Chapter XXX: Introduction: The Lord's Court

(_a_) THE LAWYER'S VIEW OF THE LORD'S COURT.
(_b_) THE COURT BARON.
(_c_) THE COURT LEET.

THE COURT IN RUINS--

(_a_) THE HIERARCHY OF COURTS.
(_b_) THE COURT OF THE HUNDRED.
(_c_) THE COURT OF THE MANOR:
(i.) THE BAMBURGH COURTS.
(ii.) THE COURT LEET OF THE SAVOY.
(iii.) THE COURT LEET AND COURT BARON OF MANCHESTER.
(_d_) THE PREVALENCE AND DECAY OF THE LORD'S COURT.

THE MANORIAL BOROUGH--

(_a_) THE VILLAGE MEETING.
(_b_) THE CHARTERED TOWNSHIP.
(_c_) THE LORDLESS COURT.
(_d_) THE LORD'S BOROUGH.
(_e_) THE ENFRANCHISED MANORIAL BOROUGH.
(_f_) MANOR AND GILD.
(_g_) ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND DECAY.

THE CITY AND BOROUGH OF WESTMINSTER--

(_a_) BURLEIGH'S CONSTITUTION.
(_b_) MUNICIPAL ATROPHY.

THE BOROUGHS OF WALES--

(_a_) INCIPIENT AUTONOMY.
(_b_) THE WELSH MANORIAL BOROUGH.
(_c_) THE WELSH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.

THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION--

(_a_) THE INSTRUMENT OF INCORPORATION.
(_b_) CORPORATE JURISDICTIONS.
(_c_) CORPORATE OBLIGATIONS.
(_d_) THE AREA OF THE CORPORATION.
(_e_) THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CORPORATION.
(_f_) THE SERVANTS OF THE CORPORATION.
(_g_) THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION.
(_h_) THE HEAD OF THE CORPORATION.
(_i_) THE BAILIFFS.
(_j_) THE HIGH STEWARD AND THE RECORDER.
(_k_) THE CHAMBERLAIN AND THE TOWN CLERK.
(_l_) THE COUNTY OFFICERS OF THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.
(_m_) THE MAYOR'S BRETHREN AND THE MAYOR'S COUNSELLORS.
(_n_) THE COURTS OF THE CORPORATION.
(_o_) COURTS OF CIVIL JURISDICTION.
(_p_) THE COURT LEET.
(_q_) THE BOROUGH COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS.
(_r_) COURTS OF SPECIALISED JURISDICTION.
(_s_) THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS OF THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.
(_t_) THE MUNICIPAL CONSTITUTIONS OF 1689.

MUNICIPAL DISINTEGRATION--

(_a_) THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE MAGISTRACY.
(_b_) THE DECLINE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL.
(_c_) THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW STATUTORY AUTHORITIES.
(_d_) THE PASSING OF THE FREEMEN.
(_e_) THE MINGLING OF GROWTH AND DECAY.

ADMINISTRATION BY CLOSE CORPORATIONS--

(PENZANCE, LEEDS, COVENTRY, BRISTOL, LEICESTER, AND LIVERPOOL.)

ADMINISTRATION BY MUNICIPAL DEMOCRACIES--

(MORPETH, BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, NORWICH, AND IPSWICH.)

THE CITY OF LONDON--

(_a_) THE LEGAL CONSTITUTION OF THE CITY.
(_b_) THE SERVICE OF THE CITIZEN TO HIS WARD.
(_c_) THE PRECINCT.
(_d_) THE INQUEST OF THE WARD.
(_e_) THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE WARD.
(_f_) THE DECAY OF WARD GOVERNMENT.
(_g_) THE COURT OF COMMON HALL.
(_h_) THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
(_i_) THE COURT OF ALDERMEN.
(_j_) THE SHRIEVALTY.
(_k_) THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR.
(_l_) THE OFFICERS OF THE CORPORATION.
(_m_) A RATEPAYERS' DEMOCRACY.

