siderable period rested on a basis which has practically secured for its inhabitants a substantial representation of their interests and wishes. This was pointed out in the Report of the Commissioners appointed in 1853 to inquire into the state of the Corporation (a), and they ascribe this result in a great measure to the mode in which the Common Council is elected. But these advantages were confined to the narrow area included within the city proper, and the metropolitan districts beyond those limits were, until the introduction of the Metropolis Local Management Act, for the most part excluded from their operation.

Those extensive districts which were without the city had no general municipal organization, and were for the most part wholly unconnected with cach other. Various statutes from time to time defined "the metropolis" for the specific purposes for which they were passed. The earliest example of such a district was that included within the weekly bills of mortality, which were originally weekly reports or returns by the parish clerks of London, relative to christenings and burials. They are said to have originated in 1562, and additional parishes were from time to time included within them, until they at length comprised the ninety-seven parishes within the city walls, the seventeen parishes without the walls, twenty-four out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, and ten parishes in Westminster (b). In addition to the general statutes affecting the parishes without the city, and within the present metropolitan limits, a large proportion of them were governed by local Acts, of which there are

(a) See Report, with minutes of evidence, and Appendix (1854), p. 12.

(b) See Pulling, "Laws of London," p. 264.

several hundred, presenting great diversity in their objects and provisions. The sewerage of the larger portion of those districts was under the control of commissioners appointed under the 23 Hen. 8, c. 5. The commissions were seven in number, viz., for Westminster and part of Middlesex, the Tower Hamlets, Saint Katherine's, Poplar and Blackwall, Holborn and Finsbury, Surrey and Kent and Greenwich. They were all subject to the general statutes concerning sewers, and several of them had obtained special Acts for extending their powers. The general statutes of sewers applicable to those commissions were the 23 Hen. 8, c. 5 (c), the 3 & 4 Ed. 6, c. 8, the 13 Eliz. c. 9, the 7 Anne, c. 10, and the 2 Wm. & Ma. sess. 2, c. 8. To these must be added the 3 Jas. 1, c. 14, subjecting to the commission of sewers the walls, ditches, &c. and watercourses within two miles from the city of London, which waters had their course and fall into the Thames; and the 2 Wm. & Ma. sess. 2, c. 8, providing that all new sewers made within London and Westminster and the other places named at any time since the twelfth year of the reign of Charles the Second should be subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioners. The Middlesex commissions were expressly exempted from the operation of the General Sewer Acts, the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 22, but the provisions of that enactment applied to those on the south side of the Thames, viz., for Surrey and Kent and Greenwich; and by the latest of the local Acts relating to one of the commissions in Middlesex, viz., the Westminster, the 10 & 11

(c) See reference to earlier statutes concerning sewers, Serj. Woolrych's "Law of Sewers," 2nd ed., p. 5, et seq.

Vict. c. 70, numerous provisions of the general statute were by express reference and incorporation made applicable to that commission, notwithstanding the exception referred to. The commissions which had obtained local Acts were those for Westminster, the Holborn and Finsbury, and Surrey and Kent. As many important questions affecting the rights of the present boards and vestries in relation to sewers, the liabilities of private parties with reference to sewerage works, the rights of creditors on the rates and other matters from time to time present themselves and necessitate a reference to those statutes, it will be convenient to enumerate them, and briefly to advert to the more important of their provisions. The local and personal Acts relating to the Westminster commission were the 47 Geo. 3, c. 7, the 52 Geo. 3, c. 48, and the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 70; those applicable to the Holborn and Finsbury commission were the 18 Geo. 3, c. 66, and the 54 Geo. 3, c. 219; and the Acts relating to the Surrey and Kent Commission were the 49 Geo. 3, c. 183, the 50 Geo. 3, c. 144, 53 Geo. 3, c. 79, and the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 217. The 47 Geo. 3, c. 7, recited the 3 Jas. 1, c. 14, enacting that all sewers, &c., within two miles from the City of London having their course and fall into the Thames, should be subject to the commission, and also recited the 2 William & Mary, c. 8, rendering subject to the commission all new sewers made in any of the parishes, &c. enumerated, since the twelfth year of the reign of Charles II.; and then enacted that all "walls, ditches, sewers, &c.," west of the City of London extending to and including a watercourse dividing the parishes of Chelsea and Fulham, including the several parishes enumerated, having their course and fall into

the Thames, should be fully subject to the commissioners of sewers; and it gave the commissioners increased powers for the execution and control of works, and in other respects. The 52 Geo. 3, c. 48, amongst other things, gave the commissioners certain powers for the levying of equal rates; and the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 70, extended the jurisdiction of the commission over all places named or to be named in it, whether or not the tide ebbed and flowed therein; and gave the commissioners additional powers for the construction of works, for enforcing the construction of sewers by private parties, imposing on such parties the cost of works, for compelling house drainage, and for making rates and other objects. There was also a special Act obtained by the Westminster commissioners for the formation of a sewer at Bayswater, 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 96. This sewer was constructed by means of money borrowed, to be repaid by instalments within twenty years. whole of the money has been repaid. By the 18 Geo. 3, c. 66, the Corporation of London were empowered to construct a new sewer within the prebendal estate of Halliwell and Finsbury, and so much of it as was in the county of Middlesex was placed under the Holborn and Finsbury commissioners, and in consideration of the benefit accruing to the districts under their charge, those commissioners were directed to pay into the Chamber of the City of London the annual sum of 1501. for ever; and it contained other provisions relating to the sewerage of the districts, the mode of making rates, and other matters. By the 49 Geo. 3, c. 183, the Surrey and Kent commissioners were, amongst other things, empowered to make new sewers within the parishes named in the Act, to purchase lands mentioned in the schedule,

The

by agreement or compulsorily, and to borrow, on the security of the rates, sums not exceeding 15,000. The 50 Geo. 3, c. 144, directed them to keep separate accounts of the charges of making new sewers in particular parishes, and fixed the proportions in which the expenses should be paid; it extended the jurisdiction of the commissioners to other parishes; and they were empowered to borrow not exceeding 60,000l. The 53 Geo. 3, c. 79, authorized the commissioners to borrow a further sum of 40,000l., and provided for the division of districts; and it gave compulsory powers for the acquisition of lands enumerated in the schedule. The 10 & 11 Vict. c. 217, applied all the powers of the former Acts to the extended districts enumerated in the schedule, and gave increased power for enforcing contribution to the cost of sewers, compelling house drainage and other things.

With respect to the paving of the districts under consideration and the suppression of nuisances, it may be here stated that in the year 1817 was passed the Metropolitan General Paving Act, the 57 Geo. 3, c. 29, commonly known as Michael Angelo Taylor's Act, which consolidated and reduced into a species of system many of the provisions relating to paving and the regulation and improvement of streets which were contained in the special Acts of particular parishes. It was expressly incorporated in many of the special Acts which were subsequently passed, and where there was no such express incorporation the commissioners or trustees exercised some of the powers conferred by it in conjunction with those given by the local Acts under which they were appointed. The operation of that Act was limited to the streets and public places then paved or which might