Boldness and novelty in point of theory, and timidity in practice characterize every portion of this work of Frederick the Great. On the one side, that great principle of modern society — that all are equally subject to taxes — is loudly proclaimed; on another, provincial laws containing exemptions to this rule are allowed to subsist. It is affirmed that all lawsuits between the sovereign and the state must be tried in the same forms and according to the same rules as all other cases; but, in fact, this rule was never car- ried into effect when the interests or passions of the king were opposed to it. The mill of Saint Souci was ostentatiously shown to the people, and justice was quietly made subject to royal con- venience in other cases.
What proves that this Code, which assumed to be such a nov- elty, really made but few changes, and is therefore a curious study of German society in this section of country at the close of the eighteenth century, is that the Prussian nation hardly noticed its publication. Lawyers were the only persons who studied it; and even in our time there are many enlightened men who have never read it.
Note g, page 4L PROPERTY. OF THE GERMAN PEASANTS.
Many families among the peasantry were not only free and land- holders, their property constituted a species of perpetual majorat. Their estate was indivisible, and passed by descent to one of the sons — usually the youngest — as was the case in some English cus- toms. He was expected to endow his brothers and sisters.
280 ' NOTES.
The erhgiltter of the peasantry were spread more or less over the whole of Germany, for the land was nowhere absorbed by the feudal tenures. Even in Silesia, where the nobility owned im- mense estates comprising most of the villages, other villages were possessed by the inhabitants, and were wholly free. In certain parts of Germany, such as the Tyrol and Frise, the rule was that the peasantry owned the land by erhgutter.
But in the greater part of the German countries this kind of property was an exception sometimes rarely met with. In the villages where it occurred, landholders of this kind constituted a sort of aristocracy among the peasantry.
' Note h, page 41.
POSITION OF THE NOBILITY AND DIVISION OF LAND ALONG THE RHINE.
From information obtained on the spot, and from persons who lived under the old regime, it appears that in the Electorate of Cologne, for instance, there were a great number of villages with- out seigniors, and governed by agents of the king; that in the places where the nobility lived, their administrative powers were very limited; that their position (individually at all events) was rather brilliant than powerful; that they possessed honors and of- fices, but no direct control over the people. I also ascertained that in the same electorate property was much divided, and that many of the peasants owned the land they occupied. The fact was ascribed to the poverty that had long oppressed many of the noble families, and obliged them to sell their estates to the peasants for an annual rent or a sum of money. I have had in my hands a schedule of the population and estates within the Bishopric of Co- logne at the beginning of the eighteenth century: it indicated that, at that time, one third of the soil belonged to the peasantry. From this fact arose sentiments and ideas which predisposed these peo- ple to a far greater extent than the inhabitants of other parts of Germany to welcome a revolution.
Note i, page 42.
Note i, page 42.
HOW THE USURY LAWS FAVORED SUBDIVISION OF LAND.
At the close of the eighteenth century it was still illegal to lend money on interest, whatever was the rate charged. Turgot says that this law was observed in many places as late as 1769. These NOTES. 281 laws are still in force, says he, but they are often violated. Con- sular judges allow interest on loans, while the ordinary courts con- demn the practice. Dishonest debtors still prosecute their credit- ors criminally for having lent money without alienating the capital. Independently of the effects which such laws as these must have had on commerce, industry, and the morals of business men, they affected the division and tenure of lands to a very great extent. They caused an immense increase of perpetual rents, as well ground-rents (foncieres) as others. They compelled the old land- owners, instead of borrowing in times of need, to sell small por- tions of their domains, partly for a given sum, partly for a rent; hence leading, first, to the infinite subdivision of estates, and, sec- ondly, to the creation of a multitude of perpetual rents on their little properties.
Note k, page 46.
EXAMPLE OF THE IRRITATION CAUSED BY TITHES TEN YEARS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
In 1779, a petty lawyer of Luce complains in a bitter and revo- lutionary tone that curates and other large titheholders are selling at exorbitant prices to farmers the straw which has been paid them by way of tithes, and which the farmers absolutely need for manure.
Note 1, page 46.
EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CLERGY ALIENATED THE AFFECTION OF THE PEOPLE FROM THEM.
