1
10
66
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>How many times, whenever a public outcry echoed from all corners, has your parlement been ready to bring to the Sovereign its justifiable complaints against such obvious abuses as the Unigenitus Constitution? Touched by these public ills, only the justifiable fear of precipitously venturing facts of such importance when they have not yet been sufficiently proven in the judicial system could stop these dramatic steps.</p> <p>Living in the city of Orléans, in the parish of Saint-Catherine, a woman by the name of Dupleix saw that she was falling dangerously ill from a disease and would soon die from it. She had asked the parish priest to administer the last rites. The priest went to her, but before doing anything else he asked her to state that she had submitted to the decisions of the Church. Not satisfied with the answer of this dying woman, who wanted to live and die within the Catholic, apostolic and Roman faith, the priest persisted. He asked her if she had submitted to the Unigenitus Constitution and told her that he would not administer the last rites until she accepted the Constitution. Then he left.</p> <p>The illness became more threatening, and the priest was again summoned. The same questions, the same answers, the same refusal.</p> <p>There are two important questionings here . . . the direct questions and preconditions requiring the dying woman to declare that she had submitted to the Constitution, as well as the priest's refusals to administer the last rites until she had satisfied him. . . .</p> <p>The Church is necessarily a part of the body of the State. Any new danger from clerics, any enterprise that could lead to trouble for the State or shake the solid foundations of public tranquility, ties and commits ecclesiastics as members of the State and as subjects of Your Majesty.</p> <p>Whatever they may say, two combined issues equally involve the rights of the Church and of the State. Also, the execution of these rights and the state police power belong to Your Majesty, both as the protector of the Church or as Sovereign responsible for maintaining the peace of the kingdom.</p> <p>Such are the issues of marriage and vows. Such are the public scandals that Your Majesty always has an interest in suppressing and that the regulations accomplish for a number of royal cases. Such would be the abuse that the clerics could achieve with the power that is confided to them for administering the sacraments. From that point, there would be intervention and competition between the two powers in certain cases to conduct the clerics' trial in accordance with the laws of the kingdom. From that point, there would begin a means of recourse to the sovereign's authority or appeals as abuses, almost as old as the monarchy and that has been so useful to preceding kings, conserving the rights of your throne and our freedoms which always provide it the greatest support.</p> <p>To contest the sovereign's rights in these important matters under the pretext that they deal directly or indirectly with the spirituality or administration of the sacraments, would be to attack the most permanent maxims and open a sure and easy way for clerics to increase their power and ruin royal authority. And in all of these cases your parlement, tasked by you and under your authority with watching over the public peace in the kingdom, has the right and obligation to propose legitimate solutions to this task as circumstances warrant and as soon as necessary.</p> <p>If a confessor, unworthy of the sanctity of his ministry, got carried away to the point of profaning the sacraments in order to seduce the person confessing, whether it be on a spiritual or administrative matter, who could doubt that this abuse of the holy mysteries did not constitute an external and public crime which would immediately subject him to temporal law and the legitimate authority of the magistrates who exercise this justice in Your name? . . .</p> <p>Sire, we know that the love of your People and the zeal and fidelity of your <i>parlement</i> is sufficient to prevent and ward off these extreme ills which we can only remember with sorrow. But the enslavement of the principles that strengthen royal authority and the tranquility of the State are the same in all of these cases mentioned above.</p> <p>The sovereign to whom providence has confided the government of this great kingdom is, by the sole title of king and the right of his crown, also the defender of the Church. To defend the Church is to defend its legitimate rights and its ancient canons, and to have them executed by the clerics themselves in the entire expanse of his realm. From this defense comes the title of external bishop that is accorded to emperors and sovereigns. From this defense comes many examples of trials against clerics who, while teaching the truth of the Gospel, by their spurious enthusiasm slandered and personally attacked those where listening to them. This defense is often reiterated in the decrees and laws against causing public scandals by the indiscreet refusal of those who work in front of the altar. The strict observance of these ancient canons, which make up the fundamental basis of our freedoms, also make up the laws of the State. This observance is still in the hands of Your Majesty, and as soon as the clerics infringe on it, He is in his rights and has the obligation to provide it with his authority. . . .</p> <p>These immutable principles have always been the solid foundation of the monarchy, and your <i>parlement</i> is tasked by you with watching over the public order. It has learned however that under the direction of a few bishops the priests of their dioceses are trying to establish the Constitution as a rule of faith, or at least all of the characteristics of such. They are attempting to remove the communion of the faithful from the heart of the Church, as well as all participation in the sacraments by those of your subjects who do not state above all else that they accept the Constitution purely and simply. Your <i>parlement</i> has the proof, acquired through judicial inquiry and by similar depositions given by honest witnesses, that under this pretext the parish priest of Saint-Catherine persists in repeatedly refusing to allow a sick woman to die without the sacraments. This woman states that she wants to die in the communion of the Catholic, apostolic and roman Church.</p> <p>The threat of her imminent death increases every second. Based on new complaints, your <i>parlement </i>again sends back a request to the bishop of the diocese to provide the sacrament. At the same time, it is forced to again remind him of the need to warn us of anything that he deals with that could tend to disrupt the peace of the Church and State. . . . What will the consequences be when clerics can use fear to wring declarations that they have no right to require from people who would never declare as much if they were fully conscious and with their full faculties? With such suspect and dangerous ways as these to spread the rights of the Constitution, would it not be more proper to destroy them than to strengthen them? . . .</p> <p>Respectfully,</p> <p><i>Parlement</i>, 24 July 1731</p> <p>Signed: Portail.</p>
Sortable Date
1731-07-24
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jules Flammermont,<i> Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle, </i>vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–98), 243–80.
