VI. Latent Disorganization in France.
Such is the just and fatal effect of privileges turned to selfish purposes instead of being exercised for the advantage of others. To him who utters the word, "Sire or Seignior" stands for the protector who feeds, the ancient who leads."1447 With such a title and for this purpose too much cannot be granted to him, for there is no more difficult or more exalted post. But he must fulfill its duties; otherwise in the day of peril he will be left to himself. Already, and long before the day arrives, his flock is no longer his own; if it marches onward it is through routine; it is simply a multitude of persons, but no longer an organized body. Whilst in Germany and in England the feudal régime, retained or transformed, still composes a living society, in France1448 its mechanical framework encloses only so many human particles. We still find the material order, but we no longer find the moral order of things. A lingering, deep-seated revolution has destroyed the close hierarchical union of recognized supremacies and of voluntary deference. It is like an army in which the attitudes of chiefs and subordinates have disappeared; grades are indicated by uniforms only, but they have no hold on consciences. All that constitutes a well-founded army, the legitimate ascendancy of officers, the justified trust of soldiers, the daily interchange of mutual obligations, the conviction of each being useful to all, and that the chiefs are the most useful all, is missing. How could it be otherwise in an army whose staff-officers have no other occupation but to dine out, to display their epaulettes and to receive double pay? Long before the final crash France is in a state of dissolution, and she is in a state of dissolution because the privileged classes had forgotten their characters as public men.
1401 (return)
[ "Rapport de l'agence du clergé," from 1775 to 1780, pp. 31-34.—Ibid. from 1780 to 1785, p. 237.]
1402 (return)
[ Lanfrey, "L'Eglise et les philosophes," passim.]
1403 (return)
[ Boiteau, "Etat de la France en 1789," pp. 205, 207.—D'Argenson "Mémoires," May 5, 1752, September 3, 22, 25, 1753; October 17, 1753, and October 26, 1775.—Prudhomme, "Résumé général des cahiers des Etats-Généraux," 1789, (Registers of the Clergy).—"Histoire des églises du désert," par Charles Coquerel, I. 151 and those following.]
1404 (return)
[ De Ségur, "Mémoires," vol. I. pp. 16, 41.—De Bouillé, "Mémoires," p. 54.—Mme. Campan, "Mémoires," V. I. p. 237, proofs in detail.]
1405 (return)
[ Somewhat like the socialist societies including the welfare states where a caste of public pensionaries, functionaries, civil servants and politicians weigh like a heavy burden on those who actually do the work.. (SR.)]
1406 (return)
[ An antechamber in the palace of Versailles in which there was a round or bull's-eye window, where courtiers assembled to await the opening of the door into the king's apartment.—TR.]
1407 (return)
[ "La France ecclésiastique," 1788.]
1408 (return)
[ Grannier de Cassagnac, "Des causes de la Rèvolution Française," III. 58.]
1409 (return)
[ Marmontel, "Mémoires," . II. book XIII. p. 221.]
1410 (return)
[ Boiteau, "Etat de la France en 1789," pp. 55, 248.—D'Argenson, "Considérations sur le gouvermement de la France," p. 177. De Luynes, "Journal," XIII. 226, XIV. 287, XIII. 33, 158, 162, 118, 233, 237, XV. 268, XVI. 304.—The government of Ham is worth 11,250 livres, that of Auxerre 12,000, that of Briançon 12,000, that of the islands of Ste. Marguerite 16,000, that of Schelestadt 15,000, that of Brisach from 15 to 16,000, that of Gravelines 18,000.—The ordinance of 1776 had reduced these various places as follows: (Warroquier, II, 467). 18 general governments to 60,000 livres, 21 to 30,000; 114 special governments; 25 to 12,000 livres, 25 to 10,000 and 64 to 8,000; 176 lieutenants and commandants of towns, places, etc., of which 35 were reduced to 16,600 and 141 from 2,000 to 6,000.—The ordinance of 1788 established, besides these, 17 commands in chief with from 20,000 to 30,000 livres fixed salary and from 4,000 to 6,000 a month for residence, and commands of a secondary grade.]
1411 (return)
[ Somewhat like a minister of culture in one of our western Welfare Social democracies, and which secures the support for the ruling class of a horde of "artists" of all sorts. (SR.)]