In 1780, the prior and canons of the Priory of Laval complain of being made to pay duty on articles of consumption, and on the materials required for the repair of their buildings. They argue that the duty is an accessory of the taille, and that, being exempt from the one, they ought not to be liable for the other. The minis- ter tells them to apply to the election, with recourse to the Court of Aides.
Note m, page 46.
FEUDAL RIGHTS EXERCISED BY PRIESTS. — ONE EXAMPLE OUT OF A THOUSAND.
The Abbey of Cherbourg, in 1753, possessed seigniorial rents, payable in money or produce, in almost all the villages in the 282 NOTES.
neighborhood of Cherbourg: one village alone paid 306 bushels of wheat. It owned the barony of Sainte Genevieve, the barony and seignioriar mill of Bas du Roule, and the barony of Neuville au Plein, at least ten leagues distant. It received, moreover, tithes from twelve parishes on the peninsula, some of which were at a great distance from the abbey.
Note n, page 49.
IRRITATION AMONG THE PEASANTRY PROCEEDING FROM THE FEUDAL RIGHTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE CHURCH.
Letter written shortly before the Revolution by a peasant to the intendant. It is no authority for the facts it states, but it indi- cates admirably the state of feeling in the class to which the writer belonged: "Though we have but few nobles in this part of the country," it says, " it must not be supposed that real estate is free from rents; on the contrary, nearly all the fiefs belong to the Cathedral, or the archbishopric, or the collegiate church of Saint Martin, or the" Benedictines of Noirmontiers, of Saint Julien, or some other ec- clesiastics, against whom no prescription runs, and who are con- stantly bringing to light old musty parchments whose date God only knows!
" The whole country is infected with rents. Most of the farm- lands pay every year a seventh of a bushel of wheat per acre, others wine; one pays the seignior a fourth of all fruits, another a fifth, another a twelfth, another a thirteenth — the tithes being always paid on the gross. These rights are so singular that they vary from a fourth part of the produce to a fortieth.
" What must be thought of these rents in kind — in vegetables, money, poultry, labor, wood, fruit, candles? I am acquainted with rents which are paid in bread, in wax, in eggs, in headless pigs, in rose shoulder-knots, in bouquets of violets, in golden spurs, &c.; and there are a host of seigniorial dues besides these. Why has France not been freed from all these extravagant rents 1 Men's eyes are at last being opened; one may hope every thing from the wisdom of the present government. It will stretch a kindly hand to the poor victims of the exactions of the old fiscal system, called seigniorial rights, which could not be alienated or sold.
" What must be thought of this tyranny of mutation fines 1 A purchaser exhausts his means in acquiring a property, and is obliged to pay besides in expenses to secure his title, contracts.
NOTES. 283 actual entry, proces-veriaux, stamp, registry, centieme denier, eight sous per livre; after which he must exhibit his title to his seignior, who will exact the mutation fine on the gross price of his purchase, now a twelfth, and now a tenth. Some claim a fifth, others a fifth and a twenty-fifth besides. All rates are demanded; I know some who charge a third of the price paid. No, the most ferocious and the most barbarous nations of the known world have never invented such or so many exactions as our tyrants heaped on the heads of our forefathers." (This literary and philosophical tirade is sadly defective in orthography.)
" What! the late king permitted the commutation of ground- rents on city property, but excluded those on farms! He should have begun with the latter. Why not permit poor farmers to break their chains, to pay off and get rid of the hosts of seigniorial dues and ground-rents, v/hich are such an injury to the vassal and so small a gain to the seignior? No distinction should have been made between city and country, seigniors and private individuals.
" The stewards of the owners of ecclesiastical estates rob and plunder the farmers at every mutation. We have seen a recent example of the practice. The steward of our new archbishop gave notice to quit to all the farmers holding under leases from M. de Fleury, his predecessor, declared all their leases null and void, and turned out every man who refused to submit to his rent being doubled, and to pay a large bonus besides, though they had already paid a bonus to M. de Fleury's steward. They have thus been deprived of seven or eight years' holding, though their leases were executed in due form, and have been driven out upon the world on Christmas eve, the most critical period of the year, owing to the difficulty of feeding cattle. The King of Prussia could have done nothing worse."
