchequer, with the approval of the Cabinet, submits 
 proposals for new or increased taxation. On the 
 other hand, when there is a surplus, he submits pro- 
 posals to the House in Committee of Ways and 
 Means for the reduction or remission of taxation. 
 
 The First Lord of the Treasury is one of its Par- 
 liamentary heads, but the duties of the First Lord 
 are little more than nominal. So also are the duties 
 of the three Junior Lords of the Treasury who are 
 members of the House of Commons. So far as the 
 Treasury is concerned, the offices of the Junior 
 Lords are sinecures. Occasionally the Junior Lords 
 sign official papers ; but their principal work is at 
 Westminster, where, in association with the Patron- 
 age Secretary of the Treasury, they act as whips to 
 the Government forces of the House of Commons. 
 
 The Foreign Office is another of the State De- 
 partments whose functions are almost sufficiently ex- 
 plained by their title. Its political head is invariably 
 of the House of Lords, and the position he holds is 
 next in importance and rank to that of the Premier. 
 All diplomatic intercourse is conducted by the Secre- 
 tary of State for Foreign Affairs. English ambas- 
 sadors and consuls receive their instructions from 
 him ; foreign ambassadors in London have their 
 audiences with him ; and he also conducts all negoti- 
 ations for international treaties. There is an Under 
 Secretary for Foreign Affairs who represents the 
 Department in the House of Commons. A change 
 of Administration affects only the Secretary and 
 the Under Secretary. Ambassadors and consuls
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 hold their appointments during good behavior, and 
 retire on pensions. 
 
 The Colonial Office is a State Department with an 
 interesting history, going back to 1660, when a Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council was appointed for Plan- 
 tations, as the colonies were called two centuries or 
 so ago. This Council was continued for more than 
 a hundred years, in fact, until 1768, when colonial 
 affairs were placed under the control of a Secretary 
 of State. The principal duties of the Secretary for 
 the Colonies at that time were in connection with 
 America ; for England then had few colonies in the 
 other parts of the world needing much attention 
 from home. When the United States secured their 
 independence in 1783, the office of Colonial Secre- 
 tary was abolished, and the management of the 
 colonies was for some time invested in the Home 
 Office. In 1794 they were placed under the care of 
 the Secretary of State for War ; and this arrange- 
 ment was continued until 1854, when the War De- 
 partment was reconstructed, and separate Secretaries 
 of State were appointed for War and for the Colonies. 
 
 India is controlled from London by a Department 
 altogether distinct from the Colonial Office, with a 
 Secretary of State and an Under Secretary of its 
 own. The Secretaries of State both for India and 
 for the Colonies are of the Cabinet ; and of late years 
 the Principal Secretaries have been members of the 
 House of Lords, the Under Secretaries representing 
 the Departments in the House of Commons. 
 
 The colonies are divided into three classes accord-
 
 238 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 ing to the character of their relations to the Mother 
 Country. 
 
 In the first class are what are known as Crown 
 Colonies. In these the Crown has entire control 
 of legislation, and the administration is carried on 
 by public officers under the control of the Colonial 
 Office. Hongkong, Gibraltar, and Cyprus are exam- 
 ples of dependencies which are classed as Crown 
 Colonies. 
 
 In the second class are the colonies possessing 
 representative institutions, but not responsible gov- 
 ernment, those in which the Crown has no more 
 than a veto on legislation, but in which the Colonial 
 Office retains the control of the public offices. Cey- 
 lon and Newfoundland are examples of the second 
 class of colonial possessions. 
 
 In the third class are the colonies possessing repre- 
 sentative institutions and responsible government, in 
 which the Crown has only a veto on legislation, and 
 the Home Government has no control over an officer 
 except through the Governor. " Under responsible 
 government," reads the official Colonial Office ex- 
 planation, "the executive councillors are appointed 
 by the Governor alone, with reference to the exigen- 
 cies of representative government. The other public 
 officers are appointed by the Governor on the advice 
 of the Executive Council. In no appointment is the 
 concurrence of the Home Government necessary." 
 All colonial governors are appointed by the Crown 
 that is, by the Colonial Office, subject to the approval 
 of the Crown. Canada, Victoria, New Zealand, and
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 239 
 
 Cape Colony are examples of colonies in the third 
 class, of those possessing representative institu- 
 tions and responsible government. 
 
 Under the supervision of the Colonial Office, there 
 is a Department known as the Emigrants' Informa- 
 tion Office. It is managed by a committee nomi- 
 nated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and 
 is in constant communication with the Agents Gen- 
 eral in London of the various British colonies. No 
 financial aid is ever given by this Department to 
 emigrants. All that it does is to collect information 
 concerning the colonies, which is printed and exhib- 
 ited at the Post Offices throughout the country. 
 Each month the office also furnishes a bulletin to the 
 newspaper press, reporting the varying conditions of 
 trade in the colonies, and stating which colonies are 
 desirous of receiving emigrants, and the kind of per- 
 sons who are most needed there. 
 
 Colonies in which the labor market is well supplied 
 or overstocked also make these facts known through 
 the medium of this monthly bulletin. Until a few 
 years ago many of the colonies gave assisted pas- 
 sages, and offered land grants and other advantages 
 to desirable emigrants of ascertained good character. 
 In recent years the Australasian colonies have almost 
 entirely discontinued the system of assisted passages, 
 except in the case of women for domestic servants ; 
 and Canada is now the only large colony which 
 makes any considerable endeavor to obtain immi- 
 grants from England. The number of emigrants of 
 English, Scotch, and Irish origin is between 250,000
 
 240 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and 300,000 a year. Of this number more than two- 
 thirds leave Great Britain and Ireland for the United 
 States. 
 
 The India Office in its present form dates from 
 1858. In that year an Act of Parliament was passed 
 vesting in the Crown the territories in Asia, which 
 from 1784 had been jointly administered by a Board 
 of Control nominated by the Crown, and the Court 
 of Directors of the East India Company. The old 
 Board of Control exercised political powers, while the 
 Court of Directors exercised control over trade and 
 commerce. 
 
 The dual system broke down about the time of the 
 Indian Mutiny; and by the Act of Parliament of 1858 
 it was directed that " all the powers and duties, when 
 exercised or performed by the East India Company, 
 or by the Court of Directors, or Court of Proprietors 
 of the said Company, either alone or by the direction 
 or with the sanction or approbation of the Board of 
 Control, should in future be exercised and performed 
 by one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of 
 State." 
 
 By the same Act of Parliament a Council was 
 established to assist the Secretary for India. It con- 
 sists of not less than ten members, who are nominated 
 by the Secretary. The majority of this Council must 
 be of persons who have served or resided ten years 
 in India, and have not left India more than ten years 
 previous to the date of their appointment. The 
 members of the Indian Council are appointed for ten 
 years, and under the direction of the Secretary of
 
 THE STATE DEPARTMENTS. 24! 
 
 State conduct all the business transacted in London 
 in relation to the Government of India. 
 
 In India executive authority is vested in the Vice- 
 roy or Governor-General, who is appointed by the 
 Crown, like the Governor-General of Canada ; and he 
 acts under the orders of the Secretary of State for 
 India. The Governor-General in Council is invested 
 with powers to make laws for all persons, whether 
 British or native, within the Indian Territories under 
 the dominion of the Queen. The Governor-General's 
 Council ordinarily consists of five members, who are 
 appointed by the Crown. In addition there is a 
 legislative Council ; the members of the Governor- 
 General's Council are of this body, as well as from 
 six to twelve other members, who are appointed by 
 the Governor-General. Governor-generalships and 
 Governorships of colonies are political appointments ; 
 but they are for a fixed term, and are consequently 
 unaffected by a change in Administration. 
 
 All the political heads of these State Depart- 
 ments, whether of the Cabinet or not, retire when 
 the Ministry is changed ; but these are the only 
 changes in the Departments that are caused by the 
 outgoing of one Administration and the incoming of 
 another. The salaries received by the members of 
 the Cabinet range from .2,000 to .10,000. The 
 political secretaryships and the undersecretaryships 
 of Departments have attached to them salaries of 
 1,500 to 2,000 a year. 
 
 Pensions are granted to such of the holders of 
 these offices as, after their retirement, become too
 
 242 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 straitenea in means to maintain themselves in a 
 social position in keeping with the rank they have 
 held. These pensions are granted irrespective of 
 length of official service. They range in amount 
 from .1,000 to .1,200 a year. When the recipient 
 of a pension is again in office the payment of the 
 pension is suspended so long as he is in receipt of 
 his official salary. Applications for pensions are 
 comparatively rare, and their receipt detracts from 
 the popularity and political weight of an ex-minister.
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 24$ 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 
 
 Constitutional Position of the Church of England. The Church of the 
 Whole People. The Old Division Line between the Church and Non- 
 conformity. Civil Disabilities of Nonconformists. What remains of 
 the Old Dividing Line. Religious Equality Legislation during the 
 Present Century. The Marriage Laws. Civil Marriages. Registra- 
 tion of Marriages. Admission of Jews to Parliament. Abolition of 
 Compulsory Church Rates and University Tests. Opening of Church- 
 yards to Nonconformists. Offices which may not be held by Roman 
 Catholics. The Universities and Church Livings in the gift of Roman 
 Catholics. Bishops in the House of Lords. Parliament and Church 
 Legislation. Provinces of Canterbury and York. Appointment of 
 Archbishops, Bishops, and Deans. The Prime Minister and Ecclesi- 
 astical Appointments. Convocation. Ecclesiastical Courts. A Par- 
 ish. The Legal Check on the Ritual. Negligent Clergymen. An 
 Incumbent and his Parishioners. 
 
 THE position of the Established Church has been 
 well described by Canon Perry, the author of 
 the " History of the Church of England." " The 
 Church of England, or the spirituality," he writes, 
 " is one of the states of the realm, and has an in- 
 tegral part in all legislation. The Church is accepted 
 by the State as the religious body in England which 
 is the legitimate possessor of all property set apart 
 and devoted to religious uses, except the rights of 
 some other religious body be specially expressed. It 
 is the possessor of the ancient religious fabrics of 
 the land, and of the cemeteries attached to them.
 
 244 TH E ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 Its rights are carefully guarded by law, the incum- 
 bent of each parish being a corporation sole with 
 certain duties and privileges. The position of the 
 Church towards the State is called its establishment. 
 It has arisen not from any definite Act of Parliament, 
 but from the gradual interpenetration of the State 
 by the Church, and from having mutually grown 
 together." 
 
 The Church of England is therefore, theoretically 
 speaking, the Church of the whole of the people ; and 
 all outside its communion, whether Roman Catholics, 
 Jews, members of the Society of Friends, or mem- 
 bers of the numerous dissenting bodies, are regarded 
 in law as Nonconformists. 
 
 A century ago Church and Dissent were marked 
 off by a line of division which was very clearly 
 drawn, and a number of civil disabilities, some of a 
 serious kind, attached to those who were on the Non- 
 conformist side of the line. Some disabilities still 
 attach to nonconformity ; but the breaking-down of 
 the civil barrier, which was commenced with the 
 abolition of the Corporation Acts in 1828, is still 
 going on, and only in the session of Parliament of 
 1892 an Act to Amend the Public Health Acts was 
 passed, the intention of which was to place all Non- 
 conformist Chapel property on the same footing as 
 the property of the Church of England, with respect 
 to the cost of making new streets adjoining such prop- 
 erty. Before this Act was passed the Established 
 Church alone was exempted from the obligation of 
 contributing towards the expenses incurred by muni-
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 24$ 
 
 cipal authorities in making new streets. The Act 
 gives all denominations the same privileges. 
 
 Ever since the commencement of the century the 
 Statute Books have been receiving additions of a 
 character similar to the Act of 1892, all passed with 
 a view to establishing something like equality be- 
 tween the Church of England and the Nonconformist 
 communities. A summary of the more important 
 of these measures shows how wide was the division 
 when the movement towards religious equality began, 
 and the point which this legislation has reached at 
 present shows what still remains of the legal divis- 
 ion between the Church and the numerous forms of 
 dissent. 
 
 One of the earliest measures which gave recogni- 
 tion to dissent was the Toleration Act of 1689, under 
 which a minister, preacher, or teacher of a Noncon- 
 formist congregation was exempt from militia service, 
 and from serving on a jury. These privileges still 
 attach to all Nonconforming ministers of congrega- 
 tions whose places of worship are registered under 
 an Act of Parliament passed in the early years of 
 the present reign. As regards the present century, 
 the legislation for the relief of dissenters began in 
 1828, when the necessity for receiving the sacrament 
 according to the rites of the Church of England, 
 as a qualification for public office, whether State or 
 municipal, was abolished. The next year an Act 
 was passed which conferred full citizenship upon 
 Roman Catholics, and repealed all the existing Acts 
 of Parliament which required the taking of oaths
 
 246 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 and the making of declarations against Transubstan- 
 tiation. 
 
 The next Act of importance was that passed in 
 1836 for amending the marriage laws. Hitherto 
 only clergymen of the Church of England had had 
 the right to perform the marriage ceremony ; and 
 from 1753, when Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act was 
 passed, to put an end to the scandals of the Fleet 
 Prison marriages, until 1836, the law directed that 
 the ceremony should not be performed except in a 
 building which had been consecrated by a bishop of 
 the Church of England. The Act of 1753 worked 
 great hardship on all dissenters. The Act of 1836 
 introduced a reform and established the system under 
 which marriages are celebrated in England at the 
 present time. 
 
 It was passed by the Administration of Lord Mel- 
 bourne, and was carried through the House of Com- 
 mons by Lord John Russell, who was then Home 
 Secretary. Lord John Russell's intention was to 
 establish complete equality between the Church of 
 England and the Nonconformists, and to make the 
 State independent of the registers kept at the par- 
 ish churches. His original proposal was that notices 
 of all marriages should be first given to a civil offi- 
 cer ; and that all marriages, whether in Church or 
 chapel, should take place on the certificate of the 
 civil registrar. This plan would, however, have done 
 away with the publication of the banns in the parish 
 churches. The bill as thus drawn up, was therefore 
 opposed by the bishops in the House of Lords ; and
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 247 
 
 as the peers sided with them, Lord John Russell was 
 compelled to give way, and so amend his bill as to 
 leave the Church in possession of at least some of 
 its old privileges under the marriage laws. 
 
 Under the old law there was only one way of en- 
 tering into the marriage contract. The Act of 1836 
 introduced the civil form of marriage, and gives peo- 
 ple about to be married the choice of four methods 
 of entering into the legal relationship. By the first 
 of these methods the ceremony and all its prelim-i- 
 naries are still exclusively associated with the Church 
 of England. When this method is chosen, the parties 
 about to be married give notice to the clergymen in 
 whose parishes or ecclesiastical districts they are 
 living, in order that the banns may be published. 
 Seven days' notice must be given, and then on three 
 consecutive Sundays the banns are read out in the 
 churches. If both parties to the marriage live in 
 the same parish, the banns are published in only one 
 church. If either party is under age, the dissent of 
 the parents or guardians expressed at the time of 
 publication renders the publication null and void. 
 Any other legal objection to the marriage can also 
 be made at the time of the publication of the banns. 
 When both parties live in the same parish, and are 
 to be married in the church in which the banns were 
 proclaimed, no certificate of such proclamation is 
 necessary. When they live in different parishes, the 
 clergyman who is not to perform the ceremony, but 
 has proclaimed the banns, issues a certificate to that 
 effect, which must be presented to the clergyman
 
 248 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 who performs the marriage ceremony. The mar- 
 riage must take place within three months after pub- 
 lication of the banns. The ceremony and the duty 
 of registering the marriage and issuing the certificate 
 are all performed by the clergyman, without the aid 
 or attendance of a civil officer, and only two witnesses 
 of the ceremony are required by law. 
 
 By the second of the methods legalized by the Act 
 of 1836, notice of a marriage must be given to the 
 registrar of a district. He is a local civil officer in the 
 service of the Registrar General of Births, Marriages, 
 and Deaths who has his headquarters at Somerset 
 House in London, where a permanent record of all 
 marriages is kept. When the notice has been given 
 to the local registrar, it is published at his office ; and 
 after it has been so made public for twenty-one days, 
 the registrar issues a certificate to that effect. When 
 the parties to the marriage live in different districts, 
 notice must be given to the registrar in each. 
 
 The parties to the intended marriage have then 
 three courses open to them : they may content 
 themselves with a civil marriage, performed by the 
 registrar at his office ; they may be married in a Non- 
 conforming chapel which has been registered at Som- 
 erset House and licensed for the solemnization of 
 marriages ; or they may take the registrars' certifi- 
 cates to a clergyman of the Church of England, and 
 if he is willing, the marriage ceremony may be per- 
 formed at Church. 
 
 When the second of these courses is adopted, and 
 the marriage is to take place at a Nonconforming
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 249 
 
 chapel, another notice of it must be given to the dis- 
 trict registrar, who must be in attendance when the 
 marriage takes place to witness it and also to issue 
 the certificate. Without the attendance of the regis- 
 trar, the marriage would be void, no matter if it were 
 performed by the President of the Wesleyan Metho- 
 dist Conference, the President of either the Congre- 
 gational or the Baptist Union, or a Cardinal or a 
 Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in England. 
 
 The Act was passed in 1836 principally for the 
 relief of people who had conscientious objections to 
 being married according to the rites or with the service 
 of any other church than that with which they were 
 associated. It certainly afforded relief to a consider- 
 able extent ; but of late years there has grown up a 
 feeling that as a measure of religious equality it did 
 not go far enough, and that the legally recognized 
 ministers of Nonconforming churches are placed at 
 a disadvantage under it as compared with the clergy- 
 men of the Church of England. In 1893 this view 
 was put before a Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons appointed to inquire into the working of 
 the law of 1836 with a view to legislation to relieve 
 Nonconformist ministers, solemnizing marriages, of 
 the attendance of a civil officer in the person of the 
 registrar. 
 
 The Committee, after hearing evidence from the 
 representatives of the more important Nonconforming 
 Churches, reported " that the attendance of a regis- 
 trar as a condition of the validity of marriages in 
 Nonconformist places of worship, and as a security
 
 250 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 for the clue solemnization of marriages so solemnized, 
 is neither desirable nor necessary for the purpose of 
 securing accurate registration." It also recommended 
 "that the most satisfactory plan for securing such 
 accurate registration is to make it the duty of the 
 person officiating at the marriage himself to register 
 the marriage in a permanent register book, to be 
 kept at the church or chapel ; and that it shall be the 
 duty of the person officiating at the marriage to post 
 or deliver to the registrar under penalty, within sev- 
 enty-two hours after the solemnization of the marriage, 
 a complete form of return, which shall be an exact 
 copy of the entry in the marriage register, and which 
 shall be signed by the person officiating at the 
 marriage." 
 
 The marriages of Jews and of members of the So- 
 ciety of Friends when celebrated in their places of 
 worship are exempt from the law requiring the attend- 
 ance of a registrar. These two religious communities 
 obtained this exemption by statute owing to the 
 persistency with which they refused to accept the 
 conditions imposed by the marriage laws on Noncon- 
 formists generally. 
 
 In 1846 the Act of Parliament was formally re- 
 pealed which compelled Jews living in England to 
 wear a distinctive dress. The law had, however, been 
 in abeyance for nearly two centuries. About this 
 time also the Jews were admitted to the privileges of 
 the naturalization laws; and in 1858 the House of 
 Commons by resolution altered the form of oath ten- 
 dered to all its members, As it had stood up to this
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 251 
 
 time, Jews were prevented from voting in the divis- 
 ions, although a Jew could take his seat in the House 
 when sent there by a constituency. 
 
 Until 1865 Church Rates were compulsory. They 
 were levied upon every householder, whether he 
 were of the Established Church or a member of 
 a dissenting community, for the maintenance of the 
 fabric of the parish church. The rate was assessed 
 upon the poor law valuation ; and if the householder 
 failed to pay, the collectors could distrain upon his 
 property. 
 
 In 1871 the University Test Acts were abolished. 
 Until that time subscription to the Articles of the 
 Church of England and attendance at the public ser- 
 vices of the Church were compulsory with students 
 at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dur- 
 ham. Some years earlier Cambridge had admitted 
 Nonconforming students without the tests ; but a 
 student so admitted could not take a degree. Mem- 
 bership of the Church of England was also a neces- 
 sary condition for holding University and college 
 offices, and all the University tests abolished in 1871 
 had been exempted from the Act of Toleration of 
 1688, and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829. 
 
 After the Act abolishing University Tests, came 
 the Act of 1880, which opened the graveyards 
 attached to the churches of the Establishment. 
 Hitherto only the burial service of the Church of 
 England was allowable in a parish churchyard, and 
 none but clergymen of the Established Church had 
 been permitted to read the service. Under the law
 
 252 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 of 1880, in churchyards which are still open for inter- 
 ments, the burial services of the Nonconforming 
 churches may be read by the Nonconforming minis- 
 ters on due notice being given to the parish clergy- 
 man. 
 
 The last of the measures passed by Parliament was 
 the one referred to at the outset of this chapter, 
 that carried in the session of 1892, which places 
 churches and chapels of all denominations on the 
 same footing in respect to exemption from charges 
 for street improvements made by town councils and 
 other local governing bodies. Elementary clay schools 
 conducted in connection with Nonconformist chapels 
 had long enjoyed this exemption ; but it was not 
 until 1892 that equality on this matter was estab- 
 lished between the Church of England and the Non- 
 conforming community. This Act was passed while 
 a Conservative Government was in power, a fact 
 which goes to prove that the feeling and spirit 
 which actuated those who advocated the religious 
 equality legislation of the last three-quarters of a 
 century is now no longer confined to one political 
 party. 
 
 It may be asked, " Under what civil disabilities do 
 Nonconformists still labor ? " Practically they are 
 now but few. Under the law as it at present stands, 
 it is not possible for a Roman Catholic to be King or 
 Queen of England ; nor can a Roman Catholic hold 
 the office of Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper of the 
 Privy Seal, or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Every 
 other political office is now open without regard to
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 253 
 
 religious opinion or belief, and without religious tests 
 of any kind. 
 
 A Roman Catholic in recent years has been Gover- 
 nor-General of India; and in Lord Salisbury's 1886-92 
 Administration, the office of Home Secretary, one 
 of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, was 
 held by a Roman Catholic. When a Roman Catholic 
 thus holds an office under the Crown, if the duties 
 and privileges of the appointment include the right 
 of presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice, this 
 right for the time being devolves upon the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. Roman Catholics are still 
 prevented from presenting, that is, appointing, clergy- 
 men to benefices in the Church of England. 
 
 Of the 14,000 benefices in the Church, about 8,500 
 are in the gift of private persons, and are principally 
 in the hands of the heads of the territorial families 
 and the large landowners. If a landowner who has 
 any Church livings in his gift is a Roman Catholic, 
 the bestowal of these gifts becomes vested in the 
 Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. Oxford takes 
 those which thus occur in the twenty-five counties 
 south of the River Trent ; those in the remaining 
 twenty-seven counties of England and Wales are 
 vested in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 These arc the only disabilities which attach to 
 Roman Catholics that is, exclusion from four of 
 the highest offices of the State, and the refusal of 
 the law to allow any voice to Roman Catholics in the 
 presentation of clergymen to benefices in the Estab- 
 lished Church. This refusal dates from the time
 
 254 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 of William and Mary ; but it was continued by legis- 
 lation passed in the reigns of Anne and George 
 the Second. The spirit of it has been continued in 
 legislation of a more modern date, for a Roman 
 Catholic is prohibited from voting as a member of a 
 lay corporation in any ecclesiastical appointment. 
 Under this prohibition a Roman Catholic member 
 of a board of guardians may not vote when a chaplain 
 is being appointed ; but it is doubtful if, in recent 
 times, a case can be cited in which exception was 
 taken to a Roman Catholic member giving a vote in 
 an appointment of this kind. 
 
 Roman Catholics share with Nonconformists the 
 inconvenience, and what at first sight appears the 
 distrust, of Nonconformist ministers which charac- 
 terize the marriage laws ; and like the Nonconform- 
 ing churches, the Roman Catholic Church has no 
 representatives in the House of Lords as has the 
 Church of England. The presence of the bishops in 
 the House of Lords, and the compulsory attendance 
 of registrars at marriages in Nonconforming chapels, 
 now constitute about the only causes of complaint on 
 the part of Nonconformists as to the legal position of 
 the Church of England. The advocates of disestab- 
 lishment sometimes object to the time of Parliament 
 being taken up with legislation exclusively for the 
 Church of England, and argue that both the House 
 of Commons and the House of Lords, from the char- 
 acter of their memberships, are unsuited for this 
 work. 
 
 Ecclesiastical England is divided into two prov*
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 255 
 
 inces, those of Canterbury and York. These prov- 
 inces are again subdivided into dioceses, while the 
 dioceses are in their turn divided into archdeaconries, 
 and these into parishes. The parish is the unit, and 
 is ecclesiastically an independent district. Each 
 parish has its own church, in charge either of a 
 rector, a vicar, or a perpetual curate, the title of the 
 incumbent being determined by his relation to the 
 temporalities of his parish. At the head of each of 
 the two provinces is an archbishop ; at the head of 
 each diocese is a bishop, who has associated with him 
 in the work and administration of the diocese, deans, 
 archdeacons, and rural deans. Including the arch- 
 bishops, there are thirty-three bishops in England 
 and Wales, of whom twenty-seven are members of 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 The Queen, on the advice of the First Lord of 
 the Treasury, appoints to vacant archbishoprics and 
 bishoprics. In the case of the older bishoprics the 
 Crown sends to the Dean and Chapter the Royal 
 License to proceed to the election. This is accom- 
 panied by another royal communication, naming the 
 person who is to be chosen as bishop. The person 
 so named is invariably chosen by the dean and chap- 
 ter. His election afterwards receives the Royal As- 
 sent, and is confirmed with the Great Seal. 
 
