The Eve of the French Revolution Part 20

Amont-Gray, _A. P._, i. 780. Perigny en Brie (Paris, _ex. m._) _A. P._, v. 14, Sections 5-11, and many others.]

As for the feudal rights which brought in money to their owners, it was generally felt, at least by the Commons, that they must be redeemable; that the persons liable to pay on their account must be allowed to buy them off by the payment of a certain sum down, where the owners.h.i.+p was true and fair. Here, however, a great trouble seemed likely to arise from an important divergence of ideas. The French n.o.bles believed, as the vast ma.s.s of property holders has believed in all ages, that prescription or ancient use was sufficient evidence of property. If it could be shown that a man, or his predecessors in t.i.tle, had held a certain piece of land or a certain right over the land of another, from time immemorial, or for a very long time, nothing more was needed to establish his property. Unless this theory be admitted, at least to some extent, it would seem that all rights of property must perish. In respect therefore to land in actual possession the French nation held firmly to prescription. But in respect to those more subtle rights in land which had been enormously favored by the feudal system, another theory came in. Those rights were thought in the eighteenth century to be unnatural in themselves, and therefore abusive. It was believed, moreover, that many of them had been usurped without reason or justice. [Footnote: _T._, Bearn, _A. P._, vi. 500. Rennes, _A. P._, v. 546.] It was commonly held by the Third Estate that unless an express charter or agreement could be shown establis.h.i.+ng such rights, they should be abolished without compensation, and that some of them were so unjust and objectionable that not even an agreement or a charter could sanction them. Such were many feudal payments and monopolies; common bulls, common ovens, rights to labor and to services. Such above all, where it lingered, was serfdom.[Footnote: For the desire to retain feudal rights, see _N._, Condom, _A. P._, iii. 38, Section 5. _N._, Dax, _A. P._, iii.

94, Section 21. _N._, Etain, _A. P._, ii. 215, Section 10. _N._, Bas Vivarais, _A. P._, vi. 180, Section 19. For the desire to abolish them, _T._, Avesnes, A. P., ii. 153, Sections 34-40. _T._, Bar-le-duc, _A. P._, ii. 200, Sections 49, 50. _T._, Beaujolais, _A. P._, ii. 285, Section 22. _T._, Cambrai, _A. P._, ii. 520, Sections 14-16. _C._, Clermont en Beauvoisis, _A. P._, ii. 746. _T._, Crepy, _A. P._, iii.

74, Section 21. _T._, Linas, _A. P._, iv. 649, Section 17. _T._, Ploermel, _A. P._, v. 379, Sections 14-20 (a very full exposition), and many others.]

When we pa.s.s from the property of private persons to that of clerical corporations, whether sole or aggregate, we find the case still stronger. It has been said that the greater number of the cahiers of the clergy were composed under the prevailing influence of the parish priests. These men felt themselves to be wronged in the distribution of church property. They thought it outrageous that the working part of the clergy should receive but a pittance, while useless drones fattened in idleness.[Footnote: _C._, Paroisse de St. Paul, _A. P._, v. 270, Section 11.] Their proposals were radical. They would take from the few who had much and give to the many who had little. The salaries of those who ministered in parishes should be increased, by fixing a minimum, and the money should come out of the pockets of abbots, chapters, and monasteries. Not only are future appointments to be made so as to favor the parish priests, but for their benefit the present inc.u.mbents of fat livings are to be dispossessed. The schemes for this purpose were not identical everywhere, but the spirit was the same throughout the popular part of the order.

While the Third Estate agreed with the Clergy in wis.h.i.+ng to readjust clerical incomes, an attack was made in some quarters on the payment of the t.i.the itself. This, however, was not general. The people were willing to pay a reasonable t.i.the, although some of them would have preferred that the priests should receive salaries, paid from the product of ordinary taxation. Compulsory fees for religious ceremonies, such as weddings and funerals, were very unpopular. It was repeatedly asked that such fees should be abolished, when the incomes of the priests were made sufficient.[Footnote: Poncins, 179. _T._, Ploermel, _A. P._, v. 380, Section 22. Soissy-sous-Etoiles, _A.

P._, v. 121, Section 16.]

Thus the cahiers do not attack the right of property in the abstract; on the contrary, they maintain it. But they shake its foundations by blows aimed at vested rights and at prescription.

The question of taxation is postponed in the cahiers to that of const.i.tutional rights. But financial necessities were the very cause of the existence of the Estates General, the opportunity for all reforms.

