others, vest in the County Council:-Shire Halls, County Halls, Assize Courts, Judges' Lodgings, Lock-up houses, Justices' Rooms, Police Stations. The County Council may deal freely with these buildings, and may, with the consent of the Local Government Board, alienate them.

The County Council must, however, provide such accommodation and rooms as may from time to time be determined, by the Standing Joint Committee of the Quarter Sessions and the County Council, to be necessary and proper for the due transaction of business, and convenient keeping of the records and documents of the Quarter Sessions and Justices out of sessions, or of any committee of the Quarter Sessions or Justices, &c.

It may be mentioned here that all buildings and property vested in the Justices of the county palatine of Lancaster, under the Manchester Assize Courts Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. xxiv.), will vest in the County Council of Lancashire; but will be under the control of a Joint Committee, to be appointed by the County Council of Lancashire and the Town Councils of all the county boroughs situated in the hundred of Salford.1

Race-courses.

Under the Race-courses Licensing Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c.18), every race-course within a radius of ten miles from Charing Cross must at present be licensed by the Quarter Sessions of the county in which the race-course is situated. This is transferred to the County Council and to the Town Councils of county boroughs.2 The only counties affected by this provision are Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex, and Hertford. The only county boroughs within the radius are Croydon and West Ham.

Reformatory and Industrial Schools.

The law relating to these schools, as far as it concerns us, is connected with the history of the law relating to local prisons. The Prison Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 126), regulated the establishment and maintenance of local prisons by the following authorities, called "Prison Authorities," namely:

As respects any prison belonging to a county-The Quarter

Sessions. Whether or not the Quarter Sessions of a liberty or franchise, with a separate Court of Quarter Sessions,

1 Local Government Act, 1888, sec. 47.

E

2 Ib., secs. 3, 34.

were a separate Prison Authority, depended on the circumstances in each case. In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire the county prisons were maintained under this Act by the Justices of the whole county in Gaol Sessions.

As respects any prison belonging to a borough-The Town Council.

There were also other Prison Authorities in particular cases. Subsequent statutes gave the Prison Authorities power, first, to contribute towards and afterwards to erect and maintain reformatory and industrial schools. By the Prison Act, 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. 21), all prisons were handed over to the Government and made maintainable by them. The Prison Authorities were, however, kept in existence for the purposes, firstly, of arranging financial matters connected with the transfer of prisons to the Government, and, secondly, of dealing as before with reformatory and industrial schools.

Under the Local Government Act, 1888, business connected with these schools is transferred from the Quarter Sessions of a county or liberty to the County Council, and to the Town Councils of county boroughs who were not formerly Prison Authorities. The powers, duties, and liabilities also of the Town Council of Quarter Sessions Boroughs, the population of which, according to the census of 1881, was under 10,000, with regard to such schools, are transferred to the County Council. In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire this business will have to be transacted by the County Committee.1

Registration of Charitable Gifts, Places of Religious Worship, and Rules of Societies.

Charitable gifts secured by deed, will, or other instrument, must, in many cases, be registered with the Clerk of the Peace of the county within which the persons to be benefited reside. In future the Clerk of the Peace will act in this matter in his capacity of Clerk of the County Council, and under their control. Where the persons to be benefited reside within a county borough the registration must, after the appointed day, be made with the Town Clerk.2

A certificate must, in certain cases, be obtained for a place of religious worship of Protestants where more than twenty persons meet besides the family of the person on whose premises the meetings take place. The Quarter Sessions of every county

1 Local Government Act, 1888, secs. 3, 38.

2 Ib., secs. 3, 34.

keep a record of the places so certificated. This duty is transferred to the County Council and to the Town Councils of county boroughs.1

The rules of every loan society formed under the Loan Societies Act, 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 110), must be registered with the Quarter Sessions of the county in which the society is formed. This business is transferred to the County Council and to the Town Councils of county boroughs.1

The buildings of scientific and artistic societies are exempt from rates; but to secure this exemption the rules of the society must be approved by the Chief Registrar, and a certified copy enrolled in the records of the county after confirmation by the Quarter Sessions, whose business in this respect is transferred to the County Council and to the Town Councils of county boroughs.1

Riot (Damages) Act, 1886 (49 & 50 Vict. c. 38).

This Act provides for the payment of compensation, out of the police rate, where property has been destroyed by a riot. The authorities who must pay the compensation are (outside the Metropolitan Police District)

In counties-The Quarter Sessions.