1412 (return)
[ Archives nationales, H, 944, April 25, and September 20, 1780. Letters and Memoirs of Furgole, advocate at Toulouse.]
1413 (return)
[ Archives nationales, O1, 738 (Reports made to the bureau-general of the king's household, March, 1780, by M. Mesnard de Chousy). Augeard, "Mémoires," 97.—Mme. Campan, "Mémoires," I. 291.—D'Argenson, "Mémoires," February 10, December 9, 1751,—"Essai sur les capitaineries royales et autres" (1789), p. 80.—Warroquier, "Etat de la France en 1789," I. 266.]
1414 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," by D'Arneth and Geffroy, II. 377.]
1415 (return)
[ 1 crown (écu) equals 6 livres under Louis XV. (SR.)]
1416 (return)
[ Mme. Campan, "Mémoires," I. 296, 298, 300, 301; III. 78.—Hippeau, "Le Gouvernement de Normandie," IV. 171 (Letter from Paris, December 13, 1780).—D'Argenson, "Mémoires," September 5, 1755.—Bachaumont, January 19, 1758.—"Mémoire sur l'imposition territoriale," by M. de Calonne (1787), p. 54.]
1417 (return)
[ D'Argenson, "Mémoires," December 9, 1751. "The expense to courtiers of two new and magnificent coats, each for two fête days, ordered by the king, completely ruins them."]
1418 (return)
[ De Luynes, "Journal," XIV. pp. 147-295, XV. 36, 119.—D'Argenson, "Mémoires," April 8, 1752, March 30 and July 28, 1753, July 2, 1735, June 23, 1756.—Hippeau, ibid.. IV. p. 153 (Letter of May 15, 1780).—Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II. pp. 265, 269, 270, 271, 228.—Augeard, "Mémoires," p 249.]
1419 (return)
[ Nicolardot, "Journal de Louis XVI.," p. 228. Appropriations in the Red Book of 1774 to 1789: 227,985,716 livres, of which 80,000,000 are in acquisitions and gifts to the royal family.—Among others there are 14,600,000 to the Comte d'Artois and 14,450,000 to Monsieur.—7,726,253 are given to the Queen for Saint-Cloud.—8,70,000 for the acquisition of Ile-Adam.]
1420 (return)
[ Cf. "Compte général des revenus et dépenses fixes au 1er Mai, 1789" (Imprimerie royale, 1789, in 4to). Estate of Ile-Dieu, acquired in 1783 of the Duc de Mortemart, 1,000,000; estate of Viviers, acquired of the Prince de Soubise in 1784, 1,500,000.—Estates of St. Priest and of St. Etienne, acquired in 1787 of M. Gilbert des Voisins, 1,335,935.—The forests of Camors and of Floranges, acquired of the Duc de Liancourt in 1785, 1,200,000.—The county of Montgommery, acquired of M. Clement de Basville in 1785, 3,306,604.]
1421 (return)
[ "Le President des Brosses," by Foisset. (Remonstrances to the king by the Parliament of Dijon, Jan. 19, 1764).]
1422 (return)
[ Lucas de Montigny, "Mémoires de Mirabeau." Letter of the bailiff, May 26, 1781.—D'Argenson, "Mémoires," VI. 156, 157, 160, 76; VI. p. 320.—Marshal Marmont, "Mémoires," I. 9.—De Ferrières, "Mémoires," preface. See, on the difficulty in succeeding, the Memoirs of Dumourier. Châteaubriand's father is likewise one of the discontented, "a political frondeur, and very inimical to the court." (I. 206).—Records of the States-General of 1789, a general summary by Prud'homme, II. passim.]
1423 (return)
[ "Ephémérides du citoyen," II. 202, 203.—Voltaire, "Dictionnaire philosophique," article "Curé de Campagne."—Abbé Guettée, "Histoire de l'Eglise de France," XII. 130.]
1424 (return)
[ Those entitled to tithes in cereals.—TR.]
1425 (return)
[ A curate's salary at the present day (1875) is, at the minimum, 900 francs with a house and perquisites.]
1426 (return)
[ Théron de Montaugé, "L'Agriculture les classes rurale, dans le pays Toulousain," p. 86.]
