The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

LONDON. 197
house, from basin to basin, inspecting interminable rows of vessels of every size
and description, examining the piles of merchandise imported from every quarter
of the globe, and watching the loading and unloading of vessels. Liverpool
surpasses the capital in the value of its foreign exports, but lags far behind it as a
port for the importation of wine, sugar, and colonial goods of every description.
Altogether London is still the superior of Liverpool, even though the shipping
belonging to its port be of somewhat inferior tonnage.
London, outside the City, is not in the enjoyment of municipal institutions,
no doubt because Parliament dreads creating a rival which might overshadow it.
Commercial and financial interests have their natui-al centres there, but not political
ones. For purposes of local government London is divided into a multitude of dis-
tricts, which in many instances overlap each other. So great are the confusion and
intricacy of these administrative jui-isdictions that but few Londoners take the
trouble to penetrate theii* mystery, and are content to pay the rates and taxes
on condition of being troubled no further. The legislature has handed London
over to the tender mercies of powerful gas, water, and railway companies, and
given life to not a single local representative body strong and powerful enouo-h
to assert the claims of the ratepayers. As recently as 1855 London was governed
by 300 distinct local bodies, counting 10,448 members, and exercising their
authority by virtue of 250 Acts of Parliament.* The City, which alone enjoys
municipal institutions, forms virtually a town within the town, whilst the
remainder of the metropolis is governed by 38 Local Boards or Vestries, 30
Boards of Guardians for the administration of the Poor Laws, a Metro-
politan Board of "Works, a School Board, and several other bodies, whollv or in
part elected by the ratepayers. Even the Dean and Chapter of Westminster still
exercise a few remnants of their old municipal functions. These various bodies
count no less than 8,073 members, supported by an army of local officials. But
notwithstanding this strange complication of the ofiicial machinery, and the
financial confusion necessarily resulting from it, London spends less money than
Paris, and is burdened with a smaller debt, which is partlj' accounted for by
the fact that most of the great public works have been carried out by private
companies, and not by the town.t The Metropolitan Police force t is under the
orders of the Home Secretary, but the City authorities maintain a police of
their own.§
The Metropolitan Board of "Works, whose 44 members are elected by the
Corporation of the Citj^ of London, and by 38 parishes or local districts, is
the most important of these local governing bodies. It has charge of the main
* Firth, " Municipal London ; " Dexter, "The Goremment of London "
; Ravenstein, " London."
t In lS7o the local authorities of the metropolis, including the City, expended £9,071,000, or
£2 158. 9d. per head of the population. Of this sum municipal and sanitary objects absorhed £6,397,000,
the maintenance of the poor £1,723,000, and public education £89.5,000. The total debt amounted to
£22,688,000 (Captain Craigie, Journal of the Statistical Society, 1877). In 1878 the Metropolitan Board alone
spent £3,680,000, and had a debt of £10,310,000, whilst the School Board spent £1,189,713.
X 10,900 officers and men. In 1879 83,9U persons were arrested, of whom 33,892 were drunk or
disorderly; 14,562 were charged with burglary, robbery, &c. ; and 10,856 with assaults.
^ 825 officers and men.