The Eve of the French Revolution

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As for the feudal rights which brought in money to their owners, it
was generally felt, at least by the Commons, that they must be
redeemable; that the persons liable to pay on their account must be
allowed to buy them off by the payment of a certain sum down, where
the ownership was true and fair. Here, however, a great trouble seemed
likely to arise from an important divergence of ideas. The French
nobles believed, as the vast mass of property holders has believed in
all ages, that prescription or ancient use was sufficient evidence of
property. If it could be shown that a man, or his predecessors in
title, had held a certain piece of land or a certain right over the
land of another, from time immemorial, or for a very long time,
nothing more was needed to establish his property. Unless this theory
be admitted, at least to some extent, it would seem that all rights of
property must perish. In respect therefore to land in actual
possession the French nation held firmly to prescription. But in
respect to those more subtle rights in land which had been enormously
favored by the feudal system, another theory came in. Those rights
were thought in the eighteenth century to be unnatural in themselves,
and therefore abusive. It was believed, moreover, that many of them
had been usurped without reason or justice. [Footnote: _T._, Bearn,
_A. P._, vi. 500. Rennes, _A. P._, v. 546.] It was commonly held by
the Third Estate that unless an express charter or agreement could be
shown establishing such rights, they should be abolished without
compensation, and that some of them were so unjust and objectionable
that not even an agreement or a charter could sanction them. Such were
many feudal payments and monopolies; common bulls, common ovens,
rights to labor and to services. Such above all, where it lingered,
was serfdom.[Footnote: For the desire to retain feudal rights, see
_N._, Condom, _A. P._, iii. 38, Section 5. _N._, Dax, _A. P._, iii.
94, Section 21. _N._, Etain, _A. P._, ii. 215, Section 10. _N._, Bas
Vivarais, _A. P._, vi. 180, Section 19. For the desire to abolish
them, _T._, Avesnes, A. P., ii. 153, Sections 34-40. _T._, Bar-le-duc,
_A. P._, ii. 200, Sections 49, 50. _T._, Beaujolais, _A. P._, ii. 285,
Section 22. _T._, Cambrai, _A. P._, ii. 520, Sections 14-16. _C._,
Clermont en Beauvoisis, _A. P._, ii. 746. _T._, Crepy, _A. P._, iii.
74, Section 21. _T._, Linas, _A. P._, iv. 649, Section 17. _T._,
Ploermel, _A. P._, v. 379, Sections 14-20 (a very full exposition),
and many others.]

When we pass from the property of private persons to that of clerical
corporations, whether sole or aggregate, we find the case still
stronger. It has been said that the greater number of the cahiers of
the clergy were composed under the prevailing influence of the parish
priests. These men felt themselves to be wronged in the distribution
of church property. They thought it outrageous that the working part
of the clergy should receive but a pittance, while useless drones
fattened in idleness.[Footnote: _C._, Paroisse de St. Paul, _A. P._,
v. 270, Section 11.] Their proposals were radical. They would take
from the few who had much and give to the many who had little. The
salaries of those who ministered in parishes should be increased, by
fixing a minimum, and the money should come out of the pockets of
abbots, chapters, and monasteries. Not only are future appointments to
be made so as to favor the parish priests, but for their benefit the
present incumbents of fat livings are to be dispossessed. The schemes
for this purpose were not identical everywhere, but the spirit was the
same throughout the popular part of the order.

While the Third Estate agreed with the Clergy in wishing to readjust
clerical incomes, an attack was made in some quarters on the payment of
the tithe itself. This, however, was not general. The people were
willing to pay a reasonable tithe, although some of them would have
preferred that the priests should receive salaries, paid from the
product of ordinary taxation. Compulsory fees for religious ceremonies,
such as weddings and funerals, were very unpopular. It was repeatedly
asked that such fees should be abolished, when the incomes of the
priests were made sufficient.[Footnote: Poncins, 179. _T._,
Ploermel, _A. P._, v. 380, Section 22. Soissy-sous-Etoiles, _A.
P._, v. 121, Section 16.]

Thus the cahiers do not attack the right of property in the abstract; on
the contrary, they maintain it. But they shake its foundations by blows
aimed at vested rights and at prescription.

The question of taxation is postponed in the cahiers to that of
constitutional rights. But financial necessities were the very cause of
the existence of the Estates General, the opportunity for all reforms.
On the most important principle of taxation the country was almost
unanimous. Thenceforth the burdens were to be borne by all. Only here
and there did some privileged body contend for old immunities, some
chapter put in a claim that the Clergy should still pay only in the form
of a voluntary gift. The privileged orders generally relinquish their
freedom from taxation. Sometimes they applaud themselves for so doing.
The Clergy, in many cases, undertake to bear their share of taxation
only on condition that their corporate debt shall be made a part of the
debt of the nation.

