An Act carried through Parliament by Mr. Ritchie, establishing County Councils, to which were entrusted the various administrative functions previously exercised by committees of the county magistrates. The larger boroughs were exempted from their jurisdiction, being left under the control of their own municipalities, while a special County of London was created, comprising all the newer suburbs.
An Act completing the Local Government Act of 1888 by the creation of Parish and District Councils. One of the most important provisions of this Act is that giving the newly established bodies power to acquire land, compulsorily if necessary, for the purpose of providing labourers’ allotments.
The name given in 1835 to the Radical section of the Democratic party in the United States. At a meeting of this wing of the party, an opponent present turned off the gas, whereupon candles were procured, and lit by “locofoco” matches, from which time the faction was dubbed by its opponents the “Locofocos.”
A treaty signed in 1454 by the Republic of Venice and Duke Sforza of Milan, by which Sforza secured the whole of the Milanese.
In Saxon times labourers dependent on the feudal lord on whose land they worked. They are, however, not to be confounded with the theows, or slaves.
Among the Norsemen, the Law Court, the highest authority of the State under the King. It consisted of thirty-six members, partly _ex-officio_, and partly elected.
A law passed in 1891 in France, by which, in the case of first offenders, the tribunal might suspend the sentence for five years. If during that period the culprit did not again make himself amenable to the law, the sentence lapsed. If again convicted, however, he had to serve the old sentence as well as the new.
A religious sect, followers of Wycliffe, which arose in Edward III’s reign. They attacked the abuses of the Church, and especially the wealthy religious orders, and claimed the right of private interpretation in matters of doctrine. They are said to have numbered, at one time, fully one-third of the population of England. In spite of continued persecution, the sect remained powerful through several reigns, and they doubtless paved the way for the ready acceptance by England of the Reformed Doctrines in the reign of Henry VIII.