 In the newer dioceses, those which have been 
 created within the last thirty years, the bishops 
 are appointed without any of th preliminaries which 
 attend the appointment to the ancient sees, the offices 
 being conferred upon them by letters patent from
 
 256 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the Crown. The Crown nominally makes all these 
 appointments ; but in reality the bishops are chosen 
 by the Prime Minister. Appointments to deaneries 
 and canonries, when these are in the gift of the 
 Crown, are made in the same way. The dean and 
 chapter, which consists of canons, have charge of the 
 cathedral and its services. The dean is in residence 
 eight months of the year, while the four canons who 
 form the chapter are in residence for a period of 
 three months each. A number of honorary canons 
 are also attached to a cathedral. 
 
 For each of the two provinces there is a council, 
 known as Convocation. Convocation assembles 
 annually, that for the province of Canterbury at 
 Westminster, and that for the Northern province at 
 York. Each convocation consists of the archbishop, 
 and the bishops, the archdeacons, and the deans of the 
 several dioceses within the province, together with 
 proctors, who represent the inferior clergy. Convo- 
 cation cannot meet without the license or permit of 
 the Queen, and the sanction of the Queen must be 
 given to all resolutions adopted before they are bind- 
 ing on the clergy. Practically convocation has ex- 
 ceedingly limited powers. 
 
 Each province has also its ecclesiastical court in 
 which offences against ecclesiastical law on the part 
 of clergymen are tried. The court of the southern 
 province is known as the Arches Court of Canter- 
 bury ; that for the northern province as the Chan- 
 cery Court of York. Connected with each diocese 
 there is also a consistory court, held by the chan-
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 
 
 cellor to the bishop. Applications must be made to 
 this court, and faculties obtained from it, before any 
 interference, no matter how slight, can be made in 
 the fabric of a church. 
 
 The management of a church and a parish, so far 
 as the parishioners have any voice in it at all, is 
 by means of the vestry meeting, held in Easter 
 Week. The incumbent of the parish is by law 
 chairman of this meeting, at which the parishioners 
 elect a warden and a sidesman. The incumbent 
 himself at this meeting also names his choice of a 
 warden and a sidesman ; and the two wardens so 
 elected, together with the sidesmen, manage all the 
 affairs of the church that are not in the hands of 
 the incumbent. The wardens are legally liable for 
 debts contracted in connection with the church. All 
 church livings are held during good behavior. Each 
 rector or vicar engages his own curates, and can 
 determine their engagement at will. 
 
 The parishioners have but slight check or control 
 over a rector or a vicar, except through the Public 
 Worship Regulation Act, a measure passed in 1874 
 to amend the Clergy Discipline Act of 1840. Under 
 the measure of 1874 a church warden or three parish- 
 ioners, who must declare themselves members of the 
 Church of England, may complain to the bishop of 
 the diocese of any clergyman whom they consider is 
 breaking the law in respect to the ornaments of his 
 church, the vestments he wears, or the manner in 
 which he conducts the services. The bishop to 
 whom a complaint of this kind is made may stay
 
 25 S THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 further proceedings at his discretion ; but if he does 
 so he must, within a limited period, give in writing 
 his reasons for so doing. Otherwise he must pass 
 the case on to the Court of the Dean of Arches, a 
 civil tribunal which was created by the Act of 1874 
 for the trial of these causes. The judge or dean of 
 this court may hear the case either in the particular 
 diocese in which the offence was committed, or in 
 London ; and for punishment he may suspend the 
 offender from ecclesiastical acts until he declares his 
 willingness to obey. After an interval, if the offender 
 is still refractory, he may be imprisoned for a term 
 and the living sequestered. From the Court of the 
 Dean of Arches there is an appeal to the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council. 
 
 The intention of the Act was to deal principally 
 with offences against ritual. All the proceedings 
 under it have been aimed at High Church practices ; 
 but as the Ritualists have persistently denied the 
 authority of a civil court to deal with ecclesiastical 
 offences, and have gone to prison rather than make 
 submission to it, little satisfaction has resulted from 
 the legislation of 1874. In cases of alleged neglect 
 of duty, charges made by parishioners against clergy- 
 men, not affecting the ritual, nor rendering the 
 clergyman liable to prosecution in the ordinary crim- 
 inal courts, the bishop of the diocese has power to 
 appoint a commission of inquiry. This commission 
 hears evidence like an ordinary court, and reports 
 its finding to the bishop, who can suspend a clergy- 
 man against whom charges sufficiently serious are 
 proved.
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NONCONFORMITY. 259 
 
 The responsibilities of an incumbent towards his 
 parishioners are well defined. Any resident of his 
 parish can call for his services in time of sickness, 
 for a baptism, a marriage, or a funeral ; and any 
 parishioner can demand the administration of the 
 rite of Holy Communion. If a clergyman denies a 
 parishioner Communion, he can be cited before a 
 court of law, and compelled to state his reasons for 
 the refusal. If these are deemed inadequate by the 
 court, the parishioner can recover damages from 
 the clergyman. In matters of this kind the law does 
 not recognize dissent, but regards a clergyman of 
 the Church of England as the spiritual servant of all 
 who may be living within the area of his parish.
 
 260 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 
 
 The Army and the Reserve Forces. All Military Service Voluntary. Parlia- 
 ment and the Army. Short Service System. Pay of a Private Soldier. 
 Officers and their Commissions. The Militia. Militia Officers. The 
 Yeomanry Cavalry. Popular Idea of a Yeomanry Troop. The Volun- 
 teer Force. Nature of Volunteer Service. Royal Navy. Relations of 
 Navy to Parliament. Civil Service. Competitive Examinations and 
 Security of Tenure. Higher and Lower Divisions. Nonpartisan Char- 
 acter of the Service. Pensions. Women in the Post-office. 
 
 THE military forces of England are divided into 
 two classes, the army and the reserve forces. 
 In the reserve forces are included the Army Re- 
 serve, the Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers. 
 Service in all of them is entirely voluntary. There 
 is now nothing in England in the nature of conscrip- 
 tion or forced military service. Under the old Militia 
 Act, which dates from 1760, and under its earlier 
 amending Acts, all men not suffering from bodily 
 infirmities, and not specially exempted, are liable to 
 be drawn by ballot for the militia, and to serve either 
 personally or by substitute. At the present time 
 few Englishmen are aware of the existence of these 
 old laws. Nowadays the militia is recruited by 
 voluntary enlistment, like the regular army ; but the 
 Militia Act is only suspended from year to year, and 
 if voluntary enlistment proved insufficient, by simply
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 26 1 
 
 omitting to pass the Annual Suspension Act the 
 Militia Act might come again into operation. It is 
 generations since there was any balloting for militia- 
 men ; and since the days when the press-gang ceased 
 to be an institution, all service in the Crown forces, 
 whether military or naval, has been voluntary. 
 
 The army, as the law now stands, could not remain 
 in existence more than a year without the sanction 
 of Parliament. This sanction is given every year. 
 Parliament, early in each session, passes " an Act to 
 provide during twelve months for the discipline and 
 regulation of the army ; " and it also fixes the num- 
 ber of officers and men, and votes the money for 
 their maintenance. Each year Parliament settles 
 the maximum strength of the army ; but as a general 
 thing, the actual number of men in the service is 
 rather less than the number thus voted. It varies 
 according to the number of men who are discharged 
 on completing their terms of service, and the number 
 of recruits who offer themselves and after examina- 
 tion are passed into the ranks. In 1892 the total 
 strength of the regular army, including cavalry, in- 
 fantry, artillery, and engineers, was 210,688, of whom 
 72,486 men were in India, 37,141 in the colonies, and 
 107,061 in England, Scotland, and Ireland. These 
 figures are, of course, only for a particular year ; but 
 there is not much variation in the total strength, 
 and the proportionate distribution of the forces in 
 India, in the colonies, and in the United Kingdom 
 is usually about the same. 
 
 Up to 1873 men were enlisted in the army for a
 
 262 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 period of twenty-one years, and at the end of that 
 time were discharged with a pension. In 1873 what 
 is known as the short service system was introduced. 
 Under this arrangement men may now enlist either 
 for twenty-one years or for twelve years. When 
 they enlist for twelve years the men spend eight 
 years with their regiments, and are then passed into 
 the army reserves for the remaining four years of 
 their term. Under the short service system the 
 army requires about 33,000 recruits every year. The 
 reserve into which the eight years' service men pass 
 usually stands at a numerical strength of about 
 25,000. 
 
 The pay of a private soldier is one shilling and 
 twopence a day ; and after all stoppages have been 
 made, it averages about four shillings and sixpence a 
 week. These stoppages are made for extra food al- 
 lowances, such as vegetables and groceries, for cloth- 
 ing, and for washing. The pay of non-commissioned 
 officers that is, of men promoted from the ranks 
 ranges from two shillings per day, received by a 
 lance-sergeant in an infantry regiment, to five shil- 
 lings and tenpence received by a regimental ser- 
 geant-major in the Household Cavalry, the /lite of 
 the mounted corps. A soldier ceases to be of the 
 rank and file, and enters the non-commissioned ranks, 
 as soon as he becomes a lance-sergeant. His first 
 step upwards is his promotion to the rank of a cor- 
 poral ; and the popular idea of the Army is that a 
 well-conducted man may expect to become a corporal 
 after two or three years' service. When a soldier
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 263 
 
 goes into the reserve, he receives fourpence a day. 
 He has no military duties to discharge during this 
 period unless the reserves are called out ; the pay- 
 ment he receives is for holding himself in readiness. 
 
 Noncommissioned officers, such as corporals, ser- 
 geants, and sergeant-majors, are drawn from the 
 ranks. All commissioned officers are appointed 
 after competitive examination. Except in the case of 
 officers of the higher ranks, the pay that officers 
 receive from the War Office is not sufficient to main- 
 tain them in the style which, according to the social 
 traditions of most regiments, they are expected to 
 keep up. 
 
 The militia is a local force, the men in each regi- 
 ment being recruited in the division of the county 
 in which the regiment has its depot. Until 1871 
 the militia regiments were under the command of 
 the lord-lieutenants of the counties ; in that year the 
 control of the force was transferred to the Sec- 
 retary of State for War, and the militia is now in 
 organic connection with the regular army. The 
 militia can be employed only within the country. 
 It is called out for training for a period not exceed- 
 ing fifty-six days in the course of the year, as the 
 authorities may determine. The rank and file, who 
 enlist for six years, are recruited in much the same 
 way as men arc recruited for the regular army, and 
 their daily rate of pay is about the same. Occa- 
 sionally, when the men are assembled for training, 
 they live under canvas ; but with most regiments the 
 training takes place at the depots in the county
 
 264 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 towns ; and the men are billeted among the towns- 
 people, who receive them voluntarily, and are paid 
 for receiving them as they would be for any other 
 lodgers. While the regiment is under training dis- 
 cipline is strict, and desertion and breaches of disci- 
 pline are punished almost as sharply as in the regular 
 army. The officers of the militia are usually landed 
 proprietors and sons of landed proprietors in the 
 county. Their commissions are obtained after ex- 
 aminations, but in the issuing of commissions pref- 
 erence is given to gentlemen who are recommended 
 or nominated by the lord-lieutenants. The militia 
 reserve consists of men serving in the militia who 
 have accepted extra bounties to hold themselves in 
 readiness to serve abroad, if need be, with the 
 regular army. 
 
 The Yeomanry Cavalry is a volunteer force which 
 came into existence at the time of the French Revo- 
 lution. It consists now, as it always has done, of 
 landed proprietors and their larger tenants. In some 
 parts of England the land-owners make it an ex- 
 press condition on leasing a farm that the tenant 
 shall become a member of the yeomanry troop 
 attached to their estates. Other landlords compro- 
 mise the matter by compelling a farmer to send one 
 of his hired men, suitably mounted, to the annual 
 training. The training usually lasts about two 
 weeks. 
 
 In days gone by, when farming lands were in 
 great demand and landlords were able to hold out 
 for high terms, and impose almost any conditions
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 26$ 
 
 they liked, the yeomanry was a much more imposing 
 force than at the present time. In the early years 
 of the century, before the county constabulary was 
 organized, and before each municipal borough had 
 its own police force, the yeomanry were sometimes 
 called out to quell rioters and keep the peace in 
 times of intense political excitement or industrial 
 unrest. About the last service of this kind they dis- 
 charged was in 1819, when the Lancashire yeomanry 
 were called out on the occasion of a great political 
 demonstration in Manchester. A collision occurred 
 between the people and the troops, which resulted 
 in the loss of six lives from sabre wounds by the 
 horsemen. 
 
 In 1892 the force numbered about n,ooo officers 
 and men. For some years, however, it has been 
 regarded as of little account by military men ; and 
 popularly a yeomanry troop has come to be looked 
 upon as a toy or fad existing principally to minister 
 to the pride and the territorial importance of a 
 large landed proprietor. When times were good, 
 farmers did not object to the picnic element and 
 frolic which enter largely into the annual training. 
 Of late years, however, they have been objecting 
 to the expense, and there has been a decline in the 
 strength of the force. 
 
 The Volunteer Force, as now organized, dates from 
 1859, and was called into existence by the likelihood 
 of an outbreak of war between England and France. 
 In the first year of its organization the number of 
 men enrolled was about 119,000; in 1893, in round
 
 266 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 figures, the number was 225,000. An apprehended 
 invasion constitutes a sufficient reason for the Sover- 
 eign to call out the volunteers. According to the 
 Act of Parliament governing the administration of 
 the force, the apprehension of invasion must be first 
 communicated to Parliament, or if Parliament is not 
 sitting, declared by the Queen in Council and noti- 
 fied by proclamation. Volunteers are then bound to 
 serve in Great Britain until released by proclamation 
 declaring the occasion for calling them out to be at 
 an end. In the event of the volunteers being thus 
 called out, they receive pay on the army scale ; at 
 other times their services are given voluntarily. 
 
 Almost every town in England has its volunteer 
 corps. If a town is not large enough to raise and 
 maintain a battalion, it raises and maintains a com- 
 pany. The members of the company meet regularly 
 for drill ; and for marches, parades, and field exer- 
 cises form part of the battalion in the nearest large 
 town. The members of the volunteer corps enroll 
 themselves for three years, and are compelled to put 
 in sufficient time at the drill-hall, on the parade- 
 ground, and at the rifle-butts to make themselves 
 efficients, and pass the annual inspection before an 
 officer from the War Department. Each man who 
 thus makes himself efficient earns for his corps a 
 Government grant of $ 8s. 6d. The aggregate 
 sum so earned goes to the maintenance of the corps. 
 It is not usually sufficient to defray all the expenses 
 of clothing, accoutrements, ammunition, and estab- 
 lishment charges, the balance being made up by sub-
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 267 
 
 scriptions from the officers and from outside friends 
 of the corps. 
 
 Each corps has its depot and its permanent staff, 
 the latter consisting of an adjutant and one or more 
 sergeant-instructors. These officers are men who 
 have served in the regular army. The drill-hall 
 and other property belonging to the corps are vested 
 in the commanding officer, and the corps generally 
 is administered by a committee of officers under 
 rules drawn up by the War Office. The rank and 
 file are largely composed of clerks and artisans. The 
 officers are drawn from the ranks of the professional 
 and manufacturing classes. No pay attaches to a 
 volunteer officer's commission, and a man must be 
 in fairly good circumstances to meet the calls made 
 upon him when he accepts an officer's commission in 
 a volunteer corps. Discipline is far less strict than 
 it is in the militia, and in most towns a good deal of 
 social life centres round the volunteer corps. 
 
 Seamen and marines for the Royal Navy are 
 enlisted in much the same way as soldiers, except 
 that marines are enlisted under the old long service 
 system, and that a large number of seamen are 
 drawn from the training-ships for boys, which are in 
 commission in the neighborhood of most of the 
 large seaports. The officers are educated on training- 
 ships, and receive their commissions after competi- 
 tive examination. The relation of the navy to 
 Parliament is somewhat different from that of the 
 army. The navy is a perpetual establishment, not 
 dependent upon an Annual Act like the army. As,
 
 268 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 however, the House of Commons votes the wages 
 for officers and men, it practically has almost as much 
 control over the naval forces as over the army. 
 
 In 1893 the total number of men engaged in the 
 naval service was 98,000. These figures included a 
 naval reserve of about 22,000 men, and also a small 
 force of naval artillery volunteers. The pay of sea- 
 men in the Royal Navy ranges from one shilling 
 and threepence a day .for ordinary seamen to eight 
 shillings and threepence a day received by the non- 
 commissioned officers. 
 
 Competitive examinations for entry, security of 
 tenure when once admitted, and pensions on retire- 
 ment, are the characteristic features of the English 
 Civil Service ; and with but two or three minor 
 exceptions, these conditions apply to clerkships and 
 appointments in all the State Departments. The 
 theory of the Civil Service is similar to that of the 
 army, a commissioned class of highly-educated men 
 for superintendence and more important work, and a 
 non-commissioned rank and file of less education for 
 the routine work ; with occasional promotion from 
 the rank and file to the commissioned class. 
 
 The permanent Civil Service consists of a First 
 and a Second Division, each division recruited entirely 
 by open competition. There are, however, in addi- 
 tion to the examinations for these two divisions, 
 the divisions which carry on the general clerical 
 work of the Departments, special examinations for 
 Indian, Consular, and Technical posts, and also direct 
 appointments of experts from the outside. The
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 269 
 
 Indian Civil Service is recruited in London ; natives 
 of India are eligible for appointment, but with a view 
 to restricting the number of Indian candidates, all 
 examinations are held in London. 
 
 Every Civil Servant on the permanent staff must 
 hold a certificate from the Civil Service Commission. 
 These certificates are issued after success in the 
 various competitive examinations, combined with a 
 satisfactory medical certificate and testimonials as to 
 general fitness and respectability from two house- 
 holders. 
 
 In the First Division of the Service, successful 
 candidates are appointed to the most desirable offices 
 where promotion is supposed to be quickest and 
 the work most congenial, according to their place 
 on the examination list. In the Second Division, 
 the successful candidates at the examinations are 
 permitted to choose the department in which they 
 will serve, and as far as it is possible their wishes 
 are observed. Neither at the examinations, nor at 
 any time during service, is any question raised con- 
 cerning the political opinions of a civil servant ; and 
 it is never a matter of the least importance to him 
 whether a Conservative or a Liberal Administration 
 is in power. 
 
 Examinations for Civil Service candidates are held 
 simultaneously at various centres in England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland. These examinations date from 
 1870. Prior to that time there was but one class of 
 appointments, made by nomination, qualified by an 
 easy examination. In 1870, however, open competi-
 
 270 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 tion was introduced. The salaries of the successful 
 candidates then commenced at ;ioo, and were in- 
 creased by 10 annually until a salary of ,400 was 
 reached. In 1876, after an inquiry by a commission 
 of which Lord Playfair was the chairman, two divis- 
 ions were established in the Service. In the upper 
 division, for a six or a seven hours' day, salaries com- 
 menced at .100 or i$o respectively, and were 
 advanced every three years by ^37 los. In the 
 lower division salaries commenced at ,80 or 9$, 
 according to the length of the working-day, and were 
 raised triennially by 15 to 200 and .250 respec- 
 tively. In addition, for special posts, there was an 
 extra duty pay of .200 in the higher division. 
 
 A few years later there was another Civil Service 
 inquiry, presided over by Sir Matthew White Ridley ; 
 and as a result of this commission, in 1890, the Ser- 
 vice was reconstituted into First and Second Divis- 
 ions, duty pay was abolished, and in all offices a 
 seven hours' day was made the rule. 
 
 In the First Division the age limit of candidates 
 is from twenty-two to twenty-four. The commencing 
 salary is ^"100 a year ; and it is increased annually by 
 12 los. to 400, and for special merit by 20 to 
 600, and thence to the higher staff positions. In 
 the examinations for this Division the candidates, 
 who are nearly all University men, may select from 
 the following subjects : English Composition, in- 
 cluding precis-writing ; History of England, includ- 
 ing Laws and Constitution ; English Literature ; 
 Language, Literature, and History of Greece, Rome,
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 2/1 
 
 France, Germany, and Italy ; Mathematics, pure and 
 mixed ; Natural Sciences, Chemistry, Electricity, 
 Magnetism, Geology, and Mineralogy ; Mental Science, 
 Logic, and Mental and Moral Philosophy ; Jurispru- 
 dence and Political Economy. 
 
 In the Second Division the age limit is from seven- 
 teen to twenty. Salaries commence at ,75, and are 
 increased by $ annually until ,100 is reached; 
 and from 100 the increase is at the rate of 7 los. 
 per annum, until 190 is reached. There is an upper 
 grade in the Second Division in which by special 
 merit increments of 10 are earned until ^"350 is 
 reached. The examinations for candidates include 
 Handwriting, Orthography, Arithmetic, Copying 
 Manuscript, English Composition, English History 
 and Geography, Indexing or Docketing, Digesting 
 Returns into Summaries, and Book-keeping. A 
 Second Division clerk may be promoted to the First 
 Division after not less than eight years' service. 
 Such promotion, however, is not frequent. 
 
 In addition to the First and Second Divisions, 
 there are also what are known as Boy-Clerkships, for 
 which the age limit is from fifteen to seventeen. 
 These clerks receive in the first year a salary of 
 14^. a week, which is advanced by one shilling a 
 week annually until 19^. is reached. When the boy- 
 clerks attain the age of twenty, they are discharged. 
 Facilities are, however, offered them to enter the 
 Second Division. A number of appointments, not 
 exceeding one-fourth of the number of boy-clerk 
 competitors, is reserved for them when the Second
 
 2/2 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 Division examinations are held. For these boy- 
 clerkships candidates have to pass an examination in 
 Handwriting, Orthography, Arithmetic, English Com- 
 position and Geography, and Copying Manuscript. 
 
 On reaching the age of sixty, civil servants may 
 retire. They are then granted retiring allowances, 
 the amount of which is regulated by the number of 
 years' service and the salary received. The maxi- 
 mum pension is two-thirds of the salary at the date 
 of retirement. Retirement at sixty is optional ; a 
 civil servant may elect to continue at work until he 
 is sixty-five, but when he reaches that age he is 
 superannuated. In exceptional cases, where further 
 services are deemed good for the State, a civil ser- 
 vant may remain until he is seventy ; but in this 
 case a certificate of efficiency must be granted an- 
 nually by the Treasury, the State Department which 
 controls the Civil Service. If a civil servant breaks 
 down in health before the age of sixty, he is granted 
 a pension which is reckoned on the basis of his in- 
 come, counting one-sixtieth for each year that he 
 has served. 
 
 The inspectors who are of the Factory Acts 
 Department of the Home Office are drawn from the 
 same ranks as the members of the First Division 
 of the Civil Service ; so also are the inspectors of 
 schools associated with the Department of Educa- 
 tion. In each of these Departments there are 
 assistant inspectors, who rank about equal with the 
 members of the Second Division of Civil Servants. 
 The assistant inspectors of schools are drawn from
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 273 
 
 the ranks of schoolmasters under the Elementary 
 Education Act, and are paid salaries ranging from 
 180 to 250 a year. 
 
 The assistant factory inspectors are recruited from 
 the artisan class. Their pay is not as high as that 
 of assistant inspectors under the Education Acts. 
 It commences at .100 a year and goes up to ,150. 
 For these assistant inspectorships a nomination from 
 the Home Office is necessary ; and candidates so 
 nominated must pass an examination in handwriting, 
 spelling, and arithmetic, and give evidence of a 
 general knowledge of the laws relating to workshops 
 and factories. Each candidate also must be able to 
 write a simple report of a practical character on a 
 given subject connected with workshops. This lower 
 grade of factory inspectors dates from 1893, when the 
 Home Office, with a view to a more strict and uni- 
 form enforcement of the factory laws, rearranged the 
 Factory Acts Department, and established centres in 
 connection with it, each under the superintendence 
 of a Chief Inspector, in all industrial districts. In 
 1893, several women inspectors were also appointed. 
 
 Women are not admissible as candidates for any 
 of the divisions of the Civil Service which have so 
 far been described. The Post-office and the Tele- 
 graph Service are the only Departments in which 
 their services are accepted. 
 
 The clerical work of all the State Departments is 
 discharged by members of the First and Second 
 Divisions of the Civil Service. The secretarial 
 work of the Post-office and the Telegraphic Depart-
 
 2/4 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 ments is also in their hands. For the actual work of 
 these two Departments for the business of hand- 
 ling and transmitting the mails, for that of the 
 money order and savings bank departments, and the 
 parcels post, as well as for the telegraph department 
 there are other and distinct classes of civil servants. 
 Although these services are popularly regarded as 
 ranking below the ordinary Civil Service, the same 
 general conditions exist. Sorters in the Post-offices 
 are appointed after competitive examination ; so are 
 the women clerks ; and so are the men and women 
 telegraph operators. In each of these departments 
 superannuation allowances are granted on retirement, 
 and in each of them a man or woman holds his or 
 her appointment during good behavior. 
 
