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PUBLIC ACTS OF PARLIAMENT PASSED DURING with, and for amending, in some respects, the law relating to civil pro

THE SESSION 1883,

IN THE 46TH YEAR OF HER MAJESTY'S REIGN.
The figure before each Act denotes the Chapter.

1. An Act to amend the Consolidated Fund (Permanent Charges) Redemption Act, 1873.

2. An Act to apply certain sums out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending March 31, 1882-3-4.

3. An Act to amend the law relating to Explosive Substances.

4. An Act to enable the Trustees of the National Gallery to lend works of art to other public galleries in the United Kingdom.

5. An Act to apply a sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending March 31, 1884.

6. An Act to provide during twelve months for the Discipline of the Army.

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7. An Act to amend the Bills of Sale (Ireland) Act, 1879. 8. An Act to amend the Glebe Loans (Ireland) Acts.

9. An Act to make further provision for taking dues for repairing and improving the harbours in the Isle of Man.

10. An Act to grant certain duties of Customs and Inland Revenue, to alter other duties, and to amend the laws relating to Customs and Inland Revenue.

11. An Act to provide for expenses incurred by the Guardians of the Poor in relation to Poor Law Conferences.

12. An Act to amend the Act for the prevention of crime in Ireland, 1882, as to the audience of solicitors.

13. An Act to apply the sum of five millions nine hundred and seventythree thousand and twelve pounds out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending March 31, 1884.

14. An Act to amend the laws relating to the pay and 'pension of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the police force of Dublin, &c.

15. An Act to amend the Lands Clauses Consolidated Act, 1845.

16. An Act to grant a sum of money to Admiral Baron Alcester, G.C.B., in consideration of his eminent services.

17. An Act to grant a sum of money to General Baron Wolseley of Cairo, G.C.B., &c., in consideration of his eminent services.

18. An Act to make provision respecting Municipal Corporations and other local authorities not subject to the Municipal Corporation Act. 19. An Act to amend the Medical Act, 1858.

20. An Act to amend the law relating t the Registry of Deeds Office, Ireland. 21. An Act to continue certain Turnpike Acts and to repeal certain other Turnpike Acts, and for purposes connected therewith. 22. An Act to carry into effect an international convention concerning the fisheries in the North Sea, and to amend the laws relating to British sea fisheries. 23. An Act to apply the sum of fifteen millions one hundred and eightytwo thousand seven hundred and seven pounds out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending March 31, 1882.

24. An Act to make temporary provision for the destitute poor in Ireland. 25. An Act to explain and amend the 32nd section of the General Prisons (Ireland) Act 1877.

26. An Act to promote the sea fisheries of Ireland.

cedure.

50. An Act to apply a sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending March 31, 1884, and to appropriate the supplies granted in this Session of Parliament.

51. An Act for the better prevention of corrupt and illegal practices at Parliamentary elections.

52. An Act to amend and consolidate the law of Bankruptcy.

53. An Act to amend the law relating to certain Factories and Workshops.

54. An Act to make further provision respecting the National Debt, and the investment of moneys in the hands of the National Debt Commissioners on account of Savings Banks and otherwise.

55. An Act to amend the law relating to the Customs and Inland Revenue, and to make other provisions respecting charges payable out of the public revenue, and for other purposes.

56. An Act to amend the laws relating to education in Scotland, and for other purposes connected therewith.

57. An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to Patents for Inventions, Registration of Designs, and of Trade Marks.

58. An Act to amend the Post-Office Money Orders Act, 1848 and 1880, and extend the same to her Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom.

59. An Act to make better provision for the prevention of outbreaks of formidable epidemic, endemic, or infectious diseases, and to amend the Public Health Act (England), 1875, and the Public Health Act, 1878 (Ireland).

60. An Act to better the condition of labourers in Ireland. 61. An Act for amending the law relating to agricultural holdings in England. 62. An Act for amending the law relating to agricultural holdings in Scotland.

WORK OF THE SESSION 1883.

