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National government has gone beyond that and never much 

 beyond. The real burdens of the government have been sell 

 imposed in the town meeting. Duties have, indeed, been laid 

 upon the towns by the government, but they have been such as 

 the towns desired to have, rather than to have the same per- 

 formed by the States. Sometimes the State has seen fit to 

 impose a minnimum of taxation, but rarely has that minni- 

 mum been as high as the towns themselves have fixed, so 

 that practically the amount of taxation has been left with 

 the people of each town to determine according to their 

 discretion. The cost of maintenance and repairs of roads — 

 the support of schools and the education of the youth — 

 provision for the support and comfort of the poor — these 

 are the subjects of taxation — and these the little democ- 

 racies deal with wisely and economically. Each man feels 

 that he is an owner and a sovereign in the territory for 

 which he is acting. Sometimes, undoubtedly, towns act 

 without due regard to economy, to wisdom and to the rights 

 of minorities ; generally, however, so purely a practical mat- 

 ter of business is made the aflfairs of the town, so little po- 

 litical or other excitement of feeling enters into it that it is 

 eminently wise, judicious and satisfactory. I will be con- 

 tent if the National and State Legislatures will conduct their 

 affairs with as much practical wisdom and propriety as the 

 least wise of all the towns of the Commonwealth. It is not 

 difficult to understand why towns act thus judiciously. Each 

 individual is acting in relation to his own business, which he 

 fully comprtthends and appreciates. He sees that his inter- 

 est is the public interest and the public interest is his. But 

 the town meeting would be of no account except for that 

 universal interest which the inhabitants have by reason of 

 the proprietorship of land. If some baron owned all the 

 acres of a town and the inhabitants were his tenants the 

 town meeting would be as worthless as a telescope to a blind 

 astronomer. It is the two, that have laid the foundations 

 and erected the structure of popular institutions ; without 



