Je suis fils de Brutus, et je porte en mon coeur
La liberté gravée et les rois en horreur.”

[51] De Lauzun, 80 (in relation to his expedition into Corsica).

[52] De Ségur, I. 87.

[53] The assemblies of Berry and Haute-Guyenne began in 1778 and 1779; those of other generalships in 1787.  All functioned until 1789. (Cf.  Léonce de Lavergne, “Les Assemblées provinciales").

[54] Léonce de Lavergne, ibid. 26, 55, 183.  The tax department of the provincial assembly of Tours likewise makes its demands on the privileged class in the matter of taxation.

[55] Procés-verbaux of the prov. ass. of Normandy, the generalship of Alençon, 252. — Cf.  Archives nationales, II, 1149:  in 1778 in the generalship of Moulins, thirty-nine persons, mostly nobles, supply from their own funds 18,950 livres to the 60,000 livres allowed by the king for roads and asylums.

[56] Archives nationales, procès-verbaux and registers of the States-General, vol.  XLIX. p.712, 714 (the nobles and clergy of Dijon); vol.  XVI. p. 183 (the nobles of Auxerre) vol.  XXIX. pp.352, 455, 458 (the clergy and nobles of Berry); vol.  CL. p.266 (the clergy and nobles of Tours); vol.  XXIX; the clergy and nobles of Chateauroux, (January 29, 1789); pp. 572, 582. vol.  XIII. 765 (the nobles of Autun). — See as a summary of the whole, the “Résumé des Cahiers” by Prud’homme, 3 vols.

[57] Prud’homme, ibid..  II. 39, 51, 59.  De Lavergne, 384.  In 1788, two hundred gentlemen of the first families of Dauphiny sign, conjointly with the clergy and the Third-Estate of the province, an address to the king in which occurs the following passage:  “Neither time nor obligation legitimizes despotism; the rights of men derive from nature alone and are independent of their engagements.”

[58] Lacretelle, “Hist. de France au dix-huitième siècle,” V.2.

[59] Procès-verbeaux of the prov. ass. of the Ile-de-France (1787), p.127.

[60] De Lavergne, ibid.. 52, 369.

[61] “Le cri de la raison,” by Clerget, curé d’Onans (1789), p.258.

[62] Lucas de Montigny, “Mémoires de Mirabeau,” I. 290, 368. — Théron de Montaugé, “L’agriculture et les classes rurales dans le pays Toulousain,” p. 14.

[63] “Foreigners generally could scarcely form an idea of the power of public opinion at this time in France; they can with difficulty comprehend the nature of that invisible power which commands even in the king’s palace.” (Necker, 1784, quoted by De Tocqueville).

[64] Granier de Cassagnac, II. 236. — M. de Malesherbes, according to custom, inspected the different state prisons, at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI.  “He told me himself that he had only released two.” (Senac de Meilhan, “Du gouvemement, des moeurs, et des conditions en France.").

[65] Archives nationales, II. 1418, 1149, F. 14, 2073.  (Assistance rendered to various suffering provinces and places.)