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III.8 The Emergence of the Revolution
8
but excelling only in war; worshipping chance, force, success, brilliance,
and bluster more than true glory; more capable of heroism than of virtue,
of genius than of common sense; given to conceiving immense designs
rather than completing great enterprises; the most brilliant and most
dangerous of European nations, and the most likely to become by turns
an object of admiration, hatred, pity, and terror, but never indifference?
Only this nation could have given birth to a revolution so sudden, so
radical, so impetuous in its course, and yet so full of retreats, contradic-
tory events, and contrary examples. Without the reasons I have stated,
the French would never have done it. Yet it must be granted that all these
reasons together would not sufce to explain such a revolution anywhere
but in France.
Thus, I come to the threshold of this memorable Revolution. For now
I will not cross it. Soon, perhaps, I will be able to do so. Then I will set
aside its causes and examine only the Revolution in itself, and I will dare
at last to offer a judgment upon the society that emerged from it.

Appendix
On the Pays d’états, and in
Particular Languedoc
It is not my intention here to examine in detail how things were done in
each of the pays d’états that still existed at the time of the Revolution.
I merely wish to note their number and to identify those that retained
an active local existence, as well as to describe their relations with the
royal administration, in what respects they departed from the common
rules I set forth earlier and in what respects they did not, and, nally, by
taking one of them as an example, to show what they all might easily have
become.
Estates had at one time existed in most of the provinces of France.
In other words, each province had been administered, under the aus-
pices of the royal government, by the “people of the three estates,” as
people used to say. This expression should be understood to mean an
assembly composed of representatives of the clergy, the nobility, and the
bourgeoisie. This provincial constitution, like other medieval political
institutions, could be found with identical features in almost all civilized
parts of Europe, or at any rate in all those inuenced by Germanic mores
and ideas. In many German provinces, estates persisted right up to the
French Revolution. Where they had vanished, they had done so only in
the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Everywhere, for
two centuries, princes had waged war on them, at times covertly, at times
openly, but without interruption. Nowhere did they seek to improve the
Appendix

institution in accordance with the progress of the times. They preferred
rather to destroy it or, if nothing worse was possible, to deform it.
In France in 9, estates still existed in only ve provinces of any size,
as well as in a few small districts of no signicance. There was no real pro-
vincial liberty to speak of except in two of those provinces, Brittany and
Languedoc. Everywhere else the institution had been utterly sapped of
its virility and reduced to a mere semblance of its former self.
I will take Languedoc as an example for closer examination.
Languedoc was the largest and most populous of the pays d’états. It
contained more than two thousand communes, or “communities,” as they
were called at the time, and boasted a population of nearly two million.
It was, moreover, the best organized and most prosperous as well as the
largest of these provinces. Languedoc is, therefore, a good case to study
in order to see what provincial liberty could be like under the Ancien
Régime and to what extent it had been subordinated to royal power even
in those regions where it remained strongest.
In Languedoc, the estates could meet only on express orders of the
king and only after each member had received an individual letter of con-
vocation. Accordingly, a rebel of the time remarked: “Of the three bodies
that make up our estates, one, the clergy, is appointed by the king, who
chooses those who are to hold bishoprics and beneces, and the other are
as good as chosen by the king, since an order from the court can ban any
member whom the king wishes to exclude. There is no need to exile or try
the person; it sufces simply not to invite him.”
The estates were required not only to convene but also to disperse
on specic days chosen by the king. A council decree xed the ordi-
nary length of a session at forty days. The king was represented in the
assembly by commissioners, who always had the right to attend upon
request. and who were charged with stating the wishes of the govern-
ment. Furthermore, the estates operated under strict supervision. They
could not make a decision of any importance or promulgate a nancial
measure of any kind until their deliberations had been approved by a
council decree. For a tax, a loan, or a lawsuit, the express permission of
the king was required. All of their general regulations, including those
governing their own meetings, had to be authorized before they could
take effect. All receipts and expenditures what would today be called
their budget – were subject to annual review.