It appears, in fact, that, with regard to Church property, leases granted by one titulary did not bind his successor. The writer of the letter states what is true when he says that feudal rents were redeemable in cities, but not in the country; a new proof of the neglect in which the peasantry lived, and of the manner in which all who were placed above them contrived to provide for their own interest.
Note o, page 49. Every institution that has long been dominant, after establishing itself in its natural sphere, extends itself, and ends by exercising a large influence over those branches of legislation which it does 284 NOTES.
284 NOTES.
not govern. The feudal system, though essentially political, had transformed the civil law, and greatly modified the condition of persons and property in all the relations of private life. It had operated upon successions by creating unequal divisions of prop- erty— a principle carried out in certain provinces even among the middle classes (as witness Normandy). It had affected all real estate, for there were but few tracts of land that were wholly freed from its effects, or whose possessors felt none of the consequences of its laws. It affected the property of communes as well as that of individuals. It affected labor by the impositions it laid upon it. It affected incomes by the inequality of taxation, and, in general, the pecuniary interest of every man in every business: landown- ers, by dues, rents, corvees; farmers in a thousand ways, among others by rights of banality, ground-rents, mutation-fines, &c.; traders, by market-dues; merchants, by tolls, &c. In striking it down, the Revolution made itself perceived and felt at the same time at all points by every private interest.
Note p, page 59.
PUBLIC CHARITIES GRANTED BY THE STATE. FAVORITISM.
In 1748 — a year of great famine and misery, such as often oc- curred in the eighteenth century — the king granted 20,000 pounds of rice. The Archbishop of Tours claimed that he alone had ob- tained the gift, and that it ought to be distributed by him alone, and in his diocese. The intendant argued that the gift was made to the whole province, and should be distributed by him to all the parishes. After a long contest, the king, to settle the quarrel, doubled the quantity of rice given to the province, so that the arch- bishop and the intendant miglit each distribute half. Both agreed that it ought to be distributed by the curates. No one thought of the seigniors or the syndics. It appears from the correspondence between the intendant and the comptroller-general that the former accused the archbishop of wishing to give the rice to his favorites, and especially to the parishes which belonged to the Duchess of Rochechouart. The collection also contains letters from noblemen which demand aid for their parishes in particular, and letters from the comptroller-general which make reference to the parishes of certain individuals.
Public charities are always liable to abuses under every sys- tem; but when distributed from a distance, without publicity, by the central government, they are actually futile.
NOTES. 285 Note q, page 59.
EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THESE PUBLIC CHARITIES WERE DISTRIBUTED.
A report, made in 1780 to the Provincial Assembly of Upper Guienne, states, " Out of the sum of 385,000 livres which his maj- esty has granted to this province from the year 1773, when work- houses were established, to the year 1779 inclusive, the election of Montauban, capital and place of residence of the intendant, has alone had more than 240,000 livres, most of which has been spent in the commune of Montauban."
Note r, page 60.
POWERS OF THE INTENDANT FOR THE REGULATION OF MANUFAC- TURES.
The archives of the intendants' offices are full of papers which refer to the regulation of industrial enterprises by the intendants.
Not only is labor subject to the inconvenience of trade-compa- nies, guilds, &c., it is liable to be affected by every whim of gov- ernment, that is to say, of the Council in great matters, of the in- tendants in small ones. The latter are constantly giving directions about the length of woofs, the kind of thread to use, the pattern to prefer, errors to avoid. Independently of the sub-delegates, they have local inspectors of manufactures under their orders. In this particular centralization had gone farther than it now does; it was more capricious, more arbitrary; it created a swarm of public functionaries, and gave rise to general habits of submission and dependence.
Note also that these habits were imparted to the middle classes, merchants, and traders, which were about to triumph, to a far greater extent than to the classes that were on the point of defeat. Hence, instead of destroying, the Revolution tended to confirm and spread them.
The preceding remarks have been suggested by the perusal of a quantity of correspondence and documents taken from the in- tendant's office of the He de France, and indorsed, " Manufactures and Fabrics," " Drapery," " Drugs." I have found in the same place reports from the inspectors to the intendant giving full and detailed accounts of their visits of inspection to factories; more- over, various Orders in Council, passed on reports of the intend- ant, prohibiting or permitting manufactures of certain stuffs, or in certain places, or in certain methods.
