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

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

'

the flame that lately beamed so brightly was only smo-
thered, not quenched. It will bunt from its embers and
enlighten all Spain. And who will dare to check its
blaze ? Who that enjoys freedom mill tell the Spanish
Patriots, "Be slaves ?" Who that lives under the
.bafeguard of a constitution, will bid them submit in
peace to the distruction of their own? Who that
'feels all the blessings of religious toleration, will become
the Ally of the Inquisition, and assist in keeping entire
those piles destined to burn his protestant brethren ? Let
Princes and Ministers ponder cre they embark in so odious
a cause, nor let a premature and injudicious exchange of
honourable baubles, serve as a pretence for the sacrifice
of every principle of policy, interest, and justice.

REV OLUNON IN FRANCE.

1.

-" The gross infamy which attended lettres de cachet and
the Bastile, doting the whole reign of Louis 'XV. made
them esteemed in England, by people not well informed,
as the most I rot-einem features of the despotism of France.
They were certainly carri-d to an excess hardly credible;
to the length of being sold, with blanks, to be filled up with
names at the pleasure of the purchaser ; who was thus able,
in the gratification of private revenge, to tear a man from
the bosom of his family, and bury hint in a dunget n,
where he would exist forgotten, and (lie unknown ! • But
such excesses could not he common in any country ; and
they were reduced almost to nothing. from the accession of
the present King. The great mass of the people, by which
I mean the lower and middle ranks, could sutler very little
from such engines, and, as few of them are objects of jea-
lousy, had there been nothing else to complain of, it is not
probable they would ever have been brought to take aims.
The abuses attending the levy of taxes were heavy and
universal. The kingdom was parcelled into generalities,
with an intendant at the.head of each, into whose hinds the
whole power of the crown was delegated for every thing
except the military authority, but particularly for all
affairs of finance. The generalities were subdivided into
eleetions,at the head of which was a sub-deluga, appointed
by the intendant. The rolls of the faille, capitation, ring.
times, and other taxes, were distributed among districts,
parishes, and individuals, at the pleasure of the intendant,
who could exempt, change, add, or diminish, at pleasure.
Such an enormous power, constantly acting. and from
which no man was free, must, in the nature of things,
&generate in many cases into absolute tyranny. It must
be obvious, that the friends, acquaintances, and depen-
dants of the intendant, and of all his sub-dektyris, and the
ft iends of these friends, to a long chain of depene-datice, might
be favoured in taxation at the expense of their misetable
neighbours; and that noblemen, ill favour at court, to whose
protection the intendant himself would naturally look up,
could find little difficulty in throwing much of the weight
of their taxes on others, without a similar support. Instances,
and even gross ones, base been reported to me in malty
parts of the kingdom, that made me shudder at the oppt cssion

R An anecdote which I have from an authority to be depended on
will explain the profligacy of Government, in respect to these arbi
trary imprisonments. Lord Albemarle, when ambassador in France,
about the year 17,7)3, negociating the fixing of the limits of tl e
American colonies, which, three years afier, produced the war,
calling one day on tl.e minister for foreign affairs, was introduced,
for a few minutes, into his cabinet, while he finished a short col -
versation in the apartnwnt in which lie usually received giose who
conferred with him. As his lordship walked backwards and for•
wards, in a very small room (a French cabinet is never a large one?,
he could not help seeing a paper lying on the tables w.rltten in a
large legible hand, and containing a li,t of the prisoners in the
Bastile, in whic:t tiie first ;taws was Gordon. the minister
entered, Lord Albemarle apologized for his involuntarily remarking
the paler; the other replied, that it was not of the least COW..
queuce, for they made no secret of the names. Lord A. then said,
that he had seen the name of Gordon first m the list; and be begged
to know, as in all probability the person r f this ;same was a
subject, on what account he bad been put into the Bastile. The
minister told him that he knew nothing of the matter, but lek oal d
make the provr inquiries, The next t Incn he saw Lord. Albeniale.
he informed him, that, on inquiring into the case of Gordon, he
could find no person who could give hint site least intormation; on
which he had had Golden, himself interrogated, who seleatuly aft r-,
thed, that he had not the smallest knowledge or even suspicion, of
the cause of his imprisonment, but that be had been confined tbii.ty
years; however, added the minister, I malt:red him to he home,
diately released, and lie is now at largr., Such azase wants sus
comment,

