and jurisdiction to an entirely different cause. For nearly eight hundred years the Gothic inhabitants of Spain had been engaged in an almost uninterrupted struggle against the Moors, who occupied the southern part of the peninsula. It was obviously the dictate of policy, as the Spaniards gradually narrowed the boundaries of their enemies' territory, to make provision for securing and holding the ground thus gained. With this view, and for the purpose of protecting themselves from the frequent raids of their Arab neighbors, liberal charters were granted to towns, with extensive districts of country subject to their municipal jurisdiction. By these grants or charters the citizens selected their own officers, including judges and a common council, and enjoyed many of the essential rights of freemen. In return, the community or city paid a certain (no longer an arbitrary) tax or rent, and owed military service. For more effectual protection, the charters frequently prohibited the nobles from acquiring real property or erecting fortresses or palaces within the limits of the community, and subjected them to its jurisdiction when within its territory. Large sections of the adjacent country, as we have said, often embracing towns and villages, were annexed to the city or community and placed under its laws and jurisdiction. "Thus," says Mr. Prescott, to whom we are indebted for this sketch of the early municipalities of Spain, "while the inhabitants of the great towns in other parts of Europe were languishing in feudal servitude, the members of the Castilian corporations, living under the protection of their own laws and magistrates in time of peace, and commanded by their own officers or 1 Mr. Irving's fine reflections, in his Alhambra, upon this protracted and famous contest between the Crescent and the Cross, are not inappropriate: "The singular fortunes of the Arabian Morisco-Spaniards form one of the most anomalous yet splendid episodes in history. A remote wave of the great Arabian inundation cast upon the shores of Europe, they seem to have all the impetus of the first rush of the torrent. But repelled (by unsuccessful battle) within the limits of the Pyrenees, they gave up the Moslem principle of conquest, and sought to establish in Spain a peaceful and permanent dominion. Generation after generation, century after century passed away, and still they maintained possession of the land. With all this, however, the Moslem empire in Spain was but a brilliant exotic that took no per manent root in the soil it embellished. Severed from all their neighbors in the west by impassable barriers of faith and manners, and separated by seas and deserts from their kindred of the east, the Morisco-Spaniards were an isolated peo ple. Their whole existence was a prolonged, though gallant and chivalric, struggle for a foothold in a usurped land. They were the outposts and frontiers of Islamism. The peninsula was the great battle-ground where the Gothic conquerors of the north and the Moslem conquerors of the east met and strove for mastery; and the fiery courage of the Arab was at length (after eight hundred years) subdued by the obstinate and persevering valor of the Goth." 2 History Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. I., Introduction, sec. 1. in war, were in full enjoyment of all the essential rights and privileges of freemen." §7 a. The modern municipal institutions of PRUSSIA and their workings are full of interest and instruction. The aim has there been to embody the principle of local self-government, with central limitations upon the exercise of certain of the more important powers. They are so constructed as to attempt to give to the citizen such a method of government as will enlist the best character and talent in the service of the municipality, and yet prevent it from inconsiderately engaging in enterprises which might unduly burden it with obligations too great to be borne. The scheme of organization gives to the municipality very general powers, with the limitation on the exercise of many of them, that they shall be approved by some superior administrative officer of the central government. This administrative control over the acts of the municipality does not in practice seem to be carried to so great an extent as the control actually although irregularly exercised by the State legislatures over our American municipalities; so that although the municipal administration is apparently more centralized than here, the Prussian cities in fact enjoy, it is said, a greater degree of freedom from central interposition than with us. In order to ensure the services of the best citizens, penalties are imposed on those who refuse to serve for at least half of the time for which they have been elected or appointed, that they shall lose their municipal suffrage and have their taxes increased. Suffrage, though very general, is not universal. A small property qualification is required, which may consist in the payment of taxes. But in order to give property a certain degree of influence or control, the voting population is divided into three classes: the first consisting of the largest taxpayers, who pay a third of all the direct taxes; the second class consisting of the next largest taxpayers, who pay the next third of the taxes; the third class consisting of the remaining taxpayers. Each of these classes elects a third of the members of the municipal council. This system is similar to that adopted in elections to the Prussian diet; and it is represented to