Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States

—The total geographical area of the United Kingdom is about 122,161 square miles, divided as follows: England, with Wales, 58,311; Scotland, 31,326: Ireland. 32,524; total, 122,161. In other words, the area of England with Wales is almost exactly equal to that of the New England States, omitting Vermont; or to that of the state of New York with Vermont added; or to that of the state of Georgia. The area of either Scotland or Ireland alone is a little less than that of the state of Indiana. The area of Great Britain without Ireland is equal to that of the six New England states with half of New York added. The area of the United Kingdom is equal to that of the four states of Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The greatest length of Great Britain, from its southwest corner at Land’s End to Duncansby Head, where John of Groat in the reign of James IV. built his celebrated ferry-house on the beach of the Pentland Firth, is about 600 miles. Its greatest width, along the south coast, is 320 miles; its least width—say from Kincardine on the Forth to Dumbarton on the Clyde—is less than 30 miles. The greatest length of Ireland is 300 miles, and crosswise from Carnsore Point to Erris Head it measures about 200 miles. The higher mountains of Great Britain rise in the west of the island, so that most of the rivers belong to the North sea drainage. The largest of these, the Thames, draining an area about equal to that of the state of Connecticut, and possessing a tidal upflow for 60 miles from its mouth, makes London practically a seaport. The climate of Great Britain displays to a remarkable extent the effects of maritime situation. While the parallel of London runs through Labrador, the summers are not only much cooler, but the winters are much less severe, than in any part of the northern United States. In January the thermometer in London seldom goes below 32° Fahrenheit, while in July it seldom goes above 80°.

—The population of the United Kingdom during the following decennial periods is shown in the table below:

—Viewed in this way, stripped of the legal fictions which result from its peculiar historic development, nothing can be simpler than the actual working of the English government. A house of commons is chosen by the people. The recognized leader of the party which wins the election is appointed (nominally by the crown, but this is a mere form) to conduct the government and to form a cabinet. So long as this government is supported by the votes of a majority of the house, it continues in office. When it ceases to be supported by the votes of a majority of the house, two courses are open to it. On the one hand, the prime minister and his cabinet may resign, and thus make room for a cabinet of the opposite party; or, on the other hand, the prime minister may dissolve the house of commons and order a new election, in which case, if his party returns a majority of members he continues in office, but if it fails to do so, he resigns at once. In this way, anything like a deadlock between the legislative and executive powers is rendered impossible. In this way the final authority in every disputed question rests with the house of commons. For though the prime minister may refuse to recognize as final the decision of a particular parliament, he can only do so through dissolving that parliament and ordering the election of a new one, and to the verdict of this election he must submit. But, although there must be a new election of parliament at least once in seven years, so long as the party of a given prime minister continues to return a majority of members so long may he continue in office, be it for half a century. In its practical working, therefore, the English constitution has this peculiar excellence, that the supreme executive power is entrusted to a minister who may be kept in office as long as he is satisfactory to the people, but can instantly be removed, without disturbance of any sort, the moment any feature of his policy is seriously disapproved by the people. And it there be room for any doubt as to whether the conduct and policy of the chief executive magistrate are satisfactory or not, the question can be settled at any time by a direct appeal to the people.

—It is common in the United States to speak of the secretary of state as our “prime minister” or “premier,” but nothing could well be more absurd. The American secretary of state answers to the British secretary of state for foreign affairs; there is nothing in his position or in his functions which is in any way analogous to the position or the functions of the British premier. But in many respects the American president answers to the prime minister. He is unlike the prime minister in that he acts in his own name, in that he is not a member of the legislative body, and in that his term of office is arbitrarily limited by the constitution. But he is like the prime minister as being the chief executive magistrate for the time being.

—It was said above that the house of lords has no power to reverse a decision of the house of commons. There is no possibility of a real deadlock between the two houses. In point of fact, a bill which has passed the commons may be defeated in the lords, but whether the commons accepts such a veto or not depends entirely upon the strength of its determination and of its interest in the bill. When the commons has finally made up its mind, the lords must sooner or later submit. In case the lords were to persist in opposing the will of the commons, the lord chancellor would be authorized to commission a sufficient number of new peers to “swamp” the upper house. This prerogative is something to be used only with reluctance and as a last resort, and it has not actually been used since the reign of Anne, but the knowledge that it can be used constitutes a sufficient check upon the house of lords. In 1832 the government was prepared, if necessary, to secure the adoption of the reform bill by the creation of eighty liberal peers; and the knowledge of this fact at last caused the lords to withdraw their opposition to the bill. In the reign of George I. an attempt was made to take away this prerogative of creating new peers (technically supposed to be a prerogative of the sovereign), but it was evidently fortunate for the peers as a legislative body that the attempt was unsuccessful. The continuance of the independent existence of the house of lords is favored by its manifest inability to obstruct seriously the course of legislation, while as a revising and criticising body it has often been found of great service. In like manner the continuance of the English monarchy is favored by the fact that the sovereign has come to be merely an ornamental part of the governing organization, without the power of doing serious mischief. In many instances, indeed, the sovereign is useful as the theoretical source of “prerogatives” that derive their practical value only from being exercised by a responsible ministry with the approval of the majority of the house of commons.

—In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the power of parliament was perhaps almost as great as at the present day when fairly brought to a final test, but it was far more liable to encounter resistance on the part of the crown. As Mr. Freeman observes, “the ancient parliaments demanded the dismissal of the king’s ministers; they regulated his personal household; they put his authority into commission; if need be, they put forth their last and greatest power and deposed him from his kingly office. In those days a change of government, a change of policy, the getting rid of a bad minister and the putting a better in his place, were things which could never be done without an open struggle between king and parliament, often they could not be done without the bondage, the imprisonment, or the death, perhaps only of the minister, perhaps even of the king himself. The same ends can now begained by a vote of censure in the house of commons; in many cases they can begained even without a vote of censure, by the simple throwing out of a measure by which a ministry has given out that it will stand or fall.”

