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through contagion。 According to revolutionary and French usage; the
legislator was bound to institute uniformity and to make things
symmetrical; having placed universal suffrage in political society; he
was likewise determined to place it in local society。 He had been
ordered to apply an abstract principle; that is to say; to legislate
according to a summary; superficial; and verbal notion which;
purposely curtailed and simplified to excess; did not correspond with
its aim。 He obeyed and did nothing more; he made no effort outside of
his instructions。 He did not propose to himself to restore local
society to its members; to revive it; to make it a living body;
capable of spontaneous; co…ordinate; voluntary action; and; to this
end; provided with indispensable organs。 He did not even take the
trouble to imagine; how it really is; I mean by this; complex and
diverse and inversely to legislators before 1789; and adversely to
legislators before and after 1789 outside of France; against all the
teachings of experience; against the evidence of nature; he refused to
recognize the fact that; in France; mankind are of two species; the
people of the towns and the people of the country; and that;
therefore; there are two types of local society; the urban commune and
the rural commune。 He was not disposed to take this capital difference
into consideration; he issued decrees for the Frenchman in general;
for the citizen in himself; for fictive men; so reduced that the
statute which suits them can nowhere suit the actual and complete man。
At one stroke; the legislative shears cut out of the same stuff;
according to the same pattern; thirty…six thousand examples of the
same coat; one coat indifferently for every commune; whatever its
shape; a coat too small for the city and too large for the village;
disproportionate in both cases; and useless beforehand; because it
could not fit very large bodies; nor very small ones。 Nevertheless;
once dispatched from Paris; people had to put the coat on and wear it;
it must answer for good or for ill; each donning his own for lack of
another better adjusted; hence the strangest attitudes for each; and;
in the long run; a combination of consequences which neither governors
nor the governed had foreseen。
V。 Rural or urban communes。
No distinction between the rural and the urban commune。 … Effects of
the law on the rural commune。 … Disproportion between the intelligence
of its elected representatives and the work imposed upon them。 … The
mayor and the municipal council。 … Lack of qualified members。 … The
secretary of the mayoralty。 … The chief or under chief of the
prefectorial bureau。
Let us consider these results in turn in the small and in the great
communes; clear enough and distinct at the two extremities of the
scale; they blend into each other at intermediate degrees; because
here they combine together; but in different proportions; according as
the commune; higher or lower in the scale; comes nearer to the village
or to the city。 … On this territory; too; subdivided since 1789; and;
so to say; crumbled to pieces by the Constituent Assembly; the small
communes are enormous in number; among the 36;000; more than 27;000
have less than 1000 inhabitants; and of these; more than 16;000 have
less than 500 inhabitants。'24' Whoever has traveled over France; or
lived in this country; sees at once what sort of men compose such
purely rural groups; he has only to recall physiognomies and attitudes
to know to what extent in these rude brains; rendered torpid by the
routine of manual labor and oppressed by the cares of daily life; how
narrow and obstructed are the inlets to the mind; how limited is their
information in the way of facts; how; in the way of ideas; the
acquisition of them is slow; what hereditary distrust separates the
illiterate mass from the lettered class; what an almost insurmountable
wall the difference of education; of habits; and of manners interposes
in France between the blouse and the dress…coat; why; if each commune
contains a few cultivated individuals and a few notable proprietors;
universal suffrage sets them aside; or at least does not seek them out
for the municipal council or the mayoralty。 … Before 1830; when the
prefect appointed the municipal councilors and the mayor; these were
always on hand; under the monarchy of July and a limited suffrage;
they were still on hand; at least for the most part; under the second
Empire; whatever the elected municipal council might be; the mayor;
who was appointed by the prefect; and even outside of this council;
might be one of the least ignorant and least stupid even in the
commune。 At the present day (1889); it is only accidentally and by
chance that a noble or bourgeois; in a few provinces and in certain
communes; may become mayor or municipal councilor; it is; however;
essential that he should be born on the soil; long established there;
resident and popular。 Everywhere else the numerical majority; being
sovereign; tends to select its candidates from among the average
people: in the village; he is a man of average rural intelligence;
and; mostly; in the village a municipal council which; as narrow…
minded as its electors; elects a mayor equally as narrow…minded as
itself Such are; from now on; the representatives and directors of
communal interests; except when they themselves are affected by
personal interests to which they are sensitive; their inertia is only
equaled by their incapacity'25'
Four times a year a bundle of elaborately drawn papers; prepared by
the prefecture; are submitted to these innately blind paralytics;
large sheets divided into columns from top to bottom; with tabular
headings from right to left; and covered with printed texts and
figures in writing … details of receipts and expenses; general
centimes; special centimes; obligatory centimes; optional centimes;
ordinary centimes; extra centimes; with their sources and employment;
preliminary budget; final budget; corrected budget; along with legal
references; regulations; and decisions bearing on each article。 In
short; a methodical table as specific as possible and highly
instructive to a jurist or accountant; but perfect jargon to peasants;
most of whom can scarcely write their name and who; on Sundays; are
seen standing before the advertisement board'26' trying to spell out
the Journal Officiel; whose abstract phrases; beyond their reach; pass
over their heads in aerial and transient flight; like some confused
rustling of vague and unknown forms。 To guide them in political life;
much more difficult than in private life; they require a similar guide
to the one they take in the difficult matters of their individual
life; a legal or business adviser; one that is qualified and
competent; able to understand the prefecture documents; sitting
alongside of them to explain their budget; rights and limits of their
rights; the financial resources; legal expedients; and consequences of
a law; one who can arrange their debates; make up their accounts;
watch daily files of bills; attend to their business at the county
town; throughout the entire series of legal formalities and attendance
on the bureaus; … in short; some trusty person; familiar with
technicalities; who they might choose to select。 … Such a person was
found in Savoy; before the annexation to France; a notary or lawyer
who; practicing in the neighborhood or at the principal town; and with
five or six communes for clients; visited them in turn; helped them
with his knowledge and intelligence; attended their meetings and;
besides; served them as scribe; like the present secretary of the
mayoralty; for about the same pay; amounting in all to about the same
total of fees or salaries。'27' … At the present time; there is nobody
in the municipal council to advise and give information to its
members; the schoolmaster is their secretary; and he cannot be; and
should not be; other than a scribe。 He reads in a monotonous tone of
voice the long financial enigma which French public book…keeping; too
perfect; offers to their divination; and which nobody; save one who is
educated to it; can clearly comprehend until after weeks of study。
They listen all agog。 Some; adjusting their spectacles; try to pick
out among so many articles the one they want; the amount of taxes they
have to pay。 The sum is too large; the assessments are excessive; it
is important that the number of additional centimes should be reduced;
and therefore that less money should be expended。 Hence; if there is
any special item of expense which can be got rid of by a refusal; they
set it aside by voting No; until some new law or decree from above
obliges them to say Yes。 But; as things go; nearly all the expenses
designated on the paper are obligatory; willingly or not; these must
be met; and there is no way to pay them outside of the additional
centimes; however numerou