ished with the penalty of civic degradation, without prejudice to the execution of article 2 of the decree of May 7 last.

7. Decrees for Reorganizing the Local Government System.

These documents exhibit the general outline of the scheme for local government devised by the Constituent Assembly in order to replace that of the Old Régime, which had disappeared during the revolution in the provinces which followed the overthrow of the Bastile. The extent of the revolution in local affairs may be seen by comparing this scheme of government with that which it replaced. Some parts of the scheme here outlined have been permanent, others have been seriously modified or discarded; the permanent features should be particularly noted.

REFERENCES. Stephens, French Revolution, I, 278-284; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 79-84.

A. Decree upon the Municipalities. Duvergier, Lois, I, 63-67.

December 14. 1789.

I. The actually existing municipalities in each city, borough, parish, or community, under the titles of hotels-de-ville, mayoralties, aldermanates, consulates, and generally under any title or qualification whatsoever, are suppressed and abolished; the municipal officers actually in service, however, shall continue their functions until they may be replaced.

2. The officers and members of the existing municipalities shall be replaced by means of election.

3. The rights of presentation, appointment, or confirmation, and the rights of presidency or of presence in the municipal assemblies claimed or exercised as being attached to the possession of certain lands, to the functions of province or city commandant, bishoprics, or archbishoprics, and in general by any other title whatsoever, are abolished.

4. The head of every municipal body shall bear the title of mayor.

5. All the active citizens of each city, borough, parish or community may participate in the election of the members of the municipal body.

6. The active citizens shall meet in a single assembly in the communities where there are less than four thousand inhabitants; in two assemblies in the communities of four to eight thousand inhabitants; in three assemblies in the communities of eight to twelve thousand inhabitants, and so on.

7. The assemblies shall not form themselves by crafts, professions, or corporations, but by quarters or districts.

12. The conditions of eligibility for the municipal administrations shall be the same as for the department and district administrations; nevertheless, the kinsmen and relatives by marriage in the degrees of father and son, father-in-law and son-in-law, brother and brother-in-law, uncle and nephew, cannot be at the same time members of the same municipal body.

13. The municipal officers and the notables who shall be spoken of hereinafter can be chosen only from among the eligible citizens of the commune.

24. After the elections, the active citizens of the community cannot remain assembled, or assemble again in communal body, without an express convocation ordered by the general council of the commune, which shall be spoken of hereinafter. This council shall not refuse it, if it is requested by one-sixth of the active citizens in the communities below 4,000 souls and by 150 active citizens in all the other communities.

25. The members of the municipal bodies of the cities, boroughs, parishes, or communities, shall be three in number, including the mayor, when the population shall be less than 500 souls; six, including the mayor, from 500 souls to 3,000; nine from 3,000 souls to 10,000; twelve from 10,000 to 23, 000; fifteen from 25,000 to 50,000; eighteen from 50,000 to 100,000; twenty-one above 100,000 souls. As to the city of Paris, in consequence of its enormous population, it shall be governed by a special regulation which shall be given by the National Assembly upon the same basis and after the same principles as the general regulation for all the municipalities of the kingdom.

26. There shall be in each municipality a communal procureur without deliberative voice; he shall be charged to defend the interests and to prosecute the suits of the community.

30. The active citizens of each community shall select, by a single scrutin de liste and plurality of the votes, a number of notables double that of the members of the municipal body.

31. These notables shall form with the members of the municipal body the general council of the commune and they shall be summoned only for important matters, as hereinafter provided.

34. Each municipal body composed of more than three members shall be divided into a council and a bureau.

35. The bureau shall be composed of a third of the municipal officers, including the mayor who shall always make up part of it; the other two-thirds shall form the council.

36. The members of the bureau shall be chosen by the municipal body every year and cannot be re-elected for a second year.

37. The bureau shall be charged with all executive tasks and confined to simple administration. In the municipalities reduced to three members the execution shall be entrusted to the mayor alone.