—The political events of the fifteenth century tended to increase the power of the crown at the expense of parliament; but in such a way that the influence of the lords suffered much more diminution relatively than that of the commons. From the earliest times it has been one of the most fundamental principles of the English constitution that the king can levy no tax save with the consent and by the authority of parliament. And this principle has at all times prevented the crown from becoming independent of parliament. At all times, indeed, the crown has possessed certain sources of revenue, established by immemorial custom, and not liable to be interfered with by parliament. In Blackstone’s Commentaries, book i., chap. viii., these sources of revenue are fully described under the head of the king’s “ordinary revenue.” Among these sources were divers fines and aids connected with the bestowal of ecclesiastical preferments, escheats and confiscations of property, and such minor matters as deodand, treasure trove, flotsam and jetsam, etc. But in ordinary times all these sources of revenue were insufficient to maintain the crown in independence, or to enable it to carry on the work of administration without calling upon parliament for aids and subsidies. And the granting such aids and subsidies, which had to be raised by taxation, naturally fell into the hands of the commons as representatives of the nation at large. During the great wars of Edward III. and Henry V. the crown would have been powerless for want of pecuniary resources but for the aid of the commons. If a public policy proposed by the crown were disapproved by the nation at large, it could be frustrated by a refusal on the part of the commons to grant supplies; and it is no doubt ultimately through this control of the public purse that the house of commons has come to be the supreme power in the government.

—The second revolution, in 1688, finally settled the question as to where the ultimate authority in the English government resided. It settled it in much the same way that it had been settled in 1399 by the deposition of Richard II., but this time the questions at issue had been much more definitely propounded, and the solution was much more unmistakable. The turning out of Richard had been a plain assertion of the right of parliament to make and unmake kings; but the turning out of James, coming as it did within forty years from the overthrow and execution of his father, showed that henceforth the king of England could keep his place on the throne only on condition of “governing by act of parliament.”

—This final and unmistakable assertion of the supremacy of parliament has been further illustrated by the growth of modern cabinet government, which took its rise in the revolution of 1688. Before William III., the kings of England had had ministers, but up to his time each minister had been regarded as the personal servant of the crown so far as concerned the discharge of the duties of his own office. Each minister was separately responsible before the law, but that kind of collective responsibility whereby the whole group of ministers assume or resign office together had not yet been established. It was not even necessary that the various ministers should belong to the same political party, or should hold similar views on great questions of public policy. Under William III, began the practice of insuring practical co-operation between the crown and parliament by means of total changes in the ministry; and from this beginning it has gradually come to pass that the change of ministry is determined entirely in accordance with the will of parliament, and not at all with reference to the will of the sovereign; and thus it has further come to pass that the real executive power in England no longer resides in the crown but in the cabinet. A conflict between crown and parliament, such as occurred in the seventeenth century, could not occur at the present time, since all the active power of the crown has passed into its representative, the cabinet—a representative agent which changes in personality as often as the parliamentary majority changes. The crown, as such, is in England a mere “survival”; and such reasonable prospect of permanence as it has is mainly due to the very fact that it has become a mere survival. Yet from a practical point of view it can hardly be doubted that the abolition of the monarchy to-day need not modify in any essential respect the already well-established operation of cabinet government in England.

—But although we can not say precisely when this change was consummated, we may say that the most important date in English constitutional history since 1688 is unquestionably 1832, the year of the great reform bill. In that year was inaugurated a change whereby the house of commons has come to represent, much more truly than before, the whole English people. While the old “rotten boroughs” and “pocket boroughs” existed, although the vote of the commons determined what was to be the supreme law of the land, it was nevertheless possible and customary for the crown and the peerage, through corrupt influence upon the elections, to determine to some extent the composition of the house of commons. The year 1832 may be assigned as the epoch at which the supremacy of the commons became finally complete throughout all departments of the government.

—For the composition of the so called lower house, and the changes wrought in it by the reform bills of 1832 and 1867, see
HOUSE OF COMMONS.

—II. FINANCES. For a certain number of public purposes, taxes are raised exclusively by local authorities without any action on the part of the general government. Among the more important of these objects of local taxation may be mentioned the maintenance of paupers, the repair of roads and bridges, the erection and care of prisons, insane asylums, and other public buildings, including parish churches, and the support of the police. All such expenses as these are provided in Great Britain, precisely as in the United States, by the various local governments. The amount of these expenses will be stated below under the head of local administration.

—The finances of India and of the colonies are kept entirely separate from those of the United Kingdom. Not a penny from the revenues of these countries finds its way into the coffers of the imperial exchequer, nor is the British treasury in any way responsible for any of their expenses, except in certain special cases, as for example, where the imperial government guarantees a loan contracted by one of the colonial governments with the approval of parliament. The British treasury pays the salaries of the governors and other important officers in a few of the colonies; but in all the principal colonies these expenses are provided for by colonial taxation. From the beginning it has been a fundamental principle of British colonization that it should be self-supporting; and to this circumstance, no doubt, a considerable part of the extraordinary success of British colonization is due. At the same time, where military defense is concerned, the imperial government charges itself to a certain extent with the protection of the colonies, as well as with the maintenance of its dominion in India.

—The first principle of taxation in Great Britain is that the government can neither raise any tax, nor expend a penny of the public revenues, except through a vote of parliament. This principle, which has always lain at the bottom of the English constitution as the ultimate practical guaranty of English liberties, was distinctly and formally acknowledged by the crown in the reign of Edward I.; and although English sovereigns—notably the first two Stuarts—have since then sought to evade it, their attempts have been unsuccessful. On the other hand, the initiative in levying taxes or in disposing of public moneys is never taken by parliament, but always by the cabinet, or nominally and in former times really by the crown. So strictly is this rule adhered to that the house of commons refuses to receive petitions soliciting any particular disposition of the public funds for any purpose whatever. If lobbying of this sort is to go on at all, it must go on with the ministry, not with the legislature.

—1.
Revenue. The total revenue of the United Kingdom for the year ending March 31, 1880, amounted to £70,747,079, equal to $339,585,979. The chief sources of this revenue were, 1st, Custom house duties, £19,326,000; 2d, Excise tax, £25,300,000; 3d, Income and property tax, £9,230,000; 4th, Stamp duty, £10,316,103; 5th, Land and assessed tax, £2,670,000; 6th, Postoffice receipts, £3,330,000; 7th, Crown lands, £390,000; 8th, Miscellaneous, £184,976. These sources of revenue may be considered in detail.

