Chapter 10 THE COUNTY. No.10

Section 1. The County in its Beginnings.

It is now time for us to treat of the county, and we may as well begin by considering its origin. In treating of the township we began by sketching it in its fullest development, as seen in New England. With. the county we shall find it helpful to pursue a different method and start at the beginning.

If we look at the maps of the states which make up our Union, we see that they are all divided into counties (except that in Louisiana the corresponding divisions are named parishes). The map of England shows that country as similarly divided into counties.

[Sidenote: Why do we have counties?] If we ask why this is so, some people will tell us that it is convenient, for purposes of administration, to have a state, or a kingdom, divided into areas that are larger than single towns. There is much truth in this. It is convenient. If it were not so, counties would not have survived, so as to make a part of our modern maps. Nevertheless, this is not the historic reason why we have the particular kind of subdivisions known as counties. We have them because our fathers and grandfathers had them; and thus, if we would find out the true reason, we may as well go back to the ancient times when our forefathers were establishing themselves in England.

[Sidenote: Clans and tribes.] We have seen how the clan of our barbarous ancestors, when it became stationary, was established as the town or township. But in those early times clans were generally united more or less closely into tribes. Among all primitive or barbarous races of men, so far as we can make out, society is organized in tribes, and each tribe is made up of a number of clans or family groups. Now when our English forefathers conquered Britain they settled there as clans and also as tribes. The clans became townships, and the tribes became shires or counties; that is to say, the names were applied first to the people and afterwards to the land they occupied. A few of the oldest county names in England still show this plainly. Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex were originally "East Saxons," "Middle Saxons," and "South Saxons;" and on the eastern coast two tribes of Angles were distinguished as "North folk" and "South folk," or Norfolk and Suffolk. When you look on the map and see the town of Icklinghiam in the county of Suffolk, it means that this place was once known as the "home" of the "Icklings" or "children of Ickel," a clan which formed part of the tribe of "South folk."

[Sidenote: The English nation, like the American, grew out of the union of small states.] In those days there was no such thing as a Kingdom of England; there were only these groups of tribes living side by side. Each tribe had its leader, whose title was ealdorman or "elder man." [1] After a while, as some tribes increased in size and power, their ealdormen took the title of kings. The little kingdoms coincided sometimes with a single shire, sometimes with two or more shires. Thus there was a kingdom of Kent, and the North and South Folk were combined in a kingdom of East Anglia. In course of time numbers of shires combined into larger kingdoms, such as Northumbria, Mercia, and the West Saxons; and finally the king of the West Saxons became king of all England, and the several shires became subordinate parts or "shares" of the kingdom. In England, therefore, the shires are older than the nation. The shires were not made by dividing the nation, but the nation was made by uniting the shires. The English nation, like the American, grew out of the union of little states that had once been independent of one another, but had many interests in common. For not less than three hundred years after all England had been united under one king, these shires retained their self-government almost as completely as the several states of the American Union.[2] A few words about their government will not be wasted, for they will help to throw light upon some things that still form a part of our political and social life.

[Footnote 1: The pronunciation, was probably something like yáwl-dor-man.]

[Footnote 2: Chalmers, Local Government, p. 90.]

[Sidenote: Shire-mote, ealdorman, and sheriff.] The shire was governed by the shire-mote (i.e. "meeting"), which was a representative body. Lords of lands, including abbots and priors, attended it, as well as the reeve and four selected men from each township. There were thus the germs of both the kind of representation that is seen in the House of Lords and the much more perfect kind that is seen in the House of Commons. After a while, as cities and boroughs grew in importance, they sent representative burghers to the shire-mote. There were two presiding officers; one was the ealdorman, who was now appointed by the king; the other was the shire-reeve (i.e. "sheriff"), who was still elected by the people and generally held office for life.