THE MUNICIPAL REVOLUTION--

(_a_) TOWARDS THE REVOLUTION.
(_b_) INSTALMENTS OF REFORM.
(_c_) THE ROYAL COMMISSION.
(_d_) AN ALTERNATIVE JUDGMENT.
(_e_) THE WHIG BILL.
(_f_) THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND OTHER PERSONS.

INDEX OF PLACES.

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_SOME PRESS NOTICES OF_

ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

"A book of the deepest, even of fascinating interest. Here for the first time we have a real study of local life in England, in village and town and country.... Everywhere we follow the gallant fights of humane and just men whose stories are scattered through these pages, along with the sharp dealings of the astute. Familiar names meet us--a great-uncle of Cecil Rhodes making his 'Empire' in St. Pancras; the novelist Fielding cutting down the gains of the magistrate who preyed on the poor.... Noble figures stand out among the ignoble. As in the parish, the rulers of the county ... found themselves left free ... to administer as they thought fit. They used the power fully; governed, legislated, silently transformed their constitution, and showed themselves capable of the same extremes as the men of the parish, except that they never surrendered to the 'boss.' ... We have only touched here on the tale the authors give, so absorbing in interest to any Englishman.... The best tribute to the writers of this most valuable work is the difficulty of turning away for comment or criticism from the subjects they present in such a vigorous and human form.... They have opened a new chapter in English history."--Mrs. J. R. GREEN, in _Westminster Gazette_.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb's monumental work on our local institutions must be a source at once of pride and of something a little like shame. Here at last we have a book which is more than worthy to be placed beside those of the great continental writers on the subject.... Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb are as learned as the Prussian, as lucid as the Frenchman, and as scholarly and careful as the Austrian.... If it is literature to present a singularly vivid picture of a past stage of society, to render it real and lifelike by a careful selection and skilful grouping of illustrative details, and to explain its meaning with clearness, sound judgment, and not infrequent touches of quiet humour, then assuredly is this volume literary as well as learned.... Packed as it is with quotations and references, it is full of transcripts from life which one reader at least has found more fascinating than many of the efforts made to revivify the past through the medium of historical romance or romantic history. The story of the rise, the decline, and the fall of the parish autonomy and the old county oligarchy is in itself a sort of epic not wanting in the elements of adventure, and even of tragedy.... Here and there a remarkable personality emerges."--Mr. SIDNEY LOW, in _Standard_.

"Without exaggeration it may be said that this work will necessitate the rewriting of English history.... We are ushered into a new world, full of eager and heated interest.... The authors have contrived to make these dead bones live. Everywhere are peepholes into the lives of the people, and occasionally a connected story ... throws a flood of light on English society. There is not a chapter which is not full of facts of general interest, while the whole volume ... will be altogether indispensable to the serious student.... There is a fascinating tale of the 'boss' of Bethnal Green.... A history of the English people, richer in local colour, more comprehensive in its survey of social affairs, and more truly human in its sympathies than any treatise hitherto given to the public."--Mr. R. A. BRAY, in _Daily News_.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb continue their laborious and luminous studies of English local institutions. In the last two volumes we find the same characteristics as those already published respecting the parish and the county--a minute investigation conducted not in the spirit of the antiquary, but with an eye to realities which are of interest to the politician, the historian, and the economist; an examination of the vast mass of printed matter on the subject, much of it practically inaccessible; and exhaustive enquiry among unedited manuscript records, some of them probably never before read. A few lines in the text or in a footnote are the results of prolonged local investigation; a few unobtrusive words at the close of a sentence, or qualifying some general statement, are the fruits of a careful search among the muniments of some corporation. We cannot speak too highly of the industry and patience which these volumes attest. They possess even rarer merits. The whole subject is set in a new light. We get away from traditional formulæ and conceptions. We see the local institutions at work, and they appear very different from what they are represented by lawyers to be."--_Times._

