ors, and
their headlong action, of their blunders and presumption, and of their
meddlesome disposition and encroachments.--In the department, the
council general, also elected by universal suffrage, also bears the
marks of its origin; its quality, without falling so low, still descends
in a certain degree, and through changes which keep on increasing:
politicians install themselves there and make use of their place as
a stepping-stone to mount higher; it also, with larger powers and
prolonged during its vacations by its committee, is tempted to regard
itself as the legitimate sovereign of the extensive and scattered
community which it represents.--Thus recruited and composed, enlarged
and deteriorated, the local authorities become difficult to manage, and
from now on, to carry on the administration, the prefect must come to
some understanding with them.

VII. Local society in 1880.

Present state of local society.--Considered as an organism,
it is stillborn.--Considered as a mechanism, it gets out of
order.--Two successive and false conceptions of local
government.--In theory, one excludes the other.--
Practically, their union ends in the actual system.--Powers
of the prefect.--Restrictions on these through subsequent
changes.--Give and take.--Bargaining.--Supported by the
government and cost to the State.

Before 1870, when he appointed the mayors and when the council general
held its sessions only fifteen days in the year, the prefect was
almost omnipotent; still, at the present day, (1889), "his powers are
immense,"[4232] and his power remains preponderant. He has the right
to suspend the municipal council and the mayor, and to propose their
dismissal to the head of the state. Without resorting to this extremity,
he holds them with a strong hand, and always uplifted over the commune,
for he can veto the acts of the municipal police and of the road
committee, annul the regulations of the mayor, and, through a skillful
use of his prerogative, impose his own. He holds in hand, removes,
appoints or helps appoint, not alone the clerks in his office, but
likewise every kind and degree of clerk who, outside his office, serves
the commune or department,[4233] from the archivist, keeper of
the museum, architect, director, and teachers of the municipal
drawing-schools, from the directors and collectors of charity
establishments, directors and accountants of almshouses, doctors