- They, too, were not
unworthy of their rank. In the village or trade community, the
syndic, elected by his equals and neighbors, was not blindly
nominated; all his electors in relation to him were competent; if
peasants, they had seen him turning up the soil; if blacksmiths or
joiners, they had seen him at work in his forge, or at the bench.
And, as their direct, present and obvious interests were concerned,
they chose him for the best, not on the strength of a newspaper
recommendation, in deference to a vague declamatory platform or
sounding, empty phrases, but according to their personal experiences,
and the thorough knowledge they had of him. The man sent by the
village to represent them to the intendant and selected by the guild
to sit in the town council, was its most capable, and most creditable
man, one of those, probably, who, through his application,
intelligence, honesty and economy, had proved the most prosperous,
some master-workman or farmer that had gained experience through long
years of assiduity, familiar with details and precedents, of good
judgment and repute, more interested than anybody else in supporting
the interests of the community and with more leisure than others to
attend to public affairs.
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