On the most important principle of taxation the country was almost unanimous. Thenceforth the burdens were to be borne by all. Only here and there did some privileged body contend for old immunities, some chapter put in a claim that the Clergy should still pay only in the form of a voluntary gift. The privileged orders generally relinquish their freedom from taxation. Sometimes they applaud themselves for so doing.

The Clergy, in many cases, undertake to bear their share of taxation only on condition that their corporate debt shall be made a part of the debt of the nation.

The Third Estate, on the other hand, maintains that it is but fair and right that all citizens shall be taxed alike. Its cahiers demand as a right what those of the higher orders offer as a gift.[Footnote: A few cahiers of the n.o.bility request that a certain part of the property of poor n.o.bles be exempt from taxation. _N._, Clermont-Ferrand, _A. P._, ii. 767, Section 23. _N._, Bas Limousin, _A. P._, iii. 538, Section 14]

As to the method of taxation to be employed there was some approach to agreement. Many of the old taxes were utterly condemned, at least in their old forms. The salt tax was to be equalized, if it were not entirely done away. The monopoly of tobacco, that "article of first necessity," was to receive the same treatment. Many demands were made concerning the excise on wine. "We find it hard to believe," cry the people of the village of Pavaut, "that all this mult.i.tude of duties goes into the king's strong-box; we rather believe that it serves to fatten those who are at the head of the excise; and that at the expense of the poor vine-dresser." All the taxes were to be converted as fast as possible into one on land and one on personal property. But the minds of the reformers had not grasped the real difficulties of the subject. They were in that stage of thought in which great questions are answered off-hand because the thinker has not fully apprehended them. Should the personal tax be based on capital or on incomes, and how should these be ascertained? It is far easier to formulate general principles of taxation than to apply them successfully.[Footnote: Salt and tobacco, _T._, Perche, _A. P._, v.

327, Section 38. Loisail, _A. P._ v. 334, Section 7. Wine, Pavaut, _A.

P._, v. 9.]

A common demand is for the taxation of luxuries, such as servants, carriages, or dogs. The people of Segonzac propose a charge on rouge, "which destroys beauty," and strike at a fas.h.i.+onable folly of the day by suggesting a special payment by those "who allow themselves to wear two watches." This is perhaps not the place to mention the proposal to impose an additional tax on persons of both s.e.xes who are unmarried after "a certain age." The great movement from the country to the cities was already exciting alarm. The people of Albret think that a tax on luxuries will have the double advantage of weighing on the richest and least useful citizens, and of sending the population back to the country from the cities, which will receive just limits. And the people of Domfront speak of Paris as an "awful chasm," in which the wealth, population, and morals of the provinces are swallowed up together. [Footnote: Taxation of luxuries in general, _C._, Douai, _A.

P._, iii. 174, Section 19. _N._, Alencon, _A. P._, i. 715. _C._, Amiens, _A. P._, i. 735. _T._, Aix, _A. P._, i. 696. _T._, Laugon, _A.

P._, ii. 270, Sections 26, 27, and many others. Bachelors, _T._, Rennes, _A. P._, v. 544, Section 115. Vicheray, _A. P._, vi. 24, Section 30. Cities, _T._, Albret, _A. P._, i. 706, Section 38.

Domfront, _A. P._, i. 724, Section 14.]

Theoretical attacks on luxury are common in all ages, and not very significant. Far more so are proposals for progressive taxation. These are of occasional occurrence in the cahiers. The Third Estate of Rennes, whose cahier is considered typical of the more revolutionary aspirations of the times, asks that "the tax on persons shall be established and a.s.sessed with reference to their powers, so that he that is twice as well off as the well to do people of his cla.s.s shall pay three times the tax, and so following." The spirit of this demand is more clear than its application. The town of Bellocq, in the province of Bearn, is more explicit. It would pay the public debt by a special tax, justly a.s.sessed, first on farmers general and other collectors of the revenue, who have made fortunes quickly for themselves and their relations, by money drawn from the nation; next on all persons who have an income exceeding two hundred pistoles, whether from lands, contracts, or manufactures; then on the feoffees of tolls, where the amount of the tolls is more than double the rent paid for them; and lastly, if the above do not suffice, it is proposed to obtain a sum of money by seizing a part of all articles of luxury and superfluity, wherever found; and it is explained that the plate of the rich and the ornaments of churches are especially intended.[Footnote: _A. P._, ii. 275, Section 42 _n._]

The financial scheme outlined in the cahiers is, in the main, as follows. As soon as the const.i.tution shall have been settled, the deputies shall call on the royal ministers for accounts and estimates.

