66 JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT ON 
colonists introduced the local institutions of the parent state, with such modifications as 
were suitable to the conditions of their existence. But the “parish” of the colonies, as a 
rule, bore little resemblance to the historic “ parish” of England. The latter was simply 
the old township of the Saxons in an ecclesiastical form: “ the district assigned to a church 
or priest; to whom its ecclesiastical dues and generally also its tithes are paid. The 
boundaries of the parish and the township or townships with which it coincides, are 
generally the same; in small parishes the idea and even name of township is frequently, 
at the present day, sunk in that of the parish ; and all the business that is not manorial is 
despatched in vestry meetings, which are however primarily meetings of the township 
for church purposes.” ' - 
Throughout New England the township was the political unit. It is true that 
the religious convictions of the people dominated in all their arrangements for the 
administration of civil affairs. An eminent authority has said of the people of Massa- 
chusetts: “They founded a civil state upon a basis which should support the worship of 
God according to their conscientious convictions of duty; and an ecclesiastical state com- 
bined with it, which should sustain and be in harmony with the civil government, 
excluding what was antagonistic to the welfare of either.” * In England the parish was 
invested with civil functions, and the old Saxon township became gradually absorbed in 
former. But in New England the parish and township had really distinct meanings. 
Whenever the word “ parish” was there used, it was to denote the township from an ecclesi- 
astical point of view, as well as a portion of township not possessing town rights. Con- 
sequently the “parish of Massachusetts” was essentially a term used for religious purposes, 
and had no reference to civil matters which were all discharged in the township or political 
unit of the community.’ In Virginia, however, the parish attained considerable promin- 
ence in the administration of local affairs. The early settlers of the old Dominion were 
men wedded to the ancient institutions of the parent state, and they set up the system 
long established in England, with such changes as were adapted to the circum- 
stances of the country. Parishes were originally coterminous with the old plantations or 
with thecounties, and covered immense areas. In the course of time, when the country 
became more settled, counties were laid out and divided into parishes. Some of these 
parishes sent representatives to the house of burgesses in early times of the colony, and they 
were always important local units in the civil organisation of the country. It does not, 
however, appear that they ever possessed powers entirely equal to those enjoyed in the 
parent state.“ No doubt the loyalists who settled in New Brunswick and other sections 
of British North America were so accustomed to this division that they naturally introduced 
it when they came to organise the new province. We have already seen, in our sketch of 
local government in Upper Canada, that there was an effort made to establish parishes in 
that section. It is only in New Brunswick, however, that the name has become perma- 
nently inscribed on the civil organisation of the country. I do not of course refer in this 
connection to French Canada, where the division was constituted purely for ecclesiastical 
purposes, and had no relation to the English parish which is the descendant of the 

1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 85. 2 Parker’s Lowell Institute Lectures, p. 403. 
* The English Parish in America; Local Institutions in Virginia, by E. Ingle. p. 52. 
* Local Institutions, etc., pp. 52, 53, 