In boroughs maintaining a separate police force-The Town Council.

In other towns with a separate police force-The Authority maintaining the police.

In the River Tyne within the limits of the Acts relating to the Tyne Improvement Commissioners - the Tyne Improvement Commissioners.

"County" in this Act seems to have the same meaning as under the Acts relating to the establishment of a county police force; but it is not quite clear, if damage were done by riot in a portion of a county transferred for the purposes of the Police Acts, which county would have to pay. The duties of the Quarter Sessions of a county in this respect are transferred to the County Council.2

Theatre Licences.

Under an Act of 1843 (6 & 7 Vict. c. 68) all places, except theatres to which letters patent have been granted, used for the representation of stage plays, must be licensed, outside the limits of the Lord Chamberlain's jurisdiction, by the

1 Local Government Act, 1888, secs. 3, 34.

2 Ib., sec. 3.

Costs of maintaining lunatic asylums.

Committee of

Visitors.

city, town, liberty, parish, place, or district not being a Quarter Sessions Borough shall, for the purposes of the Acts, be annexed to and treated and rated as part of the county in which the same is situated, or if such city, town, liberty, parish, place, or district be situate partly in one county and partly in another, then to and as part of such one of the same counties as such city, town, liberty, parish, place, or district may have been annexed to under the Act of 1845, or if not so annexed, then to and as part of such one of the same counties as one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State shall, by writing under his hand and seal, direct, and the term county is defined to mean county, riding and division bounded in accordance with the above provisions.

The expenses of providing and maintaining a lunatic asylum.

are met

(1.) In a county, by a rate levied over the whole county in accordance with the above definition.

(2.) In a Quarter Sessions Borough, out of the borough fund and borough rates.

Where a Quarter Sessions Borough does not maintain an asylum independently, it contributes to the expense of the asylum to which its lunatics are sent as follows:

Where an agreement has been entered into with counties, other boroughs, &c,-according to the terms of the agreement.

Where the borough contracts for the reception of its lunatics into some extraneous asylum-according to the terms of the contract.

Where the borough is annexed to a county-a sum fixed by the Quarter Sessions of the county in proportion to the population of the borough.

The actual management of the erection of a new asylum. or of the maintenance of an existing asylum is always vested in a “Committee of Visitors," who are appointed as follows:

Where a county or borough maintains its own asylum

independently, by the Quarter Sessions of the County, or the Justices of the borough; or where the Town Council of a borough acts in the matter, by the Town. Council; and in the last case the Town Council may discharge the duties of the Committee of Visitors. themselves, delegating, however, such powers as they think fit to a Committee who will not be technically the "Committee of Visitors."

Where an agreement between counties, boroughs, &c., has been entered into, the Committee of Visitors are appointed, so many for each authority interested, according to the terms of the agreement.

Where a Quarter Sessions Borough is annexed as above mentioned to a county, the Recorder of the borough may appoint two members of the Committee of Visitors of the county. It does not seem clear whether, if the county to which a borough is annexed has itself entered into an agreement with other counties, &c., for the maintenance of a joint asylum, the Recorder has a right to appoint two members of the Committee of Visitors of that asylum.

The provisions of the Local Government Act, 1888, with regard to lunatic asylums are as follows:

The County Council succeed to the powers and duties of the Quarter Sessions of the County, and of the Justices or Town Council of a Quarter Sessions Borough, the population of which, according to the census of 1881, was under 10,000. No such borough, however, maintains an asylum independently.

Where such a borough maintains an asylum jointly with any other body, the County Council will succeed to the powers of the Justices or Town Council, to appoint members of the Committee of Visitors, and will have to pay the borough's share of the expenses. The borough will be rateable to county expenses in connection with lunatic asylums.

Where such a borough contracts for the reception of its lunatics into an extraneous asylum, the provisions of the Act are as follows:

(i.) If the asylum is the county asylum, the contract will

be determined, and the borough will be rated to the
expenses of the county, and its lunatics must be sent
to the asylum maintained by the county.

(ii.) If the asylum is not the county asylum, it seems that
the contract will become binding on the County Council,
and the expenses will be defrayed out of the "special
lunatic asylums account" of the county.

If such a borough is annexed as above mentioned to the county, it seems that the borough will become rateable to the expenses of the county, and so contribute in proportion to its rateable value, and not, as heretofore, to its population.

1 Local Government Act, 1888, secs. 3, 32, 34, 38, 86.

Changes under

the Local Government

Act.1