in New York.
See also my _American Political Ideas_, N. Y., 1885.

Gomme's _Literature of Local Institutions_, London, 1886,
contains an extensive bibliography of the subject, with valuable
critical notes and comments.

CHAPTER III.

THE COUNTY.

Section 1. _The County in its Beginnings._

It is now time for us to treat of the county, and we may as well begin
by considering its origin. In treating of the township we began by
sketching it in its fullest development, as seen in New England. With.
the county we shall find it helpful to pursue a different method and
start at the beginning.

If we look at the maps of the states which make up our Union, we see
that they are all divided into counties (except that in Louisiana the
corresponding divisions are named parishes). The map of England shows
that country as similarly divided into counties.

[Sidenote: Why do we have counties?]
If we ask why this is so, some people will tell us that it is
convenient, for purposes of administration, to have a state, or a
kingdom, divided into areas that are larger than single towns. There
is much truth in this. It is convenient. If it were not so, counties
would not have survived, so as to make a part of our modern maps.
Nevertheless, this is not the historic reason why we have the
particular kind of subdivisions known as counties. We have them
because our fathers and grandfathers had them; and thus, if we would
find out the true reason, we may as well go back to the ancient times
when our forefathers were establishing themselves in England.

[Sidenote: Clans and tribes.]
We have seen how the clan of our barbarous ancestors, when it became
stationary, was established as the town or township. But in those early
times _clans_ were generally united more or less closely into _tribes_.
Among all primitive or barbarous races of men, so far as we can make
out, society is organized in tribes, and each tribe is made up of a
number of clans or family groups. Now when our English forefathers
conquered Britain they settled there as clans and also as tribes. The
clans became townships, and the tribes became shires or counties; that
is to say, the names were applied first to the people and afterwards to
the land they occupied. A few of the oldest county names in England
still show this plainly. _Essex_, _Middlesex_, and _Sussex_ were
originally "East Saxons," "Middle Saxons," and "South Saxons;" and on
the eastern coast two tribes o