OCT. 1:

to which numbers must have been condemned, by the un-
due favours granted to such crooked influence. But,
without recurring to such cases, what must have been the
state of the poor people paying heavy taxes, from which the
nobility and clergy were exempted ? A cruel aggravation
of their misery, to see those who could best afford to
pay, exempted, because able !—The inrolments for the
militia, which the Callers call an injustice vithout example,*
were another dreadful scourge on the peaantry ; and, as
married men were exempted from. it, occasioned in some.
degree that mischievous population, which brought beings
into the world, in order for little else than to be stat ved.
The coeves, or police of the roads, were annually the ruin
of many hundreds of farmers; more than 300 were reduced
to beggary in filling up one vale in Lorraine: all these
Oppressions fell on the tiers etat only ; the nobility and
elergy having been equally exempted from militia,
and corn'es. The penal code of finance makes one shudder
at the horrors of punishment inadequate to the critne.t A
few features will sufficiently characterize the old government.
1. Smugglers of salt, armed and assembled to the number
Of five, in Provence, afine of SCO liv. and nine years gallies;
—in all the rest of the kingdom, death.
2. Smugglers armed, assembled, but in number under five,
a fine of 300 liv. and three years gallies. Second offence,
Eli.

3. Smugglers, without arms, but with horses, carts, or
bGats; a fine (f3OO liv. if not paid, three years gallies. Se-
cond offence, 400 liv. and nine years gallies.—ln Dauphine,
second onnce, gallies for life.--In Provence, five years
gal/ic•c.

4. Smugglers, who carry the salt on their back, and with
out arms, a fine of 200 liv. and, if not paid, are ilogsred
and branded. Second offence, a fine of 300 liv. and six
years rallies.
5. Women, married and single, smuge.lers, first offence a
fine of 100 liv. Second, :100 liv. Third, fogged, and ba-
nished the kingdom for Fiji. Husbands responsible both 'in
fine and bodii. _ _

6. Children smugglers, the same as women.—Fathcrs and
mothers responsible ; and,, for defect of payment, flowed.
7. Nobles, if smugglers, thprit:ed of their nohility ; and
their houses razed to the ground. •
8. Any persons in employments (I suppose employed in
the salt-works or the revenuel, if smuggler, death. 4nd
such as assist in the theft of salt in the transport, hanged:

. •
9. Soldiers smuggling, with antic, are hanged; without
arms, gallies.for 4f•.
10. Buying smuggled salt to resell it, the same punish-
ment as fur smuggling.
11. Persons in the salt employments, empowered, if two,
or one with two witnesses, to enter and examine houses, even qf
the prit:ilerred orders.
12. All families, and persons liable to the taille, in the

• Nob. &icy, p. 6, &cc. &c.
. t It is calculated by a writer (Recherches el Consid. par M.
1e Baron de Cormere, tom. ii. p. 187.) very well informed en every
subject ot,finance, that, upon an average, there were annually taken
tip and sent to prison or the gallics, Men, 2,310, Women, 896,
Children. 201. Total, 3,437. 300 of these to the gallies (tom.
112). The salt confiscated from there miserablvs amounted to
12,633 quintals, which at the mean price of 8 liv, are • • • • 101.064 Ile.
2,772 lb. of salted flesh. at 10s.
• 1,086 horset, at 50 liv.
- 52 tarts, at 150 liv.
Fines,
. -Seized in houses. t • . •105,5:30

~•.

'ER.

