The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 5: THE MODERN REGIME, VOLUME 1 [NAPOLEON] by Hippolyte A. Taine

     Military service.—Under the Ancient Regime.—The militia
     and regular troops.—Number of soldiers.—Quality of the
     recruits.—Advantages of the institution.—Results of the
     new system.—The obligation universal.—Comparison between
     the burdens of citizens and subjects.—The Conscription
     under Napoleon.—He lightens and then increases its weight.
     —What it became after him.—The law of 1818.

One tax remains, and the last, that by which the State takes, no longer money, but the person himself, the entire man, soul and body, and for the best years of his life, namely military service. It is the Revolution which has rendered this so burdensome; formerly, it was light, for, in principle, it was voluntary. The militia, alone, was raised by force, and, in general, among the country people; the peasants furnished men for it by casting lots.3254 But it was simply a supplement to the active army, a territorial and provincial reserve, a distinct, sedentary body of reinforcements and of inferior rank which, except in case of war, never marched; it turned out but nine days of the year, and, after 1778, never turned out again. In 1789, it comprised in all 72,260 men, and for eleven years their names, inscribed on the registers, alone constituted their presence in the ranks.3255 There were no other conscripts under the monarchy; in this matter, its exactions were not great, ten times less than those of the Republic and of the Empire, since both the Republic and the Empire, using the same constraint, were to levy more than ten times the number of drafted men or conscripts.3256

Alongside of this militia body, the entire army properly so called, the "regular" troops were, under, the ancient Régime, all recruited by free enlistment, not only the twenty-five foreign regiments, Swiss, Irish, Germans, and Liégeois, but again the hundred and forty-five French regiments, 177 000 men.3257 The enlistment, indeed, was not free enough; frequently, through the maneuvers of the recruiting-agent, it was tainted with inveigling and surprises, and sometimes with fraud or violence; but, owing to the remonstrances due to the prevailing philanthropic spirit, these abuses had diminished; the law of 1788 had suppressed the most serious of them and, even with its abuses, the institution had two great advantages.—The army, in the first place, served as an issue: through it the social body purged itself of its bad humors, of its overheated or vitiated blood. At this date, although the profession of soldier was one of the lowest and least esteemed, a barren career, without promotion and almost without escape, a recruit was obtainable for about one hundred francs bounty and a "tip"; add to this two or three days and nights of revel in the grog-shop, which indicates the kind and quality of the recruits; in fact, very few could be obtained except among men more or less disqualified for civil and domestic life, incapable of spontaneous discipline and of steady labor, adventurers and outcasts, half-savage or half-blackguard, some of them sons of respectable parents thrown into the army in an angry fit, and others again, regular vagabonds picked up in beggars' haunts, mostly stray workmen and loafers, in short, "the most debauched, the most hot-brained, the most turbulent people in an ardent, turbulent and somewhat debauched community."3258 In this way, the anti-social class was utilized for the public good. Let the reader imagine an ill-kept domain overrun by a lot of stray curs that might prove dangerous: they are enticed and caught; a collar, with a chain attached to it, is put on their necks and they become good watch-dogs.—In the second place, this institution preserved to the subject the first and most precious of all liberties, the full possession and the unrestricted management of one's own person, the complete mastery of body and being. This was assured to him, guaranteed to him against the encroachments of the State. It was better guaranteed than by the wisest constitution, for the institution was a recognized custom accepted by everybody. In other words, it was a tacit, immemorial convention,3259 between the subject and the State, proclaiming that, if the State had a right to draw on purses it had no right to draft persons: in reality and in fact, the King, in his principal function, was merely a contractor like any other; he undertook natural defense and public security the same as others undertook cleaning the streets or the maintenance of a dike. It was his business to hire military workmen as they hired their civil workmen, by mutual agreement, at an understood price and at current market rates. Accordingly, the sub-contractors with whom he treated, the colonel and captains of each regiment, were subject as he was to the law of supply and demand; he allowed them so much for each recruit,3260 to replace those dropped out, and they agreed to keep their companies full. They were obliged to procure men at their own risk and at their own expense, while the recruiting-agent whom they dispatched with a bag of money among the taverns, enlisted artillerymen, horsemen or foot-soldiers, after bargaining with them, the same as one would hire men to sweep or pave the street and to clean the sewers.

Against this practice and this principle comes the theory of the Contrat-Social. It declares that the people are sovereign. Now, in this divided Europe, where a conflict between rival States is always imminent, sovereigns are military men; they are such by birth, education, and profession, and by necessity; the title carries along with it and involves the function. Consequently, the subject, in assuming their rights, imposes upon himself their duties; in his quota (of responsibility) he, in his turn, is sovereign; but, in his turn and in his person, he is a soldier.3261 Henceforth, if he is born an elector, he is born a conscript; he has contracted an obligation of a new species and of infinite reach; the State, which formerly had a claim only on his possessions, now has one on his entire body; never does a creditor let his claims rest and the State always finds reasons or pretexts to enforce its claims. Under the threats or trials of invasion the people, at first, had consented to pay this one; they regarded it as accidental and temporary. After victory and when peace came, its government continues to enforce the claim; it becomes settled and permanent. After the treaties of Luneville and Amiens, Napoleon maintains it in France; after the treaties of Paris and Vienna, the Prussian government is to maintain it in Prussia. One war after another and the institution becomes worse and worse; like a contagion, it has spread from State to State. At the present time, it has overspread the whole of continental Europe and here it reigns along with its natural companion which always precedes or follows it, its twin-brother, universal suffrage. Each more or less conspicuously "trotted out" and dragging the other along, more or less incomplete and disguised, both being the blind and formidable leaders or regulators of future history, one thrusting a ballot into the hands of every adult, and the other putting a soldier's knapsack on every adult's back:

