Paris

There is a municipal council of 8o members, one from each of the four quarters of each of the 20 arrondissements of the city. The council elects its own chairman, votes the budget and discusses the prefect's administration. The prefect of the depart ment and the prefect of police may attend its meetings and, under certain circumstances, may overrule its decisions if this be neces sary in order to maintain the public services. In cases of illegality, the decisions of the municipal council may be overruled by the President of the Republic. The municipal council, together with one representative from each of the 22 cantons outside Paris, forms the council of the department of Seine.

The prefect of the department has charge of finance, elections, public works, public lands, primary education, charities, roads, lighting, markets, pawnbroking (the mont de piete), and judicial actions. He is helped by staffs of technical experts and by com mittees on housing, statistics, etc. A housing policy has been pursued since 1918, and a labour exchange was established for Paris and the department of Seine in 1915.

The prefect of police has a judicial staff for pursuit of crime, and a general staff for social duties. He maintains the peace, in spects weights and measures, licenses public spectacles, licenses public vehicles, overlooks markets, is in charge of prisons, and has much to do with health. In the last matter he is helped by a council of public health of the department. This discusses water supply and sewage problems, disinfection, etc., and it has attached to it a board of health in each arrondissement of Paris.

Each of the 20 arrondissements has a mayor, who is allowed three deputies ; all of these are appointed by the President of the Republic. This mayor has charge of the affairs of the arrondisse ment, is a registrar of births, marriages and deaths, and has to call up the conscripts. Each arrondissement has its juge de paix and its police force under an officier de paix. In nearly every quarter there is a commissaire de police, who sanctions the com mitting of arrested persons to prison, and who acts as a magis trate in small disputes.

Law and Justice

(see FRANCE: Justice, for an account of the judicial system of the country as a whole).—Paris is the seat of four courts having jurisdiction over all France : (I) The Tri bunal des Conflits, for settling disputes between the judicial and administrative authorities on questions as to their respective jurisdiction; (2) the Council of State, which includes a section for cases of litigation between private persons and public depart ments; (3) the Cour des Comptes, and (4) the Cour de Cassa tion. The first three sit in the Palais Royal, the fourth in the

Palais de Justice, which is also the seat of : (I) a cour d'appel for seven departments (seven civil chambers, one chamber of appeal for the correctional police, one chamber for preliminary proceedings) ; (2) a cour d'assises; (3) a tribunal of first in stance for the department of Seine, comprising seven chambers for civil affairs, four chambers of correctional police; (4) a police court where each juge de paix presides in his turn, assisted by a commissaire de police. Litigations between the departmental or municipal administrations and private persons are decided by the conseil de prefecture. Besides these courts there are conseils de prud'hommes and a tribunal of commerce. The conseils de prud' hommes settle differences between workmen and workmen, or be tween workmen and masters ; the whole initiative, however, rests with the parties. There are four of these bodies in Paris (for the metal trades, the chemical trades, the textile trades and building industries), composed of an equal number of masters and men. The tribunal of commerce, sitting in a building opposite the Palais de Justice, is composed of business men elected by the "notables" of their order, and deals with cases arising out of com mercial transactions ; declarations of bankruptcy are made before it ; it also acts as registrar of trade-marks and of articles of asso ciation of companies, and as court of appeal to the conseils de prud'hommes.

Prisons.

There are three places of detention in Paris—the Depot of the prefecture of police (in the Palais de Justice), where persons arrested and not released by the commissaries of police are temporarily confined, the Conciergerie or maison de justice, for the reception of prisoners accused of crimes, who are there submitted to a preliminary examination before the president of the court of assizes, and the Sante (near the Place Denfert Rochereau), for prisoners awaiting trial and for remanded pris oners. The old prisons of Mazas, Ste. Pelagie and La Grande Roquette, the demolition of which was ordered in 1894, have been replaced by the prison of Fresnesles-Rungis for condemned prisoners. The prisoners, kept in solitary confinement, are divided into three groups : those undergoing short sentences, those sen tenced to hard labour while awaiting transference to their final place of detention or to sentences over a year, and sick prisoners, occupying the central infirmary of the prison. The Petit Roquette (occupied by children) was replaced by the agricultural and horti cultural colony of Montesson inaugurated in 1896.