Smugglers were condemned to be gally-slaves for life.
Women brought to bed with dead bastard children, without having made known their pregnancy, were burnt alive.
Priests that revealed the confessions of penitents, had their tongues tore out, their gowns stripped off, and were expelled from their employments.
He that robbed a church had his hands cut off at the church door, and was afterwards burnt at the place of execution, which was always in the centre of the town.
People of family, convicted of a capital offence, though not executed, are disennobled, with all their relations, turned out of their public employments, and rendered incapable of holding any afterwards, and all marriage contracts become void.
The nobility and clergy, with the burgesses of Paris, and some other free cities, were exempted from paying land taxes.
CHAP. XV.
France an unlimited Monarchy before the Revolution.—The Kingdom was divided into fifteen Parts, in which were as many Parliaments.—It was also divided into twenty-five Generalities.—The King nominated the Bishops.—The Privileges of the Clergy.—The Orders of Knighthood.—From what the Revenues were collected.—A Statement of the Annual Incomes and Expences.—Of the Gold and Silver in Circulation.—National Debt, &c.
Having, partly from my own knowledge, and partly from credible information, given in the preceding chapter a short geographical description of the kingdom of France, I proceed, in the next place, to say something concerning its Constitution and Government before the late Revolution.