Moreover, the central government exercised the same political powers
in Languedoc as everywhere else. Whatever laws it chose to promulgate,
On the Pays d’état and Languedoc
9
whatever general regulations it issued, as it did constantly, and whatever
general measures it decided on were applicable there just as they were in
the pays d’élection. It also performed all the natural functions of govern-
ment. It employed the same police and the same agents as everywhere
else. And as was the case everywhere, from time to time it created a host
of new functionaries, whose ofces the province was obliged to purchase
at great expense.
Languedoc, like the other provinces, was governed by an intendant.
This intendant had subdelegates in each district who corresponded
with community leaders and directed their work. The intendant exer-
cised administrative oversight, exactly as in the pays d’élection. Not even
the smallest, most remote village in the gorges of the Cévennes could
make the slightest expenditure unless authorized from Paris by a council
decree. Administrative tribunals formed no less extensive a part of the
judicial system in Languedoc than in the rest of France; indeed, they
were even more extensive. The intendant had primary jurisdiction over
all issues to do with highways; he heard all suits involving roads and, in
general, decided all cases in which the government had, or believed it
had, an interest. The government was no less diligent there than else-
where in protecting its agents from troublesome litigation by citizens
with whom they interfered.
What, then, was special about Languedoc that distinguished it from
other provinces and made it an object of their envy? Three things sufced
to make it entirely different from the rest of France:
. An assembly composed of men of substance who enjoyed the con-
dence of the population and the respect of the royal government.
No functionary of the central government, or, as one said at the time,
“no ofcer of the king,” could belong to this body, which convened
annually to discuss the particular interests of the province freely and
seriously. The mere existence of this enlightened body was enough to
ensure that the royal administration exercised its privileges in a very
different way and that, even though it employed the same agents and
possessed the same instincts, it did not resemble the royal administra-
tion in other parts of the country.
2. In Languedoc there were many public works that were carried out at
the king’s expense and by his agents. There were others for which the
central government provided a portion of the funds and managed a
large part of the work. But most projects were nanced exclusively by
Appendix
9
the province. Once the king had approved the design and authorized
the expenditure, the work was overseen by ofcials chosen by the
estates and inspected by commissioners chosen among the members
of the assembly.
3. Finally, the province had the right to levy by itself, and by whatever
method it chose, a portion of the royal taxes and all other taxes that it
was allowed to establish to provide for its own needs.
We shall see what benets Languedoc was able to derive from these privi-
leges. This is a matter worthy of close scrutiny.
What is striking about the pays d’élection is the virtually complete
absence of local taxes. General taxes were often oppressive, but these
provinces spent almost nothing on themselves. In Languedoc, by con-
trast, the annual cost of public works was enormous; in  it exceeded
2 million livres.
At times, the central government found such a high level of expendi-
ture troubling. It feared that the province would exhaust itself in such
efforts and be unable to meet its obligation to the central government.
It criticized the estates for not moderating their expenditure. I read one
report in which the assembly responded to these criticisms. What I am
about to quote verbatim from this report will portray better than anything
else the spirit that animated this provincial government.
The report acknowledged that the province had indeed planned and
carried out vast public projects. It made no excuses for this but, instead,
stated that if the king were not opposed, it would continue with more of
the same. The province had already improved or straightened the course
of the main rivers owing through its territory and had taken it upon
itself to extend the Languedoc Canal, which dated from the time of Louis
XIV and was no longer adequate, by adding new stretches through Lower
Languedoc via Cette and Agde and on to the Rhône. It had made the port
of Cette suitable for commerce and maintained it at considerable expense.
The report pointed out that all of these expenditures were more national
than provincial in character. Nevertheless, the province that proted
most from the work had accepted the need to pay for it. It was also in
the process of draining the marshes at Aigues-Mortes and making them
once again suitable for agriculture. But roads were its primary interest: it
had built or improved all the roads that connected it with the rest of
the kingdom and repaired even those that simply connected cities and
towns within Languedoc. All of these various roads were kept in excellent
On the Pays d’état and Languedoc
9
condition, even in winter, and stood in stark contrast to the hard, rough,
and poorly maintained roads in most of the nearby provinces, including
Dauphiné, Quercy, and the généralité of Bordeaux (a pays d’élection, as
the report noted). On this point it cited the opinions of businessmen
and travelers, and the judgment it offered was accurate, as evidenced by
a comment made by Arthur Young when he traveled through the region
ten years later: “Languedoc, pays d’états; good roads, built without forced
labor.”
