giving action; it
cannot but little more than impede or moderate other impulses, those of
the external motor, sometimes as it should, and sometimes the contrary.
Most frequently, even nowadays (1889), it is of no efficiency whatever.
Three-quarters of the municipal councils, for three-fourths of their
business, hold sessions only to give signatures. Their pretended
deliberations are simply a parade formality; the incentive and direction
continue to come from without, and from above; under the third Republic,
as under the Restoration and the first Empire, it is always the central
State which governs the local society; amid all the wrangling and
disputes, in spite of passing conflicts it is, and remains, the
initiator, mover, leader, controller, accountant, and executor of every
undertaking, the preponderating power in the department as well as in
the commune, and with what deplorable results we all know.--There is
still another and more serious result. Nowadays, its interference is an
advantage, for should it renounce its preponderance this would pass over
to the other power which, since this has become vested in a numerical
majority, is mere blind and brutal force; abandoned to itself and
without any counter-weight, its ascendancy would be disastrous, we
would see reappearing along with the blunders of 1789, the outrages,
usurpations, and distress of 1790, 1791 and 1792.[4205]--In any event,
there is this advantage in despotic centralization, that it still
preserves us from democratic autonomy. In the present state of
institutions and minds, the former system, objectionable as it may be,
is our last retreat against the greater evil of the latter.

II. Universal suffrage.

Application of universal suffrage to local society.--Two
assessments for the expenses of local society.--The fixed
amount of one should in equity be equal to the average sum
of the other.--Practically, the sum of one is kept too low.-
-How the new regime provides for local expenditure.--The
"additional centimes."--How the small taxpayer is relieved
in town and country.--His quota in local expenditure reduced
to the minimum.--His quota of local benefits remains
intact.--Hence the large or average taxpayer bears, beside
his own burden, that of the relieved small taxpayer.--Number
of those relieved.--The extra burden of the large and
average taxpayer is alms-giving.--The relief of the sma