rever found, is primarily a
judicial district. The chief officer for executing the decrees of the
county judiciary is the sheriff. Other county officers are the
treasurer, assessor, etc.

_#Local Government in the West.#_--Here, as before stated, we find the New
England and the Southern systems combined, but combined in different
States in such various degrees as to make impracticable any attempt to
describe them more particularly.[1] In consequence of the grants of land
by the Federal Government to Western States for education, local areas
for the administration of these funds have been formed. These are called
school districts. Local government has tended to center around these
districts, and they have in many cases become important administrative
districts. Their boundaries coincide with the boundaries of the
townships and counties, though a number of school districts may be in
one county or township.

[Footnote 1: More detailed accounts of the various systems of Local
Government in the United States may be found in the early numbers of the
_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, and also in Professor George E.
Howard's _Local Constitutional History_, an extra volume in the same
series.]

CHAPTER XVI.

City Government.

The proportion of people in the United States who reside in cities is
increasing. In 1790 there were only thirteen cities of 5,000 inhabitants
and none with 40,000. Now there are over 500 that have a population
exceeding 5,000 and 28 with a population of 100,000. In 1790 33 per
cent. of the total population lived in cities of over 8,000 inhabitants,
while to-day over 25 per cent live in cities of this size or over.

When any small area becomes thickly and permanently settled, and a
certain population is reached (which varies in different States), the
state legislature is appealed to, and a charter of incorporation as a
city is granted. This enables the incorporated district to act
independently of the county or township, to levy municipal taxes and
carry out public improvements. Rapid as has been the growth of cities,
the duties required of city governments have increased still faster.

The government of our large cities has become a question of vital
importance. It would be difficult to give a complete list of the duties
devolving upon them. The principal duties are (1) the collection of
municipal and state taxes, (2) the establishment and care of public
schools, (3) the administration of