2^6 NOTES.
The dominant idea in the intercourse of these inspectors with the manufacturer — who, by the way, is treated very cavalierly — seems to be that their duty and the rights of the state compel them to see that the manufacturer not only acts fairly toward the public, but looks after his own interest. They consequently feel bound to make him adopt the best methods, and admonish him on the most trifling details of his business, larding the whole with a profusion of penalties and heavy fines.
Note B, page 61.
SPIRIT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XI.
Nothing indicates more clearly the spirit of the government of Louis XL than the constitutions he gave to cities. I have had oc- casion to study very closely those which he gave to most of the cities of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine.
All these constitutions are framed on the same plan, and all re- veal the same designs. Louis XL appears in a new light in these charters. He is generally regarded as the enemy of the nobility, but the sincere though somewhat brutal friend of the people. They reveal him as a hater alike of the political rights of the people and of those of the nobility. He uses the middle classes to lower the nobility and keep down the people: he is both anti-aristocratic and anti-democratic — the model of the burgher king. He loads city notables with privileges in the view of increasing their importance, grants them titles of nobility in order to cheapen rank, and thus destroys the popular and democratic city governments, and places the whole authority in the hands of a few" families, attached to his policy, and pledged to his support by every tie of gratitude.
Note t, p. 62.
A CITY GOVERNMENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
I select from the Inquiry into City Governments, made in 1764, the papers which relate to Angers; they contain an analysis, at- tacks upon, and defenses of the constitution of this city, emanating from the presidial, the city corporation, the sub-delegate, and the intendant. As the same facts occurred in many other places, the picture must not be regarded as a solitary example.
NOTES. 287 MEMORIAL OF THE PRESIDIAL ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE MUNICIPAL CONSTITUTION OF ANGERS, AND ON THE REFORMS THAT IT NEEDS.
" The Corporation of Angers never consults the people at large even on the most important occasions, unless it is compelled to do so; hence its policy is unknown to every one but its own mem- bers. Even the movable aldermen have only a superficial ac- quaintance with its mode of proceeding."
(The tendency of all these little burgher oligarchies was, in truth, to consult the people at large as little as possible.)
The corporation is composed of twenty-one officers, in virtue of a decree of 29th March, 1681, to wit: A mayor, who becomes noble ex officio, and whose term is four years; Four movable aldermen, who hold office for two years; Twelve consulting aldermen, who are elected and hold office for life; Two city counsel; One counsel holding the reversion of the office; A clerk.
They enjoy many privileges: among others, their capitation-tax is fixed at a moderate sum; they are exempt from lodging sol- diers, arms, or baggage; they are exempt from dues de cloison double et triple, from the old and new excise, from the accessory dues on articles of consumption, even from benevolences, " from which latter they have asserted their own freedom," says the pre- sidial. They enjoy, moreover, allowances in the shape of lights, and in some cases salaries and lodgings.
We see from this that a post of perpetual alderman at Angers was not to be despised in those days. Note here, as every where else, the contrivances to secure exemptions from taxes for the rich. The memorial goes on to say that " these offices are eagerly sought by the richest citizens, who desire them in order to reduce their capitation-tax, and increase that of their fellow-citizens in propor- tion. There are at this moment several municipal officers who pay 30 livres of capitation, and ought to pay 250 to 300 livres; one, among others, ought, in proportion to his fortune, to pay 1000 livres at least." In another part of the memorial it is said that among the richest inhabitants of the place are more than forty of- ficers, or widows of officers (office-holders), whose rank exempts them from the heavy capitation-tax paid by the city. The tax con- 288 NOTES.
sequently falls upon an infinite number of poor mechanics, who, be- lieving themselves overtaxed, constantly complain of the amount of their tax — unjustly so, for there are no inequalities in the divi- sion of the burden laid upon the city.
