ure of its latest occupant, and enlarged by him so as to spread over
the whole of France. When, after twenty-five years of exile, one returns
home, it is pleasant to find such a bed in the house ready made, taking
down and remaking the old one would give double trouble; moreover, in
the old one, one was less at his ease; let us profit by all that rebels
and the usurper have done that was good. In this particular, not
alone the king, but again the most antiquated of the Bourbons
are revolutionaries and Bonapartists; despotic traditionally, and
monopolists through their situation, they accept with no regrets the
systematic demolition effected by the Constituent Assembly, and the
systematic centralization instituted by the First Consul. The Duc
d'Angouleme, when, in 1815, he was paraded about the country, among the
bridges, canals, and splendid roads of Languedoc, on being reminded that
these fine works were formerly executed by the "Etats" of the province,
dryly replied "We prefer the departments to the provinces."[4147]

With the exception of a few antiquarian and half-rustic royalists,
nobody objects; there is no thought of reconstructing the machine on
another plan; in sum, nobody is dissatisfied with the way it works. It
works well, most effectively; under the Restoration as under the Empire,
it renders to those who are interested the service demanded of it; it
goes on providing better and better for the two grand objects of local
society, care for the public highways and protection against natural
calamities. In 1814, its net results are already admirable and do it
credit--reparation of the ruins accumulated by the Revolution,[4148]
the continuation and completion of former projects, new and striking
enterprises, dikes against the sea and the rivers, basins, moles, and
jetties in the harbors, quays, and bridges, locks and canals, public
edifices, 27,200 kilometers of national roads and 18,600 kilometers of
departmental roads,[4149] without counting the district roads just
laid out; all this done regularly, exactly, and economically, Charles
Nicolas, "Les Budgets de la France depuis le commencement du XIXe
siecle." In 1816, the four direct contributions returned, in principal,
249 millions, and, in additional centimes, 89 millions only. For a long
time the additional centimes applied to the local service and voted by
the department or by the commune are not many and do not exceed 5 %. of
the principal. by competent fun