The Rectors as spiritual leaders and the Connétables as civil functionaries represented the ten parishes of the island, and though the latter were elected to office they were always from the leading families, which formed an extremely close oligarchy. Bailiff, Jurats and Rectors still sit in this undifferentiated Parliament, to which has been added a slightly more democratic element however, nine Deputies being elected by the Ratepayers of the whole Island.
It was, and still is, the Bailiff's duty to summon this "States of Deliberation," formerly at his own discretion, now at regular intervals. He does this by means of issuing a Billet d'Etat, in which he comments on the business to come before the States and in which he formulates certain resolutions. On these resolutions the States only vote for or against. This Billet d'Etat is in French, still the official language—the only one used in the deliberations in former days.
The whole takes us back in thought to Norman or early English times. Probably even the Norman patois of the modern rural deputies is the speech of the present time nearest to that in which our ancestors transacted their business.
This legislative body represents the King's Council, in the same way that the supreme judicial body, still bearing the name of La Cour Royale, represents the King's Court.
The decisions of the States are subject to the approval of the Privy Council, to whom there is a right of appeal.
CHAPTER II
THE SECURITY OF THE NOTES
Guernsey, like other places, fell on evil days early in the nineteenth century, the period of history with which we have to deal; and the islanders suffered from the burden of a heavy debt and from the depression and want of employment which followed the close of the Napoleonic wars.