elect boards of health, not with any indefinite powers of selfgovernment, but to carry into execution the powers conferred by the Public Health Act and those contained in the new law. Under the former Act it was necessary that the general board of health, the Queen in council, and sometimes the legislature, should concur in sanctioning the adoption of the Act. Now if it be not requisite to interfere with existing statutes or powers otherwise secured by the law, the provisions of the statute may be adopted by the simple act of the ratepayers and owners of property in the locality. The effect of this legislation is that the benefits of the Model Acts referred to in the first part of this Introduction are obtained without the necessity of a private Act.

If the locality be a corporate borough or a district under the management of popularly-elected commissioners, or be a parish or place with defined or known boundaries, the Act may be adopted by the resolution of the council or commissioners in the first and second cases, and the ratepayers and owners of property in the third. When there is no defined boundary, the secretary of state, on petition, can assign one, and the place so defined will constitute the district of the new board.

The council and the commissioners will, in the first cases respectively, form the board, but in the other cases the number of members must be determined by the electors, and will constitute a board, to be elected in the manner provided in the former statute, with this addition, that it will be competent for the secretary of state to divide the district into wards, analagous to the cases of municipal corporations and boards of guardians for parishes.

Questions as to the proper extent and composition of the district, and as to the legality of the proceedings, may be referred to the secretary of state for decision.

This is the great change in the scheme of legislation on this subject. The statute explains and enlarges the powers conferred upon the local boards by the Public Health Act of 1848, and incorporates in it many of the provisions of the Model Acts which are found so beneficial, and oftentimes so necessary for the well-being of populous places, while it enables the board of health in other instances to avail itself of some provisions not absolutely requisite in all cases, but which will prove of great convenience in some districts.

The statute, however, has not conferred upon the local boards unlimited power to carry out all their demands. Where they conceive that the property of individuals should be taken for the public good without their assent, when they seek to set aside or alter authorities and arrangements established by previous legislation, to alter or rescind the constitution created under the previous statute, or to obtain any extension of the powers expressly granted to them by the statutes, they must have special resort to the legislature. But they must proceed through the government. They must represent their requisitions to a secretary of state, who, after due inquiry, may make a provisional order, as in the case of the privy council under the former Act, and this order he is required to submit to parliament for confirmation by a public Act.

It will thus be found, that, though in some small details the local boards are released from the control of the general board of health, in all substantial matters, which were not perfectly free from restraint before, they must now submit to the secretary of state, and probably be compelled as before to seek the aid of parliament.

The control of the secretary of state is in accordance with the plan originally proposed in the bill of Lord Lincoln.

Accordingly a department has been formed in the office of the secretary of state for the home department for the special management of the business arising out of these Acts, and the able and experienced staff of officers and clerks who have long been trained under the general board of health have been transferred to that department. A minute of information respecting the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1858, and a valuable collection of byelaws, have already issued from this office.*

Although these two Acts are most important and beneficial in their operations with reference to the general administration of local districts in regard to their sanitary condition, there are other laws which the legislature in late years has passed, having for their object the improvement of the public health. These are contained in the statutes which have enforced the practice of the vaccination of young children, which subject common lodging houses to regulation and control, which facilitate the establishment of public baths and washhouses, which provide summary remedies in all parts of the country for the removal of nuisances, and which have also provided preventive and remedial measures to meet sudden contagious and epidemic diseases of a formidable character.

It has been deemed convenient to frame a collection of these various Acts, which relate to the health of the people of England, into one volume; and as the Local Government Act of itself is imperfect, those parts of the Acts which have been incorporated with it have been included in this collection.

In addition to the matters above referred to, the attention

To be had of the Publishers of this Work,

of the legislature has been directed to the burial of the dead, and a series of Acts have been passed relative thereto since 1849, by which churchyards and burial grounds have been closed, burial boards established, and numerous regulations passed upon the subject. It was found impracticable to include those Acts in this volume, but the clauses which particularly refer to local boards of health are appended.

The Editor has given his careful attention to the provisions of the two great statutes which form the basis of the work; he has endeavoured to bring under the notice of the reader the decisions which have taken place upon different clauses of the first Act, and the alterations effected therein by the second; and he has made such commentaries upon both as will, as he trusts, facilitate their interpretation, or otherwise assist those who are engaged in carrying them into execution; but he cannot but regret that the consolidation originally proposed was abandoned, since the reference from the original to the supplemental Act, and from the latter to the former, and from both to the incorporated clauses, will often lead to embarrassment, and prevent the clear elucidation and understanding of enactments so important as the present to the cities and towns of England.

ABSTRACTS OF THE STATUTES.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1848.

11 & 12 VICT. c. 63.

Sect. 1. Recites the object of the Act, and prescribes the limits of its operation.

2. Interprets and defines various words and terms used in the Act.

3. Gives the title of the Act.

4. Constitutes the general board of health-limits its duration to five years.

5. Enables the general board of health to appoint officers and servants-to cause a seal to be made wherewith their documents are to be sealed, and provides that so sealed they shall be received in evidence.

6. Enables the said board to appoint superintending inspectors-defines their powers and duties.

7. Provides for the payment of salaries to one member of the general board of health, their officers and servants, and specifies the sum to be paid to each superintending inspector.

8. Empowers the general board of health upon petition, or where there has been a specified amount of mortality, to direct an inquiry to be made by a superintending inspector as to the condition of any place and its sanitary state, and other matters, to enable the board to report thereon to the Queen, or to make a provisional order.