Simultaneously Parliament passed a new “Nuisances Removal Act for England”[55] which was made applicable to London, and which, coupled with the health provisions in the Metropolis Local Management Act, bestowed upon the metropolis a sort of code of sanitary laws in some degree similar to those enjoyed by other parts of England.
And also an Act[56] making stricter provisions as to the construction of buildings in the metropolis.
Though three Acts were thus passed, they formed but separate parts of one general plan of reform.
Some little detail must be gone into as regards the system of local government thus initiated.
For government in purely local matters—in each of the twenty-three largest parishes, definite Vestries, as distinguished from parishioners meeting in open Vestry, were constituted, the members thereof being elected by the householders of the respective parishes rated to the relief of the poor. The total number of members on any Vestry was not to exceed one hundred and twenty, and each year one-third of them were to retire, and an election to be held to fill their places.
And as there were many parishes so small that to have constituted them separate local governing authorities would have perpetuated all the evils of small areas of local government, these small parishes were grouped together into “districts” of a fairly large size, for each of which—some fourteen in number—there was to be a governing body entitled “The Board of Works for the —— District,” the members thereof being elected, not directly by the electors, but by the smaller Vestries constituting the District.
These new local governing bodies were thus representative bodies, the Vestries elected directly by the ratepayers, the District Boards indirectly elected; but both were constituted “the sanitary authority” for their respective areas, both were charged with the administration of local affairs, and so the term “Vestry” and the “District Board” may be taken as synonymous.
The central body which was constituted for dealing with matters affecting London as a whole was named “The Metropolitan Board of Works.”