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functions, are to be determined; so far as they can be determined apart from the special historical conditions of the particular state, on the assumption that the community in question is tolerably homogeneous and adequately united by common national sentiments. Actually, in determining the divisions and subdivisions of districts, historical conditions will rightly be allowed great influence; on account of the importance of respecting as far as possible traditional sentiments of community and habits of co-operation-especially in states formed by the union of previously independent or semiindependent communities. Apart from historical associations, convenient local divisions are sometimes decisively indicated by physical boundaries-such as the intervention of seas or mountain ranges or by marked differences in the density of the population, exemplified by the current distinction between city and country. The close-packed inhabitants of a city have special need of more elaborate provision for water, light, drainage, and of fuller precautions against mutual mischief of various kinds; they have an almost exclusive interest in the paving and lighting of the streets and bridges of the city; and they have no direct interest in any regulations required for agricultural industries. It is therefore convenient to take cities as separate districts for many purposes of local government; though the lines of separation must often be rather arbitrary, as industries other than agriculture extend beyond urban limits, and variations in the density of population are gradual. Indeed, the determination of districts for local government must almost always be an imperfect compromise. The arrangement most suitable for some purposes can hardly fail to be less suitable for others; at the same time, the complexity arising from a combination of several different plans of division can hardly fail to be inconvenient. Further, the division abstractly most convenient is likely to vary continually with changes in the density of population, changes in the means of communication,-e.g. it has

1 The effects of heterogeneity due to historical causes will be further considered in the following chapter.

been greatly altered by the introduction of railways—and other changes in the arts of industry, rendering scientific knowledge and systematic management more important than before in one or other branch of governmental action.

As regards the size of governmental areas, it may be noted that the smaller any such area is, the greater will generally be the educative effect of the control of its inhabitants over their government; especially if the divisions are. naturally so that an effective esprit de corps tends to exist within each group of persons thus divided off. At the same time, the more important the work that is assigned to the independent activity of local authorities, the more necessary it is that the area should be large enough to furnish an adequate supply of persons competent to direct and criticise. this activity also, districts should be sufficiently large to bear any ordinary burden of varying expenditure without excessive strain. Moreover, by increasing the area we diminish the danger of the predominance of the sinister interests of any one individual or class; thus a rural district that has important independent powers should be, if possible, large enough not to present the dilemma of either giving overwhelming influence to a single large landowner, or rendering him a too easy victim of democratic oppression.

The division of governmental functions will partly depend on the division of areas, as it will properly vary with the size of the district. Apart from this consideration, we may say generally that the matters assigned to independent local organs should be those in which local separation of interests is most clearly marked, local knowledge most important, the need of uniformity and system least evident, and the co-operation of private and governmental agencies likely to tell most, -care being at the same time taken to avoid any formidable danger of local class-injustice. Where the interests concerned are clearly common to all parts of the statemostly the case in the management of foreign relations-or

-as is

1 One point of importance in the determination of local areas is the question of the desirability of direct government by the aggregate of citizens. This will be more appropriately considered in chap. xxvii.

where the advantages of system and uniformity are overwhelming as in military matters, postal communication, provision or regulation of currency-the control over the administration should clearly be national and not local. On the other hand, where the interests affected by governmental action have definite local limits, there is a prima facie reason for a partially independent organ of local government; but this reason may be outweighed by others, and even where it is decisive its application is not always clear; since, as the separation of local interests is rarely complete, and is very various in degree, a carefully adjusted co-operation of local and central organs is often required to attain the best results.

§ 3. It will be well to give one or two illustrations of the complex and varying considerations that have to be taken into account in determining the division of functions. To begin, the expense of paving and lighting the streets of a town should be thrown on those who reside in it, and the management of the business correspondingly localised; for though the resulting advantages will be partly shared by travellers and persons who make a temporary sojourn in the town, this will only be the case to a minor extent, and its effect seems fairly compensated by the contributions which such persons will indirectly make to the material prosperity of the town by their purchases from innkeepers, shopkeepers, etc. But the case of a highway between two towns, A and B, is less clear; for though it is likely to be more used by the inhabitants of these towns than other persons, it may be also in regular use as a part of the instrument of transit connecting remoter places. Hence, if the plan of defraying the expense by levying tolls on the carriages that use the road is abandoned as uneconomical, owing to the expense and loss of time involved in collecting the tolls, the only equitable measure is to divide the expense and management of roads between the larger and the smaller districts. Similarly, the management of natural resources-forests, natural waterflow, unappropriated land in general-is usually of special interest to parts of the community; at the same time, the general interest of the

whole community in their good administration is usually too strong to render it safe to abandon these matters entirely to local control.

The incompleteness of the separation of interests which we are considering assumes a different aspect in the case of the sanitary intervention of government-one of the most important functions of local authorities in the present stage of science and civilisation. The sanitary state of any district is a matter of serious concern to its neighbours, owing to the tendency of many diseases to spread; but the prevention of this diffused mischief may fairly be deemed to be not a positive service for which other districts ought to pay, but rather a part of the general negative duty of noninterference, which each individual and group of individuals acting corporately owes to all other individuals and groups. Hence the expense of such provision as should be made out of public funds for sanitary purposes may reasonably be thrown on the district primarily benefited by it; and, while its management in ordinary cases should be correspondingly localised, it still seems desirable that the central government should exercise a supervision over the local authorities, and have the power, in case of their default, to intervene and do the required work. Further, where the diffusion of disease-among human beings or useful animals-is likely to be rapid and dangerous, so that promptness and uniformity are specially necessary, the central government should have the power of intervening, without giving time for the local authorities to neglect their duty. For similar reasons, it seems expedient that central and local governments should have concurrent powers of taking measures for the extermination of noxious plants and insects. On the other hand, the prevention of mischief from fire may ordinarily be left altogether to the local organs.

The grounds for co-operation between organs of government representing respectively larger and smaller areas may be illustrated by the important matter of poor-relief. I have already mentioned poor-relief as a case in which the efficiency of the action of government may be materially

assisted by the voluntary activity of private citizens; which is more likely to be stimulated if the responsibility for the operations of government be localised, so that the concern for their efficiency may be intensified in each district. From this point of view, we may contrast the case of ordinary poor- relief with that of provision for the care and support of lunatics. The enlightened concern of private persons for the less fortunate members of society may do much to reduce the number of paupers, but it can do little or nothing to reduce the number of lunatics; hence, if the expense of supporting paupers is localised, an advantageous encouragement and reward is given to such private efforts by the diminution in the burden of local taxation which it tends to bring about; but there seems to be no similar gain in localising the expense and management of lunatic asylums. Also, the knowledge of the circumstances of the applicants for poor-relief, indispensable to its judicious administration, is more likely to be secured if it is administered by local authorities. On the other hand, it is desirable that the treatment of pauperism should be systematic and uniform within any country of which the parts are effectually connected by the modern machinery for conveyance and communication; and if in any such country the whole expense of poor relief is thrown on local taxation, it seems difficult to secure the inhabitants of any one district from bearing the burden of pauperism that they are not responsible for causing, without a mischievous interference with the free movement of labour from one district to another. It seems therefore at once equitable that the cost of poor- relief should be divided between local and national funds, and expedient that the management should be similarly shared.

The division of functions between central and local executives is a peculiarly delicate matter in the case of the management of the police. On the one hand, the persons residing in a town or other district have obviously a special interest in the repression and detection of crime within their district; and to entrust this function to local authori

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