Note (LVIII.)—Page [112], line 42.
ARBITRARY IMPRISONMENT FOR THE CORVÉE.
An example is given in a letter of a Grand Prévôt, in 1768:—‘I ordered yesterday,’ it says, ‘the imprisonment of three men (at the demand of M. C., Sub-Engineer), for not having done their corvée. Upon which there was a considerable agitation among the women of the village, who exclaimed, “The poor people are thought of quite enough when the corvée is to be done; but nobody takes care to see they have enough to live upon.”’
Note (LIX.)—Page [113], line 20.
The resources for the making of roads were of two kinds. The greater was the corvée, for all the great works that required only labour; the smaller was derived from the general taxation, the amount of which was placed at the disposition of the Ponts et Chaussées for the expenses of works requiring science. The privileged classes—that is to say, the principal landowners—though more interested than all in the construction of roads, contributed nothing to the corvée and, moreover, were still exempt otherwise, inasmuch as the taxation for the Ponts et Chaussées was annexed to the taille, and levied in the same manner.
Note (LX.)—Page [113], line 29.
EXAMPLE OF FORCED LABOUR IN THE TRANSPORT OF CONVICTS.