a legal formality be required which, however advantageous to the community, is of small importance to individuals, plaintiffs may be less easily found; and thus, by a tacit agreement, the laws might fall into disuse. Reduced by their system to this extremity, the Americans are obliged to encourage informers by bestowing on them a portion of the penalty in certain cases;[95] and to ensure the execution of the laws by the dangerous expedient of degrading the morals of the people. The only administrative authority above the county magistrates is, properly speaking, that of the government. * * * * * GENERAL REMARKS ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED STATES. Difference of the States of the Union in their Systems of Administration.--Activity and Perfection of the local Authorities decreases towards the South.--Power of the Magistrates increases; that of the Elector diminishes.--Administration passes from the Township to the County.--States of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania.--Principles of Administration applicable to the whole Union.--Election of public Officers, and Inalienability of their Functions.--Absence of Gradation of Ranks.--Introduction of judicial Resources into the Administration. I have already promised that after having examined the constitution of the township and the county of New England in detail, I should take a general view of the remainder of the Union. Townships and a local activity exist in every state; but in no part of the confederation is a township to be met with precisely similar to those in New England. The more we descend toward the south, the less active does the business of the township or parish become; the number of magistrates, of functions, and of rights, decreases; the population exercises a less immediate influence on affairs; town-meetings are less frequent, and the subjects of debates less numerous. The power of the elected magistrate is augmented, and that of the elector diminished, while the public spirit of the local communities is less awakened and less influential.[96] These differences may be perceived to a certain extent in the state of New York; they are very sensible in Pennsylvania; but they become less striking as we advance to the northwest. The majority of the emigrants who settle in the northwestern states are natives of New England, and they carry the habits of their mother-country with them into that which they adopt. A township in Ohio is by no means dissimilar from a township in Massachusetts.