《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第三章·所谓行政监护亦是旧制度所创》第6节
The officers of these municipal corporations had therefore arrived at a becoming sense of their own insignificance. ‘We most humbly supplicate you, Monseigneur’ (such was the style in which they addressed the King’s Intendant), ‘to grant us your good-will and protection. We will endeavour not to show ourselves unworthy of them by the submission we are ready to show to all the commands of your Greatness.’ ‘We have never resisted your will, Monseigneur,’ was the language of another body of these persons, who still assumed the pompous title of Peers of the City. Such was the preparation of the middle classes for government, and of the people for liberty. If at least this close dependence of the towns on the State had preserved their finances! but such was not the case. It is sometimes argued that without centralisation the towns would ruin themselves. I know not how that may be, but I know that in the eighteenth century centralisation did not prevent their ruin. The whole administrative history of that time is replete with their embarrassments. If we turn from the towns to the villages, we meet with different powers and different forms of government, but the same dependence. I find many indications of the fact, that in the Middle Ages the inhabitants of every village formed a community distinct from the Lord of the soil. He, no doubt, employed the community, superintended it, governed it; but the village held in common certain property, which was absolutely its own; it elected its own chiefs, and administered its affairs democratically. This ancient constitution of the parish may be traced in all the nations in which the feudal system prevailed, and in all the countries to which these nations have carried the remnants of their laws. These vestiges occur at every turn in England, and the system was in full vigour in Germany sixty years ago, as may be demonstrated by reading the code of Frederic the Great. Even in France in the eighteenth century, some traces of it were still in existence.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里做了一个极辛辣的反讽，用的不是理论推演，而是史料里直接采来的两段公文套话。市政官员对国王派遣的总督说：“我们最谦卑地恳求您，大人，赐予我们您的善意与保护。我们将努力不辜负它，通过我们随时准备向您伟大的命令表现出的顺从。”另外一群依然顶着“城市贵族”这一堂皇头衔的人，则干脆说：“我们从未违抗过您的意志，大人。”托克维尔紧接着下了一句判断，语调里…