[103] And yet he lived under Richelieu, in the nominal reign of Louis XIII., and in the reign of Louis XIV.!—Trans.
[104] Most political economists call man’s labour property; M. Michaud has shown that the bulk of the people, under the feudal system, paid society labour, life, and liberty; and yet he calls these nothing!—Trans.
[105] I do not recollect this prediction; but I perfectly remember Montesquieu foretells that France will perish by the sword.—Trans.
[106] What can this mean? Taxation is as old as governments of any kind.—Trans.
[107] Servez Dieu, et il vous aidera: soyez doux et courtois à tout gentil-homme en otant de vous tout orgueil; ne soyez flatteur ne rapporteur; car telles manières de gens ne viennent pas à gran le perfection. Soyez loyal en faits et en dits; tenez votre parole; soyez secourables à pauvres et orphelins, et Dieu vous le guerdonnera.
[108] Le Père Hélyot, in his Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, vol. i. p. 263, expresses himself thus, when speaking of the order of St. Lazarus:—“What is very remarkable is, that they could only elect as grand-master, a leprous knight of the hospital of Jerusalem, which lasted up to the time of Innocent IV., that is to say, about the year 1253, when, having been obliged to abandon Syria, they addressed the pontiff, and represented to him, that always having had, from their foundation, a leprous knight for grand-master, they found themselves in the impossibility of electing one, because the infidels had killed all the leprous knights of their hospital at Jerusalem. For this reason, they prayed the pontiff to allow them to elect, for the future, as grand-master, a knight who had not been attacked by leprosy, and who might be in good health; and the pope referred them to the bishop of Trascate, that he might accord them this permission, after having examined if that could be done according to the will of God. This is reported by Pope Pius IV., in his bull of the year 1565, so extended and so favourable to the order of St. Lazarus, by which he renews all the privileges and all the gifts that his predecessors had granted to it, and gives it fresh ones. Here is what he says of the election these knights ought to make of a leprous grand-master:—Et Innocentius IV., per eum accepto, quod licet de antiquâ approbatâ et hactenùs pacificè observatâ consuetudine obtentum esset, ut miles leprosus domûs Sancti-Lazari Hierosolymitani in ejus magistrum assumeretur; verùm quia ferè omnes milites leprosi dictæ domûs ab inimicis fidei miserabiliter interfecti fuerant, et hujusmodi consuetudo nequiebat commodè observari: idcircò tunc episcopo Tusculano per quasdam commiserat, ut, si sibi secundùm Deum visum foret expedire fratribus ipsis licentiam, aliquem militem sanum et fratribus prædictæ domûs Sancti-Lazari in ejus magistrum (non obstante consuetudine hujusmodi de cætero eligendi) auctoritate apostolicâ concederet.
[109] For serfs this might be a blessing, but for free labour it was complained of as an evil. La Fontaine’s Cobbler, when describing his state to the Financier, says:—
“Chaque jour amène son pain,
Tantôt plus, tantôt moins: le mal est que toujours
(Et sans cela nos gains seraient assez honnêtes),
Le mal est que dans l’an s’entremêlent des jours
Qu’il faut chômer; on nous ruine en fêtes;
L’une fait tort à l’autre; et monsieur le curé
De quelque nouveau saint charge toujours son prôné.”
Every day brings its bread; sometimes more, sometimes less: the worst is that always (and without that our gains would be very tolerable), the evil is, that in the year so many days creep in in which we must be idle—we are ruined in festivals; one treads upon the heels of another; and master curate is always introducing some new saint into his sermon.—Trans.
[110] We are constantly withheld, by the respect due from translators to originals, from making remarks in opposition to our author, when he lays down the historian’s pen to get into the philosopher’s chair. In the course of this chapter, our readers must have observed much reflection that is not deep, and some passages that are contradictory of others; but all has one great merit—it is extremely suggestive.—Trans.