Countess

“ It, to-day, also has over six hundred members, chosen from different towns and districts of the United Kingdom, by all persons who have the right to vote. Now, before the end of the reign of Henry Il, as I told you, the King had been in the habit of sending officials into each county and town to consult with the chief landowners and citizens, and to discover what amount of taxes that county or city could bear. These people met in the old Saxon court of justice, called the ‘County Court’, to which all free landowners ought to come; and they elected ‘knights’ or gentlemen to speak for them. ”

“ This division of the kingdom into counties, and their subdivisions, is generally ascribed to king Alfred. That the division of hundreds into tithings was his is undoubted; and it is probable the division of counties into hundreds was his also; that the people, beggared by the Danish incursions, might have justice rendered to them nearer their own homes, without the expence, the fatigue, and even danger of travelling to the county town. But as to counties, they certainly were more antient. ”

“ The sovereign is the whole county, the sovereignty residing in the general assembly, where all the males of fifteen have entry and suffrage; but each valley apart has, with respect to its interior concerns, its Land-Amman, its officers of administration, and its public assembly, composed of fifty-eight senators, taken from the communities. As to affairs without, there is a general council, formed of all the officers of administration, and of fifty-eight senators chosen in the said councils of the two valleys. ”

“ I say, I propose my honourable friend, the Honourable Sackville Scatterbrain, from the conviction that there is a necessity in this county——"
"'Faith, there is plenty of necessity," said the tormentor in the crowd.
"Take that man out," said the sheriff.
"Don't hurry yourself, sir," returned the delinquent, amidst the laughter of "the boys," in proportion to whose merriment rose O'Grady's ill-humour.
"I say there is a necessity for a vigorous member to represent this county in parliament, and support the laws, the constitution, the crown, and the—the—interests of the county!" ”

“ To appoint all county officers whose election by the electors is not required by the constitution, except county supervisors and the county auditor or comptroller, and for such terms of office as are provided by law. ”

“ That during their connexion with Great Britain, they had been accustomed to have all their concerns transacted within a narrow circle, their colonial district; they had been accustomed to have their seats of government near them, to which they might have access, without much inconvenience, when their business should require it—That, at this time, we find, if a county is rather large, the people complain of the inconvenience, and clamor for a division of their county, or for a removal of the place where their courts are held, so as to render it more central and convenient. ”

“ As the special representative of the king in the county, he shared in the increased power of his master, practically the whole administrative system of the state, as it affected its local divisions, was worked through him. Administrator of the royal domains, responsible for the most important revenues, vehicle of royal commands of all kinds, and retaining the judicial functions which had been associated with the office in Saxon times, he held a position, not merely of power but of opportunity. Evidence is abundant of great abuse of power by the sheriff at the expense of the conquered. ”

“ A primary assembly of all the inhabitants of a county, for purposes of local government, is out of the question. There must be representative government, for this purpose the county system, an inheritance from the ancient English shire, has furnished the needful machinery. Our county government is near enough to the people to be kept in general from gross abuses of power. There are many points which can be much better decided in small representative bodies than in large miscellaneous meetings. The responsibility of our local boards has been fairly well preserved. ”

“ We ourselves, or in our absence abroad our chief justice, will send two justices to each county four times a year, and these justices, with four knights of the county elected by the county itself, shall hold the assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place where the court meets. ”

“ The county was my own native county—upon which, in its southern section, more than upon any equal area known to man past or present, had descended the original curse of labour in its heaviest form, not mastering the bodies only of men, as of slaves, or criminals in mines, but working through the fiery will. Upon no equal space of earth was, or ever had been, the same energy of human power put forth daily. ”

“ If a county is to administer justice it needs a judge, a sheriff, a prosecutor and a court clerk. And each of these officers in the several counties should follow as closely as possible an identical or similar procedure. Every county must have a fiscal agency, a governing board, and be required to observe certain minimum standards in the handling of the funds entrusted to its care. ”

“ To be the county family, to look the county family, to be so appropriately and perfectly wealthy; to be so perfect in manner—even just to the saving touch of insolence that seems to be necessary. To have all that and to be all that! ”

“ The county will in some way or other be called upon to declare it your opinion, that the House of Commons is not sufficiently numerous, and that the elections are not sufficiently frequent,—that an hundred new knights of the shire ought to be added, and that we are to have a new election once in three years for certain, and as much oftener as the king pleases. ”

“ If you will, so soon as may be, secure a wide-awake, judicious correspondent in each village and township of your county,—some young lawyer, doctor, clerk in a store, or assistant in a post-office,—who will promptly send you whatever of moment occurs in his vicinity, and will make up at least half your journal of local matter thus collected, nobody in the county can long do without it. ”

“ The local interests and improvements of the counties are apt to be neglected, the county interest is easily thrown into the scale of any party or faction,—more especially if that party or faction be subservient to the administration,—and, as the county member, when ministerial, has great influence over all the government offices and patronage connected with the county, the chances are, that these will be bestowed upon persons who are either ignorant of their duties, from a want of local knowledge, or disliked [170] by the independent proprietors upon party grounds. ”

