not more than 100 miles from such union. The maximum number of guardians authorized to attend a conference is to be three, and in the case of the central conference held in London, only one guardian is authorized to attend from any union at a distance of more than fifty miles from the place of the meeting. The order also contains regulations as to the notice to be given of meetings for the appointment of deputations, as to the number of copies of the reports of the central or other conference which may be purchased, &c.

It is lawful for the guardians, or, where there are no guardians, for the overseers, to bury the body of any poor person who may be within their parish or union respectively, and to charge the expense thereof upon the common fund of the union. And the internent is to take place in consecrated ground, unless the deceased person or the husband or wife or next of kin of such person have otherwise desired. And in connection with this part of our subject, it may be as well to mention that, under the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 101, s. 2, the guardians are empowered to contribute out of the common fund to the enlargement of any churchyard or consecrated burial-ground in the union, or to the obtaining of such consecrated burial-ground; while, by the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 79, they may enter into agreements with the proprietors of any cemetery established under the authority of parliament, or with any burialboard duly constituted under the statutes in that behalf, for the burial of the dead bodies of any poor persons which such guardians or overseers may undertake to bury, or towards the burial whereof they may render assistance.

The guardians are authorized, by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 59, to prosecute for various offences against the poor laws, and to charge the costs thereof either to the common fund of the union or to any parish or parishes thereof. They are required, by the Vaccination Acts of 1867 and 1871, to provide for the gratuitous vaccination, by competent medical men, of all persons resident in the union. By the 14 & 15 Vic. c. 105, s. 4, they are empowered, with the consent of the Local Government Board, to pay an annual subscription out of the union funds towards the support of a public hospital or infirmary; or, by the 32 & 33 Vict. c. 63, s. 16, to make arrangements with any public general hospital or dispensary, situated within the limits of the parish or union, to receive and treat pauper patients on terms to be arranged with the sanction of the Local Government Board. And by 42 & 43 Vict. c. 54, s. 10, they may, with the same consent, subscribe towards any asylum or institution for persons who are blind, deaf, or dumb, or suffering from any permanent or natural infirmity, or for providing nurses, or for aiding girls or boys in service, or towards any other asylum or institution which appears to the guardians to be calculated to render useful aid in the administration of the relief of the poor.

Certain duties are imposed upon, and certain powers are given to boards of guardians in reference to elementary education by the Elementary Education Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 79). We have dealt with this subject as far as our space will allow in a previous chapter. (See ante, Chapter XVI., p. 144.)

We have hitherto spoken of boards of guardians of

unions, but the Local Government Board may direct that a board of guardians shall be elected for a single parish. In that case the parish will be divided into wards for the election of guardians. In other respects the law, as above stated, both with respect to election, qualification, voting, &c., and also as to proceedings, powers, &c., is exactly the same as in the case where a union is formed.

We have already seen in a previous chapter (XV.), that, under the Public Health Act, 1875, unions, or parts of unions, not included in any urban sanitary district, are constituted rural sanitary districts, and the boards of guardians become the local authority thereof. As such they become the authority to which is entrusted the carrying out of the Allotments Act, 1887 (see ante Chapter XVII.); while under the Prevention of Cruelty to and Protection of Children Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 44), they are empowered, out of the funds under their control, to pay the reasonable costs and expenses of any proceedings taken under that act, in regard to the ill treatment, neglect, abandonment, or exposure of any child, and to charge such expenses to the common fund of the union.

CHAPTER XXV.

OF CORRUPT AND ILLEGAL PRACTICES AT THE ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF BOARDS OF GUARDIANS AND OF SCHOOL BOARDS.

THE Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 70), applies, with some limitations and exceptions, to the elections of members of Boards of Guardians and of School Boards. This statute, which enters with great minuteness into the various electoral malpractices by which an election may be vitiated, or for which it may be set aside, forms properly a part of the general election law of the country, rather than of parish law, with which it is indeed only indirectly connected. We must therefore content ourselves with a mere outline of its most important provisions, so far as they relate to elections for the two offices we have mentioned above.

If a member of the Board of Guardians or of the School Board is believed to have gained his election by corrupt or illegal practices, &c., a petition against his return may be presented to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court, either by four or more persons who voted or had a right to vote at the election, or by a person alleging himself to have been a candidate at the election.

Treating, undue influence, and bribery, are corrupt practices which, besides entailing punishment* on those Treating, undue influence, or bribery (on conviction upon

who are guilty of them, avoid an election, if committed by a candidate or his agent.

Payments or contracts for payments, or to an elector on account of the use of any house, land, building, or premises for the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice, or on account of the exhibition of any address, bill, or notice; or on account of committee-rooms in excess of the number allowed by the act, are illegal practices. which also entail punishment on those who are guilty of them, and also avoid an election, if committed by a candidate or his agent. Persons convicted of corrupt or illegal practices at elections for members of Boards of Guardians or School Boards are also subject to certain disqualifications for voting at municipal of parliamentary elections, for holding certain offices, &c., set forth in secs. 37 & 38 of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Preventive Act, 1883.†

Then there are provisions prohibiting certain illegal payments, employments, or hirings, but it is unnecessary to enter into these, as they are not likely to have any practical application to the elections with which we are here alone concerned.

But it is provided (and this especially refers to the election of members of Boards of Guardians) by sec. 36 of the Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884, "that when the poll at any elec

indictment), imprisonment for one year or less with or without hard labour, or a fine not exceeding £200; (if summarily tried by election court) imprisonment with or without hard labour for six months or a fine not exceeding £200.

* Fine on summary conviction not exceeding £100.

See the edition of the act by the present author and published by Messrs. Routledge.