Local government in the Philippine islands,

268 LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES

truth is that in the absence of constitutional requirements,
the right of local self-government cannot exist if the power
of the central authority, as in most cases, is absolute.
In President McKinley's Instructions, which constitute
a portion of our constitutional law, local self-government is
especially recognized and protected in the Philippines. 408
The rules laid down, however, would seem indicative of govlocal government in the provision requiring the laws and ordinances
established to conform to the laws, statutes, or rights of England.Bozman's Hist. of Maryland, p. 290. And county authorities seem
to have existed from the very first, though their statutory organization, if any they had, cannot be traced.-Bozman, pp. 299-303. But
it cannot be necessary to particularize further. The general fact was,
that whether the colonial or local authority should originate first
depended entirely upon circumstances which might make the one or
the other the more immediate need. But when both were once established, they ran parallel to each other, as they were meant to do for
all time; and what Mr. Arnold says of Rhode Island, may be said
generally of the eastern and middle states, that the attempt
of the last two Stuarts to overthrow their liberties was defeated by means of the local organizations. The scheme tried first
in England, to take away the corporate charters in order to make
the corporators more dependent on the crown, and to restrain them
from political action in opposition to the court party, found, in America the colonial charters alone within the reach of arbitrary powers;
and though these were takne away or suspended, it was only with
such protest and resistance as saved to the people the town governments. In Massachusetts, it was even insisted by the people's deputies that, to surrender local government was contrary to the Sixth
Commandment for, said they, "men may not destroy their political,
any more than their natural lives". So, it is recorded, they clung
to "the civil liberties of New England" as "part of the inheritance
of their fathers."-Palfrey's New England, vol. iii pp. 381-383; Bancroft's U. S., Vol. 2, pp. 125-127; Mass. Hist. Col. XXI, 74-81. The
whole contest with Andros, as well as in New England, as in New
York and New Jersey, was a struggle of the people in defense of
the right of local government. "Everywhere", says Dunlap, "the
people struggled for their rights and deserved to be free".-Hist. of
N. Y., Vol. 1, p. 133; and see Trumbull's Hist. of Conn., Vol I, ch. xv.
408 U. S. v. Salaveria (1918) 39 Phil. 102; Laurel, Jose P.: Cases
on Municipal Corporations (Manila, 1924) 358.