 The government took over the telegraphs from 
 the private companies in 1868, and as soon as pos- 
 sible the new department was organized on a Civil 
 Service basis. Men and women are employed at the 
 telegraph instruments. In London and the other 
 large centres there are Government schools for 
 training telegraph clerks. Candidates for these 
 positions have to pass competitive examinations in 
 which the subjects are very similar to those in the 
 examinations for boy-clerkships. Special importance, 
 however, is attached to a candidate's proficiency in 
 dictation and geography. After success at the ex- 
 amination the candidate is classed as a telegraph 
 learner, and receives a small salary while he is at- 
 tending the telegraph school. He remains there 
 about a year; and then, if the school he is attending
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, AND CIVIL SERVICES. 275 
 
 is the one in London, he is sent to the central office 
 at St. Martins-le-Grand. The staff there is divided 
 into three classes : the Second, in which the salaries 
 begin at ^35 a year and rise by increments of 
 5 a year until .100 is reached; the First Class, 
 in which the salaries begin at .110 and rise by in- 
 crements of 6 a year until .160 is reached ; 
 and the Senior Class, in which the salaries commence 
 at 160 and are advanced to 190 by annual incre- 
 ments of 8. From the Senior Class the divisional 
 superintendents are appointed, and in the superin- 
 tendent's division salaries range from .250 to ^"400. 
 From the First Class, promotion to the Senior 
 Class is but slow, as it is dependent upon vacancies 
 through death or superannuation or promotion to 
 superintenclentships. Retirement is compulsory at 
 the age of sixty, when the maximum retiring allow- 
 ance is two-thirds of the salary. In the telegraphic 
 service in the provincial towns there are two classes 
 of telegraph clerks. In one the maximum salary is 
 i 8s. 6d. a week ; in the other the salaries com- 
 mence at 2 a week. In the postal service, letter 
 carriers in London receive from ~i to i \6s. 
 a week. In the provinces the pay is much less. 
 In country districts, where the letter carriers do not 
 give all their time to the work, it ranges from \2s. to 
 i6s. a week. In the larger provincial towns the 
 pay is from 1 to 25^. or 2/j. a week. Free daily 
 deliveries are general all over the country. An 
 eight hours' working-day is the rule in all the depart- 
 ments of the postal and telegraph service.
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 Home Office and the Administration of Labor Legislation. The First 
 Factory Act. An Old-time Working-day for Children. A Saturday 
 Half-holiday Three-quarters of a Century Ago. The First Mines Regu- 
 lation Act. Women prohibited from working Underground. Em- 
 ployment of Women Above Ground. Half-time System for Children 
 introduced. The Age of commencing Work advanced from Ten to 
 Eleven. Indirect Interference with the Hours of Labor of Adult Males. 
 Protection to Health, Limbs, and Pocket. Sanitary Laws, Truck Acts, 
 Check-weighmen at Collieries and Weavers' Particulars. Legal Rela- 
 tions of Employers and Employed. The Harshness of the Old Labor 
 Laws. Employers and Employed Now on a Level before the Law. Em- 
 ployers' Liability for Accidents; the Acts of 1880 and 1893. The House 
 of Lords' Inquiry into the Sweating System. The Government Depart- 
 ments and the Municipal Authorities adopt Contract Forms which regulate 
 Subcontracting. The Reform Acts of 1884 and 1885 and Labor Politics. 
 
 ALL labor laws in England, whether relating to 
 factories and workshops or to mines, are 
 administered under the supervision of the Home 
 Office. The Factory and Workshop Act of 1878 is 
 now the basis of all legislation affecting factories ; 
 for by this measure were repealed or consolidated 
 the numerous Factory Acts which had been passed 
 by Parliament since the commencement of the cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The first of these dates from 1802. It was passed 
 at the time the factory system was beginning to de- 
 velop itself in the cotton and woollen districts of Lan- 
 cashire and Yorkshire, and was intended solely for
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION'. 2/7 
 
 the protection of the legally-bound apprentices who 
 were lodged and boarded by the factory masters. 
 These children were largely drawn from the work- 
 houses of the southern counties of England, and 
 before the Health and Morals Act of 1802 their 
 condition was little better than that of slaves. Under 
 this measure their employers were prevented from 
 working them for more than twelve hours a day, 
 and were compelled to clothe, board, and lodge them 
 in something like a decent manner. 
 
 In 1819 another Act of Parliament was passed, 
 fixing the minimum age at which children could be 
 employed in the factories at nine years, and prohib- 
 iting the employment of children between the age of 
 nine and sixteen for more than twelve hours a day. 
 This second Act was intended for the protection of 
 children living with their parents in the neighborhood 
 of the mills, as the Act of 1802 applied only to chil- 
 dren who were bound apprentices with the factory 
 masters. Up to 1819 there was no legal protection 
 for children who were not apprentices. 
 
 In 1825 another measure was passed in the inter- 
 est of children engaged in the mills. It secured 
 them a working-day of nine hours, instead of twelve, 
 on Saturdays, and prohibited their employment dur- 
 ing meal hours. The administration of all these 
 early factory laws was intrusted to the local magis- 
 trates, who were empowered to appoint visitors to 
 the mills, and otherwise to watch the interests of 
 the child workers. In 1833, in the first Parliament 
 elected after the Reform Act, another measure was
 
 2/8 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 passed under which the Crown, and not the local 
 magistrates as hitherto, appointed the factory inspec- 
 tors. In this measure there was also introduced a 
 distinction between children and young persons which 
 has been continued in all subsequent factory legisla- 
 tion. The word child was defined as any person 
 between the ages of nine and thirteen years, while 
 the term "young person" was denned as meaning 
 any one between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. 
 Up to this time the law had allowed children to 
 work twelve hours a day five days a week, and nine 
 hours on the sixth. Under the Act of 1833 they 
 were prohibited from working more than nine hours 
 a day, and their employers were required to compel 
 them to attend school during at least two hours a 
 day. Parliament about this time was beginning to 
 make annual grants in aid of elementary day schools ; 
 but this provision as to attendance at school, in the 
 Factory Act of 1833, was not due to any great zeal 
 for education. What was aimed at was some arrange- 
 ment which should provide that the children should 
 be somewhere else than in the mills during two hours 
 of every day. 
 
 In 1842 an Act relating to coal-mines was passed. 
 It provided for the appointment of inspectors of 
 mines, and prohibited the employment below ground 
 of women and of boys under ten years of age. 
 Women and children had hitherto been employed in 
 and about mines. The Act of 1842 put a stop to the 
 employment of women below ground, but left it open 
 to them to work on the pit-bank. For some years in
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 all the northern counties, women continued to work 
 on the pit-heads. Gradually, however, the number so 
 engaged decreased, until at the present time women 
 are not to be found at work on the pit-heads except 
 in the mining district of South-west Lancashire. In 
 recent years the miners' unions have agitated against 
 the employment of women in this work, and deputa- 
 tions have repeatedly urged upon the Home Office 
 that their employment should be prohibited. The 
 women themselves, however, have put their views of 
 the matter before the Home Office, and have con- 
 tended that the work in which they are engaged 
 about the pits is quite as suitable and as healthy as 
 field-work, in which women are largely employed in 
 the agricultural districts of England. So far no at- 
 tempt has been made by Parliament to interfere with 
 them, and at the present time there are some 4,500 
 women and girls at work on the pit-heads in the 
 neighborhoods of Wigan and St. Helens. 
 
 The next Act of Parliament further restricting the 
 hours of labor for children was passed in 1844. It 
 reduced their working-day to five and a half hours, 
 and introduced what has since been known as the 
 half-time system, under which children are engaged 
 in the mills for half the day, and spend the other 
 half at school. All these factory laws apply to the 
 whole of England ; but it is only in the manufac- 
 turing districts of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, 
 Staffordshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire 
 that the system is at all general. In 1893 there 
 were 172,000 half-time children on the school regis-
 
 28O THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 ters of England. Of this number nearly 94,000 were 
 in Lancashire. In London there were less than 700 
 half-timers, while for the twelve counties in Wales 
 the total number was only 125. 
 
 Until 1867 the Factory Acts did not apply to 
 workshops. In that year an Act was passed appli- 
 cable to workshops, and the administration of this 
 particular law was intrusted to the town councils and 
 similar local authorities. The Act soon became a 
 dead-letter, as only a few of the town councils at- 
 tempted to enforce it. In 1871 the law was amended, 
 and the duties of enforcing it were taken from the 
 town councils and placed upon the Home Office. 
 
 In 1878 the consolidation of the laws passed in the 
 preceding three-quarters of a century took place, and 
 a number of new provisions were introduced. One 
 of these fixed the working-week for children engaged 
 in textile factories at fifty-six and a half hours, and 
 for children engaged in non-textile industries at 
 sixty hours ; while another clause in the new Act 
 prohibited the employment of children under ten 
 years of age. This provision of the Act of 1878 
 remained in force until 1891, when the age at which 
 a child can commence work as a half-timer was raised 
 to eleven. This advancement in the age was due to 
 the efforts of a private member of the House of Com- 
 mons, Mr. Sidney Buxton, and was brought about in 
 a bill for amending in several particulars the Act of 
 1878. When the bill, which was a Government 
 measure, was before a Grand Committee, the Gov- 
 ernment defeated an amendment raising the age
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 28 1 
 
 from ten to eleven. The amendment, however, was 
 again brought forward when the bill came before the 
 House of Commons itself, and was carried in spite 
 of the efforts of the Government to bring about its 
 rejection a second time. In the same amending 
 Act an extension was made of the period during 
 which women are to remain away from the mills at 
 childbirth. Under an Act dealing with this matter, 
 passed in 1874, the period was fixed at a month; it 
 was extended to six weeks by the Act passed in 1891. 
 
 All the factory legislation passed between 1802 
 and 1891, in so far as it directly restricts the hours 
 of labor, is applicable only to children, young per- 
 sons, and women. Until 1893 no Act of Parliament 
 had been passed directly interfering with adult male 
 labor ; but the indirect effect of much of the legisla- 
 tion applicable to women and children has been to 
 limit the working hours of men. 
 
 The first legislation directly interfering with the 
 hours of men's labor received the Royal Assent at 
 the end of July, 1893. It was a Government meas- 
 ure ; it is entitled the Railway Servants' Hours of 
 Labor Act, and was passed on the recommendation 
 of the Select Committee of the House of Commons 
 which, in the session of 1891, inquired into the alle- 
 gations as to overworking of railway servants. The 
 Act is designed to enable any servant, or any class 
 of servants of railway companies, except those wholly 
 employed either in clerical work or in the companies' 
 workshops, to make complaints to the Board of 
 Trade that their hours of labor (i) are excessive;
 
 282 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 (2) or do not provide sufficient intervals of uninter- 
 rupted rest ; (3) or sufficient relief from Sunday duty ; 
 and to empower the Board of Trade to inquire into 
 such representation on the part of such servants. 
 
 When satisfied that there is a reasonable cause of 
 complaint, the Board shall order a railway company 
 to submit within a specified period a schedule of 
 time for the duty of the servant interested, so framed 
 as, in the opinion of the Board, to bring the actual 
 hours within reasonable limits, regard being had to 
 the circumstances of the traffic, and the nature of 
 the work performed. Should any railway company 
 fail to submit the required schedule, or fail to en- 
 force the provisions of any approved schedule, the 
 Board may refer the matter to the Railway and 
 Canal Commissioners, who shall have jurisdiction in 
 the case. The Board of Trade may appear in the 
 Commissioners' Court in support of the reference. 
 The Commissioners may then order the company to 
 submit to them within a specified time such a sched- 
 ule as will in their opinion bring the actual hours of 
 work within reasonable limits. On failure to render 
 the schedule, or to enforce its provisions when ap- 
 proved, the company shall be liable to a fine not ex- 
 ceeding one hundred pounds for every day during 
 which such default continues. A report of all pro- 
 ceedings under the Act is to be made annually to 
 Parliament by the Board of Trade. 
 
 In the various Factory Acts, and in the Mines 
 Regulation Acts, there are a number of clauses in- 
 tended to protect the. health, the limbs, and the
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 283 
 
 pockets of adult males. As regards health, there are 
 numerous sanitary provisions in the Factory Acts ; 
 and by a measure passed in 1891, extending the ap- 
 plication of the Alkali Works Regulation Act, the 
 Home Secretary has power to draw up stringent 
 regulations applicable to men who are engaged in 
 dangerous and unhealthy occupations, in connection 
 with twelve or thirteen branches of the chemical in- 
 dustry. The Mines Regulation Acts also contain 
 clauses dealing with the use of naked lights, with the 
 firing of shots, with ventilation, and with the winding 
 machinery; and in the 1886-92 Parliament an im- 
 portant addition was made to these precautionary 
 provisions, by a measure which prohibited the em- 
 ployment of unskilled laborers at the face of the coal. 
 As regards protection to the pockets of adult 
 males, the Truck Acts were passed to that end, in 
 order to prevent workmen being compelled to pur- 
 chase supplies at shops and stores owned by persons 
 for whom they were working. In the Mines Regu- 
 lation Acts also, a clearly defined legal position is 
 given to the check-weighman, whose duty it is to see 
 that all coal sent out of the mine is fairly weighed 
 and credited to the miner by whom it has been 
 hewn. The check-weighman is appointed by the 
 men at each coal-pit, and paid by them. The law 
 gives him a recognized position on the pit-head, and 
 a mine-owner who has any complaint to make against 
 a check-weighman can secure his removal only after 
 the case against him has been investigated by the 
 local magistrates in open court.
 
 284 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME 
 
 Cotton weavers are also protected by a law passed 
 in 1891, which compels their employers to furnish 
 them with certain particulars in order that they may 
 correctly measure up and charge for the cloth on 
 which they have been engaged. An Act of Parlia- 
 ment passed in the same year empowers the making 
 of regulations by the Home Office as to the amount 
 of steam and moisture to be admitted into a weaving- 
 shed, and to carry out the provisions of these meas- 
 ures, special inspectors were added to the Home 
 Office staff. 
 
 During the last thirty years a number of laws have 
 also been passed dealing with relationships between 
 employers and employed, both as to breaches of con- 
 tract and as to liability for accidents. As concerns 
 breaches of contract, until 1867 the law was all on 
 the side of the employer, and was, in fact, a relic of 
 the days when there was little or no freedom of con- 
 tract on the part of the employed. A breach of 
 contract on the part of a workman rendered him lia- 
 ble to prosecution before the local magistrates, and 
 to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three 
 months in the house of correction. Imprisonment 
 was abolished by the Masters and Servants Act of 
 1867, and fines were substituted. 
 
 By the Employers and Workmen's Act of 1875, 
 legal proceedings between employers and employed 
 arising out of breaches of contract were entirely 
 divested of the penal character which had hitherto 
 attached to them, and took the form of civil suits 
 for the recovery of damages. These cases can now
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 285 
 
 be tried either before the magistrates in the police 
 court or before a judge of a county court, as suits 
 the convenience of the person bringing them. In 
 either court the costs are small ; and when damages 
 are recovered, failure to pay them is followed by 
 imprisonment only when there is proof of ability and 
 of neglect to pay. It has been claimed for the Act 
 of 1875, that for the first time in English history it 
 placed employers and employed on the same level 
 before the law. 
 
 The first Employers' Liability Act was passed 
 in 1880. It was intended to meet the conditions 
 which had sprung up in consequence of the changes 
 in the industrial world due to the growth and in- 
 crease of corporations employing large numbers of 
 workmen. 
 
 The Act provides that "where personal injury is 
 caused to a workman, (i) By reason of any defect in 
 the condition of the ways, works, machinery, or plant 
 connected with or used in the business of the em- 
 ployer ; or (2) By reason of the negligence of any 
 person in the service of the employer, who has any 
 superintendence intrusted to him, whilst in the exer- 
 cise of such superintendence ; or (3) By reason of 
 the negligence of any person in the service of the 
 employer to whose orders or directions the work- 
 man at the time of the injury was bound to conform 
 and did conform, where such injuries resulted from 
 his having so conformed ; or (4) By reason of the 
 act or omission of any person in the service of the 
 employer, done or made in obedience to the rules or
 
 286 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 by-laws- of the employer, or in obedience to particu- 
 lar instructions given by any person delegated with 
 the authority of the employer in that behalf ; or (5) 
 By reason of the negligence of any person in the 
 service of the employer who has the control of any 
 signal-post, locomotive engine, or train upon a rail- 
 way, the workman, or, in case the injury results in 
 death, the legal personal representatives of the work- 
 man and any persons entitled in case of death, shall 
 have the same right of compensation and remedies 
 against the employer as if the workman had not been 
 a workman of, nor in the service of, the employer nor 
 engaged in his work." 
 
 It is provided in the Act, however, that there shall 
 be no recovery of damages under the first of the 
 subsections quoted, unless the defect therein men- 
 tioned arose from, or had not been discovered or 
 remedied owing to, the negligence of the employer 
 or of some person in the service of the employer, and 
 intrusted by him with the duty of seeing that the 
 ways, works, machinery, or plant were in proper 
 condition ; nor under subsection four, unless the 
 injury resulted from some impropriety or defects in 
 the rules, by-laws, or instructions therein mentioned ; 
 nor in any case where the workman knew of the 
 defect or negligence which caused the injury, and 
 failed within a reasonable time to give, or cause to 
 be given, information thereof to the employer or to 
 some person superior to himself in the service of the 
 employer, unless he was aware that the employer or 
 such superior knew of the said defect or negligence.
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 287 
 
 As a result of the Act of 1880 most of the large 
 employers the railway companies, and the com- 
 panies owning mines and ironworks established 
 insurance systems for their workpeople, and induced 
 them by the offer of the insurance equivalent, to 
 sign contracts putting themselves outside the work- 
 ing of the Employers' Liability Act. In the session 
 of 1893, however, the Act of 1880 was overhauled 
 by a Grand Committee of the House of Commons, 
 and an amending bill was reported to the House 
 making numerous changes and extensions all in favor 
 of the workman. Among the more important of the 
 new provisions was one prohibiting workmen from 
 contracting themselves out of the law. 1 
 
 The foregoing sketch of labor legislation sum- 
 marizes the important laws affecting labor in Eng- 
 land which have been passed since the Health and 
 Morals Act of 1802. It would not be complete, 
 however, without some reference to the proceedings 
 of a Select Committee of the House of Lords, which 
 in the sessions of 1889 and 1890 made an investigation 
 of the sweating system. The Committee heard wit- 
 nesses from London and all the large towns. All the 
 evidence was interesting ; some of it cannot be de- 
 scribed as other than startling. It was published at 
 
 1 The third reading of this bill was pending in the House of Commons 
 at the time these pages were in the press. Great pressure was brought to 
 bear on the Government to induce them so to amend the bill as to make the 
 law still permissive; but just before the adjournment in Septemlwr, 1803, it 
 was announced from the Treasury Hench that the Government intended to 
 proceed with the bill in the winter session and would adhere to its compulsory 
 clauses.
 
 288 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 great length in the newspapers, and aroused much 
 popular interest. As a result of the investigations of 
 the Committee, a number of amendments were made 
 to the Factory Acts by the Amending Act of 1891, 
 and increased provision was made for the inspection 
 of the smaller workshops, in which tailoring, slop- 
 work, and the making of cheap shoes and slippers, 
 are carried on. These amendments were important 
 in their way, and promise to work well ; but the most 
 important result of the popular uprising against the 
 sweating system is to be seen in the amended forms 
 of contract which have come into use in connection 
 with tendering for work of all kinds paid for out of 
 the Imperial or the municipal treasuries. In the 
 forms now in use by the Treasury Department at 
 Whitehall, by the London County Council, and the 
 London School Board, and by most of the large 
 municipalities, subcontracting is strictly regulated 
 with a view to preventing sweating ; and in many of 
 the forms, although trade-union labor is not stipulated 
 for, trade-union rates of pay are insisted upon. Con- 
 tract forms with these stipulations date from the 
 time of the Sweating Inquiry by the Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Lords ; and their adoption 
 has been greatly extended by the appearance of 
 labor members in Parliament and labor representa- 
 tives on town councils, school boards, and boards of 
 guardians, which has been a feature in English 
 politics since the Parliamentary Reform Acts of 
 1 884 and 1885. 
 The first resolution embodying the new policy of
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 289 
 
 the Government towards employers and employed 
 engaged on work paid for out of the Imperial Treas- 
 ury, was adopted in the House of Commons in 
 February, 1891. It was proposed by Mr. David 
 Plunket, who was First Commissioner of Works in 
 Lord Salisbury's Administration. " In the opinion 
 of this House," it reads, " it is the duty of the Gov- 
 ernment, in all Government contracts, to make pro- 
 vision against the evils which have recently been 
 disclosed before the House of Lords' Sweating Com- 
 mittee, and to insert such conditions as may prevent 
 the abuses arising from sub-letting, and make every 
 effort to secure the payment of the rate of wages 
 generally accepted as current for a competent work- 
 man in his trade." The resolution was adopted by 
 the House of Commons without a division. 
 
 About two years later, in December, 1892, another 
 equally significant action in regard to employers and 
 employed was taken by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, who, when 
 Mr. Gladstone's Administration succeeded that of 
 Lord Salisbury, became Mr. Plunket's successor in 
 the office of First Commissioner of Works. The 
 Office of Works had taken over an old prison at 
 Millbank from the Prisons Department of the Home 
 Office, and was about to clear the site, and prepare 
 it for new buildings. As is the custom, the old 
 materials of the prison were offered for sale at pub- 
 lic auction. In the conditions of sale there was a 
 clause which was new in Government documents of 
 this kind. It was inserted by the First Commis- 
 sioner of Works, and was to the effect that the pur-
 
 2QO THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 chaser of the prison would be required to pay a 
 wage of not less than sixpenny halfpenny an hour to 
 all men he might employ in tearing down and clear- 
 ing away the old building. If the purchaser failed 
 to do this, it was stipulated in the conditions of sale 
 that the Office of Works would put in force a clause 
 under the operation of which the purchaser would 
 forfeit the deposit money made at the time of sale, 
 and all rights to the buildings bought. Unskilled 
 labor is largely employed in work of this kind. 
 From the time of the Dock Strike in 1889, Slx - 
 pence an hour has been regarded as a fair rate of 
 wages for unskilled laborers in London. 
 
 Nor are these two instances the only ones in which 
 the Government have made concessions to the new 
 attitude towards labor, which dates from the Sweat- 
 ing Inquiry by the Committee of the House of Lords, 
 over which Lord Dunraven presided. Early in the 
 session of 1893, Sir John Gorst, who was Under- 
 secretary for the Colonies in the preceding Conser- 
 vative Administration, and one of the representatives 
 of England at the Labor Conference in Berlin, in 
 1890, moved in the House of Commons, a resolution 
 concerning the treatment of artisans and laborers in 
 the employment of the Government. The resolution 
 set out "that no person should, in Her Majesty's 
 Naval Establishments, be engaged at wages insuffi- 
 cient for a proper maintenance, and that the con- 
 ditions of labor as regards hours, wages, insurance 
 against accidents, and provisions for old age, should 
 be such as to afford an example to private employers
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION. 29 1 
 
 throughout the country." The House of Commons 
 did not go to a vote on this resolution. It was 
 announced from the Treasury Bench that the Gov- 
 ernment were not able to close their eyes to the 
 change which had of recent years come over public 
 opinion in England in the matter of the relationships 
 of employers and employed ; that the Government 
 had "ceased to believe in -competition wages," and 
 would frame their contracts accordingly. 
 
 Later on in the same session of Parliament, some 
 official correspondence was published which showed 
 that the Government were acting upon the resolution 
 passed by the House of Commons in February, 1891. 
 The letters were from the Admiralty, and were ad- 
 dressed to contractors engaged on public works at 
 Portsmouth. In one of these communications, the 
 contractors were told that as they were paying their 
 men less than the rate of wages current in Ports- 
 mouth, they must either advance the wages or sub- 
 mit to the removal of their names from the list of 
 Admiralty contractors.
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 
 
 The Land held by Few Owners. Entail. Leases. Yearly Tenancies. 
 Compensation for Improvements. Mining Royalties and Way-Leaves 
 Copyhold. Common Land. Allotments. Small Holdings. Peas- 
 ant Proprietors of the Fenlands. Game Laws. Privileges attaching 
 to Large Estates. Voting with the Landlord. Decline of Landlords' 
 Power in Politics and Local Government. Privileges still remaining to 
 Owners of Large Estates. 
 
 THE most important fact concerning English land 
 is the comparatively small number of persons by 
 whom it is held. Figures from the Doomsday Book, 
 published in 1875, show that the total area of the 
 United Kingdom is 77,635,301 acres, of which at that 
 time 47,527,000 acres were classed as land which 
 could be cultivated. If the owners of plots of land 
 of less than one acre in extent are excluded, the re- 
 maining lands were held : 
 
 One-quarter by 1,200 persons, whose average hold- 
 ings were 16,200 acres; 
 
 One-quarter by 6,200 persons, whose average hold- 
 ings were 3, 1 50 acres ; 
 
 One-quarter by 50,770 persons, whose average 
 holdings were 380 acres ; and 
 
 One-quarter by 261,830 persons, whose average 
 holdings were 70 acres. 
 
 One-half of the entire area was thus held by 7,400
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 293 
 
 persons, and the other half by 312,600 persons. In 
 the first division of owners, there were 600 peers who, 
 among them, were the holders of one-fifth of the total 
 area of the United Kingdom. 
 
 Most of these great estates are held under what is 
 called strict settlement, or entail, a system in its 
 modern form dating from the time of the Civil War. 
 It was devised by two Royalist lawyers, named 
 Palmer and Bridgman, with the intention of protect- 
 ing the estates of the defeated Royalists from fines 
 and forfeiture at the hands of the victorious Parlia- 
 mentarians. The writers of legal text-books have 
 questioned the validity of these settlements as they 
 were first drawn up ; but after the Commonwealth, 
 Orlando Bridgman, one of the Royalist conveyancers, 
 became Lord Keeper, and was careful to give validity 
 to the form of settlement which he had helped to 
 draw up, in order to protect his Royalist friends. 
 
 Under the system of settlement which was then 
 introduced, or at any rate revised, for the same plan 
 had been unsuccessfully adopted at the time of the 
 Wars of the Roses, the head of a territorial family 
 was made tenant for life, and his descendants were 
 made succeeding tenants in tail. When once this 
 system of settlement had become legalized, the landed 
 families discovered other advantages in connection 
 with it ; and ever since the Restoration it has been in 
 general use, to uphold the territorial and social privi- 
 leges and dignities of the aristocracy. Each succeed- 
 ing head of a family makes a settlement which is 
 binding upon himself and his successor ; trustees are
 
 294 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 appointed, to whom large reserve powers are dele- 
 gated ; and due provision is made for younger sons 
 and the female members of the family, and also for 
 the management of the estate. From generation to 
 generation the making of these settlements has gone 
 on, and to this system is principally due the fact that 
 so large an area of land in England is in so compara- 
 tively few hands. 
 
