can be put

or sover

no question put which brings the name of the sovereign or the influence that reflects of the crown directly before parliament, or which casts reflecupon crown tions upon the sovereign." 1 Questions to members outside of the cabinet are usually addressed to the leader of the opto members position, to ex-ministers, to the archbishop of Canterbury, to the cabinet; members placed on royal commissions, to the trustees of the

eign; question

outside of

how limited.

The offence known as

National Gallery, to the parliamentary representative of the British Museum, and to the lord chamberlain; and are limited under the terms of the rule to matters "relating to any bill, motion, or other public matter connected with the business of the house, in which such members may be concerned." 2

When in 1877 the house of commons was called upon to obstruction deal with an offence of which the speaker said any member defined;

down to 1877 rules

was guilty who "wilfully and persistently obstructed public business, without just and reasonable cause," the fact was admitted that its then existing rules contained no adequate

provision for the closure of debate under such circumstances. failed to As temporary expedients to facilitate the consideration of sevprovide for eral important bills then pending were adopted the urgency resolutions of the sessions of 1881 and 1882; and in the sessions resolutions of 1887 and 1888 were passed the standing orders now govand 1882; erning the subject, which provide, (25) "That, after a question

debate;

urgency

of 1881

standing orders of 1887 now governing

has been proposed, a member rising in his place may claim

to move, 'That the question be now put,' and, unless it shall the subject. appear to the chair that such motion is an abuse of the rules of the house, or an infringement of the rights of the minority, the question, 'That the question be now put,' shall be put forthwith, and decided without amendment or debate;" (26) "That questions for the closure of debate under standing order No. 25 shall be decided in the affirmative, if, when a division be taken, it appears by the numbers declared from the chair, that no less than one hundred members voted in the majority in support of the motion." 4

6. While the inner circle of the privy council known as the cabinet - whose members in legal contemplation derive their authority and responsibility from the fact that they have been

istrative

sworn of it - has been absorbing all the real powers of government, the outer circle, which now embraces a membership of about two hundred, has since the Revolution of 1688 sunk into comparative insignificance. Its once mighty judicial au- remains of its judicial thority has dwindled in criminal matters down to the right authority of taking examinations and issuing commitments for high aised by treason, while in civil it retains only an appellate jurisdiction over the colonial and ecclesiastical tribunals. These vestiges of its ancient jurisdiction do not belong, however, to the council as a whole, but to the judicial committee, connected its judicial committee; with the main body by little more than its name, to which they were transferred by 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 41. Among the its adminadministrative functions still exercised by the crown, nomi- functions; nally at least, through the privy council, are such as those of proclaiming ports or fairs, and deciding when a given act shall be put into effect, - functions whose very insignificance best illustrates how the council has fallen from its high estate. "Through privy councillors, and through them alone, can the powers of monarch act; and hence the powers of the crown are in a council sense the powers of the council. They have risen, they have flourished flourished, they have declined, together."1 This shadowy body, andlined which thus exists as a mere survival of the past, is unlimited together; in number, and its members, who are appointed without patent its numbers or grant at the discretion of the crown, may be dismissed by unlimited; it at any time, individually or as a whole. Subject to that tenure of contingency the ancient rule was for the privy council to con- councillor, tinue during the life of the sovereign; but that rule was changed by 6 Anne, c. 7, that continues its existence for six 6 Anne, c. 7; months longer, subject of course to the right of the new monarch to dissolve it at will. The only necessary qualifica- qualification for a privy councillor is that he should be born a British duties; subject; and the nature of his duties, including the obligation of secrecy, is clearly epitomized, not only in the oath of office oath of anciently imposed, but in the modern one now in use.2

7. The same general longing for a wider freedom that forced the aristocracy, through the reform bill of 1832, to relinquish

crown and

have

a privy

tion and

office.

Great acts their hold upon the house of commons also brought about the

of the reformed parliaments:

how the franchise was with

the

enactment of that series of statutes through which the ancient system of local self-government has been emancipated from the control of the few and reëstablished upon a popular basis. The attempt has heretofore been made to draw out the process through which the simple primitive system of local administration embodied in the township, the borough, the hundred, and the shire, upon which the central government pressed very lightly, was gradually undermined by a series of encroach

ments that finally resulted in withdrawing the franchise from drawn from the main body of the people and vesting it in local magnates, body of the or in close corporations. Thus it was that in many parishes people; the powers of the vestry, - anciently the assembly of the

township for ecclesiastical matters only, - in which all rated parishioners had the common law right to assemble for the

regulation of all parish affairs, were usurped by a few of the self-elected inhabitants, who assumed not only to act for all, but to pervestries; petuate their existence by self-election.1 In the boroughs, self-elected where the municipal councils were generally self-elected and municipal for life, the tendency was still stronger upon the part of the

things at

favored few to exclude the main body of the townspeople from condition of any share in the town government. From the report of the Plymouth, royal commission appointed in 1833 to make a searching inmouth, and quiry into the whole subject, we learn that at Plymouth, in a Ipswich; population of 75,000, there were only 437 freemen, of whom

