The Ancient Regime Part 42

END OF VOLUME NOTES:

NOTE 1.

ON THE NUMBER OF ECCLESIASTICS AND n.o.bLES.

These approximate estimates are arrived at in the following manner:

1. The number of n.o.bles in 1789 was unknown. The genealogist Cherin, in his "Abrege chronologique des Edits, etc." (1789), states that he is ignorant of the number. Moheau, to whom Lavoisier refers in his report, 1791, is equally ignorant in this respect. ("Recherches sur la population de la France," 1778, p. 105); Lavoisier states the number as 83,000, while the Marquis de Bouille ("Memoires," p.50), states 80,000 families; neither of these authorities advancing proofs of their statements.--I find in the "Catalogue nominatif des gentilhommes en 1789," by Laroque and De Barthelemy, the number of n.o.bles voting, directly or by proxy, in the elections of 1789, in Provence, Languedoc, Lyonnais, Forez, Beaujolais, Touraine, Normandy, and Ile-de-France, as 9,167.--According to the census of 1790, given by Arthur Young in his "Travels in France," the population of these provinces was 7,757,000, which gives a proportion of 30,000 n.o.bles voting in a population of 26,000,000.--On examining the law and on summing up the lists, we find that each n.o.ble represents somewhat less than a family, inasmuch as the son of the owner of a fief votes if he is twenty-five years of age; I think, accordingly, that we are not far out of the way in estimating the number of n.o.ble families at 26,000 or 28,000, which number, at five individuals to the family, gives 130,000 or 140,000 n.o.bles.--The territory of France in 1789 being 27,000 square leagues,[6101] and the population 26,000,000, we may a.s.sign one n.o.ble family to every square league of territory and to every 1,000 inhabitants.

2. Concerning the clergy I find in the National Archives, among the ecclesiastical records, the following enumeration of monks belonging to 28 orders: Grand Augustins 694, Pet.i.ts-Peres 250, Barnabites 90, English Benedictines 52, Benedictines of Cluny 298, of Saint-Vanne 612, of Saint-Maur 1,672, Citeaux 1,806, Recollets 2,238, Premontres 399, Premontres Reformes 394, Capucins 3,720, Carmes dechausses 555, Grands-Carmes 853, Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Dieu 218, Chartreux 1,144, Cordeliers 2,018, Dominicans 1,172, Feuillants 148, Genovefains 570, Mathurins 310, Minimes 684, Notre-Dame de la Merci 31, Notre-Saveur 203, Tiers-Ordre de St. Francois 365, Saint-Jean des Vignes de Soissons 31, Theatins 25, abbaye de Saint-Victor 21, Maisons soumises a l'ordinaire 305. Total 20,745 monks in 2,489 convents. To this must be added the Peres de l'Oratoire, de la Mission, de la Doctrine chretienne and some others; the total of monks being about 23,000.--As to nuns, I have a catalogue from the National Archives of twelve dioceses, comprising according to "France ecclesiastique" 1788, 5,576 parishes: the dioceses respectively of Perpignan, Tulle, Ma.r.s.eilles, Rhodez, Saint-Flour, Toulouse, le Mans, Limoges, Lisieux, Rouen, Reims, and Noyon, in all, 5,394 nuns in 198 establishments. The proportion is 37,000 nuns in 1,500 establishments for the 38,000 parishes of France.--The total of regular clergy thus amounts to 60,000 persons.--The secular clergy may be estimated at 70,000: curates and vicars 60,000 ("Histoire de l'Eglise de France," XII. 142, by the Abbe Guettee); prelates, vicars-general, canons of chapters, 2,800; collegiate canons, 5,600; ecclesiastics without livings, 3,000 (Sieyes).

Moheau, a clear-headed and cautious statistician, writes in 1778 ("Recheches," p. 100): "Perhaps, to day, there are 130,000 ecclesiastics in the kingdom." The enumeration of 1866 ("Statistique de la France,"

population), gives 51,100 members of the secular clergy, 18,500 monks, 86,300 nuns; total, 155,900 in a population of 38,000,000 inhabitants.

NOTES:

[Footnote 6101: In 1998, 550 000 square kilometers. (SR.)]

(2) Archives nationales, G. 319 ("Etat actuel de la Direction de Bourges au point de vue des aides," 1774).

(3) Blet, at the present day, contains 1,629 inhabitants. (This was around 1884, in 1996 it remains a small commune and a village of 800 people on the route nationale N76 between Bourges and Sancoins. SR.)

(4) The farms of Blet and Brosses really produce nothing for the proprietor, inasmuch as the t.i.thes and the champart (field-rents), (articles 22 and 23), are comprehended in the rate of the leases.

END NOTE 2:

ON FEUDAL RIGHTS AND ON THE STATE OF FEUDAL DOMINION IN 1733.

The following information, for which I am indebted to M. de Boislisle, is derived from an act of part.i.tion drawn up September 6, 1783.

