specified, granite and any other solid and durable stone suit- 57 & 58 Vict able for building purposes, iron, steel, and copper, oak, teak, c. ccxiii. and other hard timber of the thicknesses therein mentioned, s. 5 (37-39). and in certain cases protected by plastering or cement, or other incombustible or non-conducting external coating; slate tiles, brick and terra-cotta and flagstones under certain circumstances, concrete, composed of the ingredients specified, and, lastly, any material from time to time approved by the Council as fire-resisting. The last description would appear to be meant to enable the Council to escape the difficulty so far as the provisions of the Act relating to fire-resisting materials are concerned, which was experienced in the case of Payne v. Wright (1892), 1 Q. B. 104; 61 L. J. M. C. 7; 65 L. T. (N.S.) 612; 40 W. R. 191; 56 J. P. 120, with regard to the necessity for roofs of buildings being covered with slates, tiles, metal, or other incombustible materials. In that case portions of the roof of a building which would otherwise have been covered with glass, were covered with a material known as 'duroline,' a material composed of woven iron wire coated with an oleaginous compound, which was entirely waterproof and semi-transparent, and was used at several large buildings in the metropolis and extensively in other parts of the country, as a substitute for glass. The magistrate before whom proceedings were taken in respect of such roofing, found as a fact that part of the material, that is to say, the oleaginous coating, was combustible, and that part of it, that is to say, the wire network, was incombustible, and held, there having been evidence given before him by experts that the material was safer than glass as a protection from fire when used on skylights, that, having regard to the object and purposes of the Act, the material as a whole was an incombustible material within the meaning of the Act. The Queen's Bench Division, however, reversed such holding, and held that the magistrate ought to have found that the material was not incombustible. (37) The expression inhabited' applied to a room Inhabited.' means a room in which some person passes the night or which is used as a living room including a room with respect to which there is a probable presumption (until the contrary is shown) that some person passes the night therein or that it is used as a living room. Inhabited. See the note to subsection 25, ante, p. 23; and see also the instructional letter of December 15, 1894, in Appendix IV., post. 6 (38) The expression 'habitable' applied to a room Habitable.' means a room constructed or adapted to be inhabited. Habitable.-See the definition of the expression ' inhabited' in subsection 37 and the note to subsection 25, ante, p. 23. (39) The expression the Metropolis Management Management Acts' means the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and Acts." 6 The Metropolis 57 & 58 Vict. the Acts amending the same or any one or more of those c. ccxiii. s. 5 (40, 41). 'London.' The Council. Acts. The Metropolis Management Acts.-The Acts by which the Metropolis Management Act 1855 has been amended are the following, viz. :-the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. 112); the Metropolis Local Management Act Amendment Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 104); the Metropolis Local Management Acts Amendment Act, 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 102); the Valuation (Metropolis) Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 67, sect. 77); the Metropolitan Board of Works (Loans) Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 102, sect. 50); the Metropolitan Board of Works (Loans) Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 47, sects. 16, 18); the Metropolitan Management and Building Acts Amendment Act, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 32); the Diseases Prevention, Metropolis Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 55, sect. 5); the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 43, sect. 4); the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 33); the Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 17); the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 66); the Public Health (London) Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 76); the Statute Law Revision Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 19); the Statute Law Revision Act (No. 2), 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 54); and the Metropolis Management (Plumstead and Hackney) Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 55). (40) The expression London' means the administrative county of London. London.-See the note to sect. 4, ante, p. 4. (41) The expression the Council' means the London County Council. The London County Council.-The London County Council was constituted by sect. 40 of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) and superseded the Metropolitan Board of Works, the body to which the control of the layingout of streets and building operations in the metropolis had been entrusted previously to the coming into operation of that Act. The Local Government Act, 1888, so far as it relates to the Metropolis, came into operation on the 21st March, 1889, to which day the date in sect. 109 of the Act was altered by order of the Local Government Board, dated the 19th March, 1889; subsect. 8 of section 40 of the Act enacts that there shall also be transferred to the London County Council the powers, duties, and liabilities of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and after the appointed day that Board shall cease to exist, and the property, debts, and liabilities thereof shall be transferred to the London County Council, and that Council shall be in law the successors of the Metropolitan Board of Works. (42) The expression local authority' means the vestry or district board of works under the Metropolis Management Acts within whose parish or district the building structure place land or thing referred to is or will be or in the City the Commissioners of Sewers or in the parish of Woolwich the Woolwich Local Board of Health. Local Authority.-A list of the parishes and districts subject to these authorities will be found in the note to sect. 4, ante, P. 5. 57 & 58 Vict. c. ccxiii. 'Local authority.' (43) The expression the City' means all parts now City.' within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Sewers. The City. See the note to sect. 4, ante, p. 4. (44) The expression Corporation' means the mayor Corpora aldermen and commons of the City of London. 6 (45) The expression Guildhall' means the land offices courts and buildings commonly called the Guildhall and the offices courts and buildings adjoining or appurtenant thereto which now are used by or may hereafter be erected for the use of the Corporation or of any committee commission or society appointed by them. (46) The expression Commissioners of Sewers' means the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London. tion.' Guildhall.' The Commissioners of Sewers.