* through what a recoil to the lower and most unwholesome forms of old militant societies,

* towards the sentiments, habits and morality of the antique city and of the barbarous tribe

is only too well known.3262 It is sufficient for us to place the two military systems face to face, that of former times and that of to-day: formerly, in Europe, a few soldiers, some hundreds of thousands; to-day, in Europe, 18 millions of actual or eventual soldiers, all the adults, even the married, even fathers of families summoned or subject to call for twenty-five years of their life, that is to say, as long as they continue able-bodied men; formerly, for the heaviest part of the service in France, no lives are confiscated by decree, only those bought by contract, and lives suited to this business and elsewhere idle or mischievous; about one hundred and fifty thousand lives of inferior quality, of mediocre value, which the State could expend with less regret than others, and the sacrifice of which is not a serious injury to society or to civilization. To-day, for the same service in France, 4 millions of lives are taken by authority, and, if they attempt to escape, taken by force; all of them, from the twentieth year onward, employed in the same manual and murderous pursuit, including the least suited to the purpose and the best adapted to other purposes, including the most inventive and the most fecund, the most delicate and the most cultivated, those remarkable for superior talent (Page 232/526)who are of almost infinite social value, and whose forced collapse, or precocious end, is a calamity for the human species.

Such is the terminal fruit of the new Régime; military duty is here the counterpart, and as it were, the ransom of political right; the modern citizen may balance one with the other like two weights in the scale. On the one side, he may place his prerogative as sovereign, that is to say, in point of fact, the faculty every four years of giving one vote among ten thousand for the election or non-election of one deputy among six hundred and fifty; on the other side, he may place his positive, active service, three, four or five years of barrack life and of passive obedience, and then twenty-eight days more, then a thirteen-days' summons in honor of the flag, and, for twenty years, at each rumor of war, anxiously waiting for the word of command which obliges him to shoulder his gun and slay with his own hand, or be slain. He will probably end by discovering that the two sides of the scales do not balance and that a right so hollow is poor compensation for so heavy a burden.

Of course, in 1789, he foresaw nothing like that; he was optimistic, pacific, liberal, humanitarian; he knew nothing of Europe nor of history, nothing of the past nor of the present. When the Constituent Assembly constituted him a sovereign, he let things go on; he did not know what he engaged to do, he had no idea of having allowed such a heavy claim against him. But, in signing the social contract, he made himself responsible; in 1793, the note came due and the Convention collected it.3263 Then comes Napoleon who put things in order. Henceforth, every male, able-bodied adult must pay the debt of blood; no more exemptions in the way of military service:3264 all young men who had reached the required age drew lots in the conscription and set out in turn according to the order fixed by their drafted number.3265 But Napoleon is an intelligent creditor; he knows that this debt is "most frightful and most detestable for families," that his debtors are real, living men and therefore different in kind, that the head of the State should keep these differences in mind, that is to say their condition, their education, their sensibility and their vocation; that, not only in their private interest, but again in the interest of the public, not merely through prudence but also through equity, all should not be indistinguishably restricted to the same mechanical pursuit, to the same manual labor, to the same prolonged and indefinite servitude of soul and body. Already, under the Directory, the law had exempted young married men and widowers or divorced persons who were fathers.3266 Napoleon also exempts the conscript who has a brother in the active army, the only son of a widow, the eldest of three orphans, the son of a father seventy-one years old dependent on his labor, all of whom are family supports. He joins with these all young men who enlist in one of his civil militias, in his ecclesiastical militia or in his university militia, pupils of the École Normale, ignorantin brothers, seminarians for the priesthood, on condition that they shall engage to do service in their vocation and do it effectively, some for ten years, others for life, subject to a discipline more rigid, or nearly as rigid, as military discipline.3267 Finally, he sanctions or institutes volunteer substitutes, through private agreement between a conscript and the able-bodied, certified volunteer substitute for whom the conscript is responsible.3268 If such a bargain is made between them it is done freely, knowing what they are about, and because each man finds the exchange to his advantage; the State has no right to deprive either of them uselessly of this advantage, and oppose an exchange by which it does not suffer. So far from suffering it often gains by it. For, what it needs is not this or that man, Peter or Paul, but a man as capable as Peter or Paul of firing a gun, of marching long distances, of resisting inclemencies, and such are the substitutes it accepts. They must all be3269 "of sound health and robust constitution," and sufficiently tall; as a matter of fact, being poorer than those replaced, they are more accustomed to privation and fatigue; most of them, having reached maturity, are worth more for the service than youths who have been recruited by anticipation and too young; some are old soldiers: and in this case the substitute is worth twice as much as the new conscript who has never donned the knapsack or bivouacked in the open air. Consequently, those who are allowed to obtain substitutes are "the drafted and conscripts of all classes,... unable to endure the fatigues of war, and those who shall be recognized of greater use to the State by continuing their labors and studies than in forming a part of the army...."3270

