ctionaries, employed and superintended,
who at first through fear are compelled to be prudent, and then through
habit and honor have become honest accountants; there is no waste, no
underhand stealing, no arbitrary charges; no sum is turned aside between
receipts and expenses to disappear and be lost on the road, or flow out
of its channel in another direction. The sensitive taxpayer, large or
small, no longer smarts under the painful goad which formerly pricked
him and made him jump. Local taxation, annexed to the general tax,
is found to be reformed, lightened, and duly proportioned. Like the
principal, the "additional centimes" are an equitable charge, graduated
according to the sum of net revenue; like the principal, they are
assessed according to the assumed sum of this net revenue by the
councils of the arondissements among the communes, and by the communal
assessors among the inhabitants. They are collected by the same
collector, with the same formalities, and every taxpayer who thinks
himself taxed too heavily finds a court of appeal in the council of the
prefecture, before which he can make his claim and obtain the release
or reduction of his quota.--Thus no crying iniquity exists, nor keen
suffering; on the other hand, there are the infinite conveniences and
daily enjoyment of possessions, the privation of which, to the modern
man, is equal to the lack of fresh, pure air, physical security and
protection against contagion, facilities for circulation and transport,
pavements, light, the salubrity of healthy streets purged of their
filth, and the presence and vigilance of the municipal and rural police.
All these benefits, the objects of local society, are due to the machine
which works with little cost, without breaking down or stopping for any
long time, as lately under the Republic, and without any extortion and
clashing, as in the times of the ancient Regime. It works by itself,
almost without the help of the parties interested, and which, in
their eyes, is not its least merit; with it, there is no bother, no
responsibility, no elections to attend to, no discussions to maintain,
no resolutions to pass. There is only one bill to be settled, not even
a specified bill, but a surplus of centimes added to each franc, and
included with the principal in the annual quota. Just like an owner who,
by his correct, exact, and somewhat slow although punctual and capable
supervisors, are relieved of the care of his property