332 Travels in France 



others, suffered circuitously through the nobihty and the clergy, 

 were not yet more oppressive ? Nothing can exceed the com- 

 plaints made in the cahiers under this head. They speak of the 

 dispensation of justice in the manorial courts as comprismg 

 every species of despotism: the districts indeterminate— appeals 

 endless— irreconcilable to liberty and prosperity— and irre- 

 vocably proscribed in the opinion of the public i— augment mg 

 litigations— favouring every species of chicane-^ruming the 

 parties— not only by enormous expenses on the most petty 

 objects, but by a dreadful loss of time. The judges commonly 

 ignorant pretenders, who hold their courts in cabarets, and are 

 absolutely dependent on the seigneurs. 2 Nothing can exceed 

 the force of expression used in painting the oppressions of the 

 seigneurs in consequence of their feudal powers. They are 

 vexations qui sont le plus grand fleau des peuples.^—Esdavage 

 affligeant.^—Ce regime desastreti.se. ^^Tha-t the feodalite be for ever 

 abolished. The countryman is tyrannically enslaved by it. 

 Fixed and heavy rents; vexatious processes to secure them; 

 appreciated unjustly to augment them; rents, solidaires, and 

 revenchables ; rents, cheantes, and levanies, fumages. Fines 

 at every change of the property in the direct as well as collateral 

 line; feudal redemption (retraite); fines on sale to the 8th and 

 even the 6th penny; redemptions (rachais) injurious in their ■ 

 origin, and still more so in their extension; banalite of the mill,® of 

 the oven, and of the wine and cider-press; corvees by custom; 

 corvees by usage of the fief; corvees established by unjust decrees ; 

 corvees arbitrary, and even fantastical; servitudes; prestations, 

 extravagant and burthensome; collections by assessments incol- 

 lectible ; aveux, minus, impunissemens ; litigations ruinous and 

 without end: the rod of seigneural finance for ever shaken over 

 our heads; vexation, ruin, outrage, violence, and destructive 

 servitude, under which the peasants, almost on a level with Polish 

 slaves, can never but be miserable, vile, and oppressed.' They 

 demand also that the use of hand-mills be free; and hope that 



1 Rennes, art. 12. — Author's note. 



^Nevernois, art. 43. — Author's note. 



» Tier Etat de Vannes, p. 24. — Author's note. 



* T. Etat Clermont Ferrand, p. 52. — Author's note. 



* T. Etat. Auxerre, art. 6. — Author's note. 



* By this horrible law the people are bound to grind their corn at the 

 mill of the seigneur only, to press their grapes at his press only, and to 

 bake their bread in his oven ; by which means the bread is often spoiled, 

 and more especially wine, since in Champagne those grapes which, pressed 

 immediately, would make white wine, will, by waiting for the press, which 

 often happens, make red wine only. — Author's note. .... 



' Tiers Etat Rennes, p. 159. — Author's note. 