Napoleon had too much sense to be led by the blind existences of democratic formulae; his eyes, which penetrated beyond mere words, at once perceived that the life of a simple soldier, for a young man well brought up and a peasant or for day-laborer, is unequal. A tolerable bed, sufficient clothing, good shoes, certainty of daily bread, a piece of meat regularly, are novelties for the latter but not for the former, and, consequently, enjoyments; that the promiscuity and odor of the barrack chamber, the corporal's cursing and swearing and rude orders, the mess-dish and camp-bread, physical hardships all day and every other day, are for the former, but not for the latter, novelties and, consequently, sufferings. From which it follows that, if literal equality is applied, positive inequality is established, and that by virtue even of the new creed, it is necessary, in the name of true equality as in the name of true liberty, to allow the former, who would suffer most, to treat fairly and squarely with the latter, who will suffer less. And all the more because, by this arrangement, the civil staff preserves for itself its future recruits; it is from nineteen to twenty-six that the future chiefs and under-chiefs of the great work of peaceful and fruitful labor, the savants, artists or scholars, the jurisconsults, engineers or physicians, the enterprising men of commerce or of industry, receive and undertake for themselves a special and superior education, discover or acquire their leading ideas, and elaborate their originality or their competency. If talent is to be deprived of these productive years their growth is arrested in full vegetation, and civil capacities, not less precious for the State than military capacities, are rendered abortive.3271—Towards 1804,3272 owing to substitution, one conscript out of five in the rural districts, one conscript out of seven in the towns, and, on the average, one conscript out of ten in France, escapes this forced abortive condition; in 1806, the price of a substitute varies from eighteen hundred to four thousand francs,3273 and as capital is scarce, and ready money still more so, a sum like this is sufficiently large. Accordingly, it is the rich or well-to-do class, in other words the more or less cultivated class, which buys off its sons: reliance may be placed on their giving them more or less complete culture. In this way, it prevents the State from mowing down all its sprouting wheat and preserves a nursery of subjects among which society is to find its future élite.—Thus attenuated, the military law is still rigid enough: nevertheless it remains endurable. It is only towards 18073274 that it becomes monstrous and grows worse and worse from year to year until it becomes the sepulcher of all French youth, even to taking as canon fodder the adolescent under age and men already exempt or free by purchase. But, as before these excesses, it may still be maintained with certain modifications; it suffices almost to retouch it, to establish exemptions and the privilege of substitution as rights, which were once simply favors,3275 reduce the annual contingent, limit the term of service, guarantee their lasting freedom to those liberated, and thus secure in 1818 a recruiting law satisfactory and efficacious which, for more than half a century, will attain its ends without being too detrimental or too odious, and which, among so many laws of the same sort, all mischievous, is perhaps the least pernicious.

3201 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime," book II., ch. 2, 3, 4, and book V. (Laff. I. pp. 95 to 125 and pp. 245 to 308.)]

3202 (return)
[ La Bruyère is, I believe, the first of these precursors. Cf. his chapters on "The Great," on "Personal Merit," on "The Sovereign and the Republic," and his chapter on "Man," his passages on "The Peasants," on "Provincial Notes," etc. These appeals, later on, excite the applause given to the "Marriage of Figaro." But, in the anticipatory indictment, they strike deeper; there is no gayety in them, the dominant sentiment being one of sadness, resignation, and bitterness.]

3203 (return)
[ "Discours prononcé par l'ordre du roi et en sa presence, le 22 février 1787," by M. de Calonne, contrôleur-général, p.22. "What remains then to fill this fearful void (in the finances)? Abuses. The abuses now demanding suppression for the public weal are the most considerable and the best protected, those that are the deepest rooted and which send out the most branches. They are the abuses which weigh most heavily on the working and producing classes, the abuses of financial privileges, the exceptions to the common law and to so many unjust exemptions which relieve only a portion of the taxpayers by aggravating the lot of the others; general inequality in the distribution of subsidies and the enormous disproportion which exists in the taxation of different provinces and among the offices filled by subjects of the same sovereign; severity and arbitrariness in the collection of the taille; bureaux of internal transportation, and obstacles that render different parts of the same kingdom strangers to each other; rights that discourage industry; those of which the collection requires excessive expenditure and innumerable collectors."]

3204 (return)
[ De Ségur, "Mémoires," III., 591. In 1791, on his return from Russia, his brother says to him, speaking of the Revolution: "Everybody, at first, wanted it.. From the king down to the most insignificant man in the kingdom, everybody did something to help it along; one let it come on up to his shoe-buckle, another up to his garter, another to his waist, another to his breast, and some will not be content until their head is attacked!"]

3205 (return)
[ My French dictionary tells me that the Carmagnole is not only a popular revolutionary dance but also a short and tight jacket worn by the revolutionaries between 1792 and 1795 and that it came via Marseille with workers from the town of Carmagnola in Piedmont. (SR.)]

3206 (return)
[ "The Revolution," pp. 271-279. (Laff. I. 505 to 509.)—Stourm "Les Finances de l'ancien régime et de la Révolution," I., 171 to 177.—(Report by Ramel, January 31, 1796.) "One would scarcely believe it—the holders of real-estate now owe the public treasury over 13 milliards."—(Report by Gaudin, Germinal, year X. on the assessment and collection of direct taxes.) "This state of things constituted a permanent, annual deficit of 200 millions."]