Ports

government of

145 were non-resident; at Portsmouth, in a population of 45,000, there were only 102 freemen; while at Ipswich, less than two per cent., many of whom were paupers, enjoyed corporate privileges. Passing over the obsolete subdivisions known as hundreds, we also find a notable exception to the

general rule of representation in local affairs in the county counties by governments, whose administrative control finally passed from appointed the local parliaments known as the county courts to the quarter

justices

by the

sessions, composed of the justices of the peace appointed by the crown, generally upon the recommendation of the lord lieutenant. As time went on, the strong and simple system of local to be either self-government, once sufficient for all the wants of primitive popular or adequate; communities, not only ceased to be popular, but became entirely inadequate to the ever increasing requirements of a progressive society. As the state thus outgrew its immemorial system of local administration an attempt was made to supply the more glaring deficiencies, not only by general legislation relating to local affairs, but also by thousands of local and special acts which apply to particular towns and districts.1 When, therefore, the work of reformation and reorganization its reformbegan, those who were brave enough to undertake it were upon to called upon to keep three objects steadily in view: firstly, to keep three reëstablish local self-government upon a popular basis; sec- steadily in ondly, to supersede the endless local exceptions and anomalies by something like a uniform system; thirdly, to make such additions to the ancient machinery as were peremptorily demanded by the complex wants of modern civilization.

ers called

things

view.

It was admitted on all hands that the most vicious and cor- Reform of rupt part of the local system was that embodied in the muni- the munici pal system; cipal organization of the boroughs, whose charters from a very early period generally granted or confirmed to each the right of sending one or more burgesses to parliament to represent it. Thus "a great number of corporations have been pre- corporaserved solely as political engines, and the towns to which they preserved belong derive no benefit, but often much injury, from their as political existence. To maintain the political ascendancy of a party, or the political influence of a family, has been the one end and object for which the powers entrusted to those bodies have been exercised." After the reform bill of 1832 had taken after away these exclusive political privileges from the few and bill of 1832, revested them in the many so far as the right to elect parlia- borough mentary representatives was concerned, steps were immedi- reorganized ately taken to abolish such oligarchies entirely, and to reorgan- popular ize the borough system upon a broad popular basis by vesting basis; the municipal franchise in the rate-paying residents. As a prelude to that undertaking parliament in 1833 appointed a Royal Commission which, after a thorough investigation of the Royal Com whole subject, reported in 1835; and in the same year was of 1833;

Municipal passed the first Municipal Corporations Act,1 justly regarded

Corporations Act, 1835;

its leading features;

as the basis of English municipal freedom in its modern form. By the terms of that act the franchise was given to all inhabit ant ratepayers; magisterial powers were taken away from the aldermen, and the tenure of elective officers shortened; provision was made for the honest administration of corporate funds and for an efficient discharge of municipal duties; and all exemptions, restrictions, and trading monopolies were abol

ished. So imperfect, however, was this tentative measure that after forty- after forty-two amendments in subsequent enactments it was two amend deemed necessary to recast and condense the whole subject

ments, whole subject recast and into Municipal Corporations

condensed

into the complete municipal code embodied in the Municipal Corporations Act, 2 1882, said to be one of the best drafted acts upon the statute-book. There the titles of municipal corpora

tions are fixed, the franchise for both men and women defined, Act, 1882; the rights and duties of burgesses, the duties of mayors, the general powers of the governing body known as the council, the manner in which borough justice shall be administered, and the manner in which new municipalities may be created clearly set forth.

Municipal Corporations Acts

And here the fact must be emphasized that these Municipal Corporations Acts have never been extended to the City of

not extend- London, which still retains its ancient constitution embodied

ed to the City of London;

in one hundred and twenty charters, supplemented by about it retains its fifty general and a mass of local acts. The ancient city thus ancient con- constituted occupies, however, within municipal and parliamenand bound- tary boundaries only 671 statute acres, with a population esti

stitution

aries;

by three

mated in 1896 at 31,148.8 The corporation, which within these narrow limits exercises nearly all local authority, performs its governed functions through three assemblies, - the court of aldermen, assemblies the court of common council, and the court of common hall, charter over each of which the lord mayor presides. The charter William the granted to the city by William the Norman was addressed to Norman; William the bishop, Gosfrith the portreeve, and all the bur

granted by

gesses, French and English; but the portreeve in due time received the Norman title of bailiff, which in 1189 was changed