"'It has had a multitude of duties to perform, and very great works have been constructed by it, which have transformed the face of some of the most important thoroughfares of the metropolis. And there has hitherto been no evidence that corruption or malpractice has affected or marred the greater part of the work which it has accomplished. The same may be said, too, in relation to the conduct of the vast majority of the members of the Board. We have received very numerous communications, some anonymous, some bearing the signature of the writers, impugning the action of the Board and certain of its members, but against the vast majority of them not even a suspicion of corruption or misconduct has been breathed. We believe that many members of the Board have cheerfully given for the public good much valuable time, and have rendered most important public services.'" The change in the constitution, nature, and character of the central authority of London effected by the Act was momentous and far-reaching. Instead of an indirectly elected body such as the Metropolitan Board of Works, over which the inhabitants of London had practically no control, there was brought into being a body directly chosen by an electorate of nearly half a million of the ratepayers of the metropolis, responsive to the views and desires of the electorate, endowed with the great authority derived from its representative character, and entrusted with the carrying out of the views and policy of London as one great city. London had been unified and welded together into one whole by the constitution of its new central authority; for the first time in his history it had been given a voice--the voice of one great city--and though much remained to be done before its entrance into its full rights as one city--and that the greatest which has ever existed in the world--the idea had been born, and had been embodied in the statutes of the realm that London was one great city, and not a mere conglomeration of petty jarring authorities. The first election of councillors took place on January 17, 1889. The first meeting of the Council took place on the 21st of March, when the Earl of Rosebery was elected Chairman, and the Council entered energetically on the work lying before it. The sanitary evolution of London was vitally involved in the change, but it was at once discovered that the powers of the Council relating to the public health of London were of a very limited and unsatisfactory nature. Matters concerning it were regulated by the Metropolis London Management Act and a large number of other Acts, the execution of which was in the hands of the Vestries and District Boards. These bodies were practically uncontrolled, and no machinery existed for securing any uniformity of administration in the different parts of the county. And even the Metropolitan Board had not used certain powers it possessed of making bye-laws for certain sanitary purposes.