3207 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime," p. 99, and "The Revolution," p.407. (Laff. I. pp 77-78 and II. 300) (About 1,200 millions per annum in bread for Paris, instead of 45 millions for the civil and military household of the King at Versailles.)]

3208 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime," p. 68. (Laff. I. p. 55)—Madame Campan, "Mémoires," I., 291, 292.]

3210 (return)
[ "Mémorial." (Napoleon's own words.) "The day when, adopting the unity and concentration of power, which could alone save us,... the destinies of France depended solely on the character, measures and conscience of him who had been clothed with this accidental dictatorship—beginning with that day, public affairs, that is to stay the State, was myself... I was the keystone of an entirely new building and how slight the foundation! Its destiny depended on each of my battles. Had I been defeated at Marengo you would have then had a complete 1814 and 1815."]

3211 (return)
[ Beugnot, "Mémoires," II., 317. "To be dressed, taxed, and ordered to take up arms, like most folks, seemed a punishment as soon as one had found a privilege within reach," such, for example, as the title of "déchireur de bateaux" (one who condemns unseaworthy craft and profits by it), or inspector of fresh butter (using his fingers in tasting it), or tide-waiter and inspector of salt fish. These titles raised a man above the common level, and there were over twenty thousand of them.]

3214 (return)
[ De Beausset, "Intérieur du palais de Napoléon" I., p. 9 et seq.. For the year 1805 the total expense is 2,338,167 francs; for the year 1806 it reaches 2,770,861 francs, because funds were assigned "for the annual augmentation of plate, 1,000 silver plates and other objects."—"Napoleon knew, every New Year's day, what he expended (for his household) and nobody ever dared overpass the credits he allowed."]

3216 (return)
[ "The Revolution," I. pp. 276-281.(Laff. pp. 508-510)—Stourm, ibid., 168-171. (Speech by Bénard-Lagrave to the Five Hundred, Pluviôse II, year IV.) "It cannot be concealed that, for many years, people were willingly accustoming themselves to the non-payment of taxes."]

3217 (return)
[ Stourm, ibid.,II., 365. (Speech of Ozanam to the Five Hundred, Pluviôse 14, year VII.) "Scandalous traffic.... Most of the (tax) collectors in the republic are heads and managers of banks."—(Circular of the minister of the finances, Floréal 25 year VII.) "Stock-jobbing of the worst kind to which many collectors give themselves up, using bonds and other public securities received in payment of taxes."—(Report by Gros-Cassaud Florimond, Sep.19, 1799.) "Among the corruptible and corrupting agents there are only too many public functionaries."—Mollien, "Mémoires," I., 222. (In 1800, he had just been appointed director of the sinking-fund.) "The commonplace compliment which was everywhere paid to me (and even by statesmen who affected the sternest morality) was as follows—you are very fortunate to have an office in which one may legitimately accumulate the largest fortune in France. "—Cf. Rocquain, "État de la France au 18 Brumaire." (Reports by Lacuée, Fourcroy and Barbé-Marbois.)]

3218 (return)
[ Charlotte de Sohr, "Napoléon en Belgique et en Hollande," 1811, vol. I., 243. (On a high functionary condemned for forgery and whom Napoleon kept in prison in spite of every solicitation.) "Never will I pardon those who squander the public funds.... Ah! parbleu! We should have the good old times of the contractors worse than ever if I did not show myself inexorable for these odious crimes."]

3219 (return)
[ Stourm, ibid., I., 177. (Report by Gaudin, Sep. 15, 1799.) "A few (tax) rolls for the year V, and one-third of those for the year VII, are behindhand."—(Report by the same, Germinal I, year X.) "Everything remained to do, on the advent of the consulate, for the assessment and collection of direct taxes; 35,000 rolls for the year VII still remained to be drawn up. With the help of the new office, the rolls for the year VII have been completed; those of the year VIII were made out as promptly as could be expected, and those of the year IX have been prepared with a dispatch which, for the first time since the revolution, enables the collections to be begun in the very year to which they belong."]

3220 (return)
[ "Archives parlementaires," VIII., p.11. (Report by Necker to the States-General, May 5, 1789.) "These two-fifths, although legitimately due to the king, are always in arrears.... (To-day) these arrears amount in full to about 80 millions."]

3223 (return)
[ Necker, "De l'administration des finances," I., 164, and "Rapport aux états-généraux," May 5th, 1789. (We arrive at these figures, 179 millions, by combining these documents, on both sides, with the observation that the 3rd vingtième is suppressed in 1789.)]

3224 (return)
[ Charles Nicolas, "les Budgets de la France depuis le commencement du XIXème siècle" (in tabular form).—De Foville, ibid., 356.—In the year IX, the sum-total of direct taxes is 308 millions; in the year XI. 360, and in the year XII, 376. The total income from real-estate in France towards 1800 is 1,500 millions.]

