The municipal officers, says the memorial, are intrusted with the preparation of the capitation-rolls for the people. They per- form this duty carelessly and arbitrarily, whence the intendant is regularly overwhelmed every year with petitions and reclama- tions. It would be desirable that this tax should be distributed hereafter, in the interest of each community or company, by its members, in a general and stable manner; and that municipal of- ficers should in future fix the capitation of burghers only, and of persons belonging to no public body, such as certain workmen and the servants of privileged persons.
The memorial of the sub-delegate confirms what the municipal officers have already stated in regard to the redemption, in 1735, of the municipal offices, for the sum of 170,000 livres.
LETTER FROM THE INTENDANT TO THE COMPTROLLER-GENERAL.
Armed with these various documents, the intendant writes to the minister: " The public interest and that of the citizens," he NOTES. 293 says, " require a reduction in the number of municipal officers, whose privileges have become a heavy burden on the public."
" I am struck," he adds, " with, the enormous amount of money that has been repeatedly paid for the redemption of municipal of- fices at Angers. A similar sum, employed usefully, would have done the city much good; as it is, it has only made people feel the weight of the authority and of the privileges of these officials.
" The internal abuses of this government fully deserve the at- tention of the Council. Independently of jetons and candle, which consume the annual appropriation of 2127 livres (this was the sum set apart for this class of expenditures in the normal budget, which was occasionally imposed on cities by the king), the public money is squandered and employed for clandestine purposes by these of- ficers. The king's attorney, who has held his office for thirty or forty years, has obtained such a mastery over the administration, of which he alone understands the details, that the citizens have been unable to obtain the least information with regard to the em- ployment of their money." In consequence, the intendant pro- poses to the minister to reduce the corporation to a mayor serv- ing for four years, six aldermen serving for six years, one king's attorney serving for eight, and a perpetual clerk and receiver.
In other respects the Constitution which he proposes for Angers is precisely the same as the one he elsewhere proposed for Tours. In his opinion, 1st. The government should preserve the General Assembly, but merely as an electoral body for the election of municipal officers.
2d. It should create an extraordinary Council of Notables, whose functions should be those with which the edict of 1764 appeared to invest the General Assembly. This council to be composed of twelve persons, holding office for six years, and elected, not by the General Assembly, but by the twelve bodies esteemed notable, each body electing one. He designates as notable bodies, The presidial.
The university.
The election.
The office of woods and forests, The salt warehouse.
The office of the traites, The mint.
The advocates and attorneys, The consular judges, The notaries, 294 NOTES.
The traders (marchands).
The burghers (bourgeois).
As will be remarked, nearly all these notables were public func- tionaries, and all the public functionaries were notables. From this, as from a thousand other papers in these collections, it may be inferred that the middle classes were then as great place-hunt- ers and as destitute of independent ambition as they are now. The only difference is, as I remarked in the text, that formerly the petty importance afforded by these places was bought, whereas now candidates beg the government to grant them the charity of a place for nothing.
It is here seen that the whole real power in the municipality is vested in the extraordinary council, and the administration of the city is thus further confined to a small circle of burghers. The only assembly in which the people continue to exercise the least interference is now confined to the electing of municipal officers whom it can not instruct. It is to be remarked, also, that the in- tendant is more unbending and antipopular in his principles than the king, who seemed in his edict to have transferred most of the public authority to the General Assembly, and again, that the in- tendant is far more liberal and democratic than the burghers. This last inference is at all events a fair one from the memorial I have quoted in the text, from which it appears that the notables of an- other city were desirous of excluding the people from the election of municipal officers in opposition to the views of the intendant and the king.
It may be noticed that the intendant recognizes two distinct classes of notables under the names of bourgeois and marchands. It may not be useless to give an exact definition of these words, in order to show into how many small fragments the bourgeoisie was divided, and by how many petty vanities it was actuated.
The word bourgeois had a general and also a particular mean- ing; it meant the members of the middle classes at large, and it also meant a certain number of men within those classes. "5owr- geois^'' says a memorial filed at the inquiry of 1764, " are indi- viduals whose birth and fortune enable them to live without en- gaging in lucrative pursuits." Other portions of the memorial show that the word bourgeois does not apply to persons who be- long to companies or industrial corporations; it is not so easy to say to whom it does apply. " For," as the same memorial says, " many persons assume the title of bourgeois whose only claim to it is their idleness, who have no fortune, and lead a rude, obscure NOTES. 295 life. Bourgeois should, on the contrary, always be distinguished by their fortune, their birth, their talents, manners, and mode of life. Mechanics composing trade-companies have never been classed in the rank of notables."* Traders Qmarchands) were another class of individuals who, like the bourgeois, belonged to no company or corporation: but where were the limits of this little class? " Must we," says the same memorial, " confound small, low-born dealers with wholesale merchants V To overcome the difficulty, the memorial proposes to have the aldermen draw up every year a table of notable traders (marchands), to be handed to their chief or syndic, who shall in- vite to the deliberations at the city hall none but those who are thereon inscribed. Care will be taken to inscribe on this table no traders who may have been domestics, porters, wagoners, or fol- lowers of other low trades.
