PAULETTE PAUPERISM. 



441 



the commissions on which the offices of state depend- 

 ed expired. Hence it was necessary for a confirma- 

 tion from the new king to be obtained, and this rule 

 was regularly observed, particularly from the time 

 of Henry II. ; nevertheless, the maxim still remained 

 in force, which Louis XI. had pronounced in an or- 

 dinance of 1467, that no officer should be discharged 

 but on his own voluntary resignation, or upon judg- 

 ment had against him. It is uncertain whether 

 Louis XI. was the first who made offices in the 

 judicial and financial departments venal ; but it is 

 well known that Louis XII. adopted this method to 

 defray the expenses of his campaign in Italy. Francis 

 I. gave a new character to the offices of the tax- 

 gatherers by selling them, so that the purchase- 

 money might be regarded as a kind of security ; and, 

 under Henry II., this venality was extended also to 

 judicial stations. Instead of the former high offices, 

 in which a single man, as grand baitli, sfnechal, &c., 

 had administered all branches of public power, judi- 

 cial tribunals were erected with a collegial constitu- 

 tion (sieges presidiaux), in which the dignity of pre- 

 sident and counsellor was to be bought with money. 

 Under the succeeding reigns of Francis II., Charles 

 IX., and Henry III., this arrangement was continu- 

 ed, although both the estates of the kingdom and 

 the parliaments were strongly opposed to it. The 

 nniversal venality of office was legally confirmed by 

 an ordinance of 1597, which permitted all officers to 

 resign their places in favour of a third a thing 

 which had often been done, though never before 

 authorized by law. To put an end to the urgent 

 requests for reversions, the secretary, Charles Paulet, 

 in 1604, devised the plan of granting liberty to all 

 who should pay a yearly tax of one sixtieth, or one 

 and two thirds per cent., of the income of their 

 offices (properly called annuel, but from its in- 

 ventor, Paulette), to transmit their offices to 

 their heirs, who might either hold them or 

 sell them again. Under the succeeding reign, the 

 abuse of this venality of office became gross. If 

 the government wanted money, a number of new 

 offices were created, and a regular salary from the 

 treasury affixed to them, which was to be viewed as 

 the interest of the purchase money. To hold out 

 further inducements to purchasers, other incomes, 

 such as fees and the like, were added, which gene- 

 rally amounted to much more, and necessarily 

 increased the oppressive taxes of the people. 

 Hence the current price of such offices, partly on 

 account of the fees in addition to the salary, and 

 partly on account of the consequent influence and 

 honour, was much higher than the sum paid for 

 them to the public treasury. This system had, 

 moreover, other disadvantages, besides the oppres- 

 sion of the people. It closed the entrance to offices 

 of state against all who had no recommendation but 

 merit. It augmented the number of slate-servants 

 beyond all proportion ; it brought high stations into 

 the hands of ignorant and faithless men, and drew 

 away from agriculture and trade the capital neces- 

 sary for their prosperity. It led, finally, to the 

 undermining of the municipal constitutions, which 

 happened near the end of the reign of Louis XIV.; 

 for when no more public offices could be established, 

 those of the towns were arbitrarily seized, which had 

 formerly been filled by the vote of all the freemen. 

 In vain did the more worthy ministers strive to cure 

 the daily increasing evil ; necessity constantly 

 dragged tkem back to the old system. In 1C64, 

 according to an estimate made by Colbert, and com- 

 municated to the government by Forbonnais Re- 

 cherches sur les Finances de France (An Inquiry 

 into the State of the Finances of France) it appeared 

 that there were 45,780 venal offices in the judicial 



and financial departments, the duties of which might 

 be as easily performed by 6000. The salaries at 

 tached to them, and paid out of the public treasury, 

 were estimated at over 8,000,000 livres, for which 

 the king received an annuel of only 2,000,000. The 

 whole amount of the drain which they occasioned 

 on the people was estimated at 187} millions, and 

 the current price of the offices at near 420 millions. 

 Colbert undertook to diminish the number of offices, 

 but the wars and extravagance of Louis XIV. com- 

 pelled his successor to resort to the same means for 

 procuring money. From 1689 to 1695, 294 millions 

 were thus collected, and from 1701 to 1709, 426 

 millions. Some attempts were afterwards made to 

 diminish the evil, but, with all its deleterious effects, 

 it continued till the revolution. 



PAULICIANS. In the chains of the Caucasus 

 and Taurus, which unite in Armenia, a few of the 

 ancient Manichaeans and Gnostics were remaining in 

 the eighth century, who assumed the name of 

 Pauliciuns, from Paul, their leader, to save them- 

 selves from the persecutions to which the Manichaeans 

 were always exposed. As iconoclasts, they were 

 favoured or persecuted by the Greek emperors, 

 according as the latter were favourable or other- 

 wise to the worship of images, which the Mani- 

 chaeans totally rejected. When their Manichseism was 

 discovered, in the ninth century, they were subjected 

 to violent persecution. Many of them were put to 

 death ; others fled to Mohammedan countries, and 

 assisted them in their wars against the Greeks. In 

 the tenth century, the attempts at the conversion of 

 some Paulicians who returned and were fixed in 

 Thrace by John Zimisces, the Greek emperor, were 

 s unsuccessful as the persecutions had been. 

 When the crusades had opened a way to the middle 

 of Europe, different companies of this sect passed 

 into Bulgaria by land, and others into Italy and 

 Spain, by water. Their successors have since ap- 

 peared in various parts of Europe, under different 

 names. Of Paulician origin was the doctrine of 

 those devotees resembling the Messalians, who were 

 called Bogomiles, on account of their constant use 

 of the expression Bogmilui (in Bulgarian, God 

 have mercy on you). In the fifteenth century, many 

 of them were burned at the stake in Constantinople. 

 For the doctrines of the Paulicians, see Mani- 

 chteans. 



PAULINE; princess Borghese, sister to Napo- 

 leon. See Bonaparte. 



PAULINIANS, OR PAULANI. See Minim 

 Friars. 



PAUPER COLONIES. See Colonies, Pauper. 



PAUPERISM. "It has been computed," says 

 doctor Franklin, " by some political arithmeticians, 

 that, if every man and woman would work four 

 hours each day in something useful, that labour 

 would produce sufficient to procure all the neces- 

 saries and comforts of life ; want and misery would 

 be banished from the world, and the rest of the 

 twenty-four hours would be leisure and pleasure." 

 When we estimate what a man will do in four hours, 

 we necessarily suppose a certain rate of production ; 

 and this rate is greater or less according to the 

 strength, skill, industry, and implements of the 

 workman. The doctor's political arithmetician, 

 however, probably supposes the ordinary rate of 

 productiveness. In regard to consumption, the dis- 

 proportion between men is still greater. Compare 

 the costly collection of materials employed for the 

 support of the inmate of a palace and the scanty 

 supplies of the inmate of a hut. The estimate, 

 therefore, must suppose an average rate of con- 

 sumption, as well as of production. Perhaps, thus 

 understood, it is true. U'e may go u step further, 



