Rathaus

“ Conspicuous among the buildings was seen the Presidency, a massive modern edifice, the government offices like a substantial Hôtel de Ville, and the twin spires of the Dutch Reformed Church resembling those of the cathedral of Châlons. The interior of the town is not disappointing. The quiet, verdant streets have a certain decorous picturesqueness, branching from a vast place, in the centre of which stands a square-towered market-house. ”

“ If the chief centre of interest had once lain in the offices of the royal palace it might now be seen rather in the new Town Hall which was being built in almost every borough in England, or in the office where the mayor’s clerk was busied in making his copies of Magna Charta or extracts of Domesday, or in translating from the old French the customs and ordinances of the town, or in hunting up the rolls of the itinerant judges ”

“ When the clock in the church-tower struck seven, the watchmen on the bastions struck the big drum three times, whereupon the felon's bell in the tower of the townhall began to toll—a sad, heartrending sound. Then the gates of the courtyard were thrown open, and out came the procession in the usual order, the headsman first on horseback, then the convict, and last of all the members of the town council, the sheriff, the superrector, the conrector, the syndic, and the civic warden. ”

“ After divine service, they are to proceed from the cathedral in like manner (the orator and speech boys following the court) to the Gild-hall, and after the mayor is there sworn, they are to go in manner aforesaid to the New-hall, where before dinner (if there be time) the orator and speech boys are each to make their speech, and after the feast, the justices, sheriffs, aldermen, and common council-men (following then the aldermen) are first to attend the new mayor home, and then the old mayor. ”

“ The Town Hall is a large edifice, occupying a central position: and the city appears to be thoroughly well governed;—to be proud of and contented with the dignified and efficient traditions of its mayor and councillors, who, while occasionally, perhaps, using municipal politics as a stepping-stone to public life, have never allowed their desire for popularity to override their duty to the ratepayers. ”

“ Let us make our own selections—or, rather, help our mayor to make hers—and show this town what can be done with an honest and sane council, every man of whom has at heart the framing of a model municipality and the development of an ideal city. ”

“ In the first place, upon the desires of the lord mayor and court of aldermen, he is pleased to prohibit the hasty building of any edifice, till such speedy care be taken for the re-edification of the city as may best secure it from the like accidents, and raise it to a greater beauty and comeliness than formerly it had; the lord mayor and aldermen being required to pull down what shall, contrary to this prohibition be erected, and return the names of such refractory persons to his Majesty and his council, to be proceeded against according to their deserts. ”

“ My great delight in Compiègne was the town-hall. I doted upon the town-hall. It is a monument of Gothic insecurity, all turreted, and gargoyled, and slashed, and bedizened with half a score of architectural fancies. Some of the niches are gilt and painted; and in a great square panel in the centre, in black relief on a gilt ground, Louis XII. rides upon a pacing horse, with hand on hip and head thrown back. There is royal arrogance in every line of him; the stirruped foot projects insolently from the frame; the eye is hard and proud ”

“ Here, and in an addition known as State House Row (since torn down) , which extended from the rear of the building toward Walnut Street, were located the offices of the mayor, the chief of police, the city treasurer, the chambers of council, and all the other important and executive offices of the city, together with the four branches of Quarter Sessions, which sat to hear the growing docket of criminal cases. The mammoth city hall which was subsequently completed at Broad and Market Streets was then building. ”

“ One after another the attractions of the square failed, and the crowd surged into the avenue, where it was fed to repletion—all free of charge. The stomach of man is singularly elemental in its cravings, and not subject to political or any other influence which fails to meet this demand.
Long before three o'clock in the afternoon the Town Hall was filled and jammed to its doors with men and women. ”

“ But on the other hand, the Aldermen shewed by many reasons, that unto them belongs the election of Mayor, both because they, the Aldermen are the heads, as it were, and the populace the limbs, as also because it is the Aldermen who pronounce judgments in pleas moved within the City. Of the populace on the other hand there are many who have neither lands, rents, nor dwellings in the City, being sons of divers mothers, some of them of servile station, and all of them caring little or nothing about the City’s welfare. ”

“ Every window in the entire building was brilliantly illuminated in the most beautiful colors of every hue and in a charming variety of scenes. There were represented the western heavens at sunset in crimson and gold; the rising glories of the approaching monarch shown on the eastern hill tops; scenes of classical beauty shone in bewitching effect. Any attempt to particularize fails in the very effort. Suffice to say Government House blazed, not in the spontaneous spirit which displayed itself when the former building succumbed, but by the heightening aid of artistic skill and design. ”

“ The story of the creation, subsequent history, and extinction of those English boroughs which were swept away by the Reform Bill of 1832, and which were commonly designated as pocket or rotten boroughs, is too curious an episode in Parliamentary history to be allowed to remain in the limbo of Parliamentary reports--a charnel-house of the bones of facts--unclothed with the personal reminiscences and local details which invest these dry bones with flesh, and give to them a living interest.
In a very few years there will not be a man alive who can recall the last election for them. ”

“ It is a sad pity that so many have disappeared and been replaced by modern and uninteresting structures. If a new town hall be required in order to keep pace with the increasing dignity of an important borough, the Corporation can at least preserve their ancient municipal hall which has so long watched over the fortunes of the town and shared in its joys and sorrows, and seek a fresh site for their new home without destroying the old. ”

