The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-07 00:00:00

legally convoked; they can hold no correspondence
with one another ; they are net permitted to issue any
address to the public; they can only act under the con-
trol of autln rities which are superior to them; and any
deliberation in which they may engage without due
warrant may be instantly put an end to. Even the
prefets have the right of suspending their sittings.
" A dread was doubtless felt," continues M. Say, " lc st
these deliberative assemblies might assume too great
a political importance, and might tend to substitute a
federal system for the centralisation which communi-
cates with us so much force to the national unity. It
is no part of our task to examine at present whether
these apprehensions are not pushed to excess ; nor to
inquire to what point vitality and prosperity might
not develope themselves more equally over the
whole surface of the country, if the central
government would consent to moderate a little
the excessive severity of the guardianship (fa-
tette) which it exercises over the local institutions."
This is cautiously expressed:but it indicates distinctly
enough the opinion of the writer, which is also, we
believe, that of all reflecting and impartial persons
even in France, that the principle of centrali-ation iu
government is carried much too fur in that country—
or rather that it is not sufficiently balanced by the
principle of independent local action. In fact, there
is no independent action anywhere except in the su-
preme executive; the entire political system is moved
simply by the action of the heart ; with something of
the same result that would follow in the animal
economy, if none of the other forces of the
system were ever to be called into play ex-
cept that central muscle; a preternatural enlarge-
ment, that is, of the said organ, betokening more of
temporary excitement than of sound health and
vigour, and with a decidedly alarming torpor of the
extremities.
The Municipal Council of Paris meets every year
in the month of May, and continues assembled for six
weeks, during which it is employed in examining and
voting the budget for the year following ; and it also
meets once a week for current business throughout
the rest of the year, with the exception of a vacation
of two months. " But it has no right of initiating
anything; it never communicates directly with any
of the Mayors of arrondissements ; it cannot assemble
except upon special convocation by the Prefect of the
Zeine ; nor can it occupy itself except with such mat-
ters as are specially submitted to its consideration."
These extracts, with a general outline of the sub-
ject of the book, will convey some notion of the man-
ner in which it is executed. M. Say proceeds to
treat, in a succession of chapters, of the contingent
yielded by the Department of the Seine, to what are
called the Four Direct Contributions (the taxes,
namely, upon real property, upon personal and mov-
able property, upon doors and windows, and upon
patents) ; of the departmental budget; of the depart-
mental prisons; of the institutions for the reception
of the insane and of foundlings; of the commercial
budget; of the arrangements for primary or ele-
mentary instruction; of the super for commercial schools;
of the public alms; of the hospitals and charitable
institutions ; of the Mont de Pieti. ; of the architectural
works; of the maintenance and superintendence of
the streets, and the numerical progress of the popu-
lation ; of the supply of water and the sewerage ; of
the Prefecture of "lice, the municipal police,
The whole forms a ... y of information which seems
to exhaust the subject, and which has every appear-
ance of having been collected with a most pains-
taking and conscientious industry. M. Say is not a
brilliant nor even a very tasteful writer, any more
than an original or very acute thinker; but his sub-
ject does not demand anything beyond good sense
and a plain style—and in these requisites he is not
deficient