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again displaced and the Abbey once more converted to a Collegiate
Church, with a Dean and twelve Canons or Prebendaries, in which
form it has continued to the present time. The Dean and Chapter,
who are appointed by the Crown, derive their authority and inherit
their possessions from the Abbots, the ancient owners of the Manor.
The City of Westminster is merely titular and has no territorial
significance. It has, however, been generally taken to comprise the
two parishes of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist; the
latter having been constituted a separate parish in 1725. The
"Liberties" are two in number, and, it will be seen, of far greater
extent than what is commonly called the City; one Liberty includes
the parishes of St. Anne (formed 1678), St. George, Hanover
Square (formed 1725), St. James (formed 1685), St. Martin-in-theFields
(formed 1356), and St. Paul, Covent Garden (formed 1660);
the other, known as the Liberty of the Duchy of Lancaster, comprises
the ancient parishes of St. Clement Danes, and St. Mary-leStrand,
and the precincts of the Savoy.
The first attempt at local government in Westminster was the
granting of a Commission by Henry VI. in 1427, with jurisdiction
over the sewerage of Westminster and the surrounding districts.
This Commission was continued from time to time by Royal and
Parliamentary authority until 1855, when it was superseded by the
Boards created by the Metropolis Local Management Act.
As regards municipal government, the earliest authority appears
to be a statute passed in the 27th year of Queen Elizabeth, which
placed the maintenance of law and order in the hands of the Dean
and twelve Burgesses, the latter to be appointed annually, and each
of them to have the government of a particular ward. The
preamble of this Act sets forth that the population of Westminster
had greatly increased, and the people being for the most part
without trade or mystery had become poor, and many of them
wholly given to vice and idleness. This state of affairs was
common throughout the Kingdom, and was, in a large measure,
due to the establishment and subsequent dissolution of wealthy
religious corporations. Ordinances were promulgated by authority
of the Burgesses in 1585, the same year that the Act was passed,