Thus, first to New York, and second to Pennsylvania belongs the honor of predetermining the character of local government in the West. The county-township system is the most widely distributed system of local government in the United States, and seems destined to become the prevailing system for the country as a whole.[7] The principal difference between the two types consists in the presence of the town meeting in the northern tier of states where the New York type prevails, and its absence in the states where the Pennsylvania type was introduced; in the different manner in which the county boards are constituted; and in the relative importance of the county and township in the local governments of the two groups of states. [7] Goodnow, "Comparative Administrative Law," Vol. I, p. 178. =Conflict of Different Systems in the West.=--An illustration of the attachment of the people of different parts of the country to the local institutions to which they were early accustomed, is found in the conflict which took place in Illinois between the settlers in the northern and southern parts of the state. The southern part of the state was settled largely by people from the South, who brought with them the Southern ideas of local government, and as they constituted the bulk of the population of the state at the time it was admitted to the Union, the system of county government was established by law throughout the state; but the county board was organized on the Pennsylvania plan and not according to the old Southern system. The northern part of the state, on the other hand, was settled mainly by people from New England, who were likewise strongly attached to the local government to which they had been accustomed. They succeeded, therefore, in securing the adoption of a clause in the constitution (1848), allowing the people of each county to adopt the township system whenever the majority of the legal voters of the county voting at any general election should so determine. Under the operation of this "home rule" provision, 85 of the 102 counties of the state have adopted the township system. A somewhat similar conflict occurred in Michigan, where the Pennsylvania commissioner system was first introduced, but with the influx of inhabitants from New York and New England dissatisfaction with that system increased until finally it was displaced by the New York or supervisor type. =References.=--BEARD, American Government and Politics, ch. xxix. BRYCE, The American Commonwealth (abridged edition), chs. xlvii-xlviii. FAIRLIE, Local Government in Towns, Counties and Villages, chs. iv-v, viii-xi. FISKE, Civil Government in the U. S., chs. ii-iv. HART, Actual Government, ch. x. HINSDALE, American Government, ch. lv. WILSON, The State (revised edition), secs. 1035-1043. WILLOUGHBY, Rights and Duties of Citizenship, pp. 260-265.