I have visited the two nations in which the system of provincial liberty has been most perfectly established, and I have listened to the opinions of different parties in those countries. In America I met with men who secretly aspired to destroy the democratic institutions of the Union; in England, I found others who attacked aristocracy openly; but I know of no one who does not regard provincial independence as a great benefit. In both countries I have heard a thousand different causes assigned for the evils of the state; but the local system was never mentioned among them. I have heard citizens attribute the power and prosperity of their country to a multitude of reasons: but they _all_ placed the advantages of local institutions in the foremost rank. Am I to suppose that when men who are naturally so divided on religious opinions, and on political theories, agree on one point (and that, one of which they have daily experience), they are all in error? The only nations which deny the utility of provincial liberties are those which have fewest of them; in other words, those who are unacquainted with the institution are the only persons who pass a censure upon it. * * * * * Notes: [63] It is by this periphrasis that I attempt to render the French expressions "_Commune_" and "_Système Communal_." I am not aware that any English word precisely corresponds to the general term of the original. In France every association of human dwellings forms a _commune_, and every commune is governed by a _maire_ and a _conseil municipal_. In other words, the _mancipium_ or municipal privilege, which belongs in England to chartered corporations alone, is alike extended to every commune into which the cantons and departments of France were divided at the revolution. Thence the different application of the expression, which is general in one country and restricted in the other. In America, the counties of the northern states are divided into townships, those of the southern into parishes; besides which, municipal bodies, bearing the name of corporations, exist in the cities. I shall apply these several expressions to render the term _commune_. The term "parish," now commonly used in England, belongs exclusively to the ecclesiastical division; it denotes the limits over which a _parson's_ (_personae ecclesiae_ or perhaps _parochianus_) rights extend.--_Translator's Note_. [64] In 1830, there were 305 townships in the state of Massachusetts and 610,014 inhabitants; which gives an average of about 2,000 inhabitants to each township.