Description
An account of the resource
In 1713, the Pope had issued a bull entitled<i> Unigenitus, </i>condemning as heretical 101 beliefs held by some French Catholic priests who were known as "Jansenists." To Jansenists, this bull, or "constitution," was the religious equivalent of absolutism—an order from on high that quashed all opposition. By contrast, the bishops of the Catholic Church in France, mostly from the Jesuit order, received the bull as an encouragement to attack the Jansenists on doctrinal matters and to diminish Jansenist influence in France. To this end, in 1730, the archbishop of the city of Orléans ordered that all clergy in his diocese should adhere to the bull, which many took to mean denying sacraments to Jansenists. When the priest of the parish of Saint–Catherine refused to read last rites to a parishioner, Madame Dupleix, the magistrates of the <i>Parlement</i> of Paris weighed in with the following "remonstrance," or protest, to the King (technically known as an "appeal against abuse" of power). In this remonstrance, the magistrates insist that the King fulfill his responsibility of defending all His Majesty’s subjects, including protecting Jansenists from Rome’s persecution. Despite this reliance on the monarchy, some no–so–subtle criticisms appear here.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
243
Title
A name given to the resource
Remonstrance by the <i>Parlement</i> against the Denial of Sacraments in Orléans
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/243/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
July 24, 1731
Enlightenment
Laws
Provinces
Public Opinion
Religion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>The arbitrary refusal of the sacraments given to the dying, notably confession or the right to name their own confessor, multiplies daily. These nascent scandals and difficulties are capable of destroying respect for religion, tainting the submission due to Your Highness and delivering a cruel blow to public peace.</p> <p>Your <i>parlement</i>, Sire, believes it is giving you one of the greatest proofs of its loyalty by representing to Your Majesty that now is the time to put into action the reform of equally pernicious abuses.</p> <p>We protest, Sire, in truth, that your<i> parlement</i> does not intend, and has never intended, to impinge on the Legitimate rights of [the Roman Catholic Church's] spiritual power.</p> <p>Full of the respect and veneration that all Christians must bear towards our religion, the <i>parlement</i> knows that is is only the Church which has the right to teach the faithful, to guide them on the path to salvation, to make decisions upon everything that concerns the dispensation and administration of the sacraments, and to determine the cases in which the faithful can participate and when they must be excluded.</p> <p>But the same respect with which a Christian magistrate recognizes the Church's legislative power, in that which concerns the passage of souls and the dispensation of our holy mysteries, forces him to perceive the necessity that these laws, once established, must be exactly observed. And what greater and more indispensable work could there be for a Christian king, than to carry out these duties?</p> <p>To the King alone belongs supreme power along with the ability to put into effect that which he commands; but this power derives from God; his principle duty therefore is to use this power to serve Him who bestows it.</p> <p>The voice of the Church is the voice of God. Its decrees, in that which is within the province of its power, are absolute laws to which all the faithful and, in particular, the ministers of religion must obey . . . if they stray, should the Christian monarch allow these laws to be trampled with impunity?</p> <p>The Church, whose power is entirely spiritual, does not have the exterior force to exact obedience. It is therefore necessary for the prince to come to its aid, to employ against offenders those weapons which God has placed in his hands; and while a prince might fear blame for undertaking this under the authority of the Church, it is, on the contrary, a tribute which he pays to the Church, in accordance with his views, by lending it the force which it does not have, to execute those laws which it has established. . . .</p> <p>When [the Church] abuses its power by unjustly refusing benefits to those who have a right to claim them, there must be a reclamation of the spirit that employs force to remind them [the clergy] of their work.</p> <p>The prince, by making use of his authority in this way, fulfills the dual protection which he owes, one to the Church to execute its orders, the other to his subjects so that they might enjoy the spiritual and material advantages that have belonged to them from the moment they had the good fortune to be born in his realm. . . .</p> <p>How many times, Sire, did princes, your predecessors, use their authority to curb the persecutions which some ministers of the Church wanted to exercise against their subjects by prohibitions, censures, or unjust excommunications? . . .</p> <p>The principles which govern your authority and your absolute sovereignty, are generally known, and no one dares to question them; we can hope that we shall never see anything arise to contradict this [situation]; but these fundamental truths, which constitute the essence of the sacred rights of your crown, demand that we, your magistrates, must always be alert against anything which could be a means to disturb them. . . .</p> <p>If, therefore, a high minister of the Church should one day undertake to resuscitate false doctrine and to reestablish opinions which are contrary to your authority. . . subordinate ministers . . . feared to openly contravene them. They would have to refuse to give the note of confession to those who were known not to agree with this instruction [from the Archbishop of Paris], and sick people, who would not be able to speak out, might find themselves, in that situation, deprived of those longed-for alleviations and sources of help at the point of death.</p> <p>What thing is more capable of making an impression on one of the faithful?</p>
Sortable Date
1751-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jules Flammermont, <i>Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle,</i> vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–98), 414–43.
Description
An account of the resource
In June 1749, the priest of the St.–Etienne–du–Mont parish in Paris, acting on instructions from the Archbishop of Paris, refused the Eucharist and last rites to one of his parishioners who could not produce a "certificate of confession" proving his adherence to the bull <i>Unigenitus</i>. The man, Charles Coffin, could not produce such a certificate, so the priest left him to die without benediction—setting off a mass of protests in the capital. The magistrates of the <i>Parlement</i> of Paris, who knew Coffin personally since he had served as rector at the church–run University of Paris and later was a clerk to the <i>Parlement</i> itself, joined in the protests, issuing this strongly worded "remonstrance" to the King.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
244
Title
A name given to the resource
Remonstrance on the Refusal of Sacraments (1751)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/244/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1751
Enlightenment
Laws
Public Opinion
Religion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>Sire,</p> <p>The most essential interest of the Sovereign is to know the truth, and your <i>parlement</i> is tasked by the State to bring it to you. . . . Today it is a question of religion and the conservation of the State, both equally threatened by the alarming schism that has aroused our enthusiasm. This schism, too long overlooked, has sunk such deep roots and grows so rapidly each day that soon no barriers will be able to contain it.</p> <p>Sire, the normal course of justice has already been disrupted. The most necessary formalities are desecrated, the People are angry, the guilty emboldened, their judges demeaned, intimidated, contradicted, or even bound by inaction. The violent shocks that this schism has brought have caused us to uncover a dominion being reborn within your states. It is an arbitrary dominion that recognizes neither laws, nor sovereign, nor magistrates, and for which religion is nothing more than a pretext. It is a domination for which princely authority is no more than an instrument that it dares to use or reject according to its interests. The fundamental laws of the State are nothing more than an inconvenient yoke, and the legitimate freedom of citizens is nothing more that a fictitious right. . . .</p> <p>Laws are the sacred ties that bind and are the seal of this indissoluble commitment. Together the King, the State, and the Law form an inseparable trinity. Strengthening the King's throne and making its sovereignty inviolable, maintaining the obedience and tranquility of the subjects, assuring their rights and legitimate freedom, in a word, making the State eternal, formidable from without and serene within . . . these are the fruits that grow from strict obedience of the law. Based on reflection and the experiences of the greatest princes and the most consummate men, and dictated solely for the good of the state and the true interests of the Prince, only laws can protect the sovereign from surprises, inspire the public trust, and stop those from any rank of society from causing problems for the State. Never has there been a revolution that was not hatched by changing the law.</p> <p>Sire, there is neither a more important principle, nor one more generally accepted. Politicians, legal advisers, magistrates, even sovereigns themselves have all recognized that there can be a flourishing kingdom only by bringing together the subjects' obedience of the King, and King's obedience of the law. . . .