that we have just received an order from
monsieur the mayor to go and break stones on the
vicinal road. Endeavouring to fulfil our duties
as citizens to the utmost of our ability, I and my
vicaire intend going to the appointed task
tomorrow; but, during those three days, neither
baptisms, funerals, nor marriages can be
celebrated, since we cannot be in two places at
once. If any of you fall sick and require to be
visited, you must get a written permission from
monsieur the mayor, allowing us to absent
ourselves."

The bold innovation, a few years since, of a
dog-tax in France, puzzled the brains of many a
mayor and his adjoint. The several categories
of fancy dogs, sporting dogs, and watch dogs,
led them into a wilderness of notes and queries.
A curious arrêté, or decree, the authenticity and
responsibility of which rest with the Abeille
Cauchoise, is attributed to a mayor of Berri:

"We, ' Mer' (maire) of Q., considering that
grave difficulties, &c. &c., decree as follows:
The three first dogs which shall be presented as
fancy, sporting, and watch dogs, shall be stuffed
and preserved in the archives of the ' mer rit'
(mairie) for comparison with all other dogs that
shall be hereafter presented. Dogs of either sex
not corresponding to the above shall be
considered as null and void, and rejected as such.
When such difference is only trifling, and can be
removed by clipping the ears or tail, or shearing
the coat, it shall be done forthwith, willy-nilly.
If a male or female dog quit the paternal roof
without authorisation, he or she shall be arrested
as a vagabond and suffer the penalties of the
law. The proprietors of dogs who cannot read
are required to obtain a translation of these
presents, so that nobody may pretend ignorance
of them. When Pierre, the town crier, has
mended the holes in his drum, he shall publish
our decree throughout the streets of the
commune. Secret article. In order that the several
classes of dogs may henceforward remain
distinct, alliances between the different
categories are hereby strictly forbidden. Done at our
' Mer rit' of Q., the 26th of September, 1856."
In short, country mayors are the acknowledged
heirs-at-law of all the unclaimed stupidities
and absurd blunders that go wandering about
a country in search of owners. Ignorance,
however, does not exclude cunning and avarice.
A few years ago, the Correctional Chamber of
the Imperial Court of Pau condemned the
mayor of a commune in the département des
Landes to the restitution of about eighty acres
of land, which he had taken to himself to the
prejudice of the commune.

Roads have also their hierarchy; there are five
sorts and conditions of roads. The five French
territorial ranks—namely, the Empire, the
Departments, the Arrondissements, the Cantons,
and the Communes, have each a class of roads
corresponding to them—namely, Imperial roads,
Departmental roads, Vicinal roads of Grand
Communication, and Vicinal roads of Mean
Communication, and Vicinal roads of Small
Communication. These roads are numbered,
according to their class, on a complete map of
France or of any department. Thus, the road
from Paris to Calais is the Imperial road (Route)
No. 1; the road from Calais to Marquise, viâ
Guines, is the Departmental road No. 3; the
road from Amiens to Arras, viâ Pas, is the
Vicinal road of Grande Communication No. 2.
As is the rank of the road, so is its stated
width. Roads of the two first classes are planted
on each side with trees; in the majority of cases,
elms, warning examples of bad arboriculture.

In an administrative point of view, Public
Works (Ponts et Chaussées) include chemins
vicinaux, departmental roads, strategetic roads,
and imperial roads. But France being an
essentially agricultural country, in which property
is very much subdivided, and the country
population scattered, the chemins vicinaux and
other routes are of the utmost importance.
They are consequently taken under administrative
protection. Last August, the emperor
allotted twenty-five million francs (one
million sterling) for the completion of desirable
vicinal roads.

The title Chemin is appropriated to second-
rate roads, which are not classed either as
imperial or departmental roads; and in order to
be styled vicinal, a chemin must have been
legally recognised. Vicinal roads may be
declared of "grande communication," in which
case they generally receive subventions from
the funds of the department. It is only
exceptionally that this pecuniary favour is accorded
to roads of inferior rank. Departmental roads
owe their origin to an imperial decree of
December 16, 1811, which considered them as a
dismemberment from the imperial roads of the
third class, and so exonerated the treasury from
the expense of constructing and maintaining
such roads.

The epithet " imperial" is confined to roads
which are maintained exclusively at the expense
of the state, after being so classified by a law
or ordonnance of the sovereign. From time to
time it happens that the increased development
of old established interests, or the creation of
new ones—whether political, commercial, or
administrative—will confer on a departmental road
such a character of general and extensive utility
as to promote it from its former rank to claim the
title and funds allotted to imperial highways.

Strategetic roads, as their name implies, are
the means of military operations rather than
aids to public convenience. In 1833, a special
credit of twelve millions of francs was placed at
the disposal of the government for the
establishment of a system of strategetic roads in
the western departments (in La Vendée, &c.),
which has since been increased by several
supplemental credits.

The Service Vicinal, or maintenance of the
roads inferior to those of the two first classes,
is entrusted to a special set of individuals called
Agents-Voyers, thus organised: There is an
Agent- Voyer-in-Chief, resident in the chef-lieu
of the department; there is a Principal Agent-
Voyer, resident in each chef-lieu of arrondissement;