Note u, page 66. One of the most striking features of the administration of cities in the eighteenth century is, not the absence of all representation and intervention of the public in city business, but the extreme variability of the rules governing such administration. Civic rights were constantly bestow^ed, taken away, restored, increased, diminished, modified in a thousand ways, and unceasingly. No better indication of the contempt into which all local liberties had fallen can be found than these eternal changes of laws which no €ne seemed to notice. This mobility would alone have sufficed to destroy all initiative or recuperative energy, and all local patriot- ism in the institution which is best adapted to it. It helped to prepare the great work of destruction which was to be effected by •the Revolution.
Note V, page 67, A VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (tAKEN FROM THE PAPERS OF THE INTENDANt's OFFICE IN THE ILE DE France), The affair which I am about to relate is one instance out of a thousand which illustrates the forms and the dilatory methods used by parochial governments, and shows what a general paro- chial assembly reaJly was in the eighteenth century.
* In the text the words bourgeois and bourgeoisie are translated " burghers" or "the middle classes," according to the context. The exact meaning of the French wo d is often doubtful, and the search for an exact English equivalent almost always hopeless. — Teans.
296 NOTES.
The parsonage-house and steeple of a rural parish — that of Ivry, He de France — required repair. To whom was application to be made to make the repairs 1 Who was to pay for them 1 How was the money to be procured '?
1st. Petition from the curate to the intendant, setting forth that the parsonage-house and steeple need immediate repairs; that his predecessor had caused useless buildings to be erected adjoining the parsonage-house, and had thus altered and deformed the char- acter of the spot; and that the inhabitants, having permitted him to do this, ought to bear the expense of all needful repairs, having their recourse on the late curate's heirs for the expense.
2d. Ordinance of monseigneur the intendant (29th August, 1747), ordering the syndic diligently to convene an assembly to deliberate on the necessity of the repairs.
3d. Deliberation of the inhabitants, by which they declare that they do not object to the parsonage-house being repaired, but as for the steeple, they hold that, as it is built on the choir, which the curate, as a large tithe-holder, is bound to repair, he must pay for any repairs it may need. [An Order in Council of April, 1695, had, in fact, imposed the duty of keeping the choir in repair upon the tithe-holder, leaving the tithe-payers to look after the nave.]
4th. New ordinance of the intendant, which, in view of the con- flict of statements, orders an architect, the Steur Cordier, to visit and examine the parsonage-house and steeple, hear evidence, and make estimates of the works.
5th. Authentic report of all these proceedings, testifying that a certain number of landholders of Ivry, apparently men of rank, burghers, and peasants, appeared before the intendant's commis- sioner, and gave evidence for or against the pretensions of the curate.
6th. New ordinance of the intendant, directing that the esti- mates prepared by his architect be laid before the landholders and inhabitants in a general assembly convoked with due diligence by the syndic for the purpose.
7th. New parochial assembly in pursuance of the ordinance, in which the people declare that they adhere to their expressed opin- ions.
8th. Ordinance of the intendant, directing, first, that in presence of his sub-delegate at Corbeil, the curate, syndic, and principal in- habitants of the parish being also present, the contracts for the work according to the estimates shall be given out; and, secondly, that, whereas the want of repairs involves absolute danger, the NOTES. 297 whole cost shall be levied upon the inhabitants, without prejudice to the legal rights of those who conceive that the cost of repairing the steeple should be borne by the curate as tithe-holder.
9th. Notice to all parties to be present at the office of the sub- delegate at Corbeil, where the contracts are to be given out.
10th. Petition of the curate and several inhabitants, praying that the costs of the preliminary proceedings be not charged, as usual, against the contractor, lest they should deter bidders from coming forward.
11th. Ordinance of the intendant, directing that all expenses in- curred in order to bring the aifair to issue be settled by the sub- delegate, added to the contract, and included in the imposition.
12th. Authority from several notables of the parish to the Sieur X. to be present on their behalf at the execution of the contract, and confirm it according to the architect's estimates.
13th. Certificate of the syndic, stating that the usual notices and advertisements have been made.
