New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-17

mayoral Office This plan seemed 10 nave
worked well in practice, but the advocates
of extreme municipal independence de-
manded the privilege of electing thei1
mayors through more direct and popu'
lar process, insisting that they shall rep
resent the public sentiment of the COM
I munes rather than that Of the administra'
ton.
Now, it is we'll known that communal
sentiment is extremely local, proscriptive
and aggressive in its normal action. 1t
runs too readily into excuses, and holds ma
tional authority at too low an estimate. If,
through any freak of franchise, the mayor
of municipality be at the same time the
chief of coterie, an upright and impair
tial administration of municipal affairs
can scarcely be expected at his hands.
Of the danger of improper selections We
have had examples enough in this coun-
try, though our municipal institutions are
further removed from the central govern
ment than are the communes of France
We incline to the opinion, therefore, that
our republican friends of the French As
sembly are pressing this matter beyond
the bounds of discretion. and in the in
terest of faction, rather than of good gov
eminent. In France the tendency toward
revolution is too great to warrant any re-
Taxation in the senews of legitimate
national authority.
Should the law makers of the French
republic calmly study the municipal &C.
centricities which pervade our system
they would see necessity for the intro
duction of additional checks and balances,
instead of the removal of those already in
existence. There is scarcely a city in
America that has not had cause to lament
the weakness, corruption or criminal neg
Ggence of not few of its chief magis-
trates, who came into power through the
prostituted machinery of popular cleo
tons. In every well devised system of
self-government the relations betwixt So
preme and subordinate authority must be
consistent, and in their normal action
neither should fatally encroach upon the
other. This should especially be the case
in France, where communal authority en-
braces not only what we regard in this
country as municipal, but much of that
also which makes up the measure of our
State autonomy. The mayor in France is
higher functionary than the mayor in
this country, and as the representative at
once of the commune and OF the supreme
administration, should occupy an attitude
of comparative independence, free alike
from the trammels of partisan obligation
and the seductions Of popular caprice.
Both Theirs and Lamartine have pro-
nounced emphatically against the election
of communal mayors as likely to result
in "deplorable anarchy" They were
of course more familiar with popular ten
denotes in their country than We are, and
therefore more likely to foresee the de-
fects Of any proposed governmental meas
ure. Should a monarchical mayor be
elected while the administration is I'M
questionably republican, they knew that
he would not be permitted to take his
seat, nor would the case be changed by a
direct reversal Of the circumstances. The
action Of NJ. Gambetta in revoking the
powers of hundreds Of anti-republican
mayors is suggestive of the conflicts which
would ensue should communal and ad-
ministrative authority prove at any time
directly aptagonistic.
From all the facts, as presented, it
would appear that the average Frenchman
is not sufficiently familiar with the diff
culties which separate the theory from the
practice of self-government to appreciate
the necessity which exists of maintaining
the supremacy of administrative author
ity. He mnst await the great teacher,
time, and the hard teacher, experience.
We of America have been for hundred
years engaged in an attempt to perfect
our republican system, and notwithstand-
ing all the advances made, find it yet
sadly defective, when contrasted with the
high ideal at which the builders aimed.
Can it be expected, then, that mercurial
France will beat us at boundp The idea
is absurd. French republicanism is I'M
questionably 1.-THE of limb and full of faith,
but it carries not with it that universally
of conviction which warrants experiments
and tolerates mistakes. Tradition runs
counter to its teachings, and military glory
chafes under the leveling claims Of its
equality. 1t should see to all this, and
in striving to build wisely should make
haste slowly. The price Of progress, as
well as of liberty, is eternal vigilance.
Let those who would establish the repub-
lie of France upon firm foundations ex-
ercise so vigilant discretion as to make
their progress sure and their liberty per-
petual.
THE PICAYUNE A LAST DITCHER.
The Picayune has essayed question
addressed to the Last Ditch press. Inthis
it has avowed itself Of that interesting
political variety, and is entitled to q re-
spectful consideration. The momentous
question is