The report continued: If the king did not object, the estates would
go further still. They would undertake to improve the secondary roads,
which were no less important than the others, “for if the farmer’s pro-
duce cannot be moved from his storehouse to the market, what does it
matter that it can be transported to more distant places?” Furthermore,
“the doctrine of the estates concerning public works has always been that
what should count is not the grandeur of the project but rather its utility.”
Rivers, canals, and roads that enhance the value of all the products of the
soil and of industry by allowing them to be transported at low cost in all
seasons to wherever there is a need for them, and by means of which com-
merce can insinuate itself into every corner of the province, enriches the
region regardless of the cost. What is more, such projects, if judiciously
undertaken at a roughly equal level in all parts of the province simulta-
neously, support the wage level everywhere and help the poor. “The king
has not needed to bear the cost of charity workshops in Languedoc, as he
has had to do in the rest of France,” the report concluded with a note of
pride. “We do not ask for such favor. The useful works that we ourselves
undertake year after year make it unnecessary and provide everyone with
productive employment.”
The more I study the measures that the estates of Languedoc took,
with the king’s permission but not usually at his behest, in those areas of
public administration that were left to their discretion, the more I admire
the wisdom, fairness, and mildness that they demonstrated, and the
more I nd that the methods of local government were superior to those
employed in the regions directly administered by the king.
The province was divided into communities (towns and villages),
administrative districts called “dioceses,” and, nally, into three large
sectors known as sénéchaussées. Each of these parts had a distinct repre-
sentation and a small government of its own, which operated under the
guidance of either the estates or the king. Where public works touching
on the interests of one of these small political bodies were concerned,
Appendix
92
projects were undertaken only at their request. If work done by a com-
munity might be useful to the diocese as a whole, it would be expected
to contribute something toward defraying the cost. If the interests of the
sénéchaussée were served, it too would be expected to help. Finally, the
diocese, sénéchaussée, and province would be expected to aid the commu-
nity even if only its own interests were involved, provided that the work
was necessary and exceeded the capacity of the community itself. As the
estates said repeatedly: “The fundamental principle of our constitution
is that all the parts of Languedoc are inextricably intertwined and must
consistently help one another.”
Projects carried out by the province required lengthy preparation and
were supposed to be carefully examined by all of the subordinate levels
of government that would be expected to contribute to them. They could
be undertaken only if there was money to pay for them. Compulsory
labor was unknown. In the pays d’élection, as we have seen, land taken for
public works was always poorly or belatedly compensated, if it was paid
for at all. This was one of the major complaints of the provincial assem-
blies when they met in . Some even complained that their ability
to discharge debts contracted in this way was compromised because the
property taken was destroyed or altered before its value could be esti-
mated. In Languedoc, every parcel of land taken from its owner had to
be carefully evaluated before work was begun and paid for during the rst
year of work.
The rules that the estates of Languedoc applied to public works proj-
ects, from which I have taken these details, were so well designed that the
central government admired them, though it did not imitate them. The
King’s Council, after authorizing the implementation of the rules, had
copies printed up by the Royal Press and ordered that these be distrib-
uted to all intendants as a standard reference.
What I have said about public works applies all the more to another
and no less important aspect of provincial administration: the collection
of taxes. On this score especially, it is difcult, on moving from kingdom
to province, to believe that one is still in the same state.
As I noted earlier, the procedures for levying and collecting the taille
in Languedoc were, to some extent, the same as those we use for collect-
ing taxes today. I will say no more about this subject here, beyond adding
that the province was so pleased with the superiority of its own methods
in this regard that whenever the king created a new tax, the estates never
On the Pays d’état and Languedoc
93
hesitated to pay dearly for the right to levy the tax in their own way and
with their own agents.
