V. They may be justified by local and general services.

All this does not suffice to render this order detrimental or even useless. In reality, the local chief who no longer performs his ancient service may perform a new one in exchange for it. Instituted for war when life was militant, he may serve in quiet times when the régime is pacific, while the advantage to the nation is great in which this transformation is accomplished; for, retaining its chiefs, it is relieved of the uncertain and perilous operation which consists in creating others. There is nothing more difficult to establish than a government, that is to say, a stable government: this involves the command of some and the obedience of all, which is against nature. That a man in his study, often a feeble old person, should dispose of the lives and property of twenty or thirty million men, most of whom he has never seen; that he should order them to pay away a tenth or a fifth of their income and they should do it; that he should order them to go and slaughter or be slaughtered and that they should go; that they should thus continue for ten years, twenty years, through every kind of trial, defeat, misery and invasion, as with the French under Louis XIV, the English under Pitt, the Prussians under Frederick II., without either sedition or internal disturbances, is certainly a marvelous thing. And, for a people to remain free it is essential that they should be ready to do this always. Neither this fidelity nor this concord is due to sober reflection (la raison raisonnante); reason is too vacillating and too feeble to bring about such a universal and energetic result. Abandoned to itself and suddenly restored to a natural condition, the human flock is capable only of agitation, of mutual strife until pure force at length predominates, as in barbarous times, and until, amidst the dust and outcry, some military leader rises up who is, generally, a butcher. Historically considered it is better to continue so than to begin over again. Hence, especially when the majority is uncultivated, it is beneficial to have chiefs designated beforehand through the hereditary custom by which people follow them, and through the special education by which they are qualified. In this case the public has no need to seek for them to obtain them. They are already at hand, in each canton, visible, accepted beforehand; they are known by their names, their title, their fortune, their way of living; deference to their authority is established. They are almost always deserving of this authority; born and brought up to exercise it they find in tradition, in family example and in family pride, powerful ties that nourish public spirit in them; there is some probability of their comprehending the duties with which their prerogative endows them.

Such is the renovation, which the feudal régime admits of. The ancient chieftain can still guarantee his pre-eminence by his services, and remain popular without ceasing to be privileged. Once a captain in his district and a permanent gendarme, he is to become the resident and beneficent proprietor, the voluntary promoter of useful undertakings, obligatory guardian of the poor, the gratuitous administrator and judge of the canton, the unsalaried deputy of the king, that is to say, a leader and protector as previously, through a new system of patronage accommodated to new circumstances. Local magistrate and central representative, these are his two principal functions, and, if we extend our observation beyond France we find that he exercises either one or the other, or both together.

1201 (return)
[ See note 1 at the end of the volume]

1202 (return)
[ One league (lieu) ca. 4 km. (SR.)]

1203 (return)
[ Suger "Vie de Louis VI.," chap. VIII.—Philippe I. became master of the Château de Montlhéry only by marrying one of his sons to the heiress of the fief. He thus addressed his successor: "My child, take good care to keep this tower of which the annoyances have made me grow old, and whose frauds and treasons have given me no peace nor rest'.]

1204 (return)
[ Léonce de Lavergne, "Les Assemblées Povinciales," p. 19.—Consult the official statement of the provincial assemblies, and especially the chapters treating of the vingtièmes (an old tax of one-twentieth on incomes.--TR.)]

1205 (return)
[ A report made by Treilhard in the name of the ecclesiastic committee, (Moniteur, 19th December, 1789): The religious establishments for sale in Paris alone were valued at 150 millions. Later (in the session of the 13th February, 1791), Amelot estimates the property sold and to be sold, not including forests, at 3,700 millions. M. de Bouillé estimates the revenue of the clergy at 180 millions. (Mémoires, p.44). {French currency is so well known to readers in general it is not deemed necessary to reduce statements of this kind to the English or American standard, except in special cases.--TR.]