The latter shall be furnished in two parts. First shall come those for the necessary, current expenses of the government, including those of the king and his family and court, to be maintained in a style suitable to the splendor of a great monarchy. It shall then be considered what economies can be introduced into every department. Among these economies, the suppression or reduction of extravagant pensions, especially of such as are bestowed for mere favor, and not for service to the state, shall take a prominent place. When the estimates have been duly considered, special appropriations shall be made by the Estates, and ministers shall be held to a strict responsibility in expending them.

Next, concerning the debts of the state, a separate and detailed account shall be rendered to the Estates General. This also shall be scrutinized, the justice of the various claims considered, and means provided for their gradual payment. It is taken for granted that, henceforth, the French nation is usually to live within its income; but if debts are contracted at any time, special provision must be made for the repayment of princ.i.p.al and interest.[Footnote: _N._, Amont, _A. P._, i. 766. _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 682.]

Having considered the general matters of const.i.tutional government, law, property, and taxation, we may pa.s.s to those questions which more particularly interested one of the great orders of the state, or on which the opinions of one order might be expected to differ from those of another. In general policy the clergy agreed with the n.o.bility and the Third Estate, but in some matters they differed. Yet the differences were greater in degree than in kind. I mean that the clergy, as was natural, had most to say about ecclesiastical, religious, and moral questions, and differed from the n.o.bility and the commons more by the relative prominence which it gave to these, than by the nature of its opinions concerning them.

The Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion is the religion of the state; and the public wors.h.i.+p of no other shall be allowed in France.

This was the universal demand of the clergy, and in it the other orders usually acquiesced. As for the granting of civil rights to those who are not Catholic, the clergy is of opinion that quite enough, perhaps too much, has already been done in that direction.

Such rights as have already been granted must be limited and defined, and a stop put to the encroachments of heresy. Sometimes the lay orders would go farther in toleration. One cahier of the n.o.bility proposes a military cross for distinguished Protestant officers, another that non-Catholics may be electors, but not elected, to the Estates General. The inhabitants of some of the central provinces would restore the property of exiles for religion's sake to their families. The people of one quarter of Paris would allow the free wors.h.i.+p of all religions. Expressions of approval of the recent concession of a civil status to Protestants are not unusual in the cahiers. But the country and all the orders are undoubtedly and overwhelmingly Catholic.[Footnote: For toleration, Bellocq, _A. P._, ii. 276, Section 59. N., Agen, _A. P._, i. 684, Section 14. _T._, Perigord, _A. P._, v. 343, Section 45. _T._, Poitou, _A. P._, v. 414.

Vouvant, _A. P._, v. 427, Section 18. T. Paris-Theatins, _A. P._, v.

316, Section 29. _T._, Montargis, _A. P._, iv. 23, Section 10.]

The clergy asks that the observance of Sundays and holidays be enforced. The Third Estate, in some places, thinks that there are too many holidays already. It would abolish many of them, transferring their religious observances to the Sunday to which they fall nearest.

[Footnote: _T._, St. Pierre-le-Moutier, _A. P._, v. 640, Section 63.

_T._, Paris-hors-les-murs, _A. P._, 241, Section 2.]

In regard to the liberty of the press the clergy is at variance with the other orders. It would maintain a stricter censors.h.i.+p than heretofore, and is inclined to attribute all the immorality of the age to the unbridled license of authors. The n.o.bility and the Third Estate, on the other hand, would generally allow the press to be free, but would exact responsibility on the part of authors and printers, one or both of whom should always be required to sign their publications. Thus anonymous libels should no longer be suffered to appear, and bad books generally should bring down punishment on their authors.

The cahiers of the clergy, more, perhaps, than any others, insist on the importance of education; and the ecclesiastics generally wish to control it themselves. Here the commons sometimes go farther than they; asking that all monks and nuns be obliged to give free instruction.[Footnote: _C._, Aix, _A. P._, i. 692, Section 6. _C._, Labourt, iii. _A. P._, 424, Section 27. Ornans, _A. P._, iii. 172, Section 4. _T._, Douai, _A. P._, iii. 181, Sections 28, 29.]