</p> <p>Filled with the most poignant love for Your Majesty's sacred person and jealous of increasing in all your subjects the feelings that tie them to you, as if that was possible, your <i>parlement</i> can only fear that which attempts to divide them. In the hands of a Prince as fair, they will always respect the use of his supreme power. But allow us, Sire, to tell you that these sudden and shocking misfortunes, these bursts of dreadful wrath that only cause hardship and that herald nothing but austerity, can only spread terror. And the French, in whom love is the tenet and gauge of fidelity, become alarmed and troubled as soon as they fear their sovereign. If he is gentle with his People, it is more natural for them to feel and state over and over, "May justice and kindness keep the King, and may his throne be strengthened by clemency." Thus they become concerned, Sire, when they see themselves abandoned to the clerics and exposed to the arbitrary application of power mistakenly placed in the hands of the ecclesiastics. The power of the clerics will soon have no limits beyond those of their own organization, and will subjugate the People in a dominion rising from the ruins of their liberty. The clerics are capable of using the People's slavery for whatever purpose they desire. Your subjects see themselves being carried away, so to speak, to a realm so different from yours, and which, in their eyes, offers nothing but risks and uncertainty. Being taken to a realm that offers them nothing but a frightful spectacle of citizens already deprived of their legitimate freedom. They see houses desolated by the loss of their most important members, magistrates removed from office, entire families required to go elsewhere to receive asylum from captivity. Shuddering in this disgrace too often takes on the form of resentment and revenge towards one's adversaries! . . .</p> <p>Sire, we beg you not to let yourself be distracted from the real cause of so many ills: their principle is this infinite number of orders [from Rome] that have taken your religion by surprise. The only way to stop their flow is to stop ceding your authority to the clerics who abuse and compromise it. We witnessed this with unbelievable indecency when, in the grand hall of your <i>parlement</i>, a provincial bishop was on trial for influencing election results. He had used one of Your Majesty's orders that were countersigned by a minister that had been out of office for ten years.</p> <p>Sire, forgive your <i>parlement</i> for giving you these details. We know Your heart, and to present you the unfortunate people of your empire is to touch its most sensitive spot. Those subjects who the senior clerics oppress by their credibility. Those subjects who shudder in exile and prison without knowing the crime of which they are accused and without the means to prove their innocence. Should these subjects not rest assured of Your heart's generosity as soon as You hear their complaints?</p> <p>. . . Innocent Christians find themselves reduced to the cruel alternative of being regarded as indifferent to the sacraments if they do not request them, or undergoing a scandalous and unfair refusal if they do. Sire, it is time to show these ministers of the Church that they are abusing your indulgence and that your intention is not to authorize the schism that, for the happiness of your People, you have so often condemned.</p>
Sortable Date
1753-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jules Flammermont, <i>Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle,</i> vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–98), 506–614.
Description
An account of the resource
As the controversy over the refusal of sacraments came to dominate political and religious discussions in Paris, Versailles, and across the kingdom, the magistrates argued all the more strenuously that the King should compel the Archbishop to drop his intolerant attitude on the enforcement of <i>Unigenitus</i> and to allow greater diversity of opinion among French Catholics. To enforce this new policy, the magistrates appealed to the King’s sense of obligation—an obligation to uphold the traditions of the French monarchy, including the tradition of conferring with his subjects through the intermediaries of the Parlementary courts, and the tradition by which the King, rather than the Pope, oversaw the church in France to ensure that it served the interests of French men and women rather than those of the clergy alone.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
245
Title
A name given to the resource
Remonstrance by the <i>Parlement</i> against the Denial of Sacraments in Paris (1753)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/245/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1753
Enlightenment
Laws
Public Opinion
Religion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>The Salic law, written and reformed under Clovis, had as its subject the overall policing of the State. It was written in <i>parlement</i> and in concert with the Frankish people, and the preamble of the law mentions that "Clovis agreed with the Franks to add several amendments to the Salic law," [<i>Clodoveus unà cum Francis pertractavit, ui ad titulos aliquid ampliùs adderet</i>]. This agreement thus became known as the "Conventions of Salic Law" [<i>pactus Legis Salicoe</i>]. . . .</p> <p>[In these edicts] one finds our fundamental maxim: that no edict has the force of law in the kingdom until it has been examined and registered in<i> parlement</i> since it is the custom of France, as Louis XI himself said, and whatever laws are not published in that way will have no value.</p> <p>It is again evident that our kings took great care in their laws and edicts to make it clear that everyone had been involved in the deliberations and that there had been consensus: We assembled, from all stations in life, have decided; it is the resolution of the King, the Princes, and the People. The combination of royal authority, together with the consideration and free consent of <i>parlement</i>, gave power to the edict that no force could break. Consequently, the Prince had unshakable proof that his commands were just, and the People knew that the obedience required of them was reasonable. The Monarch was reassured that he himself had not erred, or that a favorite counselor, himself possibly mistaken, had not misled him, and the People were reassured that they had only fair laws to obey. It was, in brief, mutual assurance—reciprocal confidence that bound the Prince and his subjects.</p> <p>As I have already mentioned, if under the second Race [dynasty] it was no longer possible to seek everyone's approval, in that not everyone was [represented] in <i>Parlement</i> this constitutive law of the Monarchy become no less solid because it continued to require the approval of all the members of the <i>parlement</i>. Besides, the deliberation of all Frenchmen was presumed by the deliberation of their representatives. Charlemagne, that greatest and most powerful of all our kings, was himself so aware of the importance of this general approval by the People and of the mutual confidence that resulted from equitable laws, that, in a remarkable arrangement, he worked in concert with his <i>Parlement</i> on laws so that it would be known that he had received universal approval. He ordered that the People's opinion be polled, no doubt each in his own jurisdiction, and that if they consented to the newly amended law, each private individual put his mark or seal upon it. [<i>Ut populus interrogetur de capitulis quoe in Lege noviter addita sunt, & postquam omnes consenserint, suscriptiones vel manu firmationes suas in ipfis capitulis faciant</i>.] This order was inserted into the Salic law itself, where it can still be read; and Charles the Bald made sure to renew its authorization by having it inserted into the preface that he wrote for it.</p> <p>But this arrangement became impractical, and those making up <i>parlement</i> in succeeding periods, in this respect, became entirely the representatives of past General Assemblies. It is in their collectivity that the fundamental law is concentrated, established by those same royal edicts which, during every period of monarchical rule, required the opinion and the approval of <i>parlement</i> as an essential condition. They would refuse the title of Public Law to any edicts that they had not verified nor agreed to register.</p> <p>The end result is that in our new Government the <i>parlement's </i>consent continued to be as totally free as it was in the earliest <i>parlements</i>. . . .</p> <p>On the important point [of usurping the<i> parlement's</i> power], the King's laws [must] conform with the conscience, and in all cases he must be forbidden from doing otherwise.</p> <p>Consequently we should not think that the consent of <i>parlement</i> and the required registration of national law was ever merely a simple formality or empty ritual. In all periods, it has been a serious examination, an act of persuasion and of conscience which always required full and complete freedom.</p> <p>This right [of approval by the <i>parlement</i>] was born at the same time as the Monarchy and seemed to our kings to be so wise, so proper, that it made their thrones unshakable. By preventing all unjust use of their authority, when colonizing the Gauls, not only did the kings maintain the <i>parlement's</i> role as essential, the keystone upon which the rest depended, but they, in fact, commanded it. The kings themselves enjoined <i>parlement</i> to refuse them, even ordering that they be resisted if need be, and to pay no heed to any order contrary to Justice and the Law.</p> <p>And so, Sir, the <i>parlement</i> obeyed in appearing disobedient, since in their defiance, they were carrying out the orders of the kings themselves, and in disobeying they were fulfilling the law that he had ordered: that is . . . to disobey. Besides, the <i>parlement</i> said to Henry IV: "If it is disobedience to serve well, the <i>parlement</i> commits this misdeed regularly. When conflict exists between the absolute power of the King and the good of his service, [the <i>parlement</i>] judges one to be preferable to the other, not through disobedience but because it is the duty of <i>parlement</i> to discharge its office according to its conscience."</p> <p>Thus, when you ask me what the <i>parlement's</i> authority consisted of previously on the question of Edicts and the law, and what it consists of today, the answer is easy. It is today, Sire, all that it was in Clovis's time. Today, as then, the <i>parlement's</i> authority is but to do its duty in an unassailable way and to never do anything, nor register anything, contrary to the Law of the Kingdom and which is not in the true interest of the Monarch and the Monarchy, lest it receive a warning from its conscience. <i>Parlement</i> must know how to courageously say: "SIRE, that is not just, you cannot do that, nor should you."</p>
Sortable Date
1753-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Louis-Adrien Le Paige, <i>Lettres historiques sur les fonctions essentielles du Parlement</i> (Amsterdam, 1753), 82–83, 87–93, 96–97.