 Land so tied up by settlements is seldom sold ; it 
 is either leased or let on yearly tenancies. Leases are 
 used principally for land for building purposes. The 
 length of time for which they are granted varies in 
 different parts of the country. In and about London, 
 leases are seldom for a longer period than ninety-nine 
 years. A ground rent is paid during these years, and 
 at the expiration of the term the lessee ceases to 
 have any interest in the buildings which he or his 
 sub-tenants may have erected on the land. The 
 buildings all pass into the possession of the ground 
 landlord, and in most leases there is a provision that 
 the property shall be in good condition when the 
 landlord resumes possession of the land. This is the 
 form of lease on which most of the London ground 
 landlords let out their land. 
 
 In Lancashire and in other of the Northern coun- 
 ties, a different system has long been established. 
 There the custom is for a ground landlord to let out 
 land for building purposes on leases for long periods. 
 Many of them are for terms of nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine years. In these cases there is a ground 
 rent as in the London leases, and at the end of the
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 295 
 
 period the property on the land, as in London, is to 
 fall into the hands of the successors of the landlord 
 who granted the original lease. 
 
 Land rented for farming is generally held on yearly 
 tenancies. This does not mean that it is held only 
 for a year ; in numerous instances, generations of 
 tenant farmers occupy the same lands, rented from 
 the same families, on these yearly tenancies. What 
 is meant by yearly tenancy is that the landlord can 
 rid himself of his tenant, and the tenant part company 
 from his landlord, by either party to the contract 
 giving twelve months' notice at a particular season 
 of the year. The rent of land so held is payable 
 half-yearly ; and in the event of a tenant becoming 
 financially embarrassed, his landlord has a claim for 
 arrears which must be satisfied before a tenant's prop- 
 erty can be divided among his ordinary creditors. 
 All the buildings comprised in the farmstead are the 
 property of the landlord. The rent is settled mu- 
 tually by the landlord or his agent and the tenant at 
 so much per acre, and the amount determined upon 
 includes payment for the use of the dwelling-house 
 and the other buildings necessary for the work of 
 the farm. Local taxes are paid by the occupier. 
 Where tithes have not been commuted they are paid 
 as a rule by the landlord. 
 
 On some of the large estates it is often a condi- 
 tion of the tenure that the occupier shall be a mem- 
 ber of the local troop of yeomanry. If he is too old, 
 or not of soldier-like build, the tenant compromises 
 this part of the agreement by sending one of his
 
 296 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 men. The landlords almost invariably reserve to 
 themselves the game, and on some estates make it a 
 condition that a right of way shall be given to the 
 hunt. Curious customs prevail in different parts of 
 the country. On some estates a farm is never rented 
 to a widow ; on others, even yet, farms are not let to 
 men who are Nonconformists. In some cases also, 
 the tenants are liable to penalties if they do not give 
 immediate notice to the estate office when poachers 
 have been on the lands in their occupation. 
 
 Until about twenty years ago, Parliament took no 
 cognizance of the arrangements and agreements be- 
 tween landlords and tenants. By the game laws 
 and the law of distress, landlords were placed in a 
 position of legal advantage towards their tenants ; 
 but until 1875 Parliament assumed that the tenant 
 could take care of himself in his bargains with the 
 landlord. All the advantages were on the side of 
 the landlord. He stipulated what crops were to be 
 grown, how much straw and other produce was to 
 remain and be used on the farm ; and if a yearly ten- 
 ant made any improvements, he had to leave them all 
 when his tenancy expired, without receiving compen- 
 sation. In 1875 Lord Beaconsfield's Government 
 passed what was known as the Agricultural Holdings 
 Act. Its intention was to give tenant farmers a 
 right to compensation for improvements ; but the 
 Act was merely permissive, and as soon as it went 
 into force, landowners compelled their tenants to 
 contract themselves out of its provisions. It re- 
 mained a dead letter until 1883, when during Mr.
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 297 
 
 Gladstone's first Administration a new measure was 
 passed, so drawn up that tenants cannot contract 
 themselves out of its provisions. Under this Act a 
 tenant on leaving a farm is entitled to compensation 
 from his landlord for all improvements made with the 
 sanction of the landlord, the amount of the compen- 
 sation being determined by the value of the improve- 
 ments to the incoming tenant. Fetv of the large 
 English landlords farm any considerable proportion 
 of their land. Nearly all of it is let to tenants on 
 yearly holdings. 
 
 It is the same with minerals. Gold and silver 
 belong to the Crown ; all other minerals to the 
 ground landlord. Only here and there do the large 
 landowners work the coal and other minerals under 
 their land. The right to mine coal is usually leased 
 on the royalty system for terms varying from twenty- 
 one to sixty-three years. The royalties are generally 
 so much a ton on the coal raised, although on some 
 estates the royalties vary with the selling price of 
 coal. In 1889 the mining royalties for the whole of 
 England and Scotland averaged fourpence three 
 farthings a ton. In addition to paying these royal- 
 ties, the lessees of the mines usually pay a rent to 
 the landlord from whom they lease the right to mine 
 coal, and also to neighboring landowners for permis- 
 sion to convey the coals taken out of the mine over 
 the surface of the land to the nearest railway or ship- 
 ping point. These permissions arc known as way- 
 leaves; and in the year 1889, the landowners received 
 about ,200,000 for the way-leave rents in addition to
 
 298 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 .4,000,000 as royalties. In that year it was esti- 
 mated that the total amount of coal raised in England 
 and Scotland was 177,000,000 tons. 
 
 A few years ago on the coal-fields in the North of 
 England there was a popular feeling against mining 
 royalties and way-leaves. The exact amount of the 
 royalties was not generally known, and the common 
 idea was that the payment of them by the mine-own- 
 ers hampered trade and told injuriously on the wages 
 of coal-miners. The question was much agitated 
 after the coal-miners became possessed of the Parlia- 
 mentary franchise in 1885, and the agitation led to 
 the appointment of a Royal Commission. The Com- 
 mission was constituted by Lord Salisbury's Admin- 
 istration in 1889, and was deputed to inquire into the 
 amounts paid as royalties and way-leaves, the terms 
 and conditions under which the payments were made, 
 and into the " economic operation thereof upon the 
 mining interests of the country." Landowners, min- 
 ing lessees, representatives of miners' trade-unions, 
 lawyers, and professors of political economy, were all 
 of the Commission. Its inquiries extended over 
 three years. Much of the evidence tendered before 
 the Commission came as a surprise to the country. 
 It was found that mining royalties were much less 
 in amount than had been popularly supposed, and 
 that their effect upon trade was but small. The 
 Commission reported in February, 1893, and were 
 unanimous in their opinion that any legislative inter- 
 ference with the amount of royalties was undesirable. 
 
 As to the effect of mining royalties on trade, the
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 299 
 
 Commission reported that " although proprietors of 
 minerals have the power to prevent them from being 
 worked, by refusing to let them, or by demanding 
 excessive royalties, the evidence that we have re- 
 ceived shows that these powers have not been so 
 used as to interfere with the general development 
 of the mineral resources of the United Kingdom." 
 
 On the general question of the relation of royalties 
 to miners' wages, the Commissioners gave it as their 
 opinion that it would " be more correct to say that 
 wages govern royalties, than that royalties govern 
 wages ; for an intending lessee in negotiating for a 
 lease of minerals must consider the probable cost of 
 winning and working such minerals, as well as every 
 other material circumstance affecting his enterprise ; 
 and, inasmuch as the principal outlay in the winning 
 and working of minerals is that of wages, it follows 
 that the wages paid, or to be paid, greatly influence 
 the amount of royalty that a lessee can afford to pay 
 on the minerals worked. If royalties were adjusted 
 at frequent intervals, whilst prices obtainable for the 
 mineral remained the same, royalties would neces- 
 sarily be reduced if wages were increased." 
 
 The Commissioners further reported that evidence 
 was given to show that " royalties have been reduced 
 by individual lessees, either because of the low price 
 of coal, or on account of the depreciation of the 
 value of the mine. No evidence has been given to 
 show that the benefit of the reduction was obtained 
 by the miners in the shape of increased wages. The 
 benefit to the miner takes the form of continuation
 
 300 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 of employment, or, possibly, avoidance of a reduc- 
 tion in wages." 
 
 Owners of land under copyhold have given lessees 
 of minerals more trouble than the freehold landown- 
 ers. These copyholders, who, as the result of re- 
 cent legislation for their enfranchisement, are yearly 
 declining in number, hold their land from the lord of 
 the manor under a peculiar tenure, which goes back 
 in its origin to the time of the Saxons. Until the 
 reign of Edward III., copyholders held their land 
 at the will and caprice of the lords of the manor. 
 Then they were given a legal status and security of 
 tenure, subject, however, to payments of fines when 
 the lands changed hands either by death or by pur- 
 chase. One of these conditions is known as heriot. 
 Under it, at the death of the copyholder, the lord of 
 the manor has a right to take the best beast on the 
 copyhold. 
 
 Minerals under copyhold land do not belong to 
 the copyholder. They are the property of the lord 
 of the manor ; but he cannot, except at the will of 
 the copyholder, enter the lands and mine for them. 
 If they are reached from shafts sunk on neighboring 
 land, the copyholder can obtain compensation for 
 damage done to the surface of his land. Growing 
 timber is not the property of the copyholder, but of 
 the lord of the manor, who, however, cannot enter 
 the land to cut it. 
 
 The evidence of title to copyhold land is in the 
 court roll of the manor. When land thus held 
 changes hands, the change is effected through sur-
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 30 1 
 
 render to the lord and a re-grant. The lord can ex- 
 ercise no choice as to the new copyholder, and the 
 amount of fine he may exact has of late years been 
 limited by law. 
 
 In days gone by there were hundreds of thousands 
 of acres of common land. In the last century, and 
 in the first half of the present, the process of en- 
 closing these lands was most extensively carried on 
 by the neighboring landowners. Many of the com- 
 mons were enclosed by virtue of Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, which were passed in quick order in the days 
 before the first Reform Act ; others were annexed 
 by the landlords without even the formality of an 
 Act of Parliament, and were quietly added to their 
 estates. 
 
 About thirty years ago, however, Parliament began 
 to give some attention to common lands in the inter- 
 ests of others than the landlords. The Commons 
 Preservation Society was established in 1865, and, 
 as a result of its work, and of the new and active 
 interest of the House of Commons, a check was 
 at once put on these enclosures. This check is still 
 in action, as is evidenced by the fact that in Sep- 
 tember, 1893, an Act was passed which placed all 
 the land still unenclosed under the supervision of 
 the Hoard of Agriculture, a Department with a Cab- 
 inet Minister at its head and directly responsible to 
 Parliament. As the law now stands, a common can- 
 not be enclosed by a landowner, or intrenched upon 
 by a railway company, except by permission of the 
 Hoard of Agriculture. The effect of this change,
 
 3O2 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 which was begun by the Copyholders' Act of 1887, 
 will be to leave the Commons Preservation Society 
 almost without a reason for existence; for he will 
 be a daring landowner who will run the risk of liti- 
 gating with a Government Department like the Board 
 of Agriculture. A noteworthy fact about this last 
 measure for the preservation of commons is that it 
 had its origin in the House of Lords. 
 
 Allotments and small holdings systems worked 
 under the supervision of the local governing bodies 
 are of recent date. Their establishment was among 
 the earliest results of the movement in the constitu- 
 encies and in Parliament to improve the position and 
 the outlook of the laborer in the rural districts, which 
 followed his enfranchisement by the Reform Acts of 
 1884 and 1885. The Allotments Act came first. 
 It was passed in 1887, and gave powers to the Local 
 Sanitary authorities to purchase agricultural land, 
 divide it into allotments, and let the allotments on 
 yearly tenancies to artisans and laborers. The Act 
 did not work well ; in some districts the local sani- 
 tary authorities dominated by the large farmers were 
 slow, if not apathetic, in carrying out its provisions. 
 Its shortcomings were remedied in 1890; and as 
 the allotments law now stands, if a local authority 
 fails to carry out its provisions, the ratepayers who 
 are concerned may appeal to the county council, and 
 the county council may assume and carry into effect 
 all the power with reference to allotments vested in 
 the local sanitary authorities. 
 
 The amending Act of 1890 also gives relief to
 
 THE LAND AND. ITS OWNERS. 303 
 
 those local sanitary authorities which are desirous of 
 establishing the allotments system, but are prevented 
 from doing so by difficulties in securing suitable 
 land. An authority so prevented from carrying out 
 the law may now appeal to the county council, which 
 will exercise compulsory powers in order to secure 
 possession of the land required for allotments. The 
 compensation for land so taken is settled by arbitra- 
 tion ; private parks and gardens are exempt from the 
 operation of these laws. Allotments are limited to 
 one acre, and the theory of the system is that they 
 shall be worked by day laborers in their spare time. 
 
 In 1892 the Small Holdings System was estab- 
 lished by Parliament. The local machinery in con- 
 nection with it is much the same as that of the 
 Allotments System, only under the measure of 1892 
 a holding may be up to, but not exceeding, ten acres 
 in extent, and sufficiently large to engage the whole 
 of the holder's time. 
 
 Although Parliament has set up these two systems 
 since the last Reform Act, neither of them is alto- 
 gether new. For some years previously a number 
 of the more liberal landlords had adopted the Allot- 
 ments System, and worked it with much success. As 
 regards small holdings, these have existed for more 
 than two centuries past in the Fenlands in the east- 
 ern part of England. The system in the Fenlands, 
 however, differs materially from the Small Holdings 
 System established by Parliament in 1892. Under 
 the modern system the holdings are rented from the 
 county council. Under the Fenlands system they
 
 304 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 are mostly freehold, owned by the people tilling 
 them, who form a class of peasant proprietors. 
 
 One of the Fenland districts in which the older 
 system may be seen to advantage, is in that part of 
 Lincolnshire locally known as the Isle of Axholme. 
 Two and a half centuries ago most of this country 
 was under water. It was drained by means of canals 
 and turbines, devised by Vermuyden, the Dutch engi- 
 neer, and the waters carried off to the River Trent, 
 along the banks of which dikes were erected, and 
 still exist, to protect the lands. After the land was 
 thus reclaimed, a portion of it was divided out among 
 the local Penmen, while the other part of it was 
 reserved to the Crown, which had undertaken the 
 work of reclamation. The Crown still holds some 
 of the land which was then thus reserved, and still 
 presents to the church livings in the Isle of Ax- 
 holme ; but nearly the whole of the land is now 
 in the hands of small proprietors. 
 
 The land is not divided into fields, nor fenced from 
 the highways, but lies in great open tracts. These 
 are divided into narrow strips, with nothing more 
 than a furrow to mark off one strip from another ; 
 and it frequently happens that three or four crops, 
 belonging to as many different owners, are passed in 
 a walk of one hundred yards along the highway. 
 The cultivators do not live upon the lands, but in the 
 neighboring towns and villages, where their farm- 
 steads are situated. 
 
 The size of the lands or selions (Norman French ; 
 modern French " sillon " a furrow) varies consider-
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 305 
 
 ably, from less than a rood to as much as a couple 
 of acres. Some of the strips are as narrow as four 
 yards, and run to a quarter of a mile in length. The 
 small holders own two or three of the lands, and cul- 
 tivate them in addition to following their ordinary 
 trade. Half a dozen lands form an average holding 
 for a man who lives by farming them. Usually a 
 holder of lands to this extent, in addition to cultivat- 
 ing his own, acts as a higgler and does the horse 
 work for the smaller holders, who do not give all 
 their time to farming and do not keep horses. 
 
 The value of the lands ranges from thirty pounds 
 to eighty pounds an acre. Years ago they fetched 
 as much as one hundred pounds an acre. Nearly all 
 the lands are held by natives of the Isle. New- 
 comers are the exception. The owners are not al- 
 ways resident ; but the non-residents usually have 
 some family connection or tie with the Axholme 
 country. Epworth, an old-fashioned, red-tiled and 
 characterful market-town, which is the centre of this 
 peculiar land system, lies remote from the railways, 
 and in recent years its population has been declining. 
 
 Considerable work is still necessary to keep the 
 narrow canals and sluices in good order, and to force 
 the water along the canals to the Trent. This work 
 is under the superintendence of a Drainage Board 
 elected by the owners of the lands, on whom the 
 Hoard levies a rate each year to meet the expenses 
 incurred in carrying out the work. 
 
 Since the Reform Act of 1868, the second in the 
 series of three great Parliamentary Reform Acts
 
 306 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 which have made England a democracy, there has 
 been much legislation for the relief of tenant farm- 
 'ers, for the preservation of common land, and for 
 the improvement of the economic condition of the 
 rural laborer. With the exception, however, of one 
 measure passed in 1880, giving farmers the right to 
 shoot hares on land in their occupation, the game 
 laws remain as they were passed in the closing years 
 of the unreformed Parliament. The most drastic of 
 these laws that for the prevention of night-poach- 
 ing, and that for the prevention of trespass in the 
 pursuit of game in the daytime were passed before 
 Queen Victoria came to the Throne, and by a House 
 of Commons elected in the interests of landowners, 
 and largely by landowners. After the beginning of 
 the present reign these two measures were extended 
 in their scope, and by one of the extensions, there 
 were thrown upon the county police forces certain 
 duties in connection with the prevention of poaching. 
 The modern game laws replace the old forestry 
 laws, under which none but persons of birth or estate 
 were allowed to kill game, and under which game- 
 keepers were given the right of search and other 
 legal powers. The first of the modern game laws 
 was passed in 1828. It is known as the Night Poach- 
 ing Act, and under its provisions the local magis- 
 trates are empowered to inflict heavy penalties for 
 the crime of poaching. Any person who unlawfully 
 takes or destroys any game or rabbit, whether on 
 open or enclosed land, or shall at night unlawfully 
 enter or be upon land with any gun, net, engine, or
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 307 
 
 other instrument for the purpose of destroying game, 
 is, upon conviction before two magistrates, liable to 
 be committed to jail for a term not exceeding two 
 months with hard labor, and at the. expiration of his 
 imprisonment may be called upon to find sureties for 
 his not so offending again. For a second offence he 
 may be sent to jail for six months ; and in default of 
 finding sureties for his future behavior, the prisoner 
 may be detained in jail for a further period of twelve 
 months. A third offence is a misdemeanor, and the 
 offender may be sent to penal servitude for a term of 
 not more than seven years. In a case of this kind, 
 the accused. would be tried at Quarter Sessions. 
 
 The next game law passed by the unreformed Par- 
 liament is that of 1832. It decreed a close time for 
 hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath and moor 
 game, and black game and bustards ; made trespass- 
 ing in pursuit of game a criminal offence; and es- 
 tablished a system of licenses for the killing and 
 selling of game. Trespassing in the daytime in pur- 
 suit of game is, by this Act of 1832, made punishable 
 by a fine not exceeding two pounds and costs; and 
 where five or more persons engage in the trespass, 
 each is liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds. 
 By the same law, when a farmer kills game which, in 
 h'is agreement with his landlord, is reserved by the 
 landlord, he makes himself liable, not for a breach of 
 contract for which damages can be recovered in 
 county court, but to criminal proceedings before the 
 magistrates. 
 
 The game laws passed after the Parliamentary
 
 308 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 Reform of 1832, and by a House of Commons elected 
 by the middle classes, begin with an Act which came 
 into force about 1835, and made it a penal offence to 
 take game on the highway at night. This was fol- 
 lowed by another Act, passed about 1863, which gives 
 power to policemen to search persons whom they 
 have good cause to suspect of coming from any land 
 where they may have been unlawfully in pursuit of 
 game. Under this measure the policemen apply to 
 the magistrates for summonses against suspected per- 
 sons, who, if convicted at petty sessions, are liable to 
 a fine not exceeding five pounds. All game and all 
 implements for snaring and killing game found in 
 possession of these offenders are forfeited. Under 
 this measure the county police force act vigorously 
 with gamekeepers in preserving game. The police 
 are not supposed to act as game-watchers on private 
 lands, but undoubtedly they often act in concert with 
 gamekeepers in preventing poaching and in bringing 
 the poachers to the police courts. 
 
 The Ground Game Act of 1880 was passed to re- 
 lieve tenant farmers from some of the provisions of 
 the Act of 1830. As the law stood, a farmer might 
 be summoned to the police court for killing a hare on 
 land in his own occupation. Under the Act of 1880 
 " every occupier shall have, as incident to and insep- 
 arable from his occupation of the land," a right to 
 kill and take the ground game thereon. He now 
 enjoys this right concurrently with the landlord, or 
 with the person to whom the landlord has assigned 
 the right to the game ; and a tenant cannot sign away
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWA T ERS. 309 
 
 his right when making terms with the landlord for 
 the occupation of the land. The granting of licenses 
 to kill and sell game is in the hands of the magis- 
 trates and the officers of the Inland Revenue Depart- 
 ment. The law makes it an offence to buy game 
 from other than persons licensed by the magistrates. 
 
 The conditions under which land is held in Eng- 
 land, and the relationships of the large owners to 
 their several classes of tenants, have now been briefly 
 explained. So far, nothing has been stated in this 
 chapter of the political privileges attaching to the 
 ownership of great estates. What these privileges 
 were, and which of them still remain, will, however, 
 be clear to readers of the chapters dealing with local 
 government, with the Poor Laws, with the adminis- 
 tration of justice, and with the military forces. At 
 the commencement of the century, the privileges at- 
 taching to land were both numerous and valuable; 
 but from the time of the Reform Act of 1832, Parlia- 
 ment has been constantly passing measures which 
 directly and indirectly have had the effect of curtail- 
 ing or doing away with most of them. 
 
 About 1820 it was estimated that nearly one-half 
 of the members of the House of Commons were re- 
 turned by some 160 territorial families. These fam- 
 ilies are still dominant in the House of Lords; but 
 not nearly so dominant there as they were half a 
 century ago; while in the House of Commons, during 
 the last sixty years, the power and influence of the 
 large landowners have been continuously declining. 
 The Reform Act of 1832 enfranchised the middle
 
 310 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 classes, and to a large extent left political power in 
 their hands until 1867. But while this Act thus en- 
 franchised the manufacturing and commercial classes, 
 it also increased the number of farmers possessed of 
 the franchise ; and for many years after it was passed, 
 the large landowners continued to exercise great po- 
 litical powers through influences they were able to 
 bring to bear on the tenantry. Writing of this phase 
 of English landlordism in 1887, Professor Pollock 
 affirmed that not only did the farmer meet the land- 
 lords half way on the questions of shooting rights, 
 and allow free passes to the hunt, but "his political 
 support of the landlord is not infrequently reckoned 
 on with as much confidence as the performance of 
 the covenants and conditions of the tenancy itself. 
 In the case of holdings from year to year, it may be 
 not unfairly said that being of the landlord's political 
 party is often a tacit condition of the tenancy." 
 
 Professor Pollock was writing almost a quarter of 
 a century after the Ballot Act came into operation, 
 four years later than the Corrupt Practices Act of 
 1883, three years after the Reform Act of 1884, and 
 at a time when the demand for farms was not nearly 
 so great as formerly. But any one who has been 
 much in contact with English tenant farmers of the 
 old school and who has been present at a rent-audit 
 dinner, knows that, notwithstanding the Ballot Act, 
 many of them still regard voting with the landlord's 
 party as only right and loyal towards the estate with 
 which they are connected. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, as Professor Pollock asserts,
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 31! 
 
 that farmers still vote with the landlords. Their 
 votes, however, are not worth what they were to the 
 landlords prior to the Reform Act of 1884. This 
 Act enfranchised some two million voters in the rural 
 constituencies. Most of these electors vote as they 
 please. The rural laborer is not much troubled with 
 feelings of loyalty to the estate on which he works, 
 and in many constituencies what may be described 
 as the mechanical loyalty of the tenant farmer is 
 more than counterbalanced by the votes of the 
 laborers and those of the small tradesmen and arti- 
 sans in the villages, who are free alike of the tenant 
 farmer and the squire. The voters in a manufactur- 
 ing or a mining community, situated in an otherwise 
 rural constituency, will at any time more than neu- 
 tralize the support which a Conservative landlord can 
 count upon from his tenantry. 
 
 Nor is the political support of the tenantry given 
 to the landlord's party as mechanically as it was even 
 twenty years ago. Since 1880 there has been a far- 
 reaching change in the character of the rank and file 
 of political parties in England, and a great movement 
 of the prosperous and well-to-do from the old Liber- 
 alism to the new Conservatism. Tenant farmers 
 have shared largely in this movement, and nowadays 
 thousands of them vote with the Conservatives as 
 much from conviction and sympathy as from loyalty 
 to their landlords. 
 
 After the loss of direct influence in the House of 
 Commons which followed the first Reform Act, the 
 landlords held their own as regards political power
 
 3 1 2 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 and privileges until 1885. Between the first and the 
 last Reform Acts they lost their exclusive hold upon 
 the Civil Service, upon the commissions in the army 
 and the navy, and also some of their hold on the mili- 
 tia. As concerns local government, they were left 
 undisturbed in possession of great powers until 1888. 
 In that year the County Government Act was passed, 
 and by this measure the landlords lost the monopoly 
 of county administration. All that were left to them 
 were their judicial powers and some share in the con- 
 trol of the county police. All their other privileges 
 were taken away, and local government was placed in 
 the hands of county councils elected on a democratic 
 franchise. 
 
 Some privileges still attach to the ownership of 
 land. A lord-lieutenant of a county is necessarily a 
 large landowner; so are his deputies, and so is the 
 sheriff; and a county magistrate has still to be pos- 
 sessed of land. Preference is still given to landown- 
 ers and the sons of landowners in the appointments to 
 commissions in the militia. Coroners in counties are 
 still elected by the free-holders, and grand juries at 
 the Assizes and the Quarter Sessions are still drawn 
 from the landed classes. These privileges, however, 
 are now being assailed by the democracy. Of late 
 years the Radicals have concentrated their efforts 
 on the reform of the county magistracy. Sooner or 
 later they will succeed, and their success in this di- 
 rection will also mean the breaking down of the 
 present system of summoning grand juries exclu- 
 sively from the landowners. When these privileges
 
 THE LAND AND ITS OWNERS. 313 
 
 associated with land, in connection with the magis- 
 tracy, are gone, little will be left to the landowners 
 but the lord-lieutenancy and the office of high sheriff, 
 so that to the squirearchy no political privileges 
 worth the having will remain.
 
