Political Science Of The State

374 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
township. Can a government, depending on the state and not
on the voice of the town, discharge these duties ? Can it act
as a representative of civic interests ? It would seem at once
that we must say no ; and the only point of doubt is whether,
under defective city charters, there can be more misgbvern-
ment when affairs are managed by an administration depend-
ing on the central power or on one elected by the citizens.
§239.
Passing on now to speak first of cities by themselves, we
. Governmentcit- laY ^ d°WI1 (J) that One general law OUght to
ies regulate the city governments in a state, and
that no special regulations ought to be permitted, except by
way of punishment, or on representation of a vast majority
should be the same of the citizens.* In most of the countries of
fota11' Europe such a general law might be difficult of
introduction, because forms of administration were given to
the cities in the middle ages, which have remained in sub-
stance in many of them until the present time. But we ob-
ject in such a country as this to the framing of a separate
charter for each new place as it becomes an important busi-
ness centre. Let it be competent for the inhabitants, on
reaching a certain population—say of ten or fifteen thousand
souls—to take the steps laid down in a general law, to have
the city limits fixed, for instance, by the authorities of the
county, by those of the town out of which it is to be taken,
and by a deputation from the projected city. Let it then
come, as a city, under the operations of the ^general law,
*The new constitution of Illinois (1870) prohibits local or special
laws "incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amending
the charter of any town, city, or village," or " providing for the elec-
tion of members of the board of supervisors in townships, incorpo-
rated towns, or villages." The new constitution of Pennsylvania
(1873), in a similar spirit forbids the general assembly to regulate fee
affairs of counties, cities, townships, wards, boroughs, or school dis-
tricts ; or to incorporate cities, towns, or villages, or change their
Charters, or to change township lines, borough limits, or school
tricts by local or special laws. Comp,, however, Art. viii., Sea