It relates to the estates of Blet and Brosses. The barony and estate of Blet lies in Bourbonnais, two leagues from Dun-le-Roi. Blet, says a memorandum of an administrator of the Excise, is a "good parish; the soil is excellent, mostly in wood and pasture, the surplus being in tillable land for wheat, rye and oats. . . . The roads are bad, especially in winter. The trade consists princ.i.p.ally of horned cattle and embraces grain; the woods rot away on account of their remoteness from the towns and the difficulty of turning them to account."[6201]

"This estate," says the act of valuation, "is in royal tenure on account of the king's chateau and fortress of Ainay, under the designation of the town of Blet." The town was formerly fortified and its castle still remains. Its population was once large, "but the civil wars of the sixteenth century, and especially the emigration of the Protestants caused it to be deserted to such an extent that out of its former population of 3,000 scarcely 300 remain,[6202] which is the fate of nearly all the towns in this country." The estate of Blet, for many centuries in the possession of the Sully family, pa.s.sed, on the marriage of the heiress in 1363, to the house of Saint-Quentin, and was then transmitted in direct line down to 1748, the date of the death of Alexander II. of Saint-Quentins, Count of Diet, governor of Berg-op-Zoom, and father of three daughters from whom the actual heirs descend. These heirs are the Count de Simiane, the Chevalier de Simiane, and the minors of Bercy, each party owning one-third, represented by 97,667 livres in the Blet estate, and 20,408 livres in the Brosses estate. The eldest, Comte de Simiane, enjoys, besides, a preciput (according to custom in the Bourbonnais), worth 15,000 livres, comprising the castle with the adjoining farm and the seigniorial rights, honorary as well as profitable.

The entire domain, comprising both estates, is valued at 369,227 livres.

The estate of Blet, comprises 1,437 arpents, worked by seven farmers and furnished, by the proprietor, with cattle valued at 13,781 livres. They pay together to the proprietor 12,060 livres rent (besides claims for poultry and corvees). One, only, has a large farm, paying 7,800 livres per annum, the others paying rents of 1,300, 740, 640, and 240 livres per annum. The Brosses estate comprises 515 arpents, worked by two farmers to whom the proprietor furnishes cattle estimated at 3,750 livres, and these together return to the proprietor 2,240 livres.[6203]

These metairies are all poor; only one of them has two rooms with fire-places; two or three, one room with a fire-place; the others consist of a kitchen with an oven outside, and stables and barns.

Repairs on the tenements are essential on all the farms except three, "having been neglected for thirty years." "The mill-flume requires to be cleaned out, and the stream, whose inundations injure the large meadow; also repairs are necessary on the banks of the two ponds; on the church, which is the seignior's duty, the roof being in a sad state, the rain penetrating through the arch;" and the roads require mending, these being in a deplorable condition during the winter. "The restoration and repairs of these roads seem never to have been thought of." The soil of the Blet estate is excellent, but it requires draining and ditching to carry off the water, otherwise the low lands will continue to produce nothing but weeds. Signs of neglect and desertion are everywhere visible. The chateau of Blet has remained unoccupied since 1748; the furniture, accordingly, is almost all decayed and useless; in 1748 this was worth 7,612 livres, and now it is estimated at 1,000 livres. "The water-power costs nearly as much to maintain as the income derived from it. The use of plaster as manure is unknown," and yet "in the land of plaster it costs almost nothing." The ground, moist and very good, would grow excellent live hedges; and yet the fields are enclosed with bare fences against the cattle, "which expense, say the farmers, is equal to a third of the net income." This domain, as just described, is valued as follows:

1. The estate of Blet, according to the custom of the country for n.o.ble estates, is valued at rate twenty-five, namely, 373,000 livres, from which must be deducted a capital of 65,056 livres, representing the annual charges (the fixed salary of the curate, repairs, etc.), not including personal charges like the vingtiemes. Its net revenue per annum is 12,300 livres, and is worth, net, 308,003 livres.

2. The estate of Brosses is estimated at rate twenty-two, ceasing to be n.o.ble through the transfer of judicial and fief rights to that of Blet.

Thus rated it is worth 73,583 livres, from which must be deducted a capital of 12,359 livres for actual charges, the estate bringing in 3,140 livres per annum and worth, net, 61,224 livres. These revenues are derived from the following sources:

1. Rights of the high, low and middle courts of justice over the entire territory of Blet and other villages, Brosses and Jalay. The upper courts, according to an act pa.s.sed at the Chatelet, April 29, 1702, "take cognizance of all actions, real and personal, civil and criminal, even actions between n.o.bles and ecclesiastics, relating to seals and inventories of movable effects, tutelages, curacies, the administration of the property of minors, of domains, and of the customary dues and revenues of the seigniory, etc."

2. Rights of the forests, edict of 1707. The seignior's warden decides in all cases concerning waters, and woods, and customs, and crimes relating to fishing and hunting.

