e, as at
present existing, has for its object the simplification of local
government by the abolition of unnecessary independent authorities, and
that this has been carried out almost completely, the principal
exception being that in some cases burial boards still exist which have
not been superseded either by urban district councils or by parish
councils or parish meetings. There are also some matters of local
administration arising under what are called commissions of sewers.
These exist for the purpose of regulating drainage, and providing
defence against water in fen lands or lands subject to floods from
rivers or tidal waters. The commissioners derive their authority from
the Sewers Commission Acts, which date from the time of Henry VIII.,
from the Land Drainage Act 1861, and from various local acts. It is
unnecessary, however, to consider in any detail the powers exercised by
commissioners of sewers in the few areas under their control.

AUTHORITIES.--G. L. Gomme, _Lectures on the Principles of Local
Government_; S. and B. Webb, _English Local Government_; Redlich and
Hirst, _Local Government in England_; Wright and Hobhouse, _Local
Government and Local Taxation_; W. Blake Odgers, _Local Government_;
Alex. Glen and W. E. Gordon, _The Law of County Government_; Alex.
Glen, _The Law relating to Public Health_; _The Law relating to
Highways_; W. J. Lumley, _The Public Health Acts_ (6th ed., by
Macmorran and Dill); Macmorran and Dill, _The Local Government Act
1888_, &c.; _The Local Government Act 1894_, &c.; Hobhouse and
Fairbairn, _The County Councillors' Guide_; Pratt, _The Law of
Highways_ (15th ed., by W. Mackenzie); Archbold, _Law of Quarter
Sessions_ (4th ed., by Mead and Croft); J. Brooke Little, _The Law of
Burials_; Archbold, _On Lunacy_ (4th ed., by S. G. Lushington).
(A. McM.; T. A. I.)

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Among earlier works devoted to, or dealing largely with topography, a
few may be mentioned out of a considerable mass. W. Camden,
_Britannia; sive florentissimorum regnorum Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae
... chorographica descriptio_ (1586 and subsequent editions; in
Latin, but translated by several successive writers both in Camden's
time and later); M. Drayton, _Poly-Olbion_ (a descriptive poem, first
issued in a complete form in 1622); T. Fuller, _History of the
Worthies of England_ (1662); J. Leland, _Itinerary_, and
_Collectanea_, edited by