Law went according to local opinion, and the national taxes were often left unpaid.

In the Reign of Terror this lax system was replaced by the despotism of the secret committees, and the way was thus paved for a return to organized central control, such as was exercised by the Directory.
The First Consul, as successor to the Directory, therefore found matters ready to his hand for a drastic measure of centralization, and it is curious to notice that the men of 1789 had unwittingly cleared the ground for him.

To make way for the "supremacy of the general will," they abolished the _Parlements_, which had maintained the old laws, customs, and privileges of their several provinces, and had frequently interfered in purely political matters.

The abolition of these and other privileged corporations in 1789 unified France and left not a single barrier to withstand either the flood of democracy or the backwash of reaction.

Everything therefore favoured the action of the First Consul in drawing all local powers under his own control.
France was for the moment weary of elective bodies, that did little except waste the nation's taxes; and though there was some opposition to the new proposal, it passed on February 16th, 1800 (28 Pluviose, an, viii).
It substituted local government by the central power for local self-government.