work satisfactorily, and to account in a large measure for the great success of the municipal government of the Prussian cities.1 1 See Political Science Quarterly, Vol. III., December, 1888, p. 714, where Mr. Goodnow reviews Steffenhagen's Handbuch der städtischen Verfassung und Verwaltung in Preussen. has recently given it as his opinion that Berlin is the best governed large munici pality in the world. Opinions may differ whether this high eulogiun is merited; but undoubtedly it is a well governed city. An enlightened observer (Professor Ely) The essential features of its municipal § 8. BRITAIN was one of the last conquests of the Cæsars, and was one of the first of the western provinces upon which they released their hold. The Latin language did not become the language of the people; nor did the Romans, as in many of the continental provinces, fill the country with memorials of their skill and arts. The impressions made by the mastery of the Roman were not destined to be permanent. According to an accurate explorer and philosophic modern historian, Britain, when subject to Rome, was divided into thirty-three townships, with a certain share of local self-government; and quasi municipal institutions, for a long time after the withdrawal of the Roman power, constituted whatever of government the people possessed. At the time of the conquest of England by William of Normandy (A. D. 1066) the towns and organization are in substance stated by Mr. Baxter (lecture on Berlin) as follows: All male persons of the age of twentyfour, who pay a tax on an income of $150, obtain the electoral franchise upon a year's residence. Over ten thousand citizens take part in the administration of municipal affairs. The most distinguished and substantial citizens consider it an honor to do so. Penalties are imposed for a refusal to serve in any position to which a citizen may be elected. The municipal assembly is composed of 126 members, representing 326 wards. Onehalf at least must be house-owners. The members are chosen for six years, onethird retiring every two years, thus giving permanency to the governing body by making the changes gradual. This body controls the affairs of the city. It chooses, also, the upper branch of the city government, known as the magistracy, composed of the mayor and the board of aldermen, 32 in number, 15 of whom are salaried, and 17 are honorary members. The term of the mayor is twelve years; the salary about $7,500. It is regarded as a position of high honor. The salaried aldermen are elected for twelve years by the municipal assembly, with special regard to their qualifications. Their salaries are higher than those of the local judges. The custom is to re-elect good men. The term of the unpaid aldermen is six years, and they are usually chosen from men who have distinguished themselves for efficient public service. Voters who elect the municipal assembly are divided into three classes, as stated in the text. The result is that a majority of the assembly is chosen by a minority of the voters. The next feature, so far as our observation goes, is almost wholly unknown in this country. These two chambers are supplemented in Berlin by a body of 70 citizen deputies, selected by the municipal assembly from leading citizens, to serve in joint committees for the administration of special affairs, such as the relief of the poor, schools, &c. At the meetings of these committees an alderman acts as chairman. Under this executive staff of 230 members, all honorary officials and men of independent means, there is a large staff of paid officials, appointed for life, as is the rule in the German civil service. The police is administered by the State instead of the city, the force consisting of about 3,000 men. The expense (about $400,000 a year) is borne by the city. The streets of Berlin are now taken care of by the city instead of the State, which up to 1874 had the maintenance. The revenue of the city, so far as raised by taxation, comprises an annual income tax of three per cent on all incomes above a certain amount; house rent and tax, divided between landlord and tenant; and various minor special taxes. The net debt of the city is about four millions, a decrease of nearly two millions since 1876. This is a striking contrast to New York, whose debt is over one hundred millions. 1 Sir James Mackintosh, History of England, Vol. I. p. 30. boroughs were dependent upon the uncertain protection of the king or lord, to whom they owed rents or service, and were liable to discretionary, that is, arbitrary rates or talliages. They were not incorporated, and did not constitute bodies politic; and being composed mainly of tradesmen and the lower classes, were regarded by their feudal masters as possessed of no political and of but few civil rights. None of them enjoyed the right of representation in the council of the nation, and, with the exception perhaps of London and a few of the greater towns, did not have the right of internal or selfgovernment. Sometime between 1100 and 1125 Henry I. granted to London the original charter, in which were conferred many valuable municipal privileges, with the right, among others, to choose certain of their own officers, such as sheriff, justice, and the like.1 But the right of local self-government was not, in general, conferred upon towns and boroughs until the time of John, who reigned from 1199 to 1216.2 Meantime the towns and cities continued to grow in population and wealth, and as these increased, their disposition to submit