—1st. Custom House Duties. Since 1845 customs duties have been levied only on imported goods, and the number of articles subject to duty has been greatly reduced. In 1841 the tariff list contained something like 1,200 articles; in 1881 it contained only eight, of which only five are of any importance, to wit: tea, yielding £4,016,319; coffee, yielding £216,925; wines, yielding £1,378,508; spirits, yielding £4,941,871; tobacco, yielding £8,596,757. The only other dutiable articles are chicory, cocoa and dried fruits. Customs duties are levied indiscriminately upon goods produced in British colonies and goods produced in foreign countries, and no distinctions are made with reference to the nationality of the ships from which goods are landed. The articles made dutiable are in the main articles which can not be produced in the United Kingdom. Where a dutiable article is produced in Great Britain, as in the case of spirituous liquors, it is subjected to an excise tax as nearly as possible equivalent to the duty. It will be seen, therefore, that the British tariff is devised simply for the purpose of raising revenue, and not at all for the purpose of what is called “encouraging native industry” by taxing consumers for the benefit of producers. The most important changes made in the tariff during the present century have been made by Sir Robert Peel in 1842 and 1845, and by Mr. Gladstone in 1853 and 1860. The results of these changes, as affecting the revenue derived from the tariff, may be seen in the following brief statement: In 1842 the total revenue from 1,200 articles was £22,523,000; in 1880 the total revenue from eight articles was £19,326,000. The custom house department is administered by a board of six commissioners holding office for life or during good behavior; this board is under the general direction of the treasury, and, more specifically, of the chancellor of the exchequer. Customs duties have in all ages been part of the revenues of the British government. In former times they were known by the epithet “tonnage and poundage,” the tonnage duties being applicable to wines or spirits, and the poundage duties being analogous to what are now commonly known as
ad valorem duties.

—2d. Excise. The principal articles subject to excise at the present day are spirituous liquors, beer, hops, chicory, and the sugar used in breweries. Besides this, the excise department receives a very considerable revenue from licenses, hackney carriages and cabs, and race horses. License taxes are levied on innkeepers, brewers, wine merchants and venders of beer and spirits, tobacconists, and grocers selling tea, coffee or pepper. A revenue is also derived from licenses for killing or selling game. During the past forty years a great many excise duties have been abolished, such as the excise upon salt, leather, candles, beer, vinegar, glass, soap and paper; yet the revenue derived from the excise has been increased, instead of being diminished, by these exemptions.

—3d. Income Tax. The income tax is levied upon incomes of £100 per annum and upward. The net yield of this tax is estimated as averaging £1,100,000 per penny; so that a tax of nine pence on the pound will yield a revenue of £9,900,000. The income tax is levied upon incomes derived from rent of land or houses or other real estate, from commerce or professional services, or from salaries. The income tax was first established by the younger Pitt in 1798. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, in 1815, when its annual yield was about £14,000,000, it was abolished; and was not again imposed until 1842, when a deficit of £10,000,000 having rolled up in the course of five years. Sir Robert Peel laid a tax of seven pence in the pound on incomes of £150 and upward, for three years. Incomes in Ireland were exempted from this tax. In 1845, in order to assist Sir Robert Peel in his projects of commercial reform, the tax was continued; and since then it has from time to time been continued by special legislation, for various specific purposes. In 1853 Mr. Gladstone extended the tax to incomes of £100 and upward, besides extending its operation to Ireland. This arrangement was intended to last only until 1860; but the Crimean war intervening in 1854, it was found necessary not only to prolong the period of the tax, but to increase its rate even to sixteen pence in the pound. Since 1860, although the rate has been reduced to four pence, and although a tax of this kind is always and deservedly unpopular, the proper occasion for abolishing it altogether does not seem to have arrived.

—4th. Stamp Duty. Stamps are required upon all wills, bills of exchange, receipts, title deeds and policies of marine insurance.

—5th. Land Tax. This is a tax of four shillings in the pound, or 20 per cent. on the annual income of all landed property. These figures seem enormous, but are really moderate enough. since the valuation upon which the tax is assessed is the valuation of the year 1692, which is a merely nominal figure when compared with the present value of estates. Besides this, in the same group of taxes, come the taxes upon dwelling houses, upon domestic servants, private carriages and horses, and various articles of luxury. Note of these taxes are levied in Ireland.

—7th. Crown Lands. These are landed estates forming, so to speak, the residuum of the ancient hereditary domain of the crown. They are now ceded to the state by every sovereign, at the moment of his accession, in consideration of an annual allowance granted him for life by parliament, and known as the “civil list.” The crown lands are administered by a special department, the commissioners of woods and forests. But these lands do not include the duchy of Cornwall, which is separately administered, and the revenue from which is assigned to the Prince of Wales, nor the duchy of Lancaster, whose revenues are paid to the queen.

—8th. The revenues from the sale of antiquated or worthless accoutrements of the army and navy, unclaimed arrearages of the national debt, contributions from the viceroyalty of India in partial reimbursement of expenses incurred by the imperial government on account of the military armament of India, dues or arrears paid in by foreign governments,
conscience money (
i.e., anonymous remittances of uncollected taxes), and various other occasional, unimportant or unclassifiable receipts.

—2.
Expenses. The national expenses of the United Kingdom may be considered under three heads: 1st, the consolidated funds; 2d, the public expenses of administration; and 3d, the national debt. The annual expenses of administration are provided for from year to year by special votes of the house of commons. Expenses relating to the consolidated fund, or to the liquidation of the national debt, are regulated by acts of parliament extending over an indefinite period, and remaining in force so long as they are not formally abrogated.

—1st. The Consolidated Funds. The yearly revenue, after having been paid in to the exchequer, is placed to the credit of the consolidated funds. Against this credit there are charged certain debits as follows, first, the regular interest of the national debt; then, the civil list, or annual endowment assigned to the sovereign; then, the expenses of the courts of justice, along with the salaries of certain permanent officers, such as the comptroller of the exchequer, and other matters which are not regarded as worth while to be rearranged at every parliament. All these charges are summed up as the regular annual charges against the consolidated fund. The surplus is applied to the public expenses of administration.