“ Judges disqualified at seventy years of age.
Attorney-general, solicitors, sheriffs, coroners, registers of probate, and naval and the higher militia officers, are appointed by the governor and council. County treasurers and registers of deeds are elected in the counties.
Amendments. The sense of the people is taken every seven years; and if a majority favor a revision, the legislature calls a convention; and any alterations proposed by the convention must be approved by two-thirds of the qualified electors who vote thereon. ”

“ All that are free-holders of a County has a voice to Choose.
The Corporations and Burroughs Chuse by their freemen also, but because of the peculiar Customs and priviledges in each place it makes some variation. Those that have most of voices which are Legal to Chuse, the Bailiff or major of the place or sherriffs return up to the Crown office, from whence the precept Came, the Name of such persons so Chosen to sitt in the parliament. ”

“ In our northern country there are no occasions upon which the whole population of a county, even as represented by its leading freeholders, convenes at one spot. County courts are attended by functionaries, litigants, and very near neighbors, but not, as in the south, by the gentry and yeomanry of a whole district. ”

“ In 1683, these ridings developed into counties; afterwards (1703) , it was arranged that a supervisor was to be elected by the freeholders in each town, to represent it in a county board whose duties were chiefly to levy, collect, and apportion taxes. Thus we see the genesis in the middle colonies of the mixed system of local government,—town and county being of equal importance, with elective executive officers in each: it was a compromise between the town system of New England and the county system of Virginia; and this mixed system now prevails in perhaps most of the States of the Union. ”

“ He then, at the ensuing summer assizes (1633) , laid the matter fairly before the justices and grand jury, professing his inability to comply with the royal mandate on the ground that the order had been made by the joint consent of the whole bench, and was in fact a mere confirmation and enlargement of similar orders made in the county since the time of Queen Elizabeth, all which he substantiated from the county records. ”

“ What a chance for the exercise of the arts of persuasion in procuring a contract, all the advantages of which should be on one side, but which must affect the interests of the county after it should have become well populated.
But we are not left to surmise on this subject. This small population was divided into seven civil townships, each one of which had a supervisor; and these supervisors, when assembled at the county seat, constituted the governing body of the county. ”

“ With this precedent before you, with the principles on which it was established, and with a future house of commons, perhaps less virtuous than the present, every county in England, under the auspices of the treasury, may be represented as completely as the county of Middlesex. ”

“ A county may elect a magistrate for the execution of its administrative affairs and elect representatives for the deliberation and making of its laws in order to become a completely self-governed county, when a census of the whole county has been properly taken ”

“ PURPOSES.--The county organization brings justice near the people, enables them to attend to local affairs too extensive for a smaller community, and affords a medium by which they may transact business with the State. It serves as a convenient basis of apportioning members of the legislature among the people. It maintains local officers, such as sheriff and prosecuting attorney, whose duties would be too narrow if confined to a township. It secures a competent and higher tribunal than the justice's court for the trial of suits at law. ”

“ The sheriff of every county, having received his writ, ought, forthwith, to send his precepts and summons to the mayors, bailiffs, and head officers of every city, town corporate, borough, and such places as have been accustomed to send burgesses within his county, that they do choose and elect among themselves two citizens for every city, and two burgesses for every borough, according to their old custom and usage. ”

“ The Assembly, composed of two burgesses from each county, met annually; it levied the taxes, and appeals lay to it. The legislative and executive powers rested in the Governor, Council, Assembly, and subordinate officers. The Acts of the Assembly were sent by the secretary of the colony to the Lord Chancellor. All freemen were bound to muster monthly in their own counties. The force of the colony numbered upwards of eight thousand horsemen. ”

“ All evil customs connected with forests and warrens, foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, river-banks and their wardens, shall immediately be inquired into in each county by twelve sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest men of the same county, and shall, within forty days of the said inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored, provided always that we previously have intimation thereof, or our justiciar, if we should not be in England. ”

“ Either the county magistrates or representatives may give to the senator of the county the copy of a law to be proposed to the senate; and if five counties concur in the same order, the law, though refused by the senate, must come either to the county magistrates or representatives, as is contained in the order of the five counties.
Any twenty counties, by a vote either of their magistrates or representatives, may throw any man out of all public offices for a year. ”

“ The counties, with their chief cities, should be so many little independent communities, each with its legislative council, its law-courts, and its other institutions, employing and tasking the political energies and abilities of the citizens or inhabitants of the district. ”

“ Qualification for County and Borough Councils. The following are the provisions of an Act of Parliament approved in August, 1907: "A woman shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage for being elected or being a councillor or alderman of the council of any county or borough (including a metropolitan borough) : Provided that a woman if elected as chairman of a county council or mayor of a borough shall not by virtue of holding or having held that office be a justice of the peace." {225} ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: The Campaign of the Militant Suffragists or "Suffragettes." ”

“ You are the favored citizens of a favored county. Your county has been conspicuous among the counties of this State for its enterprise and intelligence. You have been favored with a kindly and generous soil, cultivated by an intelligent and educated class of farmers. Hitherto you have chiefly drawn your wealth from the soil. You have had in the city of Kokomo an enterprising and [51] thrifty county town. You have been conspicuous for your interest and devotion to the cause of education—for your interest in bringing forward the coming generations well equipped for the duties of citizenship. ”