to arbitrary exactions proportionately diminished, and their independent spirit and desire for freedom from oppressive restraints became more manifest; but still they did not acquire sufficient influence or importance to be allowed a representation in the states of the kingdom for more than two centuries after the Conquest. It was not until the time of Edward I. that cities and boroughs, then mostly incorporated, obtained the right of returning members to parliament. The legislative power of the kingdom was at this time vested in the king and the council, afterwards called the parliament. This council was constituted of the spiritual and lay peerage. The commonalty of England had no voice or part in the legislature. This wise and politic prince was greatly distressed for money, and instead of attempting to raise it by the levy of arbitrary taxes, 1 This famous charter has no date. Its substance is given in Norton's Commentaries on the History, Constitution, and Chartered Franchises of the City of London; and its various provisions explained and commented on. Book II. chap. ii. p. 337. In the latter clause of this charter is an allusion to the very ancient custom of foreign attachment, in which is to be found the germ of all our foreign attachment laws. Pulling, Laws, etc., of London, 188; Hallam, Middle Ages, Vol. III. ch. viii. Part III. Mr. Norton gives the substance of all the charters of London from the time of William the Conqueror to the present. 2 Hallam, Middle Ages, Vol. III. chap. viii. Stephen thus describes the municipal institutions of England in the time of John: "The principal liberties granted in the early charters are exclusive jurisdiction, a merchant guild, the appointment of the various officers for the administration of justice, fairs and markets, with freedom from all tolls; in fact all of the privileges granted by the borough charters were of a local character in every respect." 1 English Constitution, chap. iii. p. 62. "It is clear that at Runimede no representatives of cities or boroughs were present." 1 Stephen, English Constitution, chap. iii. p. 71. 3 which were submitted to with murmurs and yielded sparingly, preferred to obtain it by the prior voluntary consent of the cities, towns, and boroughs. Accordingly he caused writs to be issued to about one hundred and twenty cities and boroughs, enjoining them to send to parliament, along with the two knights of the shire, two deputies from each borough within their county, with authority from their respective communities to consent to what the king and his council should require of them. As the experiment proved successful, more money being obtained, and with less trouble, than in the former way, the practice was continued. And this, according to the best opinions of learned and careful inquirers,2 is the definite commencement of popular representation, and of the House of Commons itself, the latter constituting, as Macaulay well observes, "the archetype of all the representative assemblies which now meet, either in the old or new world." 3 The political powers thus acquired by boroughs and cities gave them political importance. This power was courted and controlled by the crown. The king's judges decided that no corporation was valid without the sanction of the king, and most of the corporations from time to time applied to the crown for a grant or confirmation of privileges. Their dependence upon the crown was thus established, and the crown, as a check upon the nobles, encouraged popular elections by the whole corporate assembly. "In words that well became the noble King of a free people he acknowledged that what touched all should be approved by all."" Prof. Hearn, Government of England, chap. xv. sec. iii. p. 423. 2 Hallam, Middle Ages, Vol. III. chap. viii.; 1 Stephen, Eng. Const. chap. iii. p. 95 et seq.; Hearn, Government of England, pp. 428, 480, 539; Hume, England, Vol. I. App. II.; Dr. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book 3, ch. iii., whose account of the condition of the towns and boroughs at this period, and the decay of the power of the lords and the growth of the power of the inhabitants of the cities is, though brief, perspicuous and satisfactory. Norton, Com. Lond. 109. A distinctive feature of boroughs, in England, is the right of the borough to elect members of parliament. There the term "borough" includes cities as well as villages, but in the United States the term "borough" is not in very general use, and, when used, designates an incorporated VOL. I. - 2 In the course of time village or town, but not a city. American Cyclopædia, title, Borough. 8 History England, Vol. I. chap. i.; "The Crown! it is the House of Commons!" said an English statesman in 1858; and the recent history of Great Britain, in several memorable instances, shows that against the declared and positive determination of the commons neither the crown nor the lords, in any struggle relating to popular rights, can make effectual resist ance. In the United States all departments of the government ultimately respond, of course, to the public will, which is here the real sovereign power, and elects at short periods the executive and legislative branches. 4 An English municipal corporation, as will be explained hereafter, consisted usually of one or more select or definite bodies, and an indefinite body, the latter being generally composed of the burgesses or citizens, that is, the inhabitant householders; and a corporate assembly was a meeting of all the bodies, and not of the |