The Third Estate, on the other hand, maintains that it is but fair and
right that all citizens shall be taxed alike. Its cahiers demand as a
right what those of the higher orders offer as a gift.[Footnote: A few
cahiers of the Nobility request that a certain part of the property of
poor nobles be exempt from taxation. _N._, Clermont-Ferrand, _A. P._,
ii. 767, Section 23. _N._, Bas Limousin, _A. P._, iii. 538, Section 14]

As to the method of taxation to be employed there was some approach to
agreement. Many of the old taxes were utterly condemned, at least in
their old forms. The salt tax was to be equalized, if it were not
entirely done away. The monopoly of tobacco, that "article of first
necessity," was to receive the same treatment. Many demands were made
concerning the excise on wine. "We find it hard to believe," cry the
people of the village of Pavaut, "that all this multitude of duties
goes into the king's strong-box; we rather believe that it serves to
fatten those who are at the head of the excise; and that at the
expense of the poor vine-dresser." All the taxes were to be converted
as fast as possible into one on land and one on personal property. But
the minds of the reformers had not grasped the real difficulties of
the subject. They were in that stage of thought in which great
questions are answered off-hand because the thinker has not fully
apprehended them. Should the personal tax be based on capital or on
incomes, and how should these be ascertained? It is far easier to
formulate general principles of taxation than to apply them
successfully.[Footnote: Salt and tobacco, _T._, Perche, _A. P._, v.
327, Section 38. Loisail, _A. P._ v. 334, Section 7. Wine, Pavaut, _A.
P._, v. 9.]

A common demand is for the taxation of luxuries, such as servants,
carriages, or dogs. The people of Segonzac propose a charge on rouge,
"which destroys beauty," and strike at a fashionable folly of the day
by suggesting a special payment by those "who allow themselves to wear
two watches." This is perhaps not the place to mention the proposal to
impose an additional tax on persons of both sexes who are unmarried
after "a certain age." The great movement from the country to the
cities was already exciting alarm. The people of Albret think that a
tax on luxuries will have the double advantage of weighing on the
richest and least useful citizens, and of sending the population back
to the country from the cities, which will receive just limits. And
the people of Domfront speak of Paris as an "awful chasm," in which
the wealth, population, and morals of the provinces are swallowed up
together. [Footnote: Taxation of luxuries in general, _C._, Douai, _A.
P._, iii. 174, Section 19. _N._, Alencon, _A. P._, i. 715. _C._,
Amiens, _A. P._, i. 735. _T._, Aix, _A. P._, i. 696. _T._, Laugon, _A.
P._, ii. 270, Sections 26, 27, and many others. Bachelors, _T._,
Rennes, _A. P._, v. 544, Section 115. Vicheray, _A. P._, vi. 24,
Section 30. Cities, _T._, Albret, _A. P._, i. 706, Section 38.
Domfront, _A. P._, i. 724, Section 14.]

Theoretical attacks on luxury are common in all ages, and not very
significant. Far more so are proposals for progressive taxation. These
are of occasional occurrence in the cahiers. The Third Estate of Rennes,
whose cahier is considered typical of the more revolutionary aspirations
of the times, asks that "the tax on persons shall be established and
assessed with reference to their powers, so that he that is twice as
well off as the well to do people of his class shall pay three times the
tax, and so following." The spirit of this demand is more clear than its
application. The town of Bellocq, in the province of Bearn, is more
explicit. It would pay the public debt by a special tax, justly
assessed, first on farmers general and other collectors of the revenue,
who have made fortunes quickly for themselves and their relations, by
money drawn from the nation; next on all persons who have an income
exceeding two hundred pistoles, whether from lands, contracts, or
manufactures; then on the feoffees of tolls, where the amount of the
tolls is more than double the rent paid for them; and lastly, if the
above do not suffice, it is proposed to obtain a sum of money by seizing
a part of all articles of luxury and superfluity, wherever found; and it
is explained that the plate of the rich and the ornaments of churches
are especially intended.[Footnote: _A. P._, ii. 275, Section 42
_n._]

The financial scheme outlined in the cahiers is, in the main, as
follows. As soon as the constitution shall have been settled, the
deputies shall call on the royal ministers for accounts and estimates.
The latter shall be furnished in two parts. First shall come those for
the necessary, current expenses of the government, including those of
the king and his family and court, to be maintained in a style suitable
to the splendor of a great monarchy. It shall then be considered what
economies can be introduced into every department. Among these
economies, the suppression or reduction of extravagant pensions,
especially of such as are bestowed for mere favor, and not for service
to the state, shall take a prominent place. When the estimates have been
duly considered, special appropriations shall be made by the Estates,
and ministers shall be held to a strict responsibility in expending
them.