[Sidenote: The county court.] This shire-mote was both a legislative body and a court of justice. It not only made laws for the shire, but it tried civil and criminal causes. After the Norman Conquest some changes occurred. The shire now began to be called by the French name "county," because of its analogy to the small pieces of territory on the Continent that were governed by "counts." [3] The shire-mote became known as the county court, but cases coming before it were tried by the king's justices in eyre, or circuit judges, who went about from county to county to preside over the judicial work. The office of ealdorman became extinct. The sheriff was no longer elected by the people for life, but appointed by the king for the term of one year. This kept him strictly responsible to the king. It was the sheriff's duty to see that the county's share of the national taxes was duly collected and paid over to the national treasury. The sheriff also summoned juries and enforced the judgments of the courts, and if he met with resistance in so doing he was authorized to call out a force of men, known as the posse comitatus (i.e. power of the county), and overcome all opposition. Another county officer was the coroner, or crowner_,[4] so called because originally (in Alfred's time) he was appointed by the king, and was especially the crown officer in the county. Since the time of Edward I., however, coroners have been elected by the people. Originally coroners held small courts of inquiry upon cases of wreckage, destructive fires, or sudden death, but in course of time their jurisdiction became confined to the last-named class of cases. If a death occurred under circumstances in any way mysterious or likely to awaken suspicion, it was the business of the coroner, assisted by not less than twelve jurors (i. e, "sworn men"), to hold an inquest for the purpose of ascertaining the cause of death. The coroner could compel the attendance of witnesses and order a medical examination of the body, and if there were sufficient evidence to charge any person with murder or manslaughter, the coroner could have such person arrested and committed for trial.

[Footnote 3: Originally comites, or "companions" of the king.] [Footnote 4: This form of the word, sometimes supposed to be a vulgarism, is as correct as the other. See Skeat, Etym. Dict., s.v.]

[Sidenote: Justices of the peace.] [Sidenote: The Quarter sessions.] [Sidenote: The lord-lieutenant.] Another important county officer was the justice of the peace. Originally six were appointed by the crown in each county, but in later times any number might be appointed. The office was created by a series of statutes in the reign of Edward III., in order to put a stop to the brigandage which still flourished in England; it was a common practice for robbers to seize persons and hold them for ransom.[5] By the last of these statutes, in 1362, the justices of the peace in each county were to hold a court four times in the year. The powers of this court, which came to be known as the Quarter Sessions, were from time to time increased by act of parliament, until it quite supplanted the old county court. In modern times the Quarter Sessions has become an administrative body quite as much as a court. The justices, who receive no salary, hold office for life, or during good behaviour. They appoint the chief constable of the county, who appoints the police. They also take part in the supervision of highways and bridges, asylums and prisons. Since the reign of Henry VIII., the English county has had an officer known as the lord-lieutenant, who was once leader of the county militia, but whose functions to-day are those of keeper of the records and principal justice of the peace.

[Footnote 5: Longman's Life and Times of Edward III., vol. i. p. 301.]

[Sidenote: Beginnings of Massachusetts counties.] During the past five hundred years the English county has gradually sunk from a self-governing community into an administrative district; and in recent times its boundaries have been so crossed and crisscrossed with those of other administrative areas, such as those of school-boards, sanitary boards, etc., that very little of the old county is left in recognizable shape. Most of this change has been effected since the Tudor period. The first English settlers in America were familiar with the county as a district for the administration of justice, and they brought with them coroners, sheriffs, and quarter sessions. In 1635 the General Court of Massachusetts appointed four towns-Boston, Cambridge, Salem, and Ipswich-as places where courts should be held quarterly. In 1643 the colony, which then included as much of New Hampshire as was settled, was divided into four "shires,"-Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk, the latter lying then to the northward and including the New Hampshire towns. The militia was then organized, perhaps without consciousness of the analogy, after a very old English fashion; the militia of each town formed a company, and the companies of the shire formed a regiment. The county was organized from the beginning as a judicial district, with its court-house, jail, and sheriff. After 1697 the court, held by the justices of the peace, was called the Court of General Sessions. It could try criminal causes not involving the penalty of death or banishment, and civil causes in which the value at stake was less than forty shillings. It also had control over highways going from town to town; and it apportioned the county taxes among the several towns.

The justices and sheriff were appointed by the governor, as in England by the king.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. Why do we have counties in the United States? Contrast the popular reason with the historic.

2. What relation did the tribe hold to the clan among our ancestors?

3. In time what did the clans and the tribes severally become?

4. Show how old county names in England throw light on the county development.

5. Trace the growth of the English nation in accordance with the following outline:- a. Each tribe and its leader, b. A powerful tribe and its leader. c. The relation of a little kingdom to the shire. d. The final union under one king. e. The relative ages of the shire and the nation.

6. Give an account (1) of the shire-mote, (2) of the two kinds of representation in it, (3) of its presiding officers, and (4) of its two kinds of duties.

