Paris, December 25, 1799

IF I had not to go to war, I should initiate the prosperity of France through
the local authorities. If one is to regenerate a nation, it is much simpler to
deal with its inhabitants a thousand at a time than to pursue the romantic
ideal of individual welfare. Each local body in France represents 1,000 in-
habitants. If you work for the prosperity of 36 thousand communities you
will be working for that of 36 million inhabitants, whilst simplifying the
issue, and reducing the difficulties arising out of the difference in scale be-
tween thousands and millions. That was what Henri IV had in mind
when he talked about providing everyone with a fowl for his stock-pot:
it would have been a stupid remark otherwise.

The Minister for Home Affairs should pay special attention to the fol-
lowing ideas:

Before the Revolution every village belonged to its landlord, and to its
priest. The tenant and the parishioner had no roads to travel by; there
were no byres where their cows or sheep could shelter, no meadows where
they could go to grass. But since 1790, when this common right of moving
and grazing cattle was suddenly and quite properly taken out of the hands
of the feudal landlord, each municipality has become a real person, under

the protection of common law, with the right of possessing, acquiring,
and buying property, and of performing, for the benefit of the municipa
family, every act contemplated in our codes. Thanks to this great national
conception, France found herself suddenly divided into 36 thousand per.
sonalities, each of which was faced with the responsibilities of ownership
-anxious to extend its property, improve its produce, increase its income,
and so forth.

In that change lay the germ of French prosperity. Why has further de.
velopment been impossible? Because, whilst an individual owner, with
a personal interest in his property, is always wide awake, and brings his
plans to fruition, communal interest is inherently sleepy and unproductive:
because individual enterprise is a matter of instinct, and communal enter
prise a matter of public spirit-and that is rare.

Consequently, since 1790, the 36 thousand local bodies have been like
36 thousand orphan girls. Heiresses to the old feudal rights, they have
been neglected or defrauded for the past ten years by the municipal trus.
tees of the Convention or of the Directory. A new set of mayors, assessors,
or municipal councillors has generally meant nothing more than a fresh
form of robbery: they have stolen the by-road, stolen the foot-path, stoler
the timber, robbed the church, and filched the property of the commune;
and this looting is still going on under the slack municipal system of the
Year VIII.

If this system were to last another ten years, what would become of the
local bodies? They would inherit nothing but debts, and be so bankrupt
that they would be asking charity of the inhabitants, instead of giving them
the help and protection that is their due. Like the family prodigal, they
would have sold or pawned their last stick of furniture, and be unable to
borrow a penny to live on. No one would venture to settle down in a
community so heavily in debt that he would have nothing to look forward:
to but fees and taxes of all kinds--charitable contributions, donations, sub-
scriptions, special collections, and so forth. The existence of a local authority
ought to attract population: under these conditions it would repel it. I

It is the first duty of a Home Secretary to arrest a disease which would
carry infection into the 36 thousand limbs of the great body of society. And
the first thing to do, towards this end, is to form a clear notion of the
seriousness of the disease and of its symptoms. The Minister will therefore
begin by having a general inventory made of the 36 thousand communes-
this has always been wanting. . . . Local bodies will be divided into three
classes: those which are in debt, those which just pay their way, and those
which show a surplus. The second and third classes are in a minority, and

there need be no hurry to deal with them. The point is to restore solvency
to those which are in debt. . . . Once this inventory is drawn up, the
Prefects and Sub-prefects will be warned to bring the whole force of the
administration to bear upon the insolvent municipalities, and to get rid at
once of any mayors or assessors who do not see eye to eye with them as to
local improvement and regeneration. It will be the duty of the Prefect to
visit these bodies at least twice a year, and of the Sub-prefect four times
a year, under penalty of dismissal. He will make a monthly report to the
Minister about each municipality, stating the results of what he has tried
to do, and what still remains to be done.

I should like proposals for a prize for those mayors who have got their
municipalities out of debt within 2 years: whereas, in the case of any mu-
nicipality which is not solvent at the end of 5 years, the Government will
nominate a special commission to take over its administration. (This will
involve the drafting of a law.)

Thus at the end of 5 years France will have only two classes of local
bodies left-those that are working at a profit, and those which make both
ends meet. We shall have expunged from the map of France the insolvent
municipalities, whose property is falling to pieces, and becoming a burden
on the inhabitants.

This first levelling-up accomplished, the efforts of the Minister and of the
municipalities will be devoted to securing that, by the end of a further
period, the solvent communes rise into the class of those which show a sur-
plus; so that, in 10 years' time, this may be the only class left.

When this is done, the movement towards national prosperity initiated
by the efforts of 36 million individuals will be multiplied by the regenera-
tive power of 36 thousand communal personalities, all working, under the
supreme direction of the Government, towards the goal of progressive
perfectibility.

Every year the 50 mayors who have done most to rid their community of
debt, or to manage it at a profit, will be summoned to Paris, at the expense
of the State, and formally presented to the three Consuls.

A column put up at the expense of the Government, at the main entrance
of the village or town, will perpetuate the name of its mayor; and posterity
will read these words:-

"To the Guardian of