If we glance at the middle colonies, in New York the Dutch were long enough in possession to stamp New York and Pennsyl vania. Feudalism in upon the settlement an impress not at all democratic. Along the Hudson the patroons, on their estates fronting sixteen miles on the river and running back indefinitely, had set up a feudalism as marked as that of the seigneuries which the French at the same time established on the St. Lawrence. On Long Island and the shore near by, there were self-governing towns quite similar to the Connecticut Communities close at hand. After the English occupation of the colony in 1664, an organization of counties with subdivisions of townships gradually makes its way, which, in our own century, has come to play an important part. Here, though the town-life is faintly marked, possessing with less distinctness than in New England the moot, yet certain functionaries exist, freely elected by the people, the most important of whom is the supervisor; the town supervisors, forming in each shire a board sitting together at stated times, provide for the most part for local self-government. This is the germ of the Township-county system, which, as will hereafter be seen, has been very important in the settlement of the West.2 In Pennsylvania, though the great proprietor, Penn, was practically a viceroy beneath an English suzerainty, exercising over a population containing many elements besides English, a rule which was far from favorable to democracy, yet at one point occurred an interesting development. 1 Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1st Series, VI, VII, and XII. Howard: Local Constitutional Government of the United States, I, 114, etc, 2 Howard, I, p. 102, etc. While the town was insignificant, the county appeared with great prominence. It was the unit of representation, within which assemblies highly democratic convened for the election of officers. These assemblies were, indeed, a revival of the shire-moots in form more complete than is to be found anywhere on Anglo-Saxon soil since the days of the Heptarchy. Next to the Township-county system of New York, the County system of Pennsylvania, after the ordinance of 1787 had finally thrown open to settlement the immense central region of America, determined the present form of local government throughout the great Northwest.1 So it was that the Anglo-Saxon in the seventeenth century established himself in a new home beyond the sea, bringing with him Anglo-Saxon freedom; just as in the fifth century he had established himself in England, bringing with him that same freedom from the marks, hundreds, and tribes of the plains of the Elbe and Weser. As that ancient freedom was transferred across the wider ocean, it was by no means unmodified. The proper primordial cell of any Anglo-Saxon body politic is the popular moot, the assembly of the sovereign citizens for the exercise of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our survey enables us to judge the precise dition of this primordial cell among the Englishmen of the Thirteen Colonies. It existed in the soundest and best-developed form in the New England town-meeting. In the New 1 Howard: Local Constitutional Government in the United States, p. 383. con The popular mordial cell of moot the priAnglo-Saxon Summary of in the Thir freedom. its condition teen Colonies. England general courts, each deputy, in nowise superior to those who sent him in wealth or position, stood for the little democracy he represented, as the humble reeve with his four associates had for ages stood in the general court for the tithing in which he dwelt. He was not his own master, except in so far as his superior ability or character made his townsmen give way to him. He was carefully instructed what course he must pursue; was liable to censure if he went against the wishes of his sharply watching constituents; and each year must submit himself anew to the suffrages of his townsmen, who promptly consigned him to private life if his course were disapproved. While the deputy was thus closely watched, the town-meeting took care to delegate just as little authority as possible. It reserved to itself all business except what it must perforce put out of its hands, every freeman who sat in the town-hall before the moderator feeling forever upon his shoulders the strain, so salutary and so strengthening, of the public burden. Though in the Thirteen Colonies towns play little part except in New England, it would be wrong to conclude that, for that reason, the primordial cell in the body politic was elsewhere wanting. Everywhere we can find the county, and at the heart of the county is the county court. It was largely a reproduction of the English Quarter Sessions, to be sure, with justices appointed from above, not elected from below; but as side by side with the Quarter Sessions, since its establishment in the time of Edward III, the shire-moot had gone on, retaining its ancient functions as an elective body; 1 See p. 115. so we can find in America, sometimes, indeed, in a form very shadowy, but sometimes in a form very distinct, the assembly of the people to confer and to speak their own will. It appears vaguely in Virginia, where we have seen a portion of the people cast their votes on county-court day, in the presence of the sheriff, for the burgesses who are to sit at Williamsburg. It appears very definitely in Pennsylvania. Nowhere, probably, was the popular moot utterly unapparent, though in many places no doubt it was greatly attenuated. We shall note hereafter to what extent it has been possible to revive it, and what are its prospects for the future. CHAPTER IX. THE ENGLAND OF CHARLES I. Charles I, 1625. HAVING seen an English-speaking world firmly established in the Western Hemisphere, let us now return to England to watch the fortunes of the stock in the old home. As has been described, an utter subversion of the ancient popular freedom seemed on the point of taking place at the time of the accession of the Stuarts. Under James I, the claims of absolutism, before his time only vaguely set forth, were carefully formulated and published. These claims, Charles I went to work with great energy to make good. At the beginning of 1640, when Charles had been ruling for eleven years without a Parliament, King and people are found Parliament. locked in a fierce wrestle; for the people, roused from an apathy that had lasted since the fall of the Lancastrians, nearly two hundred years before, had been stung into vigorous opposition by the encroachments of tyrannical princes utterly without tact. Charles, at war with the Scotch, upon whom he had undertaken to force a form of worship to the last degree repugnant to them, found his resources Effort of |