Description
An account of the resource
Louis–Adrien Le Paige was the leading theoretician of Parlementary claims against the crown in the 1750s. His <i>Historical Letters on the Essential Functions of the Parlement</i> (1753) traced the history of the <i>parlements</i> from what he claimed to be their medieval origins—assemblies held by Frankish warriors to elect kings. Criticizing what he perceived to be the inadequate attention being paid by Louis XV to his <i>parlements</i>, Le Paige makes the historical case that far from being creations of the crown to which they remained subordinate, the <i>parlements</i> had actually created the monarchy—and thus should have the final say on all royal decrees. In this passage, Le Paige argues that because of this history, the <i>parlements</i> were not being "disobedient" to the King in asserting their sovereignty.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
248
Title
A name given to the resource
Legislation and Public Police Powers (1753)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/248/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1753
Enlightenment
Laws
Monarchy
Nobility
Public Opinion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>The desire to ease the burdens placed on the people is too praiseworthy in a sovereign and conforms so much with the wishes of your <i>parlement,</i> that the latter could never conceive of dissuading Your Majesty from such a noble and legitimate goal.</p> <p>But when projects, with such pleasant prospects, lead to real and increased injustices and even imperil the constitution and the tranquility of the state, it is our faithful duty, without seeking to place obstacles in the way of your beneficence, to establish laws against the imprudent efforts being made to commit Your Majesty to a course of action whose pitfalls and dangers have been concealed from you. . . .</p> <p>Your <i>parlement</i> understood that the edict substituting a universal, indefinite, and perpetual land tax for the <i>corvée</i>, under the guise of the apparent relief it offers the people, could at first glance have seemed a beneficent act inspired by love of humanity. But at the same time, Sire, your <i>parlement</i> was sure that a more careful examination of the edict would reveal to Your Majesty that it represents a policy burdensome even for those whom you wish to help, and contrary to the sense of justice that motivates you.</p> <p>Justice, Sire, is the first duty of kings. Without it, the rarest of virtue can produce the most unfortunate of results. It is justice that determines the true value of royal actions, and once it has left its mark on a reign, that monarch will forever be revered.</p> <p>The first rule of justice is to preserve for every man that which belongs to him. This is the fundamental rule of natural law, as well as of the law of nations and of civil government. It is a rule that consists not only of maintaining property rights, but also of preserving personal rights, in addition to those which derive from the prerogatives of birth and Estate.</p> <p>From this rule of law and equity it follows that any system designed to create an equality of duties between men, even under the guise of humanity and benevolence, would tend to destroy those distinctions that are necessary to a well-ordered monarchy, and quickly result in disorder. The inevitable result of absolute equality would be the overthrow of civil society, which is maintained in harmony only through the hierarchy of power, authority, precedence, and distinction which keeps each man in his place and protects all states of being from confusion.</p> <p>This social order is not only essential to the practice of every sound governmentÑit has its origin in divine law. The infinite and immutable wisdom obvious in the universe established an unequal distribution of strength and character, necessarily resulting in inequality in the conditions of men within the social order. Despite the best efforts of the human mind, this 'universal law' is found in every realm, in turn maintaining the order that preserves it. . . .</p> <p>In the assembly created by these different orders, <i>all the people of your kingdom are your subjects</i>, and all must contribute to the needs of the state. But general order and harmony must be upheld even in this contribution. The personal responsibility of the clergy is to fulfill all the functions relating to education and religion and to aid the unfortunate through alms. The noble devotes his life to the defense of the state and assists the sovereign by providing council. The last class of the nation, which cannot render such distinguished service to the state, fulfills its obligation through taxes, industry and physical labor. . . .</p> <p>These institutions were not formed by chance, and time cannot change them. To abolish them, the whole French constitution would have to be overturned. . . .</p> <p>In freeing the last class of citizens from the <i>corvée</i> that it has been subject to until now, the edict transfers the burden to the two orders of the state which have never had to pay it. There will no longer be any difference between your subjects. The noble and the cleric become subject to the <i>corvée</i> or the tax that replaces the <i>corvée</i>, which amounts to the same thing.</p> <p>Sire, this is not a struggle between rich and poor, as some have tried to convince you. It is a governmental question, and a most important one, since it is a matter of knowing whether all your subjects can or should be treated identically, and whether differences in conditions, ranks, titles and precedence should cease to be acknowledged. . . .</p> <p>It was the descendants of those ancient knights who placed or kept the crown on the head of Your Majesty's forefathers. It was these noble descendents, poor and virtuous, who, for so many centuries shed their blood for the extension and defense of the monarchy, and who, with another kind of magnanimity, have neglected their own fortunes or spent them in order to dedication themselves entirely to the public good. The revenues of these pureblooded nobles are limited to the modest yield of the lands inherited from their fathers which they cultivate with their own hands, often without the help of any servants other than their children. Gentlemen such as these could be exposed to the humiliation of seeing themselves dragged off to the <i>corvée</i>! . . .</p> <p>Consequently, in reflecting on the law and the constitution of this state, Your Majesty will no longer doubt that this plan, against which Your<i> parlement</i> protests only so that it may fulfill its duty, clearly leads to the annihilation of the time-honored exemptions for the nobility and the clergy, to the confusion of Estates, and to the subversion of the monarchy's constitutional principles.</p> <p><i>Parlementary Argument against the Edict Suppressing the Guilds presented to the King at the </i>lit de justice<i> [seat of justice] of 12 March 1776</i></p> <p>Liberty is without doubt the principle of all actions, it lies at the core of each Estate, and, above all, it is the life force and primary impetus of commerce. But Sire, this belief, so common today and which is heard from one end of the kingdom to another, must not be understood to mean unlimited liberty that knows no other law than its own vagaries, and acknowledges no rules beyond its own. This kind of liberty is nothing more than a veritable independence which would soon be transformed into unfettered license, opening the door to every abuse. This source of wealth would then become a source of destruction, a source of disorder, an occasion for fraud and plunderÑthe inevitable result being the total annihilation of the arts and of artisans, of confidence and of commerce. . . .</p> <p>Sire, your subjects are divided into as many different bodies as there are Estates in the kingdom: the clergy, the nobility, the high courts and lower tribunals, the officers attached to these tribunals, the universities and academies, the banks and commercial companies. In every part of the state there are bodies that can be seen as links in a great chain, the first link of which is in the hands of Your Majesty as head and sovereign administrator of all that constitutes the body of the nation.