ndebted for the
institution itself. The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _tun-scipe_.
_Tun_ meant hedge, ditch or defense; and _scipe_, which we have also in
landscape, meant _what may be seen_. Around the village before mentioned
was the _tun_, and beyond were the fields and meadows and woodlands, the
whole forming the tun scipe or township.

To administer justice and to take any other action for the common good,
the freemen gathered in _folk-moot_ around the moot hill or the sacred
tree.

Though the proceedings of these assemblies differed in detail from those
of our town meetings, both contain the great principle of local self
government.

The County.[Footnote: See American Political Ideas, pp. 31-63.]--Although
with us the state is divided into counties and the counties into towns,
the order of formation was originally the other way. The towns are the
oldest institutions in our system. Later, from uniting forces in war came
a union of action among adjoining towns during peace. Thus grew up what
was called the Hundred.

When in the fifth century the English invaded Britain, many of the
chieftains or military leaders rose to kingship over small areas. On the
completion of the conquest these kings struggled among themselves for
leadership, until finally England became united into one kingdom, and the
little kingdoms were reduced to shires ruled by earls. With the growth of
the king's power, that of the underkings or earls grew less. Then other
shires were formed, and this institution became simply an administrative
division. After the Norman conquest the French terms count and county came
into use.

The earnest student will find both pleasure and profit in looking up the
origin and history of the trial by jury, the criminal warrant, the writ of
habeas corpus, bail, common law, the general rules of parliamentary
practice, etc.

Town and County in America.--In New England the most important division of
the state is the town; in the South it is the county.[Footnote: An
excellent discussion of this may be found in "Samuel Adams, the Man of the
Town Meeting," John's Hopkins University Studies in History, Volume II,
Number 4.] In other states the relative importance of the two
organizations depends upon the influence to which the state was most
strongly subjected.

The reason for the difference is found in the character and circumstances
of the early colonists.

In New England, the church was the center of the