As for the administration of their own order the clergy, under the lead of the parish priests, demand extensive reforms. There must be no more absenteeism; no bishops and abbots drawing large incomes and amusing themselves in Paris or Versailles. There must be no more pluralities, which are contrary to the decrees of the Council of Trent. Promotion must be thrown open to the parochial clergy. Faithful clergymen must be provided for in their old age. Frequent synods and provincial councils must be held. The laity agree with the clergy in calling for these reforms, and would in many cases go a great way in the suppression and consolidation of monasteries.[Footnote: Poncins, 190, _A. P._, _pa.s.sim_. _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 682, Section 8.]

Both clergy and laity are intensely Gallican. They do not wish to pay tribute to Rome, but desire that the church of France shall preserve her privileges and immunities. Dispensations for the marriage of relatives should, they think, be granted by French bishops, and the fees payable therefor should be kept in the country. Annats, or payments to the Pope on the occasion of appointment to French benefices, should be discontinued. An importance far beyond what their amount alone would seem to justify was attached in French minds to these payments to the Holy See. They were repugnant to the national sense of dignity. In some places the idea that the church of France was to govern herself went so far as to threaten orthodoxy. The clergy of the province of Poitou ask for the composition by the French bishops, "who would doubtless think proper to consult the universities," of a body of theology, "divested of all useless questions," which shall be exclusively taught in all seminaries, schools, and monasteries. We have here an instance of that impatience of all complicated and difficult thought, of that simple faith that all questions admit of short and sensible answers, which characterized the eighteenth century. The clergy of Poitou ask also for a great and little catechism, common to all dioceses. "Uniform instruction throughout all the Gallican Church," they say, "would have so many advantages that the bishops will not fail to apply themselves to obtain it. A common breviary and a common liturgy would be equally desirable."[Footnote: _A. P._, v. 391, Section 19.]

The election of bishops is asked for in several cahiers, and many parishes wish to elect their priests. These requests were not as radical as they may now seem to have been,--at least they did not interfere with the prerogatives of Rome,--for the bishops in France were nominated by the crown, as they still are by the French government, and the appointment of the priests, then in France as now in England, was often in the hands of lay patrons.[Footnote: Poncins, 168.]

The French nation in general wished to retain its n.o.bility as a distinct part of the state. In but few cahiers do we find so much as a hint of the suppression of the order.[Footnote: Poncins, 111. Hippean, p. x., etc. My own study of the cahiers confirms this opinion. See, however, a long, argumentative article in the cahier of the Third Estate of Rennes, _A. P._, v. 540, Sections 48-50. See also that of Bellocq, _A. P._, ii. 276, Section 61. _T._ Aix. _A P._, i. 697.

Villiers-sur-Marne, _A. P._, v. 216. Carri, _A. P._, vi. 280 Section 35, etc.] The Third Estate would, however, reduce the advantage of the n.o.bility to little more than a distinction and a political weight. The n.o.bles, being in numbers perhaps one hundredth part of the nation, are to be allowed one quarter of the representatives in the Estates General and in the Provincial Estates. They are to have a large share of honors, offices, and emoluments. Their order is to be made more exclusive than it has been. n.o.bility is no longer to be bought and sold, but shall be accorded only for merit or long service, perhaps only on the nomination of the Provincial Estates. Except in the most democratic cahiers, these concessions are not disputed.

On the other hand, the Commons ask for a share of the chances. .h.i.therto reserved for the n.o.bles. The exclusive right held by the upper order, of serving as judges in the higher courts of justice, or as officers in the army, is to disappear. To the latter right the n.o.bles strongly cling. The career of arms, they say, is their natural, their only vocation. In some cases, however, they ask to be allowed to practice other means of earning a livelihood without derogating from their n.o.bility. But they join with the other orders in the cry for reforms in the army. [Footnote: _T._, Perche, _A. P._, 326, Section 17. _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 683, Section 14]

The general irritation caused by the new military regulations has been noticed in another chapter. The cahiers unanimously give it voice. The French soldier shall no longer be insulted with blows. The organization of the army shall be amended. It must not be subjected "to the versatility of the spirit of system and to the caprice of ministers." Many are the requests that the soldier be better treated.

Not a few, that his necessary leisure be turned to good account by employment in road-building or in other public works.[Footnote: _N._, Ponthieu, _A. P._, v. 434, Sections 40-42. _T._, Perche, _A. P._, v.