—A few words concerning the practical operations of the exchequer will here be in place. All the revenues collected are paid into the exchequer, from which no funds can be withdrawn except by order of the comptroller of the exchequer, an officer of high rank and independent position, who can be removed from his post only after an address presented to the crown (that is, to the prime minister) by both houses of parliament. Whenever an order for money is presented to the exchequer, it is the business of the comptroller to see that the object for which the money is drawn is one of the objects which have been authorized by parliament, and that the amount demanded falls within the limits of the credit allowed by the house of commons for this specific purpose. The comptroller can not himself draw any money whatever from the exchequer; he can only order the bank to charge moneys to the credit of a third party whom he designates. Most of the demands on the public funds of the interior are made by the paymaster general, who advises the treasury daily of the sums which he is intending to draw on the following day, and of the several accounts to which they are to be charged. The treasury then authorizes the comptroller of the exchequer to give the paymaster the necessary credit, and the paymaster can then transfer this credit to his drawing account and proceed to make payment. His payments are made in various ways; small sums are paid in ready money at the paymaster’s window, and larger sums by checks on the bank. Payments abroad are usually effected by means of orders on the treasury drawn by government officers resident abroad, and accepted on presentation by the paymaster general. Officers entitled to draw such orders are usually officers of the commissary department, and the orders are drawn on account of what is known as the treasury chest fund. This fund consists of about £13,000,000 coming from the accumulation of disposable balances of various sorts, and it furnishes a very convenient means for making disbursements in different parts of the world. The final check relating to the expenditure of the public revenues is furnished by the audit office. The bureau of audit consists of four commissioners who are removable only in the same way as the comptroller of the exchequer. Most of the public accounts are sent in to the audit office for examination, but the detailed accounts of the army and navy are revised by especial military comptrollers. The audit office does not approve an account unless it can be shown that the credits have been appropriated in strict accordance with the acts of ways and means. There are two different kinds of audit, one called the “detailed audit,” the other known as the “appropriation check.” So far as the first is concerned, the duties of the audit office consist in ascertaining whether each responsible person has expended legitimately the funds entrusted to him. Before each responsible person is set a statement of all the advances which have been made to him, and he is required to render an account of the manner in which he has expended these sums. This account is carefully examined item by item, and the commissioners require a full explanation of every obscure or doubtful point. If the explanations are unsatisfactory, the commissioners “disallow” the items to which they relate, and at last, after concluding their examination, they make their report to the treasury; and the treasury decides for itself in the case of disallowances whether it will accept or cancel them. The “detailed audit,” however, only certifies that the accounts to which it refers are duly balanced, that there are vouchers for each payment, and that every payment has been duly authorized. The “appropriation check” goes farther than this, and by means of it the commissioners of audit indicate to parliament the exact sums that have been expended in every particular for which appropriations have been made, showing, moreover, whether the sums appropriated have been entirely expended. This second kind of audit is applied only to a few very important departments, such as the army and navy and the public works.

—The following tables show the total amounts of revenue and expenditure for the sixteen financial years 1866-81:

The expenditure for the financial years 1868 and 1869 included supplemental appropriations for the Abyssinian expedition, amounting to £5,600,000, and the expenditure for 1874 included the sum of £3,200,000 paid for the Alabama claims under the treaty of Washington.

—During the whole period of sixteen years there has been an almost uninterrupted reduction of taxation, as may be seen from the following statement. In 1864 the taxes were
reduced by £4,615,508; in 1865 by £3,235,384; in 1866 by £5,343,405; and in 1867 by £601,462. In 1868 they were
increased by £1,285,000; and in 1869 by £1,450,000. In 1870 they were
reduced by £2,735,670; and in 1871 by £4,497,343. In 1872 they were
increased by £3,050,066. In 1873 they were
reduced by £3,895,105; in 1874 by £3,327,380; in 1875 by £4,554,903; and in 1876 by £66,000. In 1877 they were
increased by £1,549,050. In 1878 they were
reduced by £6,000. In 1879 they were
increased by £4,340,000. The increase in 1868 and 1869 was connected with the expenses of the Abyssinian expedition; that of 1877 was connected with extraordinary disbursements on account of the war between Russia and Turkey; and that of 1879 was connected with the war in South Africa.

—The annual revenue derived from the income tax, the most important of the direct taxes, during each of the financial years 1870-81, was as follows.

—Exchequer bonds are notes bearing interest and payable at specified dates. They are issued for periods of five or six years. The sum total of bonds in circulation twenty years ago was nearly £4,000,000, but has dwindled until it is now less than £1,000,000.

—The following table exhibits the condition of the national debt from its origin down to the year 1881, at various periods:

—
Lord Lieutenant. This officer is appointed by the crown (
i.e., by the prime minister), and is chosen from among the principal noblemen residing in the county. He is assisted by one or more deputies whom he appoints himself, and who compose with him the lieutenancy of the county. He is the keeper of the rolls, and in this capacity takes part in the sittings of the justices of the peace. Down to 1871 he was commander of the militia, and appointed its officers, as well as those of the yeomanry and the volunteers; but in 1871 these prerogatives were transferred to the crown.

—
Sheriff. In ancient times the sheriff was elected by the freeholders of the county; but since the reign of Edward I. he is appointed annually by the crown. It is not permissible to refuse the position of sheriff, although no salary is attached to it and the office brings with it considerable expense; but the social consideration connected with the office is such that the principal landholders of the county are usually very desirous of obtaining it: The penalty, in case of refusal, is a fine of £600. An interval of three years must elapse between any two successive incumbencies of the same sheriff. The sheriff is charged with the maintenance of the public peace and the execution of the laws. He presides over elections, he is superintendent of jails, he arrests persons accused of crime or misdemeanor, he summons juries, and sees that judgment is executed. To assist him in the discharge of his duties he appoints a deputy sheriff, as well as bailiffs and jailors. The sheriff is not a justice of the peace, and can not take part in the sittings of these magistrates. The sheriff of the county of Middlesex is not appointed by the crown, but is elected by the citizens of London.

