ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(THE PARISH AND THE COUNTY)
FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT
This work, the result of eight years' research into the manuscript records of the Parish and the County all over England and Wales—from Northumberland to Cornwall, from Cardigan to Kent—combines history and description in a continuous narrative of extraordinary interest. Avoiding the questions of the origin of English local institutions, and even of their mediæval development, the authors plunge at once into a vivid description of the Parish Officers and the Vestry, Quarter Sessions and the Justices of the Peace, the Lord-Lieutenant and the High Sheriff, together with all the other authorities by which the internal administration was actually carried on. An entirely new view is presented of the social and political development of Parish Vestry and Quarter Sessions, of their relations to the Squire and the Incumbent, and of their attitude towards Parliament and the problems of their age. But the book is more than a contribution to history and political science. Practically all the counties of England and Wales, and literally hundreds of parishes, find place in this unique record of life and manners, in which are embedded not a few dramatic episodes of absorbing interest. It is a new picture of English life between 1689 and 1835 as it actually was in country and town, with graphic tracings of its results on national progress and on the social and economic problems by which we are now confronted.
CONTENTS
THE PARISH
Introduction.
The Legal Framework of the Parish.
(a) The Area and Membership of the Parish; (b) The Officers of the Parish; (c) The Servants of the Parish; (d) The Incumbent; (e) The Parish Vestry; (f) The Parish as a Unit of Obligation.
Unorganised Parish Government.