"If it be true, as many deep thinkers maintain, that history affords the only sure key to a thorough knowledge of political institutions, then the work of which these two learned and elaborate volumes form a part is indispensable to every serious student of English Local Government, for the history of that subject has never yet been expounded with such completeness and so scientific an impartiality.... A pioneer in a new way of writing the history of institutions.... By the skill with which they present the general movement of institutional developments as the outgrowth of natural forces, and constantly illustrate it by particular points of actuality and human interest, these writers have given new life to a study too long neglected."--_Scotsman._

"Closely packed tomes, crowded with detail, and exhibiting the result of a sum of research and investigation which leaves the indolent, irresponsible reviewer almost wordless with respectful admiration.... Such a collection of original material has been weighed and sifted as might move the envy of any German professor."--_Evening Standard._

"For years to come they will still be sifting, amassing, arranging, but their reputation as the foremost investigators of fact now amongst us is likely to be confirmed rather than shaken. Their work is as minute in detail as it is imposing in mass. In their patience they possess their intellect, and they remind us of the scholar with a magnifying glass in a picture by Jan van Eyck."--_Observer._

WORKS BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB

THE BREAK-UP OF THE POOR LAW
BEING PART I. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE POOR LAW
COMMISSION

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB

Demy 8vo, xx and 604 pp. 7s. 6d net. Uniform with
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Bluebooks, it has been said, are places of burial. The original edition of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law and the Agencies dealing with the Unemployed is a ponderous tome of seven pounds weight, crowded with references, footnotes, and appendices, impossible either to handle or to read. Mr. and Mrs. Webb have, therefore, rescued from this tomb the Minority Report signed by the Dean of Norwich, Messrs. Chandler and Lansbury, and Mrs. Webb herself. By omitting all the notes and references, and printing the text in clear type on a convenient octavo page, they present the reader with something which he can hold with comfort by his fireside.

This Minority Report is a new departure in such documents. More than 20,000 copies have already been disposed of, and it is still selling like the last new novel. It is readable and even exciting. It is complete in itself. It presents, in ordered sequence, page by page, a masterly survey of what is actually going on in our workhouses and in the homes of those maintained on Outdoor Relief. It describes in precise detail from carefully authenticated evidence what is happening to the infants, to the children of school age, to the sick, to the mentally defective, to the widows with children struggling on their pittances of Outdoor Relief, to the aged and infirm inside the workhouse and outside. It sets forth the overlapping of the Poor Law with the newer work of the Education and Public Health Authorities, and the consequent waste and confusion. It gives a graphic vision of the working of the whole Poor Law machinery in all parts of the United Kingdom, which is costing us nearly twenty millions sterling per annum.

The volume concludes with a Scheme of Reform, of novel and far-reaching character, which is elaborately worked out in detail, involving the abolition of the workhouse, the complete disappearance of the Poor Law, and the transfer of the care of the children, the sick, the mentally defective, and the aged to the several committees of the Town and County Councils already administering analogous services, in order that we may now, in the twentieth century, set ourselves to prevent destitution, instead of waiting until it occurs.

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THE PUBLIC ORGANIZATION OF
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BEING PART II. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE POOR LAW
COMMISSION

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The Problem of the Unemployed, which the Royal Commission on the Poor Law was incidentally set to solve, is the question of the day. Part II. of the Minority Report deals with it in a manner at once comprehensive and complete. The whole of the experience of the Poor Law Authorities, and their bankruptcy as regards the destitute able-bodied, is surveyed in vivid and picturesque detail. There is a brief account of the work of Voluntary Agencies. A lucid description is then given, with much new information, of the movement started by Mr. Chamberlain in 1886, which culminated in the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905. The story is told of the various experiments and devices that have been tried during the past twenty years, the Relief Works and the Farm Colonies, etc. This leads up to an altogether novel descriptive analysis of the Unemployed of to-day, who they actually are, and what they really need. The final chapter on Proposals for Reform gives, in elaborate detail, the Minority's plan for solving the whole problem of Unemployment--not by any vague and chimerical panacea, but by a series of administratively practicable reforms, based on the actual experience of this and other countries, which are within the compass of the Cabinet, and could, if desired, be carried in a single session of Parliament.

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THE STATE AND THE DOCTOR

Demy 8vo, pp. viii and 276 (1910). Price 6s. net.

