in England) with the conduct of rural local business, though often required to deal with the applications which Towns make to be divided or have their boundaries altered, and which are frequently resisted by a part of the inhabitants.

The system which prevails in the southern States need not long detain us, for it is less instructive and has proved less successful. Here the unit is the county, except in Louisiana, where the equivalent division is called a parish. The county was originally a judicial division, established for the purposes of local courts, and a financial one, for the collection of State taxes. It has now, however, generally received some other functions, such as the superintendence of public schools, the care of the poor, and the management of roads. In the South counties are larger than in New England, but not more populous, for the country is thinly peopled. The county officers, whose titles and powers vary somewhat in different States, are usually the Board or Court of county commissioners, an assessor (who prepares the valuation), a collector (who gathers the taxes), a treasurer, a superintendent of education, an overseer of roads all of course salaried, and now, as a rule, elected by the people, mostly for one or two years. These county officers have, besides the functions indicated by their names, the charge of the police and the poor of the county, and of the construction of public works, such as bridges and prisons. The county judges and the sheriff, and frequently the coroner, are also chosen by the people. The sheriff is everywhere in America neither an ornamental person, as he has become in England, nor a judge, with certain executive functions, as in Scotland, but the chief executive officer of the judicial machinery of the county.

In these southern States there exist various local divisions smaller than the counties. Their names and their attributions

1 Georgia, with 59,475 square miles, has 137 counties; Alabama, with 52,250 square miles, has 66. Speaking generally, the newer States have the larger counties, just as in England the smallest parishes are in the first settled parts of England, or rather in those parts where population was comparatively dense at the time when parishes sprang up.

? Sometimes, as in Louisiana, the sheriff is also tax collector.

In some States some of these officials are nominated by the governor. In Florida the governor appoints even the board of five county commissioners. Constit. of 1886, Art. viii. § 5. The other county officers, viz. clerk of circuit court, sheriff, constables, assessor of taxes, tax-collector, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, and surveyor, are elected by the people for two or four years (§ 6).

In South Carolina the parish was originally a pretty strong local unit, but

vary from State to State, but they have no legislative authority like that of the Town meeting of New England, and their officers have very limited powers, being for most purposes controlled by the county authorities. The most important local body is the school committee for each school district. In several States, such as Virginia and North Carolina, we now find townships, and the present tendency seems in these States to be towards the development of something resembling the New England Town. It is a tendency which grows with the growth of population, with the progress of manufactures and of the middle and industrious working class occupied therein, and especially with the increased desire for education. The school, some one truly says, is becoming the nucleus of local self-government in the South now, as the church was in New England two centuries. ago. Nowhere, however, has there appeared a primary assembly; while the representative local assembly is still in its infancy. Local authorities in the South, and in the States which, like Nevada and Oregon, may be said to have adopted the county system, are generally executive officers and nothing more.

The third type is less easy to characterize than either of the two preceding, and the forms under which it appears in the middle and north-western States are even more various than those referable to the second type. Two features mark it. One is the importance and power of the county, which in the history of most of these States appears before any smaller division; the other is the activity of the township, which has more independence and a larger range of competence than under the system of the South. Now of these two features the former is the more conspicuous in one group of States-Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa; the latter in another groupMichigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the reason being that the New Englanders, who were often the largest and always the most intelligent and energetic element among the settlers in the more northern of these two State groups, carried with them their attachment to the Town system and their sense of its value, and succeeded, though sometimes not without a struggle, in establishing it in the four great and prosperous commonwealths which

it withered away as the county grew under the influence of the plantation system. The word "parish" is in America now practically equivalent to "congregation," and does not denote a local area.

1 Virginia has moved in this direction. See the interesting Treatise (published in August 1889) of Mr. George E. Howard, on the Local Constitutional History of the United States.

form that group. On the other hand, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York had not (from the causes already stated) started with the Town system, they never adopted it completely; while in Ohio and Indiana the influx of settlers from the Slavo States, as well as from New York and Pennsylvania, gave to the county an early preponderance, which it has since retained. The conflict of the New England element with the Southern element is best seen in Illinois, the northern half of which State was settled by men of New England blood, the southern half by pioneers from Kentucky and Tennessee. The latter, coming first, established the county system, but the New Englanders fought against it, and in the constitutional convention of 1848. carried a provision, embodied in the constitution of that year, and repeated in the present constitution of 1870, whereby any county may adopt a system of township organization "whenever the majority of the legal voters of the county voting at any general election shall so determine."1 Under this power fourfifths of the 102 counties have now adopted the township system. 2

Illinois furnishes so good a sample of that system in its newer form that I cannot do better than extract, from a clear and trustworthy writer, the following account of the whole scheme. of local self-government in that State, which is fairly typical of the North-west :

"When the people of a county have voted to adopt the township system, the commissioners proceed to divide the county into towns, making them conform with the congressional or school townships, except in special cases. Every town is invested with corporate capacity to be a party in legal suits, to own and control property, and to make contracts. The annual town meeting of the whole voting population, held on the first Tuesday in April, for the election of town officers and the transaction of miscellaneous business, is the central fact in the town government. The following is a summary of what the people may do in town meeting. They may make any orders concerning the acquisition, use, or sale of town property; direct officers in the exercise of their duties; vote taxes for roads and bridges, and for other lawful purposes;

1 See Constitution of 1870, Art. x. § 5, where a provision is added that any county desiring to forsake township organization may do so by a vote of the electors in the county, in which case it comes under the county system prescribed in the following sections of that article.

