Each
department was subdivided into districts, cantons. and communes,--
divisions which have endured in France to the present time. The heads
of the local government were no longer to be appointed by the crown but
elected by the people, and extensive powers were granted to elective
local councils. Provision was made for a new system of law courts
throughout the country, and the judges, like the administrative
officials, were to be elected by popular vote. Projects were likewise
put forward to unify and simplify the great variety and mass of laws
which prevailed in different parts of France, but this work was not
brought to completion until the time of Napoleon Bonaparte.
[Sidenote: 4. Financial Regulation. 5. Secularization of Church
Property, the Assignats]
Another grave matter which concerned the National Assembly was the
regulation of the public finances. It will be recalled that financial
confusion was the royal reason for summoning the Estates-General. And
in the early days of the Assembly, the confusion became chaos: it was
impossible to enforce the payment of direct taxes; indirect taxes were
destroyed by legislative decree; and bankers could not be induced to
make new loans.
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