M. Lespinasse makes an interesting distinction in affirming that the mastership was not a rank, but a privilege; it was not a case of ‘once a master, always a master.’ Upon the relinquishment of the activity and privileges implied, a master became an artisan, and, for instance, the hose-makers assert that 35 masters among them have fallen into poverty. The master with all his attempts to protect his position and rights, bore the not-light burden of taxation from which the _valets_ were directly, at least, exempt. The internal administration of the gild was performed by officers called _jurés_ or _prud’hommes_, and the external relation of the gild in its dealings with other gilds or the city was supervised by the Crown or the Crown official who held the gild in fief. The jurés were also called _gardes_, _syndics_, _éswards_, _élus_. The typical method of choice was the election of a certain number by the masters of the gild, and their ratification and investiture by the Provost of Paris or other Crown official. Sometimes, however, the Provost or Crown officer appointed the _guards_ with no semblance of suggestion, in theory at least, from the gild itself. Occasionally the election was wholly in the hands of the _community_. Sometimes the departing _prud’hommes_ nominated their successors. Among the haberdashers, failure to serve, if one were elected, called down upon him a fine of 10 livres (134 fr.). The term of office was usually a year. The goldsmiths, however, changed their officers only every three years. The fullers, who had two masters and two _valets_ as officers, changed them at Christmas and at St. John’s Day. Before the Provost, the _valets_ named two masters, and the masters two _valets_, for service, a _nice_ balance in the interest of just administration. Women were allowed offices for such gilds as they were important in. The workers in silk-stuffs had three masters and three mistresses; the weavers of kerchiefs three _maîtresses_. In being invested with office, the jurés, for instance, of the bakers swore on the relics of the saints that they would ‘guard the gild’ carefully and loyally, and that in appraising bread, they would spare neither relatives nor friends, nor condemn anyone wrongly through hatred or ill-feeling. The chiefs of the gilds scrutinized the quality of the products, denounced frauds and infractions of the rules, presided at solemn conclaves of the gild, and represented it before the law. They presided at the contract of apprenticeship, received the oaths of artisans and masters, and administered the funds of the corporation. In case of appeal from the jurisdiction of the jurés, the Provost of Paris was the first authority, and above him was the _Parlement de Paris_. On the lands of a feudal lord, the latter usually retained the privilege of administering petty justice.