'
'The double election,' I said, 'of the American President is nugatory.
Every elector is chosen under a pledge to nominate a specified
candidate.'
'That is true,' said Beaumont, 'as to the President, but not as to the
other functionaries thus elected. The senators chosen by double election
are far superior to the representatives chosen by direct voting.
'We proposed, too, to begin by establishing municipal institutions. We
were utterly defeated. The love of centralisation is almost inherent in
French politicians. They see the evil of local government--its stupidity,
its corruption, its jobbing. They see the convenience of
centralisation--the ease with which a centralised administration works.
Feelings which are really democratic have reached those who fancy
themselves aristocrats. We had scarcely a supporter.
'We should perhaps have a few now, when experience has shown that
centralisation is still more useful to an usurper than it is to a regular
Government.'
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 212.--ED.]
_August_ 18.--We drove in the afternoon to the coast, and sat in the
shade of the little ricks of sea-weed, gazing on an open sea as blue as
the Mediterranean.
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