The Ancient Regime Part 7

An old farmer-general, an intellectual and unprejudiced man, gravely attempts to justify the purchase of Saint-Cloud by calling it "a ring for the queen's finger." The ring cost, indeed, 7,700,000 francs, but "the king of France then had an income of 447,000,000. What could be said of any private individual who, with 477,000 livres income, should, for once in his life, give his wife diamonds worth 7,000 or 8,000 livres?"[1438] People would say that the gift is moderate, and that the husband is reasonable.

To properly understand the history of our kings, let the fundamental principle be always recognized that France is their land, a farm transmitted from father to son, at first small, then slowly enlarged, and, at last, prodigiously enlarged, because the proprietor, always alert, has found means to make favorable additions to it at the expense of his neighbors; at the end of eight hundred years it comprises about 27,000 square leagues of territory. His interests and his vanity harmonize, certainly, in several areas with public welfare; he is, all in all, not a poor administrator, and, since he has always expanded his territory, he has done better than many others. Moreover, around him, a number of expert individuals, old family councilors, withdrawn from business and devoted to the domain, with good heads an gray beards, respectfully remonstrate with him when he spends too freely; they often interest him in public improvements, in roads, ca.n.a.ls, homes for the invalids, military schools, scientific inst.i.tutions and charity workshops; in the control of trust-funds and foundations, in the tolerance of heretics, in the postponement of monastic vows to the age of twenty-one, in provincial a.s.semblies, and in other reforms by which a feudal domain becomes transformed into a modern domain. Nevertheless, the country, feudal or modern, remains his property, which he can abuse as well as use; however, whoever uses with full sway ends by abusing with full license. If, in his ordinary conduct, personal motives do not prevail over public motives, he might be a saint like Louis IX, a stoic like Marcus Aurelius, while remaining a seignior, a man of the world like the people of his court, yet more badly brought up, worse surrounded, more solicited, more tempted and more blindfolded. At the very least he has, like them, his own vanity, his own tastes, his own relatives, his mistress, his wife, his friends, all intimate and influential solicitors who must first be satisfied, while the nation only comes after them.--The result is, that, for a hundred years, from 1672 to 1774, whenever he makes war it is through wounded pride, through family interest, through calculation of private advantages, or to gratify a woman. Louis XV maintains his wars yet worse than in undertaking them;"[1439] while Louis XVI, during the whole of his foreign policy, finds himself hemmed in by the marriage he has made.--At home the king lives like other n.o.bles, but more grandly, because he is the greatest lord in France; I shall describe his court presently, and further on we shall see by what exactions this pomp is made possible.

In the meantime let us note two or three details. According to authentic statements, Louis XV expended on Mme. de Pompadour thirty-six millions of livres, which is at least seventy-two millions nowadays[1440]

According to d'Argenson,[1441] in 1751, he has 4,000 horses in his stable, and we are a.s.sured that his household alone, or his person, "cost this year 68,000,000," almost a quarter of the public revenue. Why be astonished if we look upon the sovereign in the manner of the day, that is to say, as a lord of the manor enjoying of his hereditary property? He constructs, he entertains, he gives festivals, he hunts, and he spends money according to his station. Moreover, being the master of his own funds, he gives to whomsoever he pleases, and all his selections are favors. Abbe de Vermond writes to Empress Maria Theresa[1442]

"Your Majesty knows better than myself, that, according to immemorial custom, three-fourths of the places honors and pensions are awarded not on account of services but out of favor and through influence. This favor was originally prompted by birth, alliance and fortune; the fact is that it nearly always is based on patronage and intrigue. This procedure is so well established, that is respected as a sort of justice even by those who suffer the most from it. A man of worth not able to dazzle by his court alliances, nor through a brilliant expenditure, would not dare to demand a regiment, however ancient and ill.u.s.trious his services, or his birth. Twenty years ago, the sons of dukes and ministers, of people attached to the court, of the relations and proteges of mistresses, became colonels at the age of sixteen. M. de Choiseul caused loud complaints on extending this age to twenty-three years. But to compensate favoritism and absolutism he a.s.signed to the pure grace of the king, or rather to that of his ministers, the appointment to the grades of lieutenant-colonel and major which, until that time, belonged of right to priority of services in the government; also the commands of provinces and of towns. You are aware that these places have been largely multiplied, and that they are bestowed through favor and credit, like the regiments. The cordon bleu and the cordon rouge are in the like position, and abbeys are still more constantly subject to the regime of influence. As to positions in the finances, I dare not allude to them. Appointments in the judiciary are the most conditioned by services rendered; and yet how much do not influence and recommendation affect the nomination of intendants, first presidents"

and the others?