14th. Official report of the contract: Expenses of repairs, 487?.
Legal expenses pertaining thereto 237Z. 18^. 6d.
724 18 6~ 15th. Lastly, Order in Council (23d July, 1748), authorizing an impost to raise this sum.
It may have been noticed that frequent allusions are here made to the parochial assembly. The following report of one of these assemblies will show how matters were usually managed on these occasions.
Notarial Act. — " This day, at the close of the parochial mass, at the usual and customary place, was present at the assembly held by the inhabitants of the said parish before X., notary at Corbeil undersigned, and the witnesses hereinafter mentioned, the Sieur Michaud, vine-dresser, syndic of the said parish, who presented the ordinance of the intendant authorizing the assembly, read the same, and applied for an official certificate of his due diligence in the premises: " And then and there appeared an inhabitant of the said parish, who stated that the steeple was upon the choir, and, consequently, that its repairs should be charged to the curate; did furthermore appear (here follow the names of various parishioners, who, on the contrary, consent to the request of the curate); and there- after appeared fifteen peasants, mechanics, masons, and vine-dress- ers, who declare themselves of the same mind as the preceding ]sr2 298 NOTES.
persons. Did also appear the Sieur Raimbaud, vine-dresser, who declared that he would agree to whatever monseigneur the intend- ant decided in the premises. Did also appear the Sieur X., doc- tor of the Sorbonne, curate, who persists in the allegations and conclusions of his request.
" Whereof the said parties have required of us official certifi- cate.
" Done and passed at the said place of Ivry, in front of the burial-ground of the said parish, before the undersigned; and the meeting aforesaid lasted from eleven o'clock in the morning till two."
It will be noticed that this parish assembly was a mere admin- istrative inquiry, in the same form and as costly as judicial in- quiries; that it never led to a vote or other clear expression of the will of the parish; that it was merely an expression of indi- vidual opinions, and constituted no check upon government. Many other documents indicate that the only object of parish assemblies was to afford information to the intendant, and not to influence his decision even in cases where no other interest but that of the parish was concerned.
It may be remarked, also, that this affair gives rise to three sep- arate inquiries; one before the notary, another before the archi- tect, and a third before two notaries, to ascertain whether the peo- ple have not changed their minds.
The impost of 724 liv. 18 5., authorized by the Order of 23d July, 1748, bears upon all landholders, whether privileged or not. This was generally the case in affairs of this kind; but the share of the various rate-payers was not fixed on uniform principles. Persons who paid the taille were taxed in proportion to their taille. Privileged individuals, on the other hand, were taxed in proportion to their assumed fortunes, which gave them a great advantage over the former class.
It appears, finally, that in this matter the distribution of the im- post was made by two collectors, inhabitants of the village; not elected, nor serving in their turn, as was usually the custom, but chosen and appointed by the intendant's sub-delegate.
Note w, page 67.
The pretext which Louis XIV. put forward for destroying the municipal liberty of towns was the maladministration of their finances; yet the evil, according to Turgot, continued to exist, and even assumed larger proportions after the reform of this monarch.
NOTES. 29y He adds that most cities are heavily in debt at the present time, partly for moneys lent to government, and partly for expenses or decorations which municipal officers — who dispose of other peo- ple's money, who render no account, and receive no instructions — are constantly incurring, in order to increase the splendor or the profit of their position.
Note X, page 72.
THE STATE WAS GUARDIAN OF CONVENTS AS WELL AS COM- MUNES; INSTANCE THEREOF.
The comptroller-general, authorizing the intendant to pay over 15,000 livres to the Convent of Carmelites, to which certain in- demnities were due, desires the intendant to satisfy himself that the money, which represents a capital, is properly invested. Sim- ilar instances abound.
Note y, page 79.
HOW THE ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION OF THE OLD REGIME CAN BE BEST JUDGED IN CANADA.
The physiognomy of governments can be best detected in their colonies, for there their features are magnified, and rendered more conspicuous. When I want to discover the spirit and vices of the government of Louis XIV., I must go to Canada. Its deformi- ties are seen there as through a microscope.
A number of obstacles, created by previous occurrences or old social forms, which hindered the development of the true tenden- cies of government at home, did not exist in Canada. There was no nobility, or, at least, none had taken deep root. The Church was not dominant. Feudal traditions were lost or obscured. The power of the judiciary was not interwoven with old institutions or popular customs. There was, therefore, no hindrance to the free play of the central power. It could shape all laws according to its views. And in Canada, therefore, there was not a shadow of municipal or provincial institutions; and no collective or individ- ual action was tolerated. An intendant far more powerful than his colleagues in France; a government managing far more mat- ters than it did at home, and desiring to manage every thing from Paris, notwithstanding the intervening 1800 leagues; never adopt- ing the great principles v>^hich can render a colony populous and prosperous, but, instead, employing all sorts of petty, artificial meth- 300 NOTES.
