[12] We see, thus, that none of the local powers are
delegated by the central power; the latter is simply like a man
without either hands or arms, seated in a gilt chair. The Minister
of the Finances cannot appoint or dismiss either an assessor or a
collector; the Minister of the Interior, not one of the
departmental, district, or communal administrators; the Minister of
Justice, not one judge or public prosecutor. The King, in these
three branches of the service, has but one officer of his own, the
commissioner whose duty it is to advocate the observance of the laws
in the courts, and, on sentence being given, to enforce its
execution. - All the muscles of the central power are paralyzed by
this stroke, and henceforth each department is a State apart, living
by itself.
An similar amputation, however, in the department itself, has cut
away all the ties by which the superior could control and direct his
subordinate. - If the administrators of the department are suffered
to influence those of the district, and those of the district those
of the municipality, it is only, again, in the way of council and
solicitation.
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