—
Justices of the Peace. The administrative functions of the ancient county courts have been passed down to the justices of the peace. These magistrates are nominated by the lord lieutenant in his capacity of keeper of the rolls, and are appointed by the lord chancellor. They must necessarily be residents in the county. Their numerous duties are performed in assemblies known as quarter sessions, petty sessions, and special sessions. The business transacted in quarter sessions is both judicial and administrative. As civil judges they decide appeals from decisions of the petty county courts; they decide upon questions relating to local taxation, licenses, and the practical administration of the poor laws. As criminal judges they have cognizance of petty crimes and misdemeanors, and may arrest persons or bind them over to keep the peace. Their principal administrative duties relate to the supervision of bridges and highways, prisons and asylums, and local police. They appoint the chief of the police, subject to the approval of the home secretary, and the chief appoints his subordinate officers, subject to the approval of the justices of the peace. An officer known as “clerk of the peace” who is appointed by the lord lieutenant, attends the sessions as secretary, and is charged with the execution of their decisions. The justices of the peace appoint a treasurer. In order to facilitate the transaction of business, each county is divided into districts, and the justices resident in each district hold petty sessions, from which an appeal lies to the quarter sessions. The justices of the peace in quarter sessions also assess the county taxes in accordance with a uniform valuation of the taxable property in the county. The county expenses are chiefly incurred in the building and repair of bridges and highways, and of county court houses. These are all provided out of the general tax levied at the quarter sessions. A special tax is devoted to the maintenance of prisons and lunatic asylums. The local police is also supported in the main by the county, though a certain proportion, not exceeding one-fourth of the expense, is usually contributed by the national treasury. The various committees charged with the separate items of county affairs, such as the committee on prisons, the committee on buildings, etc., prepare an account of the expenses incurred in their several departments; and these accounts, together with the report of the treasurer, are submitted to the approval of a committee of finance appointed by the justices of the peace.

—
Coroners. The duties of the coroner are the same in Great Britain as in the United States. Though, as his title imports, he is
par excellence the “crown officer” or representative of the crown, he is usually elected by the freeholders of the county. In some instances, however, he is appointed by the crown, or by the chief magistrates of certain cities. Each county has from three to six coroners.

—
Parishes. At the base of local administrative organization in Great Britain is found the parish. The ancient division of the county was into hundreds and townships, but these divisions at the present day have had their principal functions merged in or obscured by those of the county and the parish. At the head of each hundred there is an officer called the high constable, who was formerly elected by the freeholders of the hundred, but who is now appointed by the justices of the peace in quarter sessions. The duties of this officer have lost their ancient importance, and are now limited to the collection of taxes and the serving of writs. The word “town” has to a considerable extent departed from its ancient meaning. Towns which are not especially chartered as cities or boroughs have no distinct government as such, but for all administrative purposes make a part of the county in which they are situated. Nevertheless, neither the old townships nor the old free assembly of the township have disappeared, though both are disguised by a peculiar nomenclature. The change from the old
township to the modern
parish is in most instances merely a change of name; and the old
town meeting survives in the
vestry meeting of the parish. The vestry elects officers for the administration of parochial affairs, such as church wardens, commissioners of cemeteries, constables, overseers of the poor, and highway surveyors. The church wardens, of whom there are two in each parish, have charge of the repair of the parish church and of whatever secular business belongs directly to the church. They are paid from the revenues of the church; and before 1868, when their wages from this source were inadequate, a special tax was levied, known as the church rate, which could not exceed 5 per cent. of the annual revenue from the properties on which it could be laid. Since 1868 the payment of church rates has been made optional. Wherever there is a parochial cemetery, its administration is entrusted to a special committee, which provides for its expenses by a tax on burials. Whenever it is necessary to establish a new cemetery, or enlarge an old one, the committee may negotiate a loan, with the consent of the vestry. All country roads except turnpikes are kept up by the parishes, by means of a highway rate which is assessed in precisely the same manner as the poor rate. Petitions for the abatement of these classes of taxes may be heard by the justices of the peace in special or quarter sessions. Besides these obligatory charges, the vestry can undertake, at its own option, the service of the police and that of lighting the streets, the taxes for these purposes being assessed after the manner of the poor rates, except that properties consisting in buildings pay three times as much as lands. Besides these local services, there are others—such as public carriages, water supply, fire department, repair of town clocks, public baths, markets, etc.—which are sometimes discharged by the vestry, but perhaps more generally by local committees whose sphere of activity may extend over several parishes. The extent of the circuit of such local committees is determined by the home secretary, but the committees are responsible not to the national government, but to the parishes with which their work is concerned.

—
Metropolitan District. The various departments of public service entrusted to local committees, of which mention was made above, constitute in London a special administrative department, which deals principally with public works. The metropolitan circuit, for this purpose, comprises the city of London and county of Middlesex, with certain parts of the counties of Essex, Surrey and Kent, the whole making up the enormous aggregate known to modern geography as London. This metropolitan circuit is divided into thirty-eight districts, each of which has its board of commissioners. The city by itself forms one district, and the same is the case with some of the more important metropolitan parishes. The administration of the entire metropolis is under the supreme direction of a metropolitan commission composed of forty-three members, appointed by the district commissions and by those vestries which perform the same work as the district commissions. The members hold office for three years, one-third of the number being replaced each year. The metropolitan commission elects its own president and other officers. This metropolitan commission has charge of the sewers, decides upon the opening of new streets or the widening or altering of old ones, and also controls the naming of the streets and the numbering of houses. The purification of the Thames is one of the most important works which the commission has in hand; and to defray the cost of it parliament has authorized a tax of three pence in the pound on the rental of all the real estate in the metropolis for forty years. The general expenses of the commission are met by a tax graded equitably with reference to the wealth of the various districts and the advantage which they relatively receive from a given set of improvements. The members of the district commissions are chosen in each parish from among those people who pay poor rates assessed on an annual income of not less than £40; and they are chosen by a vestry consisting of not less than 18 nor more than 120 members. Parishes containing more than 2,000 electors are divided into sections. In districts formed of a single parish the vestry itself acts as a district commission. These local commissions and vestries superintend the local lighting, sewerage, paving, and street cleaning. They also employ physicians to inspect the sanitary condition of their districts. Each vestry or district commission defrays its expenses by means of two taxes: the general rate and the sewer rate. Separate accounts are kept for each of these taxes, as well as for street lighting when that is provided for by a general tax. The vestry or district commission is authorized to abate taxes, in whole or in part, in the case of localities which derive little or no advantage from them. These taxes are collected by the inspectors of the poor rate, unless the vestries or district commissions appoint special collectors. The accounts of all these local boards are approved by auditors elected at the same time as the vestrymen. A special auditor, appointed by the government, approves the accounts of the metropolitan commission.

