the councils of the counties, boroughs,
and districts. Both the majority and minority reports of the recent
Poor Law Commission, submitted in 1909, recommend the abolition of the
parish union area; but no action has been taken as yet by Parliament
upon this subject.[261]

[Footnote 261: The history of local government
changes since 1870 is well sketched in May and
Holland, Constitutional History of England, III.,
Chap. 5.]

VI. LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

The system of local government as it operates at the present time is
by no means free from anomalies, but it exhibits, none the less, an
orderliness and a simplicity which were altogether lacking a
generation ago. The variety of areas of administration has been
lessened, the number of officials has been reduced and their relations
have been simplified, the guiding hand of the central authorities in
local affairs has been strengthened. Stated briefly, the situation is
as follows: the entire kingdom is divided into counties and county
boroughs; the counties are subdivided into districts, rural and urban,
and boroughs; these are subdivided further into parishes, which are
regrouped in poor-law unions; while the city of London is organized
after a fashion peculiar to itself. In order to make clear the (p. 182)
essentials of the system it will be necessary to allude but briefly to
the connection which obtains between the local and central
administrative agencies, and to point out the principal features of
each of the governmental units named.

*191. The Five Central Departments.*--Throughout most periods of its
history English local government has involved a smaller amount of
interference and of direction on the part of the central authorities
than have the local governments of the various continental nations.
Even to-day the general government is not present in county or borough
in any such sense as that in which the French government, in the
person of the prefect, is present in the department, or the Prussian,
through the agency of the "administration," is present in the
district. A noteworthy aspect of English administrative reform during
the past three-quarters of a century has been, nevertheless, a large
increase of centralized control, if not of technical centralization,
in relation to poor-relief, education, finance, and the other varied
functions of the local governing agencies