“ These 80 councillors, together with 21 additional councillors elected by the cantons of the rest of the department, form the departmental council. The chief functionaries of the arrondissement are a mayor (maire) and three deputies (adjoints) appointed by the president. The mayors act as registrars, draw up electoral and recruiting lists and superintend the poor-relief of their arrondissement. There is a justice of the peace (juge de paix) nominated by the government in each arrondissement. ”

“ The principal street may be extented to any length, and as many additional streets as they please may be built from it, all of which, according to this plan, will have the palace for a termination.
The houses of this town are all as uniform as the streets, being of an equal size and height; so that one would be led to imagine that none of the inhabitants are in any considerable degree richer or poorer than their neighbours. There are indeed a few new houses, more elegant than the others, belonging to some of the officers of the court, built at one side of the palace ”

“ The governor’s palace, a great square building, stands on a magnificent open space; next to it is the library; and opposite, the chief guard-house rears its splendid front, graced with pillars. The coffee-houses here are very large; they are kept comfortably and clean, particularly that on the great square, which is brilliantly illuminated every evening.
Women and girls appear dressed in black; they are usually accustomed to throw a wide cloak over their other garments, and wear a mantilla which conceals arms, chest, and head. ”

“ And any person so chosen, shall be sworn to the due execution of his office, before the mayor and aldermen, or such of them as shall be present at a court of majoralty, which shall be held in the council chamber of the city, in some convenient time after such choice ”

“ First, If any assembly or hasty gathering of the commons of the said city, for suppressing or subduing of misruled people within the said city, hereafter shall happen to be called or commanded by the mayor, aldermen, and other governors and councillors of the said city for the time being, there is none so convenient, meet, and necessary a place, to assemble them in, within the said city, as the said Leaden hall, both for largeness of room, and their sure defence in time of their counselling together about the premises. ”

“ The city is provided with 3 commodious and handsome market houses, each of which is the centre of a busy trade.—The government is vested in a mayor, a common council comprising 26 members, 2 from each of the 13 wards, a comptroller, city attorney, street commissioner, treasurer, superintendent of education, city engineer, overseer of the poor, and 3 assessors, all of whom are elected by the people for a term of two years. ”

“ Under the mayor are various heads of departments,—street commissioners, assessors, overseers of the poor, etc.,—sometimes elected by the citizens, sometimes appointed by the mayor or the city council. This city council Is a legislative body, usually consisting of two chambers, the aldermen and the common council, elected by the citizens; but in many small cities, and a few of the largest,—such as New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, and San Francisco,—there is but one such chamber. ”

“ As she kept her way along the corridor and ascended an iron staircase, she was passed by others more preoccupied in business at the various public offices. One of these visitors, however, stopped as if struck by some fancied resemblance in her appearance, turned, and followed her. But when she halted before a door marked "Mayor's Office," he paused also, and, with a look of half humorous bewilderment and a slight glance around him as if seeking for some one to whom to impart his arch fancy, he turned away. ”

“ In the Parliamentary Buildings Committee, to which I have alluded, the Commissioner of Public Works produced his plan for the new Parliament Houses. I pointed out several errors in it, and one most serious one; in the House of Commons no one can enter or leave except by a single porch where the door-keeper is on duty, but the Chamber itself may be entered from the lobbies at various points. In the Victorian House it was proposed to have three entrances, and the Chamber itself was reached by folding doors on each side through which a carriage might be driven. ”

“ There is no elective mayor of Paris: the president of the municipal council, who is nominated by his colleagues, merely acts as chairman of their meetings. When occasion requires, the function of mayor of Paris is discharged by the prefect of Seine. The municipal council discusses and votes the budget of the city, scrutinizes the administrative measures of the two prefects and deliberates on municipal affairs in general. ”

“ The State Capitol is an imposing structure. Under the general code provision passed in 1895, the city government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council which confirms the executive's nominations to all subordinate offices except those of police magistrate and city treasurer, which are filled by popular election. ”

“ The board has consequently become so corrupt that the title of Alderman, which used to be a title of honor, is in New York a title of disgrace. If we compare the Board of Aldermen to the board which corresponds to it in London, we shall find a totally different state of things. In London it is the County Council that governs the municipality, and accordingly we find on it men who stand first in the ranks of the business world. ”

“ We had a wonderful time at the City Hall that afternoon with Louis. It was quite near our hotel, so Dee's agony over Louis' feelings about carfare was assuaged.
My idea of a City Hall had always been that it was a very ugly and stiff place where City Fathers wrangled about sewerage and garbage collections, and whether they should or should not open up such and such a street or close such and such an alley,—a place where taxes were paid or evaded, and where one kicked about the size of the gas bill. ”

“ Rittenhouse square may seem warm and friendly and democratic with its neat pattern of paths and grass-plots, its rather genteel loungers upon its shadiest benches, the children of the nurse-maids playing beneath the trees. But the great houses that look down into it are neither warm nor friendly nor democratic. ”

“ The Bureau of Municipal Research, admittedly the most practical organization of its kind in the country, is conducting its work along the line of effective competency in city departments. As a result of its investigations, the citizens of New York have been forced to the conclusion to which my colleague has already referred, namely, that the ultimate solution of their municipal difficulties will be reached only when they have disposed of their present inefficient and useless ward council and created in its place a commission council. ”