Next, concerning the debts of the state, a separate and detailed account
shall be rendered to the Estates General. This also shall be
scrutinized, the justice of the various claims considered, and means
provided for their gradual payment. It is taken for granted that,
henceforth, the French nation is usually to live within its income; but
if debts are contracted at any time, special provision must be made for
the repayment of principal and interest.[Footnote: _N._, Amont,
_A. P._, i. 766. _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 682.]

Having considered the general matters of constitutional government, law,
property, and taxation, we may pass to those questions which more
particularly interested one of the great orders of the state, or on
which the opinions of one order might be expected to differ from those
of another. In general policy the clergy agreed with the nobility and
the Third Estate, but in some matters they differed. Yet the differences
were greater in degree than in kind. I mean that the clergy, as was
natural, had most to say about ecclesiastical, religious, and moral
questions, and differed from the nobility and the commons more by the
relative prominence which it gave to these, than by the nature of its
opinions concerning them.

The Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion is the religion of the
state; and the public worship of no other shall be allowed in France.
This was the universal demand of the clergy, and in it the other
orders usually acquiesced. As for the granting of civil rights to
those who are not Catholic, the clergy is of opinion that quite
enough, perhaps too much, has already been done in that direction.
Such rights as have already been granted must be limited and defined,
and a stop put to the encroachments of heresy. Sometimes the lay
orders would go farther in toleration. One cahier of the nobility
proposes a military cross for distinguished Protestant officers,
another that non-Catholics may be electors, but not elected, to the
Estates General. The inhabitants of some of the central provinces
would restore the property of exiles for religion's sake to their
families. The people of one quarter of Paris would allow the free
worship of all religions. Expressions of approval of the recent
concession of a civil status to Protestants are not unusual in the
cahiers. But the country and all the orders are undoubtedly and
overwhelmingly Catholic.[Footnote: For toleration, Bellocq, _A. P._,
ii. 276, Section 59. N., Agen, _A. P._, i. 684, Section 14. _T._,
Perigord, _A. P._, v. 343, Section 45. _T._, Poitou, _A. P._, v. 414.
Vouvant, _A. P._, v. 427, Section 18. T. Paris-Theatins, _A. P._, v.
316, Section 29. _T._, Montargis, _A. P._, iv. 23, Section 10.]

The clergy asks that the observance of Sundays and holidays be
enforced. The Third Estate, in some places, thinks that there are too
many holidays already. It would abolish many of them, transferring
their religious observances to the Sunday to which they fall nearest.
[Footnote: _T._, St. Pierre-le-Moutier, _A. P._, v. 640, Section 63.
_T._, Paris-hors-les-murs, _A. P._, 241, Section 2.]

In regard to the liberty of the press the clergy is at variance with the
other orders. It would maintain a stricter censorship than heretofore,
and is inclined to attribute all the immorality of the age to the
unbridled license of authors. The nobility and the Third Estate, on the
other hand, would generally allow the press to be free, but would exact
responsibility on the part of authors and printers, one or both of whom
should always be required to sign their publications. Thus anonymous
libels should no longer be suffered to appear, and bad books generally
should bring down punishment on their authors.

The cahiers of the clergy, more, perhaps, than any others, insist on
the importance of education; and the ecclesiastics generally wish to
control it themselves. Here the commons sometimes go farther than
they; asking that all monks and nuns be obliged to give free
instruction.[Footnote: _C._, Aix, _A. P._, i. 692, Section 6. _C._,
Labourt, iii. _A. P._, 424, Section 27. Ornans, _A. P._, iii. 172,
Section 4. _T._, Douai, _A. P._, iii. 181, Sections 28, 29.]

As for the administration of their own order the clergy, under the
lead of the parish priests, demand extensive reforms. There must be no
more absenteeism; no bishops and abbots drawing large incomes and
amusing themselves in Paris or Versailles. There must be no more
pluralities, which are contrary to the decrees of the Council of
Trent. Promotion must be thrown open to the parochial clergy. Faithful
clergymen must be provided for in their old age. Frequent synods and
provincial councils must be held. The laity agree with the clergy in
calling for these reforms, and would in many cases go a great way in
the suppression and consolidation of monasteries.[Footnote: Poncins,
190, _A. P._, _passim_. _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 682, Section 8.]

