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PART III.
From 185G to 1888, the period during which
Westminster was under the regime of the District
Board of Works.
At the close of the period reviewed in the preceding Part,
the autonomy of Westminster was vested in a number of
distinct authorities, each exercising powers over some
special branch of local government or over some small area
within the parochial limits. The Court of Burgesses and
the Vestry, it is true, retained general jurisdiction over the
whole parish for certain purposes; but the numerous local
Acts already cited so effectually sub-divided the control and
distributed it among Boards, Commissioners, Trustees, Committees,
and other independent bodies, that uniformity,
efficiency, and economy in local administration had become
impossible. It is not proposed, ,however, to enlarge here
upon the evils arising from the absence of cohesion and
solidarity, nor is it intended to recapitulate the proceedings
of the Board of Works for the Westminster District year
by year for the period covered by this chapter. Indeed,
little more than a reprint of the general retrospect given in
the Thirtieth Annual Report of that Board will be attempted,
commencing with the brief allusion to the circumstances
which, in 1855, led the Legislature to call into
existence the Vestries, elected by the popular vote, and the
District Boards, for the remedy of what Lord Ebrington
then described in the House of Commons as "the evils
"arising from the anarchical and anomalous state in which
"the government of the Metropolis was left."
Long before Parliament seriously grappled with the
subject, public attention had been directed to the extent to
which the health of London suffered from the absence of