LOCAL GOVERNING AGENCIES. 457 



and were clothed with a portion of his majesty, . . . They 

 wielded the power of life and death.&quot; And down to the 

 present day this union of central chief- despot with local sub- 

 despots survives ; as is implied by Rawlinson s remark that 

 these ancient satraps had &quot; that full and complete authority 

 which is possessed by Turkish pashas and modem Persian 

 khans or beys an authority practically uncontrolled.&quot; Other 

 ancient societies of quite other types displayed this tendency 

 to assimilate the structures of the incorporated parts to that 

 of the incorporating whole. Grecian history shows us that 

 oligarchic Sparta sought to propagate oligarchy as a form of 

 government in dependent territories, while democratic Athens 

 propagated the democratic form. And, similarly, where 

 Eome conquered and colonized, there followed the Eoman 

 municipal system. 



This last instance reminds us that as the character of the 

 general government changes, the character of the local 

 government changes too. In the Roman empire that progress 

 towards a more concentrated form of rule which con 

 tinued militancy brought, spread from centre to periphery. 

 &quot; Under the Eepublic every town had, like Rome, a popular 

 assembly which was sovereign for making the law and creat 

 ing magistrates;&quot; but with the change towards oligarchic 

 and personal rule in Rome, popular power in the provinces 

 decreased : &quot; the municipal organization, from being demo 

 cratic, became aristocratic.&quot; In France, as monarchical power 

 approached absoluteness, similar changes were effected in 

 another way. The government seized on municipal offices, 

 &quot; erecting them into hereditary offices, and . . . selling them 

 at the highest price : . . . a permanent mayor and assessors 

 were imposed upon all the municipalities of the kingdom, which 

 ceased to be elective ; &quot; and then these magistrates began to 

 assume royal airs spoke of the sanctity of their magistracy, 

 the veneration of the people, &c. Our own history interest 

 ingly shows simultaneous movements now towards freer, and 

 now towards less free, forms, locally and generally. When, 