2 Illinois has 102 counties, with an average population, in 1880, of 30,000; Iqwa 99 counties, with an average population, in 1880, of 16,500. England (excluding Wales) has 40 counties, with an average population, in 1881, of 615,000.

vote to institute or defend suits at law; legislate on the subject of noxious weeds, and offer rewards to encourage the extermination of noxious plants and vermin; regulate the running at large of cattle and other animals; establish pounds, and provide for the impounding and sale of stray and trespassing animals; provide public wells and watering-places; enact bye-laws and rules to carry their powers into effect; impose fines and penalties, and apply such fines in any manner conducive to the interests of the town.1

"The town officers are a supervisor, who is ex officio overseer of the poor, a clerk, an assessor, and a collector, all of whom are chosen annually; three commissioners of highways elected for three years, one retiring every year; and two justices of the peace and two constables, who hold office for four years.

"On the morning appointed for the town mecting the voters assemble, and proceed to choose a moderator, who presides for the day. Balloting for town officers at once begins, the supervisor, collector, and assessor acting as election judges. Every male citizen of the United States who is twenty-one years old, who has resided in the State a year, in the county ninety days, and in the township thirty days, is entitled to vote at town meeting; but a year's residence in the town is required for eligibility to office. At two o'clock the moderator calls the meeting to order for the consideration of business pertaining to those subjects already enumerated. Everything is done by the usual rules and methods of parliamentary bodies. The clerk of the town is secretary of the meeting, and preserves a record of all the proceedings. Special town meetings may be held whenever the supervisor, clerk, or justices, or any two of them, together with fifteen voters, shall have filed with the clerk a statement that a meeting is necessary, for objects which they specify. The clerk then gives public notice in a prescribed way. Such special meetings act only upon the subjects named in the call.

He is general

'The supervisor is both a town and a county officer. manager of town business, and is also a member of the county board, which is composed of the supervisors of the several towns, and which has general control of the county business. As a town officer, he receives and pays out all town money, excepting the highway and school funds. His financial report is presented by the clerk at town meeting. The latter officer is the custodian of the town's records, books, and papers. The highway commissioners, in their oversight of roads and bridges, are controlled by a large body of statute law, and by the enactments of the town meeting. Highways are maintained by taxes levied on real and personal property, and by a poll-tax of two dollars, exacted from every able-bodied citizen between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. It may be paid in money or in labour under the direction of the commissioners. One of the commissioners is constituted treasurer, and he receives and pays out all road moneys.

"The supervisor acts as overseer of the poor. The law leaves it to be de

1 There are English analogies to all these powers, but in England some of them are or were exercised in the Manor court and not in the Vestry.

VOL. I

2 P

termined by the people of a county whether the separate towns or the county at large shall assume the care of paupers. When the town has the matter in charge, the overseer generally provides for the indigent by a system of outdoor relief. If the county supports the poor, the county board is authorized to establish a poor-house and farm for the permanent care of the destitute, and temporary relief is afforded by the overseers in their respective towns, at the county's expense.

"The board of town auditors, composed of the supervisor, the clerk, and the justices, examine all accounts of the supervisor, overseer of poor, and highway commissioners; pass upon all claims and charges against the town, and audit all bills for compensation presented by town officers. The accounts thus audited are kept on file by the clerk for public inspection, and are reported at the next town meeting. The supervisor, assessor, and clerk constitute a Board of Health. The clerk records their doings, and reports them at the meetings of the town.

'No stated salaries are paid to town officers. They are compensated according to a schedule of fixed fees for specific services, or else receive certain per diem wages for time actually employed in official, duties. The taxcollector's emolument is a percentage.

"For school purposes, the township is made a separate and distinct cor. poration, with the legal style, Trustees of Schools of Township Range,' according to the number by which the township is designated in the Congressional Survey. The school trustees, three in number, are usually elected with the officers of the civil township at town meetings, and hold office for three years. They organize by choosing one of their number president, and by selecting some fourth person for school treasurer, who shall also be, ex officio, their secretary. They have authority to divide the township into school districts. It must be remembered that the township is exactly six miles square. It is the custom to divide it into nine districts, two miles square, and to erect a schoolhouse near the centre of each. As the county roads are, in most instances, constructed on the section lines-and therefore run north and south, east and west, at intervals of a mile-the traveller expects to find a schoolhouse at every alternate crossing. The people who live in these sub-districts elect three school directors, who control the school in their neighbourhood. They are obliged to maintain a free school for not less than five nor more than nine months in every year, are empowered to build and furnish schoolhouses, hire teachers and fix their salaries, and determine what studies shall be taught. They may levy taxes on all the taxable property in their district, but are forbidden to exceed a rate of two per cent for educational or three per cent for building purposes. They certify to the township school treasurer the amount they require, and it is collected as hereafter described. This last-named officer holds all school funds belonging to the township, and pays out on the order of the directors of the several districts.

"The township funds for the support of schools arise from three sources. (1) The proceeds of the school lands given by the United States Government,