the time it is received. They shall also record notice to foreclose, with affidavits of service and notices to pledgers of property, of intention to foreclose, with affidavits of service, and notice of liens on ships. The town clerk shall issue certificates of marriage, upon sufficient evidence that the parties applying for the same are legally entitled to receive them. If he issues a certificate of marriage to a man under the age of twenty-one years, or female under the age of eighteen, having reasonable cause to suppose the person to be under such age, except upon the application or consent, in writing, of the parent, master or guardian of such person, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars; but if there is no parent, master or guardian in the state, competent to act, a certificate may be issued, without such application or consent. For this service, his fee shall be fifty cents, paid by the parties receiving the certificate. He shall also record all births and deaths within the town. He shall make an entry, in a book kept for that purpose, of all money or property, found by any one, to the amount of three dollars or more value, and of all stray beasts, with a description of the color and natural and artificial marks of the beast, for which the finder shall pay him the sum of twenty-five cents.

It shall be the duty of the town clerk of any town, which is authorized to subscribe for any stock of any railroad company, or to loan its credit, or to grant aid to the same, to transmit to the secretary of the commonwealth and to the board of railroad commissioners, a certified copy of any vote of such town, under such authority, within thirty days, from the day on which said vote shall be taken. Considering these and other duties not here named, belonging to the town clerk, it will be readily seen that the office is no sinecure.

Assessors. The assessors of a town constitute a board of three or more competent citizens, chosen in annual town meeting, who shall take the oath of office, in substance as follows:"You being chosen assessors, (or an assessor) for the town of for the year ensuing, do swear that you will impartially, according to

your best skill and judgment, assess and apportion all such taxes as you are, during that time, directed to assess, and that you will faithfully discharge all other duties of said office."

If any person chosen assessor, having notice of his election, neglect to take the oath of office, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars. The duties of assessors are quite important and well defined by general statute.

Town Treasurer. The town treasurer shall be chosen by ballot, at the annual town meeting and shall take the oath of office. In addition to this, he shall give bonds, in such sum as the selectmen may require, with sureties, to their satisfaction, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office; shall receive and take charge of all sums of money belonging to his town, and pay over the same according to the order of such town or the officers thereof, duly authorized in that behalf. The bond thus required should be given to the town, and not to the selectmen. The town treasurer is not excused from paying over money collected by him, because it has been stolen from him without his fault. His sureties are still liable for his failure to pay, on that account. He may in his own name and official capacity, prosecute suits upon bonds, notes or other securities, given to him or his predecessors in office, and when no other provision is specially made, shall prosecute for all fines and forfeitures which enure to his town or the poor thereof.

IIe shall prosecute for any trespasses committed on any building or enclosure belonging to his town. If appointed collector of taxes, he may appoint deputies, who shall give bonds for the faithful discharge of their duty, as the selectmen may think proper. A treasurer so appointed collector, may issue his warrant to the sheriff of the county or his deputy or to any constable of the town, directing them to distrain the property or take the body of any person who is delinquent in the payment of taxes, and to proceed in like manner as collectors are required to do in like cases. The treasurer shall annually render a true account of all his receipts and payments, and

other official doings, to the town, and shall receive such compensation for his services as the town may determine.

Highway Surveyors.-There shall be in each town, one or more highway surveyors, who, when chosen, cannot refuse to serve, under penalty of ten dollars; but he shall not be obliged to serve oftener than once in three years. If he neglects the duties of his office, he shall forfeit ten dollars for each offense; and he may be prosecuted by indictment for any deficiency in the highways, within his limits, occasioned by his fault or neglect. The powers and responsibilities of this class. of town officers, are almost unlimited, so far as they relate to the highways and all that pertain to their management, of which, we cannot occupy space here to speak.