7. Let the pupil make written analyses or outlines of the following

topics, to be used by him in presenting the topics

orally, or to be passed in to the teacher:-

a. What changes took place in the government of the shire

after the Norman Conquest?

b. Trace the development of the coroner's office.

c. Give an account of the justices of the peace and the courts

held by them.

d. Show what applications the English settlers in Massachusetts made of

their knowledge of the English county.

Section 2. The Modern County in Massachusetts.

The modern county system of Massachusetts may now be very briefly described. The county, like the town, is a corporation; it can hold property and sue or be sued. It builds the court-house and jail, and keeps them in repair. The town in which these buildings are placed is called, as in England, the shire town.

[Sidenote: County commissioners.] In each county there are three commissioners, elected by the people. Their term of service is three years, and one goes out each year. These commissioners represent the county in law-suits, as the selectmen represent the town. They "apportion the county taxes among the towns;" "lay out, alter, and discontinue highways within the county;" "have charge of houses of correction;" and erect and keep in repair the county buildings.[6]

[Footnote 6: Martin's Civil Government, p. 197.]

[Sidenote: County treasurer.] The revenues of the county are derived partly from taxation and partly from the payment of fines and costs in the courts. These revenues are received and disbursed by the county treasurer, who is elected by the people for a term of three years.

[Sidenote: Courts.] The Superior Court of the state holds at least two sessions annually in each county, and tries civil and criminal causes. There is also in each county a probate court with jurisdiction over all matters relating to wills, administration of estates, and appointment of guardians; it also acts as a court of insolvency. The custody of wills and documents relating to the business of this court is in the hands of an officer known as the register of probate, who is elected by the people for a term of five years.

[Sidenote: Shire town and court-house.] To preserve the records of all land-titles and transfers of land within the county, all deeds and mortgages are registered in an office in the shire town, usually within or attached to the court The register of deeds is an officer elected by the people for a term of three years. In counties where there is much business there may be more than one.

[Sidenote: Justices of the peace.] Justices of the peace are appointed by the governor for a term of seven years, and the appointment may be renewed. Their functions have been greatly curtailed, and now amount to little more than administering oaths, and in some cases issuing warrants and taking bail. They may join persons in marriage, and, when specially commissioned as "trial justices," have criminal jurisdiction over sundry petty offences.

[Sidenote: The Sheriff.] The sheriff is elected by the people for a term of three years. He may appoint deputies, for whom he is responsible, to assist him in his work. He must attend all county courts, and the meetings of the county commissioners whenever required. He must inflict, either personally or by deputy, the sentence of the court, whether it be fine, imprisonment, or death. He is responsible for the preservation of the peace within the county, and to this end must pursue criminals and may arrest disorderly persons. If he meets with resistance he may call out the posse comitatus; if the resistance grows into insurrection he may apply to the governor and obtain the aid of the state militia; if the insurrection proves too formidable to be thus dealt with, the governor may in his behalf apply to the president of the United States for aid from the regular army. In this way the force that may be drawn upon, if necessary, for the suppression of disorder in a single locality, is practically unlimited and irresistible.

We have now obtained a clear outline view of the township and county in themselves and in their relation to one another, with an occasional glimpse of their relation to the state; in so far, at least, as such a view can be gained from a reference to the history of England and of Massachusetts. We must next trace the development of local government in other parts of the United States; and in doing so we can advance at somewhat quicker pace, not because our subject becomes in any wise less important or less interesting, but because we have already marked out the ground and said things of general application which will not need to be said over again.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

Give an account of the modern county in Massachusetts under the following heads:-

1. The county a corporation. 2. The county commissioners and their duties. 3. The county treasurer and his duties. 4. The courts held in a county. 5. The shire town and the court-house. 6. The register of deeds and his duties. 7. Justices of the peace and trial justices. 8. The sheriff and his duties. 9. The force at the sheriff's disposal to suppress disorder.

Section 3. The Old Virginia County.

By common consent of historians, the two most distinctive and most characteristic lines of development which English forms of government have followed, in propagating themselves throughout the United States, are the two lines that have led through New England on the one hand and through Virginia on the other. We have seen what shape local government assumed in New England; let us now observe what shape it assumed in the Old Dominion.