300 NOTES.
ods, and small devices of tyranny to increase and spread popula- tion; forced cultivation of lands; all lawsuits growing out of the concession of land removed from the jurisdiction of the courts and referred to the local administration; compulsory regulations respecting farming and the selection of land — such was the sys- tem devised for Canada under Louis XIV.: it was Colbert who signed the edicts. One might fancy one's self in the midst of modern centralization and in Algeria. Canada is, in fact, the true model of what has always been seen there. In both places the government numbers as many heads as the people; it preponder- ates, acts, regulates, controls, undertakes every thing, provides for every thing, knows far more about the subject's business than he does himself — is, in short, incessantly active and sterile.
In the United States, on the contrary, the English anti-centrali- zation system was carried to an extreme. Parishes became inde- pendent municipalities, almost democratic republics. The repub- lican element, which forms, so to say, the foundation of the English constitution and English habits, shows itself and develops without hindrance. Government proper does little in England, and indi- viduals do a great deal; in America, government never interferes, so to speak, and individuals do every thing. The absence of an upper class, which renders the Canadian more defenseless against the government than his equals were in France, renders the citizen of the English colonies still more independent of the home power.
In both colonies society ultimately resolved itself into a demo- cratic form. But in Canada, so long as it was a French possession at least, equality was an accessory of absolutism; in the British colonies it was the companion of liberty. And, so far as the ma- terial consequences of the two colonial systems are concerned, it is well known that in 1763, at the conquest, the population of Cana- da was 60,000 souls, that of the English provinces 3,000,000.
Note z, page 80.
Note z, page 80.
AN EXAMPLE, CHOSEN AT HAPHAZARD, OF THE GENERAL REGULA- TIONS WHICH THE COUNCIL OF STATE WAS IN THE HABIT OF MAKING FOR THE WHOLE OF FRANCE, AND BY WHICH IT CREATED SPECIAL MISDEMEANORS OF WHICH THE GOVERNMENT COURTS HAD SOLE COGNIZANCE.
I take the first which I happen to find. Order in Council of 29th April, 1779, which enacts that thereafter throughout the king- dom all sheep-gvowers and sheep-dealers shall mark their sheep NOTES. 301 in a peculiar manner, under penalty of 300 livres fine. " His maj- esty orders the intendant to see this order obeyed," it says, whence it follows that it devolved upon the intendant to pronounce penal- ties incurred. Another instance: An Order in Council of 21st De- cember, 1778, forbids express companies and wagoners to ware- house the goods they have in charge, under pain of 300 livres fine. "His majesty enjoins upon his lieutenant general of police and his intendants to see to it."
Note a, page 92.
Note a, page 92.
The Provincial Assembly of Guienne cries aloud for new brig- ades of horse-police, just as in our day the council-general of the department of Aveyron or Lot no doubt demands new brigades of gendarmerie. Always the same idea — gendarmerie constitute order, and order can not be had with the gendarme except through government. The report adds: "Complaint is daily made that there is no police in the country." (How could there be? Noble- men take no concern for any thing, burghers live in town; and the community is represented by a rude peasant, and has no power at all.) " It must be admitted that, except in some cantons in which benevolent and just seigniors use their influence over their vassals to prevent those appeals to violence to which the country people are prone, in consequence of the rudeness of their manners and the roughness of their character, there exists hardly any where any means of controlling these ignorant, rough, and hot-headed men."
Such was the manner in which the nobles of the Provincial Assembly allowed themselves to be spoken of, and in which the Third Estate, comprising half the assembly, spoke of the people in public documents.
Note b, page 93. Tobacco licenses were as eagerly sought after under the old re- gime as at present. The most distinguished people begged them for their dependents. Some, I find, were granted at the request of noble ladies, some to please archbishops.
Note c, page 94. Local life was more thoroughly extinguished than almost seems credible. One of the roads leading from Maine into Normandy had become impassable. Who calls for its repair 1 The district of Touraine, which it crosses 1 The province of Normandy, or that of Maine, both vitally interested in the cattle-trade of which 302 NOTES.
it is the outlet? Some canton particularly injured by the bad condition of the road 1 Neither district, nor province, nor canton utter a word. The duty of attracting the attention of government to the road is left to the traders who use it, and whose wagons stick in the mud. They write to Paris to the comptroller-gener- al, and beg him to come to their rescue.