</p> <p>The very idea of destroying this precious chain should be appalling. The corporations of merchants and artisans form a necessary part of this indivisible whole which contributes to the general security of the realm. Sire, because independence is a defect in the political constitution and men are always tempted to abuse liberty, the law has instituted corporations, created guilds, and established regulations. The law has wished to prevent fraud of all kinds and to remedy all abuses. The law watches equally over the interest of the buyer and the seller; it maintains mutual confidence between the two; it is, so to speak, under the guarantee of the public trust that allows the merchant to display his merchandise before the customer and for the customer to receive it with confidence from the merchant. Guilds can be considered as so many small republics occupied solely with the general interest of all its members. And if it is true that the general interest results from the merging of the interests of each individual, it is equally true then that each member, in working for his own personal advantage, works necessarily, even without wishing to, for the true benefit of the whole community. To loosen the springs that move this multitude of different bodies, to annihilate the guilds, to abolish the regulations, in a word to disperse the members of all the corporations, is to destroy all the various means which commerce itself must want for its own preservation. Every manufacturer, every artisan, every worker will see himself as an isolated entity, dependent only upon himself and free to indulge his often disordered imagination. All subordination will be destroyed, there will be no more checks and balances, and the desire for profit will drive all the workshops. Since honesty is not always the surest way to wealth, the entire public, native and foreign alike, will be the constant dupes of well-prepared secret schemes designed blind and entice them. Sire, do not believe that in our constant concern with the public welfare we are yielding to foolish terrors. Our resolution has been prompted by the most powerful arguments, and Your Majesty would be within his rights to accuse us one day of prevarication if we tried to hide them. Our principal motivation is the interest of commerce in general, not only in the capital but in the entire kingdom, not only in France, but in all of Europe, in fact, in the entire world. </p>
Sortable Date
1776-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jules Flammermont,<i> Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle, </i>vol. 3 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 188898), 27592, 34454.
Description
An account of the resource
In these remonstrances, the magistrates of the <i>Parlement</i> of Paris,recently restored to their position by Louis XVI after having been "exiled" from office by Louis XV in 1771, voice their opposition to reforms proposed by the finance minister, Anne–Robert–Jacques Turgot. In the first, they argue against Turgot’s idea of raising money by taxing lands owned by nobles. The magistrates (themselves all noble landowners) cite the tradition whereby only those subject to the obligatory labor of the <i>corvée </i>(that is, only peasants) should have to pay taxes to the crown. Note their emphasis on "justice" over rational reform of royal fiscal policy. In the second, they oppose Turgot’s attempt to suppress the guilds in order to promote commerce and thus enhance royal revenues. The magistrates draw on the traditional argument that society is made up not of individuals, but of groups of people bound into corporations.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
250
Title
A name given to the resource
Remonstrances of <i>Parlement</i> of Paris against Turgot’s Six Edicts (1776)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/250/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1776
Enlightenment
Laws
Nobility
Public Opinion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>11 August 1764</p> <p>Sire,</p> <p>The magistracy of your kingdom has been continuously resented by those who have undertaken to change the principles of government. At this moment, your <i>parlement </i>is undergoing cruel proof of this. Brittany has exemptions and immunities which have never been touched, consecrated by the most authentic titles. They form a law similar to the common law of the kingdom, which was peacefully enforced until recently. </p> <p>The administration of Saint Louis [IX], the decisions of the Estates-General at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the rulings of 1355, 1560, and 1576, allow little doubt that under the common law of France the consent of the three orders in the assembly of the Estates-General is required to establish or prorogate taxes. . . .</p> <p>Sire, your <i>parlement</i>, trustee of the laws of the kingdom and guardian of the provinceÕs exemptions and freedoms, has not been able to simply watch them come under attack without calling for Your MajestyÕs justice against this abuse of his authority.</p> <p>Bound by oath to this precious duty, it can not maintain a guilty silence when the law is being broken. In a monarchical state, it is the preservation of the law which guarantees the security of the monarch and his subjects. This form of government, more perfect than all others, assures that a prince like Your Majesty who wishes to reign in accordance with the laws, will receive the obedience and love of his subjects. Quite unlike despots who recognize no other law than that of their own will, Your Majesty has nothing to fear from these resolutions inspired by tyranny. His will is always in harmony with the law that his people have voluntarily received, consequently the peopleÕs will shall always reflect that of his majesty. . . .</p> <p>We cannot keep it from you Sire. For a long time now, there has been those working to subjugate a free province of your fortunate realm. The constitution is being undermined and overturned. Everywhere limitations are being placed on the exemptions and freedoms which you yourself enlist us to preserve. The mayors and city representatives to the estates, elected from time immemorial by free vote in the community, can now only be elected with the approval of your commissioners. These commissioners must now also approve the choice, previously made freely by the province, of the men entrusted to distribute and collect the subscribed taxes. Finally, by a surprising order of your council on 12 October 1762, the estates were crushed by destroying their essential and original institution.</p> <p>A decision which, though couched in no legal form, discounts all titles and customs, rulings and constitutions, common law and national law. A decision which, without any exemptive clause, contradicts and abrogates the oldest and wisest laws, and cannot but be regarded as having been falsely defended to Your Majesty. Sire, in general such is the administration whose members had the temerity to assure you that the province was satisfied. </p>
Sortable Date
1764-08-11
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
A. Le Moy,<i> Remonstrances du Parlement de Bretagne du dix-huitième siècle</i> (Paris: Champion, 1909) 86Ð<i>95.</i>
Description
An account of the resource
Particularly vocal in its resistance to the financial edicts of 1763 was the <i>Parlement</i> of Rennes, which had jurisdiction in the province of Brittany. A series of "remonstrances," issued by this court between 1763 and 1765, reveal the conflict between the parlementarians and the crown. At first, the magistrates merely protested the proposed new taxes, but when several of them were arrested for defying the King’s orders, the rest argued that they had a collective obligation to protest royal decrees that, in their view, violated the traditional "liberties" of the region. The Breton magistrates later voiced opposition to the crown’s efforts to remove them and in their place seat a new, more docile court. Particularly infuriating to the magistrates were the machinations of the regional governor, the Duke d’Aguillon, who came from a long–standing, aristocratic Breton family, who therefore saw as rivals the "robe" nobles of the <i>parlement</i>. D’Aguillon tried to discredit Louis René Caradeuc de La Chalotais, the public prosecutor loyal to the <i>parlement</i>, by accusing him of sending threatening letters to the King. Here we see an effort by the Breton <i>Parlement</i> to stand up for its rights.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
251
Title
A name given to the resource
<i>Parlement</i> of Brittany
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/251/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
August 11, 1764
Enlightenment
Laws
Monarchy
Provinces