Necker, entering on his duties, finds twenty-eight millions in pensions paid from the royal treasury, and, at his fall, there is an outflow of money showered by millions on the people of the court. Even during his term of office the king allows himself to make the fortunes of his wife's friends of both s.e.xes; the Countess de Polignac obtains 400,000 francs to pay her debts, 100,000 francs dowry for her daughter, and, besides, for herself, the promise of an estate of 35,000 livres income, and, for her lover, the Count de Vaudreil, a pension of 30,000 livres; the Princess de Lamballe obtains 100,000 crowns per annum, as much for the post of superintendent of the queen's household, which is revived on her behalf, as for a position for her brother.[1443] The king is reproached for his parsimony; why should he be sparing of his purse?

Started on a course not his own, he gives, buys, builds, and exchanges; he a.s.sists those belonging to his own society, doing everything in a style becoming to a grand seignior, that is to say, throwing money away by handfuls. One instance enables us to judge of this: in order to a.s.sist the bankrupt Guemenee family, he purchases of them three estates for about 12,500,000 livres, which they had just purchased for 4,000,000; moreover, in exchange for two domains in Brittany, which produce 33,758 livres income, he makes over to them the princ.i.p.ality of Dombes which produces nearly 70,000 livres income.[1444]--When we come to read the Red Book further on we shall find 700,000 livres of pensions for the Polignac family, most of them revertible from one member to another, and nearly 2,000,000 of annual benefits to the Noailles family.--The king has forgotten that his favors are mortal blows, "the courtier who obtains 6,000 livres pension, receiving the taille of six villages."[1445] Each largess of the monarch, considering the state of the taxes, is based on the privation of the peasants, the sovereign, through his clerks, taking bread from the poor to give coaches to the rich.--The center of the government, in short, is the center of the evil; all the wrongs and all the miseries start from it as from the center of pain and inflammation; here it is that the public abscess comes to the head, and here will it break.[1446]

VI. Latent Disorganization in France.

Such is the just and fatal effect of privileges turned to selfish purposes instead of being exercised for the advantage of others. To him who utters the word, "Sire or Seignior" stands for the protector who feeds, the ancient who leads."[1447] With such a t.i.tle and for this purpose too much cannot be granted to him, for there is no more difficult or more exalted post. But he must fulfill its duties; otherwise in the day of peril he will be left to himself. Already, and long before the day arrives, his flock is no longer his own; if it marches onward it is through routine; it is simply a mult.i.tude of persons, but no longer an organized body. Whilst in Germany and in England the feudal regime, retained or transformed, still composes a living society, in France[1448] its mechanical framework encloses only so many human particles. We still find the material order, but we no longer find the moral order of things. A lingering, deep-seated revolution has destroyed the close hierarchical union of recognized supremacies and of voluntary deference. It is like an army in which the att.i.tudes of chiefs and subordinates have disappeared; grades are indicated by uniforms only, but they have no hold on consciences. All that const.i.tutes a well-founded army, the legitimate ascendancy of officers, the justified trust of soldiers, the daily interchange of mutual obligations, the conviction of each being useful to all, and that the chiefs are the most useful all, is missing. How could it be otherwise in an army whose staff-officers have no other occupation but to dine out, to display their epaulettes and to receive double pay? Long before the final crash France is in a state of dissolution, and she is in a state of dissolution because the privileged cla.s.ses had forgotten their characters as public men.

NOTES:

[Footnote 1401: "Rapport de l'agence du clerge," from 1775 to 1780, pp.

31-34.--Ibid. from 1780 to 1785, p. 237.]

[Footnote 1402: Lanfrey, "L'Eglise et les philosophes," pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 1403: Boiteau, "Etat de la France en 1789," pp. 205, 207.--D'Argenson "Memoires," May 5, 1752, September 3, 22, 25, 1753; October 17, 1753, and October 26, 1775.--Prudhomme, "Resume general des cahiers des Etats-Generaux," 1789, (Registers of the Clergy).--"Histoire des eglises du desert," par Charles Coquerel, I. 151 and those following.]

