The Ancient Regime Part 3

Such is the renovation, which the feudal regime admits of. The ancient chieftain can still guarantee his pre-eminence by his services, and remain popular without ceasing to be privileged. Once a captain in his district and a permanent gendarme, he is to become the resident and beneficent proprietor, the voluntary promoter of useful undertakings, obligatory guardian of the poor, the gratuitous administrator and judge of the canton, the unsalaried deputy of the king, that is to say, a leader and protector as previously, through a new system of patronage accommodated to new circ.u.mstances. Local magistrate and central representative, these are his two princ.i.p.al functions, and, if we extend our observation beyond France we find that he exercises either one or the other, or both together.

NOTES:

[Footnote 1201: See note 1 at the end of the volume]

[Footnote 1202: One league (lieu) ca. 4 km. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1203: Suger "Vie de Louis VI.," chap. VIII.--Philippe I.

became master of the Chateau de Montlhery only by marrying one of his sons to the heiress of the fief. He thus addressed his successor: "My child, take good care to keep this tower of which the annoyances have made me grow old, and whose frauds and treasons have given me no peace nor rest'.]

[Footnote 1204: Leonce de Lavergne, "Les a.s.semblees Povinciales," p.

19.--Consult the official statement of the provincial a.s.semblies, and especially the chapters treating of the vingtiemes (an old tax of one-twentieth on incomes.-TR.)]

[Footnote 1205: A report made by Treilhard in the name of the ecclesiastic committee, (Moniteur, 19th December, 1789): The religious establishments for sale in Paris alone were valued at 150 millions.

Later (in the session of the 13th February, 1791), Amelot estimates the property sold and to be sold, not including forests, at 3,700 millions.

M. de Bouille estimates the revenue of the clergy at 180 millions.

(Memoires, p.44). {French currency is so well known to readers in general it is not deemed necessary to reduce statements of this kind to the English or American standard, except in special cases.-TR.]

[Footnote 1206: A report by Cha.s.set on t.i.thes, April, 1790. Out of 123 millions 23 go for the costs of collection: but, in estimating the revenue of an individual the sums he pays to his intendants, overseers and cashiers are not deducted.--Talleyrand (October 10, 1789) estimates the revenue of real property at 70 millions and its value at 2,100 millions. On examination however both capital and revenue are found considerably larger than at first supposed. (Reports of Treilbard and Cha.s.set). Moreover, in his valuation, Talleyrand left out habitations and their enclosures as well as a reservation of one-fourth of the forests. Besides this there must be included in the revenue before 1789 the seigniorial rights enjoyed by the Church. Finally, according to Arthur Young, the rents which the French proprietor received were not two and a half per cent. as nowadays but three and three quarters per cent--The necessity of doubling the figures to obtain a present money valuation is supported by innumerable facts, and among others the price of a day's labor, which at that time was nineteen sous. (Arthur Young).

(Today, in 1999, in France the minimum legal daily wage is around 300 francs. 20 sous const.i.tuted a franc. So the sums referred to by Taine under the Revolution must be multiplied with at least 300 in order to compare them with 1990 values. To obtain dollars multiply with 50. SR.)]

[Footnote 1207: National archives, among the papers of the ecclesiastical committee, box (portfolios) 10, 11, 13, 25.--Beugnot's Memoirs, I. 49, 79.--Delbos, "L'Eglise de France," I. 399.--Duc de Levis, "Souvenirs et Portraits," p.156.]

[Footnote 1208: Leonce de Lavergne, "economie Rurale en France,"

p.24.--Perin, "La Jeunesse de Robespierre," (Statements of grievances in Artois), p.317. ( In French "cahiers des doleances"--statements of local complaints and expectations--prepared all over France for use by their delegates for the etats Generaux. SR.)]

[Footnote 1209: Boiteau, "etat de la France en 1789," p.47. Voltaire, "Politique et Legislation," the pet.i.tion of the serfs of St. Claude.]

[Footnote 1210: Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II. 272.]