3225 (return)
[ It is only after 1816 that the total of each of the four direct taxes can be got at (land, individual, personal, doors and windows). In 1821, the land-tax amounts to 265 millions, and the three others together to 67 millions. Taking the sum of 1,580 millions, estimated by the government as the net revenue at this date in France, we find that, out of this revenue, 16.77 % is deducted for land, and that, with the other three, it then abstracts from the same revenue 21 %—On the contrary, before 1789, the five corresponding direct taxes, added to tithes and feudal privileges, abstracted 81.71 % from the net income of the taxable party. (Cf. "The Ancient Régime," pp.346, 347, 351 et seq. Laff. I. pp. 258, 259, 261 and following pages. )]

3226 (return)
[ These figures are capital, and measure the distance which separates the old from the new condition of the laboring and poor class, especially in the rural districts; hence the tenacious sentiments and judgments of the people with respect to the Ancient Régime, the Revolution and the Empire.—All local information converges in this sense. I have verified the above figures as well as I could: 1st, by the "Statistiques des préfets," of the year IX and year XIII and afterwards (printed); 2nd, by the reports of the councillors of state on mission during the year IX (published by Rocquam, and in manuscript in the Archives nationales); 3rd, by the reports of the senators on their sénatories and by the prefects on their departments, in 1806, 1809, 1812, 1814 and 1815, and from 1818 to 1823 (in manuscript in the Archives nationales); 4th, by the observations of foreigners travelling in France from 1802 to 1815.—For example ("A Tour through several of the Middle and Western Departments of France," 1802, p.23): "There are no tithes, no church taxes, no taxation of the poor.... All the taxes together do not go beyond one-sixth of a man's rent-roll, that is to say, three shillings and sixpence on the pound sterling."—("Travels in the South of France, 1807 and 1808," by Lieutenant-Colonel Pinkney, citizen of the United States, p.162.) At Tours a two-story house, with six or eight windows on the front, a stable, carriagehouse, garden and orchard, rents at £20 sterling per annum, with the taxes which are from £1,10, to £2, for the state and about ten shillings for the commune.—("Notes on a Journey through July, August and September, 1814," by Morris Birkbeck, p.23.) Near Cosne (Orléanais), an estate of 1,000 acres of tillable land and 500 acres of woods is rented for nine years, for about 9,000 francs a year, together with the taxes, about 1,600 francs more.—(Ibid., p.91.) "Visited the Brie. Well cultivated on the old system of wheat, oats and fallow. Average rent 16 francs the acre with taxes, which are about one-fifth of the rent."—Roederer, III., 474 (on the sénatorerie of Caen, Dec.. 1, 1803): "The direct tax is here in very moderate proportion to the income, it being paid without much inconvenience.—The travellers above quoted and many others are unanimous in stating the new prosperity of the peasant, the cultivation of the entire soil and the abundance and cheapness of provisions. (Morris Birkbeck, p.11.) "Everybody assures me that the riches and comfort of the cultivators of the soil have been doubled since twenty-five years." (Ibid., p.43, at Tournon-sur-le-Rhône.) "I had no conception of a country so entirely cultivated as we have found from Dieppe to this place."—(Ibid., P.51,, at Montpellier.) "From Dieppe to this place we have not seen among the laboring people one such famished, worn-out, wretched figure as may be met in every parish of England, I had almost said on almost every farm.... A really rich country, and yet there are few rich individuals."—Robert, "De l'Influence de la révolution sur la population, 1802," p.41. "Since the Revolution I have noticed in the little village of Sainte-Tulle that the consumption of meat has doubled; the peasants who formerly lived on salt pork and ate beef only at Easter and at Christmas, frequently enjoy a pot-à-feu during the week, and have given up rye-bread for wheat-bread."]

3227 (return)
[ The sum of 1 fr. 15 for a day's manual labor is an average, derived from the statistics furnished by the prefects of the year IX to the year XIII, especially for Charente, Deux-Sèvres, Meurthe, Moselle and Doubs.]

3229 (return)
[ Arthur Young, II., 259. (Average rate for a day's work throughout France in 1789.)]

3230 (return)
[ About 15 millions out of 26 millions, in the opinion of Mallet-Dupan and other observers.—Towards the middle of the 18th century, in a population estimated at 20 millions, Voltaire reckons that "many inhabitants possess only the value of 10 crowns rental, that others have only 4 or 5, and that more than 6 millions of inhabitants have nothing." ("L'homme aux quarante écus.")—A little later, Chamfort (I., 178) adds: "It is an incontestable truth that, in France, 7 millions of men beg, and 12 millions of men are incapable of giving anything."]

3231 (return)
[ Law of Floréal 3, year X, title II, articles 13, 14, § 3 and 4.]

3232 (return)
[ Charles Nicolas, ibid.—In 1821, the personal and poll tax yields 46 millions; the tax on doors and windows, 21 millions: total, 67 millions. According to these sums we see that, if the recipient of 100 francs income from real-estate pays 16 fr. 77 real-estate tax, he pays only 4 fr. 01 for his three other direct taxes.—These figures, 6 to 7 francs, can nowadays be arrived at through direct observation.—To omit nothing, the assessment in kind, renewed in principle after 1802 on all parish and departmental roads, should be added; this tax, demanded by rural interests, laid by local authorities, adapted to the accommodation of the taxpayer, and at once accepted by the inhabitants, has nothing in common with the former covée, save in appearance; in fact, it is as easy as the corvée was burdensome. (Stourm, I., 122.)]

3233 (return)
[ They thus pay between 2 and 6% in taxes, a very low taxation if we compare with the contemporary industrial consumer welfare society, where, in Scandinavia, the average worker pay more than 50% of his income in direct and indirect taxes. (SR.)]

