Justices of the Peace.—The first of these bodies was constituted by Royal Grant in 1838, when the town was incorporated as a municipal borough. A Court of Quarter Sessions was then next established, for the trial of prisoners, and a Recorder was appointed. The Court of Petty Sessions for the borough was instituted at the same time, under special commission of the peace. The duties of the justices are to maintain peace and order in the borough, to administer justice at petty sessions, to appoint visitors to the prison, and to grant licences for public houses, theatres, and concert halls, and licences for music and dancing in houses kept for the sale of liquor. They are invested with powers of control over the police on occasions of actual or threatened disturbance of public order; and any two of them, sitting in petty sessions, are empowered to suspend or dismiss any police constable for sufficient cause.
The Town Council has charge of the general administration of the affairs of the borough; watching; lighting; making, draining, and repairing streets and roads; the care of the public health, by the prevention and removal of nuisances, the enforcement of a system of house inspection, the collection and disposal of night soil and house refuse, and the maintenance of a Borough Hospital; the control of the Borough Cemetery, (for which it acts as a Burial Board;) the provision and management of Baths and Parks; of Free Libraries, Museums, and Schools of Art; and it also has control of the manufacture and sale of Gas, and the provision of Water. The powers of the Corporation, originally and to a limited extent conferred by Royal Charter in 1838, were by degrees enlarged by twenty special local Acts or Orders sanctioned by Parliament, for various purposes. The whole of these were, in 1883, consolidated in the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act, which, together with the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act of 1882, and the Public Health Act of 1875, constitute the Municipal Law under which the affairs of the Borough are administered.
The Drainage Board is a body composed in part of representatives elected by the Town Council, and in part of representatives elected by the Local Boards of districts adjoining the Borough. There are twenty-two members of this Board, two of them, the Mayor of Birmingham, and the Chairman of the Aston Manor Local Board being ex-officio, and the others being elected in the following proportions: Birmingham Town Council eleven; one each from the Local Boards of Aston Manor, Balsall Heath, Handsworth, Harborne, Saltley, and Smethwick; and one each (elected by the respective Boards of Guardians) for Aston Rural District and Sutton Coldfield, King’s Norton and Northfield, and Perry Barr. The Board has charge of the sewage from the districts above named, extending over an area of 45,000 acres. The whole of the sewers are made to converge to a common outlet at Saltley, where the sewage is received into tanks, and is then purified, first by precipitation, and next by passing it through the land of the sewage farm, the effluent water, thus rendered clear and harmless, being poured into the rivers Cole and Tame. The sludge remaining in the sewage tanks is dug into the land. For the purposes of sewage treatment the Drainage Board has acquired about 1,200 acres of land in the Tame Valley. The Board has borrowing powers, exercised to the extent of £400,000 for the acquisition of land and the execution of works; and it has also rating powers for the payment of interest and repayment of capital, and for current expenditure. These powers are exercised by serving precepts upon the several local authorities included in the Drainage area, in proportion to the number of their rated tenements.
The Boards of Guardians have charge of the poor law administration of the Borough. There are three parishes in the Borough, namely, Birmingham, Edgbaston, and part of Aston. The parish of Birmingham is separately administered by a Board of Guardians, originally constituted under a Local Act of 23 Geo. III. (1782) modified by a local Act of 1 and 2 Wm. IV. (1831) and further modified by “orders” of the Poor Law Board, and the Local Government Board; the last of these was issued in 1882. The number of Guardians for the parish is 60, and the twelve overseers (the rating authority for poor law purposes) also have seats on the Board.
The parish of Edgbaston is wholly in the Borough, but it forms part of the King’s Norton Union, and as to the poor law is governed by the Guardians of that Union. The parish of Aston is only partially within the Borough; it is administered by the Guardians of Aston Union. Edgbaston and Aston parochial affairs are governed under the general poor law Acts, there being no local Act for either parish.
The School Board, which consists of fifteen members, was first elected in November, 1870, under the Elementary Education Act passed in that year. It has charge of the Board Schools throughout the Borough.
The above described bodies are all of them representative, but are elected on different franchises, and by different methods.
The Town Council is elected by the votes of all occupiers in the sixteen wards in which the Borough is divided, women householders being entitled to vote; three Councillors being chosen for each ward, and one of the three retiring each year; and the votes being given by ballot. The Drainage Board is elected by the governing authorities. The Guardians of the Poor are chosen, in Birmingham; by ratepayers of £12 annual value, the whole Board being elected at one time, by voting papers delivered at the place of election; and in the other parishes by all occupying householders, by voting papers collected from the electors. The School Board is elected by the votes of all householders, the whole Board retiring at the end of three years, and the votes being taken on the cumulative plan, each elector giving the whole of his votes to one candidate, or dividing them in any other proportion, at pleasure.
Each of the bodies is invested with borrowing and rating powers, limited by local or general acts. The Town Council levies rates on the whole Borough—a Municipal or Borough Rate for general municipal purposes, under the Municipal Corporations Acts, and an Improvement Rate, for purposes specified in the Local Improvement Act. The Drainage Board and the School Board serve precepts upon the Town Council for the amounts they respectively require, and these amounts are included in the Borough Rate. The Guardians of the Poor make rates for their respective parishes for poor law purposes; and they collect, on behalf of the Town Council, the rates levied for municipal expenditure, including the money required by the Drainage Board and the School Board. There is one assessment for local rates, made (under a recent agreement with the Town Council) by the parish overseers.
The preceding statement shortly describes the existing arrangement of local government in Birmingham; but, in order to explain the growth of the system now in operation, it is necessary briefly to sketch the history of local administration. Birmingham has always been what is called a free town, that is, until after the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act in 1835, it had no Corporation, with a restricted burgess roll, and consequently the community was open to all who cared to settle in the town for the purposes of residence or trade, a circumstance which largely contributed to the rapid growth of Birmingham in population, industry, and wealth. Down to the year 1769, the government of the place was controlled by the three sets of authorities existing in all non-chartered communities.—1, the justices, to keep the peace, and to punish crime. 2, the court leet (with its elected jury, its high and low bailiffs, its ale tasters, flesh connors, and leather sealers) meeting at irregular intervals, under the direction of the Lord of the Manor, and invested with the care of markets, nuisances, and other matters pertaining to, or interfering with, the rights of the lord. 3, the Churchwardens, who transacted the church and parish business, and held vestry meetings for general town purposes, and for the choice of surveyors of the highways.