[Footnote 1211: De Bouille, "Memoires," p.41. It must not be forgotten that these figures must be doubled to show corresponding sums of the present day. 10,000 livres (francs) rental in 1766 equal in value 20,000 in 1825. (Madame de Genlis, "Memoirs," chap. IX). Arthur Young, visiting a chateau in Seine-et-Marne, writes: "I have been speaking to Madame de Guerchy; and I have learned from this conversation that to live in a chateau like this with six men servants, five maids, eight horses, a garden and a regular table, with company, but never go to Paris, might be done for 1,000 louis per annum. It would in England cost 2,000.

At the present day in France 24,000 francs would be 50,000 and more."

Arthur Young adds: "There are gentlemen (n.o.blesse) that live in this country on 6,000 or 8000 and keep two men, two maids, three horses and a cabriolet." To do this nowadays would require from 20,000 to 25,000.--It has become much more expensive, 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 n.o.ble 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.]

[Footnote 1212: "Rapports de l'Agence du clerge de 1780 a 1785." In relation to the feudal rights the abolition of which is demanded in Boncerf's work, the chancellor Seguier said in 1775: "Our Kings have themselves declared that they are, fortunately, impotent to make any attack on property."]

[Footnote 1213: Leonce de Lavergne, "Les a.s.semblees 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), "Reponse aux observations du garde des sceaux sur la suppression des corvees," I. 559.]

[Footnote 1214: This term embraces various taxes originating in feudal times, and rendered particularly burdensome to the peasantry through the management of the privileged cla.s.ses.--TR.]

[Footnote 1215: The arpent measures between one and one and a half acres.--TR]

[Footnote 1216: De Tocqueville, "L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution,"

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"]

[Footnote 1217: Necker, "Administration des Finances:" ordinary taxation (la taille) produced 91 millions; les vingtiemes 76,500,000; the capitation tax 41,500,000.]

[Footnote 1218: Raudot, "La France avant la Revolution," p. 51.--De Bouille, "Memoires," 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 regime and paid somewhat like the n.o.bles.--The decimes which the clergy of France levied on its property amounted to a sum of 10,500,000 livres.]

[Footnote 1219: De Toqueville, ib. 104, 381, 407.--Necker, ib. I.

102.--Boiteau, ib. 362.--De Bouille, ib. 26, 41, and the following pages. Turgot, ib. pa.s.sim.--Cf. pa.s.sim.--Cf. Book V, ch. 2, on the taillage.]

[Footnote 1220: See "La France ecclesiastique, 1788," for these details.]

[Footnote 1221: Official statements and ma.n.u.script reports of the States-General of 1789. "Archives nationales," vol. Lx.x.xVIII pp. 23, 85, 121, 122, 152. Proces-verbal of January 12, 1789.]

[Footnote 1222: 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.]

[Footnote 1223: Beugnot, "Memoires," V. I. p. 77. Observe the ceremonial system with the Duc de Penthievre, chapters I., III. The Duc d'Orleans organizes a chapter and bands of canonesses. The post of chancellor to the Duc d'Orleans is worth 100,000 livres per annum, ("Gustave III. et la cour de France," by Geffroy, I. 410.)]

[Footnote 1224: De Tocqueville, ibid. p.40.--Renauldon, advocate in the bailiwick of Issoudun, "Traite historique et pratique des droits seigneuriaux, 1765," pp. 8, 10, 81 and pa.s.sim.--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 regime, Merlin of Douai, reporter, I. 114 Decrees of 19-23 July, 1790, I. 293. Decrees of the 13-20 April, 1791, (I. 295.)]

[Footnote 1225: 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." a.n.a.logous taxes are enforced at Varennes for the benefit of the Duc de Chatelet, seignior of Varennes.]

[Footnote 1226: 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.--Chateaubriand, "Memoires," I.73.]

[Footnote 1227: 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.]