[Footnote 1404: De Segur, "Memoires," vol. I. pp. 16, 41.--De Bouille, "Memoires," p. 54.--Mme. Campan, "Memoires," V. I. p. 237, proofs in detail.]

[Footnote 1405: Somewhat like the socialist societies including the welfare states where a caste of public pensionaries, functionaries, civil servants and politicians weigh like a heavy burden on those who actually do the work.. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1406: An antechamber in the palace of Versailles in which there was a round or bull's-eye window, where courtiers a.s.sembled to await the opening of the door into the king's apartment.--TR.]

[Footnote 1407: "La France ecclesiastique," 1788.]

[Footnote 1408: Grannier de Ca.s.sagnac, "Des causes de la Revolution Francaise," III. 58.]

[Footnote 1409: Marmontel, "Memoires," . II. book XIII. p. 221.]

[Footnote 1410: Boiteau, "Etat de la France en 1789," pp. 55, 248.--D'Argenson, "Considerations sur le gouvermement de la France," p.

177. De Luynes, "Journal," XIII. 226, XIV. 287, XIII. 33, 158, 162, 118, 233, 237, XV. 268, XVI. 304.--The government of Ham is worth 11,250 livres, that of Auxerre 12,000, that of Briancon 12,000, that of the islands of Ste. Marguerite 16,000, that of Schelestadt 15,000, that of Brisach from 15 to 16,000, that of Gravelines 18,000.--The ordinance of 1776 had reduced these various places as follows: (Warroquier, II, 467). 18 general governments to 60,000 livres, 21 to 30,000; 114 special governments; 25 to 12,000 livres, 25 to 10,000 and 64 to 8,000; 176 lieutenants and commandants of towns, places, etc., of which 35 were reduced to 16,600 and 141 from 2,000 to 6,000.--The ordinance of 1788 established, besides these, 17 commands in chief with from 20,000 to 30,000 livres fixed salary and from 4,000 to 6,000 a month for residence, and commands of a secondary grade.]

[Footnote 1411: Somewhat like a minister of culture in one of our western Welfare Social democracies, and which secures the support for the ruling cla.s.s of a horde of "artists" of all sorts. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1412: Archives nationales, H, 944, April 25, and September 20, 1780. Letters and Memoirs of Furgole, advocate at Toulouse.]

[Footnote 1413: Archives nationales, O1, 738 (Reports made to the bureau-general of the king's household, March, 1780, by M. Mesnard de Chousy). Augeard, "Memoires," 97.--Mme. Campan, "Memoires," I.

291.--D'Argenson, "Memoires," February 10, December 9, 1751,--"Essai sur les capitaineries royales et autres" (1789), p. 80.--Warroquier, "Etat de la France en 1789," I. 266.]

[Footnote 1414: "Marie Antoinette," by D'Arneth and Geffroy, II. 377.]

[Footnote 1415: 1 crown (ecu) equals 6 livres under Louis XV. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1416: Mme. Campan, "Memoires," I. 296, 298, 300, 301; III.

78.--Hippeau, "Le Gouvernement de Normandie," IV. 171 (Letter from Paris, December 13, 1780).--D'Argenson, "Memoires," September 5, 1755.--Bachaumont, January 19, 1758.--"Memoire sur l'imposition territoriale," by M. de Calonne (1787), p. 54.]

[Footnote 1417: D'Argenson, "Memoires," December 9, 1751. "The expense to courtiers of two new and magnificent coats, each for two fete days, ordered by the king, completely ruins them."]

[Footnote 1418: De Luynes, "Journal," XIV. pp. 147-295, XV. 36, 119.--D'Argenson, "Memoires," April 8, 1752, March 30 and July 28, 1753, July 2, 1735, June 23, 1756.--Hippeau, ibid.. IV. p. 153 (Letter of May 15, 1780).--Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II. pp. 265, 269, 270, 271, 228.--Augeard, "Memoires," p 249.]

[Footnote 1419: Nicolardot, "Journal de Louis XVI.," p. 228.