 314 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 
 
 Establishment and Development of Modern Daily Newspapers. Reports of 
 Parliamentary and Political Speeches. Non-Partisan Reporting. Gov- 
 ernment Organs of the Past. Rewards from Government to News- 
 papers. Honors for Proprietors and Editors. Government Publications. 
 
 THE era of the daily press dates from about 1860. 
 Daily newspapers had been published in London 
 since 1702; but all through the eighteenth century, 
 and until after the middle of the nineteenth, these 
 London daily journals were sold at high prices, and 
 their circulations were small. There were many rea- 
 sons for this limited circulation. Daily newspapers 
 were costly to produce ; their expeditious distribution 
 outside the metropolis was a matter of great ex- 
 pense, and, above all, the newspapers were hampered 
 by the taxes on white paper, on advertisements, and 
 by the stamp duty. The last named of these im- 
 posts was repealed in 1855, the duty on paper in 
 1861, and with the entire freedom from taxation 
 began the modern era of the daily press. 
 
 At this time London had nine or ten daily news- 
 papers, with the Times in the lead. Of these, 
 six or seven still survive, and are holding their own 
 with competitors of more recent origin. Up to the 
 time of the abolition of the stamp duties, London
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 315 
 
 was the only city which had a daily press ; but 
 between 1855 and 1870 a large number of news- 
 papers published in the provincial cities, which had 
 hitherto been issued in weekly or bi-weekly form, 
 made their appearance as daily journals. With only 
 one or two exceptions, all the prosperous provincial 
 morning papers of to-day were originally weeklies, 
 and as such had long occupied the ground they now 
 hold as dailies. They were all founded upon old- 
 established weekly journals which had made con- 
 stituencies for themselves in the days when people 
 were contented to receive their news once or twice 
 a week, and were willing to pay fivepence, or even 
 sevenpence or eightpence, for the modest papers in 
 which it was contained. 
 
 During the last twelve or fifteen years attempts 
 have been made in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, 
 and Newcastle, and in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and 
 Aberdeen, to establish morning journals published 
 daily from the outset. Several of the journals so 
 started dropped out of existence after short careers. 
 In every one of these cases the new paper was put 
 on foot to meet a supposed political need. In no 
 case was the paper a commercial enterprise ; the 
 men who found the capital had a political end to 
 serve, and were willing to adventure their money 
 for that purpose. All the older papers are so well 
 established, and they so adequately cover the field, 
 and it costs such an immense sum to start a new 
 paper, that nowadays business men will not embark 
 money in daily newspaper enterprises ; and during
 
 3l6 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 the last twenty-five years no attempt has been made 
 to start an absolutely new morning paper as a 
 strictly commercial speculation with the idea of 
 being able to compete with existing journals. The 
 older daily journals, those which came into existence 
 as weeklies, and were transformed into dailies in the 
 sixties and the seventies, had the advantage from the 
 start. They had a clear field ; they went in and pos- 
 sessed it, and the futile results of recent endeavors 
 to strike into their domains and share their pros- 
 perity seem to prove that the position of these older 
 journals is unassailable. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand why the positions 
 of the older journals are thus almost impossible of 
 successful attack. In the first ten or fifteen years 
 of the era of the daily press, people were content 
 to pay their pennies for four-page sheets, which 
 were produced at comparatively small outlay, an 
 outlay generally within the means of the owner of 
 a successful weekly or bi-weekly journal. As the 
 reading constituencies grew, and the advertising pa- 
 tronage extended, the four-page broad-sheets were 
 turned into eight-page papers ; the home and foreign 
 news services were extended and improved ; the pro- 
 vincial papers established London offices, organized 
 London and Parliamentary staff's, leased from the 
 post-office telegraph wires between London and the 
 town of publication, augmented the editorial and 
 local staffs, until gradually it has come about that 
 the leading papers in Manchester and Glasgow, in 
 Liverpool and in Birmingham, are as good as any of
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 317 
 
 the penny morning journals which are published in 
 London. 
 
 The eagerness for news of what is going on in 
 Parliament is older than the daily press. Parlia- 
 mentary debates were published at length in weekly 
 papers and magazines when the reporters and the 
 printers who engaged in the work of producing the 
 reports did so at great risk, and were liable to be 
 summoned before the House of Commons, and sent 
 to Newgate or the Tower of London for breach of 
 privilege. Ever since the press was admitted to the 
 galleries of the Houses of Parliament, and especially 
 after the use of shorthand became general among 
 reporters, the daily papers have devoted a large pro- 
 portion of their space to the proceedings at Westmin- 
 ster; and when Parliament is in session it is almost 
 a canon in every morning newspaper office that the 
 first editorial shall deal with last night's sitting in 
 the House of Commons, or with the political speeches 
 made outside the walls of Parliament. It frequently 
 happens that a page and a half of the London or 
 Manchester morning journals are devoted to the 
 Parliamentary reports, and, by a large proportion of 
 the newspaper's constituency, these long reports are 
 carefully read. Busy men may content themselves 
 with the summary ; but people who take a continu- 
 ous active interest in politics read the full reports. 
 
 It is much the same with the great speeches which 
 are made outside Parliament. If Mr. Gladstone or 
 Lord Salisbury, Mr. Balfour or Mr. John Morley, 
 makes a speech of an hour's duration at a political
 
 3 1 8 THE ENGLISHMAN A T HOME. 
 
 banquet or a public meeting, most of the morning 
 papers report the speech in full. In the reporting 
 of these speeches there is rarely anything approach- 
 ing to political partisanship. The editor of a Con- 
 servative newspaper is, of course, more disposed 
 than the editor of a Liberal paper to throw aside 
 other news matter to make room for a three-column 
 report of a speech by Lord Salisbury or Mr. Bal- 
 four ; but if the Liberal editor undertakes to report 
 the speech at all, he will do so with as absolute fair- 
 ness as his Conservative contemporary. 
 
 Shorthand reporters are supposed to know no pol- 
 itics in the discharge of their work ; and rarely, if 
 ever, does a trained reporter wilfully and for partisan 
 reasons garble or distort a speech of a public "man 
 who is on the opposite side in politics to that of the 
 newspaper. Experienced reporters, men of any stand- 
 ing in the newspaper world, know to a nicety where 
 the work of a reporter ends and where that of the 
 edtorial writer begins, and reporters seldom trench 
 upon the province of the editorial writer. Some- 
 times in the introductory sketch which precedes a 
 verbatim report of a speech by Mr. Gladstone or 
 Lord Salisbury, there is a partisan bias ; but usually 
 this introductory matter is printed in larger type 
 than the body of the report, and is obviously the 
 work of an editorial correspondent. The report of 
 the speech which follows is usually alike word for 
 word in the newspapers of both political parties, and 
 is frequently the work of the same corps of short- 
 hand reporters.
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 319 
 
 An editor has no hesitation in firing hot shot at a 
 political opponent ; but in the case of journals of 
 any standing, *he opponent so assailed has to keep 
 his eye on only one battery, that planted on the 
 editorial page. On the news page he will usually re- 
 ceive all the fairness and courtesy that the paper 
 accords to public men of its own political party. 
 
 There are not wanting grounds for the belief that 
 this non-partisan character of the reporters' work in 
 the best English journals accounts in a great meas- 
 ure for the hold which political speeches have upon 
 newspaper readers, and for the growing tendency of 
 thoughtful people to form their own opinions more 
 upon what a public man says and does than upon the 
 partisan interpretations of his speeches and actions 
 in the editorial columns of the daily newspapers. 
 It is open to question whether the editorial writer is 
 the power he once was in English journalism. He 
 still helps to keep his party together; but nowadays 
 it is doubtful whether the editorial columns of the 
 daily press make many political converts. People sel- 
 dom read more than one morning paper, and usually 
 it is of the political complexion of the party to 
 which they belong. The editorial opinions of the 
 papers on the other side seldom come under their 
 notice, and, as a general thing, political editorial 
 writers write for those who are already with them. 
 
 All over England the morning papers are bought 
 almost exclusively by the middle classes. No morn- 
 ing paper can be maintained without the support of 
 a constituency drawn from this class. The working-
 
 32O THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 classes form no large part of the supporters of the 
 penny morning press. When working-people read 
 daily papers they are those published in the after- 
 noon and sold at a halfpenny; and, as a rule, these 
 afternoon papers give more attention to sporting 
 news than to politics. 
 
 Before the daily press entered upon the era dat- 
 ing from the abolition of stamps and duties, there 
 were journals in London which might with some de- 
 gree of accuracy be described as Government organs. 
 These journals were not directly subsidized by the 
 Government ; but their conductors were rewarded in 
 various ways, sometimes by advertising patronage, 
 and by the enjoyment of other privileges, and some- 
 times by office. The editors of such papers were in 
 some kind of touch with the members of the Minis- 
 try. Exclusive official information was occasionally 
 vouchsafed to them, and their journals were some- 
 times spoken of as inspired. 
 
 With the new era of daily journalism this condition 
 of things came to an end. The reform of the civil 
 service, which dates ten years later than the complete 
 freedom of the press, made it impossible for a Gov- 
 ernment to reward its journalistic supporters by quar- 
 tering them on the civil establishment. Almost the 
 last offices conferred by a Government on journalists 
 were the Examinership of Plays, an office attached 
 to the department of the Lord Chamberlain, and 
 the editorship of the London Gazette. The office 
 of the Examiner of Plays is one to which considera- 
 ble work attaches ; the editorship of the London
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 321 
 
 Gazette is a sinecure, and is to be, or has been, abol- 
 ished. This office was last held by a journalist who 
 at one time 'was the editor of a Liberal morning pa- 
 per published in London. The present Examiner of 
 Plays was also a member of the editorial staff of the 
 same journal. With the exception of these two po- 
 sitions, for twenty years past, there have been no 
 appointments which a Government might confer on 
 journalists in reward for their literary services. 
 
 Nor can a Government nowadays confer any very 
 substantial favors upon the owners or editors of jour- 
 nals. About all that can be done for a daily journal 
 by the Government is to give it a place on the list of 
 journals which are entitled to share in official adver- 
 tising and to receive the few official communications 
 which are sent out from State Departments like the 
 Foreign Office and the Colonial Office, the Admiralty 
 and the Board of Trade. Neither of these privileges 
 is worth much. It is doubtful whether there is a 
 single daily journal which receives in the aggregate 
 from the Government Departments, advertising pat- 
 ronage worth two hundred pounds a year; while 
 as concerns official communications, these are little 
 more than a compliment to the journal receiving 
 them; for the same communications are sent to the 
 press associations, and are distributed by these agen- 
 cies to all their subscribers. 
 
 The number of tickets issued for the Reporters' 
 Galleries at Westminster is limited. They are much 
 in demand. The Sergeant-at-Arms distributes those 
 for the House of Commons, and the Lord Chamber-
 
 322 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 lain is responsible for those for the House of Lords. 
 In both cases, but more particularly for the House of 
 Commons, the distribution of these press privileges 
 is a matter of some difficulty and delicacy ; but to no 
 one who has had anything to do with applications for 
 these tickets would it occur that partisan considera- 
 tions ever entered into the consideration of applica- 
 tions for them. The boxes assigned to the various 
 daily newspapers in the Press Gallery in the House 
 of Commons seldom fall vacant. When one is sur- 
 rendered by a newspaper, or a newspaper holding a 
 box drops out of existence, each application for the 
 vacant seats is considered on its merits. 
 
 The only other privileges conferred on journalists 
 at Westminster are in the gift of the Speaker. 
 These are the orders for admission to the Inner 
 Lobby of the House of Commons ; and applications 
 for places on what is known as the Speaker's list are 
 dealt with in the same way as those addressed to the 
 Sergeant-at-Arms for boxes and places in the Re- 
 porters' Gallery. 
 
 The Government, in short, can make little return 
 to newspapers which support it, or which supported 
 its members when they were in Opposition; and 
 so far as news services and revenues are concerned, 
 it matters little to the proprietor of a daily paper 
 whether the political party which his journal sup- 
 ports is in office or in Opposition at St. Stephens. 
 
 Of late years, however, a new system of rewards 
 for journalists has come into vogue. It was devised 
 by Lord Salisbury about 1885, and takes the form of
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. $2$ 
 
 honors which are bestowed on proprietors and edi- 
 tors. This form of reward was freely bestowed by 
 Lord Salisbury between 1885 and 1892. It was 
 adopted by Mr. Gladstone in 1893; and now, as the 
 outcome of this system, there is scarcely a large city 
 in Great Britain in which there is not a titled jour- 
 nalist. The rule is baronetcies for proprietors, and 
 knighthoods for editors. A baronetcy confers an 
 hereditary title upon the recipient of. the honor; the 
 title of a knight dies with its holder. 
 
 In the smaller towns the proprietors and editors of 
 weekly and bi-weekly journals which take sides in 
 politics have in recent years been rewarded by places 
 on the borough benches of magistrates, appointments 
 which are regarded as conferring some slight local 
 social distinction upon those who receive them. 
 
 The journals issued from the Government Depart- 
 ments, or published under the auspices of the 
 Government, are the London Gazette, Hansard's 
 Parliamentary Debates, the Board of Trade Returns, 
 the Board of Trade Journal, and the Labor Gazette. 
 
 The London Gazette has been in existence as an 
 official journal since 1665. It is now published 
 twice a week, and special editions are issued as occa- 
 sion demands. It is devoted exclusively to official 
 notices and advertisements, and is a strictly non-par- 
 tisan journal. All Royal Proclamations, all notices 
 concerning Parliament, the Military and Naval Forces, 
 the Civil Service, and the various Government and 
 State Departments are published in the London 
 Gazette, as are also all dissolutions of partnership
 
 324 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 and all advertisements issued in connection with the 
 administration of the bankruptcy laws. 
 
 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates were established 
 early in the present century by a London printer 
 and publisher, whose name they bear. For many 
 years they were published as a private specula- 
 tion ; later on they were given a semi-official char- 
 acter, and the Government granted the publisher an 
 annual subsidy, purchased a certain number of copies 
 of the Debates for use in the libraries at Westmin- 
 ster and Whitehall, and also assigned the Han- 
 sard reporters boxes in the Press Galleries in the 
 Houses of Parliament. An arrangement of this 
 kind still exists, although the publication of the 
 debates has passed out of the hands of the family 
 which originally issued them. The Hansard De- 
 bates differ in several respects from the Congres- 
 sional Record which is published at Washington. 
 Speeches, as a rule, are condensed to about one-third 
 their original length: members revise their speeches, 
 if they care to do so ; but they are not permitted to 
 introduce matter which was not contained in the 
 speech as made in the House. Nor are copies of the 
 Debates supplied free to members. They have to 
 subscribe for them as they do for ordinary journals. 
 
 The other three official publications are all issued 
 from the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade 
 Returns are published in the first week of each 
 month, and contain detailed and comparative statis- 
 tics as to imports and exports in the United King- 
 dom, compiled from the official returns made by the
 
 THE DAILY PRESS. 325 
 
 officers of the Board of Trade. This publication is 
 entirely statistical, and is of great value as an indi- 
 cation of the state of trade. Another monthly pub- 
 lication issued from the same Department is the 
 Board of Trade Journal. It is largely made up of 
 the reports concerning trade abroad and openings for 
 British trade, addressed by the English consuls to 
 the Foreign Office. The making of the reports is 
 one of the most important duties of English consuls 
 abroad. Like the London Gazette, the Board of 
 Trade Journal is a strictly non-partisan publication. 
 It is, however, of much more general interest than 
 the London Gazette, and is largely circulated among 
 manufacturers and shippers all over the British 
 Empire. 
 
 The Labor Gazette, which is also issued monthly, 
 is the newest of the Government publications. It 
 was begun in May, 1893, and replaced the monthly 
 bulletin which was formerly issued to the press in 
 the clays when all the work of the Labor Department 
 was discharged by one solitary official, who was 
 known as the Labor Correspondent of the Board of 
 Trade. The Labor Gazette dates from the reor- 
 ganization and enlargement of the Labor Bureau at 
 Whitehall, and is an outcome of the new solicitude 
 of the Government for the interests of labor, which 
 has been briefly described in the chapter dealing 
 with the factory laws and labor legislation. With 
 questions of opinion the Labor Gazette has no 
 concern. The aim of its publication, as officially 
 described, " is to provide a sound basis for the
 
 326 THE ENGLISHMAN AT HOME. 
 
 formation of opinions, and not to supply opinions." 
 To this end official information bearing on labor in 
 all its phases, collected by the Board of Trade, by the 
 Foreign Office, and by the other State departments, 
 is summarized in the Labor Gazette, and official 
 correspondents are permanently engaged in all the 
 great centres of industry in the United Kingdom to 
 report concerning the condition of trade, the demand 
 for labor, and also concerning the causes, progress, 
 and results of all disputes between labor and capital. 
 All the official publications outside the periodicals 
 described, including all documents laid on the table 
 of the House of Commons or the House of Lords, 
 such as reports from the State Departments, from 
 Select Committees, and from Royal Commissions, 
 are known as Blue Books. Only to members of Par- 
 liament are these Blue Books furnished free of charge. 
 Other people may obtain them at very little more 
 than cost price from the Queen's printers.
 
 APPENDICES.
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 THE AGGREGATE COST OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 THE cost of Local Government in England and Wales, 
 including municipal government, urban and rural, in all its 
 departments, the administration of the Poor Laws, and the 
 Elementary Education Acts, is shown by the accompanying 
 tables, which are taken from the annual report of the Local 
 Government Board for the year 1891-92. The figures quoted 
 are those for the financial year ending March 25, 1890. In that 
 year the net receipts of all the local governing bodies reporting 
 to the Local Government Board were ,50,237,862, as compared 
 with .47,975,705 in the year ending March 25, 1889. The 
 principal items of receipt in these two years were as follows : 
 
 
 1888-89. 
 
 1889-90. 
 
 Public Kates 
 
 
 27420,223 
 
 
 
 27. 717.4 OQ 
 
 Treasury subventions and payments . . . 
 From Local Government Hoard out of the 
 Local Taxation Account 
 
 4,790,860 
 
 2,194,838 
 
 J.727.J4 I 
 
 Tolls, dues, and duties 
 
 5,718,^,81 
 
 7.642.427 
 
 Receipts from real and funded property 
 (excluding sales) 
 
 i . i '.i.l'S 
 
 1.770.827 
 
 Sales of property 
 
 578.746 
 
 SI 7.OOI 
 
 Fees, fines, penalties, and licenses .... 
 Revenue from waterworks 
 Revenue from gasworks 
 
 1,170,984 
 2,400,407 
 1.677.020 
 
 ', "73.34 s 
 2,5'5> 2 7 
 
 7 S67 4l6 
 
 Revenue from markets, cemeteries, and bur- 
 ial grounds; sewage farms and works; 
 baths, washhouses, and open bathing- 
 places ; libraries and museums ; fire 
 brigades, lunatic asylums, hospitals, tram- 
 ways, slaughter-houses, and harbors, piers, 
 or docks 
 
 
 
 Repayments in respect of private improve- 
 ment works 
 
 777. J 1 J 
 
 777 478 
 
 
 
 
 329
 
 330 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 The aggregate expenditure of the same local authorities 
 during the year, so far as it was not defrayed out of loans, 
 amounted to ,48,179,573, as compared with ^47,082,128, 
 expended during the year 1888-89. The principal items of 
 expenditure for 1888-89 and 1889-90 were as follows : 
 
 
 1888-89. 
 
 1889-90. 
 
 Relief of the poor (including salaries, but ex- 
 cluding maintenance of pauper lunatics). 
 Pauper lunatics and lunatic asylums . . . 
 Police 
 
 
 
 6,599,222 
 
 M93> 26 5 
 ?. 802.0.10 
 
 
 
 6,607,299 
 1,505,691 
 ?.8oo.846 
 
 Prosecutions, and conveyance and mainte- 
 nance of prisoners 
 
 21 s.46? 
 
 208,760 
 
 Education (including expenses of school 
 boards, school attendance committees, 
 reformatories, and industrial schools) . 
 Highways, street improvements, and turn- 
 pike roads 
 
 3,863,438 
 5,681,607 
 
 4,056,696 
 
 r.8oo.^^4 
 
 Gasworks 
 
 2,627,416 
 
 2,S22,OO1 
 
 Public lighting 
 
 9O9,2OO 
 
 Ol8,O4^ 
 
 Waterworks 
 
 864,614 
 
 888,393 
 
 Sewerage and sewage disposal works . . 
 
 879,848 
 2Q4.O27 
 
 979,489 
 288,248 
 
 Cemeteries and burial grounds 
 
 243,650 
 
 2C;,674 
 
 
 2o6,l62 
 
 2 1 O.1 11 
 
 Public buildings, offices, etc. (not included 
 under other headings) 
 
 208,428 
 
 178,470 
 
 Parks, pleasure grounds, commons, and 
 open spaces 
 
 2O7,76O 
 
 228,090 
 
 Public libraries and museums 
 
 1 7O.6^8 
 
 100.78? 
 
 Baths, washhouses, and open bathing-places 
 Bridges and ferries 
 
 130,230 
 170.844 
 
 143,188 
 407.748 
 
 Artisans and laborers' dwellings improve- 
 ments 
 
 21 O^? 
 
 14 ^2S 
 
 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts . . 
 Hospitals 
 
 142,517 
 
 l6l.O24 
 
 101,824 
 
 Harbors, piers, docks, and quays .... 
 
 1,111,413 
 
 1,245,247 
 
 Land drainage, embankment, and river 
 conservancy 
 
 
 
 
 
 28 162 
 
 Other public works and purposes .... 
 Private improvement works 
 Payments in respect of principal and inter- 
 est of loans (including payments to sink- 
 ing fund) 
 
 2,3^,1-^1 
 536,261 
 
 11,163,803 
 
 2,401,082 
 5 6 7,i5 2 
 
 11,084,907 
 
 
 
 
 Establishment charges 
 Legal and Parliamentary expenses . . . 
 
 441,840 
 
 H9,'43 
 
 464,111 
 134.410
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 331 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 M UNICIPAL INDEBTEDNESS . 
 
 THE bonded indebtedness of the various local governing 
 bodies, and the undertakings for which the loans were raised, 
 is shown in the accompanying table. The figures given are 
 those for the years 1885-86 and 1889-90. Those for 1885-86 
 are given in order to indicate the works on which the munici- 
 palities are increasing their expenditures on capital account. 
 
 
 1885-86. 
 
 1889-90. 
 
 Poor Law purposes 
 
 
 
 6,686,575 
 
 
 
 7.O77, 7OJ. 
 
 Lunatic asylums 
 Police stations, jails, and - lock-up houses . 
 Schools (including reformatories and in- 
 dustrial schools) 
 
 3,408,780 
 859.594 
 
 16,098,216 
 
 3,557,436 
 1,019,301 
 
 18,240,088 
 
 Highways, street improvements, and turn- 
 pike roads 
 
 28,642,170 
 
 28,828,949 
 
 Waterworks 
 
 7i.S7o.8os 
 
 17.71O.121 
 
 Gasworks 
 
 IJ,4tI,5OQ 
 
 14,851,731 
 
 Sewerage and sewage disposal works . . 
 Markets 
 
 17,799.980 
 
 5,226,661 
 
 >9,35 2 .3 82 
 5,406,289 
 
 
 2,389,865 
 
 2,4 70,1, }O 
 
 Fire brigades 
 Public buildings, offices, etc. (not included 
 
 39,'3 6 
 3,702,530 
 
 471,425 
 
 4,2^4,431 
 
 Parks, pleasure grounds, commons, and 
 
 2,584,363 
 
 3,74'M87 
 
 Public libraries and museums 
 Itnths, washhouses, and open bathing- 
 places 
 
 379,5 '5 
 610,21 1 
 
 472,573 
 867,40} 
 
 
 
 
 Carried font-fird . . . 
 
 i ^,000,000 
 
 148.283.352
 
 332 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 
 1885-86. 
 
 1889-90. 
 
 Brought forward . . . 
 Bridges and ferries 
 
 
 135,000,000 
 
 J.I ?O,OsQ 
 
 
 '4 8 > 28 3 ) 35 2 
 
 Artisans and laborers' dwellings improve- 
 ments 
 
 J.641. 1O.1 
 
 
 Cattle Diseases Prevention Act, 1866 . . 
 Hospitals 
 
 129,668 
 
 S//H9 
 
 Harbors, piers, docks, and quays .... 
 Land drainage and embankment, river 
 conservancy, and sea defences .... 
 Tramways ... 
 
 29,119,8l2 
 
 2 >i5'344 
 
 1.112 I 76 
 
 3 1 - 1 M,487 
 
 3,136,884 
 1,276,410 
 
 Private improvement works 
 
 002,627 
 
 944,399 
 
 Loans charged on church rates 
 
 I ^.S1 1 
 
 7,600 
 
 Allotments 
 
 
 8,249 
 
 Public lighting 
 
 5.6,7s i 
 
 52,708 
 
 Slaughter-houses 
 
 7 1 -164 
 
 104,902 
 
 Other purposes 
 
 t,C-I7,OOQ 
 
 ?,ioi;,7Si 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 181,488,720 
 
 198,671,312 
 
 

 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 333 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 SALARIES UNDER THE MUNICIPALITIES. 
 
 SOME idea of the rates of pay received by the higher grade 
 of municipal servants may be obtained from the figures given 
 below. They represent the salaries which were paid in 1893 to 
 the town clerks and the surveyors of seventeen provincial towns 
 and cities. In some few cases the whole time of the town clerk 
 and the surveyor is not demanded by the town council, and 
 these officers are allowed to take private practice. 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 TOWN 
 CLERK. 
 
 SURVEYOR. 
 
