ADMINISTRATION OF A TOWN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
I extract from the inquiry made in 1764 into the administration of towns, the document relating to Angers; in it we shall find the constitution of the town analysed, attacked, and defended by turns by the Présidial, the Corporation, the Sub-delegate, and the Intendant. As the same facts were repeated in a great number of other places, this must not be looked upon merely as an individual picture.
‘Report of the Présidial on the actual state of the Municipal Corporation of Angers, and on the Reforms to be made in it.’
‘The corporation of Angers,’ says the Présidial, ‘never consults the inhabitants generally, even on the most important subjects, except in cases in which it is obliged by special orders to do so. This system of administration is, therefore, unknown to all those who do not belong to the corporation, even to the échevins amovibles, who have but a very superficial idea of it.’
(The tendency of all these small civic oligarchies was, indeed, to consult what are here called the inhabitants generally as little as possible.)
The corporation was composed, according to an arrêt de règlement of 29th March, 1681, of twenty-one officers:—
A mayor, who becomes noble, and whose functions continue for four years.
Four échevins amovibles, who remain in office two years.
Twelve échevins conseillers, who, when once elected, remain for life.
Two procureurs de ville.