Both clergy and laity are intensely Gallican. They do not wish to pay
tribute to Rome, but desire that the church of France shall preserve
her privileges and immunities. Dispensations for the marriage of
relatives should, they think, be granted by French bishops, and the
fees payable therefor should be kept in the country. Annats, or
payments to the Pope on the occasion of appointment to French
benefices, should be discontinued. An importance far beyond what their
amount alone would seem to justify was attached in French minds to
these payments to the Holy See. They were repugnant to the national
sense of dignity. In some places the idea that the church of France
was to govern herself went so far as to threaten orthodoxy. The clergy
of the province of Poitou ask for the composition by the French
bishops, "who would doubtless think proper to consult the
universities," of a body of theology, "divested of all useless
questions," which shall be exclusively taught in all seminaries,
schools, and monasteries. We have here an instance of that impatience
of all complicated and difficult thought, of that simple faith that
all questions admit of short and sensible answers, which characterized
the eighteenth century. The clergy of Poitou ask also for a great and
little catechism, common to all dioceses. "Uniform instruction
throughout all the Gallican Church," they say, "would have so many
advantages that the bishops will not fail to apply themselves to
obtain it. A common breviary and a common liturgy would be equally
desirable."[Footnote: _A. P._, v. 391, Section 19.]

The election of bishops is asked for in several cahiers, and many
parishes wish to elect their priests. These requests were not as radical
as they may now seem to have been,--at least they did not interfere with
the prerogatives of Rome,--for the bishops in France were nominated by
the crown, as they still are by the French government, and the appointment
of the priests, then in France as now in England, was often in the hands
of lay patrons.[Footnote: Poncins, 168.]

The French nation in general wished to retain its nobility as a
distinct part of the state. In but few cahiers do we find so much as a
hint of the suppression of the order.[Footnote: Poncins, 111. Hippean,
p. x., etc. My own study of the cahiers confirms this opinion. See,
however, a long, argumentative article in the cahier of the Third
Estate of Rennes, _A. P._, v. 540, Sections 48-50. See also that of
Bellocq, _A. P._, ii. 276, Section 61. _T._ Aix. _A P._, i. 697.
Villiers-sur-Marne, _A. P._, v. 216. Carri, _A. P._, vi. 280 Section
35, etc.] The Third Estate would, however, reduce the advantage of the
nobility to little more than a distinction and a political weight. The
nobles, being in numbers perhaps one hundredth part of the nation, are
to be allowed one quarter of the representatives in the Estates
General and in the Provincial Estates. They are to have a large share
of honors, offices, and emoluments. Their order is to be made more
exclusive than it has been. Nobility is no longer to be bought and
sold, but shall be accorded only for merit or long service, perhaps
only on the nomination of the Provincial Estates. Except in the most
democratic cahiers, these concessions are not disputed.

On the other hand, the Commons ask for a share of the chances hitherto
reserved for the nobles. The exclusive right held by the upper order,
of serving as judges in the higher courts of justice, or as officers
in the army, is to disappear. To the latter right the nobles strongly
cling. The career of arms, they say, is their natural, their only
vocation. In some cases, however, they ask to be allowed to practice
other means of earning a livelihood without derogating from their
nobility. But they join with the other orders in the cry for reforms
in the army. [Footnote: _T._, Perche, _A. P._, 326, Section 17. _N._,
Agenois, _A. P._, i. 683, Section 14]

