282 



FRANCE. (BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.) 



cities (royal attorneys, city clerks, maires, assessors 

 and municipal counsellors), which thus lost the right 

 of electing their magistrates. Some, however, 

 maintained their old constitution, by purchasing the 

 offices of Uie king, and electing the officers as they 

 had always done. Among these was Paris, in which 

 the king, indeed, appointed the first officer (the 

 prevot des marchands), but the four echevins (cor- 

 responding somewhat to aldermen) were elected by 

 tlie notables of the city ; the twenty-six municipal 

 counsellors and the sixteen chiefs of the quarters of 

 the city, had their places by inheritance. On the 

 whole, however, the municipal administration was 

 without influence or power. 2. The provincial ad- 

 ministration was, as we have mentioned above, in 

 the hands of the intendauts, who governed pretty 

 much like pachas. The administration of the 

 finances was partly in the hands of royal officers, 

 with hereditary and venal offices, partly farmed out. 

 The last practice was among the most crying evils of 

 the old regime. The fact already mentioned, that 

 the royal treasuries had, regularly, two or even three 

 receivers, who were changed annually, rendered the 

 direction of the whole impossible, even for the most 

 experienced minister of finances, as an examination 

 was only made once in four years. Besides this, 

 the swarm of officers rendered the administration of 

 the finances very expensive. The taxes on consump- 

 tion, viz., tlie monopoly of salt and tobacco, the 

 internal customs, the excise of the city of Paris, and 

 the tax on liquors in the country, were farmed out. 

 The forty-four farmers-general, with their subalterns, 

 were in the highest degree odious to the people. 

 (See Farmers-General.) Notwithstanding the at- 

 tempts to limit their profits as much as possible, it 

 was evident that their incomes were very large, and 

 easily obtained ; and, though there were among 

 them some men jf merit, as Helvetius, Lavoisier, 

 De la Borde, and though others made a noble use 

 of their riches, yet, as a body, the farmers-general 

 contributed greatly to render the government odious, 

 by their prodigal expenditure of wealth which had 

 been wrung from a suffering nation. They were 

 called the leeches of the state. Their luxurious 

 habits, their ignorance, their purse-proud insolence, 

 their hard-heartedness, rendered them a standing 

 character on the stage. The most intelligent men 

 were opposed to farming the taxes, because the 

 expense of collecting them was much greater in 

 this way; according to Necker, it amounted to 16 

 per cent., while the collection of those managed im- 

 mediately by the government cost only 6f per cent. 

 But the farmers-general were closely connected with 

 the actual ruling powers of France the nobility and 

 the coteries of the court since all who had any 

 influence had free access to their coffers, so that no 

 minister dared to touch these pillars of the state, as 

 they were satirically styled. " You will be aston- 

 ished," said a courtier to the court-banker, De la 

 Borde, " that I, who have not the honour of your 

 acquaintance, ask you for a loan of 100 louis d'ors." 

 " And you," replied the banker, " will be still more 

 astonished, that I, who have the honour of knowing 

 you, should lend them to you." Necker calculated 

 the number of officers employed in collecting the 

 taxes on real and personal estate, and the customs, 

 at 250,000 persons ; though most of them united 

 with their offices other occupations. 3. The central 

 government was in the hands of the king, or rather 

 of the ministers and the court. Though the will of 

 the monarch was the only source of the laws (si veut 

 le roi, si veut la loir,) yet great strength of character 

 vas necessary to resist the united force of family 

 influence, and the influence of other persons sur- 

 rounding the sovereign. No minister could, there- 



fore, hope to find, in the monarch alone, that support 

 which was necessary to carry him successfully through 

 a struggle against abuses. Good and bad ministers, 

 Turgot and Necker as well as Calonne and Brienne, 

 were unable to maintain themselves without reforms, 

 and yet all were wrecked alike on this rock. At 

 the head of the administration were the chancellor of 

 France, the four secretaries of state of foreign 

 affairs, of the royal palace, of the navy, and of war 

 and the controller-general or director-general of the 

 finances. Each of these six heads of departments, 

 who did not always hold the rank of minister, nor 

 enjoy a seat in the conseil d'etat, was vested with 

 absolute power. His orders were in the name of 

 the king, and had the royal signature attached ; 

 the king did not, however, sign with his own hand, 

 but the minister had a stamp bearing the royal 

 name, which he attested with his own countersigua- 

 ture. The rank of minister was conferred without 

 any written patent, merely by the royal invitation 

 to a seat in the conseil d'etat, but, once conferred, 

 could only be revoked by a formal judgment. 

 Hence it became, in a manner, necessary to exile 

 dismissed ministers to a certain distance from the 

 city. In the conseil d'etat, the king heard the 

 reports of the ministers. The other sections were 

 the conseil des depeches, for foreign affairs ; conseit 

 des finances; and the secret council of war, in 

 which all the secretaries of state and all the minis, 

 ters had a seat and vote. Another body also bore 

 the name of conseil de'tat, consisting of counsellors 

 of state and maitres des requetes, under the presi- 

 dency of the chancellor, or keeper of the seals. 

 This was a judicial body, which received appeals 

 from the superior courts, decided questions of con- 

 flicting jurisdiction, &c. It was also called, in con- 

 tradistinction from the other council of state, above- 

 mentioned, the conseil d'etat prive or conseil des 

 parties. The grand conseil was another superior 

 tribunal, consisting of five presidents, fifty-four coun- 

 sellors, &c., whose jurisdiction in matters of which 

 it took cognizance, as in disputes relating to eccle- 

 siastical benefices, bankruptcies, usury, certain feudal 

 taxes, &c., extended over the whole kingdom. 

 From the grande chancellerie , consisting of a chan- 

 cellor (keeper of the seals), two grands raporteurs t 

 four grands audienciers, &c., all letters of nobility 

 and of official appointments, acts of legitimation, 

 naturalization, &c., were issued. From a considera- 

 tion of the foregoing statements, we shall easily be 

 convinced that, in the administration of France, it 

 was rather an object to provide places for the higher 

 classes than to secure the welfare of the nation. 

 This principle of considering France as a great fief 

 of the nobility, and the nation as their bond slaves, 

 was likewise faithfully acted on, both in the manner 

 of raising the taxes and in that of spending them. 

 4. The system of taxation pressed heavily only upon 

 the peasant and the citizen ; the contributions of the 

 clergy and nobility amounted to very little. What 

 the clergy paid fell principally upon the smaller 

 benefices and parishes, and took hardly any thing 

 from the income of the higher clergy. Besides, the 

 manner in which the revenues of the larger eccle- 

 siastical estates were spent, contrasted most strongly 

 with the legitimate objects of the church. They 

 were, as has already been observed, merely sinecures 

 for the younger sons of the nobility, who, notwith- 

 standing their clerical character, yielded to no other 

 class in profligacy and licentiousness of morals. F irs t, 

 all the smaller proprietors were subject to heavy 

 and numerous feudal burdens, corvees (q. v.), and 

 manorial services, and were generally obliged to pay 

 the tithe. From these feudal taxes the clergy ;md 

 nobility derived the principal part of their income. 