—The total amount annually raised by local taxation was as follows, in the three divisions of the United Kingdom, in the year ending March 31, 1874, this being the latest official return:

—The following table exhibits the amounts of the various branches of local expenditure in the year ending March 31, 1874:

Summary:
	Metropolis…	£7,653,157
	Country…	25,384,137
	Coasts…	3,763,260
Total England and Wales…		£36,750,534

Summary:
	England and Wales…	£36,750,554
	Scotland…	3,157,542
	Ireland…	4,615,624
Total United Kingdom…		£44,523,720

—IV. CHURCH. The established church of England is the Protestant Episcopal, the fundamental doctrines of which are regarded as embodied in the thirty-nine articles, agreed upon in convocation in 1562, and finally settled in 1571. The separation of the English church from Rome, which was declared by Henry VIII., was consummated at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. The crown was declared by parliament to be the supreme head of the realm in matters spiritual as well as in matters temporal. The thirty-nine articles, together with the book of common prayer, were adopted as containing an authoritative statement of the cardinal tenets of the church. The dogma of transubstantiation was rejected, and with it were rejected works of supererogation, purgatory, indulgences, the worship of images and relics, the worship of the virgin and the saints, auricular confession, and the celibacy of the clergy; and communion in both kinds was allowed to the laity as well as to the clergy. An oath was required of all the clergy, as well as of all members of parliament and all public officials, recognizing the sovereign as the head of the church. At first there was no recognition of liberty of conscience; both Catholics on the one hand, and Calvinistic Puritans on the other, were subject to persecution. But the spirit of persecution is not congenial with the spirit of civil liberty which has always been so powerful in England; and by the eighteenth century complete toleration had begun to prevail. At the present day all sects are fully tolerated in England, and civil disabilities do not attach to any class of citizens for religious reasons.

—There are about 12,000 parishes in England, besides something like 200 places ranked as extra-parochial. Every parish has a parish church, presided over by the rector, who is called the “parson.” He holds during life the freehold of the parsonage, with its manse and glebe-lands, and receives the tithes and other dues. But in some cases the benefice is annexed in perpetuity to some spiritual corporation, which thus appropriates the dues and becomes the patron of the living. A
vicar is a person appointed by such a corporation, to hold the living as its lieutenant; in other respects the vicar does not differ from a rector. The patronage, or right of nomination to a benefice, is called the
advowson, and is legally classified under the head of real property. Of the 11,728 benefices now existing in England and Wales, 1,144 are in the gift of the crown, 1,853 are presented by bishops, 938 by chapters, 931 by officers of metropolitan churches, 770 by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the colleges of Eton, Winchester and others, and 6,092 by lords, gentlemen and ladies in the enjoyment of private patronage. Rectors receive the whole revenue of their benefices; but vicars, as simple agents or delegates of the holders of the benefices, receive only a portion. By an act of 1871, when a parson who has held a living for seven years or more is incapacitated by physical infirmity from discharging his duties, he may be retired on a pension not exceeding one-third the revenue of the living.

—The church revenues are derived very largely from real estate, and also from tithes (which in 1836 were commuted for a fixed charge in money), as well as from surplice fees for baptisms, marriages and burials. The sum total has been estimated at £4,480,000. The archbishop of Canterbury receives about £15,000; the archbishop of York, £10,000; the bishop of London, £10,000; the bishop of Durham, £8,000; the bishop of Winchester, £7,000; and the other bishops from £3,000 to £5,000. The deans receive £1,000 and upward.

—Of the entire population of England and Wales, about 14,000,000 belong to the established church, leaving about 11,500,000 to all other sects. Among the Protestant dissenters, the most numerous and influential are the Independents or Congregationists, the Wesleyans, and the Baptists. The Wesleyans have more than 9,000 places of worship, the Congregationalists about 3,500, and the Baptists about 2,000. Other dissenting sects of more or less social importance, are the Unitarians, Quakers and Moravians. There are about 1,000,000 Roman Catholics in England; and the Roman church has 14 dioceses there, all united in the socalled “province of Westminster,” and presided over by one archbishop and thirteen bishops. In Scotland the Roman church has three vicars. In 1877 there were 1,039 Catholic chapels in England, and 233 in Scotland.

—In 1876 it was estimated that there were 51,250 Jews in Great Britain, of whom 39,883 resided in London.

—In 1871 the census of Ireland showed the following distribution of sects: Roman Catholics, 4,141,933; Episcopalians, 683,293; Presbyterians, 558,238; Wesleyans, 41,815; Baptists, 4,643; Congregationalists, 4,485; Quakers; 3,834; Jews, 258; Miscellaneous, 19,035.

—The Roman Catholic church in Ireland has 4 archbishoprics (Armagh, Cashel, Dublin and Tuam) and 23 bishoprics. The church is supported by fees on the celebration of births, marriages and masses; by Christmas and Easter dues; and by voluntary subscriptions and free-will offerings. The Catholic college of Maynooth was disendowed Jan. 1, 1871. The Protestant Episcopal church was established by law in Ireland, from the time of Elizabeth until 1869, when Mr Gladstone’s government disestablished it. It is henceforth on the same footing practically as any other free or dissenting sect.