38. The municipal council shall assemble at least once per month; it shall begin by agreeing upon the accounts of the bureau, when there is occasion; and after that operation is completed the members of the bureau shall have sitting and deliberative voice with those of the council.

39. All the deliberations necessary for the discharge of the functions of the municipal body shall be taken in the united assembly of the members of the council and of the bureau. with the exception of deliberations relative to the closing of the accounts, which, as will be said, shall be taken by the coun cil alone.

42. The municipal officers and the notables shall be elected for two years and renewed each year by half.

43. The mayor shall remain in service for two years; he can be re-elected for two other years; but following that it shall not be permissible to elect him again until after an interval of two years.

45. The election assemblies for the annual renewals shall be held in all the kingdom the Sunday following Martinmasday, upon the call of the municipal officers.

49. The municipal bodies shall have two kinds of functions to fulfill; one appertaining to the municipal authority; the other appertaining to the general administration of the State and delegated by it to the municipalities.

50. The functions appertaining to the municipal authority, under the surveillance and supervision of the administrative assemblies, are: to manage the common possessions and revenues of the cities, boroughs, parishes, and communities; to control and to pay those local expenses which ought to be paid out of the common funds; to direct and to cause to be executed the public works which are under the charge of the commun ity; to administer the establishments which belong to the community and are maintained out of its funds or which are especially intended for the use of the citizens of whom it is composed; to cause the inhabitants to enjoy the advantages of a good police, especially for property, health, security, and tranquility in the public streets, places, and buildings.

51. The functions appertaining to the general administration which can be delegated to the municipal bodies in order to be discharged under the authority of the administrative assemblies are the apportionment of the direct taxes among the citizens of whom the community is composed; the collection of these taxes; the deposit of these taxes in the coffers of the district or department; the immediate direction of the public works within the jurisdiction of the municipality; the immediate management of the public establishments intended for general utility; the surveillance and the agency necessary for the preservation of the public properties; the direct oversight of the works of repair and reconstruction of the churches, parsonages, and other things related to the service of religious worship.

52. For the exercise of the functions belonging to or delegated to the municipal bodies they shall have the right to make requisition for the necessary assistance of the national guards and other public forces as shall be more fully set forth.

54. The general council of the commune, composed as well of the municipal body as of the notables, shall be convoked whenever the municipal administration shall judge it convenient. It cannot dispense with convoking it when there is

in question deliberation upon the acquisitions or alienations of immovables, extraordinary taxes for local expenses, loans, works to be undertaken, the employment of the proceeds of sales, reimbursements or recoveries, suits to be instituted, even upon suits to be defended, in case the basis of the right shall be contested.

55. The municipal bodies shall be entirely subordinate to the department and district administrations for every thing which shall concern the functions which they shall have to dis charge by delegation of the general administration.

56. As to the exercise of the functions appertaining to the municipal authority, none of the decisions for which the convocation of the general council of the commune is necessary, according to article 54 above, can be executed except with the approval of the department administration or directory, which shall be given, if there is occasion, upon the notification of the district administration or directory.

57. All the accounts of the management of the municipal bureaus, after they have been received by the municipal council, shall be verified by the district administration or directory, and agreed to definitively by the department administration or directory upon the notification of that of the district or of its directory.

60. If a citizen believes himself to be personally injured by any act of the municipal body, he may set forth his matters of complaint to the department administration or directory, which shall do right therein, upon the notification of the district administration, which shall be charged with the verification of the facts.

61. Every active citizen can subscribe to and present against the municipal officers a denunciation of the administrative offences of which he claims that they have rendered themselves guilty; but prior to carrying this denunciation before the tribunals, he shall be required to submit it to the department administration or directory, which, after having taken the opinion of the district administration or its directory, shall send the denunciation, if there be need, before the judges who must take jurisdiction of it.

62. The active citizens have the right to meet peaceably and