to certain communes, there are, as with us,
hameaux, or hamlets, which have no separate
existence independent of the commune itself.
The paroisse, or parish, is an area limited by an
ecclesiastical rather than a civil boundary. A
commune, therefore, is the last and ultimate
territorial division in France; it is the unit of
administrative area, the indivisible atom of an
aggregation of which the country consists. The
curés of cantons are doyens, or deans, and
exercise ecclesiastical surveillance over the curés of
the communes in their canton. The jurisdiction
of commissaries of police extends throughout
the canton of their residence. These gentlemen
are named by the emperor in towns with more
than six thousand souls; by the prefect in
smaller towns.

The principal towns belonging to each of these
territorial subdivisions respectively, are styled
(in the plural) Chefs-lieux de Département,
d'Arrondissement, de Canton, and de
Commune. Thus, Vougeot, famous for its Burgundy
wine, is a commune whose chef-lieu de canton
is Nuits (also famous for its wine), whose chef-
lieu d'arrondissement is Beaune (likewise famous
for its wine), whose chef-lieu de département is
Dijon. The commune looks up to the canton,
the canton looks up to the arrondissement, the
arrondissement looks up to the département,
and the département looks up to the Minister of
the Interior. This regulated course of
communication, step by step, according to due
precedence and order of rank, is called by French
officials, curiously enough, doing, things in their
hierarchical course. The correspondence
relative to the opening of a tobacco-shop on the
resignation of a viilage mayor must be strictly
hierarchically conducted.

And now for the administrative machinery:
a department is administered by a préfet, who
communicates directly with the central government;
an arrondissement by a sous-préfet, who
communicates with the préfet; a canton by the
maire, or mayor, of its chef-lieu, who communicates
with the sous-préfet; and a commune by
a mayor, who communicates witli the mayor of
his chef-lieu de canton.

A préfet, then, named by the head of the
state, is alone charged with the administration
of the department. A préfet acts and decides
alone, or in prefectoral council, according to
circumstances. The préfet, administering his
department quite alone, can act without authority
from others, by the sole authority of guardianship,
and decide with the authority of commandment;
he can name, institute, or revoke certain
functionaries, or provoke a decision from the
government. Having heard his council, with
whom he is not obliged to agree, he may enact
the adjudication of public works, roads of
course included. In the préfets' bureaux is
transacted the business of the service of the
bridges and highways, i.e. of the two first classes
of roads, the imperial and the departmental,
together with the placing of the barrières de
dégel, or thaw barriers, to prevent roads from
being broken up by heavy vehicles after a frost.
The sous-préfet's, or sub-prefect's, name explains
itself.

  By the law of the 5th of May, 1855, the
municipal body of each commune is composed of
the mayor, one or more adjoints, or deputy-
mayors, and the municipal councillors. The
mayor and his adjoints are named by the
emperor in every chef-lieu of department, of
arrondissement, and of canton, and in all communes
of three thousand inhabitants and upwards. In
other communes they are named by the préfet in
the name of the emperor. They must be twenty-
five years of age, and inscribed in the commune
on the roll of one of the four direct contributions
(taxes). The adjoints, like the mayor,
may be selected from persons who are not
members of the municipal council. The mayor
and his adjoints are named for five years, but in
reality hold office as long as their superiors are
satisfied with them. There is one adjoint in
communes of two thousand five hundred
inhabitants and under; two in those with populations
ranging from two thousand five hundred
to ten thousand; in others, there is an
additional adjoint for every additional twenty
thousand inhabitants. In like manner, the numbers
of the municipal councils are proportioned to
the population. A more complete and despotic
system of centralisation is scarcely conceivable.

The English reader will be amused to hear
speak of these mayors of little villages; they not
unfrequently give rise to amusement in France.
Numerous anecdotes, historical or happily
invented, circulate respecting the way in which
they discharge their duties. One mayor, an
imperfect adept at spelling, having to fill up a
statistical table inquiring into the sanitary
condition of his commune, took the word "Crétins,"
idiots, for " Chrétiens," Christians, and returned,
"We are all 'Crétins,' except a couple of Jews."
Another mayor, of a mountain commune, who
was also his own shepherd, and who followed
his flock in winter down to the plain, was
accustomed to leave with his official secretary
blank registers of births and deaths, ready
signed, to be duly filled up during his absence.
But mayors are mortal as well as their townsmen.
He fell ill, returned straight home, and
died. He was entered in one of the blank
registers, with his own signature attesting the
fact of his own decease.

One of the functions of a mayor is the
celebration of civil marriage (indispensable). Some
mayors speak purer patois than French, and put
the needful questions it might be thus: "I sa',
Billy Button, dew yew raylly mean to ha' Sue
Slumkins for yar wife? Yew dew? Varry wall.
Sue Slumkins, what dew yew sa'? Wull yew
ha' Billy Button for yar 'usband?" The
sacramental " Yes" from the parties concerned
covers every official sin of mispronunciation.

A mayor's authority over his roads is
illustrated by the lesson given from the pulpit by
a curé to his civil superior. " My brethren,"
he said, addressing his congregation, " on
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next, there will
be neither mass, catechism, nor prayers, seeing