How France is Governed

We have seen it alternately supported, curbed, and stifled by royalty; we have seen it re-animated by the Revolution, put in leading-strings by the Consulate and the Empire, a little enfranchised by the monarchy of July, and finally emancipated by the Republic. The department, on the contrary, is not the work of the local populations. We must not suppose that the inhabitants of a number of communes united of their own accord, in order to form an administrative district of a hundred, two hundred, five hundred towns and villages. It was the National Assembly which, in 1789, decreed the division of France into a certain number of departments, and in so doing established a complete innovation. Formerly France was composed of provinces, many of which were much larger than our present departments. These provinces were very ancient and had formerly enjoyed a great measures of independence. They had even begun, under the feudal system, by being true States, which had their armies, their laws, their diplomatic relations; and their seigneurs were often hostile to the King of France. Only very gradually did the regional spirit, while remaining very much alive, become reconciled with the idea of French unity. As the authority of the King was increased he made away with the feudal States and replaced them by provincial governments. At the head of the provinces he placed functionaries of various sorts?bailiffs, seneschals, military governors. He often had great trouble to... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.