[23] The
parliamentarians of the district capital (chef-lieu) , purchasers and
owners of their offices, magistrates from father to son, much
wealthier and much prouder than nowadays, were, in their old
hereditary mansions, the real chiefs of the province, its constant
representatives on the spot, its popular defenders against ministerial
and royal absolutism. All these powers, which once counterbalanced
episcopal power, have disappeared. Restricted to their judicial
office, the tribunals have ceased to be political authorities and
moderators of the central government: in the town and department, the
mayor and general councilors, appointed or elected for a certain time,
enjoy only temporary credit; the prefect, the military commandant, the
rector, the treasurer-general are merely passing strangers. The local
circumscription, for a century, is an exterior post where individuals
live together in contact but not associated; no longer does any
intimate, lasting and strong bond exist between them; nothing remains
of the old province but a population of inhabitants, a given number of
private persons under unstable functionaries.
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