During the Session 1883, 228 public bills were introduced into Parliament. Fourteen of these related to Scotland, and forty-four to Ireland. Eightyone measures were introduced by the Government, and nearly one half of them became law. Scotland fared badly, as, out of the fourteen measures which related to it, only two became law-a third, after passing the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. Of the forty-four Irish bills, ten only were carried-seven by private members and three by the Government. The Government measures were-the Constabulary and Police Act, the Prison Service Act, and the Tramways and Public Companies Act. The only measures of importance carried by Irish members were that relating to labourers and that dealing with sea fisheries. There were also 265 private bills dealt with; 180 of these, received the Royal assent; eighty-five, for various reasons, did not reach the final stage; and fourteen were thrown out because the preamble was not proved. Of the thirteen measures, applying to England, Scotland, and Ireland, mentioned in the Queen's Speech at the opening of the Session, five only became law. The most important of those which, as time went on, were obliged to be dropped were the London Municipality Bill, the Criminal Code Bill, the Rivers Conservancy Bill, the Floods Prevention Bill, the Sunday Closing Bill (Ireland), together with some others of scarcely less importance to the public welfare. Two measures, the Scotch Local Government Board Bill and the Irish Regis

27. An Act further to amend the Acts relating to the raising of money by tration Bill, upon which a large amount of time and attention had been the Metropolitan Board of Works, and for other purposes. 28. An Act to amend the Companies Act 1862 and 1867.

29. An Act to consolidate the Accounting Departments of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and for other purposes. 30. An Act to authorise companies registered under the Companies Acts 1862, to keep local registers of their members in British Colonies. 31. An Act to prohibit payment of wages to workmen in public-houses and certain other places.

32. An Act to make further provision respecting the application of the revenues of Greenwich Hospital, and for other purposes.

33. An Act to amend the Irish reproductive Loan Fund Act. 34. An Act to amend the law relating to railway passenger duty, and to amend and consolidate the law relating to the conveyance of the Queen's forces by railway.

35. An Act to make better provision as regards the metropolis for isolation and treatment of persons suffering from cholera and other infectious diseases, and for other purposes,

36. An Act to provide for a better application and management of the parochial charities of the City of London. 37. An Act to amend the Public Health Act 1875, and to make provision with respect to the support of public sewers and sewage works in mining

districts.

38. An Act to amend the law respecting the trial and custody of insane persons charged with offences. 39. An Act for further promoting the Revision of the Statute Law by repealing certain enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become

unnecessary.

40. An Act to continue various expiring laws.

41. An Act to amend the Merchant Shipping Acts 1854 to 1880, with respect to fishing-vessels and apprenticeship to the sea fishing services. 42. An Act to grant money for the purpose of loans by the Public Works Loan Commissioners to Public Works in Ireland and the Irish Land Commissioner, and to amend the acts relating to such Commissioners, and for other purposes. 43. An Act for promoting the extension of tramway communication in Ireland, and for assisting emigration, and for extending certain provisions of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, to the case of public companies. 44. An Act to explain the effect of section 195 of the Municipal Corporations Act 1882.

45. An Act for preventing the sale of medals resembling current coin. 46. An Act to suspend for a limited period, on account of Corrupt Practices, the holding of an election of a member or members to serve in Parliament for certain cities and boroughs.

47. An Act to extend the power of nomination in Friendly and Industrial, &c., Societies, and to make further provision for cases of intestacy in respect of personal property of small amount.

48. An Act to enable sanitary authorities in Ireland to take possession of land for the erection of temporary cholera hospitals.

49. An Act for promoting the revision of the Statute Law by repealing various enactments relating to civil procedure or matters connected there

bestowed by the House of Commons, were thrown out by the House of Lords. The most important among the bills that became law were the Corrupt Practices Bill, for vindicating the purity and curtailing the expenses of elections; the Bankruptcy Bill, for discouraging dishonest bankruptcies and liquidations, and putting down fraudulent trading; the Patents Bill, for encouraging the inventive genius without depriving the public of the gain of inventions; and the two Agricultural Holdings Bills, for securing to tenants the value of their own improvements, and for encouraging agriculture and affording security for money judiciously expended in working their farms.

Another bill of considerable importance was the National Debt Bill, which aimed at redeeming within twenty years a very substantial portion of the National Debt of the country.