The General Assembly is composed of seventy-six persons: The mayor; Two deputies of the chapter; A syndic of the clerks; Two deputies of the presidial; A deputy of the university; A lieutenant-general of police; Four aldermen; Twelve consulting aldermen; A king's attorney near the presidial; A city counsel; Two deputies of the woods and forests; Two of the election; Two of the salt warehouse; Two of the traites; Two of the mint; Two of the advocates and attorneys; Two of the consular judges; Two of the notaries; Two of the shop-keepers; And, lastly, two deputies from each of the sixteen parishes.
These latter are understood to be the special representatives of the people; they are, in fact, the representatives of industrial cor- porations, and the council is so arranged, as the reader has seen, that they are sure to be in a minority.
When posts in the corporation become vacant, the General As- sembly chooses three candidates for each vacancy.
Most of the posts in the city government are free to persons of all professions; the Assembly is not — as others which I have no- ticed— obliged to choose a magistrate or a lawyer to fill a vacancy. To this the presidial objects strongly.
According to the same presidial, which seems terribly jealous of the city corporation, and whose main objection to the constitu- tion was, Isuspect, that it did not confer privileges enough on the presidial, "the General Assembly is too numerous, and composed of persons too devoid of intelligence to be consulted on any mat- ters but sales of the city property, the negotiation of loans, the establishment of town dues, and the election of municipal ofldcers.
NOTES. 2b9 An other business should be transacted by a smaller body, wholly composed of notables. No one should be a member of this assem- bly but the lieutenant-general of the senechaussee, the king's attor- ney, and twelve other notables chosen out of the six bodies, the clergy, the magistracy, the nobility, the university, the merchants, and the burghers, and others who do not belong to any of these six classes. The first choice of notables should be made by the As- sembly, and future elections by the assembly of notables or the body from which each notable is chosen."
A resemblance existed between these public functionaries, who thus become members of municipal bodies as office-holders or no- tables, and the functionaries of the same title and character in our day. But their position was very different from that of modern office-holders — a fact which can not be safely overlooked; for nearly all these old functioaaries were city notables before they obtained office, or only sought office in order to become notables. They had no notion of either resigning their rank or being pro- moted; this alone creates a vast difference between them and their successors in office.
MEMORIAL OF THE MUNICIPAL OFFICERS.
This document shows that the city corporation was created in 1474 by Louis XI. upon the ruins of the old democratic constitu- tion of the city, and that its principle was of the nature explained above; that is to say, nearly all political power was vested in the middle classes; the people were kept at a distance, or weakened; a vast number of municipal officers were created in order to mus- ter partisans for the scheme; hereditary titles of nobility were granted in profusion, and all sorts of privileges were secured to the burgher administrators.
The same paper also contains letters patent from successors of Louis XL, which recognize this new constitution and curtail still further the power of the people. It mentions that in 1485 the letters patent granted with this view by Charles VIIL were as- sailed by the people of Angers before the Parliament, just as, in England, disputes relative to the charter of a city would have been carried before the courts. In 1601 a decree of Parliament again fixed the political rights which were authorized by the royal char- ter. From thenceforth, no other controlling authority appears but the Royal Council.
It appears from the same memorial that mayors, like all other city officers, were selected by the king out of a list of three names N 290 NOTES.
presented by the General Assembly; this was in virtue of an Or- der in Council of 22d June, 1708. It also appears that, in virtue of Orders in Council of 1733 and 1741, the small traders were en- titled to one alderman (perpetual) or councilor. Finally, the me- morial shows that at that time the corporation was intrusted with the distribution of the tax levied for the capitation, equipment, lodgings, provisions of the poor, of the troops, of the revenue serv- ice, of foundlings.
Then follows an enumeration of the great labors which devolve upon municipal officers. They fully justify, in the opinion of the memorialists, the privileges and the permanent rank which they enjoy, and which, it is plain, they are much afraid of losing. Many of the reasons which they assign for the severity of their office- labors are curious, such as the following: " Their financial duties have been much increased by the extepsions which are constantly being made to the aid dues, the gabel, the stamp and registry dues, and the unlawful exactions of registry dues and freehold duties. They have been involved, on the city's behalf, in perpet- ual lawsuits with the financial companies in reference to these tax- es; they have had to go from court to court, from the Parliament to the Council, in order to resist the oppression under which they are groaning. An experience and a public service of thirty years enable them to state that the life of man is hardly long enough to defend one's self against the stratagems and the traps which the agents of the revenue-farmers are constantly laying for the citizen, in order to preserve their commissions."
