60." Now, "a house with five openings pays nearly nine times as much as a house with one opening." The small taxpayers are accordingly largely relieved at the expense of those who pay heavy and average taxes, the magnitude of this relief being appreciable by the following figures: In 1885, out of 8,975,166 houses, 248,352 had one opening, 1,827,104 two openings, 1,624,516 three openings, and 1,165,902 four openings.

More than one-half of the houses, all of those belonging to the poor or straitened, are thus relieved, while the other half, since the tax is an impost, not a quota, but an apportionment, is overcharged as much.] [Footnote 4222: One result of this principle is, that the poor who are exempt from taxation or who are on the poor list have no vote, which is the case in England and in Prussia .-- Through another result of the same principle, the law of May 15, 1818, in France, summoned the heaviest taxpayers, in equal number with the members of the municipal council, to deliberate with it every time that "a really urgent expenditure" obliged the commune to raise extra additional centimes beyond the usual 0 fr.
05.

"Thus," says Henrion de Pancey ("Du pouvoir municipal," p.109), "the members of the municipal councils belong to the class of small land-owners, at least in a large number of communes, voted the charges without examination which only affected them insensibly."-- This last refuge of distributive justice was abolished by the law of April 5, 1882.] [Footnote 4223: Max Leclerc, "Le Vie municipale en Prusse." (Extrait des "Annales de l'Ecole libre des sciences politique," 1889, a study on the town of Bonn.) At Bonn, which has a population of 35,810 inhabitants, the first group is composed of 167 electors: the second, of 471; the third, of 2607, each group elects 8 municipal councilors out of 24.] [Footnote 4224: De Foville, "La France economique," p.

16 (census of 1881) .-- Number of communes, 36,097; number below 1000 inhabitants, 27,503; number below 500 inhabitants, 16,870 .-- What is stated applies partly to the two following categories: 1st, communes from 1000 to 1500 inhabitants, 2982; 2nd, communes from 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, 1917 .-- All the communes below 2000 inhabitants are counted as rural in the statistics of population, and they number 33,402.] [Footnote 4225: See Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "L'Etat moderne et ses fonctions," p.169.

"The various groups of inhabitants, especially in the country, do not know how to undertake or agree upon anything of themselves.