Note (L.)—Page [103], line 30.
So far from being the case that the enlightened and wealthy classes were oppressed and enslaved under the ancien régime, it may be said, on the contrary, that all, including the bourgeoisie, were frequently far too free to do all they liked; since the Royal authority did not dare to prevent members of these classes from constantly creating themselves an exceptional position, to the detriment of the people; and almost always considered it necessary to sacrifice the latter to them, in order to obtain their good will, or put a stop to their ill humour. It may be said that, in the eighteenth century, a Frenchman belonging to these classes could more easily resist the Government, and force it to use conciliatory measures with him, than an Englishman of the same position in life could have done at that time. The authorities often considered themselves obliged to use towards such a man a far more temporising and timid policy than the English Government would ever have thought itself bound to employ towards an English subject in the same category—so wrong is it to confound independence with liberty. Nothing is less independent than a free citizen.
Note (LI.)—Page [103], line 37.
REASON THAT FREQUENTLY OBLIGED THE ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT IN THE ANCIENT STATE OF SOCIETY TO RESTRAIN ITSELF.
In ordinary times the augmentation of old taxes, and more especially the imposition of new taxes, are the only subjects likely to cause trouble to a Government, or excite a people. Under the old financial constitution of Europe, when any Prince had expensive desires, or plunged into an adventurous line of policy, or allowed his finances to become disordered, or (to take another instance) needed money for the purpose of sustaining himself by winning partisans by means of enormous gains or heavy salaries that they had never earned, or by keeping up numerous armies, by undertaking great public works, &c. &c., he was obliged at once to have recourse to taxation; a proceeding that immediately roused and excited every class, especially that class which creates revolutions—the people. Nowadays, in similar positions, loans are contracted, the immediate effect of which passes almost unperceived, and the final result of which is only felt by the succeeding generation.
Note (LII.)—Page [105], line 29.
As one example, among many others, the fact may be cited, that the principal domains in the jurisdiction of Mayenne were farmed out to Fermiers-Généraux, who took as Sous-Fermiers little miserable tillers of land, who had nothing of their own, and for whom they were obliged to furnish the most necessary farming utensils. It may be well conceived that Fermiers-Généraux of this kind had no great consideration for the farmers or due-paying tenants of the old feudal Seigneur, who had put them in his place, and that the exercise of feudalism in such hands as these was often more hard to bear than in the Middle Ages.