Education embodied Educa Thus the Education Department of the privy council was constituted. Not, however, until 1870 did this primary effort, which only assumed to aid the work of national education, develop into the wider scheme under which the state then undertook to "complete the voluntary system, and to fill up the gaps" that might be found to exist in it in any community. Such Mr. Forster declared to be the object of his Elementary Elementary Education Act, that became law in August of that year, Act of 1870; founding a system which has prevailed without fundamental change down to the present time. By that act England and scheme Wales were mapped out into school districts, based as a general in it; rule upon the principle that every borough under the Municipal Corporations Acts constitutes a district, every parish not in a borough a district, the Education Department being authorized at the same time to combine two or more of such districts into a new whole. Every school district must be under the control of a local authority known either as a School Board or as a School Attendance Committee. Whenever the duty of local authorities fail to supply sufficient public school accom- tion Demodation, it becomes the duty of the Education Department, when local partment after due notice, to cause such a board to be elected for the authorities district, and at such election every ratepayer has the right to vote. A board thus constituted becomes a corporation, and its members hold office for three years. The school fund sources of administered by such boards at first consisted (1) of parliamentary grants in aid of permanent improvements; (2) of fees paid by children; (3) of the proceeds of a compulsory local rate, which the board can collect with the aid of the proper rating authority. In boroughs such rate is levied as a part of how the the borough rate; in parishes outside of boroughs as a part of levied in the poor rate. As a settlement of the religious difficulty that boroughs and parish; had long been a stumbling-block in the way of a uniform and settlement compulsory system of education, a compromise was embodied religious in the act in the form of a "conscience clause," that permitted difficulty; children to come for secular instruction, although they were science withdrawn from all religious teaching. With that understanding the school boards were permitted to try the experi 133 & 34 Vict. c. 75, called "the charter of national education. That act has been several times amended by subsequent statutes, but only for the purpose of supplementing and working fail; the school fund; rate is of the a "con clause;" how far the system is compulsory; Attendance Committees ; ment, new in England, of compelling children of certain ages to attend school, under certain conditions, through by-laws made with the consent of the Education Department. But under the act of 1870 a school board could be established in a district only in the event that adequate school accommodation was not supplied by voluntary effort; and in the event that the vote of those who would be electors went in favor of such a act of 1876 board. To meet such contingencies a supplementary act was providing for School passed in 1876, providing that where no school board exists a School Attendance Committee shall be constituted for the purpose, among other things, of enforcing school attendance. Still another act was necessary, however, to make compulsory attendance, under strictly defined rules, the general law for the whole country. "To do this was the object of the short but comprehensive act passed by Mr. Mundella in 1880. That act made the framing of bye-laws, which had before been optional in the case of School Boards, an imperative duty for every Board which had not already framed them; and in the case of School Attendance Committees, not only was the necessity for the previous requisition of the ratepayers done away with, but it became the duty of these Committees — and not merely a matter of choice-that they should frame bye-laws forthact of 1891 with." 1 The most important act upon the general subject since providing that time is perhaps that of 1891, introducing what is called education." the system of "free education," under which the parent has been relieved of the obligation to pay fees. della's act of 1880; for "free Creation of Boards of Health under the act of 1848; in munici The advance of the science of public hygiene led to the enactment of the Public Health Act of 1848, which authorized the crown to appoint a General Board of Health, with power to create through orders in council local boards, —in some cases upon its own motion, and in others on the petition of how created the ratepayers. In municipal boroughs the town council was constituted the local board, while the Metropolis was excepted cepting the from the terms of the act altogether. After the original Metropolis; scheme had been amended and extended piecemeal by many Health Act subsequent enactments, it was repealed by the Public Health the present Act of 1875, which embodied at that date the entire English sanitary code; sanitary code. The two facts to be specially noted in connec pal bor oughs, ex Public of 1875, 1 Craik, The State in its Relation to Education, Citizen Ser. p. 117. See, also, Owen's Education Acts Manual, 15th ed. Introd. finally Local Gov Board; boundaries tion with this new creation are: first, that when the original board of health was permitted to expire, its functions, which functions of original were for a time divided between the home office and the privy Board of council, were finally vested in 1871 in the Local Government Health Board then created; second, that by the Public Health Act of vested in 1872 through which the whole of England, except the Metro- ernment polis, was divided for sanitary purposes into districts, either urban or rural, the boundaries not of the parishes but of the how the poor law unions were adopted as the boundaries of the rural of rural sanitary districts, while the guardians of such unions and not sanitary the parish vestry were made the rural sanitary authority. Thus defined; the confession was again made that the ancient unit of the inadequacy of parish constitutional machinery was not equal to the requirements of organizathe new department of public hygiene, whose local administra- tion to tion was intrusted to a statutory creation, while its general modern direction and control was vested in a central bureau dominated science. by experts who can apply their authority to the sanitary affairs of every locality not only in the form of advice, but in the way of administrative