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>24 August 1774.</p> <p>Sire,</p> <p>I could have wished to have detailed the reflections that are suggested to me by the present posture of the finances, but time will not permit me. I reserve myself for a more ample explanation, when I shall have obtained more accurate information. In the present moment, I confine myself, Sire, to call to your recollection three ideas:</p> <p>No national bankruptcy.</p> <p>No increase of taxes.</p> <p>No new loans.</p> <p>No bankruptcy—neither avowed nor disguised under compulsory reductions.</p> <p>No increase of taxes—the reasons for this measure Your Majesty will find in the situation of your people, and still more in your own heart.</p> <p>No new loans—for every loan, by diminishing the amount of the free revenue, necessarily produces at last a bankruptcy, or an increase of taxes. In a period of peace, money should not be borrowed, unless to liquidate old debts, or to discharge others bearing a higher interest.</p> <p>To obtain these three points there is but one method, that of reducing the expenditure below the receipt, and so much below it as to leave twenty millions [<i>livres</i>] every year for the redemption of former debts. Without this precaution, the first cannonball that is fired will force the state to a public bankruptcy.</p> <p>Where to retrench? Every department will maintain, that, as far as relates to itself, there is scarcely a single expenditure that is not indispensable. The reasons alleged may be very good, but . . . must give way to the irresistible necessity of economy.</p> <p>It is this necessity then that calls upon Your Majesty to oblige each department to consult the Minister of Finances. It is indispensable that he should be allowed to discuss with each, in Your Majesty's presence, the degree of necessity of proposed expenses. Above all, it is requisite, Sire, when you have thus fixed upon the funds of each department, that you should forbid him who is charged with it to engage any new expense without having first consulted the Minister of Finance on the means of supplying it. Without this [measure], each department will load itself with debts, which will still be the debts of Your Majesty; and the person directing the finances will never be responsible for any correspondence between the expenditure and the receipt. . . .</p> <p>A hope may be indulged, that, by the improvement of agriculture, by the suppression of abuses in the collection of the revenue, and by a more equal distribution of the taxes, the people may be sensibly relieved, without greatly diminishing the public income, but, unless economy is adopted first, no reform will be possible, for there is no reform which does not involve the risk of some interruption in the collection of funds and one must expect a multiplicity of embarrassments, which will be created by the man.</p>
Sortable Date
1774-08-24
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jean-Louis Soulavie,<i> Historical and Political Memoirs of the Reign of Lewis XVI from His Marriage to His Death, Translated from the French...in Six Volumes...,</i> vol. 3 (London: G. and J. Robinson, 1802), 423-438.
Description
An account of the resource
In 1774, the newly ascendant Louis XVI appointed as his minister of finance a pro–Enlightenment economist and administrator named Anne–Robert–Jacques Turgot, a baron from a noble family with many generations of service to the kings of France. In office, Turgot sought to implement many reforms of the royal treasury. In this passage, he informs the King of the debts he has discovered in the royal treasury and proposes reforming fiscal policy by cutting expenditures and more equitable taxation—without considering whether or not this will be acceptable to the <i>Parlements</i>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
252
Title
A name given to the resource
Turgot, "Letter to the King on Finance" (1774)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/252/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
August 24, 1774
Economic Conditions
Enlightenment
Monarchy
Public Opinion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>One owes this much justice to public men who have benefited their own age, to consider the point from which they started in order to perceive more clearly the changes they wrought in their country. Posterity owes them eternal gratitude for the examples they gave, even though such examples have been surpassed. Such lawful glory is their only reward. It is certain that the love of such glory inspired Louis XIV, at the time of his taking the government into his own hands, in his desire to improve his kingdom, beautify his court and perfect the arts.</p> <p>Not only did he impose upon himself the duty of regularly transacting affairs with each of his ministers, but any well-known man could obtain a private audience with him and any citizen was free to present petitions and projects to him. The petitions were first received by a master of requests who wrote his recommendations in the margin; and they were then dispatched to the ministerial offices. Projects were examined in council if they were thought worthy of such attention, and their authors were on more than one occasion admitted to discuss their proposals with the ministers in the king's presence. There was thus a channel between the throne and the nation which existed notwithstanding the absolute power of the monarch.</p> <p>The city of Paris was very far from being what it is today. The streets were unlighted, unsafe and dirty. It was necessary to find money for the constant cleaning of the streets, for lighting them every night with five thousand lamps, completely paving the whole city, building two new gates and repairing the old ones, keeping the permanent guard, both foot and mounted, to ensure the safety of the citizens. The king charged himself with everything, drawing upon funds for such necessary expenses. In 1667 he appointed a magistrate whose sole duty was to superintend the police. Most of the large cities of Europe have imitated these examples long afterwards, but none has equaled them. There is no city paved like Paris, and Rome is not even illuminated.</p> <p>From 1661 the king was ceaseless in his building at the Louvre, Saint-Germain and the Versailles. Following his example private individuals erected thousands of dwellings in Paris as magnificent as they were comfortable. Their number increased to such an extent that in the environs of the Palais-Royal and St. Sulpice two new towns sprang up in Paris, both vastly superior to the old. It was about this time that those magnificent spring carriages with mirrors were invented, so that a citizen of Paris could ride through the streets of that great city in greater luxury than the first Roman triumvirs along the road to the Capitol. Inaugurated in Paris, the custom soon spread throughout the whole of Europe, and, become general, it is no longer a luxury.</p> <p>The suppression of dueling was one of the greatest services rendered to the country. Formerly such duels had been sanctioned by kings, even by parliament and by the Church, and though forbidden since the days of Henry IV, the pernicious practice was more prevalent than ever. The famous combat of 1663, when eight combatants were engaged, determined Louis XIV to pardon such duels no longer. His well-timed severity gradually reformed the nation and even neighboring nations who conformed to our wise customs after having copied our bad ones.</p> <p>Legislator of his people, he was no less so of his armies. It is astonishing that before his time the troops had no uniform dress. It was he who in the first year of his administration decreed that each regiment should be distinguished by the color of their uniform, or by different badges—a regulation which was soon adopted by all other nations. It was he who organized the brigadiers and gave the king's household troops the status they hold at the present day. He formed a company of musketeers and fixed the number of men for the two companies at five hundred.</p> <p>It will be seen by this cursory glance what great changes Louis XIV brought about in the state; and that such changes were useful since they are still in force. His ministers vied with each other in their eagerness to assist him. The details, indeed the whole execution of such schemes was doubtless due to them, but his was the general organization. There can be no shadow of doubt that the magistrates would never have reformed the laws, the finances of the country would not have been put on a sound basis, nor discipline introduced into the army, nor a regular police force instituted throughout the kingdom; there would have been no fleets, no encouragement accorded to the arts; all these things would never have been peacefully and steadily accomplished in such a short period and under so many different ministers, had there not been a ruler to conceive of such great schemes, and with a will strong enough to carry them out.</p> <p>Every king who loves glory loves the public weal; about 1698 he commanded each comptroller to present a detailed description of his province for the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy. By this means it was possible to have an exact record of the whole kingdom and a correct census of the population.</p>
Sortable Date
1756-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Voltaire, <i>The Age of Louis XIV,</i> translated by W. F. Flemming, 2 vols. (London: E. R. Dumont, [1756] 1901), 2:320–33.