—V. POOR LAW. Down to the time of Henry VIII. the only institutions for public charity were the monasteries, which by distributing alms alleviated distress in a fitful and irregular manner. Upon the dissolution of the monasteries it was soon found desirable to establish some civil machinery for the relief of the poor, and various more or less ineffectual measures were passed during the sixteenth century, with this object in view, until at last in 1601 the famous statute 43 Eliz., c. 2, became the foundation of the modern English poor law. This statute provided that every parish should have a board of overseers of the poor, consisting of the churchwardens, together with from two to four householders to be appointed annually by the justices of the peace nearest at hand. It was the duty of these overseers to levy a “poor rate” upon the landed property in the parish, and to apply the proceeds of this tax, first, in setting to work indigent children and able-bodied persons without means of subsistence; and secondly, in relieving the aged or infirm or other poor people who were unable to work, and who had no parents, grandparents or children able to support them. Should any parish prove unable to furnish sufficient money for these purposes, the justices might make good the deficiency out of any other parish within the hundred; and if the resources of the hundred also were found inadequate to bear the burden, the deficiency might be made good out of some other part of the county. An appeal against the rates might be carried to the justices in quarter sessions. The overseers were further authorized to apprentice pauper children, and, with the consent of the lord of the manor, to build poor houses on the waste land of the parish. In cities and boroughs the mayor might exercise the powers herein granted to the justices of the peace. One evil result of this arrangement was that the well-regulated parishes had to carry a heavier burden than the poor and ill-managed parishes, as paupers were inclined to migrate from the latter to the former. This evil gave rise to what was known as the doctrine of settlement, in accordance with which it was provided in 1662 that, on complaint of the churchwardens or overseers, an indigent person coming into a parish might be compelled to return to the parish where he was born, or at least where he was last settled. Such abuses prevailed in the administration of this system of poor relief that in 1834 a new act was passed, placing the administration of the poor law under the control of a board of commissioners to be appointed by the crown. The powers lodged in this board passed through various vicissitudes into the hands of the local government board in 1871. By the act of 1834, and later acts, the board was authorized to insist upon the erection of workhouses in which able-bodied paupers should be compelled to reside; and, wherever necessary, to consolidate several adjacent parishes into a union, with a workhouse in common. Masters of workhouses and other wage-receiving officers of unions or parishes were made removable by the board, which was also empowered to provide for a thorough inspection of workhouses, and for a proper audit of the accounts of overseers. Each parish was to remain separately chargeable for the maintenance of its own poor. The effects of this act of 1834 were such that within three years from its passage the total annual expenditure for the relief of the poor was reduced from £6,317,253 to £4,044,741. The expenditure at the present time is over £8,000,000 annually for England and Wales; but in view of the enormous increase in wealth and population, this burden is much lighter than in 1834.

—In secondary as well as primary education Scotland takes the lead. Instruction is given in the “borough schools,” and in special industrial schools or mercantile colleges. The Andersonian university, founded in 1708 at Glasgow for scientific studies, is now an evening school where some 800 pupils receive instruction in penmanship, modern languages, book keeping, and elementary mathematics and physics. At Edinburgh the Watt institution, founded in 1821, teaches chemistry, physics, mathematics, modern languages, drawing and modeling; more than half the pupils are laboring men. There are something like twenty mechanics’ institutes in Scotland; and schools of design have been established in many cities, of which that in Edinburgh is attended by 1,800 pupils. In England there are a great many higher schools established by private liberality and more or less richly endowed. In the first rank come the great schools of Eton with 800 pupils. Harrow with 520, and Rugby with 500, which were founded in the sixteenth century and are situated in the country; others, somewhat less celebrated, are situated at Winchester, London and Shrewsbury. The expense of living at these schools often reaches £200 per year, but there are systems of pecuniary aid analogous to those adopted in American colleges. More modern in character are the college of the city of London, founded in 1841, giving instruction in ancient and modern languages, mathematics and vocal music; the Owens college at Manchester, giving scientific and literary instruction; and the collegiate institution at Liverpool, which is at once a scientific school and a preparatory school for the universities. Among the institutions especially devoted to industrial training, a most conspicuous place is held by the public institution established in 1859 at South Kensington under the name of the “Science and Art Department.” This establishment comprises a normal school of design, a central school of design, and an industrial museum. Pupils in the normal school of design, after having passed six semi-annual examinations, are placed in charge of art schools established in different towns and cities of the United Kingdom. In 1871 there were 212,500 pupils studying in these art schools. In scientific instruction the department has made use of various “mechanics’ institutes” and other popular courses of instruction which were already in existence. Deserving pupils obtain prizes and endowments for the purpose of pursuing their studies in the royal school of mines, the royal college of chemistry, the London laboratory of metallurgy, or the royal scientific college at Dublin. The courses of study comprise all the sciences, as well as architecture and the designing of machinery.

—As regards the higher instruction, the two great universities at Oxford and Cambridge are subjects far too extensive and complicated to be treated, even in a cursory way, in a brief, sketchy article like the present. The university of London, founded in 1837, differs from these in giving no direct instruction; it simply examines candidates for a degree, and its examinations are very severe. Women are admitted as candidates. To this university, however, are attached two colleges, both situated in London. The one, known as University college, prepares pupils for the examinations, and is entirely unsectarian in its management; the other, called King’s college, is Episcopalian in complexion. In Scotland there are four excellent universities, at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St. Andrews.

—Besides the justices of the peace, there are the sixty
county courts in England and Wales, which deal with petty matters. These courts are held by a single salaried judge, appointed for life, and they can try cases involving not more than £50. They have also the powers of a court of chancery in cases involving not more than £500. By an act of 1863, in towns with a population of 25,000 or more, there may be appointed, at the request of the local authorities, a salaried magistrate who, either by himself or with the aid of the justices of the peace, may do the work of these county courts. In London and some other cities there are special police courts, held also by a single salaried judge, which take cognizance of petty crimes and misdemeanors. In the city of London the lord mayor also holds a police court at the Mansion House, and one is held by an alderman at the Guildhall.

—The higher courts of common law (modified by acts of 1873 and 1875) are: the court of king’s bench, the court of exchequer, and the court of common pleas. They are held at Westminster, where the court of chancery also sits. Each of these common law courts is held by a president and four assistants. The presiding judge, in the queen’s bench and in the common pleas, is called lord chief justice; in the exchequer he is called lord chief baron. Formerly the provinces of these three courts differed considerably, but with the progress of business they have come to overlap each other in many directions; but the court of exchequer, as its name implies, is purely a fiscal court; the common pleas is simply a civil court; while the queen’s bench has cognizance of both civil and criminal cases, and appeals lie to it from all the inferior courts.

