le: 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[4225]

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[4226] 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