It

The Bankruptcy Bill is principally a re-enactment of the clauses of the Act of 1869, the real cause of the breakdown of which was two sections permitting liquidation by arrangement and composition. The new bill puts a stop to this, inasmuch that if compositions are made they shall be placed entirely under the supervision of the Court of Bankruptcy; and it will rest with the Court, and not the creditors, as heretofore, to give the debtor his discharge. The Act also provides that no composition or liquidation by arrangement shall be allowed without the sanction of the Court, or Registrar, who will only, grant it when an arrangement appears to be reasonable and calculated to benefit the general body of creditors. holds out a greater certainty of punishment to fraudulent debtors; and it draws a wide distinction between avoidable and unavoidable bankruptcies. It creates three classes of discharge certificates; and a discharge may be altogether withheld, if it can be shown that the bankruptcy has been caused "by rash and hazardous speculations, or unjustifiable extravagance in living." A penalty can be inflicted if an uncertified bankrupt incurs a debt of £20 without stating the fact. Trustees will no longer be permitted to squander and diminish estates, nor hold balances, or pay moneys, when collected, into their own account. The amount realised must be paid directly into the Bank of England. The official receiver or committee of inspection, acting under the Board of Trade, will keep a watch upon small estates, and the working classes, whose debts do not exceed £50, may apply to a county which will no longer be swallowed up in costs. Small debtors, tradesmen, court Judge, who will stop proceedings and at once afford relief from the exactions of the money-lender or holder of a bill of sale. The official receiver, appointed by and subject to the Board of Trade, replaces the former Comptroller in Bankruptcy. These are only some few of the gains secured by the Bankruptcy Bill.

The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act very considerably enlarges that of 1854 and the Ballot Act of 1872. It more particularly defines corrupt practices to mean treating, undue influence, bribery and personation, and it prescribes penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment with or without hard labour, incapacity of voting or of holding any public office, so that it will not only tend towards the extinction of the grosser forms of mischievous practices at elections, but by limiting the cost of elections it will also give increased freedom of choice to the constituencies.

THE MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE

METROPOLIS.

The local administration of the metropolis is of so complex a character that attention should be drawn to it at the outset. There are:-1. Thirty poorlaw parishes or unions in what is called the metropolitan area. In each is a board of guardians intrusted with the legal relief of the poor. 2. There is a Metropolitan Asylums Board, with practically the same area, intrusted with the care of asylums for imbeciles and idiots and hospitals for infectious I diseases. 3. The metropolis is divided into twenty-three parishes, with vestries, and twelve district Boards of Works, for sanitary and other purposes. Besides these, there are (1) the Plumstead and Lewisham districts, and (2) the parish of Rotherhithe and the St. Olave's district, separate boards, but each combined to elect one member of the Metropolitan Board of Works. 4. There is a Metropolitan Board of Works-a body representative of the vestries and district boards. 5. There is the School Board for London; for purposes of which the metropolis is divided into ten parts. 6. There is the police. The metropolitan police district covers the area within a radius of twenty miles from Charing-cross. For police administration and for magisterial purposes the metropolis is divided into eleven police districts, each with its own police court. These courts are-Bow-street, Westminster, Marlborough-street, Marylebone, Clerkenwell, Thames, Southwark, Lambeth, Worship-street, Hammersmith with Wandsworth, Greenwich with Woolwich. Except the two latter, which are open half the day, a magistrate is in attendance daily from ten to five. Two magistrates are assigned to each court, excepting Bow-street, which has three. The city has an independent police administration and magistracy. 7. The metropolis is divided into the districts (generally coterminous with the parishes or unions) and sub-districts of the Registrar-General for statistical purposes, returns of health, deaths, births, &c. 8. In the City there are, instead of a vestry of district board, commissioners of sewers, who have powers similar to those of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and are independent of it. It is almost inevitable that an almoner should be brought into contact with most or these bodies, or should have to ascertain their duties on some points in order to endeavour to remove evils, and to assist cases which he will meet with in the course of his work.

The Metropolitan Board of Works was constituted by the Metropolis Management Act of 1855. Under this and subsequent Acts it has carried out several special works, such as the Main Drainage of London, the construction of the Victoria, Albert, and Chelsea Embankments on the Thames, the formation of Queen Victoria-street and Northumberland-avenue, the freeing of the Thames bridges in the Metropolitan area, the clearance of sites for Artizans' Dwellings in Drury-lane, Bedfordbury, &c. It has opened up or widened other thoroughfares, such as Garrick-street, Southwark-street, Burdett-road, Holborn (Middle Row), Park-lane, Shoreditch, Great Eastern-street, Harrow-road, Coventry-street, Tooley-street, the improved thoroughfare from Hart-street, Bloomsbury, to Shoreditch, &c.; formed Finsbury and Southwark Parks; and preserved open spaces, such as Hampstead Heath, Blackheath, Shepherd's Bush, Hackney Downs, Clapham Common, &c. Among the works now proceeding are a new street from Piccadilly to Hart-street, Bloomsbury, further clearance of sites for Artizans' Dwellings, new bridges at Battersea and Putney, and improvements in Deptford Creek, Hammersmith and Vauxhall Bridges. Its principal general duties comprise the control over the formation of streets and the line of buildings therein, the testing of gas and of gas-meters, the maintenance of the Fire Brigade (a force of upwards of 500), the maintenance of the Main Drainage system, and of parks and commons. It is the "Metropolitan Authority" under the Water, Tramways, Petroleum, Artizans' Dwellings, Contagious Diseases (Animals), Slaughter-houses, Explosive Substances, and other Acts, and regulates the construction of theatres and music-halls for the protection of persons from fire. It raises money (in Metropolitan Consolidated Stock) not only for its own works, but for advances to the School Board for London, the Vestries, the District Boards, and other corporations within the Metropolis. Members of the Board are elected by the respective Vestries and District Boards in the Metropolis. The Corporation of the City of London elects three

members.