-See the note to sect. 4, ante, Commis- p. 6. The Tribunal of Appeal is constituted by sect. 175, post, p. 269, and consists of: One member to be appointed by a Secretary of State, one member to be appointed by the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and one member to be appointed by the Council of the Surveyors' Institution. PART II. FORMATION AND WIDENING OF STREETS. 6. From and after the commencement of this Act As to streets shall not be made and ways shall not be widened making altered or adapted so as to form streets otherwise streets. than subject to and in accordance with the provisions set forth in this Part of this Act provided that this Act shall not affect the powers of any local authority to widen alter or improve any street. Widening, &c., streets. The provisions of the present Act which regulate the widening of streets are contained in sect. 10, post, p. 55. The powers of the authorities which are, by sect. 5 s. 6. 57 & 58 Vict. (42), ante, p. 39, included in the meaning of the expression c. ccxiii. 'local authority,' when used in this Act, are contained in 57 Geo. III. c. 29, sect. 80, in sects. 120 and 144 of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and sects. 72, 98, 99, and 100of the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1862, which will be found in Appendix I., post. By sect. 250 of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120), 'the word "street" shall apply to and include any highway (except the carriage-way of any turnpike road), and any road, bridge (not being a county bridge), lane, footway, square, court, alley, passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, and a part of any such highway, road, bridge, lane, footway, square, court, alley, or passage.' And by sect. 112 of the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 102), 'the word "street" shall be deemed to apply to and include the subject matters specified in the two hundred and fiftieth section of the firstly recited Act' (i.e. the Act of 1855), and also any mews and a part thereof. By sect. 80 of 57 Geo. III. c. 29 (the powers of improving streets conferred by which are extended to the Metropolis by sect. 73 of the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1862), it is enacted that 'for the improvement of the streets and public places in the parochial or other districts within the jurisdiction of this Act, and for the public advantage, it shall and may be lawful to and for the Commissioners or trustees, or other persons having the control of the pavements of any parochial or other district, from time to time, and at all times. hereafter, to alter, widen, turn, or extend any of the streets or other public places within any such parochial or other district (except turnpike roads), and to lengthen and continue or open the sides or ends of any streets or public places within any parochial or other district, into any other street or public place within such or any other parochial or other district, and to raise, level, lower, drain, ballast, gravel, or pave such new part or parts of any such streets or public places so altered, widened,. extended, opened, or lengthened as aforesaid; and that if any houses, walls, buildings, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, or any part thereof, shall be adjudged by the said Commissioners. or trustees, or other persons as aforesaid, to project into, obstruct, or prevent them from so altering, turning, widening, extending, lengthening, continuing, or opening the said streets. or public places within the said parochial or other district, and that the possession, occupation, and purchase of such houses, walls, buildings, lands, tenements, or hereditaments will be necessary (a) for that purpose, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Commissioners or trustees, or other persons as aforesaid, and they shall have full power and authority to treat, . contract, and agree, or to employ any person or persons to treat, contract, and agree with the several owner or owners, occupier or occupiers of all such houses, walls, buildings, lands,. and hereditaments, of whatsoever nature, tenure, kind, or s. 6. quality, for the purposes aforesaid, and to pay for the same 57 & 58 Vict. such sum or sums of money as shall be agreed upon by the c. ccxiii. said Commissioners or trustees, or other persons as aforesaid, and the owner or owners, occupier or occupiers thereof, out of the money to raise and be raised and to be received by them, either by virtue of any local Act or Acts of Parliament relating to such parochial or other districts, or of this Act, and to pull down, use, sell, or dispose of such houses, walls, and buildings, and the materials thereof, and lay the sites thereof, and also such other lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or so much thereof as they, the said Commissioners, trustees, or other persons as aforesaid, shall think proper, into the said streets or other public places.' (a) The word 'necessary' in sect. 80 means physically necessary, and it was therefore held by Kay, J., in Gard v. the Commissioners of Sewers, 28 Ch. D. 486; 49 L. T. (N.S.) 325, that the Commissioners of Sewers were not entitled under the section to adjudge the whole of a house to be necessary to be taken for the widening of a street, and to take it in pursuance of such adjudication, when, in fact, only a portion of the house, physically obstructed the widening, the object of the Commissioners being to resell the remainder of the house at an increased price, and so to enable the scheme for widening the street to be carried out. In Thomas v. Daw, L. R. 2 Ch. App. 1; 15 L. T. (N.S.) 200, which was distinguished by Kay, J., in the case last cited, the Court held that the Commissioners of Sewers could not under sect. 80 take the whole of a house compulsorily unless they had formally adjudged that possession of the whole was necessary for the purpose of executing their powers. See also Lynch v. the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, 32 Ch. D. 72, in which case it was held that the Commissioners could not virtually adjudicate that a property was required for the purposes of an improvement until they had determined what the improvement was to be, so far as to furnish materials for judging whether the property was or was not required. In another case, Teuliere v. the Vestry of St. Mary Abbott's, Kensington, 30 Ch. D. 642; 55 L. J. Ch. 23; 50 J. P. 53; 53 L. T. (N.S.) 422, it was held that where the local authority for the purpose of widening a street within its district required a portion of an orphanage, which if severed would leave a substantial portion of the premises remaining, the authority was not, upon the owners wishing to sell the portion required only, entitled to take the whole of the premises. And in Gordon v. the Vestry of St. Mary Abbott's, Kensington (1894), 2 Q. B. 742 ; 63 L. J. M. C. 193; 71 L. T. (N.S.) 196 ; 58 J. P. 463; 10 R. 539, it was held that a metropolitan local authority can, under sects. So and 82 of Michael Angelo Taylor's Act, 1817, compulsorily take away a part of a house, as well as a portion of land, for the purpose of widening a thoroughfare, provided that the taking away of such a part will not involve a |