enumerate these officers.

[Sidenote: Selectmen.]
The principal executive magistrates of the town are the selectmen.
They are three, five, seven, or nine in number, according to the size
of the town and the amount of public business to be transacted. The
odd number insures a majority decision in case of any difference of
opinion among them. They have the general management of the public
business. They issue warrants for the holding of town-meetings, and
they can call such a meeting at any time during the year when there
seems to be need for it, but the warrant must always specify the
subjects which are to be discussed and acted on at the meeting. The
selectmen also lay out highways, grant licenses, and impanel jurors;
they may act as health officers and issue orders regarding sewerage,
the abatement of nuisances, or the isolation of contagious diseases;
in many cases they act as assessors of taxes, and as overseers of the
poor. They are the proper persons to listen to complaints if anything
goes wrong in the town. In county matters and state matters they speak
for the town, and if it is a party to a law-suit they represent it in
court; for the New England town is a legal corporation, and as such
can hold property, and sue and be sued. In a certain sense the
selectmen may be said to be "the government" of the town during the
intervals between the town-meetings.

[Sidenote: Town-clerk.]
An officer no less important than the selectmen is the town-clerk. He
keeps the record of all votes passed in the town-meetings. He also
records the names of candidates and the number of votes for each in
the election of state and county officers. He records the births,
marriages, and deaths in the township, and issues certificates to