《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第十九章·一场大行政革命先于政治革命而至》第4节
The confusion was made complete by depriving the Intendant of all power, though his office was not suppressed. After taking from him the absolute right of doing everything, he was charged with the task of assisting and superintending all that was to be done by the Assembly; as if it were possible for a degraded public officer to enter into the spirit of the law by which he has been dispossessed and to assist its operation. That which had been done to the Intendant was now extended to his Sub-delegate. By his side, and in the place which he had formerly occupied, was placed a District Assembly, which was to act under the direction of the Provincial Assembly, and upon analogous principles. All that we know of the acts of the Provincial Assemblies of 1787, and even their own reports, show that as soon as they were created they engaged in covert hostilities and often in open war with the Intendants, who made use of their superior experience only to embarrass the movements of their successors. Here an Assembly complained that it was only with difficulty that it could extract the most necessary documents from the hands of the Intendant. There an Intendant accused the members of the Assembly of endeavouring to usurp functions, which, as he said, the edicts had still left to himself. He appealed to the Minister, who often returned no answer, or merely expressed doubts, for the subject was as new and as obscure to him as to every one else. Sometimes the Assembly resolved that the Intendant had administered badly, that the roads which he had caused to be made were ill planned or ill kept up, and that the corporate bodies under his trust have gone to ruin. Frequently these assemblies hesitated in the obscurity of laws so imperfectly known; they sent great distances to consult one another, and constantly sent each other advice. The Intendant of Auch asserted that he had the right to oppose the will of the Provincial Assembly which had authorised a parish to tax itself; the Assembly maintained that this was a subject on which the Intendant could no longer give orders, but only advice, and it asks the Assembly of the Ile de France for its opinion.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里揭示的是一场行政架构内部的瘫痪，其根源在于一种半吊子的改革逻辑：既没有彻底废除旧机构，也没有赋予新机构清晰的完整权力。总督一职被保留下来，但他过去那种一人独断、不受制约的绝对权力被剥夺了。与此同时，他又被指派去协助和监督刚刚成立的省议会，仿佛一个被降格和剥夺实权的官员还能心甘情愿地领会并助推那条旨在架空他自己的法律精神。这种尴尬的双重角色必然…