[Sidenote:  The Sheriff.] The sheriff is elected by the people for a term of three years.  He may appoint deputies, for whom he is responsible, to assist him in his work.  He must attend all county courts, and the meetings of the county commissioners whenever required.  He must inflict, either personally or by deputy, the sentence of the court, whether it be fine, imprisonment, or death.  He is responsible for the preservation of the peace within the county, and to this end must pursue criminals and may arrest disorderly persons.  If he meets with resistance he may call out the posse comitatus; if the resistance grows into insurrection he may apply to the governor and obtain the aid of the state militia; if the insurrection proves too formidable to be thus dealt with, the governor may in his behalf apply to the president of the United States for aid from the regular army.  In this way the force that may be drawn upon, if necessary, for the suppression of disorder in a single locality, is practically unlimited and irresistible.

We have now obtained a clear outline view of the township and county in themselves and in their relation to one another, with an occasional glimpse of their relation to the state; in so far, at least, as such a view can be gained from a reference to the history of England and of Massachusetts.  We must next trace the development of local government in other parts of the United States; and in doing so we can advance at somewhat quicker pace, not because our subject becomes in any wise less important or less interesting, but because we have already marked out the ground and said things of general application which will not need to be said over again.

  QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

  Give an account of the modern county in Massachusetts under
  the following heads:—­

1.  The county a corporation. 2.  The county commissioners and their duties. 3.  The county treasurer and his duties. 4.  The courts held in a county. 5.  The shire town and the court-house. 6.  The register of deeds and his duties. 7.  Justices of the peace and trial justices. 8.  The sheriff and his duties. 9.  The force at the sheriff’s disposal to suppress disorder.

Section 3. The Old Virginia County.

By common consent of historians, the two most distinctive and most characteristic lines of development which English forms of government have followed, in propagating themselves throughout the United States, are the two lines that have led through New England on the one hand and through Virginia on the other.  We have seen what shape local government assumed in New England; let us now observe what shape it assumed in the Old Dominion.