[Footnote 1228: 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-Comte, followed his example. Beugnot, "Memoires," V. I. p.142.--Voltaire, "Memoire au roi sur les serfs du Jura."--"Memoires de Bailly," II. 214, according to an official report of the Nat. a.s.s., August 7, 1789. I rely on this report and on the book of M. Clerget, curate of Onans in Franche-Comte 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 to support these figures.

Nevertheless it is certain that the number of serfs and mortmains is still very great. National archives, H; 723, registers on mortmains in Franche-Comte in 1788; H. 200, registers by Amelot on Burgundy in 1785.

"In the sub-delegation of Charolles the inhabitants seem a century behind the age; being subject to feudal tenures, such as mort-main, neither mind nor body have any play. The redemption of mortmain, of which the king himself has set the example, has been put at such an exorbitant price by laymen, that the unfortunate sufferers cannot, and will not be able to secure it.]

[Footnote 1229: Boiteau, ibid.. p. 25, (April, 1790),--Beugnot, "Memoires," I. 142.]

[Footnote 1230: See END-NOTE 2 at the end of the volume]

CHAPTER III. LOCAL SERVICES DUE BY THE PRIVILEGED CLa.s.sES.

I. Examples in Germany and England.--These services are not rendered by the privileged cla.s.ses in France.

Let us consider the first one, local government. There are countries at the gates of France in which feudal subjection, more burdensome than in France, seems lighter because, in the other scale, the benefits counterbalance disadvantages. At Munster, in 1809, Beugnot finds a sovereign bishop, a town of convents and a large seigniorial mansion, a few merchants for indispensable trade, a small bourgeoisie, and, all around, a peasantry composed of either colons or serfs. The seignior deducts a portion of all their crops in provisions or in cattle, and, at their deaths, a portion of their inheritances. If they go away their property revert to him. His servants are chastised like Russian moujiks, and in each outhouse is a trestle for this purpose "without prejudice to graver penalties," probably the bastinado and the like. But "never did the culprit entertain the slightest idea of complaint or appeal." For if the seignior whips them as the father of family he protects them "as the father of a family, ever coming to their a.s.sistance when misfortune befalls them, and taking care of them in their illness." He provides an asylum for them in old age; he looks after their widows, and rejoices when they have plenty of children. He is bound to them by common sympathies they are neither miserable nor uneasy; they know that, in every extreme or unforeseen necessity, he will be their refuge.[1301] In the Prussian states and according to the code of Frederick the Great, a still more rigorous servitude is atoned for by similar obligations. The peasantry, without their seignior's permission, cannot alienate a field, mortgage it, cultivate it differently, change their occupation or marry.

If they leave the seigniory he can pursue them in every direction and bring them back by force. He has the right of surveillance over their private life, and he chastises them if drunk or lazy. When young they serve for years as servants in his mansion; as cultivators they owe him corvees and, in certain places, three times a week. But, according to both law and custom, he is obliged "to see that they are educated, to succor them in indigence, and, as far as possible, to provide them with the means of support." Accordingly he is charged with the duties of the government of which he enjoys the advantages, and, under the heavy hand which curbs them, but which sustains them, we do not find his subjects recalcitrant. In England, the upper cla.s.s attains to the same result by other ways. There also the soil still pays the ecclesiastic t.i.the, strictly the tenth, which is much more than in France.[1302] The squire, the n.o.bleman, possesses a still larger portion of the soil than his French neighbor and, in truth, exercises greater authority in his canton. But his tenants, the lessees and the farmers, are no longer his serfs, not even his va.s.sals; they are free. If he governs it is through influence and not by virtue of a command. Proprietor and patron, he is held in respect. Lord-lieutenant, officer in the militia, administrator, justice, he is visibly useful. And, above all, he lives at home, from father to son; he belongs to the district. He is in hereditary and constant relation with the local public through his occupations and through his pleasures, through the chase and caring for the poor, through his farmers whom he admits at his table, and through his neighbors whom he meets in committee or in the vestry. This shows how the old hierarchies are maintained: it is necessary, and it suffices, that they should change their military into a civil order of things and find modern employment for the chieftain of feudal times.