1427 (return)
[ Périn, "la Jeunesse de Robespierre," grievances of the rural parishes of Artois, p. 320.—Boivin-Champeaux, ibid.. pp. 65, 68.—Hippeau, ibid.. VI. p. 79, et VII. 177.—Letter of M. Sergent, curate of Vallers, January 27, 1790. (Archives nationales, DXIX. portfolio 24.) Letter of M. Briscard, curate of Beaumont-la-Roger, diocese of Evreux, December 19, 1789. (ibid.. DXIX. portfolio 6.) "Tableau moral du clergé de France" (1789), p. 2.]
1428 (return)
[ He who has the right of receiving the first year's income of a parish church after a vacancy caused by death.—TR.]
1429 (return)
[ One who performs masses for the dead at fixed epochs.—TR.]
1430 (return)
[ Grievances on the additional burdens which the Third-Estate have to support, by Gautier de Bianzat (1788), p 237.]
1431 (return)
[ Hippeau, ibid. VI. 164. (Letter of the Curate of Marolles and of thirteen others,. Letter of the bishop of Evreux, March 20, 1789. Letter of the abbé d'Osmond, April 2, 1789).—Archives nationales, manuscript documents (proces-verbeaux) of the States-General, V. 148. pp. 245-47. Registers of the curates of Toulouse, t. 150, p. 282, in the representations of the Dijon chapter.]
1432 (return)
[ De Toqueville, book II. This capital truth as been established by M. de Tocqueville with superior discernment.]
1433 (return)
[ A term indicating a certain division of the kingdom of France to facilitate the collection of taxes. Each generalship was subdivided into elections, in which there was a tribunal called the bureau of finances. (TR.)]
1434 (return)
[ Remonstrances of Malesherbes; Registers by Turgot and Necker to the king, (Laboulaye, "De l'administration française sous Louis XVI, Revue des cours littéraires, IV. 423, 759, 814.)]
1435 (return)
[ Financiers have been known to tell citizens: "The ferme ( revenue-agency) ought to be able to grant you favors, you ought to be forced to come and ask for them.—He who pays never knows what he owes. The fermier is sovereign legislator in matters relating to his personal interest. Every petition, in which the interests of a province, or those of the whole nation are concerned, is regarded as penal foolhardiness if it is signed by a person in his private capacity, and as illicit association if it be signed by several." Malesherbes, ibid..]
1436 (return)
[ Mme. Campan, "Mémoires," I. p. 13.—Mme. du Hausset, "Mémoires," p. 114.]
1437 (return)
[ "Gustave III. et la cour de France," by Geffroy. II. 474. ("Archives de Dresde," French Correspondence, November 20, 1788.)]
1438 (return)
[ Augeard, "Mémoires," p. 135.]
1439 (return)
[ Mme. de Pompadour, writing to Marshal d'Estrées, in the army, about the campaign operations, and tracing for him a sort of plan, had marked on the paper with mouches (face-patches), the different places which she advised him to attack or defend." Mme. de Genlis, "Souvenirs de Félicie," p. 329. Narrative by Mme. de Puisieux, the mother-in-law of Marshal d'Estrées.]
1440 (return)
[ According to the manuscript register of Mme. de Pompadour's expenses, in the archives of the préfecture of Versailles, she had expended 36,327,268 livres. (Granier de Cassagnac, I. 91.)]
1441 (return)
[ D'Argenson, "Mémoires," VI. 398 (April 24, 1751).—"M. du Barry declared openly that he had consumed 18,000,000 belonging to the State." (Correspondence by Métra, I. 27).]
1442 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," by d'Arneth and Geffroy, vol. II. p. 168 (June 5, 1774).]
1443 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," ibid.. vol. II. p. 377; vol. III. p. 391.]
1444 (return)
[ Archives nationales, H, 1456, Memoir for M. Bouret de Vezelay, syndic for the creditors.]
1445 (return)
[ Marquis de Mirabeau, "Traité de la population," p. 81.]
1446 (return)
[ Today, our so-called popular democracies have become completely irresponsible since the elected, who have full access to the coffers of the nation, present and future, and who, through alternation and short duration of tenure, are encouraged to become irresponsible, will use large amounts to be favorably exposed in the media and to avoid any kind of mudslinging. They seem to govern their countries according to the devise: "After me the deluge." (SR.)]
1447 (return)
[ Lord, in Old Saxon, signifies "he who provides food;" seignior, in the Latin of the middle ages, signifies "the ancient," the head or chief of the flock.]
1448 (return)
[ Around 1780. (SR.)]