and financial control. districts are demands of sanitary Govern local ma forced From the brief review which has now been made of the The Local legislation enacted since the reform bill of 1832 for the pur- ment pose of remodelling and elaborating the entire system of local Board: self-government as originally embodied in the counties, towns, and parishes of England, it clearly appears that the necessity for the sweeping changes thus made grew out of the fact that the primitive local machinery that was perfectly adapted to the simple wants of earlier times had ceased to be adequate to inadequacy the complex and ever-increasing demands of a progressive and of ancient enlightened modern society. The plain fact was that modern chinery England had outgrown the local institutions of ancient Eng- creation land, and out of that condition of things arose the necessity for the creation of new statutory agencies in the form of local agencies; boards that could be specially commissioned to execute each new demand as it arose. As a result the country has been enveloped in a network of local jurisdictions, each with its own boundaries, its own staff of officials, and its own power to levy rates. As a special student of the subject has lately expressed it: "Local government in this country may be fitly described their vast as consisting of a chaos of areas, a chaos of authorities, and a and complex organchaos of rates. Mr. Rathbone stated in the house of com- ization of new statutory tion of a authority; mons that in the place where he lived there were no less than thirty-five different local authorities. The local government areas into which England and Wales are divided may be enumerated as follows: There are 52 counties, -40 in England and 12 in Wales, 239 municipal boroughs, 70 Improvement Act districts, 1006 urban sanitary districts, 41 port sanitary authorities, and 577 rural sanitary districts; 2051 school-board districts, 424 highway districts, 853 burial-board districts, 649 unions, 194 lighting and watching districts, 14,946 poor-law parishes, 5064 highway parishes not included in urban or highway districts, and about 13,000 ecclesiastical parishes. The total number of local authorities who tax the English ratepayer is 27,069, and they tax him by means of 18 different forced crea- kinds of rates."1 In the effort to remedy the confusion and controlling uncertainty that arose out of the isolated action of such a vast central number of almost independent local bodies, the necessity was recognized for the existence of some central authority that could officially correspond with the local agencies, keep them in motion, supervise and direct their action, and supply them with a higher skill and information- so indispensable for the proper exercise of their numerous and delicate functionsthan they could possibly obtain through their own unaided 66 power efforts. The great truth was thus recognized that "Power may be localized, may be localized, but knowledge to be most useful must be but knowcentralized. There must be somewhere a focus at which all ledge to be most useful its scattered rays are collected, that the broken and coloured tralized;" lights which exist elsewhere may find there what is necessary to complete and purify them. The central authority ought to keep open a perpetual communication with the localities, informing itself by their experience, and them by its own, giving advice freely when asked, and volunteering it when it seems to be required." 2 The ideal so beautifully portrayed by the great English philosopher was approached in that cautious, tentative, sure way by which English statesmen usually solve great problems, by gradually widening an imperfect beginning into a well-rounded and complete system. When in 1834 the poor-law system was remodelled, its direction and control was vested in a temporary central commission made permanent in must be cen 1 Chalmers, Local Government, Citizen Ser. pp. 17, 18. See, also, p. 158. 2 J. S. Mill, Representative Govern ment, ch. xv. ernment 1847 as the Poor Law Board, whose presidency was then con- Poor Law Board, ferred upon a responsible minister with a seat in the house of 1847; commons.1 In the same way a central control was exercised by the privy council over vaccination and the prevention of disease, while the home office was charged with certain powers and duties touching the public health and sanitation, local taxation and local government, including local returns, public and town improvements, and artisans' and laborers' dwellings.2 In order to concentrate this divided authority in a single central body was passed the Local Government Board Act, 1871, Local Govwhich recites that "it is expedient to concentrate in one de- Board, partment of the Government the supervision of the laws relat- 1871; ing to public health, the relief of the poor, and local government." For the execution of those duties the act created a Local Government Board, consisting of "a president to be appointed by her majesty, and to hold office during the pleasure of her majesty," and of the lord president of the council, of all the secretaries of state, of the lord privy seal, and of the chancellor of the exchequer as ex officio members. The body thus constituted not only superseded the Poor Law Board, but it also became the depository of the powers and duties touching the public health and local government exercised at that time by the privy council and home office. Since 1871 the Local Government Board, whose powers and duties have been greatly expanded by subsequent statutes, has developed into a central force, whose influence is exercised through its adminis- general trative, financial, and advisory control over the entire system powers and of local administration. Only by an examination of one of its duties. voluminous annual reports to parliament, including among other things exhaustive returns as to local taxation and expenditures, loans and debts, can the wide range of its jurisdiction be at all clearly understood. It is authorized of its own motion to initiate a variety of acts in various localities without reference to the local authorities; it can likewise remedy many of the omissions of such authorities by its own immediate action; and can also supervise through its inspectors their proceedings 1 See above, p. 572. 2 Traill, Central Government, Citizen Ser. pp. 134, 135; Chalmers, Local Gov. ernment, Citizen Ser. pp. 150, 151. 8 34 & 35 Vict. c. 70. 4 See the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1895-96, presented to both houses of parliament by command of Her Majesty, embracing 689 pages. scope of its |