[Sidenote: Virginia sparsely settled.] The first point to be noticed in the early settlement of Virginia is that people did not live so near together as in New England. This was because tobacco, cultivated on large estates, was a source of wealth. Tobacco drew settlers to Virginia as in later days gold drew settlers to California and sparsely Australia. They came not in organized groups or congregations, but as a multitude of individuals. Land was granted to individuals, and sometimes these grants were of enormous extent. John Bolling, who died in 1757, left an estate of 40,000 acres, and this is not mentioned as an extraordinary amount of land for one man to own.[7] From an early period it was customary to keep these great estates together by entailing them, and this continued until entails were abolished in 1776 through the influence of Thomas Jefferson.

[Footnote 7: Edward Channing, "Town and County Government," in Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. ii. p. 467.]

[Sidenote: Absence of towns.] A glance at the map of Virginia shows to what a remarkable degree it is intersected by navigable rivers. This fact made it possible for plantations, even at a long distance from the coast, to have each its own private wharf, where a ship from England could unload its cargo of tools, cloth, or furniture, and receive a cargo of tobacco in return. As the planters were thus supplied with most of the necessaries of life, there was no occasion for the kind of trade that builds up towns. Even in comparatively recent times the development of town life in Virginia has been very slow. In 1880, out of 246 cities and towns in the United States with a population exceeding 10,000, there were only six in Virginia.

[Sidenote: Slavery] The cultivation of tobacco upon large estates caused a great demand for cheap labour, and this was supplied partly by bringing negro slaves from Africa, partly by bringing criminals from English jails. The latter were sold into slavery for a limited term of years, and were known as "indentured white servants." So great was the demand for labour that it became customary to kidnap poor friendless wretches on the streets of seaport towns in England and ship them off to Virginia to be sold into servitude. At first these white servants were more numerous than the negroes, but before the end of the seventeenth century the blacks had come to be much the more numerous.

[Sidenote: Social position of settlers.] In this rural community the owners of plantations came from the same classes of society as the settlers of New England; they were for the most part country squires and yeomen. But while in New England there was no lower class or society sharply marked off from the upper, on the other hand in Virginia there was an insurmountable distinction between the owners of plantations and the so-called "mean whites" or "white trash." This class was originally formed of men and women who had been indentured white servants, and was increased by such shiftless people as now and then found their way to the colony, but could not win estates or obtain social recognition. With such a sharp division between classes, an aristocratic type of society was developed in Virginia as naturally as a democratic type was developed in New England.

[Sidenote: Virginia parishes.] [Sidenote: The vestry of a close corporation.] In Virginia there were no town-meetings. The distances between plantations cooperated with the distinction between classes to prevent the growth of such an institution. The English parish, with its churchwardens and vestry and clerk, was reproduced in Virginia under the same name, but with some noteworthy peculiarities. If the whole body of ratepayers had assembled in vestry meeting, to enact by-laws and assess taxes, the course of development would have been like that of the New England town-meeting. But instead of this the vestry, which exercised the chief authority in the parish, was composed of twelve chosen men. This was not government by a primary assembly, it was representative government. At first the twelve vestrymen were elected by the people of the parish, and thus resembled the selectmen of New England; but after a while "they obtained the power of filling vacancies in their own number," so that they became what is called a "close corporation," and the people had nothing to do with choosing them. Strictly speaking, that was not representative government; it was a step on the road that leads towards oligarchical or despotic government.

[Sidenote: Powers of the vestry.] It was the vestry, thus constituted, that apportioned the parish taxes, appointed the churchwardens, presented the minister for induction into office, and acted as overseers of the poor. The minister presided in all vestry meetings. His salary was paid in tobacco, and in 1696 it was fixed by law at 16,000 pounds of tobacco yearly. In many parishes the churchwardens were the collectors of the parish taxes. The other officers, such as the sexton and the parish clerk, were appointed either by the minister or by the vestry.

With the local government thus administered, we see that the larger part of the people had little directly to do. Nevertheless in these small neighbourhoods government was in full sight of the people. Its proceedings went on in broad daylight and were sustained by public sentiment. As Jefferson said, "The vestrymen are usually the most discreet farmers, so distributed through the parish that every part of it may be under the immediate eye of some one of them. They are well acquainted with the details and economy of private life, and they find sufficient inducements to execute their charge well, in their philanthropy, in the approbation of their neighbours, and the distinction which that gives them." [8]

[Footnote 8: See Howard, Local Constitutional History of the United

States, vol. i. p. 122.]

