County Councils

County Councils, the elective bodies established by the Local Government Act 1888 to manage certain specified administrative business of each county formerly managed by the Justices of the Peace (who are nominated by the Crown), in Quarter Sessions and other administrative business mentioned in the Act, and consisting of the chairman, aldermen, and councillors. The councillors are elected for separate electoral divisions under the "County Electors Act, 1888," the qualifications for electors being similar to that of burgesses in boroughs, with the addition that ministers of religion are not disqualified and that peers owning property in the county and persons registered as parliamentary voters in respect of the ownership of property in the county are qualified. They are elected for three years, and then retire together. The aldermen, who are termed "County Aldermen," are elected by the councillors. They are elected for six years, and half of the number retires every three years. The chairman is analogous to the mayor in a borough council, and is elected by the council from among the aldermen or councillors or "persons qualified to be such." The administrative business transferred to the county councils from the justices of the peace consists of a great variety of county business formerly transacted by the justices of the peace for each county, and too lengthy to be here detailed.