The Ancient Regime. Taine Hippolyte

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