The mental
discipline being thus a more important feature in local concerns
than in the general affairs of the State, while there are not such
vital interests dependent on the quality of the administration, a
greater weight may be given to the former consideration, and the
latter admits much more frequently of being postponed to it than in
matters of general legislation and the conduct of imperial affairs.
The proper constitution of local representative bodies does not
present much difficulty. The principles which apply to it do not
differ in any respect from those applicable to the national
representation. The same obligation exists, as in the case of the more
important function, for making the bodies elective; and the same
reasons operate as in that case, but with still greater force, for
giving them a widely democratic basis: the dangers being less, and the
advantages, in point of popular education and cultivation, in some
respects even greater. As the principal duty of the local bodies
consists of the imposition and expenditure of local taxation, the
electoral franchise should vest in all who contribute to the local
rates, to the exclusion of all who do not. I assume that there is no
indirect taxation, no octroi duties, or that if there are, they are
supplementary only; those on whom their burden falls being also
rated to a direct assessment.
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