Curiously enough, it is to the comptroller-general that these things are said, and said with the view of winning his support for the privileges of the class that expresses these views. So deeply rooted was the habit of viewing the companies which farmed the taxes as an adversary that might be abused on all sides without objection from any one. This habit steadily spread and gained strength; men learned to view the treasury as an odious tyrant, hateful to all: the common enemy instead of the common agent.
" All offices were first united with the corporation," adds the same memorial, " by an Order in Council of the 4th September, 1694, in consideration of a sum of 22,000 livres;" that is to say, the offices were redeemed that year for that sum. By an order of 26th April, 1723, the offices created by the edict of 24th May, 1722, were also united to the corporation, or, in other words, the city was permitted to redeem them. By another order of 24th May, 1723, the city was authorized to borrow 120,000 livres for NOTES. 291 NOTES. 291 the acquisition of the said offices. Another, of 26th July, 1728, authorized it to borrow 50,000 livres to redeem the office of clerk- secretary of the City Hall. " The city," says the memorial, " has paid its money to preserve the freedom of its elections, and to se- cure to the officers it elects for one or two years, or for life, the var- ious prerogatives attached to their offices." Some of the munici- pal offices were re-established by the edict of November, 1733; an order was subsequently obtained at the instance of the mayor and aldermen, allowing the city to purchase an extension of its rights, for a term of fifteen years, for a sum of 170,000 livres.
This is a fair criterion of the policy of the government of the old regime, as regards cities. It compelled them to contract debts, then authorized them to establish extraordinary taxes to liquidate them. And to this it must be added that afterward many of these taxes, which were naturally temporary, were made perpetual, and then the government got its share.
The memorial continues: " The municipal officers were never deprived of their judicial functions till the establishment of royal courts. Until 1669, they had sole cognizance of disputes between masters and servants. The accounts of the town dues are render- ed before the intendant, in obedience to the decrees establishing or continuing the said dues."
The memorial makes it plain that the representatives of the six- teen parishes, who, as above mentioned, had seats in the General Assembly, were chosen by companies, corporate bodies, or com- munities, and were the mere organs of these bodies. They were bound by their instructions on all points.
In fine, this memorial shows that, at Angers as elsewhere, no expenses could be incurred by the city without the concurrence of the intendant and the Council. And it must be acknowledged that, when the government of a city is intrusted to certain men to be used as their private property, and when these men receive no salary, but enjoy in lieu thereof privileges which exonerate them firom all responsibility to their fellow-citizens for maladministra- tion, the guardianship of the state may seem a necessity.
The whole of this memorial, which is clumsily drawn up, indi- cates a state of great alarm on the part of these officials lest the existing state of things should be changed. All kinds of reasons, good and bad, are accumulated together, and pressed into the service of the statu quo.
292 NOTES.
MEMORIAL OF THE SUB-DELEGATE.
The intendant, having received these two contradictory memo- rials, asks for the opinion of his sub-delegate. He gives it: " The memorial of the municipal councilors," says he, " does not deserve attention; its only aim is to subserve their ovi^n privileges. That of the presidial may be beneficially consulted, but there is no reason for granting them all the prerogatives they desire."
He admits that the constitution of the civic body has long need- ed reform. Besides the immunities already mentioned, which were enjoyed by all the municipal officers of Angers, he states that the mayor, during his term of service, was lodged at a cost of at least 600 francs; that he received 50 francs salary, and 100 francs for expenses of his office, besides the jetons. The attorney- syndic was also lodged, and so was the clerk. In order to escape aid and town dues, the municipal officers had fixed upon a pre- sumed amount of consumption by each of them; and by account- ing for this, they could introduce into the city as many casks of wine or other merchandise as they pleased.
The sub-delegate does not propose to deprive the councilors of their exemption from taxes; but he thinks their capitation -tax, which is now fixed at a very low figure, should be settled every year by the intendant. He also advises that these officials should be made to contribute with every one else to the don gratuit, their exemption from which is without authority or precedent.