3234 (return)
[ Charles Nicolas, "Les Budgets de la France depuis le commencement du XIXe Siècle," and de Foville, "La France économique," p. 365, 373.—Returns of licenses in 1816, 40 millions; in 1820, 22 millions; in 1860, 80 millions; in 1887, 171 millions.]

3235 (return)
[ The mutation tax is that levied in France on all property transmitted by inheritance. or which changes hands through formal sale (other than in ordinary business transactions), as in the case of transfers of real-estate, effected through purchase or sale. Timbre designates stamp duties imposed on the various kinds of legal documents.-Tr.]

3236 (return)
[ Ibid. Returns of the mutation tax (registration and timbre). Registration in 1820, 127 millions; in 1860, 306 millions; in 1886, 518 millions.—Timbre, in 1820, 26 millions; in 1860, 56 millions; in 1886, 156 millions. Sum-total in 1886, 674 millions.—The rate of corresponding taxes under the ancient régime (contrôle, insinuation centième denier, formule) was very much lower; the principal one, or tax of centieme denier, took only 1 per 100, and on the mutations of real-estate. This mutation tax is the only one rendered worse; it was immediately aggravated by the Constituent Assembly, and it is rendered all the more exorbitant on successions in which liabilities are not deducted from assets. (That is to say, the inheritor of an indebted estate in France must pay a mutation tax on its full value. He has the privilege, however, of renouncing the estate if he does not choose to accept it along with its indebtedness.)—The taxpayer's resignation to this tax is explained by the exchequer collecting it at a unique moment, when proprietorship just comes into being or is just at the point of birth. In effect, if property changes hands under inheritance or through free donation it is probable that the new owner, suddenly enriched, will be only too glad to enter into possession of it, and not object to an impost which, although taking about a tenth, still leaves him only a little less wealthy. When property is transferred by contract or sale, neither of the contracting parties, probably, sees clearly which pays the fiscal tax; the seller may think that it is the buyer, and the buyer that it is the seller. Owing to this illusion both are less sensible of the shearing, each offering his own back in the belief that it is the back of the other.]

3238 (return)
[ See "The Revolution," vol. I., pp. 16, 38. (ED. Laff. I. pp. 326, 342.)]

3239 (return)
[ Decree of Oct. 31—Nov. 5, 1789, abolishing the boundary taxes between the provinces and suppressing all the collection offices in the kingdom.—Decree of 21-30 March 1790, abolishing the salt-tax. Decree of 1-17 March 1791, abolishing all taxes on liquors, and decree of 19-25 Feb. 1791, abolishing all octroi taxes.—Decree of 20-27 March 1791, in relation to freedom of growing, manufacturing and selling tobacco; customs-duties on the importation of leaf-tobacco alone are maintained, and give but an insignificant revenue, from 1,500,000 to 1,800,000 francs in the year V.]

3240 (return)
[ Gaudin, Duc de Gaëte, "Mémoires," I., 215-217.—The advantages of indirect taxation are well explained by Gaudin. "The taxpayer pays only when he is willing and has the means. On the other hand, when the duties imposed by the exchequer are confounded with the price of the article, the taxpayer, in paying his due, thinks only of satisfying a want or of procuring an enjoyment."—Decrees of March 16 and 27, and May 4, 1806 (on salt), of February 25, 1804, April 24, 1806, Nov. 25, 1808 (on liquors), May 19, 1802, March 6, 1804, April 24, 1806, Dec.. 29, 1810 (on tobacco).]

3241 (return)
[ Letrosne, "De l'administration des finances et de la réforme de l'impôt" (1779) pp.148, 162.—Laboulaye, "De l'administration française sous Louis XVI." (Revue des cours littéraires, 1864-1865, p.677). "I believe that, under Louis XIII., they took at least five and, under Louis XIV, four to get two."]

3242 (return)
[ Paul Leroy-Bealieu, "Traité de la science des finances," I., 261. (In 1875, these costs amount to 5.20 %.)—De Foville, ibid. (Cost of customs and salt-tax, in 1828, 16.2 %; in 1876, 10.2 %.—Cost of indirect taxation, in 1828, 14.90 %; in 1876, 3.7 %.)—De Calonné, "Collection des mémoires présentés à l'assemblée des notables," 1787, p.63.]

3243 (return)
[ See "The Ancient Régime," P.23, 370.—"The Revolution," I., 10, 16, 17. (Ed. Laff. I. pp. 23-24, 274, 322, 326-327.)]

3247 (return)
[ Certain persons under the ancient régime enjoyed an exemption from the tax on salt.]

3251 (return)
[ Lafayette, "Mémoires." (Letter of October 17, 1779, and notes made in Auvergne, August 1800.) "You know how many beggars there were, people dying of hunger in our country. We see no more of them. The peasants are richer, the land better tilled and the women better clad."—"The Ancient Régime," 340, 34, 342.—"The Revolution," III., p.366, 402.]

3252 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime," P.340. (ED. Laff. I. pp. 254, 256.)-" The Revolution," III., 212. (Ed. Laff. II. p. 271, 297.)]

