warrant can be issued (as was contended in a celebrated case) by a Secretary of State to seize the papers of an author of a seditious libel.

Extradition.

A peculiar case affecting the liberty of the subject is presented when a foreign State demands the surrender or extradition of a person who is alleged to have committed a crime in the territory of that State, and who has taken refuge in this country. There is much reason to doubt whether, apart from special treaties for the purpose, one State can be said by International Law to have any legal right to the surrender of persons who are in the territory of another. As a matter of fact, the right (if any) is defined, its measure ascertained, and the procedure for giving it effect described, by "Extradition Treaties," which are becoming increasingly numerous. In the year 1870 a statute was enacted in this country for the purpose of supplying a uniform procedure, in view of which all future Extradition Treaties between England and Foreign States should be made, and to which they should bear reference; it having been previously the custom to enact a separate Statute for the purpose of giving effect to each successive Treaty.

The Statute of 1870 secures (1) that no accused person shall be apprehended or given up to a foreign State unless the evidence produced against him shall be of exactly the same quality as that which, even if uncontradicted, would be needed to procure the issue of a warrant for the apprehension or the committal for trial of a person charged with the same crime committed in this country; (2) that either the police magistrate or the Secretary of State at whose hands the surrender is sought shall be empowered to refuse the surrender, if, in the view of either of them, it appear that the real purpose of the requisition is to punish the fugitive for a political offence; (3) that a sufficient period, that is, fifteen days, be allowed to intervene between the committal

of the accused to prison and his surrender, in order to afford him a fair opportunity of having the grounds of his committal judicially investigated on the return to a writ of habeas corpus: (4) that power be reserved to the Secretary of State at any time during the proceedings to order the prisoner to be discharged from custody.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

It will be convenient to interpose in this place an account of the chief institutions for the conduct of Local Government. This portion of the whole Government of the country is carried out by a variety of local authorities appointed in different ways; some of which trace their origin to the most ancient institutions in the country, while others have been called into being by a series of modern Statutes.

The subject is rendered a perplexing one by the fact that, owing to the hap-hazard way in which legislation has proceeded, the same geographical area is distributed for purposes of local government according to a number of different systems for different purposes; and sometimes the same local authority is charged with a variety of very dif ferent functions, or a number of different local authorities exist side by side charged with functions scarcely distinguishable in their general nature.

Some of the divisions into which the territory of England and Wales is distributed are very ancient, and have thus become, owing to changes in population, unsuited to the wants of the present day. Thus for many purposes the old divisions have been altered, large and populous districts being broken up into several parts, and smaller districts being united together. The general principle in local government is that they who pay a tax shall take part in administering the proceeds of the tax, or, at least, shall

elect those who administer such proceeds. The chief exception is in the case of Justices of the Peace, who are chosen by the Crown out of the County gentlemen who have a certain amount of property, and who at their Court of Quarter Sessions have command over all the money collected by taxes for the general use of the County,-as for instance, for building gaols, prosecuting offenders, and payment of salaries to County officials.

The largest division of the country is into Counties. Each County is divided into a number of parishes-of which there are 11,099 in England and Wales—and, if the parishes are small, they are often, for certain purposes, joined together into districts; or, if the parishes are very large, they are broken up into districts; so that in some cases, a large parish may contain a number of districts—or a small parish may be united with other small parishes to form a district. These districts are always made by special Acts of Parliament, while the parishes and the counties are very ancient, and preserve their old limits.

The purposes of Local Government (excepting that of the prevention and punishment of crime, which is treated elsewhere) may be classed as follows:

1. Relief of the Poor.

2. Public Health.

3. Education.

4. Making and repairing highways, constructing public buildings, halls, libraries, gaols, lunatic asylums, and workhouses for the poor.

5. Taxation.

I. RELIEF OF THE POOR.

The professed principles upon which the poor are relieved out of the proceeds of taxation are that only those poor are supported who by reason of extreme youth or age, or accident, or sickness, are unable to work, or who, though able to work, cannot obtain work. This principle is carried out

by a number of parishes being joined together into a district called a "Union;" or if the parish be very populous (as in London) by making a single parish into a "Union." Every Union is liable to support its own poor; that is, all the householders in each parish of the Union, living in houses worth above a certain value, are taxed in proportion to the value of their houses for relieving the poor on the principles above described. No poor person can be charged upon a Union unless he or his parents were born in a parish belonging to the Union, or unless he or they have gained a "settlement" in certain definite ways, as (for instance) by renting a tenement of the minimum value of 10., having resided therein for forty days, and having been assessed to the poor-rate and paid the same for one year. Should a person become chargeable to a Union who does not satisfy these conditions, he can be removed to his own Union at the expense of that Union, but not if he has resided for three years in the new parish.

The officers who administer the Poor Law in each Union are a Board of Guardians, one Guardian at least being elected annually by the ratepayers of each parish. The number of Guardians to be elected for each Union, and the qualifications of Guardians, are fixed by the "Local Government Board" in London. In each parish there is also a special set of officers called Overseers. There may be only one, or, in the case of a large parish, there may be as many as four. They are appointed annually by the Justices of the District, generally on the nomination of the parishioners. In some cases Guardians are enabled to appoint a paid Assistant-Overseer. The Guardians and Overseers are not paid. Every Union is constructed by the Local Government Board in London, and all the officers of the Union are under its direct and constant control. The duties of the Guardians and Overseers are as follows:

1. The Guardians have (1) to investigate the claims of applicants for relief; (2) to provide houses for the reception

of the poor; (3) to provide for the due education of pauper children; (4) to provide for the proper care of the sick poor or for the lunatic poor; (5) to provide that paupers able to work should do certain tasks set them while resident in the workhouse; (6) to send poor not belonging to the Union to their proper parishes.

2. The work of the Overseers is (1) to grant relief in pressing cases, and before the case can be examined into by the Board of Guardians, and (2) to make and collect the rates assessed upon the parish for the relief of the poor. These are called the "Poor Rates ;” but the money when collected has to be applied by the Overseers not only to the use of the Guardians, but to a vast number of other purposes not strictly connected with the relief of the poor.

There are constant complaints of the inefficiency of the existing systems of poor relief. It is said that the operation of the poor laws is to multiply paupers by teaching persons to rely upon the support of the State instead of upon their own exertions. It is said that the really unfortunate poor are neglected and badly treated, while the idle, improvident, and fraudulent are relieved. It is said also that Union workhouses and hospitals are badly managed, and that the aggregation of children in pauper schools tends to perpetuate a race of paupers. It is further complained that the unscrupulous mode in which relief is given by private persons tends to aggravate many of these evils. To meet this it has been suggested that no out-door relief should ever be given, except to the sick and aged, and that private persons and charitable bodies of persons should endeavour to co-operate with the poor-law authorities so as to assist them in discovering the real character and wants of applicants for relief. Some such scheme has been tried with excellent results in some parts of Germany, in Paris, New York, and Glasgow.