LOCAT GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 75 
people that settled the provinces. Indeed, the conditions under which those countries 
were peopled were antagonistic to the establishment of the town organisations of New 
England. The British government, after its experience of the old Thirteen Colonies, 
decided to guide the affairs of their remaining possessions with the hand of a gentle 
despotism, and did not permit the formation of institutions which might weaken the 
allegiance of the people to the crown. It was however a mistaken idea, as it was clearly 
pointed out in Lord Durham’s Report, to have discouraged the establishment, at an early 
period, of a municipal system in Canada, which would have educated the people in self- 
government, and made them more capable of grappling with the difficulties of the repre- 
sentative institutions granted them in 1791. However, the genius of an English race for 
managing their own affairs rose superior to the influence of a paternal government many 
thousand miles distant, and won, at last, for the people of Canada, a complete municipal 
system, which may well be the envy of the British people, who are now endeavouring to 
extricate themselves from the chaos of local laws, which make local government in the 
parent state so unintelligible to the ordinary citizen.’ All sections and peoples of the 
Dominion are equally favoured in this respect. Throwing aside the traditions of a race 
unfamiliar in early times with the institutions of the Teutonic peoples, the French 
Canadians have also been brought into the van of municipal progress, and enabled to pro- 
mote many measures of local necessity, which, otherwise, they could not have accomplished. 
In a paper of a strictly historic scope, it would be out of place to dwell at any length 
on the merits and demerits of the institutions which now prevail throughout the 
Dominion. It is only necessary to say that we should not conceal from ourselves the fact 
that there is always danger in a system which hands practically to the few the control of 
the affairs of the many—which, in a measure, encourages the tendency of the majority 
to shift responsibility on to others, and, consequently, gives constant opportunities to the 
corrupt and unscrupulous demagogue to manage the municipal affairs of a community in 
a manner most detrimental to the public interests. Indifference to municipal affairs on the 
part of those who should have the greatest stake in their careful, economical management, 
is an ever present peril under a system like ours. The abstention of the educated and 
wealthy classes from participation in local affairs, is a growing evil which, in some 
communities in the United States, has led to eross extravagance, corruption and misman- 
agement. No doubt, if it were possible to resort to the folkmoot of the old times of our 
ancestors, or to their best modern exemplar, the township meetings of New England, and 
permit the people to assemble and consult together on their local affairs, a public advan- 
vantage would be gained ; but, unfortunately, such assemblages seem only possible in 
primitive times, when population is sparsely diffused, and large cities and towns are the 
exception.” The rapid increase of population, and the numerous demands of our complex 

1“ English local government can only be called a system on the Zucus non lucendo principle. There is neither 
coérdination nor subordination among the numerical authorities which regulate our local affairs. Each authority 
appears to be unacquainted with the existence, or, at least, with the work of the others. ‘There is no labyrinth so 
intricate” says Mr. Goschen, ‘as the chaos of our local laws.’ Local government in this country may be fitly 
described as consisting of a chaos of areas, a chaos of authorities, and a chaos of rates.” Chalmers’ Local Govern- 
ment in England, p. 15. No wonder then that English statesmen have at last awoke to the necessity of grappling 
with a problem which Canada herself has in a great measure solved. 
? Since the remarks in the text were penned, I have had an opportunity of reading a paper on the Town and 
City Government of New Haven by C. H. Swetmore, Ph. D., in which the impracticability of the old town system 