3253 (return)
[ These two famines were due to inclement seasons and were aggravated, the last one by the consequences of invasion and the necessity of supporting 150,000 foreign troops, and the former by the course taken by Napoleon who applies the maximum afresh, with the same intermeddling, the same despotism and the same failure as under the Convention.( "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.) "I do not exaggerate in stating that our operations in the purchase and transport (of grain) required a full quarter of the time, and often one-third, more than would have been required in commerce."—Prolongation of the famine in Normandy. "Bands of famished beggars overran the country.... Riots and pillaging around Caen; several mills burnt.... Suppression of these by the imperial guard. In the executions which resulted from these even women were not spared."—The two principal guarantees at the present day against this public danger are, first, easier circumstances, and next the multiplication of good roads and of railroads, the dispatch and cheapness of transportation, and the superabundant crops of Russia and the United States.]

3254 (return)
[ J. Gebelin, "Histoire des milices provinciales" (1882), p.87, 143, 157, 288.—Most of the texts and details may be found in this excellent work.—Many towns, Paris, Lyons, Reims, Rouen, Bordeaux, Tours, Agen, Sedan and the two generalities of Flanders and Hainault are examples of drawing by lot; they furnished their contingent by volunteers enlisted at their own expense; the merchants and artisans, or the community itself, paying the bounty for enlistment. Besides this there were many exemptions in the lower class.—Cf. "The Ancient Régime," p.390. (Ed. Laff. p. 289.)]

3255 (return)
[ J. Gebelin, ibid., 239, 279, 288. (Except the eight regiments of royal grenadiers in the militia who turned out for one month in the year.)]

3256 (return)
[ Example afforded by one department. ("Statistics of Ain," by Rossi, prefect, 1808.) Number of soldiers on duty in the department, in 1789, 323; in 1801, 6,729; in 1806, 6,764.—"The department of Ain furnished nearly 30,000 men to the armies, conscripts and those under requisition."—It is noticeable, consequently, that in the population of 1801, there is a sensible diminution of persons between twenty and thirty and, in the population of 1806, of those between twenty-five and thirty-five years of age. The number between twenty and thirty is as follows: in 1789, 39,828; in 1801, 35,648; in 1806, 34,083.]

3257 (return)
[ De Dampmartin. "Evénemens qui se sont passés sous mes yeux pendant la révolution française," V. II. (State of the French army, Jan. 1, 1789.) Total on a peace footing, 177,890 men.—This is the nominal force; the real force under arms was 154,000; in March 1791, it had fallen to 115,000, through the multitude of desertions and the scarcity of enlistments, (Yung, "Dubois-Crancé et la Révolution," I., 158. Speech by Dubois-Crancé.)]

3258 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime," P 390, 391.—"The Revolution," p. 328-330. (Ed. Laff. I. 289 and 290, pp. 542-543)—Albert Babeau, "le Recrutement militaire sous l'ancien Régime." (In "la Réforme sociale" of Sept. I, 1888, p. 229, 238.)—An officer says, "only the rabble are enlisted because it is cheaper."—Yung, ibid., I., 32. (Speech by M. de Liancourt in the tribune.) "The soldier is classed apart and is too little esteemed."—Ibid., p. 39. ("Vices et abus de la constitution actuelle française," memorial signed by officers in most of the regiments, Sept. 6, 1789.) "The majority of soldiers are derived from the offscourings of the large towns and are men without occupation."]

3259 (return)
[ Gebelin, p. 270. Almost all the cahiers of the third-estate in 1789 demand the abolition of drafting by lot, and nearly all of those of the three orders are for volunteer service, as opposed to obligatory service; most of these demand, for the army, a volunteer militia enlisted through a bounty; this bounty or security in money to be furnished by communities of inhabitants which, in fact, was already the case in several towns.]

3260 (return)
[ Albert Babeau, ibid., 238. "Colonels were allowed only 100 francs per man; this sum, however, being insufficient, the balance was assessed on the pay of the officers."]

3261 (return)
[ This principle was at once adopted by the Jacobins. (Yung, ibid., 19, 22, 145. Speech by Dubois-Crancé at the session held Dec.12, 1789.) "Every citizen will become a soldier of the Constitution." No more casting lots nor substitution. "Each citizen must be a soldier and each soldier a citizen."—The first application of the principle is a call for 300,000 men (Feb. 26, 1793), then through a levy on the masses which brings 500,000 men under the flag, nominally volunteers, but conscripts in reality. (Baron Poisson, "l'Armée et la Garde Nationale,"III, 475.)]

3262 (return)
[ Taine wrote this in 1888, after the end of the second French Empire, after the transformation of Prussia into the Empire of Germany. Taine apparently had a premonition of the terrible wars of the 20th century, of Nazism, Communism and their death and concentration camps. (SR.)]

3263 (return)
[ Baron Poisson, "l'Armée et la Garde nationale," III., 475. (Summing up.) "Popular tradition has converted the volunteer of the Republic into a conventional personage which history cannot accept.. .. 1st. The first contingent of volunteers demanded of the country consisted of 97,000 men (1791). 60,000 enthusiasts responded to the call, enlisted for a year and fulfilled their engagement; but for no consideration would they remain longer. 2nd. Second call for volunteers in April 1792. Only mixed levies, partial, raised by money, most of them even without occupation, outcasts and unable to withstand the enemy. 3rd. 300,000 men recruited, which measure partly fails; the recruit can always get off by furnishing a substitute. 4th. Levy in mass of 500,000 men, called volunteers, but really conscripts."]

