BIRKBECK BANK (ESTABLISHED 1851), SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. CURRENT ACCOUNTS. Two per cent. Interest allowed on Drawing Accounts with cheque book. Accounts opened with £25 and upwards. Interest allowed on minimum monthly balances when not drawn below £100. DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS. Two-and-a-Half per cent. Interest allowed on Deposit Accounts. Accounts opened with £1 and upwards. DEPOSIT RECEIPTS. Deposit Receipts, subject to seven days' notice of withdrawal, are issued at the Rate of Interest allowed by the leading London Bankers; alterations in the rate are announced by advertisement only. STOCKS AND SHARES. Stocks and Shares are purchased and sold for Customers of the Bank. Quotations of prices of any Stocks can be obtained without delay, the Bank being in communication with their Stock Brokers by private telephone. ADVANCES AND MORTGAGES. Temporary Advances are made upon Securities quoted on the London Stock Exchange, and Loans by way of Mortgages are made upon Freehold and Leasehold House Property. All transactions can be carried out through the post. ALMANACK POST FREE ON APPLICATION. C. F. RAVENSCROFT, Secretary. THE student of public affairs who aspires to a professional appointment or an elective office in the municipal service, naturally seeks a popular manual which will give him an introduction to the scheme and work of English local government. To his surprise, he finds that no such handbook exists. There is a plenitude of legal text books and treatises, appalling in their size and measureless in their profundity; but these appear rather as fortresses guarding the path of inquiry from attack than as the gateways to knowledge. This little book is therefore issued in the hope that it will be useful to all those who desire to make an acquaintance with the subjects which, in practice, call for the attention of members of local authorities, municipal officers, and others engaged in the public work of our towns. At the outset, one is confronted with the difficulty of dealing with the subject in such a manner as to give the reader a clear view of the whole ground. Local government may be treated from many points of view-for example, area, or structure, or function. In any event, overlapping can hardly be entirely avoided. The method I have adopted has been to give a preliminary sketch of the constitution of the authorities responsible for the government of our towns, and then to classify their duties in a few large groups. The Acts of Parliament under which their powers are conferred are indicated in the footnotes. The latter will be useful to the student who desires further information than this book can afford. The reader should be warned of the multitude of varying powers in force in different classes of urban areas. Rousseau described government as "the science of combinations, applications and exceptions." Unfortunately, local government seems to be burdened with more than its fair share of exceptions. General laws there are, it is true, which are applicable to the whole of the English towns, but even these vary |