[Sidenote: The county was the unit of representation.] The difference, however, between the New England township and the Virginia parish, in respect of self-government, was striking enough. We have now to note a further difference. In New England, as we have seen, the township was the unit of representation in the colonial legislature; but in Virginia the parish was not the unit of representation. The county was that unit. In the colonial legislature of Virginia the representatives sat not for parishes, but for counties. The difference is very significant. As the political life of New England was in a manner built up out of the political life of the towns, so the political life of Virginia was built up out of the political life of the counties. This was partly because the vast plantations were not grouped about a compact village nucleus like the small farms at the North, and partly because there was not in Virginia that Puritan theory of the church according to which each congregation is a self-governing democracy. The conditions which made the New England town-meeting were absent. The only alternative was some kind of representative government, and for this the county was a small enough area. The county in Virginia was much smaller than in Massachusetts or Connecticut. In a few instances the county consisted of only a single parish; in some cases it was divided into two parishes, but oftener into three or more.

[Sidenote: The county court was virtually a close corporation.] In Virginia, as in England and in New England, the county was an area for the administration of justice. There were usually in each county eight justices of the peace, and their court was the counterpart of the Quarter Sessions in England. They were appointed by the governor, but it was customary for them to nominate candidates for the governor to appoint, so that practically the court filled its own vacancies and was a close corporation, like the parish vestry. Such an arrangement tended to keep the general supervision and control of things in the hands of a few families.

This county court usually met as often as once a month in some convenient spot answering to the shire town of England or New England. More often than not the place originally consisted of the court-house and very little else, and was named accordingly from the name of the county, as Hanover Court House or Fairfax Court House; and the small shire towns that have grown up in such spots often retain these names to the present day. Such names occur commonly in Virginia, West Virginia, and South Carolina, very rarely in Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Ohio, and nowhere else in the United States.[9] Their number has diminished from the tendency to omit the phrase "Court House," leaving the name of the county for that of the shire town, as for example in Culpeper, Va. In New England the process of naming has been just the reverse; as in Hartford County, Conn., or Worcester County, Mass., which have taken their names from the shire towns. In this, as in so many cases, whole chapters of history are wrapped up in geographical names.[10]

[Footnote 9: In Mitchell's Atlas, 1883, the number of cases is in Va. 38, W. Va. 13, S. C. 16, N. C. 2, Ala. 1, Ky. 1, Ohio, 1.]

[Footnote 10: A few of the oldest Virginia counties, organized as such in 1634, had arisen from the spreading and thinning of single settlements originally intended to be cities and named accordingly. Hence the curious names (at first sight unintelligible) of "James City County," and "Charles City County."]

[Sidenote: Powers of the court] The county court in Virginia had jurisdiction in criminal actions not involving peril of life or limb, and in civil suits where the sum at stake exceeded twenty-five shillings. Smaller suits could be tried by a single justice. The court also had charge of the probate and administration of wills. The court appointed its own clerk, who kept the county records. It superintended the construction and repair of bridges and highways, and for this purpose divided the county into "precincts," and appointed annually for each precinct a highway surveyor. The court also seems to have appointed constables, one for each precinct. The justices could themselves act as coroners, but annually two or more coroners for each parish were appointed by the governor. As we have seen that the parish taxes-so much for salaries of minister and clerk, so much for care of church buildings, so much for relief of the poor, etc.-were computed and assessed by the vestry; so the county taxes, for care of court-house and jail, roads and bridges, coroner's fees, and allowances to the representatives sent to the colonial legislature, were computed and assessed by the county court. The general taxes for the colony were estimated by a committee of the legislature, as well as the county's share of the colony tax.

[Sidenote: The sheriff.] The taxes for the county, and sometimes the taxes for the parish also, were collected by the sheriff. They were usually paid, not in money, but in tobacco; and the sheriff was the custodian of this tobacco, responsible for its proper disposal. The sheriff was thus not only the officer for executing the judgments of the court, but he was also county treasurer and collector, and thus exercised powers almost as great as those of the sheriff in England in the twelfth century. He also presided over elections for representatives to the legislature. It is interesting to observe how this very important officer was chosen. "Each year the court presented the names of three of its members to the governor, who appointed one, generally the senior justice, to be the sheriff of the county for the ensuing year." [11] Here again we see this close corporation, the county court, keeping the control of things within its own hands.

[Footnote 11: Edward Channing, op. cit. p. 478.]