 5 '7,953 
 55,343 
 478,1 id 
 367,506 
 3 2 4, 2 43 
 
 2 1 1 ,984 
 I()8,7I7 
 186,345 
 115,402 
 87,058 
 
 85,742 
 82,864 
 64,899 
 
 4M9 
 
 37,5 S 
 30,862 
 
 29,847 
 
 
 i ,600 
 
 ,75 
 2,000 
 1,250 
 1,250 
 1,900 
 1,000 
 1,500 
 
 800 
 
 600 
 600 
 
 1,050 
 1,000 
 250 
 
 900 
 300 
 
 400 
 
 
 
 95 
 1,000 
 1,000 
 800 
 800 
 800 
 500 
 1,000 
 700 
 
 45 
 500 
 500 
 500 
 
 35 
 500 
 200 
 35 
 
 Manchester 
 
 Birmingham 
 
 Leeds 
 
 Sheffield 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 Salford 
 
 Newcastle 
 
 Brighton 
 
 Burnley 
 
 (iateshcad ... 
 
 Halifax . . 
 
 Southampton 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Exeter 
 
 Burslcm 
 
 Dewsbury 

 
 334 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 THE AGGREGATE ANNUAL COST OF THE POOR LAW SYSTEM. 
 
 ACCORDING to the twenty-first annual report of the Local 
 Government Board covering the twelve months ending Lady 
 Day, 1892, there were in England and Wales on that day 
 761,473 persons in receipt of Poor Law relief. Of the total 
 number, 198.934 were in-door paupers and 562,320 out-door 
 paupers, while 219 received both in-door and out-door relief. 
 The accompanying table shows the total cost of the Poor Law 
 System for each of the ten years preceding 1891-92, together 
 with the Poor Rate per head of the population, and the rate in 
 the pound on the ratable value. 
 
 YEAR ENDED AT 
 LADY-DAY. 
 
 ESTIMATED 
 POPULATION. 
 
 EXPENDI- 
 TURE ON 
 RELIEF OF 
 THE POOR. 
 
 RATE PBR 
 HEAD ON 
 POPULA- 
 TION. 
 
 RATE IN 
 
 ON 
 
 RATABLE 
 VALUE. 
 
 1882 
 
 
 
 
 8.272.472 
 
 s. d. 
 6 3% 
 
 d. 
 
 2.1 
 
 1883 
 
 
 8. 7:7.202 
 
 6 4% 
 
 2.2 
 
 1884 
 
 
 8.4O2.;;7 
 
 6 *% 
 
 2.1 
 
 188; 
 
 26.021. 777 
 
 8,491,600 
 
 6 7% 
 
 2.O 
 
 jS86 
 
 
 8.206.270 
 
 6 i% 
 
 .c 
 
 1887 
 
 27 C2I 780 
 
 8,176,768 
 
 <; n% 
 
 .2 
 
 1888 
 
 27 826 "98 
 
 8.440.821 
 
 6 o% 
 
 .6 
 
 1880 
 
 28 17? IQ7 
 
 8,766,477 
 
 5 n% 
 
 .4 
 
 1890 
 
 28.447.OI4 
 
 8.474.74; 
 
 5 11% 
 
 .c 
 
 1891 
 
 28,762,287 
 
 8,647.718 
 
 6 o 
 
 .6 
 
 
 
 

 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 335 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 THE DISTRIBUTION OF PAUPERISM. THE RELATIVE PO- 
 SITIONS OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 THE distribution of pauperism over the various counties of 
 England and Wales is shown in the table given below. The 
 counties marked I are rural ; those marked 2 are rural and 
 mining; those marked 3 are manufacturing, mining, and partly 
 
 rural ; and those 
 populations. 
 
 marked 4 are rural with large suburban 
 
 UNION-COUNTIES. 
 
 RATIO PER 1,000 OF ESTIMATED 
 POPULATION. 
 
 IN-DOOR 
 PAUPERS. 
 
 OUT- DOOR 
 PAUPERS. 
 
 PAUPERS 
 
 OF ALL 
 
 CLASSES. 
 
 i Norfolk 
 
 7.2 
 54 
 3-6 
 6.8 
 
 5-8 
 5-9 
 
 5.0 
 
 7-2 
 
 7.0 
 5-9 
 4-7 
 3-8 
 7- 
 
 6.2 
 
 6.1 
 
 39-2 
 38.1 
 37-7 
 32-9 
 33-6 
 335 
 33-6 
 3'-' 
 30-7 
 29.9 
 
 3-3 
 31.0 
 
 27-7 
 28.2 
 28.1 
 
 46.4 
 43-5 
 4i-3 
 39-7 
 394 
 394 
 38.6 
 
 38.3 
 37-7 
 35-8 
 35 -o 
 34-8 
 34-7 
 344 
 34-z 
 
 l Dorset 
 
 North Wales 
 
 1 Wilts 
 
 1 Hereford 
 
 l Somerset 
 
 1 Devon 
 
 1 Hertford 
 
 1 Oxford 
 
 i Suffolk 
 
 1 Buckingham 
 
 1 Cornwall 
 
 ' Gloucester .... 
 
 1 Cambridge 
 
 1 Rutland 

 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 UNION-COUNTIES. 
 
 RATIO PER 1,000 OK ESTIMATED 
 POPULATION. 
 
 IN-DOOR 
 PAUPERS. 
 
 OUT-DOOR 
 PAUPERS. 
 
 PAUPERS 
 OF ALL 
 CLASSES. 
 
 i Bedford 5.5 
 
 8 Lincoln 4.6 
 
 l Southampton 7.5 
 
 1 Sussex 7.6 
 
 2 Monmouth 5.1 
 
 3 Worcester 5.7 
 
 3 Stafford 5.5 
 
 3 South Wales 3.3 
 
 l Essex 5.7 
 
 1 York, North Riding 4.9 
 
 2 Cumberland 4.7 
 
 3 York, East Riding 5.4 
 
 * Kent 84 
 
 i Berks 8.6 
 
 London 14.5 
 
 8 Northampton 4.1 
 
 1 Huntingdon 6.4 
 
 3 Leicester 5.2 
 
 8 Nottingham 4.4 
 
 < Surrey 6.3 
 
 8 Derby 4.2 
 
 * Middlesex 5.1 
 
 8 Durham 4.1 
 
 1 Westmoreland 5.1 
 
 8 Warwick 7.3 
 
 8 Northumberland 4.4 
 
 8 Chester 4.9 
 
 3 Salop 6.5 
 
 8 Lancaster 6.5 
 
 8 York, West Riding 3.7 
 
 28.0 
 28.9 
 25.6 
 
 2 5-3 
 27.0 
 24.1 
 24.1 
 25.2 
 
 22.2 
 22-9 
 22.9 
 21.2 
 
 17.9 
 I 7 .6 
 
 "3 
 21.7 
 
 IQ.I 
 
 19.8 
 19.1 
 
 16.1 
 
 '7-3 
 1 6.2 
 16.5 
 15.4 
 12.9 
 15.6 
 14.9 
 13.2 
 11.7 
 14-3 
 
 33-5 
 33-5 
 33-i 
 3 2 -9 
 32.1 
 29.8 
 29.6 
 28.5 
 27.9 
 27.8 
 27.6 
 26.6 
 26.3 
 26.2 
 25.8 
 25.8 
 
 2 5-5 
 25.0 
 
 23-5 
 22.4 
 21.5 
 21.3 
 
 20.6 
 
 20.5 
 
 2O.2 
 2O.O 
 19.8 
 19.7 
 
 18.2 
 1 8.0
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 337 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 CURRICULUM OF THE ELEMENTARY DAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 AFTER children have passed through the Infant's Department 
 of the Elementary Day Schools they are grouped in standards. 
 There are seven of these in most schools. Children enter the 
 first standard between the ages of five and seven, and are usu- 
 ally advanced a standard after each annual examination by the 
 inspectors from the Education Department. The Education 
 Code applies to all Elementary Day Schools in England and 
 Wales. It sets out the subjects in which the children in the 
 several standards are to be examined. They are as follows : 
 
 STANDARD I. 
 
 Reading: To read a short passage 
 from a book not confined to 
 words of one syllable. 
 
 Writing : Copy in manuscript char- 
 acters a line of print, commencing 
 with a capital letter. 
 
 Arithmetic: Notation and numera- 
 tion up to 1,000. Simple addition 
 and subtraction of numbers of 
 not more than three figures. The 
 multiplication table to 6 times 12. 
 
 English: Pointing out nouns. 
 
 Geography: A plan of the school 
 and playground. The four car- 
 dinal points. The meaning and 
 use of a map. 
 
 F.lementary Science : Thirty lessons 
 on common objects ; e.g., a postage 
 stamp ; the post ; money ; a lead 
 pencil; a railway train; foods 
 
 and clothing materials, as bread, 
 milk, cotton, wool ; minerals, as 
 gold, coal ; natural phenomena, 
 as the day, the year. 
 History : Simple stories relating to 
 English history. 
 
 STANDARD II. 
 
 Reading : To read a short passage 
 from an elementary reading-book. 
 
 Writing : A passage of not more 
 than six lines, from the same 
 book, slowly read once, and then 
 dictated word by word. 
 
 Arithmetic: Notation and numera- 
 tion up to 100,000. The four 
 simple rules to short division. 
 The multiplication table, and the 
 pence table to I is. 
 
 : Pointing out nouns and 
 verbs.
 
 338 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Geography: The size and shape of 
 the world. Geographical terms 
 simply explained, and illustrated 
 by reference to the map of Eng- 
 land. Physical geography of hills 
 and rivers. 
 
 Elementary Science : Thirty lessons 
 on common objects, such as ani- 
 mals, plants, and substances em- 
 ployed in ordinary life ; e.g., 
 Horse. Leaves. 
 
 Sparrow. Candles. 
 
 Roots. Soap. 
 
 Stems. Cork. 
 
 Buds. Paper. 
 
 History: Simple stories relating to 
 English history. 
 
 STANDARD III. 
 
 Reading: To read a passage from 
 a reading-book. The intelligence 
 of the reading is tested partly by 
 questions on the meaning of what 
 is read. 
 
 Writing: Six lines from one of the 
 reading-books of the Standard, 
 slowly read once and then dic- 
 tated. 
 
 Arithmetic: The four simple rules 
 to short division : also long divis- 
 ion and the addition and sub- 
 traction of money. 
 
 English : Pointing out nouns, verbs, 
 adjectives, and personal pronouns, 
 and forming simple sentences 
 containing them. 
 
 Geography: Physical and political 
 geography of England, with spe- 
 cial knowledge of the district in 
 which the school is situated. 
 
 Elementary Science: Simple princi- 
 ples of classification of plants 
 
 and animals. Substances used 
 in the arts and manufactures. 
 Phenomena of the earth and at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 History: Twelve stories from early 
 English history ; e.g., the ancient 
 Britons, the introduction of 
 Christianity, Alfred the Great, 
 Canute, Harold, the Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
 STANDARD IV. 
 
 Reading: To read a passage from 
 a reading-book, or history of 
 England. 
 
 Writing: Eight lines of poetry or 
 prose, slowly read once, and then 
 dictated. 
 
 Arithmetic: Compound rules 
 (money) and reduction of com- 
 mon weights and measures. 
 
 English : Parsing easy sentences, 
 and showing by examples the use 
 of each of the parts of speech. 
 
 Geography : Physical and political 
 
 geography of the British Isles, 
 
 and of British North America or 
 
 Australasia, with knowledge of 
 
 their productions. 
 
 Elementary Science: A more ad- 
 vanced knowledge of special 
 groups of common objects, such 
 as, (a) animals or plants, with 
 particular reference to agricul- 
 ture ; or (b) substances employed 
 in arts and manufactures ; or (c) 
 some simple kinds of physical 
 and mechanical appliances; e.g., 
 the thermometer, barometer, 
 lever, pulley, wheel and axle, 
 spirit level.
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 339 
 
 History : Twenty stories and biogra- 
 phies from 1066 to 1485 ; e.g., 
 Hereward, Becket, Richard I. 
 and the Crusades, John and 
 Magna Charta, Montfort and the 
 House of Commons, the Black 
 Prince, Caxton. 
 
 STANDARD V. 
 
 Reading: To read a passage from 
 some standard author, a reading- 
 book, or a history of England. 
 
 Writing: Writing from memory 
 the substance of a short story 
 read out twice ; spelling, hand- 
 writing, and correct expression 
 to be considered. 
 
 Arithmetic: Practice, bills of par- 
 cels, and single rule of three by 
 the method of unity. Addition 
 and subtraction of proper frac- 
 tions, with denominators not 
 exceeding 12. 
 
 English : Parsing and analysis of 
 simple sentences. The method 
 of forming English nouns, adjec- 
 tives, and verbs from each other. 
 
 Geography : Geography of Europe, 
 physical and political. Latitude 
 and longitude. Day and night. 
 The seasons. 
 
 Elementary Science: (a) Animal or 
 plant life; or (t>) the principles 
 and processes involved in one of 
 the chief industries of England ; 
 or (f) the physical and mechani- 
 cal principles involved in the 
 construction of some common in- 
 struments, and of some simple 
 forms of industrial machinery. 
 
 History: The Tudor period, with 
 biographies of leading person*; 
 e.g., the Protector Somerset, 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, 
 Raleigh, Cecil, Drake, Mary 
 Queen of Scots. 
 
 STANDARD VI. 
 
 Reading: To read a passage from 
 one of Shakespeare's historical 
 plays, or from some other stand- 
 ard author, or from a history of 
 England. 
 
 Writing: A short theme or letter 
 on an easy subject ; spelling, 
 handwriting, and composition to 
 be considered. 
 
 Arithmetic: Fractions, vulgar and 
 decimal ; simple proportion and 
 simple interest. 
 
 English : Parsing and analysis of 
 a short complex sentence. The 
 meaning and use of the most 
 common Latin prefixes in the 
 formation of English words. 
 
 Geography : The British colonies 
 and dependencies. Interchange 
 of productions. Circumstances 
 which determine climate. 
 
 Elementary Science: (a) Animal 
 and plant life; or (b) the conv 
 monest elements, and their com- 
 pounds ; or (. ) the mechanical 
 powers. 
 
 History : The Stuart period, with 
 special reference to the Civil 
 War, and to the constitution and 
 functions of Parliament. Biog- 
 raphies of six leading persons. 
 
 STANDARD VII. 
 
 Reading : To read a passage from 
 Shakespeare or Milton, or from 
 some other standard author, or 
 from a history of Kngland.
 
 340 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Writing: A theme or letter; com- 
 position, spelling, and handwrit- 
 ing to be considered. 
 
 Arithmetic: Averages, percentages, 
 and stocks. 
 
 English: Analysis of sentences. 
 The most common prefixes and 
 terminations generally. 
 
 Geography: The United States. 
 Tide and chief ocean currents. 
 
 Elementary Science: (a) Distribu- 
 
 tion of plants and animals, and 
 of the races of mankind ; or (V) 
 properties of common gases ; or 
 (c) sound, or light, or heat, or 
 electricity, with applications. 
 History: The Hanoverian period, 
 with special reference to the ac- 
 quisition and growth of the colo- 
 nies and foreign possessions of 
 Great Britain. Biographies of 
 six eminent writers or statesmen. 
 
 In England and Wales, at the end of August, 1892, there 
 were on the registers of the elementary day schools 5,006,979 
 children, of whom 4,609,240 were in attendance on the day the 
 Government inspectors visited their respective schools. Of the 
 total number, 3,203,129 were between the ages of seven and 
 thirteen years; infants under seven numbered 1,611,736; and 
 in the whole of England and Wales only 152.930 children 
 between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, and 39,184 above 
 fourteen, were in attendance at the elementary schools. During 
 the year, the Government grants to elementary day schools 
 were ,3,561,300, or i&s. ^\d. per scholar in average attendance. 
 The average attendance in voluntary schools was 2,300,337, and 
 in board schools 1,570,397. The cost per scholar in voluntary 
 schools was i 17.$-. 9^<-/., and in the board schools 2, 8.r. 4|</. 
 The annual grant earned per head was i8.r. Q\d. in the voluntary, 
 and i8s. i id. in the board schools. The amounts so earned were 
 in addition to the fee grant of ten shillings per scholar paid 
 under the Act of 1891. Out of the 19,500 schools inspected, 
 15,170 were entirely free. The average salary paid to teachers 
 was i 9J. o\d. per scholar in voluntary schools, and i i6s. 
 io$d. in board schools. Sixty per cent of the certificated teachers 
 and seventy-nine per cent of the assistant teachers were women. 
 Of the pupil teachers, 21,133 were girls, or an increase of 191 
 per cent since 1869. The male pupil teachers numbered 5,828, 
 or only 258 more than in 1869, the year before the Forster 
 Education Act was passed.
 
 A PPENDICES. 3 4 1 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 THE DUTIES OF THE HOME OFFICE AND THE LOCAL MAGIS- 
 TRATES ON OCCASIONS OF TUMULT AND RIOT. 
 
 IN the chapters dealing with Municipal Government, and in 
 that describing the various State Departments, a brief explana- 
 tion was given of the connection which exists between the 
 Home Office and the local police forces, and also of the duties of 
 the Home Office as concerns the preservation of the peace. 
 While this volume has been passing through the Press, rioting 
 of a character unknown in England since the violent agitation 
 which preceded the Reform Act of 1832 has occurred in York- 
 shire in connection with a great strike of coal-miners. Troops 
 were called out, and in the neighborhood of Pontefract two men 
 were shot down by the soldiers. No fatal collision between 
 troops and the people had occurred since the fight at Peterloo, 
 Manchester, in 1819. Previous to the firing upon the rioters 
 at Featherstone, Pontefract, the Riot Act had been read by a 
 magistrate. 
 
 The action of the Home Office in sending troops to the 
 scene of the disorder was strongly condemned by the I^ihor 
 Members of the House of Commons in interviews and at pub- 
 lic meetings ; and in the debate on the Appropriation Hill in the 
 House of Commons, on the 2ist of September, 1893, Mr. II. H. 
 Asquith, the Home Secretary, justified his action, and made an 
 important statement as to the constitutionality of what he had 
 done, and as to the duty of the Home Office and the duty of 
 the local magistrates on occasions of great popular tumult. 
 
 " It seems difficult and almost impossible," said the Home Sec- 
 retary, " to get people to understand what are the functions and 
 what are the responsibilities of the Executive Government when
 
 342 APPENDICES. 
 
 a local disturbance arises. It cannot be too clearly laid down 
 that the responsibility for the prevention and for the suppression 
 of local disorder lies in England, according to our law, where it 
 has always lain from the very earliest period of our history, with 
 the local authorities. So deeply is that principle ingrained in 
 our law, that when from the failure on the part of the authority 
 to do its duty damage is done through riot, it is not the public 
 exchequer, but formerly the inhabitants of the hundred, and 
 now the ratepayers of the police district, who have to make 
 good the damage. In the same way, when some fifty or sixty 
 years ago we substituted for the old system of parish constables 
 and town watch our county and borough police, the administra- 
 tion of the force so created was everywhere outside London 
 given to the local authority in whose district it is raised. That 
 being the case, what is the position of the Secretary of State? 
 According to the ideas which seem to prevail in some quarters, 
 and according to much language which is used on public plat- 
 forms and in the press, it might be supposed that the Home 
 Secretary is in the position of the Minister of the Interior in 
 France, or of my right honorable friend, the Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland that he is the heart of a centralized police machinery. 
 The Home Secretary is nothing of the kind. I entirely disclaim 
 on behalf of myself and of all persons who may succeed me in 
 this office any responsibility for the way in which the local police 
 force is governed and administered. By a practice which has 
 gradually grown up, it has become almost the duty of the Secre- 
 tary of State, in cases of emergency such as this, to give advice 
 to the local authorities ; but it is advice which they are perfectly 
 at liberty either to accept or to reject. The responsibility for 
 taking the one course or the other rests with them alone. The 
 Secretary of State is, further, the channel through which the 
 demands of the local authority, when their own police resources 
 are insufficient, for additional force, and particularly military 
 force, usually proceed. Further than that, it is undoubtedly his 
 duty, if the local authorities are found to be guilty either of 
 excess or remissness in the discharge of the duties which the 
 law casts upon them, to conduct such an inquiry or such legal
 
 APPENDICES. 343 
 
 proceedings as the nature of the case may require. The Secre- 
 tary of State, by withholding a certificate which the Act of Par- 
 liament empowers him to give at the end of the financial year, 
 has the power of depriving a local police force of its share in the 
 Imperial contribution ; but he can only do that if he is satisfied 
 that the police have not been kept in a state of efficiency and 
 discipline during the year. That, as I say, is a complete and 
 exhaustive statement of the duties of the Home Secretary. I 
 am not going to say anything in the way of criticism of the sys- 
 tem. It has its drawbacks, no doubt, when, as in a case like 
 the present, the area of disturbance is widespread, when it 
 extends over several counties, and when, from the nature of 
 things, it is almost impossible that different local authorities, 
 each naturally bent on the affairs of its own district, should take 
 concentrated and uniform action. But, on the other hand, in 
 my opinion, the advantages of the arrangement infinitely out- 
 weigh its drawbacks. I think it would be an evil day for the 
 administration of justice and the maintenance of law and order 
 in this country if we were to centralize that which is at present 
 local ; to transfer from the shoulders of the magistrates the 
 police authority and concentrate it on the Secretary of State, a 
 duty which experience in all countries has shown can only be 
 adequately performed by persons of local knowledge and local 
 responsibility. In my opinion, the privilege of local self-govern- 
 ment ought to carry with it the responsibility for the mainte- 
 nance of local order. I thought it right to state this view of 
 general principles because the case now under consideration is, 
 after all, only a typical case. In the comparatively short time I 
 have been at the Home Office, this is the fourth or fifth occasion 
 some of them of great gravity in which I have had to con- 
 sider what the powers and duties of the responsible Ministers 
 were ; and I do trust that it may aid in clearing up misconcep- 
 tion in the public mind and. perhaps, in producing a somewhat 
 fairer estimate of the manner in which the Kxecutive attempts, 
 at any rate, to discharge its duty, if the public outside would 
 clearly realize what are the limits of our functions and respon- 
 sibilities. 1 '
 
 344 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF 
 PIETY AND VIRTUE. 
 
 SINCE 1860 it has been the practice at the opening of all 
 Assizes for the trial of criminal cases, for the clerk of Assize to 
 read the Queen's Proclamation " for the Encouragement of Piety 
 and Virtue, and for the Preventing and Punishing of Vice, Pro- 
 faneness, and Immorality." The proclamation is as follows : 
 
 BY THE QUEEN. 
 A PROCLAMATION 
 
 For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for tne preventing and 
 punishing of Vice, Profaneness, and Immorality. 
 
 We most seriously and religiously considering that it is Our indispensable 
 duty to be careful, above all other Things, to preserve and advance the 
 Honour and Service of Almighty God, and to discourage and suppress all 
 Vice, Profaneness, Debauchery, and Immorality, which are so highly dis- 
 pleasing to God, and so great a Reproach to our Religion and Government : 
 To the Intent, therefore, that Religion, Piety, and Good Manners may flourish 
 and increase under Our Administration and Government, We have thought 
 fit, by the Advice of Our Privy Council, to issue this, Our Royal Proclama- 
 tion, and do hereby declare Our Royal Purpose and Resolution to discoun- 
 tenance and punish all Manner of Vice, Profaneness, and Immorality, in all 
 Persons of whatsoever Degree or Quality within this Our Realm : And We 
 do expect and require, That all Persons of Honour, or in Place of Authority, 
 will give good Example by their own Virtue and Piety, and to their utmost 
 contribute to the discountenancing Persons of dissolute and immoral Lives : 
 And We do hereby strictly enjoin and prohibit all Our Loving Subjects, of 
 what Degree or Quality soever, from playing, on the Lord's Day, at Dice, 
 Cards, or any other Game whatsoever, either in Public or Private Houses,
 
 APPENDICES. 345 
 
 or other Place or Places whatsoever : And We do hereby require and com- 
 mand them, and every of them, decently and reverently to attend the Worship 
 of God on every Lord's Day. Our further Pleasure is, and We do hereby 
 strictly charge and command all Our Judges, Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of 
 the Peace, and all other Our Officers and Ministers, both Ecclesiastical and 
 Civil, and all other Our Subjects whom it may concern, to be very vigilant 
 and strict in the Discovery and the effectual Prosecution and Punishment of 
 all Persons who shall be guilty of dissolute, immoral, or disorderly Practices ; 
 and that they take care also effectually to suppress all Public Gaming Houses 
 and Places, and lewd and other disorderly Houses ; and also to suppress and 
 prevent all Gaming whatsoever, in Public or Private Houses, on the Lord's 
 Day ; and likewise that they take effectual care to prevent all Persons keep- 
 ing Taverns, or other Public Houses whatsoever, from selling Wine. Beer, or 
 other Liquors, or receiving or permitting Guests to be or remain in such 
 their Houses, in the time of Divine Service on the Lord's Day. And for the 
 more effectual proceeding herein, We do hereby direct and command all Our 
 Judges of Assize and Justices of the Peace to give strict Charges at their 
 respective Assizes and Sessions, for the due Prosecution and Punishment of 
 all Persons that shall presume to offend in any of the Kinds aforesaid ; and 
 also of all Persons that, contrary to their Duty, shall be remiss or negligent 
 in putting the said Laws in execution ; and that they do, at their respective 
 Assizes and Quarters Sessions of the Peace, cause this Our Royal Proclama- 
 tion to be publicly read in open Court immediately before the Charge is 
 given. 
 
 Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this Ninth Day of June, one 
 thousand eight hundred and sixty. 
 
 Goto Sabc tlje uccn.
 