Despite all the expenditures that I have enumerated, Languedoc’s
affairs were in such good order, and its credit was so rmly established,
that the central government frequently relied on it, borrowing money in
the name of the province that it could not have obtained on equally good
terms itself. I discovered that toward the end of the monarchy, Languedoc
guaranteed 3,2, livres in loans on the king’s behalf.
Nevertheless, the government and its ministers took a very dim view
of these particular liberties. Richelieu rst curtailed and then abol-
ished them. The pliable and indolent Louis XIII, who liked nothing,
detested them. All provincial privileges so horried him, according to
Boulainvilliers, that he became incensed at the mere mention of them.
The energy that weak souls can muster in hatred of anything that forces
them to make an effort can never be gauged. All their remaining virility
is lent to the purpose, and they nearly always turn out to be strong in
this regard, even if feeble in all others. Fortunately, Languedoc’s ancient
constitution was restored during the childhood of Louis XIV. The king,
looking upon it as his own work, respected it. Louis XV suspended it for
two years but subsequently allowed it to be reinstated.
The creation of municipal ofces subjected the province to dangers
that were less direct but no less great. This detestable institution not only
destroyed city constitutions but also contributed to the denaturing of
provincial constitutions. I do not know if the deputies of the Third Estate
in the provincial assemblies were ever elected, but they certainly had not
been elected for quite some time. Municipal ofcials in the towns were
the only legal representatives of the bourgeoisie and people.
The absence of a special mandate, granted with an eye to the interests
of the moment, went relatively unnoticed as long as the towns elected
their own ofcials freely by universal suffrage, and usually for a very
short term. Within the estates, the mayor, consul, or syndic then repre-
sented the will of the people in whose name he spoke as faithfully as if the
people had chosen him expressly for the purpose. Obviously, this was not
the case when a person used his money to purchase the right to admin-
ister his fellow citizens. Such a person represented nothing but himself,
or at most the petty interests and passions of his coterie. Yet those who
purchased their powers at auction retained the same prerogatives that
elected ofcials had previously possessed. This immediately changed the
Appendix
9
whole character of the institution. The nobility and the clergy, instead of
sitting in the provincial assembly alongside or opposite representatives
of the people, encountered only isolated, timid, and impotent bourgeois,
and the Third Estate played an increasingly subordinate role in the gov-
ernment, even as it grew steadily wealthier and more powerful in society.
This was not the case in Languedoc, however, as the province had always
been at pains to purchase from the king any ofces that he established. In
one year alone, 3, the province borrowed more than million livres
for this purpose.
Other, more powerful causes also helped to infuse these old institutions
with the new spirit and made the estates of Languedoc incontestably
superior to all the others.
In Languedoc, as in much of the south, the taille was a real as opposed
to a personal tax: in other words, it was set according to the value of the
property and not the status of the owner. True, some land was exempt
from the tax. This land had once belonged to the nobility, but with the
passage of time and economic progress, some of it had fallen into the
hands of commoners. Meanwhile, nobles had become the owners of many
properties subject to the taille. The transfer of the privilege from persons
to things was no doubt more absurd, but it was less acutely felt because,
though still vexing, it had ceased to be humiliating. Since it was no longer
inextricably linked to the idea of class and did not create for one class an
interest alien or hostile to the interests of the other classes, it did not stand
in the way of allowing all classes to share in the work of government. In
Languedoc more than anywhere else, all classes did in fact participate in
government on a footing of perfect equality.
In Brittany, every nobleman enjoyed the right to appear in person at the
estates, which, therefore, often resembled the Polish Diet. In Languedoc,
nobles participated in the estates only through representatives. Twenty-
three of them stood for all the rest. The clergy was represented by
twenty-three of the province’s bishops. Especially worthy of note is the
fact that the towns had as many votes as the rst two orders combined.
Since the assembly met together as a single body and votes were
counted not by order but by head, the Third Estate naturally acquired
considerable importance. Little by little, its peculiar spirit imbued the
entire body. What is more, the three magistrates known as syndics gen-
eral, who were delegated by the estates to take charge of routine affairs,
were always men of the law, which is to say, commoners. Although the
nobility was strong enough to maintain its status, it was no longer strong