[Sidenote:  The hundred in Delaware] [Sidenote:  The levy court, or representative county assembly.] In Delaware, however, the hundred remains to this day.  There it is simply an imperfectly developed township, but its relations with the county, as they have stood with but little change since 1743, are very interesting.  Each hundred used to choose its own assessor of taxes, and every year in the month of November the assessors from all the hundreds used to meet in the county court-house, along with three or more justices of the peace and eight grand jurors, and assess the taxes for the ensuing year.  A month later they assembled again, to hear complaints from persons who considered themselves overtaxed; and having disposed of this business, they proceeded to appoint collectors, one for each hundred.  This county assembly was known as the “court of levy and appeal,” or more briefly as the levy court.  It appointed the county treasurer, the road commissioners, and the overseers of the poor.  Since 1793 the levy court has been composed of special commissioners chosen by popular vote, but its essential character has not been altered.  As a thoroughly representative body, it reminds one of the county courts of the Plantagenet period.

[Sidenote:  The old Pennsylvania county.] We next come to the great middle colonies, Pennsylvania and New York.  The most noteworthy feature of local government in Pennsylvania was the general election of county officers by popular vote.  The county was the unit of representation in the colonial legislature, and on election days the people of the county elected at the same time their sheriffs, coroners, assessors, and county commissioners.  In this respect Pennsylvania furnished a model which has been followed by most of the states since the Revolution, as regards the county governments.  It is also to be noted that before the Revolution, as Pennsylvania increased in population, the townships began to participate in the work of government, each township choosing its overseers of the poor, highway surveyors, and inspectors of elections.[3]

[Footnote 3:  Town-meetings were not quite unknown in Pennsylvania; see W. P. Holcomb, “Pennsylvania Boroughs,” J.  H. U. Studies, IV., iv.]

[Sidenote:  Town-meetings in New York.] [Sidenote:  The county board of supervisors.] New York had from the very beginning the rudiments of an excellent system of local self-government.  The Dutch villages had their assemblies, which under the English rule were developed into town-meetings, though with less ample powers than those of New England.  The governing body of the New York town consisted of the constable and eight overseers, who answered in most respects to the selectmen of New England.  Four of the overseers were elected each year in town-meeting, and one of the retiring overseers was at the same time elected constable.  In course of time the elective offices came to include assessors and collectors,