The National Register. — London, England, 1815-10-01 00:00:00

- - - judges commonly ignorant pretendets, ssho bold their courts in caharels, and ar e a b so l ute l y d epen d ant on the seigneurs.* Nothing can exceed th , force of expression used in paint ing the oppressions of the seigneurs, in consequence of their feud powers. They are " vexations qui soul le plus `'rand /l,.:au des Pe'fples."t —Esclaratre ailigeant.:—Ce regime desastrenst.§ That the lendable be for ever abolished. The countryman tyrannically enslaved by it. Fixed and heavy rents; vexatious processes to secure them ; appreciated un. instly to augment them: rents, solidaires, and revenchables ; rents, cio'arites, and /craides; At/rages. Fines at every change of the property, in the direct as well as collateral line; feudal redemption ( retrarle) ; films on sale, to the eighth and even the sixth penny ; redemptions ( rarhats ) injutious in their and still more so in their extension : banalitc of the mill, 'I of the oven, and of the wine and cyder-press; earecles by custom ; cordTs by usage of the fief: cori . &sestablished by unj us' erers ; enrcies arbitrary, and even phantastical ; ser vi tildes ; rcstati on v, extravagant and burthensome; collec tions by assessment incollectalle ; aeries, minus, impunis sew e ; litigations ruinousand without end : the rod of seignew al finance for ever shaken over our heads : vexa tion, ruin. out rne, violence, and desti uctive servitude, under which the peasants, almrst on a level with Polish slaves, can never but be misetable, vile, and oppressed.if They demand also, that the use of hand•mills he free ; and hope that posterity, if possible, may be ignorant that feudal tyranny in Bretagne, armed wi'h the judicial power, has not blush , .ul even in these times at breaking hand mills, and at selling annually to the miserable, the faculty of bruising be tween two stones a measure of buck-wheat or barley." The very terms of these complaints are toslinnwn in England,ind unt' an‘lat:thle ; they have probably arisen long since the feudal system seised in th's kingdom. What are these tor tures of the peasantry in Bretagne, which they call chevan eßc, Tuintaines. solar. sant de pn;son, beristr de mariies ; ehan -30/IS ; trairyporie d'ienf snr nn aarelte ; sifrncc des grenouil ter ;++ carrh. a miveri«v.le ; sni/nds. ; ; eouponage ;. eartelagr ; barnae jouage ; mare. haus , i.:c han yin.; Nun d'ai;ul ; trousses ; 2.clinage; civernae ; ; einglain ; sterlaer ; Lord. lase ; minage ; Lan v( adanffes ; droll d'ae oswe ?'.11: In passing through many of the French provinces, I was stuck with the various and . heavy complaints of the farmers and little proprietors. of the feudal grievances, with the weight of which their industry was burthenect; but could not then conceive the multiplicity of thi shackles which kept them poor and depres‘cd. I . understood it better afterwards, from the conversation and complaints of some grand seigneurs, as the revolution advanced ; and I then learned, that the principal rental of many estates consisted • Nerertiois, art. 43. t Tiers L hst de rensieß, p. ^4.•—That i*" Vexations which ate the greatest scomee of the people."' 'l. Put ele . riteaft rerranyl, p. i*: 64 Cruel Slavery." Tiers Oat. riux. rrr, art ti.--Thar is.: " This tuitions system of govoriiitir." this horrible law, the people arc bound to grind their corn at the mill of the seigneur only ; to pressilleir erupe a. at his press ; and to bake their bread in liiv oven ; by *Wick means the bread i 4 i,ften spoiled, and more especially wine: since in.Cham plane those grapes which, pressed immediately, would mike while v.hr, by waiting for the press, which often happens,. make red airs only. Tiers Lint news, p. 169. Iv Relines, p. 57. lt This is in in th • people , I ri krri) Cie trfiLVl 1 / 9 •:* Iliblirt - %'lVf; it 4 ICt~` oCT. 1. •- - . in services and feudal tenures, by the baneful influence of which, the industry of the people was almost exterminated. In regard to the oppressions of the clergy, as to tithes, I must do that body a justice, to which a claim cannot be laid in England. Though the ecclesiastical tenth was levied in France more severely than usual in Italy, yet was it never exacted with such horrid greediness as is at present the disgrace of England. When taken in kind, no such thing was known in any part of France, where I made inquiries, as a tenth : it was always a twelth, or a thirteenth, or even a twentieth of the produce. And in no part of the kingdom did a new article of culture pay any thing : thus turnips, cabbages, clover, chicor6e, potatoes, &c. &c. paid nothing. In many parts, meadows were exempt. Silk worms nothing. Olives in some places paid—in more they did not. • Cows no thing. Lambs from the 12th to the 21st. Wool nothing. —Such mildness, in the levy of this odious tax, is ab solutely unknown in England. But mild as it was, the burden to people groaning under so many other oppressions, united to render their situation so bad that no change could be for the worse. But these were not all the evils with, which the people struggled. The administration of justice' was partial, venal, infatnons. I have, in conversation with many very sensible men, in (litierent parts of the kingdom met with something of content with their government, in all other respects than this : hut upon the question of ex pecting justice to be really and fairly administered, every one confessed there was no such thing to be looked for. The conduct of the parliaments was profligate and atrocious. Upon almost every cause that came before them, interest "as openly made with the judges: and woe betided the man who, with a cause to support, had no means of conciliating favour, either by the beauty of a handsome wife, or by other methods. It has bees, said, by many writers, that property was. as secure under the old government of France as it 'is in. England; and the assertion might possibly be true, as far as anv violence from the King, his ministers, or the great .was concerned : but for all that mass of property, which comes in every country to he litigated in courts of justice, there was not even the shadow of security, unless the parties were totally and equally unknown, and totally and equally honest; in every other case, be who had the best interest with the judges, was sure to be the sinner. To reflect ing minds, the cruelty and abominable practice attending such cnurbs are. sufficiently apparent. There was also a circumstance in the constitution of these parliaments, but little known in England, and which, under such a govern ment as that of France, must be considered as very singular. They had the power, and were in the constant practice of issuing decrees, without the consent of the crown, and which had the force of laws through the whole of their jurjsdie tine ; and of all other laws, these were sure to be the best obeyed ; tilr as all infringements of them were brought before sovereign courts, composed of the same persons who fiad enacted these laws (a horrible system of tyranny !) they were certain of being punished with the last. severity. !t must appear strange, in a government - so despotic in some respects as that of France,. to see the parliaments in every part of the kingdom. making laws without the King's eon sent; and even in - defiance of his authority. The English, whom I met in France in 178 g, were surprised to see some of these bodies issuing arrets against the export of corn out of the provinces subject to their jurisdiction, into the neigh !routing-provinces, at the same time that' the King, through thebrgan of so popular a minister as Mons. Necker, Was decreeing an absolutely free transport of corn titrtsugimut the kingdom, and even at the requisition of the National As sembly itself. But this was nt,thing new ; it was their 'coin- curious article : when the lady of the seieneitr lies ;ire ()blazed to beat the waters in nnirsby districts, 4 jalks ' • iipt hr disturbed ; this d u t y , a 't• - E e tniary. duo. • " tal &k ip ... 77 r . • 18`v„ - • ti . 4 4,71111t;: tf ‘ • ; • THE NATIONAL REGISTER.