—For judiciary purposes, England is divided into eight circuits, and the judges of these three supreme courts are obliged twice a year to hold
assizes in these circuits. The judges allot these circuits among themselves, and go about, holding their assizes in person. Each individual judge, in holding a court on his circuit, sits as a delegate of the supreme court to which he belongs. By means of these circuits, the jurisdiction of the common law courts at Westminster is extended all over England, taking direct cognizance of all cases, whether civil or criminal, which lie beyond the jurisdiction of the county courts or of the justices of the peace.

—The supreme court of chancery at Westminster is held by the lord chancellor, but as the relations of equity to common law are very much the same in England as in the United States, the peculiar functions of this court require no special explanation here. A final appeal, in many cases, lies to the house of lords; but there is nothing in England which answers to the supreme court of the United States, as the circumstances pertaining to a federal government are non-existent in Great Britain. Within the limits of the crude outline sketch here given, however, the administration of justice in England does not materially differ from the administration of justice in the United States. But the English understand the value of a good judge better than the Americans; for the inferior judges receive salaries equivalent to $6,000, while the judges of the highest courts are paid at the rate of from $30,000 to $40,000 per year.

—VIII. ARMY. The maintenance of a standing army in time of peace, without the consent of parliament, was prohibited in 1690 by the bill of rights. It requires an annual vote of the house of commons to keep the army in existence from year to year. A cabinet meeting is held shortly before the sitting of parliament, which receives communications from the commander-in-chief respecting the number of officers and men, in each branch of the service, which are needed for the ensuing year. On the basis thus furnished, the cabinet authorizes the secretary of state for war to draw up his “army estimates” to be submitted to the approval of the house of commons. A further efficient means of controlling the army is furnished by the mutiny act. In the absence of the mutiny act, the soldier on English soil is subject only to the common law, and could be punished, even for desertion, only by a civil action of contract. That martial law, without which an army can not maintain its orderly existence, exists itself only through the mutiny act which is limited in duration to a single year, and consequently has to be renewed at the beginning of every session of parliament. To such precautions were the English people led by the attempts of the Stuarts to set up a tyranny; and they were obviously so thorough as to make henceforth the merest beginning of a military despotism well nigh impossible.

—The force of the regular army at decennial periods since the beginning of the present century, and cost of maintaining it, have been as follows:

—The following table gives the navy estimates for the year ending March 31, 1882:

Summary:	Effective services…	£8,434,553
	Non-effective…	2,052,916
	Other departments…	228,450
Total…		£10,725,919

These estimates not being found quite sufficient, a supplementary grant for the navy, of £83,000, was made toward the close of the session of 1880.

—The number of seamen and marines at present serving in the navy is as follows:

—The most important portion of the present British navy at the beginning of 1881, consisted of 68 ironclad ships, afloat and building, of which number 48 were described as efficient, while 17 had become antiquated or otherwise inefficient, and 3 had been built solely for colonial use and were not reckoned as strictly British. The following table gives a general idea of the character of the 48 effective ironclads:

—The census of 1871 showed in Great Britain 549,784 farms of all sizes. Of this number 51.3 per cent. were farms of 20 acres and less, and 48.7 per cent. were larger farms. It is difficult to make a very precise estimate of the wages paid for agricultural labor, since the usages, the rates and the mode of payment differ considerably in different parts of the country. In some districts wages are paid in kind; in some places a certain amount of labor is given in exchange for rent. Wages paid in money range ordinarily from 12 to 15 shillings (
i.e., from $2.88 to $3.60) per week.

—
Mineral Products. British agriculture, though conducted with great care and skill, is too limited in extent either to obtain a controlling position in the markets of the world, or to furnish a sphere for the activity and satisfaction for the material wants of the dense and rapidly increasing population of the United Kingdom. The industrial and commercial development of Great Britain has been primarily due (next to the free constitution of the government) to the immense mineral resources of the country. The most important mineral and metal products are coal and pig iron, the annual yield of which, in the years 1868-79, is shown in the following table:

Of this total number of persons employed (1,005,685) there were 61,209 boys and 64,677 girls under thirteen years of age. The average wages of the cotton operatives in Lancashire were estimated in 1860 at 18s. 6d. per week for men, 10s. 2d. for women, 7s. for boys, 5s. for girls. In the linen factories at Belfast wages vary from 5s. 6d. to £2 per week, according to the skill of the workman. The average wages paid in England and Scotland for work in the woolen factories were at the same time from 6s. to 7s. per week for spinning, and 9s. for weaving; these operations being mainly carried on with the assistance of women and young girls; the wages of men in the same factories averaged from 16s. to 26s. per week.

—
Hardware. The manufacture of hardware, cutlery and machinery employs 530,000 workmen. The raw material is valued at £20,000,000, and the manufactured goods amount in value to over £100,000,000 annually, of which about two-thirds are used in Great Britain and one-third exported. Until quite recently the hardware industry of Great Britain surpassed in magnitude that of all the rest of the world put together; and, though no longer without competitors, it is still advancing as rapidly as ever. Through the increase of the manufacture of cutlery, pins, and other hardware, such towns as Sheffield and Birmingham have quadrupled their population within seventy years.

The annual product of the
total manufactures of the kingdom is about £665,000,000, and the number of workmen employed is 2,930,000.

—
Commerce. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, when the grandfathers of the present generation of Englishmen were spending £624,000,000 to overthrow Bonaparte, the commerce of the British empire did not exceed £60,000,000. At the present day it reaches about £931,000,000, of which about £320,000,000 represents the trade of the colonies. This is about one-third of the entire trade of the world. The following table gives the declared value of the imports and exports during the eighth decade of the century:

—The following table shows the distribution of the total amount of shipping into sail and steam, and also into home and foreign trade, for the years 1866 and 1879, omitting the intervening years:

At the end of 1878 the total length in miles of railways in the British empire was as follows:

At the end of 1879 between 5,000 and 6,000 miles of new lines were in process of construction in the different parts of the empire. The railways in the United Kingdom employ a force of 276,000 men. No less than 176 members of parliament are railway directors. From 1847 to 1873 the number of passengers killed per million steadily decreased; since 1873 it has risen, as is shown in the following table:

JOHN FISKE.