Note d, page 103.
VARYING VALUE OF SEIGNIORIAL RENTS AND DUES ACCORDING TO' PROVINCES.
Turgot says in his works: "I must remark that the importance of these dues is very different in most of the rich provinces, such as Normandy, Picardy, and the vicinity of Paris. In the latter, riches usually consist in the produce of land; the farms are large, close together, and bring high rents. The seigniorial rents of large farms form a very small portion of the income from them, and are regarded rather as honorary than lucrative. In poorer and worse-farmed provinces, seigniors and men of rank possess but little land of their own; farms, which are much subdivided, are burdened with heavy rents in produce, and all the co-tenants are jointly responsible for their payment. These rents eat up the clearest portion of the income of the land, and constitute the bulk of the seignior's revenue."
Note e, page 111.
DISCUSSION OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS ANTAGONISTIC TO THE ESTAB- LISHMENT OF CASTES.
The unimportant labors of the agricultural societies of the eight- eenth century show how the general discussion of public affairs miUtated against castes. Though these assemblages took place thirty years prior to the Revolution, in the midst of the old regime, the mere fact that they discussed questions in which all classes were interested, and that all classes mingled in the discussion, drew men together and effected a sort of fusion. Ideas of reason- able reform suggested themselves to the minds even of the priv- ileged classes, and yet they were mere conversations about agri- culture.
I am satisfied that no government but one which relied wholly on its own strength, and invariably dealt with individuals singly, as that of the old regime did, could have maintained the ridiculous NOTES. 303 and insane inequality which existed at the time of the Revolution. The least touch of self-government would have soon altered or destroyed it.
Note f, page 111.
Provincial liberties may survive national liberty for a time, when they are of old standing, and interwoven with manners, customs, and recollections, and the despotism is new. But it is unreason- able to suppose that local liberties can be created at will, or main- tained for any length of time, when general liberty is extinct.
Note g, page 112.
Turgot gives a statement of the extent of the privileges of the nobility, in the matter of taxation, in a memorial to the king. It appears to me to be quite correct.
1st. Privileged persons may claim exemption from taxes for a farm which consumes the labor of four plows. Such a farm in the neighborhood of Paris would usually pay 2000 francs of taxes.
2dly. The same privileged persons pay nothing for woods, mead- ows, rivers, ponds, or inclosed lands near their chateau, whatever be their extent. Some cantons are almost wholly laid out in meadow or vineyard; in these, seigniors who have their lands managed by a steward pay no impost whatever. All the taxes fall on the taille- payers. The advantage of this is immense.
Note h,page 113.
Note h,page 113.
INDIRECT PRIVILEGE IN RESPECT OF TAXES. DIFFERENCE IN THE MANNER OF COLLECTION WHEN THE TAX IS LEVIED ON ALL ALIKE.
Turgot draws a picture of this, which I have reason to believe is correct.
" The indirect advantages of the privileged classes with regard to the capitation-tax are very great. The capitation-tax is natu- rally an arbitrary impost; it is impossible to divide it among the citi- zens at large otherwise than blindly. It was found convenient to take the taille rolls, which were already made, as a basis. A special roll was made for the privileged classes; but, as the latter made ob- jections, and the taille-payers had no one to speak for them, it came about that the capitation of the privileged classes was gradually re- duced in the provinces to a very small sum, while the taille-payers paid as much for capitation as the principal of the taille."
304 NOTES.
Note i, page 112.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF INEQUALITY IN THE COLLECTION OP A UNIFORM TAX.
It is known that local imposts were levied on all classes equally; "which sums," say the Orders in Council authorizing these expen- ditures," shall be levied on all persons without distinction, whether privileged or not, jointly with the capitation-tax, or in proportion thereto."
Note that, as the capitation-tax of taille-payers, which was as- similated to the taille,was always heavier than the capitation of privileged persons, the very plan which seemed to favor uniform- ity kept up the inequality between the two.
Note 'k,page 112.
SAME SUBJECT.
I find in a bill of 1764, which designed to render the taxes uni- form, all sorts of provisions that were intended to preserve a dis- tinction in favor of the privileged classes in respect to the tax levy. For instance, no property of theirs could be appraised for taxation except in their presence or in the presence of their attorney.
Note I, page 112.
HOW THE GOVERNMENT ADMITTED THAT, EVEN IN THE CASE OF TAXES WEIGHING ALIKE ON ALL CLASSES, THE TAX OUGHT TO BE COLLECTED DIFFERENTLY FROM THE PRIVILEGED AND UN- PRIVILEGED CLASSES.