English Constitutional History from the Teutonic Conquest to the Present Time

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1896. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... act severs the union of Church and State at its commencing point, and is therefore referred to first of the more recent constitutional changes. Thus has been attempted, and in great measure carried out, a -' revival of the old communal system (Mark), working in with the County Councils, as formed by the Local Government Act, iSSS (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41). These newly erected communal bodies must be viewed asan experiment only. The mode of inlcrworking these Councils and their probable success, as a solution of the question of local government, it is premature to conjecture upon. The Report of the Royal Commission on the Unification of London, 1S94, should be briefly referred to. The Act of iSSS, in creating the London County Council combined in that body two distinct characters, and invested it with two distinct classes of duties and powers. It not merely constituted London lying outside the city a separate county, under a County Council, exercising the functions hitherto performed by the Justices in Quarter Sessions, but also ransferred to the Council the powers and duties previously vested in he Metropolitan Board of Works; so that the London County Council stands out among other County Councils both as regards the extent and limit of its authority. Over the County of London--that is, London outside the city--its powers are very extensive. Where it has no power of direct administration itself, it controls in various ways 'he action of the local authorities, the vestries and district boards. At the city boundary, many, if not most, of these powers are stayed, and we come into the jurisdiction of a separate municipality--the city of London--which also exercises some powers beyond its precincts, and into a new county, the county of the City of London. Th...