t invariably, coextensive
with unions of the same name. These districts are divided into
sub-districts, within which the births and deaths are registered by
registrars appointed for that purpose. _Registration counties_ are
groups of registration districts, and their boundaries differ more or
less from those both of the ancient and the administrative counties. In
England and Wales there are eleven registration divisions, consisting of
groups of registration counties (see REGISTRATION). (O. J. R. H.)

X. LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Reform Act of 1832 was the real starting-point for the overhauling
of English local government. For centuries before, from the reign of
Edward III., under a number of statutes and commissions, the
administrative work in the counties had been in the hands of the country
gentlemen and the clergy, acting as justices of the peace, and sitting
in petty sessions and quarter sessions. Each civil or "poor law" parish
was governed by the vestry and the overseers of the poor, dating from
the Poor Law of 1601; the vestry, which dealt with general affairs,
being presided over by the rector, and having the churchwardens as its
chief officials. In 1782 Gilbert's Act introduced the grouping of
parishes for poor law purposes, and boards of guardians appointed by the
justices of the peace. The municipal boroughs (246 in England and Wales
in 1832) were governed by mayor, aldermen, councillors and a close body
of burgesses or freemen, a narrow oligarchy. Reform began with the Poor
Law Amendment Act of 1834, grouping the parishes into Unions, making the
boards of guardians mainly elective, and creating a central poor law
board in London. The Municipal Corporations Act followed in 1835, giving
all ratepayers the local franchise. And as a result of the failure of
the Public Health Board established in 1848, the royal commission of
1869-1871 led to the establishment in 1871 of the Local Government Board
as a central supervising body. Meanwhile, the school boards resulting
from the Education Act of 1870 brought local government also into the
educational system; and the Public Health Act of 1875 put further duties
on the local authorities. By 1888 a new state of chaos had grown up as
the result of the multiplication of bodies, and the new Redistribution
Act of 1885 paved the way for a further reorganization of local matters
by the Local Government Act of 1888, followed by that of 1894. In
London, which required separ