yment for
the able-bodied poor, to provide other forms of relief as should be
required, and to levy a local rate to meet the costs of their work.
Since the passage of Gilbert's Act of 1782 the parishes had been
arranged in groups for poor-law purposes, and boards of guardians
appointed by the justices of the peace had come to be the real
authorities in the administration of poor relief, as well as in most
other matters. The abuses arising from poor-law administration were
not infrequently appalling.

*187. The Borough before 1832.*--The corporate towns in England and
Wales numbered, in 1832, 246. They comprised population centers which,
on the basis of charters granted by the crown, had become distinct
areas of local government. They did not, however, stand entirely apart
from the county and parish organization. On the contrary, except in so
far as they were exempted specifically by the terms of their charters,
they were subject to the authority of the justices of the peace and of
the governing agencies of the parishes within whose jurisdiction they
were situated. Their style of government was determined largely (p. 178)
by the provisions of their charters, and since these instruments
exhibited a marked degree of variety, uniformity of organization was
entirely lacking. As a rule, however, the borough was a close
corporation, and the burgesses, or "freemen," in whom were vested
peculiar trading and fiscal rights and an absolute monopoly of the
powers of government, comprised but a small fraction of the general
body of citizens. The governing authority of the borough was the town
council, whose members were either elected by the freemen or recruited
by co-optation. Government was regularly oligarchical and
irresponsible; sometimes it was inefficient and corrupt.

*188. The New Poor Law (1834) and the Municipal Corporations Act
(1835).*--The reforms accomplished since 1832 within the domain of
parliamentary organization and procedure have been hardly more
remarkable than those wrought during the same period within the field
of local government. It must suffice to mention but the principal
steps by which the local governing system has been brought to its
present high degree of democracy and effectiveness. Among the subjects
to which the first reformed parliament addressed its attention was the
direful condition into which had fallen the relief of the poor, and
the initial stage of local government regeneration was mar