niform, gilded and garnished with decorations, every
municipal or general council loses his free will and becomes incapable
of saying no, only too glad if not obliged to say yes "inopportunely,"
to enter upon odious and disagreeable undertakings, to simulate at
one's own expense, and that of others, excessive zeal and voluntary
self-sacrifice, to vote for and hurrah at patriotic subscriptions of
which it must contribute the greatest portion and for supplementary
conscriptions[4143] which seize their sons that are except or bought out
of service.[4144] It allows itself to be managed; it is simply one of
the many wheels of our immense machine, one which receives its
impulsion elsewhere, and from above, through the interposition of
the prefect.--But, except in rare cases, when the interference of
the government applies it to violent and oppressive schemes, it
is serviceable; fixed in position, and confining itself to turning
regularly and noiselessly in its little circle, it may, in general,
still render the double service demanded of it in the year IX, by a
patriotic minister. According to the definition which Chaptal then gave
the general councils, fixing their powers and competence, they exist for
two purposes and only two:[4145] they must first "insure to the governed
impartiality in the assessment of taxes along with the verification
of the use of the latest levies in the payment of local expenses," and
next, they must, with discretion and modesty, "obtain for the government
the information which alone enables it to provide for the necessities
of each department and improve the entire working of the public
administration."

VIII. Excellence of Local Government after Napoleon.

The institution remains intact under the Restoration.
--Motives of the governors.--Excellence of the machine.
--Abdication of the administrator.

Such is the spirit of the institution and such is its form. After
1814 and 1815, after the fall of the Empire and the Restoration, the
institution subsists and remains as it was before in form and in
spirit: it is always the government which appoints and directs all the
representatives of local society, in the department, in the commune, and
in the intermediate circumscriptions, the prefect, sub-prefects, mayors
and assistants, the councilors of the department, of the arrondissement
and of the commune. Whatever the ruling power may be it is repugnant to
any change; never does it