provinces of the Grandes Gabe/les inrolled, and their con-
sumption.of salt for the pot and saGre (that is, the daily con-
sumpti6n, exclusive of salting meat, &c. &c.) estimated at
71b. a head per annum, which quantity they are forced to
buy, whether they want it or not, under the pain of various
fines, according to the case.
The Capitoineries were a dreadful scourge on all the oc-
cupiers of ltd. By this team, is to be understood the pa-
ramountship of certain districts, granted by the king, to
princes of the blood, by which they were put in possession
of the property of all game, even op lands not belonging
to them ; and, what is very singular, on manors granted long
before to individuals; so that the erecting of a district into
a eapitainerie, was an annihilation of all manerial rights to
game within it. This wag a trifling business, in comparison
of other circumstances; for, in speaking of the preset vation
of the game in these rapitaineries, it must be observed, that
by game must be understood whole droves of wild boars,
and herds of deer, not confined by any wall or pale, but wan-
dering, at pleasure, over the whole country, to the destruc-
tion of the crops; and to the peopling of the gallies by rhe
wretched peasants, who presumed to kill them, in older to
save that food which was to support their helpless children.
The game in the capitainerie of Moutceau, in four parishes
only, did mischief to *the amount of 184,263 liv. per an-
num.• No wonder then that we should find the people
asking l Nous demandonsti zrand cris la destruction des capi-
tailleries c 5 celle dr route sorte de gibirr:t And what are
we to think of demanding, as a favour, the permksion—
De Nettoyer ses grains, de
,faucher les pros artifields, et
d'eu‘snr se.s ehauntes sans.hard pour la perdrir ou tout autre
giGier.l Now, an English reader will scarcely understand
it without being told, that there were numerous edicts for
preserving the game. which in:inhibited weeding and hoeing,
lest the young partridges should be. disturbed ; steeping
seed, lest it should injure the game; manuring with night.
soil, lest the flavour. of the partridges should be injured
by feeding on the corn so produced; mowing bay, &c. before
a certain time, so late as to spoil many crops;. and taking
away the stubble, which would-dtprive the birds of shelter.
The tyranny exercised in-these capitaineries, which extended
over 400 leagues of country, was 90 great,: that:many ca/rims
demanded the utter suppression of thein.§ Suclywere the
exertions of arbitrary power which the lower orders felt di-
rectly from the royal authority but, heavy as, they were, it
is a question ; whether the others, salt:red ,circuitously
through the nobility and the clergy, were pot, yet more
oppressive? Nothing can exceed the complaints, made in
the cahiers under this bead. They speak of the dispensation
of justice in the manerial courts, as comprising every
species of despotism : the districts indeterminate—appeals
endless—irreconcileable to liberty and prosperity— and
irervocably proscribed in the opinion of the publie—aug-
menting litigations—favouring every species of chicane—
ruining the parties—not only by enormous expenses on the
most Otty objects, hut by a dreadful loss of time. The

• Calmr du tiers etat de Meaux, p. 49.
t De Mantes and Meuian. p. 40.—Also, Nob. 4. Tier Etat de Pe-
ronne, p. 42. De Trois ordres de Montfort, p. 28.—Ttiat is t "We
most earnestly pray for the suppression of the Capitaineries, and
that of all the game laws."
De Mantes and Meulun, p. 33.—That is to say, " the futon,-
to weed their corn, to Mow their upland grass, anti to take oft their
stubble, without consulting the convenience of the partridges, or
any other st.rt of came."
§ Clerge de Prorins 4. Mont create, p. ,53.-;--Clerge de Paris, p. 23.,--
Clerre de Mantes 4 p. -15. -16.—(14..r vi Laon, p.
11.
Nub. de Nemours, p. 17. —Nub. de Path, p. d'xirras p. YU.
ll I:eitm art. 1.. •
. .
r •
•

- - -
judges commonly ignorant pretendets, ssho bold their courts
in caharels, and are absolutely dependant 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,
4jalks ' • iipt hr disturbed; this duty, a
't•- E e tniary. duo.
• " tal
&kip...77r. •
18`v„ - •
ti
.44,71111t;:tf‘ • ; •

OCT. 1.

THE NATIO

mon practice. The parliament of Rotten passed an arret
against killing of calves : it was a preposterous one, and op-
.pesed by administration ; but it had its full force; and had
a butcher dared to offend against it, he would have found,
by the rigour of his punishment, who was his master. Ino-
culation was favoured by the court in Louis XV.'s time;
but the parliament of Paris passed an arret against it, much
more effective in prohihitinpi, than the favour of the court
in encouraging that practice. Instances are innumerable,
and I may remark, that the bigotry, inorance, false prin-
ciples, and tyranny of these bodies were generally conspi-
cuous; and that the court (taxatr,n excepted), never had
a dispute with a parliament, bl:t the parliament was sure
to be wrong. Their constitution, in respect to the admi-
nistration of justice, was so truly rotten, that the members
sat as judges, even in causes of private property, in which
they 'were themselves the parties, and have, in this capa-
city, been guilty of oppression and cruelties, which the
crown has rarely dared to attempt.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

REVOLUTION IN SPAIN.

CoßUxx.►, SEPT. 19.—A very unexpected event has
just tak ,n place here. General Porlier, who had been
confined lyre by the King's orders, in the Castle of St.

