ABSTRACT
The establishment, between 1748 and 1835, in nearly every urban centre, under one designation or another, of a new statutory body—which we shall term always Improvement Commissioners—was, in fact, the starting-point of the great modern development of town government. The extensive array of bodies of Improvement Commissioners may be said to begin with the public Act of 1662, which established a new Local Authority in the Cities of London and Westminster. The Commissioners were empowered to make new sewers, to enlarge old ones and to remove nuisances. Householders were forbidden to throw dirt or refuse of any kind into sewers or watercourses. The new bodies of Improvement Commissioners created by these Acts are found in every part of England, from Truro to Berwick-on-Tweed, and, what is more surprising, in municipalities and unincorporated towns alike.