3264 (return)
[ "Mémorial" (Speech by Napoleon before the Council of State). "I am inflexible on exemptions; they would be crimes; how relieve one's conscience of having caused one man to die in the place of another?"—"The conscription was an unprivileged militia: it was an eminently national institution and already far advanced in our customs; only mothers were still afflicted by it, while the time was coming when a girl would not have a man who had not paid his debt to his country."]

3265 (return)
[ Law of Fructidor 8, year XIII, article 10.—Pelet de La Lozère, 229. (Speech by Napoleon, Council of State, May 29, 1804.)—Pelet adds: "The duration of the service was not fixed.... As a fact in itself, the man was exiled from his home for the rest of his life, regarding it as a desolating, permanent exile.... Entire sacrifice of existence.... An annual crop of young men torn from their families and sent to death."—Archives nationales, F7, 3014. (Reports of prefects, 1806.) After this date, and even from the beginning, there is extreme repugnance which is only overcome by severe means.. .. (Ardeche.) "If the state of the country were to be judged of by the results of the conscription one would have a poor idea of it."—(Ariège.) "At Brussac, district of Foix, four or five individuals arm themselves with stones and knives to help a conscript escape, arrested by the gendarmes.... A garrison was ordered to this commune."—At Massat, district of Saint-Girons, on a few brigades of gendarmes entering this commune to establish a garrison, in order to hasten the departure of refractory conscripts, they were stoned; a shot even was fired at this troop.... A garrison was placed in these hamlets as in the rest of the commune.—During the night of Frimaire 16-17 last, six strange men presented themselves before the prison of Saint-Girons and loudly demanded Gouazé, a deserter and condemned. On the jailor coming down they seized him and struck him down."—(Haute-Loire.) "'The flying column is under constant orders simultaneously against the refractory and disobedient among the classes of the years IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII, and against the laggards of that of year IV, of which 134 men yet remain to be supplied."—(Bouches-du-Rhône.) "50 deserter sailors and 84 deserters or conscripts of different classes have been arrested."—(Dordogne.) "Out of 1353 conscripts, 134 have failed to reach their destination; 124 refractory or deserters from the country and 41 others have been arrested; 81 conscripts have surrendered as a result of placing a garrison amongst them; 186 have not surrendered. Out of 892 conscripts of the year XIV on the march, 101 deserted on the road."—(Gard.) "76 refractory or deserters arrested."—(Landes.) "Out of 406 men who left, 51 deserted on the way," etc.—This repugnance becomes more and more aggravated. (Cf. analogous reports of 1812 and 1813, F7, 3018 and 3019, in "Journal d'un bourgeois d'Evreux," p. 150 to 214, and "Histoire de 1814," by Henry Houssaye, p.8 to 24.)]

3267 (return)
[ Decree of July 29, 1811 (on the exemption of pupils in the École Normale).—Decree of March 30, 1810, title II., articles 2, 4, 5, 6 (on the police and system of the École Normale).—Decree on the organization of the University, titles 6 and 13, March 7, 1808.]

3268 (return)
[ Law of Ventôse 17, year VIII, title III., articles I and 13.—Law of Fructidor 8, year XIII, articles 50, 54, and 55.]

3271 (return)
[ Thibaudeau, p. 108. (Speech of the First Consul before the Council of State.) "Art, science and the professions must be thought of. We are not Spartans.... As to substitution, it must be allowed. In a nation where fortunes are equal each individual should serve personally; but, with a people whose existence depends on the inequality of fortunes, the rich must be allowed the right of substitution; only we must take care that the substitutes be good, and that conscripts pay some of the money serving to defray the expense of a part of the equipment of the army of reserve."]

3273 (return)
[ Archives nationales, F7, 3014. (Reports of prefects, 1806.) Average price of a substitute: Basses Alpes, from 2,000 to 2,500 francs; Bouches-du-Rhône, from 1,800 to 3,000; Dordogne, 2,400; Gard, 3,000; Gers, 4,000; Haute-Garonne, from 2,000 to 3,000; Hérault, 4,000; Vaucluse, 2,500; Landes, 4,000. Average rate of interest (Ardèche): "Money, which was from 11/4 to 11/2 %, has declined; it is now at 3 1/4 % a month or 10 % per annum."—(Basses Alpes): "The rate of money has varied in commerce from 1 to 3/4 % per month."—(Gard): "Interest is at 1 % a month in commerce; proprietors can readily borrow at 9 or 10 % per annum."—(Hérault): "The interest on money is 1 1/4 % per month."—(Vaucluse): "Money is from 3/4 to 11/4 % per month."]

3274 (return)
[ Thiers, VII., p.23 and 467. In November 1806, Napoleon orders the conscription of 1807; in March 1807, he orders the conscription of 1808, and so on, always from worse to worse.—Decrees of 1808 and 1813 against young men of family already bought off or exempted.—"Journal d'un Bourgeois d'Evreux," 214. Desolate state of things in 1813, "general depression and discouragement."—Miot de Mélito, III., 304. (Report of Miot to the Emperor after a tour in the departments in 1815.) "Everywhere, almost, the women are your declared enemies."]

3275 (return)
[ Law of Ventôse 17, year VIII, title 3, articles 6, 7, 8, 9.—Exemption is granted as a favor only to the ignorantin brothers and to seminarians assigned to the priesthood.—Cf. the law of March 10, 1818, articles 15 and 18.]

V. Conscription or Professional soldiers.