FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS INSPECTION 468 THE IMPROVEMENT OF TOWNS (21st June, MARKETS AND FAIRS (23rd April, 1846) - 486 THE POLICE OF TOWNS (22nd July, 1847) 499 THE AUDIT OF POOR LAW ACCOUNTS BURIAL ACT CLAUSES (25th August, 1857) 526 PUBLIC HOUSE CLOSING (25th July, 1864) 530 PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS AND - 541 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The Local Government Act of 1858 was considerably amended by an Act (24 & 25 Vict. c. 61) passed three years afterwards, in 1861. Various alterations and additions were made of a miscellaneous character. About that time the change in the Highway laws, which created Highway Boards in parishes, was promulgated, and as there was a provision in the scheme which exempted Local. Board Districts from being included therein, many places of small extent and of inappropriate character, hastened to procure this exemption by adopting the provisions of the Local Government Act. A stop was put to this proceeding by an Act (26 & 27 Vict. c. 17,) which prevented places where the population was below a certain limit from adopting the Act without the consent of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and also provided for the dissolution of districts formed without the object of carrying the general provisions of the law into actual effect. The distress created in the manufacturing districts in the North, by the defective supply of cotton caused by the war in the United States of America, was the occa sion of a special Act of Parliament, (26 & 27 Vict. c. 70,) by which, in order to secure the employment of the labouring and manufacturing classes in those districts, facilities were rendered to public authorities for the execution of works, such as are the subjects of the Public Health and Local Government Acts. The provisions for the most part facilitated the adoption of those Acts, and extended the powers of the Local Boards for the execution of the works, and the raising of the requisite funds. It was limited in extent to the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and Derby, and was of a temporary operation. Happily the necessity for its continuance did not arise, and except in respect of transactions under it, which are yet incomplete, it is not now in force. No Act for the amendment of the laws provided by the statutes which were the subject of the previous work, specifically confined to them, has since been passed, but there have been many Acts relating to the subjects embraced by them, which have contained special provisions applicable to the powers and duties of Local Boards. When the first edition of this work was published, the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, was the Act which established the powers to be adopted for the Removal of Nuisances, and created the authorities who were to exercise those powers. The Act in some respects was found to be unsatisfactory, and it was therefore amended by the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, passed in August, 1860. This Act also amended some of the provisions of the Act (18 & 19 Vict. c. 116), for the Prevention of Diseases, a title very inappropriate, as it only takes effect when some formidable epidemic, endemic or contagious disease threatens or afflicts some part of England. But various other measures have been since introduced for the improvement of the sanitary condition of the country, some of which have since become law. In 1865, Lord Robert Montagu, member of parliament for the county of Huntingdon, who had directed his attention with great zeal to the subject of sanitary reform, laid before the House of Commons two elaborate Bills, one to prevent the pollution of rivers, and the other to provide for the utilization of sewage. He explained his measures with great earnestness and ability. The Government declined to accede to his proposals as to the former subject, but recommended that the latter Bill should be referred to a Select Committee of the House of Commons. From that Committee it was returned greatly reduced in its provisions, but it was passed in the shape recommended by the Committee, and is known as "the Sewage Utilization Act of 1865" (28 & 29 Vict. c. 75). It constituted a new authority for local purposes, under the name of "the Sewer Authority." The subject of the pollution of rivers was referred to a Commission appointed by the Government in 1865, which failed by reason of disagreement between the Commissioners, but was renewed in 1868, and is still sitting, having made three intermediate reports. Of these, the second, dated July 4th, 1870, was devoted specially to what is termed the A. B. C. process of treating sewage, and the Commissioners reported unfavourably of it. A special inquiry into the state of the river Thames, consequent upon the discharge of the metropolitan sewage into it at Barking, was made by Mr. Rawlinson, C.B., in 1869, and his report was laid before Parliament in 1870, (No. 7.) In 1866, an Act which was termed "the Sanitary Act, 1866" (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90), was passed, which contained a variety of provisions extending and amending the Sewage Utilization Act of the previous year, and the Nuisance Removal Acts, besides numerous regulations of a miscellaneous character to improve the sanitary laws of this country and of Ireland. Several Acts have since been passed to give greater efficiency to the sewage utilization and sanitary Acts, and extending them in various respects. It is also to be observed that some additional functions have been imposed upon Local Boards, formed under the Public Health and Local Government Acts. They have been empowered to provide hospitals, either permanent or temporary, for the sick inhabitants of their district, and medicine and medical attendance for the poorer inhabitants, to establish baths and wash-houses for their districts, and have been required in populous towns and districts to cause dwelling-houses which are dilapidated or ruinous, and "in a condition or state dangerous to health, so as to be unfit for human habitation," to be pulled down or substantially repaired. An Act was passed in 1863 to make regulations |