The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-22

the population may require, and municipal
council from the corps Of communal functiona-
RES.
The members Of the council are elected by the
male citizens over twenty -one years OF age, do
miciled for three years Ia the commune, and able
to furnish certain proofs of the fact. Their
number varies from ten to thirty-six. At Paris,
they are appointed by the government; but this
is an exception. Several provisions Of the law
mark the fears entertained by the legislators Of
the democratic tendencies Of the council; the
members receive no remuneration, which makes
it impossible for poor man 10 serve they are
required to sit with closed doors, which protects
them, in a measure, from public censure and
they are elected for six years, which makes the
popular control almost nugat0ry.
But, as IL these precautions were not suffi-.
Gent, the power Of the council il reduced to
very low point This body has only four regu-
lar sessions year, and can be dissolved or aus
pended by the project II convoked ut other
times, for special business, by the mayor, ten
days notice must be given to the sub prefect
who may forbid the meeting. The council has
a right to assemble. If one-third of its members
address written demand to the project to that
effect. specifying the subjects Of consultation
But the project may dissolve the meeting imme-
diately after it is opened.
All the attributions of the municipal council
are infinitely defined in the law, and the matters
subject to its action particularly specified. The
latter may be divided into
/. Matters which it regulates;
g. Matters on which it deliberates; and
g. Matters on which it may give its opinion
when asked for.
Its decisions on the first may be executed un-
less vetoed by the perfect, in thirty days on the
second, if approved by the perfect; and its
opinions, on the third, have what weight that
officer may choose to attach to them.
1t may present three candidates to the perfect,
for each place, of country guard" species of
constable; but the project may appoint one of
the persons presented or not as may best suit
his views. The Country guards" are appointed,
suspended and revoked by the project
The council has no power over the mayor,
who acts as its presiding officer. Although it
has a right to examine and vote the communal
budget, as presented by TINT officer, no inconve-
nience results from its refusal to do SO the
budget of obligatory expenses and receipts may
be, in that case, regulated by the project The
only sensible result Of its refusal takes place
when the receipts are greater than the expenses,
the communal treasury.-No such thing is per-
mitted as summoning the mayor before a court
to answer for his conduct in office
In each commune is found mayor and one
or more adjuncts. The smallest commune has
one adjunct; those of from five to thirty thou
sand inhabitants have two; and those Of more
than the last number have three. The Presi-
dent may increase at pleasure the number of
adurcts.
One of the political questions most violently
contested between the parties relates to the
mode Of nomination of the mayor and adjnncts.
At present, by virtue of decree in l848, of
the provisory government, they are elected by
the people in all communes containing less than
three thousand inhabitants, and in the rest ap-
pointed by the President from the members Of
the municipal council. He has also the rover
Of suspending and removing them. All parties
are dissatisfied with this mode of appointment;
the republicans think that the people should be
permitted to choose them everywhere, and that
the President should not have the power of re.
moval the Bonapartists insist that the President
or perfects should have the right of appointing
without restriction, and of removal; and the
royalists are for some mixed measures, being
afraid Of the people, and equally afraid to en-
trust such powerful means of electioneeripg
in the hands of the President The power of
appointing and removing seventy-five thousand
mayors and adjuncts is no trifling one. Its i'm.
portance is evident when the extent of the pow
ers vested in mayor is considered. He ap-
points all the communal executive officers other
than the "country guards" He is charged
with the municipal and rural police with the
supervision of the roads; with the preservation
and direction Of the property belonging to the
commune; with the management of the reve-
nues and the keeping of the accounts; with the
of the budget; and with the care of
all law suits for or against the commune But
bis most important functions, or at least those
so considered, are political
1t is through him the project or central gov
eminent communicates with the commune. He
receives and publishes the laws, pacards the
Presidents messages and speeches, distributes
political documents, arrests pedlers suspected
OF scattering socialist pamphlets, watches the
post-ofhce to see that incendiary matter is not
delivered from it. closes coffee-houses known to
DO the resort of socialists and other evil minded
persons forbids the wearing of red cravats,
vests or petticoats; fines for singing the Mar
settles Hymn and other insurrectionary songs
breaks up political re-unions ferrets out secret
societies and clubs; keeps up an espionage on
the socialist leaders in his commune, and renders
himself useful to the government in a variety
of other ways. His proclamations have the
force of law on all matters of police. after hav-
ing been approved, however, by the project or
sub-prefect. The government has found that
the mayors elected by popular suffrage are not
half so pabe MS the Others and hence its anx-
iety to recover the power of appointing as exer-
cised in the days Of Louis Philippe If the
mayor distinguishes himself by his zeal, he may
aspire to the post of sub-prefect, and may then
rise in the administrative career
In this review of the communal organization,
it will be seen that all the real power is in the
hands of the mayor, sub-prefect and project, all
of whom depend on the minister Of the interior
The members of the council, unpaid, holding
secret sessions and elected for long terms, have
really no privilege but that of utterng an opinion
on local matters. The central government
makes itself felt and obeyed in every corner of
the country. The most petty functionary is d.
rectly responsible to it,
EFFECTS ON SOCIETY.
| have already shown the basis of the vast
system of bureaucracy which governs France