The king’s family spent $55,000,000 per year. Two brothers of the king spent $2,000,000; and, to pay the debts of one princely bankrupt, King Louis XVI took $3,000,000 out of the public funds.
Two hundred and ninety-five cooks served in the king’s kitchen. Nearly two thousand horses stood in his stables. A squad of soldiers escorted his dinner to the table. A magnificent band furnished music while he ate, and a dozen gallant lords, paid for the service, helped him to undress and get to bed when the arduous do-nothing of the day had been finished.
Some 30,000,000 Frenchmen did not enter into this world of privilege. The merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, the manufacturer, the farmer, the laborer—all these stood outside the pearly gates, catching only a glimpse of the radiance within, hearing only, as from a distance, the music of this Eden, created by class legislation.
The peasant neither owned his land absolutely nor himself absolutely. Over him and his was suspended the heavy sword of class privilege.
The noble hunter of game, who enjoyed the exclusive privilege of killing game, might trample down his grain with the utmost unconcern, at whatever time the pleasure of the noble huntsman dictated. Mr. Peasant was not allowed to protect his fields and crops by putting up any kind of inclosure.
Mr. Peasant must not kill the wild boar or the antlered stag, even though those noble beasts, reserved for noble huntsmen, were destroying the crop upon which he and his family were dependent for a living.
He could not, under any conditions whatsoever, destroy the pigeons which came sweeping down upon his grain, nor must he, during certain seasons, manure his crop or hoe out the grass, lest he injure the flavor of the young partridges, and deprive them of the shelter necessary for their comfort and growth.
He could not press his grapes save at the nobleman’s wine-press, nor grind his wheat save at the nobleman’s mill, nor bake his bread elsewhere than in the nobleman’s oven.
These monopolies were peculiar to the lord, and the peasant must pay toll lest the lord’s revenues decrease.
The peasant could not vote, had really no civic existence, was not considered in the government of the country; could be made to work whether he wished to do so or not for the noble and the king. His horses could be taken from the cart, or from the plow, if his superiors demanded it. Neither for his labor nor his horse was he paid. He could not put salt into his victuals without paying a high price for it, and he was not allowed to eat his victuals unsalted. The law compelled him to buy a certain portion of salt every year at an exorbitant price.