326, Section 19. Soldiers to work on roads, etc., Poncins, 212. Arles, _A. P._, ii. 61, Section 3. _T._, Bourbonnais, _A. P._, ii. 449, Section vi., 1. _N._, Chateau-Thierry, _A. P._, ii. 665, Section 56.

_T._, etampes, _A. P._, iii. 287, Section 12, etc.] More numerous, perhaps, are those for fairness of promotion. It was in this matter that the poorer n.o.bility was most bitter in its jealousy of the great court families. With but one path for their ambition, the country n.o.bles saw their way blocked by the glittering figures of men no better born than themselves. The wrinkled old soldier, descended from Crusaders, personally distinguished in twenty battles, stood on his wounded legs and presented his halberd as a captain at fifty; while a Noailles, or a Carignan, with no more quarterings and no service at all, perhaps hardly a Frenchman and only twenty years old, but with a duke for an uncle, or a queen's favorite for a sister, pranced on his managed charger at the head of the regiment as its colonel. Nor was this all. The worthy veteran might, on some trifling quarrel, be deprived of the rank he had won with his sweat and his blood, and sent back to his paternal hawk's nest, a broken and disgraced man. The cahiers demand that there shall be no more dismissals without trial; and many of them ask that particular cases of hards.h.i.+p may be rectified. For now the world is to be set right again; commissions and appointments to the military school are to be fairly distributed; promotion is to be by merit and term of service; and the loyal n.o.bility of France is once more to be the bulwark of an adored king and a grateful nation.

The Commons also have their particular wishes. They desire not only to be rid of feudal oppression, but of administrative regulations. These are sometimes so combined with privileges, or with taxation, that it is not easy to distinguish their cause. The fishermen of Albret, for instance, ask to be allowed to use any kind of boat that may suit their convenience.[Footnote: _A. P._, i. 706, Section 57.] We can only guess why any one should have interfered with their boats. Was it a corporation of boat-builders having a monopoly that restricted them, or was it only the paternal fussiness of Continental police regulations?

In matters of commerce the national feeling was far from unanimous.

Most of the cahiers asked that trade be free within the kingdom; although some of the border provinces, which had enjoyed a comparatively free trade with Germany and had been cut off from France, preferred the maintenance of that state of things,[Footnote: Alsace, Lorraine, and the Three Bishoprics. Poncins, 282, Mathieu, 441. _C_., Verdun, _A. P._, vi. 130.] and although the retention of the _octrois_, or custom-houses at the town gates, was sometimes contemplated. Uniformity of weights and measures was also desired; but was sometimes asked for in a half hopeless tone, as if so great a change could hardly be expected. The request was made that all loans with interest be not considered usurious; a request resisted in some cases by the clergy, which clung to the old laws of usury. The abolition of monopolies is generally called for; certain odious restrictions, such as the mark on leather and on iron, are condemned, but rather as taxes than as commercial regulations. On economic questions the nation has no very fixed opinions, nor have definite parties been formed. Free trade and free manufactures commend themselves to the ear; but regulations as to quality and protection against English compet.i.tion may be highly desirable. Agriculture needs more hands, and is the first, the most necessary, the n.o.blest of arts.

Furnaces and foundries use wood, and make fuel dear. Trade should be entirely free,--but peddlers are nuisances, and interfere with regular shop-keepers. Manufactures are a source of wealth,--but dangerous unless well managed; none of them should be established without the consent of the Provincial Estates. If only our king and "his august companion" would wear none but French stuffs, and set a fas.h.i.+on that way, our languis.h.i.+ng factories would soon be active again.[Footnote: Concerning usury, _T._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 690. _T._, Comminges, _A.

P._, iii 27, Section 24. St-Jean-des-Agneaux, _A. P._, iii. 65, Section 4. _C., N._, and _T._, Dole, _A. P._, iii. 152, Section 14; 158, Section 57; 165, Section xiv. 6. Paris, St. Eustache, _A. P._, v.

304, Section 52. _C._, Sole, v. 774, Section 17, etc. See also _N._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 684, Section 7. _T._, Paris, _A. P._, v. 285, Sections 3, 4, and _n_.]

Certain demands of the cahiers excite surprise by their frequent recurrence. Among them is that for the more severe treatment of bankrupts, who were able in old France to evade the law of the land and even to take sanctuary. Some cahiers go so far as to ask that those convicted of fraud be made habitually to wear a green cap in public, or that they be whipped, or sent to the galleys for life, or even put to death.[Footnote: Poncins, 285. _T._, Pont-a-Mousson, _A.