1206 (return)
[ A report by Chasset on Tithes, April, 1790. Out of 123 millions 23 go for the costs of collection: but, in estimating the revenue of an individual the sums he pays to his intendants, overseers and cashiers are not deducted.—Talleyrand (October 10, 1789) estimates the revenue of real property at 70 millions and its value at 2,100 millions. On examination however both capital and revenue are found considerably larger than at first supposed. (Reports of Treilbard and Chasset). Moreover, in his valuation, Talleyrand left out habitations and their enclosures as well as a reservation of one-fourth of the forests. Besides this there must be included in the revenue before 1789 the seigniorial rights enjoyed by the Church. Finally, according to Arthur Young, the rents which the French proprietor received were not two and a half per cent. as nowadays but three and three quarters per cent—The necessity of doubling the figures to obtain a present money valuation is supported by innumerable facts, and among others the price of a day's labor, which at that time was nineteen sous. (Arthur Young). (Today, in 1999, in France the minimum legal daily wage is around 300 francs. 20 sous constituted a franc. So the sums referred to by Taine under the Revolution must be multiplied with at least 300 in order to compare them with 1990 values. To obtain dollars multiply with 50. SR.)]

1207 (return)
[ National archives, among the papers of the ecclesiastical committee, box (portfolios) 10, 11, 13, 25.—Beugnot's Memoirs, I. 49, 79.—Delbos, "L'Eglise de France," I. 399.—Duc de Lévis, "Souvenirs et Portraits," p.156.]

1208 (return)
[ Léonce de Lavergne, "Économie Rurale en France," p.24.—Perin, "La Jeunesse de Robespierre," (Statements of grievances in Artois), p.317. ( In French "cahiers des doleances"—statements of local complaints and expectations—prepared all over France for use by their delegates for the Ètats Generaux. SR.)]

1209 (return)
[ Boiteau, "État de la France en 1789," p.47. Voltaire, "Politique et Legislation," the petition of the serfs of St. Claude.]

1210 (return)
[ Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II. 272.]

1211 (return)
[ De Bouillé, "Mémoires," p.41. It must not be forgotten that these figures must be doubled to show corresponding sums of the present day. 10,000 livres (francs) rental in 1766 equal in value 20,000 in 1825. (Madame de Genlis, "Memoirs," chap. IX). Arthur Young, visiting a château in Seine-et-Marne, writes: "I have been speaking to Madame de Guerchy; and I have learned from this conversation that to live in a château like this with six men servants, five maids, eight horses, a garden and a regular table, with company, but never go to Paris, might be done for 1,000 louis per annum. It would in England cost 2,000. At the present day in France 24,000 francs would be 50,000 and more." Arthur Young adds: "There are gentlemen (noblesse) that live in this country on 6,000 or 8000 and keep two men, two maids, three horses and a cabriolet." To do this nowadays would require from 20,000 to 25,000.—It has become much more expensive, especially due to the rail-ways, to live in the provinces. "According to my friends du Rouergue," he says again, "I could live at Milhau with my family in the greatest abundance on 100 louis (2,000 francs); there are noble families supporting themselves on revenues of fifty and even twenty-five louis." At Milhau, to day, prices are triple and even quadruple.—In Paris, a house in the Rue St. Honore which was rented for 6,000 francs in 1787 is now rented for 16,000 francs.]

1212 (return)
[ "Rapports de l'Agence du clergé de 1780 à 1785." In relation to the feudal rights the abolition of which is demanded in Boncerf's work, the chancellor Séguier said in 1775: "Our Kings have themselves declared that they are, fortunately, impotent to make any attack on property."]

1213 (return)
[ Léonce de Lavergne, "Les Assemblées provinciales," p.296. Report of M. Schwendt on Alsace in 1787.—Warroquier, "Etat de la France en 1789," I.541.—Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," I. 19, 102.—Turgot, (collection of economists), "Réponse aux observations du garde des sceaux sur la suppression des corvées," I. 559.]

1214 (return)
[ This term embraces various taxes originating in feudal times, and rendered particularly burdensome to the peasantry through the management of the privileged classes.—TR.]

1215 (return)
[ The arpent measures between one and one and a half acres.—TR]

1216 (return)
[ De Tocqueville, "L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution," p. 406. "The inhabitants of Montbazon had subjected to taxation the stewards of the duchy which belonged to the Prince de Rohan. This prince caused this abuse to be stopped and succeeded in recovering the sum of 5,344 livres which he had been made to pay unlawfully under this right"]

1217 (return)
[ Necker, "Administration des Finances:" ordinary taxation (la taille) produced 91 millions; les vingtièmes 76,500,000; the capitation tax 41,500,000.]

1218 (return)
[ Raudot, "La France avant la Révolution," p. 51.—De Bouillé, "Mémoires," p. 44.—Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II, p. 181. The above relates to what was called the clergy of France, (116 dioceses). The clergy called foreign, consisted of that of the three bishoprics and of the regions conquered since Louis XIV; it had a separate régime and paid somewhat like the nobles.—The décimes which the clergy of France levied on its property amounted to a sum of 10,500,000 livres.]