Description
An account of the resource
François–Marie Arouet, who wrote under the name Voltaire, was both the best–known and most tireless advocate of the Enlightenment and also a close associate of several European kings and many French aristocrats. In his widely read history, <i>The Age of Louis XIV</i>, he exalted the achievements of the Bourbon monarchy, which had brought such glory and honor to France. In this passage, Voltaire lauds the reforms Louis XIV made in the royal government, implying that such reforms might again be useful in advancing France’s greatness.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
253
Title
A name given to the resource
Voltaire, "Internal Government" (1756)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/253/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1756
Economic Conditions
Enlightenment
Middle Classes – Bourgeoisie
Monarchy
Nobility
Public Opinion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>The main fruit you will get from the study of our History will not be to convince you that your authority is absolute. Instead, it will be to know its purpose, its measure and its rule. You will also learn—through the experience of centuries—that . . . the most independent Sovereignty is like all human matters. It is conserved through good use, changed by abuse and destroyed if used wrongly. . . .</p> <p>Indeed, to reign does not mean to be delighted, it rather means to delight others; it means to provide them with the benefits of Nature and to defend society against its own injustice as well as against its neighbors. . . . To govern a State implies to ensure men with all the advantages the Author of Nature attributed to the establishment of Societies, and this through steady and regular rules. The choice and the enforcement of these rules is what we call Public Administration, and we refer to Public Law as the science that teaches the principles of this administration and the Laws that are responsible for guiding it. . . .</p> <p>Through comparisons, you will be convinced of the inalienable rights of humanity, these same rights are the true and fundamental principles of all societies and represent the dedicated outlines of all human Laws. After examining the nature of the Government throughout our history, you will then look for the one that should always exist so that Kings are powerful and Peoples free and happy. You will notice that the Public Law of a Nation can never be arbitrary, because natural Law is the base of it. Art can always improve its tools, but can never change its principles or invert its end.</p>
Sortable Date
1773-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, <i>Leçons de Morale, de politique et de droit public </i>(Versailles: De l'imprimerie du Département des affaires étrangères, 1773), 15–16, 21–26, 49, 76–80, 139–48.
Description
An account of the resource
Jacob–Nicolas Moreau wrote his "lessons of morality, politics and law" for the instruction of the Dauphin. Throughout the 200–page book, Moreau defends the power of the King to rule France without opposition. In this passage, he emphasized that the current King must be actively involved in governing and could no longer inspire respect from his subjects merely by occupying the throne, as had monarchs in earlier times. Furthermore, Moreau wrote, only an active King could defend order and thus preserve the liberty of his people.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
254
Title
A name given to the resource
Moreau, "Principles of Monarchy" (1773)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/254/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1773
Enlightenment
Monarchy
Nobility
Public Opinion
Text
-
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
<p>To know whether it is worthwhile creating municipalities in those cantons of France where they do not exist, whether those already in existence need to be improved or changed, and how to create them if deemed necessary, it is not necessary to look at the origin of <i>municipal administrations</i>, recount the historical vicissitudes they have undergone, or even enter into great detail on their various forms today. It has become much too common a practice when making serious decisions, to resort to examining past examples of what our ancestors did during their times of ignorance and barbarism. This methodology only serves to mislead justice by presenting a multiplicity of seemingly authoritative facts. It also has a tendency to result in the prince's disgust with his most important functions, because he is convinced that he needs to be prodigiously knowledgeable if he wants to be able to fruitfully and gloriously discharge his duties. However, it is really only a matter of thoroughly understanding and carefully weighing the rights and interests of men. Because in fact these rights are not very numerous, the science of their study is very narrow in scope and it does not require long hours to have become very knowledgeable. Nor is it beyond the capabilities of any able man. To understand these rights, one need merely apply the principles of justice that each of us bears in our heart, and the intimate conviction of our own feelings. . . . </p> <p>This <i>nation</i> is large. Its obedience is not enough in itself . . . one must also be sure that it can be effectively led. In order to do so, it seems that it is necessary to know, in fairly great detail, the nation's situation, its needs, and its capabilities. This information would no doubt be more useful than any historical overview. . . .</p> <p>Sire, the root of the problem is that your nation has no <i>constitution</i>. It is a society composed of diverse, poorly united orders, and of a people with very few social ties between them. Consequently, each individual is occupied only with his own individual interests, and almost no one can be bothered to fulfill his duties or to understand his relationship to others. The result is this continuous war of claims and ventures that reason and mutual understanding can never settle, obligating Your Majesty to decide everything, either personally or through your agents. Everyone awaits your specific orders before contributing to the public good, before respecting others' property, or sometimes even before making use of his own. You are forced to decree on everything, in most cases by specific acts, whereas if the integral parts of your kingdom had a regular organization and identified relationships, you would be able govern by issuing general laws, as God does.</p> <p>Your kingdom is made up of <i>provinces</i>. These provinces are composed of cantons or districts (<i>arrondissements</i>) which, depending on the province, are called <i>bailliages</i>, <i>élections</i>, <i>vigueries</i> or some other name. These districts are formed by a certain number of towns and villages. These <i>towns</i> and <i>villages</i> are inhabited by families that own these lands that yield produce, provide for the livelihood of the inhabitants, furnish the revenues from which salaries are paid to those without land, and pay the taxes reserved for public expenditures. Finally, these families are made up of individuals who have many duties to fulfill towards one another and towards society . . . duties based on the benefits they have received and which they continue to receive daily.</p> <p>But these <i>individuals</i> are rather poorly educated regarding their duties within the family, and not educated at all regarding those duties which connect them to the State.</p> <p><i>Families</i> themselves are barely aware that they depend on this State to which they belong . . . they have no idea of the nature of their relationship to it. They believe that when the authorities levy the taxes required to maintain public order, it is nothing more than the law of the strongest, and the only reason for them to obey is that they are powerless to resist. As a result, everyone seeks to cheat the authorities and to pass his welfare costs on to his neighbors. Income is hidden and can only be partially uncovered by means of a kind of inquisition that makes it appear that Your Majesty is at war with his people. And although it only seems like a war, it is still detrimental, with dire consequences, and with the result being that no one has an interest in supporting the government. And anyone who sides with the government is viewed with hostility. There is no public spirit because there is no visible or identifiable common interest, nor do these divided members of villages and towns have any greater ties to the districts where they live. They disagree on all of the public works that might be necessary. </p> <p>The same divisions exist between the provinces themselves, and between the provinces and the realm as a whole.</p> <p>However, some of these provinces do have a constitution of a sort, with assemblies and a kind of public will, known as the <i>Pays d'Etats</i>. But since these Estates are composed of <i>orders</i> which have very diverse claims and which have very different interests between themselves and between them and the nation, these Estates are still far from able to bring about all the improvements needed by the provinces in the administrative areas where they are located.