a myriad details. But despite many differences, some of them of no slight importance, all the states offer in their county-systems a sufficiently faithful representation of the nature and form of self-government. The geographical centre of county government is called the county-seat. Here are the court-house and the jail. Every county has its own county court, with a rather limited jurisdiction, very different in the different states. Connected with the court are a sheriff, a coroner, and a prosecuting attorney. The sheriff represents the executive and administrative power of the state. He must preserve the public peace and can summon the inhabitants as a posse comitatus to aid him in doing so. He enforces the judgment of the courts, makes arrests, is responsible for the prisoners, and therefore has charge of the jail. The jailer is generally named by him, and is usually one of the deputies whom he has a right to appoint, either general or special deputies. He has also certain judicial powers, which are fixed by statute and are much more limited than according to the English common law. In most of the states the constitution limits this important officer's eligibility for re-election. The coroner's chief duty is to investigate, with the aid of a coroner's jury, cases of sudden, mysterious or violent death, deaths in prison, etc. The coroner need know nothing of medicine. In Massachusetts the office was abolished in 1877, and the governor was authorized to entrust doctors with the investigation of deaths. At the head of the administration of affairs is a board of county commissioners or supervisors. As a rule they are separate officers, but the boards are sometimes made up of township commissioners or supervisors. The South Carolina constitution makes their powers extend to "roads, highways, ferries, bridges, and in all matters relating to taxes, disbursements of money for county purposes, and in every other case that may be nec

essary to the internal improvement and local concerns of the respective counties." The North Carolina constitution expressly gives them also "a general supervision and control of the penal and charitable institutions, schools," etc. To fulfill these duties, the board can levy and collect taxes and contract debts (in both these respects the constitution or the laws limit their actions), can acquire and dispose of property, can adopt by-laws and pass ordinances and punish any violation of them, can make contracts and bring suits (and, of course, can themselves be sued). Many constitutions expressly forbid counties, townships, etc., to lend their credit to private corporations or to take any direct interest in private enterprises. The cause of this is the misuse which has often been made of such a power. Speculators have taken advantage of the exaggerated ideas of the people about the industrial results of railroad schemes. The chancellor-so to speak of the administration is the county clerk. Where there is no separate recorder or register of deeds, the clerk acts in that capacity. A treasurer has charge of the county funds. Taxes are often levied by separate officials, who are called assessors. The different county officers are not always elected or appointed for the same terms. Where there is a difference in the terms of office, it is especially the sheriff and treasurer who are most frequently chosen.

There is no need of going into detail about the election districts and the already-mentioned school-districts, because these are not organizations with a separate life of their own.

§ 101. TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS. The town-system has worked so well in the New England states that it has been adopted by several of the middle and most of the western states, and has recently begun to find favor in the south. A county is divided into districts of from

four to six miles square, called a town or township, and forming a body corporate.. Its self-government extends to all local affairs, and rests on the broadest democratic basis. Here democratic self-government, as it existed in the city-republics of antiquity, again asserts itself against the representative system. Public affairs are discussed and decided upon in the town meeting, and every inhabitant who has a vote under the state laws is entitled to attend and to vote at the town meeting. In the announcement of a town meeting, all the questions that will be presented for discussion must be clearly set forth, so that everybody may have time to consider and form an opinion. The meetings are usually held in the largest village, or in the one nearest the centre. Populous towns, indeed, have a hall of their own for this purpose, called the town hall. Where there is none such, the church or the school-house usually serves as a meeting place. The meeting is presided over by a chairman, who is called, in the New England states, a moderator. The duties and powers of the town embrace levying and collecting taxes. on the basis of assessments made by the town officials; building and maintaining roads and bridges; police; care of the poor; the school system, under the control of the state school laws; the conduct of all elections, etc. The town officials are generally elected by ballot for one year, but in some states for a longer time. The board of county commissioners finds its parallel in a board of selectmen or trustees. The fact deserves especial mention, that at the close of the year they make a general statement of accounts, and at the same time an estimate of the expenditures of the next year, which serves as a basis for the tax levy. Taxes are levied by a board of assessors, and collected by a "tax-collector." The town finances are managed by a treasurer. The selectmen

are often at the same time assessors and commissioners of the poor. The town clerk often holds also the office of treasurer. The clerk is a very important officer. He not only records the proceedings and conclusions of the town meetings and of the selectmen, but also the birth, marriage and death statistics of the town. School affairs are put in charge of a committee. The officers in charge of the streets are called surveyors or road masters. The police officials are called constables.

§ 102. CITIES. In 1873, a famous and highly respected American said: "It is not only true that we have not created or adopted any municipal system, but it is also true that we have not, except in the past two years, studied the great city problem, much less gained any true conception of the principles and methods best adapted to a great city government. Surely nothing else on

this continent has been so badly managed, or is in a condition at once so dangerous or so disgraceful." Since there is no general American municipal system, it is not possible to sketch in a few lines a correct outline of city government and management. Apart from a few facts of a general nature, the differences are so many and so essential that generalization is barred. I must content myself with a few general remarks, chiefly of a historical character, which may serve to explain and establish the assertion I have quoted. The larger cities are especially to be considered in this matter, partly because it is in them that the evils due to the system, or lack of system, have come most clearly to light, and partly because it is they which make the problem of municipal government a question of the first rank. The germs of the weeds which have sprouted up so exuberantly can also

ID. B. Eaton, Municipal Government, Journal of Social Science, 1873, p. 6.

generally be found in cities of the second and third rank. If the germs have not developed in as startling a way, this is not due to the virtue of the inhabitants. Civic virtue-outside of the mushroom mining and railroad cities of the far west-nowhere rises high above or falls far below the average level. In these smaller cities the evils are less, on account of all kinds of accidental circumstances, and especially because the capacity of development of these germs has a fixed relation to the size of the community.

The war of independence and its general political results did not change the basis of municipal affairs. The cities lived quietly along under their royal charters. It was only in the third decade of the present century that a revolution began. It was not by chance that it coincided in time with the first great aggressive movement of the slave-holders' aristocracy in the battle over Missouri. The growth of the slave-holding power and the radicalization of democracy in the free states kept equal pace. Each was one of the conditions of the other. The farther the radicalization of democracy proceeded, the more the statesman had to make room for the professional politician, able only in the little tricks of party politics, and often a demagogue of the first water. And the more the people changed the leadership of statesmen for the rule of these professional politicians and demagogues, the easier did the slavocracy find it to carry through its demands. It therefore most energetically supported the development of this tendency in the north. The infusion of radical democratic principles into municipal life was the root of all the evils under which the administration of the larger cities sickened more and more, until the condition of New York became entirely too monstrous, and with the overthrow of the city