 346 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 
 
 THE total number of voters on the electoral rolls for the 
 United Kingdom in 1892 was 6,229,120. In the 234 English 
 county divisions the number was 2,564,941 ; in the 19 county 
 divisions of Wales, 189,922 ; in the 39 county divisions in 
 Scotland, 343,392 ; and in the 85 county divisions in Ire- 
 land, 637,757. The total number of voters in county divisions 
 was 3.736,062. In the 226 English boroughs the number 
 of voters was 2,011,369; in the 11 Welsh boroughs, 80,354; in 
 the 31 Scotch boroughs, 258,593; in the 16 Irish boroughs, 
 105,119. The total number of borough voters was 2.455,335. 
 In the university constituencies returning altogether nine mem- 
 bers, there were 37,773 voters. In those of Oxford, Cam- 
 bridge, and London, which return five out of the nine members, 
 two for Oxford, two for Cambridge, and one for London, there 
 were 16,172 voters; in those of Scotland, Edinburgh, and St. 
 Andrews, and Glasgow and Aberdeen, which return two mem- 
 bers for the four universities, the number of voters was 17,106; 
 and in the Dublin University constituency there were 4,495 
 voters. 
 
 In the English and Welsh county divisions there were 
 497,247 persons entitled to votes in respect of the ownership of 
 land ; 2,226,285 entitled to vote as occupiers of land, houses, 
 cottages, and other premises ; and 31,331 lodger voters. In the 
 English and Welsh boroughs there were 1,950,178 occupation 
 voters; 29,112 lodger voters; and 112,433 freeholders and free- 
 men. 
 
 The freemen's franchise is one of some antiquity. It exists
 
 APPENDICES. 347 
 
 mostly in the ancient boroughs, like the City of London, Ches- 
 ter, and Norwich, and is possessed by men who are on the roll 
 of freemen for the borough. Birth, or apprenticeship to a free- 
 man, confers the freedom in these old boroughs ; and among 
 other privileges enjoyed by freemen is that of a vote at Parlia- 
 mentary elections in addition to, and irrespective of, any rating 
 qualification. If a freeman becomes a pauper, he does not lose 
 his vote, as is the case with an elector who was on the voters' 
 list as an occupier of premises in respect of which Poor Rates 
 were paid. Many of the older English towns those which 
 had a corporate existence before the Municipal Reform Act of 
 1835 possess this right of conferring their freedom on their 
 citizens. Since 1885 the new boroughs have had the right of 
 conferring honorary freedoms. These honors, however, are 
 sparingly bestowed, and are generally reserved for men who 
 have distinguished themselves in politics, art or letters, science 
 or travels. Occasionally they are bestowed on men who have 
 rendered signal service to the municipality, either in the town 
 itself or in Parliament. 
 
 At the time the foregoing statistics were compiled for presen- 
 tation to Parliament, the population of England and Wales in 
 round figures was 29,000,000. The total number of voters was 
 4,846,586. The number of electors to a constituency varies 
 considerably, the redistribution of seats in 1885 not having been 
 very symmetrically arranged. Thus, for example, while the 
 Higgleswade division of Bedfordshire had 13,747 electors, the 
 South Molton division of Devonshire had only 8.654. In Lan- 
 cashire, the Stretford division had the greatest number of elec- 
 tors, 15,702; and the Heywood division the smallest, 9,081. As 
 regards the large English cities, Liverpool, which in 1893 had 
 74,886 electors, has nine members; Birmingham, with 80,386 
 electors, has seven members ; Manchester, witli 63,069 electors, 
 has six members ; and Leeds, with 57,637 electors, has five 
 members. 
 
 The accompanying table shows the distribution of seats in 
 the House of Commons over the constituencies of England, 
 Wales, Scotland, and Ireland :
 
 348 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 London. Boroughs 61 
 
 University i 
 
 Provinces. Boroughs 165 
 
 Universities 4 
 
 Counties 234 
 
 Total 465 
 
 Wales. Boroughs n 
 
 Counties 19 
 
 Total 30 
 
 Scotland. Boroughs 31 
 
 Universities 2 
 
 Counties 39 
 
 Total 72 
 
 Ireland. Boroughs 16 
 
 University 2 
 
 Counties 85 
 
 Total 103 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 Boroughs 284 
 
 Counties 377 
 
 Universities 9 
 
 Total 670
 
 APPENDICES. 349 
 
 APPENDIX K. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY WHIPS. 
 
 THE circulars by which members of the House of Commons 
 are summoned to attend the sittings and divisions are known as 
 whips. They are sent out from the offices of the Parliamentary 
 whips, and the urgency of the summons is indicated by the 
 number of lines beneath the text of the circular. Four-line 
 whips were formerly used for occasions of great importance, 
 such, for instance, as when a critical division was pending; but 
 during the debates on the Home Rule Bill in the session of 
 1893, five-line whips were continuously issued to the supporters 
 of the Government and to those of the Opposition. Accom- 
 panying are fac-similes of whips sent out in the early weeks of 
 May, when the Home Rule Bill was in committee. The second 
 paragraph of the Liberal whip, that signed by the Right Honor- 
 able E. Marjoribanks, Patronage Secretary to the Treasury, 
 was further emphasized by being underlined in red ink. Mr. 
 Ackers Douglas, who signs the Opposition whip, was principal 
 whip to the Conservative Party.
 
 35 A PPENDICES. 
 
 GOVERNMENT WHIP. 
 
 44 
 
 iJU //on- 
 
 - /a+r Jffawl 
 
 c/
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 351 
 
 OPPOSITION WHIP. 
 
 a.
 
 352 A PPENDICES. 
 
 When a member of the House of Commons changes his 
 political allegiance and passes over from, for instance, the Gov- 
 ernment benches to those of the Opposition, the only semi- 
 official notification of the change at Westminster is the one the 
 member himself gives to the whips. The custom on these 
 occasions is for the member to intimate to the principal whip of 
 the party with which he now intends to act and vote that he will 
 in the future be glad to receive his whips.
 
 APPENDICES. . 353 
 
 APPENDIX L. 
 
 THE RELATIVE STRENGTHS OF THE ENGLISH AND OTHER 
 EUROPEAN NAVIES. 
 
 THE idea which actuates England in the regulation of the size 
 of the Royal Navy is that it should be equal to the combined 
 fleets of any other two European powers. In August, 1893, it 
 was reported by the Admiralty to Parliament that the English 
 warships then in commission were 24 battleships, 3 coast de- 
 fence ships, 60 cruisers, and 74 other ships not torpedo boats ; 
 total in commission, 161 ; in reserve, 10 battleships, 14 coast 
 defence ships, 46 cruisers, and 44 other ships not torpedo boats. 
 In building and completing for sea, 9 battleships, 19 cruisers, 
 and 22 other ships; total, 325. France was in this return re- 
 ported as having in commission 19 battleships, 5 coast defence 
 ships, 23 cruisers, and 50 other ships not torpedo boats ; while 
 she had in reserve 5 battleships, 3 coast defence ships, 20 cruis- 
 ers, and 62 other ships ; and in building and completing for 
 sea, 8 battleships, 2 coast defence ships, 19 cruisers, and 5 other 
 ships; total, 221. Germany was stated to have in commission 
 II battleships, 14 cruisers, and 19 other ships; in reserve, 3 
 battleships, 6 coast defence ships, 17 cruisers, and 5 other ships, 
 besides 7 battleships, 3 cruisers, and I other ship building and 
 completing for sea ; total, 86. England at the date of this report 
 thus possessed 325 warships, as compared with 307 belonging 
 to France and Germany combined. Belonging to the English 
 colonies there were also 20 warships. England in August, 1893, 
 had 50 warships building, while France and Germany together 
 had 45. Russia had 120 warships, and Italy 93.
 
 354 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX M. 
 
 HOURS OF LABOR IN FACTORIES. 
 
 THE Factory and Workshops Acts draw distinctions between 
 textile factories, non-textile factories, workshops, and domestic 
 workshops. In textile factories, young persons and women may 
 not work more than ten hours a day on ordinary days, and six 
 and a half hours on Saturdays, exclusive of meal-times. Over- 
 time is prohibited in textile factories. In non-textile factories 
 young persons and women may work ten and a half hours a day 
 on ordinary days, and seven and a half hours on Saturdays, 
 exclusive of meal-times. In certain classes of these factories a 
 limited amount of over-time is permitted. In workshops where 
 no persons under eighteen are employed, if due notice has been 
 given to the factory inspector, women over eighteen years of age 
 may be employed from nine A.M. to nine P.M., or from ten A.M. 
 to ten P.M., on ordinary days; but if the occupier of the work- 
 shop, after such notice, intends to employ children or young 
 persons, he must give notice of his intention to the factory 
 inspector, and he may not change his system oftener than once 
 a quarter. Any workshop in which a woman or young person 
 not a member of the family of the employer is employed, is sub- 
 ject to the factory regulations. Even in domestic workshops, in 
 which only members of the family are employed, the hours of 
 young persons are subject to regulation. Parents employing 
 young persons, members of their family, in domestic work- 
 shops after nine o'clock at night are liable to a penalty. In 
 non-textile factories and workshops, in which articles of wearing 
 apparel are being made, as well as in a large number of other 
 cases provided for by the law, young persons and women may 
 be employed from eight A.M. to ten P.M., with two hours inter- 
 val for meals, for forty-eight days in the year, provided due 
 notice is given to the factory inspector.
 
 APPENDICES. 355 
 
 APPENDIX N. 
 
 GOVERNMENT AND THE SAVINGS BANKS. 
 
 THE savings banks in England are divided into two classes, 
 Post Office banks and trustee savings banks. The Post Office 
 banks are entirely under the control of the Government. In 
 1893 there were 9,478,339 depositors in these banks, and the 
 amount standing to their credit was ,22,845,031. The trustee 
 savings banks are largely controlled by the Government. These 
 banks date from 1799. In 1807 they were so numerous that 
 Parliament passed an Act for their management and control. 
 This has been supplemented by several other measures ; and, as 
 the law now stands, while the management is left to local 
 administrators, who are precluded from receiving any remunera- 
 tion or making any profit, the principle of State control is com- 
 bined with voluntary effort by clauses of the Act of Parliament 
 which require that the whole of the funds of the savings banks 
 shall be invested in Government securities through Commis- 
 sioners for the Reduction of the National Debt. In November, 
 1892, the number of accounts was 1,501,920, and the amount 
 standing to the credit of the depositors was ^42,385,031. Of 
 this sum all but ,117,000 was invested with the National Debt 
 Commissioners. Scotland stands much higher in the scale of 
 thrift than either England and Wales or Ireland ; for while the 
 amount due to England, with its 29,000,000 inhabitants, is about 
 i a head of the population, Scotland, with its 4,000,000, has 
 ^10,000,000 on deposit in the trustee savings banks.
 
 NDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Act of Parliament, entitling of, 207. 
 
 Address to the Crown on Queen's Speech, 185; ceremony attending 
 
 moving of, 186; debate on, 186. 
 Admiralty, 234; Lords' Commissioners of, 234; contractors to, and fair 
 
 wages, 291. 
 
 Admiralty Division, 120; cases coming before, 121. 
 Agent, Parliamentary Election, employment of, 160. 
 Agricultural Holdings Act, 296. 
 
 Agriculture, Board of, 232; and Common Land, 301. 
 Aldermen, election of, 9; common to borough, county borough, and 
 
 county, 10; no salary, 10; qualifications for, IO. 
 Alkali Works Regulation Act, 283. 
 Allotments, 302; Act, 302. 
 Ambassadors and Foreign Office, 236. 
 Appeal in criminal cases, 112. 
 Appeal, Court of, 1 20. 
 Apprentices and Factory System, 277. 
 Appropriation Bill, 212; l>eforc prorogation, 217. 
 Archbishops, appointment of, 255. 
 Armorial Bearings, tax on, 140. 
 Army, enlistment and service in, 260; Annual Act, 261; strength of, 
 
 261; short service system in, 262; pay and promotion in, 262; 
 
 appointment of officers in, 263. 
 Artisans, taxation of, 141. 
 
 359
 
 360 INDEX. 
 
 Asquith, Mr. H. H., his statement of duties of Home Office in regard 
 
 to local disorder, 341. 
 Assizes, buildings for, 23; cases sent to, 97; circuits, 105; judges at, 
 
 105; procedure at, 109; cost of trials at, defrayed by county, 115; 
 
 Queen's Proclamation at, 344. 
 
 Australian Colonies and emigration from England, 239. 
 Axholme, Isle of, 304. 
 
 Ballot Act, 158. 
 
 Balloting papers, 166; secrecy of, 166. 
 
 Bankruptcy Laws, administration of, 118; creditors' meetings, 118; 
 certificates of discharge under, 119; disabilities of bankrupts 
 under, 119; and Board of Trade, 231. 
 
 Banns of Marriage, publication of, 247. 
 
 Bar, etiquette of, 123. 
 
 Bar of the House of Commons, 174. 
 
 Baronetcy, Debrett's List, 224; how earned, 224; and newspaper 
 proprietors, 323. 
 
 Barrister, definition of, 96; on assize circuits, 105; in court, 109 and 
 III; in county court, 117; fees of, 123; as members of House 
 of Commons, 222; and Government patronage, 222. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, Income Tax during his 1874-81 Administration, 
 135; and Agricultural Holdings Act, 296. 
 
 Bill, Parliamentary, stages of, 195; distinction between private mem- 
 ber's and Government, 195; introduction of, 196; second reading 
 of, 196; committee stage of, 200; how drawn up, 204; report 
 stage and third reading of, 206; taken up to the House of Lords, 
 206; Royal Assent to, 207. 
 
 Bishops in House of Lords, 168; and marriage laws, 246; presence 
 in House of Lords objected to by Nonconformists, 254; appoint- 
 ment of, 255. 
 
 Black Cap, 112. 
 
 Black Rod, 171; and opening of Parliamentary session, 183; and cer- 
 emony attending Royal Assent, 207; and prorogation of Parlia- 
 ment, 216. 
 
 Blue Books, 326. 
 
 Boards of Guardians for the Relief of the Poor, administer poor laws, 
 9; voting qualifications for, 40; qualifications for membership of,
 
 INDEX. 361 
 
 41; politics and, 42; duties of, 44; meetings of, 45; newspaper 
 reports of meetings of, 46; typical cases before, 46; and school 
 attendance committees, 56 and 64. 
 
 Boards of Health, area and duties of, 25. 
 
 Board Schools, religious instruction in, 76. 
 
 Board of Trade Journal, 231; description of, 325. 
 
 Board of Trade Returns, 324. 
 
 Boards of Works, London, area and jurisdiction of, 27. 
 
 Booth, Mr. Charles, 131. 
 
 Borough Rate, 21. 
 
 Boroughs, definition of, 2; old charters of, 5; corrupt, 5; commission 
 of inquiry into the corruption of, 6; constitution of old corpora- 
 tions of, 6; popular distrust of old corporations of, 7; incorpora- 
 tion of, 9; Parliamentary constituencies, 144; time allowed for 
 Parliamentary elections in, 165; bills in Parliament for, and ser- 
 vices of local members, 220. 
 
 Brewster sessions in boroughs, 93; in country districts, 105. 
 
 Bribery, at Parliamentary elections, 160; punishment of, 162. 
 
 Bridges, maintenance of, 23. 
 
 Bridgman, Orlando, 293. 
 
 Bristol, its waterworks, 23. 
 
 British and Foreign School Society, 59. 
 
 British Schools, 69. 
 
 Broadhurst, Mr. Henry, 226. 
 
 Bryce, Prof., 233. 
 
 Budget, in House of Commons, 212; and Treasury Department, 
 
 235- 
 
 Burial Laws, and Home Office, 230. 
 Burt, Mr. Thomas, 225. 
 Buxton, Mr. Sidney, and half-time children, 280. 
 
 Cabinet, membership of, 178; re-election after appointment to, 181; 
 salaries and pensions of members of, 241. 
 
 Canada and emigration from England, 239. 
 
 Candidate, Parliamentary, selection of, 154; election expenses paid 
 by, 154; list of, at political party headquarters, 156; his intro- 
 duction to constituency, 156; his canvass, 157: social and public 
 appearances of, 158; limitation of his expenditure, 159.
 
 362 INDEX. 
 
 Canons and cathedral, 256. 
 
 Canterbury, ecclesiastical province of, 255; Arches Court of, 256. 
 
 Carpet Baggers and House of Commons, 156. 
 
 Casual Poor Act, 54. 
 
 Cathedral, control of, 256. 
 
 Central Poor Law Board organized, 38; became Local Government 
 Board, 39; work of, 39; history of, 228. 
 
 Chairman of Committees, in House of Lords, 169; in House of 
 Commons, 20. 
 
 Chairman of Ways and Means, duties of, 208. 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer submits financial statement to Parlia- 
 ment, 127; political head of Treasury, 178; and Budget, 212; 
 duties of, 235. 
 
 Chancery Division, 120; cases coming before, 1 20. 
 
 Chaplain, Speaker's, 187. 
 
 Check-Weighman, position under Mines Regulation Acts, 283. 
 
 Children, hours of labor of, 279; Acts of 1878 and 1891 concerning, 
 280. 
 
 Chiltern Hundreds, Stewardship of, 219. 
 
 Church Livings, patronage of, and Roman Catholics, 253. 
 
 Church Rates, 251. 
 
 Churchwardens, 257. 
 
 Citizenship, teaching of, in evening schools, 82. 
 
 Civil Service, constitution of, 268; divisions of, 268; certificates for, 
 269; politics and, 269; salaries in, 270; Plairfair Commission 
 and, 270; White Ridley Commission and, 270; boy-clerkships in, 
 271; retirement from, and pensions, 272; factory and school in- 
 spectors and, 272. 
 
 Clergymen, responsibilities of, to parishioners, 259. 
 
 Clerk of the Commons House of Parliament, and election of Speaker, 
 172. 
 
 Closure in House of Commons, 203. 
 
 Clubs, local political, 153. 
 
 Coal Miners and mining royalties, 298. 
 
 Code, Education, drawn up annually, 76; and Parliament, 229. 
 
 Colonial Office, history and work of, 237. 
 
 Colonies, classes of, 238; Governors of, 238; agents general of, in 
 London, 239; and emigration from England, 239.
 
 INDEX. 363 
 
 Commissioner of Works, First, duties of, 232. 
 
 Committee, Local Political, 153. 
 
 Committees, Parliamentary, on Private Bills, procedure before, 214. 
 
 Committee, Parliamentary, of Selection, duties of, 215; draws up 
 
 Chairmen's Panel, 215. 
 
 Committee, Select, work of, 214; on sweating, 287. 
 Committee, Standing, appointment of, 215. 
 Committee of Supply, procedure in, 208; Parliamentary heads of 
 
 State Departments and votes in, 2IO; discussion of grievances on 
 
 votes in, 211; work of, 212; votes in, reported to House of 
 
 Commons, 212. 
 
 Committees of Town Council, 15; meetings and work of, 15. 
 Committee of Ways and Means, and Budget night, 213. 
 Committee of Whole House, instructions to, 200; formalities on 
 
 going into, 200; procedure in, 201; discussion of bills in, 204; 
 
 bills reported from, 206. 
 Common Land, 301. 
 Commons, membership of, 143. 
 Commons Preservation Society, 301. 
 Commonwealth, and entail, 293. 
 Compensation for improvements on farms, 297. 
 Confidence, votes of want of, 1 76. 
 Conscience Clause, in Forster Act, 75. 
 Conservative, National Union of Associations, 155. 
 Constabulary, County, 26; control of, 90. 
 Consuls, and Foreign Office, 236. 
 Contempt of Court, imprisonment for, 117. 
 Contentious Business in House of Commons, and twelve o'clock rule, 
 
 205. 
 
 Contracts, Government, and fair wages, 289. 
 Convocation, 256. 
 Copyhold, 300. 
 
 Copyholders, and minerals and timber, 300. 
 Coroner, warrant of, 98; election and tenure of office and duties of, 
 
 9; jury in court of, 99; and executions, 113. 
 Corrupt Practices Act, 158; and bril>ery, 160; and treating, 161; and 
 
 undue influence, 162; passage of, 162. 
 Council, Queen in, 217.
 
 364 INDEX. 
 
 County, i; Parliamentary divisions of, 144; time allowed for Parlia- 
 mentary election in, 165. 
 
 County Boroughs, I ; privileges of, 2. 
 
 County Council, franchise for, 24; committees of, 24; meetings and 
 work of, 2$; and allotments, 302. 
 
 County Courts, area of, 115; judges of, 115; registrar and high bailiff 
 of, 116; cases before, 116; procedure in, 116; actions for debt 
 in, 116; suits tried at, 117; juries in, 117; costume of judge in, 
 117; and bankruptcy cases, 1 1 8. 
 
 County Government, formerly in hands of landlords, 4; and landlords, 
 312. 
 
 County Government Act, 2; franchise under, 23; and landlords, 312. 
 
 Courts, Ecclesiastical, 256; Consistory, 256; of Dean of Arches, 258. 
 
 Court Houses, care of, 23. 
 
 Criminal Justice, expeditiousness of, 113. 
 
 Crown and Minerals, 297. 
 
 Crown Office, and Parliamentary writs, 163. 
 
 Customs Department, collects revenue, 126. 
 
 Customs Duties, for revenue only, 127; dutiable articles, 127. 
 
 Customs Houses, at seaports, 126. 
 
 Dashwood, Sir Francis, and Parliamentary reform, 145. 
 
 Dean and Chapter, 255. 
 
 Debt, actions for, in county court, 1 16. 
 
 Divorce Division, 120; cases coming before, 121. 
 
 Doomsday Book, 292. 
 
 Drainage Board, in Isle of Axholme, 305. 
 
 Dunraven, Lord, 290. 
 
 Duty, Inhabited House, and direct taxation, 128; classification for, 
 
 137; rate of, in 1892-93, 137; examples of, 138; by whom paid, 
 
 139; abatements of, 139. 
 Duty, Probate and Legacy, 141. 
 
 East India Company, 240. 
 
 Education, Committee of Council for, established, 59; reorganized, 
 
 60; duties of, 228. 
 Education Department, and voluntary schools, 65; and establishment 
 
 of school boards, 67; history of, 229; duties of, 229; constitution 
 
 of, 229.
 
 INDEX. 365 
 
 Election, Parliamentary, procedure at, 152; forbidden expenditure at, 
 159. 
 
 Elementary Day Schools, Government grants to, 59; payment by 
 results in, 60; voluntary effort insufficient, 61; compulsory 
 attendance at, 66; inadequate accommodation in, 66; religious 
 teaching in, 69; definition of, 74; standards in, 76; statistics of, 
 328; curriculum of, 337; statistics of, 340. 
 
 Elementary Education Acts, by whom administered, 56; first Act 
 passed, 62; amendments to, 62; voluntary schools and school 
 boards under, 63; control of voluntary schools under, 64. 
 
 Emigrants' Information Office, 239. 
 
 Employers' Liability Act, actions in county court under, 118; provis- 
 ions of, 285; amendment to, 287. 
 
 Employers and Workmen's Act, 284. 
 
 England, Members in House of Commons for, 143. 
 
 Entail, 293. 
 
 Epworth, Isle of Axholme, 305. 
 
 Established Church, position of, 243. 
 
 Eton Public School, 83. 
 
 Evening Schools, payment of teachers in, 8l; objects of, 82; teaching 
 of citizenship in, 82. 
 
 Examiner of Plays, office of, 232; as Government patronage, 320. 
 
 Exchequer, Imperial, contributions of customs to, 127. 
 
 Excise Department, collects revenue, 126. 
 
 Excise Duties, amount of, and by whom paid, 127; tenure of collec- 
 tors of, 127. 
 
 Executioner, 1 14. 
 
 Execution of Criminals, 113; and newspaper press, 113; procedure 
 after, 114; burial of bodies after, 114. 
 
 Factory Acts, inspectors under, and civil service, 272; assistant inspec- 
 tors under, 273; women inspectors under, 273; history of, 276; 
 early' administration of, 277; half-timers under, 278; and work- 
 shops, 280; and interference with men's labor, 281; and cotton- 
 weaving sheds, 284; amendments to, 287. 
 
 Farmers, Tenant, tenure of, 295; and game laws, 308; politics of, 310. 
 
 Featherstone Riots, 339, 
 
 Fciilands anil peasant proprietors, 303.
 
 366 INDEX. 
 
 Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State for, 236. 
 
 Foreign Office, constitution of, 236. 
 
 Forster, W. E., and Education Act, 62. 
 
 Fowler, Mr. Henry, and rating qualifications for Poor Law guardians, 
 
 42. 
 Franchise, Parliamentary, 144; under Act of 1832, 146; under Act of 
 
 1867, 147; under Act of 1884, 147; disqualifications for, 151. 
 Free Education Act, 77. 
 Freemen and the Franchise, 344. 
 Free Trade in England, 127. 
 
 French Revolution and English Parliamentary Reform, 145. 
 Friends, Society of, and marriage laws, 250. 
 Front Opposition Bench, seats on, 187. 
 
 Game, reserved by landlords, 296; close time for, 307; trespassing in 
 search of, 307; licenses for killing and selling, 309. 
 
 Game Laws, 306. 
 
 Gamekeepers, and old forestry laws, 306. 
 
 Gladstone, Mr. W. E., Administration of 1892, and rating qualifica- 
 tions for Poor Law boards, 42; Administration of 1868-74, and 
 Education Act, 62; and Corrupt Practices Act, 162; membership 
 of his 1892 Ministry, 179; and Agricultural Holdings Act, 297; 
 and titles for journalists, 323. 
 
 Gorst, Sir John, 290. 
 
 Government Publications, 323. 
 
 Grammar Schools, and national education, 59. 
 
 Grants in aid, 128. 
 
 Graveyards, Parish, control of, 230; and Nonconformists, 251. 
 
 Grey, Earl, and Parliamentary Reform, 146. 
 
 Ground Game Act, 308. 
 
 Half-Time System, establishment of, 278; where prevalent, 279. 
 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 324. 
 Harbors, control of, 231. 
 Harrow Public School, 83. 
 Health and Morals Act, 277. 
 Health Acts, and Poor Law guardians, 57. 
 
 High Court of Justice, judges of, 105; divisions of, I2O; local regis- 
 tries in connection with, 121.
 
 INDEX. 367 
 
 High Court of Parliament, 170. 
 
