tions fixed by law, the daily administration of
affairs is intrusted. Furthermore the sovereign appoints and
establishes in each province a commissioner who is charged with the
execution of royal orders and with a general supervision of the acts
of the local authorities. This royal commissioner presides over the
deliberations of both the provincial estates and the committee of six,
possessing in the committee the power also of voting. He is (p. 533)
distinctly the chief magistrate of the province, and at the same time
the effective tie between the central and the provincial
governments.[743]

[Footnote 743: Arts. 127-141. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 105-108.]

*587. Local Government: the Commune.*--In all essential respects the
government of the Dutch communes is prescribed by the national
constitution, with the result that that government is characterized by
uniformity no less thoroughgoing than is the communal government of
France. Within each commune is a council of from seven to forty-five
members elected directly by the people of the commune for a term of
six years under franchise arrangements identical with those obtaining
in the election of members of the provincial estates, save that no
one, although otherwise qualified to vote for communal councillors,
may exercise the privilege unless he contributes a minimum amount
yearly to the communal rates. One-third of the members of the council
retire every two years. The council meets publicly as frequently as
business requires. It enacts by-laws, levies taxes, supervises
education, and represents the interests of the commune, if occasion
arises, before the sovereign, the States-General, and the provincial
estates. All of its legislative acts are liable to veto by the crown,
and the municipal budget requires regularly the approval of the
committee of the provincial estates. Executive authority within the
commune is vested in a burgomaster, or mayor, appointed by the
sovereign for a term of six years, and a board of two to six
_wethouders_, or aldermen, elected by and from the council. The
burgomaster presides in the council and, as a representative of the
royal authority, may suspend for a period of thirty days any measure
enacted.[744]

[Footnote 744: Arts. 142-148. Ibid., II.,
108-110.]

CHAPTER XXIX (p. 534)

THE