ore a more or less
legitimate and more or less imperative intervention in their internal
management.

Such are the great undertakings which form a whole, which bear alike on
the present, past, and future budget of the commune, and which, as so
many distinct branches of every considerable enterprise, require, for
proper execution, to have their continuity and connection always present
in the thoughtful and directing mind which has them in charge.[4229]
Experience shows that, in the great industrial or financial companies,
in the Bank of France, in the Credit Lyonnais, and in the insurance,
navigation, and railroad companies, the best way to accomplish this end
is a permanent manager or director, always present, engaged or accepted
by the administrative board on understood conditions, a special, tried
man who, sure of his place for a long period, and with a reputation to
maintain, gives his whole time, faculties, and zeal to the work,
and who, alone, possessing at every moment a coherent and detailed
conception of the entire undertaking, can alone give it the proper
stimulus, and bring to bear the most economical and the most perfect
practical improvements. Such is also the municipal administration in
the Prussian towns on the Rhine. Then, in Bonn, for instance,[4230] the
municipal council, elected by the inhabitants "goes in quest" of some
eminent specialist whose ability is well known. It must be noted that
he is taken wherever he can be found, outside the city, in some remote
province; they bargain with him, the same as with some famous musician,
for the management of a series of concerts. Under the title of
burgomaster, with a salary of 10,000 francs per annum, he becomes for
twelve years the director of all municipal services, leader of the
civic orchestra, solely entrusted with executive power, wielding the
magisterial baton which the various instruments obey, many of these
being salaried functionaries and others benevolent amateurs,[4231]
all in harmony and through him, because they know that he is watchful,
competent, and top quality, constantly occupied with am overall view,
responsible, and in his own interest, as a point of honor, wholly
devoted to his work which is likewise their work, that is to say, to the
complete success of the concert.

Nothing in a French town corresponds to this admirable type of a
municipal institution. Here, also, and to a much greater extent in the
village, the effect of universal