Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/582

* COUNTY. 498 COUNTY COURT. cial and political purposes; or (b) a local sub- division of a State created by the sovereign power of its own will, regardless of the solicita- tion or consent of the inhabitants of said sub- division; or (c) a "local organization which, for the purpose of civil administration, is invested with the functions of a corporate existence." The Saxon term was 'shire.' a name still pre- served in England. In the United States coun- ties are divided into a number of townships or towns. Cities and incorporated towns and vil- lages are, generally speaking, subdivisions of counties and townships, but in some instances a city may be geographically coterminous with a county, as is the case with Chicago and Phila- ' delphia, while 'the city of New York' includes within its municipal limits four distinct coun- ties. In Louisiana the similar division is called a 'parish.' For purposes of local government, each county has at least one court and one prison, and usually an almshouse. The smaller divisions are townships, from three or four to a dozen or more in a county. The commissioners or supervisors of these towns, chosen by popular sufl'rage, form an administrati'e board to con- duct the financial and other county affairs. In all the United States there are more than 0800 counties. Usually each county chooses one or more members to the I^ower House of the State Legisla- ture. Counties are the creatures of the legislative will. They are vested with certain corporate pow- ers in order to enable them to perform the duties required of them as part of the machinery of the State; and, inasmuch as all their powers are derived from the Legislature, the latter may en- large, modify, or diminish them at any time. Counties are generally invested with the follow- ing corporate powers: To sue and be sued by a corporate name: to have a county-seat, a court- house, and prison; to acquire and hold title to real estate; to levy taxes and to make such con- tracts as may be necessary for their cor- porate existence. For an liistorical sketch of the English county, consult Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law (2d ed., Bos- ton, 1899). See Shike: also Municip.l Law, and consult the authorities there referred to. COUNTY COUNCILS. tTnt.il 1888 the county government of England was conducted in the quarter sessions, held by justices of the peace. As these magistrates were appointed by the Crown to attend to all administration and the minor judicial business of the county, there was practically no local self-government. To remedy this, the first Local C4overnment Act was passed in 1888 by a Conservative Ministry. It estab- lished representative county councils elected every three years by all ratepayers, male and female, of the shire, besides other non-resident property-holders, under certain conditions. Prac- tically the same qualifications are necessary for membership in the council, except that women are not eligible. The elected councilors choose additional members called aldermen, one-third of the council in ninnber, and also a mayor, who may or may not be of their number. The coimcil controls all the administrative functions of the county, such as the management of the roads, insane asylums, county jails, and the issue of liquor licenses ; it shares the police control with the justices of the peace. llr. Henry Fowler's second Local Government Act, passed by the Liberals in 1894, perfected the first by transforming the ancient vestries of a ])opnlation of 300 and over into parish coun- cils, for the maiuigement of local business. Snuiller parishes, if they so desire, may, with the consent of the county council, have the same privilege. The system closely resembles the American township organization. Scotch and Irish counties have since been organized along similar lines, except that there are no coiipted aldermen in the former country. Previous to 1885 all London l.ving without the ancient city had no local government except the church vestries. It was br<night under the opei-ation of the Act of 1888 and given a county government. In 1899 the administrative func- tions of the vestries not ecclesiastical were turned over by the county council to subordinate bor- oughs, having mayors, aldermen, and councilors of their own. The old city, though represented in the county council, retains most of its anti- quated constitution. The personnel of the Lon- don County Council is very high, and the amount of work it has accomplished is remarkable. It has successfully provided pidjlic baths and li- braries, parks anil playgrounds, better dwellings for the poor, besides giving £500.000 for tech- nical education. Consult: Tlic Local Govern- ment Act, Statutes 56 and 57 Vict., e. 73; also Macmorran and Dill, The Local Governmmit Act of lS9-'i, with a good introduction (London,, 1896) ; Courtenav, The Working Constitution of the United Kingdom (New York, 1901), 238-40, 246-50. COUNTY COURT. In English and Ameri- can law. a judicial tribunal of considerable dig- nity and importance, whose jurisdiction is co- extensive with the limits of a county (q.v. ). The county courts are among the most ancient institutions in England, dating back to the popular tribunals of the Anglo-Saxon period. We find provisions regiilating their procedure as far back as the laws of Edward the Elder (901-25) and of Canute (1014-.35). Under the system of local self-government which was char- acteristic of that period, the county courts (shire gemots) were the cliief ordinary tribunals of the English people, their judicial authority being superseded by that of the Witenrtgrmot. or Great Council of the Kingdom, only for particular pur- poses and on rare occasions. It will be remembered that in England the county, or shire, is not merely a political sub- division of the State for administrative pur- poses, as it is in most cases in the United States, and as are the departments into which the terri- tory of France is divided : Init it is a separate and distinct political division, in many cases an- tedating, in organization and in its functions, the State itself. As the supreme judicial tribunal, therefore, of such an ancient political organiza- tion, the county court was not only the fountain of justice for the people of England, high and low, but a court of great dignity and authority as well. It was presided over by the slieriff i shire reere). who was the high judicial officer of the county, and, like the court baron and other popular tribunals, was composed of the freeholders of the county who should be sum- moned by the slicrifF for that purpose. Its orig- inal jurisdiction extended to all civil and crim- inal matters, and it was the common court of appeal from all the minor courts of the county. Under the Saxon regime there was no regular