(Office, Spring-gardens.-Hours 9 to 4; Saturdays 9 to 2.) Chairman-Lieut.-Colonel Sir James M. M'Garel Hogg, K.C.B., M.P. MEMBERS OF THE BOARD.

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Ingoldby, Frederick, Esq.
Jolly, John Robert, Esq.
Jones, John, Esq.
Jones, Robert, Esq.

Lloyd, J. R., Esq.
Meaden, G. P., Esq.
Munro, Donald, Esq.
Phillips, George. Esq.
Pocock, Alfred, Esq.
Reddish, John, Esq.
Richardson, G. B., Esq.
Rogers, E. Dresser, Esq.
Runtz, John, Esq.

Saunders, J. E., Esq., Deputy
Selway, W. R., Esq.
Shepherd, William, Esq.
Tolhurst, John, Esq.
Turner, Thomas, Esq.
Urquhart, William, Esq.
Wetenhall, W. J., Esq.
White, Thomas John, Esq.
OF THE BOARD.

Superintending Architect-George Accountant-Arthur Gunn, Esq. Vulliamy, Esq.

Bazalgette, C.B.

Solicitor-Reginald Ward, Esq.

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PAUPERISM AND ITS RELIEF. By the Poor Law Act of Queen Elizabeth the relief and chargeability of the poor were limited to the area of the parish. In the reign of Charles II. a law passed by which parishes, often of an unwieldy size, might be subdivided. This law was unfairly applied, in order to create what were called "close" parishes (sections of parishes in which there were few paupers), and hence low rates, while hard by were parishes with many paupers and high rates. The Poor Law Commissioners (1834) introduced the system of unions, by means of which, while each parish supported its own poor, the workhouse has been maintained by the parishes in union; each parish contributing its quota towards its cost.

Subsequently (1848) it was enacted that persons who acquired the status of irremovability, should be relieved out of the "common fund of the union," and, with some other classes of paupers, such as destitute wayfarers, become "union paupers." The basis upon which the common fund was assessed was also altered. It had been based on the average expense incurred by each parish in the relief of its own poor during the three years previous. It has since been based on the annual value of the rateable property of each parish. In 1865 another great change was made. The relief of all paupers was thrown on the common fund of the union. Concurrently with these changes, changes were made in regard to the position of the parish in questions of removability. It had heretofore been necessary that, to obtain irremovability by residence, the poor person should not reside outside the parish. Afterwards residence in one or more parishes, in a single union, was computed to make up the period of residence that conferred irremovability. Removability is now made to depend on residence in a union. In the enactments with regard to settlement, the words defining the local area are "parish," "parish or place," "parish or township"; and no change has been made in the law, similar to that with regard to removability, by which the union is substituted for the parish as the area of settlement. Nevertheless the distinction between parish and union has in a great measure lapsed. Many parishes, those not considered too small or otherwise unsuitable for administrative purposes, remained parishes-as Kensington, Islington, and others. Many, again, were made parts of unionsas St. Luke's, Clerkenwell, and Holborn, which have been formed into the Holborn Union. The latest Poor Law returns of 1883 showed a decrease in the number of paupers receiving relief in London had taken place, compared with the corresponding period of 1882:

TOTAL PAUPERISM OF THE METROPOLIS.
(Population in 1881, 3,815,000.)

Clerk of the Board--J. E. Wakefield, Esq.

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Chief of Fire Brigade-Captain Eyre Fifth week of July, 1883 M. Shaw, C.B.

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The Parochial Act 1883 provides for a better application and management of Parochial Charities of the City of London, and will put a stop to any misapplication of funds which can no longer be administered in accordance with the wishes of pious donors. The Act deals with a revenue of £120,000 a year, and for which there has hardly been any useful application. It will in future be devoted to promote education, and for the maintenance of libraries, museums, art collections, and other institutions opened in the interest of the working classes.

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