76 BOURINOT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 
civilisation, have forced on us a municipal system which must be representative in its 
character —which must entrust to a chosen few the management of the affairs of the 
whole community. The dangers of the system are obvious to all, and should be carefully 
borne in mind by the intelligent and sagacious leaders and thinkers of every community. 
Happily, as the peril is apparent, so the remedy is always open to the majority. The 
security of our local institutions rests on the vigilance of an outspoken press, on the 
watchfulness of the superior legislative bodies, and on the frequency of elections, 
during which the people have abundant opportunity of criticising and investigating the 
administration of municipal affairs. On the whole, then, it would be difficult to devise and 
mature a system better calculated to develop a spirit of self-reliance and enterprise in a 
community, or to educate the people in the administration of public affairs. It is not too 
much to say that the municipal bodies of this country are so many schools where men 
may gain a valuable experience, which will make them more useful, should they at any 
time win a place in that larger field of action which the legislature offers to the ambitious 
Canadian. 

of New England under modern conditions is clearly proved. In New Haven, there is a dual system of town and 
city government. The annual town meeting, the ancient general court for the town (the folkmoot of all the voters 
resident in the Republic of New Haven), is still periodically held for the election of town’s officers, authorising and 
estimating expenditures, and determining the annual town tax for 75,000 people. The author cited says (p.69) :— 
“This most venerable institution in the community appears to-day in the guise of a gathering of a few citizens, 
who do the work of as many thousands. Only the few understand the subjects which are under discussion. But 
citizens of all parties and of all grades of respectability ignore the town-meeting and school-meeting alike. Not 
one-seventieth part of the citizens of the town has attended an annual town-meéeting ; they hardly know when it 
is held.” The proposal to abolish this dual system where it exists in New England, and substitute a simple 
administration, is now familiar to every one. The old system, in fact, has outlived its usefulness. 
