ncils or of the joint-committee. For
example, fees received by the clerk of the peace, inspectors of
weights and measures, and the like. These fees are paid into the
county fund, and carried either to "the general county account" or, if
they have been received in respect of some matter for which part only
of the county is assessed, then to the special account to which the
rates levied for that purpose are carried. The remaining source of
income of a county council is the county rate, the manner of levying
which is hereafter stated.

[Illustration: Map of ENGLAND & WALES--Section VI.]

Powers transferred from quarter sessions.

Of the powers and duties of county councils, it may be convenient to
treat of these first, in so far as they are transferred to or conferred
on them by the Local Government Act 1888, under which they were created,
and afterwards in so far as they have been conferred by subsequent
legislation. Before the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, the
only form of county government in England was that of the justices in
quarter sessions (q.v.). Quarter sessions were originally a judicial
body, but being the only body having jurisdiction over the county as a
whole, certain powers were conferred and certain duties imposed upon
them with reference to various matters of county government from time to
time. The principal object of the act of 1888 was to transfer these
powers and duties from the quarter sessions to the new representative
body--the county council; and it may be said that substantially the
whole of the administrative business of quarter sessions was thus
transferred.

The subjects of such transfer include (i.) the making, assessing and
levying of county, police, hundred and all rates, and the application
and expenditure thereof, and the making of orders for the payment of
sums payable out of any such rate, or out of the county stock or
county fund, and the preparation and revision of the basis or standard
for the county rate. With regard to the county rate, a few words of
description may be sufficient here. The council appoint a committee
called a county rate committee, who from time to time prepare a basis
or standard for county rate, that is to say, they fix the amount at
which each parish in the county shall contribute its quota to the
county rate. As a general rule the poor-law valuations are followed,
but this is not universally the case,