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the origins of contemporary france-5-第100章

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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
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