Appropriations in the Red Book of 1774 to 1789: 227,985,716 livres, of which 80,000,000 are in acquisitions and gifts to the royal family.--Among others there are 14,600,000 to the Comte d'Artois and 14,450,000 to Monsieur.--7,726,253 are given to the Queen for Saint-Cloud.--8,70,000 for the acquisition of Ile-Adam.]

[Footnote 1420: Cf. "Compte general des revenus et depenses fixes au 1er Mai, 1789" (Imprimerie royale, 1789, in 4to). Estate of Ile-Dieu, acquired in 1783 of the Duc de Mortemart, 1,000,000; estate of Viviers, acquired of the Prince de Soubise in 1784, 1,500,000.--Estates of St.

Priest and of St. Etienne, acquired in 1787 of M. Gilbert des Voisins, 1,335,935.--The forests of Camors and of Floranges, acquired of the Duc de Liancourt in 1785, 1,200,000.--The county of Montgommery, acquired of M. Clement de Basville in 1785, 3,306,604.]

[Footnote 1421: "Le President des Brosses," by Foisset. (Remonstrances to the king by the Parliament of Dijon, Jan. 19, 1764).]

[Footnote 1422: Lucas de Montigny, "Memoires de Mirabeau." Letter of the bailiff, May 26, 1781.--D'Argenson, "Memoires," VI. 156, 157, 160, 76; VI. p. 320.--Marshal Marmont, "Memoires," I. 9.--De Ferrieres, "Memoires," preface. See, on the difficulty in succeeding, the Memoirs of Dumourier. Chateaubriand's father is likewise one of the discontented, "a political frondeur, and very inimical to the court."

(I. 206).--Records of the States-General of 1789, a general summary by Prud'homme, II. pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 1423: "Ephemerides du citoyen," II. 202, 203.--Voltaire, "Dictionnaire philosophique," article "Cure de Campagne."--Abbe Guettee, "Histoire de l'Eglise de France," XII. 130.]

[Footnote 1424: Those ent.i.tled to t.i.thes in cereals.--TR.]

[Footnote 1425: A curate's salary at the present day (1875) is, at the minimum, 900 francs with a house and perquisites.]

[Footnote 1426: Theron de Montauge, "L'Agriculture les cla.s.ses rurale, dans le pays Toulousain," p. 86.]

[Footnote 1427: Perin, "la Jeunesse de Robespierre," grievances of the rural parishes of Artois, p. 320.--Boivin-Champeaux, ibid.. pp. 65, 68.--Hippeau, ibid.. VI. p. 79, et VII. 177.--Letter of M. Sergent, curate of Vallers, January 27, 1790. (Archives nationales, DXIX.

portfolio 24.) Letter of M. Briscard, curate of Beaumont-la-Roger, diocese of Evreux, December 19, 1789. (ibid.. DXIX. portfolio 6.) "Tableau moral du clerge de France" (1789), p. 2.]

[Footnote 1428: He who has the right of receiving the first year's income of a parish church after a vacancy caused by death.--TR.]

[Footnote 1429: One who performs ma.s.ses for the dead at fixed epochs.--TR.]

[Footnote 1430: Grievances on the additional burdens which the Third-Estate have to support, by Gautier de Bianzat (1788), p 237.]

[Footnote 1431: Hippeau, ibid. VI. 164. (Letter of the Curate of Marolles and of thirteen others,. Letter of the bishop of Evreux, March 20, 1789. Letter of the abbe d'Osmond, April 2, 1789).--Archives nationales, ma.n.u.script doc.u.ments (proces-verbeaux) of the States-General, V. 148. pp. 245-47. Registers of the curates of Toulouse, t. 150, p. 282, in the representations of the Dijon chapter.]

[Footnote 1432: De Toqueville, book II. This capital truth as been established by M. de Tocqueville with superior discernment.]

[Footnote 1433: A term indicating a certain division of the kingdom of France to facilitate the collection of taxes. Each generalship was subdivided into elections, in which there was a tribunal called the bureau of finances. (TR.)]

[Footnote 1434: Remonstrances of Malesherbes; Registers by Turgot and Necker to the king, (Laboulaye, "De l'administration francaise sous Louis XVI, Revue des cours litteraires, IV. 423, 759, 814.)]