3. Right of voirie or the police of the highways, streets, and buildings (excepting the great main roads). The seignior appoints a bailly, warden and road overseer, one M. Theurault (at Sagonne), a fiscal attorney, Baujard (at Blet); he may remove them "in case they make no returns."

"The rights of the greffe were formerly secured to the seignior, but as it is now very difficult to find intelligent persons in the country able to fulfill its functions, the seignior abandons his rights to those whom it may concern." (The seignior pays forty-eight livres per annum to the bailly to hold his court once a month, and twenty-four livres per annum to the fiscal attorney to attend them).

He receives the fines and confiscation of cattle awarded by his officers. The profit therefrom, an average year, is eight livres.

He must maintain a jail and a jailer. (It is not stated whether there was one). No sign of a gibbet is found in the seigniory.

He may appoint twelve notaries; only one, in fact, is appointed at Blet "and he has nothing to do," a M. Baujard, fiscal attorney. This commission is a.s.signed him gratuitously, to keep up the privilege, "otherwise it would be impossible to find any one sufficiently intelligent to perform its functions."

He appoints a sergeant, but, for a long time, this sergeant pays no rent or anything for his lodging.

4. Personal and real taille. In Bourbonnais the taille was formerly serf and the serfs mainmortable. "Seigniors still possessing rights of bordelage, well established throughout their fiefs and courts, at the present time, enjoy rights of succession to their va.s.sals in all cases, even to the prejudice of their children if non-resident and no longer dwelling under their roofs." But in 1255, Hodes de Sully, having granted a charter, renounced this right of real and personal taille for a right of bourgeoisie, still maintained, (see further on).

5. Right to unclaimed property, cattle, furniture, effects, stray swarms of bees, treasure-trove; (no profits from this for twenty years past).

6. Right to property of deceased persons without heirs, to that of deceased b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, the possessions of condemned criminals either to death, to the galleys or to exile, etc., (no profit).

7. Right of the chase and of fishing, the latter worth fifteen livres per annum.

8. Right of bourgeoisie (see article 4), according to the charter of 1255, and the court-roll of 1484. The wealthiest pay annually twelve bushels of oats at forty livres and twelve deniers parasis; the less wealthy nine bushels and nine deniers; all others six bushels and six deniers. "These rights of bourgeoisie are well established, set forth in all court-rolls and acknowledgments rendered to the king and perpetuated by numerous admissions the motives that have led former stewards and fermiers to interrupt the collection of these cannot be divined. Many of the seigniors in Bourbonnais have the benefit of and exact these taxes of their va.s.sals by virtue of t.i.tles much more open to question than those of the seigniors of Blet."

9. Rights of protection of the chateau of Blet. The royal edict of 1497, fixing this charge for the inhabitants of Blet and all those dwelling within the jurisdiction of its tribunals, those of Charly, Boismarvier, etc., at five sous per fire per annum, which has been carried out. "Only lately has the collection of this been suspended, notwithstanding its recognition at no late date, the inhabitants all admitting themselves to be subject to the said guet et garde of the chateau.

10. Right of toll on all merchandise and provisions pa.s.sing through the town of Blet, except grain, flour and vegetables. (A trial pending before the Council of State since 1727 and not terminated in 1745; "the collection thereof, meanwhile, being suspended").

11. Right of potage on wines sold at retail in Blet, ensuring to the seignior nine pints of wine per cask, leased in 1782 for six years, at sixty livres per annum.

12. Right of boucherie or of taking the tongues of all animals slaughtered in the town, with, additionally, the heads and feet of all calves. No slaughter-house at Blet, and yet "during the harvesting of each year about twelve head of cattle are slaughtered." This tax is collected by the steward and is valued at three livres per annum.

13. Right of fairs and markets, aunage, weight and measures. Five fairs per annum and one market-day each week, but little frequented; no grain-market. This right is valued at twenty-four livres per annum.

14. Corvees of teams and manual labor, through seigniorial right, on ninety-seven persons at Blet (twenty-two carvees of teams and seventy-five of manual labor), twenty-six persons at Brosses (five teams and twenty-one hands). The seignior pays six sous for food, each corvee, on men, and twelve sous on each corvee of four oxen. "Among those subject to this corvee the larger number are reduced almost to beggary and have large families, which often induces the seignior not to exact this right rigorously." The reduced value of the corvees is forty-nine livres fifteen sols.

15. Benalite (socome), of the mill, (a sentence of 1736 condemning Roy, a laborer, to have his grain ground in the mill of Blet, and to pay a fine for having ceased to have grain ground there during three years).

The miller reserves a sixteenth of the flour ground. The district-mill, as well as the windmill, with six arpents adjoining, are leased at 600 livres per annum.

16. Ba.n.a.lite of the oven. Agreement of 1537 between the seignior and his va.s.sals: he allows them the privilege of a small oven in their domicile of three squares, six inches each, to bake pies, biscuits and cakes; in other respects subject to the district oven. He is ent.i.tled to one-sixteenth of the dough; this right might produce 150 livres annually, but, for several years, the oven has been dilapidated.