| Throughout the nineteenth century, an administrative revolution, fully as important as the change in industry and agriculture which had produced it, influenced the lives of the English people. The new needs of an increasingly urbanized society created many problems for the chief institution of local government in the county, the justices of the peace. During the critical years of the early Victorian period, such tensions as unemployment, the New Poor Law, and Chartism excited popular temper and burdened the J.P. as keeper of the peace; they further threatened the shaky structure of local government. At the same time, the justice's inefficiency and the appointive, unpaid nature of his office made him a center of criticism and agitation inspired by the Benthamite reformers. Furthermore, economy-minded ratepayers resented the exclusive control exercised by the justices over the county purse. These two sources of criticism reinforced a movement in parliament for county self-government.;These chapters include a descriptive analysis of the above criticisms. The statutes and local remedies resulting from the agitation strengthened the structure of local government and at the same time redefined the functions of the magistracy. Parliament slowly recognized the limited sources of local taxation and the inadequacy of the unpaid amateur in important fields of local administration. The use of the grant in aid and the increasing call for salaried experts demonstrated this awareness. They also revealed the process of adjustment in the administrative relations between the central and local government. Appointed by the one and the voluntary servant of the other, the J.P. occupied a difficult position. The capacity to adapt himself to the needs of both marked his changing role as ruler of the county. |
