[41] Albert Babeau, I. 89. p. 21.

[42] “Mémoires,” presented to the Assembly of Notables, by M. de Calonne (1787), p.67.

[43] Here we are at the root of the reason why democratically elected politicians and their administrative staffs are today taxed even though such taxation is only a paper-exercise adding costs to the cost of government administration. (Sr.)

[44] Gautier de Bianzat, “Doléances,” 193, 225.  “Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. de Poitou” (1787), p.99.

[45] Gautier de Bianzat, ibid..

[46] Archives nationales, the procès-verbaux and cahiers of the States-General, V. 59.  P. 6. (Letter of M. Orgeux to M. Necker), V. 27. p. 560-573. (Cahiers of the Third-Estate of Arnay-le-Duc)

[47] In these figures the rise of the money standard has been kept in mind, the silver “marc,” worth 59 francs in 1965, being worth 49 francs during the last half of the eighteenth century.

[48] “Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. de Ile-de-France,” 132, 158; de l’Orléanais, 96, 387.

[49] “Mémoire,” presented to the Assembly of Notables (1787), p. 1. - See note 2 at the end of the volume, on the estate of Blet.

[50] “Procès-verbeaux de l’ass. prov. d’Alsace” (1787), p. 116;” — of Champagne,” 192. (According to a declaration of June 2, 1787, the tax substituted for the corvée may be extended to one-sixth of the taille, with accessory taxes and the poll-tax combined).  “De la généralité d’Alençcon,” 179; " — du Berry,” I. 218.

[51] Archives nationales, G, 322 (Memorandum on the excise dues of Compiègne and its neighborhood, 1786)

[52] “Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. de l’Ile-de-France,” p. 104.

[53] “Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. de Berry, I. 85, II. 91. " — de l’Orléanais, p. 225.”  “Arbitrariness, injustice, inequality, are inseparable from the taille when any change of collector takes place.”

[54] “Archives Nationales,” H. 615.  Letter of M. de Lagourda, a noble from Bretagne, to M. Necker, dated December 4, 1780:  " You are always taxing the useful and necessary people who decrease in numbers all the time:  these are the workers of the land.  The countryside has become deserted and no one will any longer plow the land.  I testify to God and to you, Sir, that we have lost more than a third of our budding wheat of the last harvest because we did not have the necessary man-power do to the work.”

[55] Ibid. 1149. (letter of M. de Reverseau, March 16, 1781); H, 200 (letter of M. Amelot, Nov. 2, 1784).

[56] “Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. de la généralite de Rouen,” p.91.

[57] Hippeau, VI. 22 (1788).

[58] D’Argenson.  VI. 37.

[59] Archives nationales, H. 200 (Memoir of M. Amelot, 1785).

[60] Procès-verbaux de l’ass. prov. d’Auvergne,” 253.

[61] Boivin-Champeaux, “Doléances de la parvisse de Tilleul-Lambert” (Eure).  “Numbers of privileged characters, Messieurs of the elections, Messieurs the post-masters, Messieurs the presidents and other attachés of the salt-warehouse, every individual possessing extensive property pays but a third or a half of the taxes they ought to pay.”