ABSTRACT
The ad hoc body has been favoured as a solution of the difficulties of London government from 1839, when the Commissioners of Police for the Metropolis were first set up, to our own day, when several other statutory authorities for special purposes have been created. The Metropolitan Water Board, the Port of London Authority, the Thames Conservancy, the London Passenger Transport Board, the London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority, the Metropolitan Area Traffic Commissioner—not to mention the old Metropolitan Asylums Board, whose functions are now transferred to the London County Council—here surely is a sufficient number of examples to provide ample material on which to base a conclusion.