P._, ii. 232, Section 11. _N._, Lille, _A. P._, iii. 531, Section 54.

_T._, Lyon, _A. P._, iii. 613. _T._, Mantes et Meulan, _A. P._, iii.

672, Section ix. 2. _C._, Lille, _A. P._, iii. 524, Sections 35, 37.]

All orders ask for the suppression of begging. The demand is commonly accompanied by one looking to some humane provision for the poor, sometimes by a request for a regular poor-law, or even for regulation of wages. The people of the parish of Pecqueuse ask that there be public works always going on, where the poor may earn wages calculated on the price of grain; and, what is more significant, the Third Estate of Paris makes a similar request for public work-shops.[Footnote: _A.

P._, v. 11, Sections 17, 18. _A. P._, v. 287, Section 28.] Yet the universal cry for the suppression of mendicity, and the form in which it was made, show that begging was considered a great evil on its own account, whether mendicant monks or less authorized persons were the beggars. The begging monks, indeed, were either to be abolished, or their maintenance in their own monasteries was to be provided for in the general readjustment of ecclesiastical benefices.

Another common request is that letters in the post-office be not tampered with. All readers who are familiar with the history, and particularly with the diplomatic history of the last century, know how common was the practice of breaking open and taking copies of political correspondence. The letters of Franklin and Silas Deane, and of many less prominent persons, were continually opened in the mail, both in France and in England. Regular amba.s.sadors were driven to the habitual use of bearers of dispatches; and even these might be waylaid and robbed, by the agents of friendly governments disguised as highwaymen. [Footnote: Ciphers were in common use, and governments employed decipherers. Great skill had been attained in opening letters and closing them again so that they might not appear to have been tampered with. "This inst.i.tution, if well directed, has the property of serving as a compa.s.s to those who hold the reins of government,"

writes, with a fine jumbling of metaphors, one who has been a clerk in the post-office. Sorel, i. 77. The _Facsimiles of MSS. in European Archives relating to America_, now in process of publication by Stevens, furnish numerous examples of these practices.] But it is astonis.h.i.+ng to find that the evil had gone so far as to excite the fears of private persons for the maintenance of that privacy of which all decent Frenchmen, with their strong feeling of the sanct.i.ty of the family and their great dread of ridicule, are peculiarly jealous.[Footnote: _T._, Agenois, _A. P._, i. 690.]

Again, the frequent recurrence of the request for the restraint of quack doctors is somewhat surprising. The need of competent surgeons and midwives was much felt in the country, and recourse was had to the Estates General to provide them. In calling for legislation to prohibit quackery and to forbid lotteries, the people asked to be protected against themselves, any extravagant theories of the liberty of man to the contrary notwithstanding.[Footnote: Quack doctors, _C._, Nemours, _A. P._, iv. 108, Section 31. Cormeilles-en-Parisis, _A. P._, iv. 463, Section 17. _N._, Troyes, _A. P._, vi. 79, Section 80. _T._, Chalons-sur-Marne, _A. P._, ii. 595, Section 24.]

Such were the desires of the French nation in the spring of 1789. In them we may note several important points of agreement. First, government by the nation and the king together. France was still to be a monarchy; not a republic, open or disguised; but it was to be a limited and not an absolute monarchy. In this all the orders were agreed, and the king, by the mere summoning of the Estates General, as well as by his whole att.i.tude, seemed to acquiesce.

Then, the desires of the nation included a diminution of the privileges of the upper orders, not a complete abolition of them. Like all Catholics, Frenchmen wished to leave the control of religious affairs largely in the hands of the clergy. To the n.o.bility, all but a few extremists were willing to concede many privileges, honors, and advantages.

But while retaining a government of limited monarchy and moderate aristocracy, the nation in all its branches had determined that public burdens and public benefits should be more equally divided than they had ever been before. Proportionate equality of taxation, and a chance to rise--these the Commons were determined to have, and the higher orders were ready to concede.

In another feeling all France shared. Churchmen, n.o.bles, and common people alike dreaded and hated the little ring of courtiers. These had grown great on the substance of the nation. They should be restrained hereafter, and obliged as far as possible to surrender their ill-gotten gains.

And all men wanted administrative reforms. The courts of justice, the army, the finances, were to be put in order and improved. Here all agreed as to the end sought, and if there was much difference of opinion as to the methods, parties had not yet formed, nor had feeling run very high on these subjects.