The Ancient Regime Part 29

[Footnote 4228: Bachaumont, III. 253.--Chateaubriand, "Memoires," I.

246.]

[Footnote 4229: Champfort, 279.]

[Footnote 4230: Merlin de Thionville, "Vie et correspondance," by Jean Raynaud. ("La Chartreuse du Val Saint-Pierre." Read the entire pa.s.sage).--"Souvenirs Ma.n.u.scrits," by M--..]

[Footnote 4231: Rivarol, "Memoires," I. 344.]

[Footnote 4232: Mercier, IV. 142. "In Auvergne, says M. de Montlosier, I formed for myself a society of priests, men of wit, some of whom were deists and others open atheists, with whom I carried on a contest with my brother." ("Memoires," I.37).]

[Footnote 4233: Lafayette. "Memoires," III. 58.]

[Footnote 4234: "Dict. Phil." article "Wheat."--The most important work of Quesnay is of the year 1758, "Tableau economique."]

[Footnote 4235: D'Argenson, "Memoires," IV. 141; VI. 320, 465; VII.

23; VIII. 153, (1752, 1753, 1754).--Rousseau's discourse on Inequality belongs also to 1753. On this steady march of opinion consult the excellent work of d'Aubertin, "L'Esprit public au dix-huitieme siecle."]

[Footnote 4236: This seems to be prophetic of the night of August 4, 1789.]

[Footnote 4237: "Corresp. de Laurette de Malboissiere," published by the Marquise de la Grange. (Sept. 4, 1762, November 8, 1762).]

[Footnote 4238: Madame du Deffant in a letter to Madame de Choiseul, (quoted by Geffroy), "Gustave et la cour de France," I. 279.]

[Footnote 4239: Geffroy, ibid. I. 232, 241, 245.]

[Footnote 4240: Geffroy, ibid. I.267, 281. See letters by Madame de Boufflers (October, 1772, July 1774).]

[Footnote 4241: Ibid.. I. 285. The letters of Mme. de la March (1776, 1777, 1779).]

[Footnote 4242: A victim of religious rancor against the protestants, whose cause, taken op by Voltaire, excited great indignation.--TR.]

[Footnote 4243: Bachaumont, III. 14 (March 28, 1766. Walpole, Oct. 6, 1775).]

[Footnote 4244: Geffloy, ibid. (A letter by Mme Stael, 5776).]

[Footnote 4245: Colle, "Journal," III. 437 (1770): "Women have got the upper hand with the French to such an extent, they have so subjugated them, that they neither feel nor think except as they do."]

[Footnote 4246: "Correspondance," by Metra, III. 200; IV. 131.]

[Footnote 4247: "Memoires du Chancelier Pasquier," _Ed. Plon Paris_ 1893, Vol. I. page 26.]

[Footnote 4248: De Vaublanc, "Souvenirs," I. 117, 377.]

[Footnote 4249: De Segur, "Memoires," I. 17.]

[Footnote 4250: Ibid. I. 151. "I saw the entire Court at the theater in the chateau at Versailles enthusiastically applaud Voltaire's tragedy of 'Brutus,' and especially these lines:

Je suis fils de Brutus, et je porte en mon coeur La liberte gravee et les rois en horreur."]

[Footnote 4251: De Lauzun, 80 (in relation to his expedition into Corsica).]

[Footnote 4252: De Segur, I. 87.]

[Footnote 4253: The a.s.semblies of Berry and Haute-Guyenne began in 1778 and 1779; those of other generalships in 1787. All functioned until 1789. (Cf. Leonce de Lavergne, "Les a.s.semblees provinciales").]

[Footnote 4254: Leonce de Lavergne, ibid. 26, 55, 183. The tax department of the provincial a.s.sembly of Tours likewise makes its demands on the privileged cla.s.s in the matter of taxation.]

[Footnote 4255: Proces-verbaux of the prov. a.s.s. of Normandy, the generalship of Alencon, 252.--Cf. Archives nationales, II, 1149: in 1778 in the generalship of Moulins, thirty-nine persons, mostly n.o.bles, supply from their own funds 18,950 livres to the 60,000 livres allowed by the king for roads and asylums.]

[Footnote 4256: Archives nationales, proces-verbaux and registers of the States-General, vol. XLIX. p.712, 714 (the n.o.bles and clergy of Dijon); vol. XVI. p. 183 (the n.o.bles of Auxerre) vol. XXIX. pp.352, 455, 458 (the clergy and n.o.bles of Berry); vol. CL. p.266 (the clergy and n.o.bles of Tours); vol. XXIX; the clergy and n.o.bles of Chateauroux, (January 29, 1789); pp. 572, 582. vol. XIII. 765 (the n.o.bles of Autun).--See as a summary of the whole, the "Resume des Cahiers" by Prud'homme, 3 vols.]

[Footnote 4257: Prud'homme, ibid.. II. 39, 51, 59. De Lavergne, 384.

In 1788, two hundred gentlemen of the first families of Dauphiny sign, conjointly with the clergy and the Third-Estate of the province, an address to the king in which occurs the following pa.s.sage: "Neither time nor obligation legitimizes despotism; the rights of men derive from nature alone and are independent of their engagements."]

[Footnote 4258: Lacretelle, "Hist. de France au dix-huitieme siecle,"

V.2.]

[Footnote 4259: Proces-verbeaux of the prov. a.s.s. of the Ile-de-France (1787), p.127.]

[Footnote 4260: De Lavergne, ibid.. 52, 369.]

[Footnote 4261: "Le cri de la raison," by Clerget, cure d'Onans (1789), p.258.]

[Footnote 4262: Lucas de Montigny, "Memoires de Mirabeau," I. 290, 368.--Theron de Montauge, "L'agriculture et les cla.s.ses rurales dans le pays Toulousain," p. 14.]

[Footnote 4263: "Foreigners generally could scarcely form an idea of the power of public opinion at this time in France; they can with difficulty comprehend the nature of that invisible power which commands even in the king's palace." (Necker, 1784, quoted by De Tocqueville).]

[Footnote 4264: Granier de Ca.s.sagnac, II. 236.--M. de Malesherbes, according to custom, inspected the different state prisons, at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. "He told me himself that he had only released two." (Senac de Meilhan, "Du gouvemement, des moeurs, et des conditions en France.").]

[Footnote 4265: Archives nationales, II. 1418, 1149, F. 14, 2073.

(a.s.sistance rendered to various suffering provinces and places.)]

[Footnote 4266: Aubertin, p.484 (according to Bachaumont).]

[Footnote 4267: De Lavergne, 472.]

[Footnote 4268: Mathieu Dumas, "Memoires," I.426.--Sir Samuel Romilly, "Memoires," I. 99.--"Confidence increased even to extravagance," (Mme.

de Genlis).--On the 29th June, 1789, Necker said at the council of the king at Marly, "What is more frivolous than the fears now entertained concerning the organization of the a.s.sembly of the States-General? No law can be pa.s.sed without obtaining the king's a.s.sent" (De Barentin, "Memoires," p. 187).--Address of the National a.s.sembly to its const.i.tuents, October 2, 1789. "A great revolution of which the idea should have appeared chimerical a few months since has been effected amongst us."]

CHAPTER III. THE MIDDLE CLa.s.s.