[Sidenote: The county lieutenant] One other important county officer needs to be mentioned. We have seen that in early New England each town had its train-band or company of militia, and that the companies in each county united to form the county regiment. In Virginia it was just the other way. Each county raised a certain number of troops, and because it was not convenient for the men to go many miles from home in assembling for purposes of drill, the county was subdivided into military districts, each with its company, according to rules laid down by the governor. The military command in each county was vested in the county lieutenant, an officer answering in many respects to the lord lieutenant of the English shire at that period. Usually he was a member of the governor's council, and as such exercised sundry judicial functions. He bore the honorary title of "colonel," and was to some extent regarded as the governor's deputy; but in later times his duties were confined entirely to military matters.[12]

[Footnote 12: For an excellent account of local government in Virginia before the Revolution, see Howard, Local Const. Hist. of the U.S., vol. i. pp. 388-407; also Edward Ingle in Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, III., ii.-iii.]

If now we sum up the contrasts between local government in Virginia and that in New England, we observe:-

1. That in New England the management of local affairs was mostly in the hands of town officers, the county being superadded for certain purposes, chiefly judicial; while in Virginia the management was chiefly in the hands of county officers, though certain functions, chiefly ecclesiastical, were reserved to the parish.

2. That in New England the local magistrates were almost always, with the exception of justices, chosen by the people; while in Virginia, though some of them were nominally appointed by the governor, yet in practice they generally contrived to appoint themselves-in other words the local boards practically filled their own vacancies and were self-perpetuating.

[Sidenote: Jefferson's opinion of township government.] These differences are striking and profound. There can be no doubt that, as Thomas Jefferson clearly saw, in the long run the interests of political liberty are much safer under the New England system than under the Virginia system. Jefferson said, "Those wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation[13]....As Cato, then, concluded every speech with the words Carthago delenda est, so do I every opinion with the injunction: Divide the counties into wards!" [14]

[Footnote 13: Jefferson's Works, vii. 13.]

[Footnote 14: Id., vi. 544]

[Sidenote: "Court Day."] We must, however, avoid the mistake of making too much of this contrast. As already hinted, in those rural societies where people generally knew one another, its effects were not so far-reaching as they would be in the more complicated society of to-day. Even though Virginia had not the town-meeting, it had its familiar court-day, which was a holiday for all the country-side, especially in the fall and spring. From all directions came in the people on horseback, in wagons, and afoot. On the court-house green assembled, in indiscriminate confusion, people of all classes,-the hunter from the backwoods, the owner of a few acres, the grand proprietor, and the grinning, heedless negro. Old debts were settled, and new ones made; there were auctions, transfers of property, and, if election times were near, stump-speaking.[15]

[Sidenote: Virginia prolific in great leaders.] For seventy years or more before the Declaration of Independence the matters of general public concern, about which stump speeches were made on Virginia court-days, were very similar to those that were discussed in Massachusetts town-meetings when representatives were to be chosen for the legislature. Such questions generally related to some real or alleged encroachment upon popular liberties by the royal governor, who, being appointed and sent from beyond sea, was apt to have ideas and purposes of his own that conflicted with those of the people. This perpetual antagonism to the governor, who represented British imperial interference with American local self-government, was an excellent schooling in political liberty, alike for Virginia and for Massachusetts. When the stress of the Revolution came, these two leading colonies cordially supported each other, and their political characteristics were reflected in the kind of achievements for which each was especially distinguished. The Virginia system, concentrating the administration of local affairs in the hands of a few county families, was eminently favourable for developing skilful and vigorous leadership. And while in the history of Massachusetts during the Revolution we are chiefly impressed with the wonderful degree in which the mass of the people exhibited the kind of political training that nothing in the world except the habit of parliamentary discussion can impart; on the other hand, Virginia at that time gave us-in Washington, Jefferson, Henry, Madison, and Marshall, to mention no others-such a group of consummate leaders as the world has seldom seen equalled.

[Footnote 15: Ingle, loc. cit.]

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. Why was Virginia more sparsely settled than Massachusetts?

2. Why was it that towns were built up more slowly in Virginia than in Massachusetts?

3. How was the great demand for labour in Virginia met?

4. What distinction of classes naturally arose?

5. Contrast the type of society thus developed in Virginia with that

developed in New England.

6. Compare the Virginia parish in its earlier government with the

English parish from which it was naturally copied.

