eculiar
dispositions relating to divers town-officers, such as Township's Clerk,
Trustees, Overseers of the Poor, Fence Viewers, Appraisers of Property,
Township's Treasurer, Constables, Supervisors of Highways.]

We have seen that in Massachusetts the mainspring of public
administration lies in the township. It forms the common centre of the
interests and affections of the citizens. But this ceases to be the case
as we descend to States in which knowledge is less generally diffused,
and where the township consequently offers fewer guarantees of a wise
and active administration. As we leave New England, therefore, we find
that the importance of the town is gradually transferred to the county,
which becomes the centre of administration, and the intermediate power
between the Government and the citizen. In Massachusetts the business of
the county is conducted by the Court of Sessions, which is composed of
a quorum named by the Governor and his council; but the county has no
representative assembly, and its expenditure is voted by the national
legislature. In the great State of New York, on the contrary, and in
those of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the inhabitants of each county choose
a certain number of representatives, who constitute the assembly of the
county. *g The county assembly has the right of taxing the inhabitants
to a certain extent; and in this respect it enjoys the privileges of a
real legislative body: at the same time it exercises an executive power
in the county, frequently directs the administration of the townships,
and restricts their authority within much narrower bounds than in
Massachusetts.

[Footnote g: See the Revised Statutes of the State of New York, part i.
chap. xi. vol. i. p. 340. Id. chap. xii. p. 366; also in the Acts of
the State of Ohio, an act relating to county commissioners, February 25,
1824, p. 263. See the Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, at the words
County-rates and Levies, p. 170. In the State of New York each township
elects a representative, who has a share in the administration of the
county as well as in that of the township.]

Such are the principal differences which the systems of county and town
administration present in the Federal States. Were it my intention to
examine the provisions of American law minutely, I should have to point
out still further differences in the executive details of the several
communities. But what I have already said may suffice to show the
gen