There are also constables, appointed to keep the peace and execute the laws; field drivers, whose duty it is to take up, at any time, swine, sheep, horses, asses, mules, goats or neat cattle, going at large in public highways, or town ways, or on common and unimproved lands, and not under the care of a keepcr; fence viewers, who have power to determine the legality of fences, between owners of lands adjacent; and may, when a fence line is in dispute, or unknown, designate a line on which a fence shall be built, and may employ a surveyor therefor if necessary; surveyors of lumber, measurers of wood and bark, and overseers of the poor.

An important agency in every town, in carrying out the wishes of the people, regarding public education, is the school committee, who are chosen at the annual town meeting, by ballot, whose duty it is to have the charge and' general superintendence of all the public schools in the town. They shall consist of any number divisible by three, one-third to be elected annually, and to serve three years, unless the town otherwise determines, at its annual meeting; the school committee shall select and contract with the teachers of the public schools, and shall require full and satisfactory evidence of the good moral character of all instructors, who may be employed, and shall ascertain, by personal examination, their qualifications for teach

ing, and capacity for government of schools. They shall require the daily reading in schools, of some portion of the Bible, without written note or oral comment; but, they shall require no scholar, to read from any particular version, whose parent or guardian shall declare that he has conscientious scruples against allowing him to read therefrom, nor shall they even direct any school books, calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sect of christians, to be purchased or used in any public school.

They shall direct what text books shall be used in the public schools, and shall prescribe, as far as practicable, a course of studies and exercises to be pursued in said schools. If any change is made in text books, each pupil then belonging to the public schools and requiring the substituted book, shall be furnished with the same, by the school committee, at the expense of the town. They shall give notice in writing, to the assessors of the town, of the names of the pupils, thus supplied, of the books so furnished, the prices thereof, and the names of the parents, masters or guardians, who ought to have supplied the same, that the assessors may add the price of the books to the next annual tax of such parents, masters or guardians, that the amount may be paid into the town treasury, in the same manner as town taxes.

Thus all parents, masters and guardians are compelled to furnish children under their charge, with the means of procuring a common school education. The school committee may also appoint, if the town so vote, a superintendent of public schools, and fix his salary. If a superintendent is appointed by them, they shall not be entitled to a compensation for their services. They shall make an annual report to the town and to the secretary of the board of education, of the commonwealth, and perform all other duties specified by law.

From this survey of the town, in its self-governing capacity as a constituent element of the state, and through the state, of the nation, we may obtain some higher appreciation of its importance. We find it to be a little municipality, existing under

well defined laws, admirably adapted, through the agency of town officials, to secure its highest ends. There is in it, no permanent superiority of one individual over another, for which, the Pilgrim Fathers had no love, but an intense hate. The original settlers were men who regarded themselves as standing upon perfect equality. They were men of poverty," and there are," says De Tocqueville, in speaking of these men," no surer guarantees of equality, among men, than poverty and misfortune. Born in a country which had been agitated, for centuries, by the struggles of factions, and in which all parties had been obliged, in their turn, to place themselves under the protection of the laws, their political education had been perfected in this rude school, and they were more conversant with the notions of right, and the principles of true freedom, than the greater part of their European contemporaries.

"At the period of the first emigrations, the township system, that fruitful germ of free institutions, was deeply rooted in the habits of the English, and with it, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, had been introduced into the bosom of the monarchy of the house of Tudor." We find that the township, "that fruitful germ of free institutions," has had a wonderful development in the progress of years. We see the germ of it, clearly manifesting itself in the Plymouth Colony, as early as 1621, when, as the historian tells us, in speaking of the Pilgrim Fathers, "after they had provided a place for their goods, or common store and begun some small cottages for their habitation, as time would admit, they met and consulted of laws and orders, both for their civil and military government, as the necessity of their condition did require." Here first "the simple democracy, the earliest instance of New England town. meeting government, proved itself equal to the need of the little republic." Here these sturdy men, in their little town meeting, deliberated on the means of defending themselves against the attacks of the aboriginal savage, who hung with hostile intent upon the borders of their little settlement. Here it was, that upon " a very fair and warm day," April 1st, 1621,