 High Sheriff, office and appointment of, 106; duties of, 107; receives 
 the judges, 107; summons juries, no; arranges executions, 113; 
 acts as returning officer, 165. 
 
 Home Office controls Metropolitan Police, 29; controls prisons, 103; 
 duties of, 230; and employment of women about mines, 279; and 
 inspection of cotton-weaving sheds, 284; and local police during 
 times of disorder, 341. 
 
 Home Secretary, and condemned criminals, 112; duties of, 230; ap- 
 pointment of, 230; and Alkali Works Regulation Act, 283; and 
 local magistrates, during times of popular disorder, 341. 
 
 House of Commons, Leader of, 179; Prime Minister and leadership 
 of, 179; hours of, 187; prayers in, 187; members' seats in, 187; 
 wearing of hats in, 188; orders of the day in, 188; preliminary 
 business in, 188; petitions to, 189; leave of absence from, 190; 
 questions in, 191; motions at commencement of public business 
 in, 192; motions of adjournment in, 192; motions concerning the 
 conduct of business in, 193; introduction of new members in, 193; 
 dinner hour in, 198; divisions in, 199; lobbies of, 200; tellers in. 
 200; disorderly conduct in, 203; closure in, 203; Government and 
 time of, 205; twelve o'clock rule in, 205; votes of money in, 208; 
 redress of grievances, 208; quorum in, 209; counts out, 209; char- 
 acter of membership of, 222; business men in, 223 and 225; and 
 sweating, 289; and fair wages, 291; and landlords' representa- 
 tion, 309. 
 
 Improvement Rate, 21. 
 
 Income Tax, and direct taxation, 128; assessments for, 129; schedules 
 for, 129; example of, 129; assessors of , 130; how collected, 131; 
 and small investors, 131; deductioas allowed, 132; commissioners 
 of, 133; appeal against assessment for, 133; rates of, since 1863, 
 134; differential rate of, and incomes exempt from, 134; on .300 
 a year, 135; where paid, 136; on property, 138. 
 
 Incorporated Law Society, 97. 
 
 Indian Civil Service, examinations for, 269. 
 
 India Office, representation in Parliament, 237; history of, 240; and 
 Council for India, 240. 
 
 India, Viceroy of, 241.
 
 368 INDEX. 
 
 Industrial Schools, control of, 23. 
 Inns of Court, 96. 
 
 Inspectors, Civil Service and Factory and School, 272. 
 Ireland, members in House of Commons for, 144; representative peers 
 from, 1 68. 
 
 Jews, and marriage laws, 250; disabilities of, 250. 
 Journal of House of Commons, and Speaker's vote, 200. 
 Journalists, as members of House of Commons, 222 and 225. 
 Judge, costume of, 1 1 1 ; address to jury of, in; pronounces sentence, 
 
 112; appointment of, 122. 
 Judges' Lodgings, 23. 
 Jury, Common, of quarter sessions, 101; no pay for, 108; exemptions 
 
 from, 108; number of, no; challenging of, no; duty of, 
 
 in. 
 Jury, Grand, police court depositions sent to, 98; duties of, 101; 
 
 charge to, IO2; qualifications of members of, 107; number of, 
 
 107; work of, 109. 
 Jury, Special, constitution of, 108; qualifications for, 108; pay of, 
 
 108. 
 
 Justice, Lord Chief, appointment of, 122. 
 Justice Rooms, care of, 23. 
 
 Knighthoods and newspaper editors, 323. 
 
 Labor Department, 325. 
 
 Labor Gazette, 231; description of, 325. 
 
 Labor, hours of, in factories and workshops, 354. 
 
 Labor, Representatives of, in House of Commons, 225. 
 
 Ladies' Gallery, 182. . 
 
 Lancaster, Chancellor of Duchy of, 233. 
 
 Land, extent and division of, 292; conditions of tenure of, 296. 
 
 Lands in Isle of Axholme, 304. 
 
 Landlords, and yeomanry cavalry, 264; ground, 294; and legal position 
 of tenants, 296; and farming, 297; and minerals, 297; and allot- 
 ments, 303; and Parliament, 309; loss of power of, in Parliament, 
 311; and local government, 312; privileges of, 312. 
 
 Leases, 294.
 
 INDEX. 369 
 
 Lefevre, Mr. Shaw, 289. 
 
 Legislature, constitution of, 171. 
 
 Liberal, National Federation, 155. 
 
 Licenses, for sale of liquor, granted by magistrates, 93 and 95; classes 
 of, 93; renewals of, 94; endorsement of, by magistrates, 94; for 
 dogs, 140. 
 
 Life Insurance, and Income Tax, 132. 
 
 Lincolnshire, and peasant proprietors, 304. 
 
 Liverpool, acquired waterworks, 23. 
 
 Lobby, House of Commons, admissions to, 322. 
 
 Local Government, statistics of cost of, 329. 
 
 Local Government Board, and municipal administration, 16; origin 
 and constitution of, 228; President of, 228. 
 
 Lock-ups, care of, 23. 
 
 London, City of, government of, 26; relations to Greater London, 26; 
 franchise in, 26; police force of, 27. 
 
 London County Council, established, 28; connection of, with vestries, 
 28; constitution of, 28; powers of, 29; limitations of, 29; meet- 
 ings of, 31; radical control of, 31; officers under, 32; and sweat- 
 ing, 288. 
 
 Lout/on Gazette, 17; and bankruptcy advertisements, 119; dissolution 
 of Parliament announced in, 217; announcement of death of 
 member of Parliament in, 220; and naturalization certificates, 
 230; editorship of, 320; description of, 323. 
 
 London, Municipal Government of, 26; reform of, 26; water supply 
 of, 30; gas supply of, 31. 
 
 London School Board, its jurisdiction, 27; salary of chairman of, 70; 
 schools under, 71; membership of, 71; local managers of schools 
 under, 72; and sweating, 288. 
 
 Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, 121 ; number of, 167; duties and posi- 
 tion of, 167. 
 
 Lord Chamlx?rlain, duties of, 232; and reporters' tickets for House of 
 Lords, 321. 
 
 Lord Chancellor, appoints magistrates, 23, 91, and 103; approves ap- 
 pointment of registrar of county courts, 116; and appeal cases, 
 I2O; appointment of, 122; duties of, in House of Lords, 122; pen- 
 sion of, 122; appoints revising barristers, 150; acts as Speaker in 
 the I louse of Lords, 169; reads Queen's Speech, 217.
 
 370 INDEX. 
 
 Lords Commissioners, and new Parliament, 171. 
 
 Lords, House of, and appeal cases, 121; and Reform bill of 1832, 146; 
 
 and General Elections, 167; membership of, 167; questions in, 
 
 192; and marriage laws, 246; and common land, 301; and land 
 
 representation, 309. 
 Lord Lieutenant nominates magistrates, 23 and 103; office of, 103; 
 
 and militia, 263. 
 Lunatic Asylums, control of, 23; management of, 51; maintenance of, 
 
 52- 
 
 Macdonald, Mr. Alexander, 225. 
 
 Mace, in House of Commons, 173; and transgressors at Bar of the 
 
 House, 174. 
 Magistrates, control of military during riots, 93; and game licenses, 
 
 39- 
 
 Magistrates, Borough, appointment of, 90; duties of, 90; no salary, 90; 
 political opinions and appointments of, 91; qualifications for, 92; 
 clerk to, 92; powers of, 92; and liquor licenses, 94; not responsi- 
 ble to ratepayers, 95; cases before, 98; caution to prisoners by, 
 98; distinction between county and, 103; appointment of jour- 
 nalists as, 323. 
 
 Magistrates, County, appointment of, 23; and county patronage, 23; 
 responsibility of, 24; deprived of local governing powers, 24; 
 duties of, 24; control of county constabulary, 103; distinction be- 
 tween borough and, 103; qualifications for, 103. 
 
 Magistrates, Stipendiary, 96. 
 
 Manchester, acquired waterworks, 23. 
 
 Marriages, forms of, 247; certificates of, 248. 
 
 Marriage Laws, history of, 246; select committee on, 249. 
 
 Married Woman's Property Act, 132. 
 
 Married Women, deserted, under Poor Law, 47; income of, and In- 
 come Tax, 132. 
 
 Marine Officers' Certificates, 124. 
 
 Masters and Servants' Act, 284. 
 
 May, Sir Erskine, and Poor Laws, 38; and Mace, 174. 
 
 Mayor, election of, 9; no salary, 10; qualifications for, IO; member of 
 the borough bench of magistrates, n and 90; costume of, II ; 
 duties of, 1 1 ; semi-official and social calls on, 1 1 ; no patronage,
 
 INDEX. 371 
 
 i2; desire for the office of, 12; second terms of, 12; in council, 
 14; exercises no veto, 14; acts as returning officer, 163 and 165; 
 and procedure at Parliamentary elections, 166. 
 
 Medical relief, under poor laws, 52. 
 
 Members of Parliament, no patronage, 91; their share in nomination 
 of borough magistrates, 91 ; no salary, 154; titles used in address- 
 ing, 172; swearing in of, 175, seating of, 182; introduction of 
 new, 193; resignation of, 219; raised to peerage, 219; expulsion 
 of, 219; death of, 220; claims upon, for borough constituency, 
 220; claims upon, for constituents, 220; address meetings of con- 
 stituents, 220; and changes in party, 352. 
 
 Metropolitan Asylums Board, 27. 
 
 Metropolitan Board of Works, 27. 
 
 Metropolitan Police, cost of, to ratepayers, 29; Radicals and, 30; 
 maintenance of, 89. 
 
 Militia Act, 260; annual suspension of, 261. 
 
 Militia, description of, 263; discipline of, and commissions in, 264; 
 reserves, 264. 
 
 Millbank Prison, 289. 
 
 Minerals, ownership of, 297; and copyholders, 300. 
 
 Mines Regulation Acts, 278 and 282; and check-weighmen, 283. 
 
 Mines, Royal School of, 84. 
 
 Ministry, change of, 176; meml>ership of, 177; re-election after ap- 
 pointment of, 181. 
 
 Motions, Parliamentary, for adjournment, 192; concerning conduct of 
 the business of the House, 193. 
 
 Municipal elections, national politics in, 12. 
 
 Municipal indebtedness, 331. 
 
 Municipal officers, appointment and tenure of, 13; salaries of, 333. 
 
 Municipal Reform Act, 2; popular control the keynote of, 8; amend- 
 ments to, 9; established borough benches of magistrates, 90. 
 
 Museums, maintenance of, 84. 
 
 National Art Training School, 84. 
 
 National Society, established, 59; grants to, 59. 
 
 Naturalization, 230. 
 
 Naval establishments and wages, 290. 
 
 Navy, control of, 35; service in, 267; and Parliament, 267; strength
 
 372 INDEX. 
 
 of, 268; pay in, 268; relative strength as compared with other 
 
 European, 353. 
 Newspapers, and municipal politics, 14; origin of, 314; taxes on, 314; 
 
 in London, 315; in provinces, 315; establishment of new, 315; 
 
 development of, 316; Parliamentary reports in, 317; reports of 
 
 political speeches in, 318; reporting and editorial writing in, 318; 
 
 political influence of, 319; and middle and working classes, 319; 
 
 and Government, 320; Government rewards for services by, 320; 
 
 and Government advertising and official communications, 321. 
 Night Poaching Act, 306. 
 Nonconformists, definition of, 244; disabilities formerly attaching to, 
 
 244; present disabilities of, 252. 
 Nomination of Parliamentary candidates, 165. 
 Normal School of Science, 84. 
 
 Oath, Parliamentary, 175. 
 
 Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, 118. 
 
 Orders of the Day, in House of Commons, 1 88; and questions, 191; 
 
 their scope, 194. 
 Overseers of the Poor, 21; no pay for, 56. 
 
 Panel, Chairmen's, 215. 
 
 Parish, Ecclesiastical, 255; management of, 257. 
 
 Parliamentary Debates, Hansard's, 324. 
 
 Parliamentary Draughtsmen, 204. 
 
 Parliamentary Reform and quickening of political life, 5. 
 
 Parliamentary Reform of 1832, 3; creation of middle class electorate, 3. 
 
 Parliamentary Reform of 1867, creation of ten pound franchise, 4. 
 
 Parliamentary Reform of 1884, franchise conferred on rural laborers, 4. 
 
 Parliamentary Representation, distribution of, 346. 
 
 Parliament, unreformed, 145; dissolution of, 163; opening of new, 
 
 171; statutory life of, 216; prorogation of, 216; dissolution of, 
 
 217; proclamation for dissolution of, 21 8; and landlords and 
 
 tenants, 296. 
 
 Pauperism, distribution of, 335. 
 Peasant proprietors in Fenlands, 303. 
 Peers, and Parliamentary elections, 168; and political demonstrations, 
 
 169.
 
 INDEX. 373 
 
 Pensions and ex-ministers, 242; of civil servants, 272. 
 
 Perry, Canon, 243. 
 
 Petitions, Parliamentary, 189. 
 
 Petty Sessions, divisions of county for, 104. 
 
 Pitt, William, 145. 
 
 Plunket, Mr. David, 289. 
 
 Poachers and farmers, 296. 
 
 Poaching, 308. 
 
 Police and poaching, 308. 
 
 Police Forces, Borough, inspection of, by Home Office, 89; control of, 
 by town council, 89. 
 
 Politics as a career, 223. 
 
 Pollock, Prof., and tenant farmers' politics, 310. 
 
 Poor Law guardians, no pay for, 43. 
 
 Poor Law valuation, 18. 
 
 Poor Laws, early system, 35; made compulsory, 36; connection with 
 church, 36; four epochs of, 36; " Pig-Sty Era," 37; reform of, 
 38; principle of, 44; in-door and out-door relief under, 44; illus- 
 trations of working of, 45; tenure of officers under, 45; out-door 
 relief, 46; in-door relief, 47; recreant husbands and putative fa- 
 thers and, 48; unmarried mothers and, 49; and old age, 49; and 
 orphans, 50; and education of children, 51; and lunatics, 51; 
 statistics of cost of, 334. 
 
 Poor Law Reform, 3. 
 
 Poor Rate, 21; in town and country, 55; collection of, 56. 
 
 Postmaster-General, 231. 
 
 Post-Office, political head of, 231; and savings banks, 231; women in, 
 273; and civil service, 274; pay of letter carriers, 275. 
 
 Premier, and choice of Cabinet, 177; duties of, 179; and appointment 
 of bishops, 256. 
 
 Presentations at Court, 232. 
 
 Press. See Newspapers. 
 
 Press Galleries in House of Commons, admission to, 321. 
 
 Prime Minister. See Premier. 
 
 Prisoner, arraignment of, m; under sentence of death, 112. 
 
 Prisons and Home Office, 230. 
 
 Private Bill, definition of, 16; procedure in regard to, 17; stages of, 
 .89.
 
 374 INDEX. 
 
 Private Bill Office, 17. 
 
 Private Members' bills, procedure in regard to, 213. 
 
 Probate Division, 120; cases coming before, 121. 
 
 Proclamation for Dissolution of Parliament, 218. 
 
 Prosecutions, Director of Public, 115. 
 
 Public Houses, hours of closing of, in towns, 94; in country, 105; 
 
 control of, 94. 
 
 Public Works and Buildings, Office of, 232; and Millbank Prison, 290. 
 Public Worship Regulation Act, 257. 
 
 Quarter Sessions, county administration in, 23; cases sent to, 97; two 
 
 classes of, 100; procedure at, 102; appeals heard at, 102; former 
 
 administrative powers of, 102; cost of trials at, defrayed by county, 
 
 116. 
 
 Queen's Bench Division, 120. 
 
 Queen's Counsel, legal standing and privileges of, 122; fees of, 123. 
 Queen's Proclamation for the encouragement of Piety and Virtue, 344. 
 Queen's Regulations of Army, 93. 
 Queen's Scholarships, 61. 
 Queen's Speech at opening of Parliament, 183 and 184; measures 
 
 mentioned in, 185; discussions of, in House of Commons, 186; 
 
 before prorogation, 217. 
 Questions in Parliament, to whom put, and rules concerning, 191; 
 
 number of, 192. 
 Quorum in House of Commons, and counts out, 209; and Government 
 
 business, 210, 
 
 Railway Accidents, inquiries into, 124. 
 
 Railway Commissioners, 125; and hours of labor on railways, 282. 
 
 Railway Servants' Hours of Labor Act, 281. 
 
 Ratepayer, distinction between taxpayer and, 18; a typical, 20; in 
 London, 33. 
 
 Rates, assessment for, 18; assessment committee in session, 19; ap- 
 peals from assessments for, 19; paid by occupier, 19; exemptions 
 from, 20; collection of, 21; in London and in provincial towns, 
 34; distraint for, 34; or local taxes, 126. 
 
 Recorder, appointment and duties of, loo. 
 
 Redistribution of Seats Act, 147.
 
 INDEX. 375 
 
 Reform Acts, Parliamentary, 144; of 1832, 145; of 1867, 147; of 
 1884, 147. 
 
 Registrar of County Court, appointment and duties of, 116. 
 
 Registrar General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 248. 
 
 Registrar of Marriages, local, 248; attendance at marriages, 249. 
 
 Registration, Parliamentary, agents of political parties and, 150. 
 
 Registries, local, of High Court of Justice, 121. 
 
 Rent, ground, 294. 
 
 Reporting, Parliamentary and political, 317; and editorial writing, 
 318; non-partisan, 319. 
 
 Reserves, militia, 264. 
 
 Revenue, Imperial, 126. 
 
 Revenue, Inland, how raised, 128; Board of, 133. 
 
 Revenue, Inland, Department, collects direct taxes, 126; and game 
 licenses, 309. 
 
 Revising Barrister, court of, 146, procedure before, 151. 
 
 Riot Act, duty of reading, 92. 
 
 Ritualists, 258. 
 
 River conservators, 23 1 . 
 
 Roads, care of, 23. 
 
 Roman Catholics received full citizenship, 245; present disabilities of, 
 252; and presentation to church livings, 253. 
 
 Royal assent to bills, 207. 
 
 Royal Commission on Poor Laws, 37; on Mining Royalties, 298. 
 
 Royal Commissions, 2l6. 
 
 Royal Household, supervision of, 232. 
 
 Royal Statistical Society, 131. 
 
 Royalties, mining, 297. 
 
 Rural lalwrcrs, and allotments, 302; politics of, 311. 
 
 Rural Sanitary Authorities, areas and duties of, 25; expenses of, 57; 
 connection with Poor Law, 57. 
 
 Russell, Ix>rd John, introduced municipal reform, 8; opposed to alder- 
 manic principle, 10; and Parliamentary Reform, 146; and mar- 
 riage laws, 246. 
 
 Sacrament, as a qualification for public office, 245. 
 
 Saint Stephen's Chapel and Hall, 182. 
 
 Salisbury, Marquis of, and reform of county government, 26; and
 
 3/6 INDEX. 
 
 Royal Commission on Mining Royalties, 298; and titles for jour- 
 nalists, 322. 
 
 Sanitary Authorities, and allotments, 302. 
 
 Savings Banks, Post-Office, 231; and Government, 355; trustee, 355. 
 
 School Attendance Committees, and voluntary schools, 63; duties of, 
 6 5 . 
 
 School Boards, where established, 63 and 66; membership of, and vot- 
 ing for, 69; politics, 70; no payment for service on, 70; tenure 
 and appointment of officers of, 70; rating for, 77. 
 
 School books, 77. 
 
 School of Design, 83. 
 
 School grants, first made, 59; on results, 60; on average attendance, 
 66, amount of, 77; total grants in 1892, 86. 
 
 School inspectors, first appointed, 60. 
 
 Science and Art Department, established, 83; grants to, 84; local 
 classes under, 84; examinations of, 85; grants to successful stu- 
 dents, 85. 
 
 Scotland, members for, in House of Commons, 144; election of peers 
 from, 167. 
 
 Secretaries of State, the five Principal, 230. 
 
 Septennial Act, 216. 
 
 Sergeant-at-Arms in House of Commons, 173; costume of, 184; and 
 prorogation of Parliament, 217; and reporters' tickets, 321. 
 
 Session, Parliamentary, opening of, 183; closing of, 217. 
 
 Sewers Rate, 21. 
 
 Short Service System, in army, 262. 
 
 Small Holdings, 303. 
 
 Socialists, in London County Council, 32; in House of Commons, 222 
 and 226. 
 
 Soldier, pay of, 262. 
 
 Solicitor, definition of, 97; in county courts, 117; as member of 
 House of Commons, 222. 
 
 Somerset House, and marriage records, 248. 
 
 Sovereign, and change of Ministry, 177; and choice of premier, I77> 
 in constant communication with premier, 179. 
 
 Speaker of House of Commons, election, salary, and duties of, 171; 
 Chair of, 173; attendance in House of Lords after his election, 
 174; and Parliamentary oath, 176; and reading of Queen's
 
 INDEX. 377 
 
 Speech, 184; Eye of, 197; and casting vote, 200; and ceremony 
 attending Royal Assent to bills, 207; and prorogation, 217; and 
 admission of journalists to lobby of House of Commons, 322. 
 
 Squirearchy, loss of local power of, 2. 
 
 Standards, in elementary day schools, 337. 
 
 State Departments, represented in Parliament, 227; and changes of 
 Ministry, 241. 
 
 Supreme Court of Judicature, 120. 
 
 Surveyors, Borough, salaries of, 333. 
 
 Sweating, Select Committee on, 287. 
 
 Taxation, direct and indirect, 126; of working classes, 141. 
 
 Tax, on armorial bearings, on man-servant and on checks, 140. 
 
 Taxes, Imperial, 18. 
 
 Taxes, surveyor of, 129. 
 
 Teachers, Elementary Day School, grants in augmentation of salaries 
 of, 61; certificates of, 6l; training of, 78; institutions for train- 
 ing, 78; pupil, 79; salaries of, 80. 
 
 Technical education, 83; organized, 85; grants in respect of, 85; 
 Acts, 85. 
 
 Telegraphs, control of, 231 ; and Civil Service, 274; school for clerks, 
 274; salaries of clerks, 275; promotion of clerks, 275. 
 
 Tenancies, yearly, 294. 
 
 Test Acts, University, 251. 
 
 Theatres, licensing of, 232. 
 
 Tithes, 295. 
 
 Toleration Act, 245. 
 
 Town Clerks, salaries of, 333. 
 
 Town Council, constitution of, 9; voting in, 14; open to press, 14; 
 powers of, 16; revenue of, 18. 
 
 Town Councillor, election of, 9; no salary, 10; qualification for, IO. 
 
 Trade, Board of, and Science and Art grants, 83; and bankruptcy 
 laws, 118; and marine inquiries, 124; and marine officers' cer- 
 tificates, 124; and railway accidents, 124; history and duties of, 
 231; President of, 231; and Railway Servants' Hours of Labor 
 Act, 281. 
 
 Trade Unionism, and employment of women about mines, 279. 
 
 Trail), Mr. II. I)., 117.
 
 378 INDEX. 
 
 Training Ships, 267. 
 
 Tramps, treatment of, under poor law, 53; numbers of, 54. 
 
 Treasure Trove, 100. 
 
 Treasury Bench, in House of Commons, 182. 
 
 Treasury, First Lord of, 178; Patronage Secretary to, and Junior 
 
 Lords of, 198; and votes of supply in House of Commons, 210; 
 
 authority for disbursements, 21 1 ; constitution of, 235; duties of 
 
 lords of, 236; and subcontracting, 288. 
 Truck Acts, 283. 
 
 Under-Sheriff, duties of, 107. 
 
 Union, Poor Law, 39; area of, 40; voting in, 40. 
 
 Universities, 83 ; parliamentary seats for, 143. 
 
 Vaccination, Compulsory Acts, and poor law, 57. 
 
 Vermuyden, 304. 
 
 Vestries, London, area and jurisdiction of, 27; connection with church, 
 27; extent of areas of, 28; qualification for membership of, 28; 
 work of, 32; rating for, 33. 
 
 Vestry Meetings, 257. 
 
 Voluntary Schools, control and support of, 64; Government require- 
 ments in, 65; and avoidance of school boards, 67; working of, 
 alongside board schools, 68. 
 
 Volunteers, history of, 265; standing of, 266; pay of, and grants to, 
 266; training of, 266; officers of, 267. 
 
 Voters, Parliamentary list of, 148; lodger, 152. 
 
 Wages, competition, and Government contracts, 291. 
 
 Wales, members for, in House of Commons, 144. 
 
 War Office, duties of, 234; and militia, 263; and volunteers, 267. 
 
 Watch Committee and Police force, 89; responsible to ratepayers, 96. 
 
 Water Rate, 22; of London, 31. 
 
 Waterworks and municipalities, 23. 
 
 Way-leaves, 298. 
 
 Westminster Hall, 183. 
 
 Whips, and choice of candidates, 155; and pairing of members, 190; 
 
 and order of speakers in debates, 197; office of, 198; circulars 
 
 issued by, 350 and 351.
 
 INDEX. 379 
 
 William IV. and Parliamentary Reform, 146. 
 
 Wills, passed for probate, 122. 
 
 Women, vote for county councils, 24; vote for Poor Law guardians, 
 43; Poor Law guardians, 44; vote for school boards, 69; teachers' 
 salaries, 81; factory inspectors, 273; in Post-office and Telegraph 
 Department, 273; employment of, about mines, 278; and work 
 in factories after childbirth, 281. 
 
 Woolsack, 169. 
 
 Workhouse, situation of, 40; officers of, 45; tenure of officers of, 45; 
 vagrant ward in, 53. 
 
 Writs, Parliamentary and Post-office, 163; copy of, 164; return of, to 
 Crown Office, 167; issue of, on death of member, 220. 
 
 Yeomanry Cavalry, history of, 264; description of, 264; strength of, 
 
 265; and landlords, 265. 
 
 York, Ecclesiastical Province of, 255; Chancery Court of, 256. 
 Young persons, definition of, under Factory Act, 278.
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 PRINTED IN U.B.A.