Town (Ang. Sax. tun, from tynan, to enclose), originally an enclosure of the farm and farm house by a hedge, and finally of a collection of houses. Towns began to exist as municipalities in Germany in the time of the emperor Henry the Fowler (919-036), who caused all the important villages to be surrounded with walls or earthworks and ditches, as a defence against the Huns. Certain of the landless freemen were compelled to reside in these towns, while others were attracted by the privileges he conferred. These were in the nature of charters or contracts with the inhabitants, and had reference to various subjects. The germ of the town thus planted grew vigorously. The princes and bishops of the empire created towns on their own fiefs and benefices, and granted charters. For several hundred Years thereafter municipal charters were granted in Europe at the political, military, or financial convenience of the ruling powers. In Spain the Christian kings created towns and granted municipal charters on the frontier, as the territory was slowly reconquered from the Moors. In England charters were granted liberally by King John, to enlist the common people on his side in his contests with the barons; and in France by Louis the Fat for similar reasons.

Sometimes municipalities were chartered as a means of increasing or more conveniently collecting the king's revenue. In Holland the municipal system embraced nearly all the territory and population. In Germany leagues of the free towns were formed, either for common defence or for commercial purposes. Of the former, the Swabian league and the league of the Rhine were the most important; while of the latter, the league of the Hanse towns, or the Hanseatic league, was the most remarkable and most powerful confederation of municipalities that ever existed. (See Hanseatic League.) From various causes the self-governing feature of the towns of continental Europe has been almost entirely obliterated. - The system of town government has existed in New England since the settlement of the colonies, and in substantially the same form as at present, except that classes of town officers have been largely increased in number, and their various duties more particularly prescribed. Here it still prevails in its purest form; in New York and a few other states it exists in a modified form; with two or three exceptions, it is not found in the southern states. In New England it is the most important political division of the state.

Excepting unorganized portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and certain incorporated cities which have superseded towns, the entire territory and population are under town government. In 1870 there were in New England 1,424 towns, with an average area of 34 sq. m., and an average population of 2,450, or, excluding cities and towns having over 10,000 inhabitants, 1,700. The town is a political and corporate body created by the legislature. Its rights, duties, and liabilities are defined by law, and it is responsible for any act or omission in violation of the law to the person injured or to the state. It can be fined in the same manner as an individual. Except in Massachusetts and Maine, where representation is by districts, it is entitled to an independent representation in the lower branch of the legislature. It elects its own executive officers, supports schools, maintains roads and bridges, supports paupers, restrains lunatics, manages a local police, protects the public health against infectious diseases, collects through its own officers not only its self-imposed taxes for local purposes, but also the state taxes and those levied by county officers, and generally administers its own public affaire. The town officers are usually elect-ed annually and in the spring.

The chief ones are a town clerk, three, five, seven, or nine selectmen, three or more assessors with sometimes assistant assessors, three or more overseers of the poor, a treasurer, one or more surveyors of highways, three or more members of school committee, and constables, who are required to collect taxes unless collectors are chosen. The most important officers are the selectmen, who transact the general public business of the town. Usually one of them, called the first selectman, appointed by the body from their own number or elected to that position by the freemen of the town, acts as the agent and general executive officer, but in the more important matters he consults the other selectmen. The most important business, such as that relating to taxes, and establishing roads, bridges, etc, is transacted by the voters of the town in town meeting, which is the general legislative body of the town. The county in New England is an unimportant subdivision of the state, and exists mainly for judicial purposes.

Even the state does comparatively little public business, and the towns raise by taxation and expend at least eight times the amount of money that the state requires for its purposes. - In marked contrast to the town system as it exists in New England is the county system, which prevails in California, Delaware, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon, and in all the southern states excepting North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. In these states the county is the important political subdivision of the state, while the town or township, where it exists, is little more than a nominal territorial division, without political power. The county is created by the legislature, and is responsible to the state for its share of the state taxation. Excluding the unorganized parts of the state, the average area of the counties in these states in 1870 was 1,040 sq. m., and their average population 11,236; or excluding also the partly organized and settled states of the Pacific slope, their average area was 734 sq. m., and their average population 11,515, or about 15 inhabitants to the square mile. The affairs of the county are administered by its own officers chosen by the people of the county or appointed by other county officers.

These are usually the court of county commissioners, assessor, treasurer, collector, superintendent of education, apportioned of roads, and superintendents of roads, besides certain judicial officers. - In the middle, western, and northwestern states, excepting those above mentioned, and in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, a union of the town and county systems, which has been called the " compromise system," prevails. In these states the political power, which in New England is vested in the town and in the southern states in the county, is divided between the two. The county is the political unit; it is a body politic with the usual corporate powers; but it is subdivided into towns or townships, which possess considerable political rights. Besides the county officers, there are town officers usually elected annually by the people of the town. They are clothed with minor political powers, but their action in more important matters is subject to revision by the higher county officers. In New York the powers of the county are exercised by a board of supervisors in which the towns of the county are represented as equal political communities.

The supervisor who represents the town in the county board has other town duties, and is thus both an officer of the town and of the county. This is also the case in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the affairs of the county are usually managed by a board of three commissioners, who are elected from the body of the county and have no town duties whatever. In New York and the more eastern of the states where the mixed system prevails, the town in political importance approaches more nearly to that of New England; but in some parts of the west the township (this word being there more common than town) is a mere geographical division embracing 36 sq. m., and has very limited political functions. Town is often used popularly in the west to denote a small municipality, as a village. In none 'of the states outside of New England do the towns, or townships, as such, send representatives to the legislature. - Other forms of municipalities have been created by the different states. Boroughs and villages are corpora-tions with peculiar powers and privileges, such as have reference to special objects and are not granted to towns by general laws.

In England there are municipal and parliamentary boroughs, the former being a town (some, as Liverpool, of the largest size) having a municipal government, and the latter a town or district (sometimes including several municipal boroughs) that sends a member or members to parliament; while in the United States a borough is a municipal corporation that is usually expected to become a city at some future time, having powers less extensive than those of a city and different from those of a town. In the extent and variety of its powers the city is the most important municipality. In England a city is any town that either is or has been the see of a bishop and has a cathedral; but in the United States the distinction between a town and a city usually refers to size and always to the form of municipal government. The governing power of cities is usually vested in a mayor and council, composed of one or two boards; but the details of the government vary greatly. Probably no two cities can be found whose charters or governments are precisely alike. - See Elliott's uNew England History" (Boston, 1857); Haines's "Township Organization " (Chicago, 1865); " The Origin, Organization, and Influence of the Towns of New England," by Joel Parker (Cambridge, 1867); and the article on " The Minor Political Divisions of the United States," by S. A. Gal-pin, in the " Statistical Atlas of the United States" (1874). Town manuals have also been published in New York and most of the New England states.

Towns #1

Towns, a N. E. county of Georgia, bordering on North Carolina, and drained by the head streams of the Hiawassee river; area, about 250 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 2,780, of whom 155 were colored. The surface is hilly and mountainous, and the soil generally fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 5,090 bushels of wheat, 5,389 of rye, 61,990 of Indian corn, and 8,927 of oats. There were 458 horses, 1,975 cattle, 2,575 sheep, and 4,183 swine. Capital, Hiawassee.