414 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



in the county, though the several towns undertook their opening up and 

 maintenance. From this body, too, licenses were to be obtained by the 

 keepers of public houses. It also levied certain rates for the support of 

 its own officers and functions, and apportioned these rates to the several 

 townships. The executive officer of the Court, for the county, was the 

 sheriff, who was appointed by the governor. For militia purposes the 

 colony was divided into shires, for each of which a lieutenant was 

 appointed, whose duty it was to call out the militia. 



In Virginia the shire, or county, was the central unit of local govern- 

 ment, presided over by a lieutenant, corresponding to the Lord 

 Lieutenant of an English county, and appointed by the governor-in- 

 council. There was also a sheriff, with sergeants and bailiffs as required. 

 Then there were the county courts, composed of justices of the peace, 

 corresponding to the Courts of Quarter Sessions of New England, but 

 with much more extensive municipal authority. They exercised most 

 of the powers allotted in New England to the town meeting and the 

 select men. Thus the county court, which met monthly, had power to 

 erect and keep in repair the court house and jail, it had sole charge of 

 the highways and bridges, and let contracts for their construction ; it 

 divided the county into walks or precincts, over which surveyors were 

 appointed, corresponding to our pathmasters, who called upon the 

 people for their quotas of labour. The court also appointed constables, 

 and as in New England, licensed inn-keepers. The poor were looked 

 after in Virginia by the Church, through its vestry and church wardens, 

 the latter being two in number, appointed by the vestry from among 

 themselves. In this connection it is interesting to note that New York, 

 and after it Upper Canada, combined both systems, the town meeting 

 electing one church warden, and the parson appointing the other. 

 Inasmuch as the justices of the peace were appointed by the governor- 

 in-council, the local administration of Virginia was in no way dependent 

 upon the will of the people in general, whereas, in New England, local 

 government was very directly dependent upon the people. In Upper 

 Canada, as we shall see, the people sought to obtain the New England 

 system, while the governor and council endeavoured to fasten upon them 

 the Virginia system. 



Having thus briefly summed up the two typical forms of local 

 government in the American colonies before the Revolution, we are in a 

 position to understand whence came much of the peculiar combination 

 which was afterwards found in Upper Canada. 



In New York colony the population was made up of very hetero- 