Antonia, ever since August, 1814, but obtained permission
last month to visit the bath of Artrijo on account of his
health, last night assembled the troops quartet ea at Santa
Lucia, close without the gates, and entered this city at
one o'clock this morning, where he arrested the Captaip
General of the province, the Governor of this city, arfd
two or three other persons. By three all was quiet, and
a: pet feet tranquillity prevails as if nothing had happened.
The following is the General's proclamation:—

PROCL %MATTO,/ Annitr.ssEn BY DON JUAN' DIEZ PORLIFB
TO Till•' SOLDIERS OF TIM ARMY OF THE KINGDOM OF
GALLIcLt•

Soldiers !—The happy nod desired day is arrived, in which, by our
heroic and gl resolution, tote begin to break the chains of the roost
fatal• slivers? that has evvr been known. It would he useless tier me to
exert myself to convince volt what has been the conduct tit King
lerdinatirl since his restoration to the throne of Spin ; that throne
c'4' the Elation so IllanY lives, su much blond, and such sperilices,
deliver it from the influence of a tyraii7. Nobody is tolerant, that
1:1.! K surrounded by unjust and rrcaririous counsellors, hiss eon-
*?cited to, and executed a proscriiiti:iti so atrocious. that even the ii is
tr oral have trembled at it ; the 1110•11 oltistrimis and deLA -vine met' have
beets the first victitvs of it : livered by this means from those a ho had
prr ferred the general good to their own interest, ILet roomed the flood
gates of despotism, and the !MUM rsa, ins r,losilesit intitiduted with the
forimis torrent. Such, soliiiers, is the muss of evils alid misfortunes that
we have sufered ! Misery.; contempt, disgrace, have been the recoil.-

posse they have given o.: the • dissoluti,a) of she boss, punishment.,
conti 11r:items, duties, (les Ins pesertas,) awl, finally, the de-
r ession and disc;:ittra,e:»mit of aglicultitre and commerce, have been
the acknowl•dgitsent that lets been made for the services of the
I %k ill not spoak to vim (A otter hifiniotti
prnecedint, w 11.4.11 have been committed with impunity, utlacity having
gone so far as to :tile:lsola to sanctify them as to precepts of our holy
To come out of a situation .10 dr.perate, and which scandalizes
Ai. Europe, wc 'iced Isis, to be re•olvert. IVe, if the ease is properly
considered, are the ypiire.sites of sli!• country, since these urns., intended
cnly to comb,it Cie enemies of n hat gm,rl. Lave been !timed for this
year past against ourselves and agaisist our fit:tune and tot-rests. Do
ant fear its otiempting slits enterpse the armies Of other powers, since
conducted by wise Princes, endowed with the nsost splendid virtues,
tar frump oppusit.g our Just cati•C, it is rather greatly In he hoped, that
they will maintain isod support it—Yes ! we have Is•-tore cur eyes most
stri'aing teittmonir s of this truth, which have Inade us conceive the
inmt flattcr:rg hopes; they have disapproved, from the very beginning,
tl c cuttettc: of Klig Ferdinand, and with it noble and generous unsni•
nuty, %tic), hsyc finisinrci Ly excluding him from the rist,peitts .ell tnrr,

L

ER.

hiving previously left no means untried to divest him trom error and
Cron the precipice ; all hies been in vain; and in this simaiion no
alternative renmitis to us but to take to t us remove Cram his
ante those wicked Cuttn-ellors, let us re establish the Cortes, mid let
shear determine the system w hick. is to gove-n us ; and ntehn time,
considering the nation as uhanitoned and (Nonni.. the provinces, in
imitation of this most noble kingdom of Gallieia, arilvp,.int their in-
terns! Juntas to govern them till the convocation of the I .or < s; thence.
forth the valiant soldier, the limn of tolrot and of req.! ;nein, shall
meet wilb a soliJ recomprtice ; arts, agriculture-, and rce, t.t,all •
resume their ancient splendour; the nittonal we din shall recover the
same channels which formerly nourished it : the sole!!. r, soul whets
employed by the public, shall be punctually paid; tlit- scale of Justice
shall retort* to that equilibrium of force which is the limied:,tion of the
tranquillity of the State—all this, soldiers, is offered sou as a recard
iv the change of the present s.)stein : to °halo it. mote Your f 'cea uti,h
miiie, and hove confidence in your Chiefs ; doubt not but that tle
armies will follow you, Mid that VII will be actuated by the same im-
pulse : and if ever there should he obstacles and difficulties to over-
come, valor makes every thing env.