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AN ACT

FOR THE BETTER LOCAL MANAGEMENT OF THE METROPOLIS (a).

18 & 19 VICT. CAP. 120.

14TH AUGUST, 1855.

WHEREAS it is expedient that provision should be made for the better local management of the metropolis (b) in respect of the sewerage and drainage, and the paving, cleansing, lighting, and improvements thereof (c): Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and

(a) This Act has been amended by the 19 & 20 Vict. c. 112, the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, and the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, which see, post.

(b) By the 250th sect. "the metropolis" is defined to include the city of London, and the parishes and places mentioned in the schedules (A.), (B.), and (C.) to the Act; and the city of London includes all parts now within the jurisdiction of the commissioners of sewers for the city of London. The 11 & 12 Vict. c. 163 (the City of London Sewers Act, 1848), s. 262, enacts that the word "city" shall mean the city of London and the liberties thereof, and shall include such parts of Holborn, the Minories, and Aldersgate Street, as are or have been usually treated as being within the liberties of the city, and the courts and alleys leading into the same or communicating therewith, and also the north side of Eldon Street, formerly called Broker Row, Moorfields, and the courts and alleys leading into the same or communicating therewith, and all precincts and places within the city of London or the liberties thereof.

(c) See sect. 90, transferring, with certain exceptions, to the vestries and district boards constituted by this Act, in addition to the paving and other matters specified, all other duties,

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1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 60, re

temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Election of Vestries and Auditors in Parishes in
Schedules (A.) and (B.).

I. The Act of the session holden in the first and second "For pealed so far years of King William the Fourth, chapter sixty,

as regards

parishes in
schedules
(A.) and
(B.) (d)

the better Regulation of Vestries, and for the Appointment of Auditors of Accounts in certain Parishes of England and Wales," shall be repealed, from and after the passing of this Act, so far as regards any parish mentioned in either of the schedules (A.) and (B.) to this Act: Provided always, that the vestry and auditors already elected for any such parish under the said Act shall continue to be such vestry and auditors until the first election of vestrymen and auditors for such parish under this Act has taken place, but no longer (e); and the provisions of the said Act of King William the

powers, and authorities in anywise relating to the regulation, government, or concerns of parishes, &c., and the 3rd section of the 19 & 20 Vict. c. 112, post, transferring to them, save as therein otherwise provided, the duties, powers, and privileges (including such as relate to the affairs of the church, or the management or relief of the poor, or the administration of any money or other property applicable to the relief of the poor) which might have been performed or exercised by any open or elected or other vestry, &c. ; and see as to the purposes and objects of the Act, as collected from its preamble and enactments, the judgment of Lord Justice Turner in Carter v. Cropley, 26 L. J. (N. S.) Ch. 247.

(d) The Act here repealed so far as regards parishes mentioned in schedules (A.) and (B.) is that commonly known as Hobhouse's Act, from which several of the provisions in the present Act relating to the constitution of vestries have in substance been adopted. See on the construction of that Act R. v. St. Pancras, 1 A. & E. 80; R. v. St. Pancras, 5 N. & M. 219; R. v. St. Marylebone, 5 A. & E. 268; R. v. St. Pancras, 11 A. & E. 15; and the cases cited, Chit. Stat. vol. 3, p. 1518, et seq. notes.

(e) As to first election of vestrymen and auditors, see ss. 7, 11, post.

Fourth shall continue applicable to every such vestry and to their proceedings, and the books in which the same are entered, and to such auditors and their proceedings accordingly.

parishes

3

either of the schedules

to consist of

(A.) and (B.)

18 or more

fled and

after pro

II. The vestry in every parish mentioned in either of Vestries in the schedules (A.) and (B.) to this Act shall consist of a named in certain number of persons qualified and elected as herein provided; (that is to say,) eighteen vestrymen for every parish in which the number of rated householders (f) not less than shall not exceed one thousand; and six additional vestry- than 120 permen, that is, twenty-four vestrymen for every parish in sons quali which the number of rated householders shall exceed one elected as thousand; and twelve additional vestrymen, that is, vided. thirty-six vestrymen, for every parish in which the number of rated householders shall exceed two thousand; and so on at the proportion of twelve additional vestrymen for every thousand rated householders: Provided always, that in no case the number of vestrymen shall exceed one hundred and twenty: provided also, that the incumbent and churchwardens (g) of each such parish shall constitute a part of the vestry, and shall vote therein, in addition to the elected vestrymen: provided also, that every district rector now constituting in any such parish a part of the vestry thereof, shall continue to constitute a part of the vestry thereof under this Act: provided

(f) In a case in which A. and his partner had a dwelling house in a town with a counting-house attached to it, the partners using the counting-house daily for their business, and the dwelling house being occupied by a clerk of the firm and the rent and taxes being paid by the partnership, it was held that each of the partners was a householder within 26 Geo. 3, c. 38; Rex v. Hall, 1 B. & C. 123. So also under similar circumstances that each of the partners of a firm was a householder within 43 Eliz. c. 2, and liable to serve the office of overseer; R. v. Poynder, 1 B. & C. 178.

(g) Where one of a number of trustees, directed by a local Act to be filled up at certain intervals to fifty-one over and besides the vicar, churchwardens, &c., became churchwarden, it was held that no vacancy was thereby created; R. v. Trustees of Kensington, 2 B. & Ad. 740.

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also, that where in any parish the whole number of persons qualified to be vestrymen shall not amount to eighteen, the vestry thereof shall consist of so many persons as are so qualified, anything in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

III. Each of the said parishes which at the time of more than the passing of this Act (h) contains more than two thousand rated householders shall be divided into wards; obedivided and it shall be lawful for such person or persons as may be appointed for this purpose as herein provided to determine and set out, on or before the tenth day of October next, the number, extent, limits, and boundary lines of such wards, but so nevertheless that no ward shall contain less than five hundred rated householders, and that the whole number of wards in any parish shall not exceed eight; and the person or persons setting out such wards in any parish shall apportion among the several wards the number of vestrymen to be elected for such parish, and shall, in assigning the number of vestrymen to each ward, have regard, as far as in his or their judgment it is practicable, as well to the number of persons rated to the relief of the poor in each ward as to the aggregate amount of the sums at which all such persons are rated; and the number of vestrymen assigned to each ward shall be a number divisible by three; and a copy of the particulars of such division and apportionment shall be forthwith transmitted to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, and also to the vestry clerk of the parish to which such division and apportionment relate; and if Her Majesty, by the advice of her privy council, approve of such division and apportionment, the particulars thereof shall be published

(h) The omission in this Act to make provision for a future increase of rated householders is supplied by sect. 41 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, post, which provides for the division into wards, by the metropolitan board, of parishes not divided under this Act.

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