uis Philippe.'

'Yes,' said Tocqueville, 'but it was the want of power to tax avowedly
that led them into indirect modes of raising money, which were far more
mischievous; just as our servants put us to more expense by their jobs
than they would do if they simply robbed us to twice the amount of their
indirect gains.

'Louis XIV. destroyed all the municipal franchises of France, and paved
the way for this centralized tyranny, not from any dislike of municipal
elections, but merely in order to be able himself to sell the places
which the citizens had been accustomed to grant.'

_Sunday, April_ 9.--Another sultry day. I waited till the sun was low,
and then sauntered by the side of the river with Tocqueville.

'The worst faults of this Government,' said Tocqueville, 'are those which
do not alarm the public.

'It is depriving us of the local franchises and local self-government
which we have extorted from the central power in a struggle of forty
years. The Restoration and the Government of July were as absolute
centralizers as Napoleon himself. The local power which they were forced
to surrender they made over to the narrow pays legal, the privileged
ten-pounders, who were then attempting to govern France. The Republic
gave the name of Conseils-generaux to the people, and thus dethroned the
notaires who had governed those assemblies when they represented only the
_bourgeoisie_. The Republic made the maires elective. The Republic placed
education in the hands of local authorities. Under its influence, the
communes, the cantons, and the departments were becoming real
administrative bodies. They are now mere geographical divisions. The
prefet appoints the maires. The prefet appoints in every canton a
commissaire de police--seldom a respectable man, as the office is not
honourable. The gardes champetres, who are our local police, are put
under his control. The recteur, who was a sort of local Minister of
Education in every department, is suppressed. His powers are transferred
to the prefet. The prefet appoints, promotes, and dismisses all the
masters of the _ecoles primaires._ He has the power to convert the
commune into a mere unorganised aggregation of individuals, by dismissing
every communal functionary, and placing its concerns in the hands of his
own nominees. There are many hundreds of communes that have been thus
treated, and whose masters now are uneducated peasants. The prefet can
dissolve the Conseil-general of