[Sidenote: By-laws.] The town-meeting is to a very limited extent a legislative body; it can make sundry regulations for the management of its local affairs. Such regulations are known by a very ancient name, "by-laws." _By_ is an Old Norse word meaning "town," and it appears in the names of such towns as _Derby_ and _Whitby_ in the part of England overrun by the Danes in the ninth and tenth centuries. By-laws are town laws[4]. [Footnote 4: In modern usage the roles and regulations of clubs, learned societies, and other associations, are also called by-laws.] [Sidenote: Power and responsibility.] In the selectmen and various special officers the town has an executive department; and here let us observe that, while these officials are kept strictly accountable to the people, they are entrusted with very considerable authority. Things are not so arranged that an officer can plead that he has failed in his duty from lack of power. There is ample power, joined with complete responsibility. This is especially to be noticed in the case of the selectmen. They must often be called upon to exercise a wide discretion in what they do, yet this excites no serious popular distrust or jealousy. The annual election affords an easy means of dropping an unsatisfactory officer. But in practice nothing has been more common than for the same persons to be reelected as selectmen or constables or town-clerks for year after year, as long as they are able or willing to serve. The notion that there is anything peculiarly American or democratic in what is known as "rotation in office" is therefore not sustained by the practice of the New England town, which is the most complete democracy in the world. It is the most perfect exhibition of what President Lincoln called "government of the people by the people and for the people." QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT. 1. What reason exists for beginning the study of government with that of the New England township? 2. Give the origin of the township in New England according to the following analysis:-- a. Settlement in groups. b. The chief reason for coming to New England. c. The leaders of the groups. d. The favouring action of the Massachusetts government. e. Small farms. f. Defence against the Indians. g. The limits of a township. h. The village within the township. 3. What was the social standing of the first settlers? 4. What training had they received in self-government? 5. Who do the governing in a New England township? 6. Give an account of the town-meeting in accordance with the following analysis:-- a. The name of the meeting. b. The time for holding it. c. The place for holding it. d. The persons who take part in it. e. The sort of business done in it. 7. Give an account of the selectmen:-- a. Their number. b. The reason for an odd number. c. Their duties. 8. When public schools were established by Massachusetts in 1647, what reasons were assigned for the law?