7. Show how the vestry became a close corporation.

8. Who were usually chosen as vestrymen, and what were their powers?

9. Compare Virginia's unit of representation in the colonial legislature with that of Massachusetts, and give the reason for the difference.

10. Describe the county court, showing in particular how it became a close corporation.

11. Bring out some of the history wrapped up in the names of county seats.

12. What were the chief powers of the county court?

13. Describe the assessment of the various taxes.

14. What were the sheriff's duties?

15. Describe the organization and command of the militia in each county.

16. Sum up the differences between local government in Virginia and that in New England (1) as to the management of local affairs and (2) as to the choice of local officers.

17. What did Jefferson think of the principle of township government?

18. What was the equivalent in Virginia of the New England town-meeting?

19. What was the value of this frequent assembling?

20. What schooling in political liberty before the Revolution did Virginia and Massachusetts alike have?

21. What was an impressive feature of the New England system?

22. What was an impressive feature of the Virginia system?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS.

1. How many counties are there in your state?

2. Name and place them if the number is small.

3. In what county do you live?

4. Give its dimensions. Are they satisfactory? Why?

5. Give its boundaries.

6. Is there anything interesting in the meaning or origin of its name?

7. How many towns and cities does it contain?

8. What is the county seat? Is it conveniently situated? Reasons for thinking so?

9. If convenient, visit any county building, note the uses to which it is put, and report such facts as may be thus found out.

10. Obtain a deed, no matter how old, and answer these questions about it:-

a. Is it recorded? If so, where?

b. Would it be easy for you to find

the record?

c. Why should such a record be kept?

d. What officer

has charge of such records?

e. What sort of work must he and his

assistants do?

f. The place of such records is called what?

g. What sort of facilities for the public should such a place have? What

safety precautions should be observed there?

h. Why should the county

keep such records rather than the city or the town?

i. Is there a record of the deed by which the preceding owner came into

possession of the property?

j. What sort of title did the first owner have? Is

there any record of it? Was the first owner Indian or European?

(The teacher might obtain a deed and base a class exercise upon it. It is easy with a deed for a text to lead pupils to see the common-sense basis of an important county institution, and thereafter to give very sensible views as to what it should be, even if it is not fully known what it is.)

11. Is there a local court for your town or city? 12. How do its cases compare in magnitude with those tried at the county seat?

13. If a man steals and is prosecuted, who becomes the plaintiff?

14. If a man owes and is sued for debt, who becomes the plaintiff?

15. What is a criminal action?

16. What is a civil action?

17. What is the result to the defendant in the former case, if he is convicted?

18. What is the result to the defendant in the latter case, if the decision is against him?

19. Is lying a crime or a sin? May it ever become a crime?

20. Are courts of any service to the vast numbers who are never brought before them? Why?

21. May good citizens always keep out of the courts if they choose? Is it their duty always to keep out of them?

22. Is there any aversion among people that you know to being brought before the courts? Why?

23. What is the purpose of a jail? Is this purpose realized in fact?

24. Should a disturbance of a serious nature break out in your town, whose immediate duty would it be to quell it? Suppose this duty should prove too difficult to perform, then what?

25. What is the attitude of good citizenship towards officers who are trying to enforce the laws? What is the attitude of good citizenship if the laws are not satisfactory or if the officers are indiscreet in enforcing them?

26. Suppose a man of property dies and leaves a will, what troubles are possible about the disposal of his property? Suppose he leaves no will, what troubles are possible? Whose duty is it to exercise control over such matters and hold people up to legal and honourable conduct in them?

27. What is an executor? What is an administrator?

28. If parents die, whose duty is it to care for their children? If property is left to such children, are they free to use it as they please? What has the county to do with such cases?

29. How much does your town or city contribute towards county expenses? How does this amount compare with that raised by other towns in the county?

30. Give the organization of your county government.

31. Would it be better for the towns to do themselves the work now done for them by the county?

* * * * *

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

Section 1. THE COUNTY IN ITS BEGINNINGS. This subject is treated in connection with the township in several of the books above mentioned. See especially Howard, Local Const. Hist.

Section 2. THE MODERN COUNTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. There is a good account in Martin's Text Book above mentioned.

Section 3. THE OLD VIRGINIA COUNTY. The best account is in J.H.U. Studies, III., ii.-iii. Edward Ingle, Virginia Local Institutions.

In dealing with the questions on page 69, both teachers and pupils will find Dole's Talks about Law (Boston, 1887) extremely valuable and helpful.