</p> <p>These local 'half-estates' are perhaps harmful in that the provinces that have them are less aware of the need to implement reform. But Your Majesty can lead them to recognize what is needed by giving those provinces without constitutions an even more organized constitution than those which currently take pride in their <i>Pays d'Etats</i>. Sire, by setting an example by means of your power and authorization you can entice them to want to change the defects of their present system.</p> <p>This divisive mindset vastly increases the work of your servants and of Your Majesty, and necessarily and prodigiously diminishes your power. To dispel this attitude, it must be replaced with a spirit of order and union that would mobilize your nation's forces and means for the common good, placing them together under your direct control and making them easy to lead. A plan would be required that would tie individuals to their families, families to their village or town, towns and villages to their district, districts to their province, and finally provinces to the state. This plan would tie by the binds of mandatory education, by obvious common interests, by making everyone aware of those interests, and by discussing and complying with the plan. . . .</p> <p><i>On How to Prepare Individuals and Families to Enter Effectively into a Well-Constituted Society</i></p> <p>Sire, the first and perhaps most important of all the institutions which I believe necessary, which would seem to me the most fitting to immortalize Your Majesty's reign, and which would have the greatest influence on the kingdom as a whole, would be the creation of a <i>National Education Council.</i> This council would be responsible for academies, universities, secondary schools, and elementary schools.</p> <p>Mores are a nations most important bond, and they are primarily based on the education received, starting in childhood, which deals with all of a man's obligations to society. It is astonishing that this knowledge is so rudimentary. There are methods and institutions for training grammarians, surveyors, doctors, and painters, but there are none for training citizens. This would not be the case if national education was under the direction of one of Your Majesty's councils, if it aimed at serving the public interest, and if it followed your uniform principles.</p> <p>This council would not need to be very large, because it too would need to be of one mind. Accordingly, standard textbooks would be commissioned in accordance with a master plan, written in such a way that one would lead logically to another. Also, the study of each <i>citizen's duties</i>, as a member of a family and the state, would serve as the basis for all other studies, which in turn would be prioritized according to their usefulness to society.</p> <p>Literary bodies would serve this council by supervising all educational policy. Currently, these literary bodies tend only to create scholars, poets, and men of wit and taste. Those unable to aspire to these goals are abandoned and amount to nothing. A new system of education, which only Your Majesty's total authority could establish and which would be seconded by a very well-chosen council, would lead to the formation, among all classes of society, of virtuous and useful men, just souls, pure hearts, and zealous citizens. Those among them who could and would devote themselves particularly to the sciences and the fine arts would be diverted from frivolous matters by the importance of the basic principles which they had received, and would approach their work with a more vigorous and steady character. Both individual as well the national taste itself would improve . . . becoming more serious and more elevated but, above all, more concerned with honorable things. This would be the fruit of having uniform patriotic attitudes that the education council would disseminate through all the teaching given to the young.</p> <p>At present there is but one type of instruction that has any uniformity: <i>religious instruction</i>. And even this is not completely uniform. Textbooks vary from one diocese to another; the Paris catechism is not the same as the Montpellier catechism, and neither is identical to that of Besançon. This diversity of textbooks is unavoidable in an educational system that has several independent heads. The education organized by your council would not have that drawback, which would be all the more necessary in that religious instruction is limited to heavenly things. This education is not sufficient for citizens to demonstrate morality to one another, and especially between different groups of citizens. The proof of this lies in the multitude of issues arising every day in which Your Majesty sees one part of your subjects seeking to upset another through the use of <i>exclusive</i> <i>privileges</i>. The result is that your Council is forced to suppress these requests and proscribe the pretexts they invoke as unjust.</p> <p>Sire, your kingdom is of this world. It is your subjects' conduct, towards one another and towards the state, which Your Majesty is obliged to watch over for the sake of your conscience and the welfare of your crown. I do not wish to place any obstacle in the way of that instruction which has a higher cause, and which already has completely established rules and ministers . . . quite the contrary. However, I do not believe I can propose anything more advantageous for your people, more conducive to the maintenance of peace and good order and to the encouragement of all useful works, more fitting to endear your authority and your person more every day to your subjects, than to provide them all with an education which clearly shows them their obligations towards society and towards your power which protects it, the duties which these obligations impose upon them, and their interest in fulfilling these duties both for the public good as well as their own. This moral and social instruction requires textbooks written expressly for the purpose, in cooperation with others, and with great care, and also requires a schoolmaster in each parish who will teach these texts to the children, along with reading, writing, arithmetic, measurement, and the principles of mechanics.</p> <p>More learned instruction, progressively incorporating the knowledge necessary for those citizens whose position requires more extensive enlightenment, would be taught in the secondary schools. But always in accordance with the same principles, more fully developed according to the functions that each student's rank requires them to fill in society.</p> <p>Sire, if Your Majesty approves this plan, I shall submit for your consideration a <i>special memorandum</i> containing the relevant details. But I dare to say that ten years from now your nation will be unrecognizable. That by virtue of its intelligence, its good customs, its enlightened zeal for your service and for that of the country, your nation would be infinitely superior to all other peoples past or present. Children who are now ten years old would then be men of twenty, prepared for the State, attached to their homeland, submissive to authority. This would not be from fear but by reason, they would be supportive of their fellow citizens and accustomed to knowing and respecting the justice that is the basic foundation of any society.</p> <p>Such men will behave well within their families, and will doubtless raise families that will be easy to govern in their villages. </p>
Sortable Date
1775-00-00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Gustave Schelle, ed., <i>Oeuvres de Turgot</i>, 4 vols. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1913Ð23), 4:568Ð628.
Description
An account of the resource
In 1774, on the accession of Louis XVI, Anne–Robert–Jacques Turgot was named Controller–General of Finances. In this position, he also became responsible for administrative policies relating to taxation, the economy, and local government. With his recent experience as an intendant in mind, Turgot directed his secretary (the economist, Pierre–Samuel Dupont de Nemours) to draft a long memorandum diagnosing the problems of provincial administration and outlining the plans for national regeneration that the controller general intended to submit to the King. Although this <i>Mémoire sur les Municipalitiés</i> was written in 1775, Turgot fell from power before it could be presented to Louis XVI . However, its arguments exercised a powerful influence on administrative thinking in the remaining years of the old regime.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
255
Title
A name given to the resource
Turgot, "Memorandum on Local Government" (1775)
Relation
A related resource
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/255/
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1775
Enlightenment
Middle Classes – Bourgeoisie
Monarchy
Public Opinion
Text