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The Local Government Act of 1894, commonly called the Parish Councils Act, which constituted out of chaos a system of local government for rural England, gave the Society an opportunity for practising that part of its policy which includes the making the best use of all forms of existing legislation.  Mr. Herbert Samuel was at that time a friend, though he was never a member, of the Society, and the first step in his successful political career was his candidature for the typically rural Southern Division of Oxfordshire.  He was good enough to prepare for us not only an admirable explanation of the Act, but also Questions for Parish Councillors, for Rural District Councillors, and for Urban District Councillors.  Probably this was the first time that an analysis of a new Act of Parliament had been published at a penny.  Anyway the demand for it was considerable, and over 30,000 copies were sold in five months.  Then it was revised, with the omission of temporary matter, and republished as “Parish and District Councils:  What they are and what they can do,” and in this form has gone through many editions, and is still in print.  The tract states that the secretary of the Society will give advice on any obscure point in the law, and in this way the Society has become an Information Bureau; hardly a week passed for many years after the autumn of 1895 without a letter from some village or small town asking questions as to housing, common rights, charities, the duties of chairmen of councils, the qualifications of candidates, and so on.

Similar tracts were published describing the powers and duties of the London County Council, the London Vestries, and the Metropolitan Borough Councils, established in 1899, while one giving the powers of various local authorities for housing (No. 76, “Houses for the People”) has gone through many editions and still has a steady sale.

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The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1897, afforded another opportunity for this sort of work.  Our penny tract (No. 82) describing the rights of the workmen under the Act was reprinted thirteen times in eight months, and over 120,000 were sold in the first year of publication.  This tract offered free advice to every purchaser, and the result has been an enormous amount of correspondence which during seventeen years has never entirely ceased.  This work of providing expert advice on minor legal matters has been a quiet service to the community constantly rendered by the Society.  The barristers amongst our members have freely given assistance in the more difficult matters.  Occasionally the solicitors amongst us have taken up cases where the plaintiff was specially helpless.

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