1219 (return)
[ De Toqueville, ib. 104, 381, 407.—Necker, ib. I. 102.—Boiteau, ib. 362.—De Bouillé, ib. 26, 41, and the following pages. Turgot, ib. passim.—Cf. passim.—Cf. Book V, ch. 2, on the taillage.]

1220 (return)
[ See "La France ecclésiastique, 1788," for these details.]

1221 (return)
[ Official statements and manuscript reports of the States-General of 1789. "Archives nationales," vol. LXXXVIII pp. 23, 85, 121, 122, 152. Procès-verbal of January 12, 1789.]

1222 (return)
[ Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," V. II. pp. 271, 272. "The house Orleans, he says, is in possession of the excises." He estimates this tax at 51,000,000 for the entire kingdom.]

1223 (return)
[ Beugnot, "Mémoires," V. I. p. 77. Observe the ceremonial system with the Duc de Penthièvre, chapters I., III. The Duc d'Orléans organizes a chapter and bands of canonesses. The post of chancellor to the Duc d'Orléans is worth 100,000 livres per annum, ("Gustave III. et la cour de France," by Geffroy, I. 410.)]

1224 (return)
[ De Tocqueville, ibid. p.40.—Renauldon, advocate in the bailiwick of Issoudun, "Traité historique et pratique des droits seigneuriaux, 1765," pp. 8, 10, 81 and passim.—Statement of grievance of a magistrate of the Chatelet on seigniorial judgments, 1789.—Duvergier, "Collection des Lois," Decrees of the 15-28 March, 1790, on the abolition of the feudal régime, Merlin of Douai, reporter, I. 114 Decrees of 19-23 July, 1790, I. 293. Decrees of the 13-20 April, 1791, (I. 295.)]

1225 (return)
[ National archives, G, 300, (1787). "M. de Boullongne, seignior of Montereau, here possesses a toll-right consisting of 2 deniers (farthings) per ox, cow, calf or pig; 1 per sheep; 2 for a laden animal; 1 sou and 8 deniers for each four-wheeled vehicle; 5 deniers for a two-wheeled vehicle, and 10 deniers for a vehicle drawn by three, four, or five horses; besides a tax of 10 deniers for each barge, boat or skiff ascending the river; the same tax for each team of horses dragging the boats up; 1 denier for each empty cask going up." Analogous taxes are enforced at Varennes for the benefit of the Duc de Chatelet, seignior of Varennes.]

1226 (return)
[ National archives, K, 1453, No.1448: A letter by M. de Meulan, dated June 12, 1789. This tax on grain belonged at that time to the Comte d'Artois.—Châteaubriand, "Mémoires," I.73.]

1227 (return)
[ Renauldon, ibid.. 249, 258. "There are few seignioral towns which have a communal slaughter-house. The butcher must obtain special permission from the seignior."—The tax on grinding was an average of a sixteenth. In many provinces, Anjou, Berry, Maine, Brittany, there was a lord's mill for cloths and barks.]

1228 (return)
[ Renauldon, ibid.. pp. 181, 200, 203; observe that he wrote this in 1765. Louis XVI. suppressed serfdom on the royal domains in 1778; and many of the seigniors, especially in Franche-Comté, followed his example. Beugnot, "Mémoires," V. I. p.142.—Voltaire, "Mémoire au roi sur les serfs du Jura."—"Mémoires de Bailly," II. 214, according to an official report of the Nat. Ass., August 7, 1789. I rely on this report and on the book of M. Clerget, curate of Onans in Franche-Comté who is mentioned in it. M. Clerget says that there are still at this time (1789) 1,500,000 subjects of the king in a state of servitude but he brings forward no proofs to support these figures. Nevertheless it is certain that the number of serfs and mortmains is still very great. National archives, H; 723, registers on mortmains in Franche-Comté in 1788; H. 200, registers by Amelot on Burgundy in 1785. "In the sub-delegation of Charolles the inhabitants seem a century behind the age; being subject to feudal tenures, such as mort-main, neither mind nor body have any play. The redemption of mortmain, of which the king himself has set the example, has been put at such an exorbitant price by laymen, that the unfortunate sufferers cannot, and will not be able to secure it.]

1229 (return)
[ Boiteau, ibid.. p. 25, (April, 1790),—Beugnot, "Mémoires," I. 142.]

1230 (return)
[ See END-NOTE 2 at the end of the volume]