Small Holdings in France', 
G17 
d’Arrondissement, Conseil Gdn^ral. Of these the first and the last 
have important functions, but the Conseil d’Arrondissement is 
admittedly almost superfluous. The Conseil Municipal is the Parish 
Council, and the Conseil G^n^ral answers to our County Council. 
Every commune, however small, has its ‘ Conseil Municipal,’ 
never consisting of less than ten members, and not exceeding ten 
if the population is under 500. For populations between 500 and 
1,500 the number of municipal councillors is fixed at twelve. The 
commune of Vraignes, the population of which is under 200, has 
ten councillors ; and the adjoining commune, Thieulloy I’Abbaye, 
with a population now just under 500, has likewise only ten. 
The Conseil Municipal is elected every four years, and the elections 
took place all over France on May 1 last. At the preceding elec- 
tion Thieulloy I’Abbaye was entitled to twelve councillors, which 
number had to be reduced by two on May 1 , owing to the popula- 
tion having fallen below 500. As the position of municipal coun- 
cillor is much coveted, unusual excitement is said to have prevailed 
at the recent election. A fortniglit later, on Sunday, May 15, it 
became the duty of the newly elected councillors all over France to 
elect their mayor. Being on a visit to Monsieur Abdias de Vismes, 
a municipal councillor at Vraignes, I was permitted to attend the 
election, which took place at the Mairie in the afternoon. All ten 
councillors were present, with the schoolmaster, who is also secre- 
tary of the Mairie. Of the councillors, the outgoing mayor — 
Monsieur Cocu — M. de Vismes, M. Lesot, M. Bethambeau, and 
M. Hiesse are cultivateurs, or farmers of land, partly their own, 
partly hired. M. Abdias de Vismes, who is of noble descent, is the 
only farmer in the village holding over 100 acres. He has lately 
hired 50 in addition to the 99 belonging to himself or members 
of his own family. M. Flenri is a wheelwright, M. Barron a car- 
penter, M. Petit a mhiager (a class intermediate between the 
farmer and labourer), M. Bernard a general dealer, and the last is 
the retired Commandant Seitz. No mere labourer is on the council ; 
all are not only ratepayers, but proprietors of some extent of land 
or house. Almost without exception, the councillors were dressed 
en bourgeois, the blouse being discarded on Sundays and on import- 
ant occasions. That a village of 186 inhabitants in a poor district, 
with nothing but a primitive form of depressed agriculture to 
depend upon, should have produced so respectable a conseil, was in 
itself remarkable. The proceedings commenced by the outgoing 
mayor. Monsieur Cocu, proposing that the eldest councillor present 
should take the chair, to which he was voted unanimously. Slips 
of ordinary paper, torn up for the purpose, were next handed round 
to each councillor, who, having written thereon the name of his 
candidate (there was no illiterate voter), folded it and deposited it 
in somebody’s straw hat. The voting resulted in the unanimous 
re-election of M. Cocu (for the fifth or sixth time, his father before 
him having been mayor of Vraignes for more than thirty years). 
M. Bethambeau was almost unanimously elected “ adjoint ” or 
vice-mayor. 
u u 2 
