2,010,227 668,278 1,341,949
Improvem't scheme .. 1,534,731 31,987 1,502,744
Gasworks .. .. .. 2,184,186 142,359 2,041,827
Waterworks.. .. .. 1,814,792 5,086 1,809,706
-----------------------------
Totals.. .. .. .. 7,543,936 847,710 6,696,226

The above large total, however, does not show all that was owing. The
United Drainage Board have borrowed L386,806, and as Birmingham pays
L24,722 out of the year's expenditure of L33,277 of that Board, rather
more than seven-tenths of that debt must be added to the Borough
account, say L270,000. The Board of Guardians have, between June, 1869,
and January, 1883, borrowed on loan L130,093, and during same period
have repaid L14,808, leaving L115,285 due by them, which must also be
added to the list of the town's debts.

~Local Acts.~--There have been a sufficient number of specially-local
Acts of Parliament passed in connection with this town to fill a law
library of considerable size. Statutes, clauses, sections, and orders
have followed in rapid succession for the last generation or two. Our
forefathers were satisfied and gratified if they got a regal of
parliamentary notice of this kind once in a century, but no sooner did
the inhabitants find themselves under a "properly-constituted" body of
"head men," than the lawyers' game began. First a law must be got to
make a street, another to light it, a third to pave it, and then one to
keep it clean. It is a narrow street, and an Act must be obtained to
widen it; when widened some wiseacre thinks a market should be held in
it, and a law is got for that, and for gathering tolls; after a bit,
another is required to remove the market, and then the street must be
"improved," and somebody receives more pounds per yard than he gave
pence for the bit of ground wanted to round off the corners; and so the
Birmingham world wagged on until the town became a big town, and could
afford to have a big Town Hall when other big towns couldn't, and a
covered Market Hall and a Smithfield of good size, while other places
dwelt under bare skies. The Act by which the authority of the Street
Commissioners and Highway Surveyors was transferred to the Corporation
was passed in 1851; the expenses of obtaining it reaching nearly L9,000.
It took effect on New Year's Day following, and the Commissioners were
no longer "one of the powers that be," but some of the Commissioners'
bonds are eff