The general irritation caused by the new military regulations has been
noticed in another chapter. The cahiers unanimously give it voice. The
French soldier shall no longer be insulted with blows. The
organization of the army shall be amended. It must not be subjected
"to the versatility of the spirit of system and to the caprice of
ministers." Many are the requests that the soldier be better treated.
Not a few, that his necessary leisure be turned to good account by
employment in road-building or in other public works.[Footnote: _N._,
Ponthieu, _A. P._, v. 434, Sections 40-42. _T._, Perche, _A. P._, v.
326, Section 19. Soldiers to work on roads, etc., Poncins, 212. Arles,
_A. P._, ii. 61, Section 3. _T._, Bourbonnais, _A. P._, ii. 449,
Section vi., 1. _N._, Chateau-Thierry, _A. P._, ii. 665, Section 56.
_T._, Etampes, _A. P._, iii. 287, Section 12, etc.] More numerous,
perhaps, are those for fairness of promotion. It was in this matter
that the poorer nobility was most bitter in its jealousy of the great
court families. With but one path for their ambition, the country
nobles saw their way blocked by the glittering figures of men no
better born than themselves. The wrinkled old soldier, descended from
Crusaders, personally distinguished in twenty battles, stood on his
wounded legs and presented his halberd as a captain at fifty; while a
Noailles, or a Carignan, with no more quarterings and no service at
all, perhaps hardly a Frenchman and only twenty years old, but with a
duke for an uncle, or a queen's favorite for a sister, pranced on his
managed charger at the head of the regiment as its colonel. Nor was
this all. The worthy veteran might, on some trifling quarrel, be
deprived of the rank he had won with his sweat and his blood, and sent
back to his paternal hawk's nest, a broken and disgraced man. The
cahiers demand that there shall be no more dismissals without trial;
and many of them ask that particular cases of hardship may be
rectified. For now the world is to be set right again; commissions and
appointments to the military school are to be fairly distributed;
promotion is to be by merit and term of service; and the loyal
nobility of France is once more to be the bulwark of an adored king
and a grateful nation.

* * * * *

The Commons also have their particular wishes. They desire not only to
be rid of feudal oppression, but of administrative regulations. These
are sometimes so combined with privileges, or with taxation, that it is
not easy to distinguish their cause. The fishermen of Albret, for
instance, ask to be allowed to use any kind of boat that may suit their
convenience.[Footnote: _A. P._, i. 706, Section 57.] We can only
guess why any one should have interfered with their boats. Was it a
corporation of boat-builders having a monopoly that restricted them, or
was it only the paternal fussiness of Continental police regulations?

In matters of commerce the national feeling was far from unanimous.
Most of the cahiers asked that trade be free within the kingdom;
although some of the border provinces, which had enjoyed a
comparatively free trade with Germany and had been cut off from
France, preferred the maintenance of that state of things,[Footnote:
Alsace, Lorraine, and the Three Bishoprics. Poncins, 282, Mathieu,
441. _C_., Verdun, _A. P._, vi. 130.] and although the retention of
the _octrois_, or custom-houses at the town gates, was sometimes
contemplated. Uniformity of weights and measures was also desired; but
was sometimes asked for in a half hopeless tone, as if so great a
change could hardly be expected. The request was made that all loans
with interest be not considered usurious; a request resisted in some
cases by the clergy, which clung to the old laws of usury. The
abolition of monopolies is generally called for; certain odious
restrictions, such as the mark on leather and on iron, are condemned,
but rather as taxes than as commercial regulations. On economic
questions the nation has no very fixed opinions, nor have definite
parties been formed. Free trade and free manufactures commend
themselves to the ear; but regulations as to quality and protection
against English competition may be highly desirable. Agriculture needs
more hands, and is the first, the most necessary, the noblest of arts.
Furnaces and foundries use wood, and make fuel dear. Trade should be
entirely free,--but peddlers are nuisances, and interfere with regular
shop-keepers. Manufactures are a source of wealth,--but dangerous
unless well managed; none of them should be established without the
consent of the Provincial Estates. If only our king and "his august
companion" would wear none but French stuffs, and set a fashion that
way, our languishing factories would soon be active again.[Footnote:
Concerning usury, _T._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 690. _T._, Comminges, _A.
P._, iii 27, Section 24. St-Jean-des-Agneaux, _A. P._, iii. 65,
Section 4. _C., N._, and _T._, Dole, _A. P._, iii. 152, Section 14;
158, Section 57; 165, Section xiv. 6. Paris, St. Eustache, _A. P._, v.
304, Section 52. _C._, Soule, v. 774, Section 17, etc. See also _N._,
Agenois, _A. P._, i. 684, Section 7. _T._, Paris, _A. P._, v. 285,
Sections 3, 4, and _n_.]

Certain demands of the cahiers excite surprise by their frequent
recurrence. Among them is that for the more severe treatment of
bankrupts, who were able in old France to evade the law of the land
and even to take sanctuary. Some cahiers go so far as to ask that
those convicted of fraud be made habitually to wear a green cap in
public, or that they be whipped, or sent to the galleys for life, or
even put to death.[Footnote: Poncins, 285. _T._, Pont-a-Mousson, _A.
P._, ii. 232, Section 11. _N._, Lille, _A. P._, iii. 531, Section 54.
_T._, Lyon, _A. P._, iii. 613. _T._, Mantes et Meulan, _A. P._, iii.
672, Section ix. 2. _C._, Lille, _A. P._, iii. 524, Sections 35, 37.]

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