ry tribunals. If, for instance, a township
refuses to make the necessary expenditure for its schools or to name
a school-committee, it is liable to a heavy fine. But this penalty is
pronounced by the Supreme Judicial Court or the Court of Common Pleas.
See Act of March 10, 1827, Laws of Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 190. Or
when a township neglects to provide the necessary war-stores.--Act of
February 21, 1822: Id., vol. ii. p. 570.]

[Footnote t: In their individual capacity the justices of the peace
take a part in the business of the counties and townships.] [Footnote u:
These affairs may be brought under the following heads:--1. The erection
of prisons and courts of justice. 2. The county budget, which is
afterwards voted by the State. 3. The distribution of the taxes so
voted. 4. Grants of certain patents. 5. The laying down and repairs of
the country roads.]

[Footnote v: Thus, when a road is under consideration, almost all
difficulties are disposed of by the aid of the jury.]

The first difficulty is to procure the obedience of an authority as
entirely independent of the general laws of the State as the
township is. We have stated that assessors are annually named by the
town-meetings to levy the taxes. If a township attempts to evade the
payment of the taxes by neglecting to name its assessors, the Court of
Sessions condemns it to a heavy penalty. *w The fine is levied on each
of the inhabitants; and the sheriff of the county, who is the officer of
justice, executes the mandate. Thus it is that in the United States the
authority of the Government is mysteriously concealed under the forms of
a judicial sentence; and its influence is at the same time fortified by
that irresistible power with which men have invested the formalities of
law.

[Footnote w: See Act of February 20, 1786, Laws of Massachusetts, vol.
i. p. 217.]

These proceedings are easy to follow and to understand. The demands
made upon a township are in general plain and accurately defined; they
consist in a simple fact without any complication, or in a principle
without its application in detail. *x But the difficulty increases when
it is not the obedience of the township, but that of the town officers
which is to be enforced. All the reprehensible actions of which a public
functionary may be guilty are reducible to the following heads:

[Footnote x: There is an indirect method of enforcing the obedience of
a township. Suppose that the funds whic