In this work a great deal that will be new to the ordinary citizen is brought to light. The authors show that we do a great deal of State Doctoring in England--more than is commonly realised--and that our arrangements have got into a tangle, which urgently needs straightening out. Everywhere there is a duplication of authorities, and more or less overlapping of work. We are spending out of the rates and taxes, in one way or another, directly on sickness and Public Health, a vast sum of money annually--no man knows how much, but it certainly amounts to six or seven millions sterling. Meanwhile, as is now being revealed to us, a vast amount of sickness goes altogether untreated, with the result of grave damage to our population, and unnecessary loss of productive capacity to the community as a whole.

The authors suggest that we put up with this waste, and we allow our statesmen to postpone the task of straightening out the tangle, very largely because we are not aware of the facts. There has hitherto been no popular description of our State Doctoring. Many worthy people, thinking themselves educated, do not even know of its existence. There is not even an official report setting forth exactly what is being done and left undone for sickness and the Public Health in the different parts of the kingdom.

But the authors do not content themselves with a picture of the costly and wasteful muddle that our responsible statesmen allow, session after session, to continue unreformed. The work concludes with a remarkable series of proposals for "straightening out the tangle"--proposals based on the very authoritative evidence received by the Royal Commission on the Poor Law, supported not only by the administrators, but also by a large section of the medical profession, and rapidly commending themselves to the unprejudiced enquirer.

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THE HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM

Demy 8vo; Tenth Thousand; New Edition, with New Introductory
Chapter; lvii and 558 pp. (1911).

=Price 7s. 6d. net.=

This work describes, not only the growth and development of the Trade Union Movement in the United Kingdom from 1700 down to the end of the nineteenth century, but also the structure and working of the present Trade Union organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded almost entirely on material hitherto unpublished, it is not a mere chronicle of Trade Union organisation or record of strikes, but gives, in effect, the political history of the English working class during the last one hundred and fifty years. The opening chapter describes the handicraftsman in the toils of the industrial revolution, striving vainly to retain the mediæval regulation of his Standard of Life. In subsequent chapters the Place Manuscripts and the archives of the Priory Council and the Home Office enable the authors to picture the struggles of the early Trade Unionists against the Combination Laws, and the remarkable Parliamentary manipulation which led to their repeal. The private records of the various Societies, together with contemporary pamphlets and working-class newspapers, furnish a graphic account of the hitherto undescribed outburst of "New Unionism" of 1830-34, with its revolutionary aims and subsequent Chartist entanglements. In the course of the narrative we see the intervention in Trade Union history of Francis Place, Joseph Hume, J. R. M'Culloch, Nassau Senior, William the Fourth, Lord Melbourne, Robert Owen, Fergus O'Connor, Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, John Bright, the Christian Socialists, the Positivists, and many living politicians. The hidden influence of Trade Unionism on English politics is traced from point to point, new light being incidentally thrown upon the defeat of Mr. Gladstone's Government in 1874. A detailed analysis is given of the economic and political causes which have, since 1880, tended to divorce the Trade Union Movement from its alliance with "official Liberalism." A new introductory chapter brings the story down to the last few years. The final chapter describes the Trade Union world of to-day in all its varied features, including a realistic sketch of actual Trade Union life by a Trade Union Secretary, and a classified census founded on the authors' investigations into a thousand separate Unions in all parts of the country. A coloured map represents the percentage which the Trade Unionists bear to the population of each county. A bibliography of Trade Union literature is appended (which, together with that given in _Industrial Democracy_, affords a unique index of almost every available source of information).

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW EDITION.

PREFACE.

CHAP.

I. THE ORIGINS OF TRADE UNIONISM.

II. THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE (1799-1825).

III. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1829-1842).

IV. THE NEW SPIRIT AND THE NEW MODEL (1843-1860).

V. THE JUNTA AND THEIR ALLIES (1860-1875).

VI. SECTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS (1863-1885).

VII. THE OLD UNIONISM AND THE NEW (1875-1889).

VIII. THE TRADE UNION WORLD.