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as this. It is not easy to tell exactly how much a man is worth, and accordingly assessors, not wishing to be too disagreeable in the discharge of their duties, have naturally fallen into a way of giving the lower valuation the benefit of the doubt, until in many places a custom has grown up of regularly undervaluing property for purposes of taxation. Very much as liquid measures have gradually shrunk until it takes five quart bottles to hold a gallon, so there has been a shrinkage of valuations until it has become common to tax a man for only three-fourths or perhaps two-thirds of what his property is worth in the market. This makes the rate higher, to be sure, but the individual taxpayer nevertheless seems to feel relieved by it. Allowing for this undervaluation, we may say that a man worth $50,000 commonly pays not less than $500 for his yearly taxes, or about one-fifth of the annual income of the property. We thus begin to see what a heavy burden taxes are, and how essential to good government it is that citizens should know what their money goes for, and should be able to exert some effective control over the public expenditures. Where the rate of taxation in a town rises to a very high point, such as two and a half or three per cent, the prosperity of the town is apt to be seriously crippled. Traders and manufacturers move away to other towns, or those who would otherwise come to the town in question stay away, because they cannot afford to use up all their profits in paying taxes. If such a state of things is long kept up, the spirit of enterprise is weakened, the place shows signs of untidiness and want of thrift, and neighboring towns, once perhaps far behind it in growth, by and by shoot ahead of it and take away its business.

Within its proper sphere, government by town-meeting is the form of government most effectively under watch and control. Everything is done in the full daylight of publicity. The specific objects for which public money is to be appropriated are discussed in the presence of everybody, and any

one who disapproves of any of these objects, or of the way in which it is proposed to obtain it, has an opportunity to declare his opinions. Under this form of government people are not so liable to bewildering delusions as under other forms. I refer especially to the delusion that "the Government" is a sort of mysterious power, possessed of a magic inexhaustible fund of wealth, and able to do all manner of things for the benefit of "the People." Some such notion as this, more often implied than expressed, is very common, and it is inexpressibly dear to demagogues. It is the prolific root from which springs that luxuriant crop of humbug upon which political tricksters thrive as pigs fatten upon corn. In point of fact no such government, armed with a magic fund of its own, has ever existed upon the earth. No government has ever yet used any money for public purposes which it did not first take from its own people, unless when it may have plundered it from some other people in victorious warfare.

The inhabitant of a New England town is perpetually reminded that "the Government" is "the People." Although he may think loosely about the government of his state or the still more remote government at Washington, he is kept pretty close to the facts where local affairs are concerned, and in this there is a political training of no small value.

In the kind of discussion which it provokes, in the necessity of facing argument with argument and of keeping one's temper under control, the town-meeting is the best political training school in existence. Its educational value is far higher than that of the newspaper, which, in spite of its many merits as a diffuser of information, is very apt to do its best to bemuddle and sophisticate plain facts. The period when town-meetings were most important from the wide scope of their transactions was the period of earnest and sometimes stormy discussion that ushered in our Revolutionary war. Country towns were then of more importance relatively than now; one country town Boston was at the same time a great political center;

and its meetings were presided over and addressed by men of commanding ability, among whom Samuel Adams, "the man of the town-meeting," was foremost. In those days great principles of government were discussed with a wealth of knowledge and stated with masterly skill in town-meeting.

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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.

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 intrusted 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. with complete responsibility. in the case of the selectmen.

There is ample power, joined This is especially to be noticed 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 reëlected as selectmen or constables or townclerks 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."

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PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK AND LATIN PROPER

NAMES IN ENGLISH

Compiled by HENRY F. BURTON,

Professor of Latin in the University of Rochester

SYLLABLES

A Latin or Greek word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs.

ACCENT

The Latin rules of accent apply both to Greek and Latin names, viz. In dissyllabic names the first syllable is accented; in polysyllables the penult is accented if long in quantity,1 otherwise the ante-penult. Cro'ton, Per'sæ, Catul'lus, Dam'ocles, Venu'sia.

Rules relating to accented syllables apply to the secondary as well as to the primary accent. The secondary accent falls on the second syllable preceding the primary accent, if that be the first syllable of the word or if it be long in quantity, otherwise on the third syllable preceding. Mith''rada'tes, Apollina'ris, Thes"saloni'ca, Coriola'nus.

SOUNDS OF VOWELS

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The long vowel sounds are those heard in " pate," mete," "site," "note," "cute,' "my"; the short sounds are those heard in " pat,' ""met," "sit,' ," "not," " cut," "" myth." Italicized letters in the examples indicate the sounds that illustrate the rule.

In Final Syllables

1. A final vowel has the long English sound, but final A is sounded as in "America." Cæ're, Lo'cri, Ne'ro, Nor'ba.

2. A vowel in a final syllable ending in a consonant has the short English sound, but final ES is sounded ease "' and before

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1 A syllable is long in quantity if its vowel is long, or if it contains a short vowel followed by two consonants (except a mute with 7 or r).

final R all vowels are sounded as short U. Aene'as, Li'ris, Si'don, Mar'cus, Ce'res, Cæ'sar, Ju'piter, Vic'tor.

Before a Vowel

3. A vowel before another vowel has the long English sound, but unaccented I or Y before another vowel, in any syllable but the first and last, has the short sound. Laoc'oon, Heracle'a, · Dia'na, A'sia, Cu'rio, Tit'yos.

Note. The consonant I (sounded as Y) is disregarded. Ca'ius, Pompe'ius, Ple'iades.

Before one Consonant in Accented Syllables

4. A vowel in an accented penult before a single consonant or a mute with L or R has the long English sound. Germa'ni, Pice'

num, Euro'pa, Lati'nus, Fortu'na, Cleopa'tra, Hy'dra.

5. A vowel in any accented syllable except the penult before a single consonant or a mute with L or R has generally the short English sound. Dan'aus, Lep'idus, Cic'ero, Soc'rates, Lac''edæ'

mon, Her''acleop'olis.

a. An accented A, E, or O before a single consonant or mute with L or R, followed by E, I, or Y before another vowel has the long English sound. Ma'rius, Me'dia, Clo'dius, Trina'cria, La"bie'nus, A''riovis'tus, Athe''nien'ses, A''reop'agus.

b. The vowel U in any syllable not final before a single consonant or a mute with L or R (except BL) has the long English sound. Utica, Mu'cius, In'subres, Lucre'tius, Pub'lius.

Before one Consonant in Unaccented Syllables

6. A vowel in an unaccented syllable not final before a single consonant or a mute with L or R has the long English sound, but somewhat indistinctly uttered. Cano'pus, Ith'aca, Hel'ena, Hora'tius, Æ'olus, Subu'ra, Cecro'pia, Patric'ius, Tydi'des.

a. An unaccented I or Y in any syllable but the first and last has the short sound. Af'rica, Posido'nia, Tit'yros, Polydo'rus.

Before two Consonants

7. A vowel before X or any two consonants, except a mute with L or R, has the short English sound. Ox'us, Man'lius, Helve'tii, Philip'pus, Apollodorus.

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