- © mental officials. The popular working of the central government is secured by (1) the mode of electing members to the House of Commons ; (2) the right of petitioning both Houses of Parliament and of presenting deputations to the ministers of the Crown ; and (3) by the system of trial by jury, through which in all the most important criminal prosecutions, the final decision is given, not by an executive official, but by a body of twelve men, duly qualified, and impartially chosen out of the body of the people: The local powers in the United Kingdom are various and numerous. They are either special officers or boards’ (that is, small assemblies of persons), and are fixed (1) in the parish or district; (2) in the county; (3) in the borough or town. These officers or boards are generally elected by persons living and paying taxes on the spot, though in many cases the central executive authority controls the elections by refusing to sanction the election of certain persons, or by appointing additional officers of its own. The principal purposes for which these local authorities exist are— (1) the relief of the poor; (2) the education of the poor; (3) the management of goals and lunatic asylums; (4) the lighting, paving, drainage, and conservancy of a town or village ; (5) the administration of the laws in the cases of all minor offences ; (6) levying rates for these purposes.