greater in the
capital than in the provinces.--Paris possesses a mayor, Bailly; but
"from the first day, and in the easiest manner possible,"[1401] his
municipal council, that is to say, "the assembly of the representatives
of the commune, has accustomed itself to carry on the government alone,
overlooking him entirely." There is a central administration, the
municipal council, presided over by the mayor; but, "at this time,
authority is everywhere except where the preponderating authority should
be; the districts have delegated it and at the same time retained it;"
each of them acts as if it were alone and supreme.--There are secondary
powers, the district-committees, each with its president, its clerk, its
offices, and commissioners; but the mobs of the street march on without
awaiting their orders; while the people, shouting under their" windows,
impose their will on them;--in short, says Bailly again, "everybody knew
how to command, but nobody knew how to obey."

"Imagine," writes Loustalot[1402] himself; "a man whose feet, hands, and
limbs possessed each its own intelligence and will, whose one leg would
wish to walk when the other one wanted to rest, whose throat would close
when the stomach demanded food, whose mouth would sing when the eyelids
were weighed down with sleep; and you will have a striking picture of
the condition of things in the capital"

There are "sixty Republics"[1403] in Paris; each district is an
independent, isolated power, which receives no order without criticizing
it, always in disagreement and often in conflict with the central
authority or with the other districts. It receives denunciations, orders
domiciliary visits, sends deputations to the National Assembly, passes
resolutions, posts its bills, not only in its own quarter but throughout
the city, and sometimes even extends its jurisdiction outside of Paris.
Everything comes within its province, and particularly that which
ought not to do so.--On the 18th of July, the district of
Petits-Augustins[1404] "decrees in its own name the establishment of
justices of the peace," under the title of tribunes, and proceeds at
once to elect its own, nominating the actor Mole. On the 30th, that of
the Oratoire annuls the amnesty which the representatives of the commune
in the Hotel-de-Ville had granted, and orders two of its members to go
to a distance of thirty leagues to arrest M. de Bezenval. On the 19th of
August, that of Nazareth issues commi