gages, and keeps a permanent record of the same. The pay for this is collected of the parties doing business there, in the form of fees. In some counties, one person performs the functions of both register of wills and recorder of deeds.

CHAPTER XIX.

COUNTY OFFICERS (Continued).

The County Commissioners are the administrative officers of the county. The board consists of three members. They are elected for three years, and one of them must be the minority candidate who receives the highest number of votes. They have charge of county bridges, buildings, and other property. They levy taxes for county and poor purposes, add to their duplicates all levies for State purposes, as fixed by the State revenue laws, act as a board of equalization, have care of the county poor, provide voting places, and attend to all matters in which the county as a whole is interested. They appoint a clerk to the board, janitor to the courthouse, an attorney to advise them in legal matters, an overseer of the poorhouse and farm, physician to the jail, mercantile appraiser, fix their salary, and make provision for their payment. They issue all orders on the county treasurer for money, approve the bonds of the treasurer, etc. They are paid $3.50 a day and actual traveling expenses, for services in both

capacities as commissioners and overseers of the poor, where they act as such, out of the funds of the county. In some counties they are paid salaries fixed by special laws.

Poor Directors.-In some counties the county commissioners serve as overseers of the poor, while in others they are elected the same as the other county officers. Their duties are the same in either case. They have general oversight of the county poorhouse and farm, paying out money from the county poor funds for the support and care of the poor or afflicted who need the assistance of their fellow-men during old age. The pay for these services varies in different sections; by general law they receive $3.50 a day and actual traveling expenses for their services in either capacity.

The County Treasurer is elected for three years, and is ineligible for re-election to succeed himself. He gives bonds to the commissioners, and has charge of all State and county money. The former is paid to the State treasurer, the latter is to be paid out on warrant of the county commissioners. He is paid a certain rate per cent on money paid out-rate fixed by county commissioners.

CHAPTER XX.

COUNTY OFFICERS (Continued.

The Auditors are elected for three years, in the same manner as the county commissioners. The

board consists of three members, one of whom is a minority candidate. The duties are to examire and pass upon all expenditures made by the board of commissioners. The report or statement of this board is published for the inspection of the people of the county.

County Surveyor is also elected for three years. His duties vary in different States; in some he has general charge of all road and bridge work, but in Pennsylvania the office is unimportant, and has to do only with the determining of boundaries, etc., when employed by private individuals.

The County Superintendent of Schools is the highest school officer in the county. He is elected for three years by the school directors of the county in convention assembled. The county superintendent is to be a person (male or female), of good moral character, of literary and scientific acquirements, and skilled in the art of teaching. This official is only in a limited sense a county officer, being commissioned by the State superintendent of schools, and paid out of State funds. The salary is $4.50 for each school under his jurisdiction, except that it shall not be below $800, or over $2,000. The convention of school directors, however, may raise his salary, the additional amount to be paid out of the funds of the districts. The duties of the county superintendent of schools are to visit schools as often as practicable, to examine teachers, and issue certificates to such as are found to have the necessary qualifications, to

conduct the annual county teachers' institute, as required by law, and to make report to the State superintendent as often as is required by law. He is in many respects the most important official in the county, having in his hands largely the guidance and management of the schools of his county. He may, in a mechanical way, perform all the legal requirement, or he may mold the school policy of his county, put life, activity, and professional zeal into his corps of teachers, systematize the work, and thus make himself one of the most powerful factors in the enlightenment and elevation of our people.

PART IV.

THE STATE.

CHAPTER XXI.

HISTORICAL.

Origin of Constitutions.—In 1215 King John was forced to sign a document, enumerating certain rights, privileges, and immunities, which were to belong thereafter to all Englishmen. This was the famous Magna Charta. In 1628 the House of Commons forced King Charles I. to sign the "Petition of Right," defining more clearly and extending these rights. In 1679 the habeas corpus act was added to these others, making it impossible to keep a citizen in prison without trial, for an indefinite time. In 1689 Parliament forced the Stuart Kings to sign the Bill of Rights, which, with the preceding documents, was to form the bulwark of English liberty for succeeding generations. These rights, wrung from the hereditary rulers of England, during the preceding centuries, are all incorporated in the constitutions which form the basis or groundwork of all American governmental institutions. These constitutions refer to the people as the source of all authority.

"A State is a political community of free citizens, occupying definite territory, organized under a gov