City

« In England. An incorporated town or borough which is or has been the see of a bishop.

Co. Litt. 108; 1 Bl. Comm. 114; Cowell.

A large town incorporated with certain privileges; the inhabitants of a city; the citizens.

Worcester.

Although the first definition here given is sanctioned by high authority, it is questionable if it is essential to its character as a city, even in England, that it has been at any time a see; and it certainly retains its character of a city after it has lost its ecclesiastical character (1 Steph. Comm. 115; 1 Bl. Comm. 114), and in the United States it is clearly unnecessary that it should ever have possessed this character. Originally, this word did not signify a town, but a portion of mankind who lived under the same government, — what the Romans called dvitas, and the Greeks polis; whence the word politeia, dvitas seu reipublicae status et adrninistratio. Tou Uier, Dr. Civ. Fr. lib.

1, tit. 1, note 202; Henrion de Pansey, Pouvoir Municipal, pp. 36, 37.

In the United States. The highest class of municipal corporation, having extensive municipal powers, required by the presence of a large population. A body politic and corporate established by law, not only to regulate and administer local affairs, but to assist in the civil government of the country.

133 111. 440.