I. Memorial, Of the First of September, 1689.
Of the Oppression of the Church, of the Parliaments, of the Nobles, and Cities.

IT seems a fond saying, That People are not the less wretched for having several Companions in their Mi­series, since it is certainly true, that the Heart suffers much more, when it suffers in the midst of all others who are happy. Among all the Goods whose loss we have reason to bewail, Liberty is, doubtless, of the principal. It is a hard matter to be a Slave in the midst of a thousand free Persons, without being concern'd at ones slavery: Where­fore France ought to rouze up it self, and feel the Weight of the dismal Slavery it, groans under, considering the bles­sed Liberty other Neighbouring States enjoy under their Law­ful Princes, and in the possession of their ancient Laws: And the Felicity England has newly obtained, by seeing the Fet­ters broken with which it was upon the point of being shackled, ought to revive and stirre up anew in the Bosoms [Page 4] of all good French-men, Love for their Countrey, Desires for the Return of Liberty, and the Design of shaking off that hideous Yoak that rests upon their shoulders. We see all around us, the Hollanders enjoying a happy Freedom; the Flemmings under the King of Spains Government posses­sing their ancient Priviledges, the States of the Empire living under a Head not in a Condition to oppress them, the Free Cities in Germany retaining the Form of Republicks; the States and Provinces subjected to the Electours and other Prin­ces, basking in the repose of their Fortune under a Govern­ment mild and moderate. France alone, the finest Countrey in Europe, the Noblest part of the World, finds it self subjected to a Sway cruel, tyrannick, and to a Power that sets it self no bounds: A free People, and who have derived the name of Francks or French-men from their ancient Liberty, are now under the greatest subjection of all People, without excepting those that groan under the Tyranny of the Turks. Now all Freedom is lost, even to that of speaking and bemoaning: Wherefore I send my Voice to Foreign Countreys, in hopes it will return thence by Reflexion, and that it will awake anew my Countrey-men who sleep beside me under the weights of their Chains. With compassion do I view the cruel Tem­pest wherewith my Countrey is menac'd, I bewail the Deso­lation of its Cities, the Death of its Children, and the loss of what the Tyranny of its Government has left it remain­ing: I cannot forbear wishing it a Recovery of Reason and Courage. Of Reason, that so it may apprehend that the Pri­viledges of the People do not suffer any Prescription, and do not perish by the Usurpation of the Princes, and that thus an Age or two of Tyranny do not take away the Right of reco­vering its Liberty. Of Courage, that so it may lay hold on the present Circumstances, the most propitious that ever were for reducing the Government of the Realm to its Ancient Form, and to cast off the Yoak of this Despotick Power, ac­cording to which the French are treated with a harshness un­known to all people who live under Christian Princes. With the Interest of the People I cannot forbear considering the In­terest of the Prince, lawful Heir to the Throne, to whom [Page 5] the Court is going to leave a Skeleton of a Kingdom, and an imaginary Crown. That Prince in the Campagne of Ph [...]is­bourg shew'd himself not only brave and prudent, but full of good Nature: He now groans at the Infernal Barbarities that are exercised in the same places where he had exercised so much Humanity; and we are assured that he will much ra­ther choose to Reign as a Father under the ancient Laws of the Kingdom, than to command as a Tyrant that sets himself above the Laws. Wherefore my Design is to perform these Four things in this Tract. 1. To shew the Oppression and Tyranny under which all the Orders of France do groan, and the Misery they are reduc'd to under a Despotick power. 2. To consider in the second place, by what means the Court of France establishes its Yoak, and now upholds its absolute Power, and the Abuse it makes of it. 3. We shall see how much the present Government of France is different from that under which the Monarchy was founded, and wherein it sub­sisted so many Ages. 4. And lastly, We shall examine by what Means the favourable Circumstances of the present time may be improv'd for the reducing the Monarchy to its Ancient Government.

For the understanding how great the Oppression is which France groans under, we have only to consider the Scituation of the Parts which compose the State. The Church is certain­ly the First, the Noblest, and that which has ever retained the greatest Priviledges, and the most of Liberty. But now in France the Church is subjected to the Tyranny of the Go­vernment, as well as all the rest: The French Kings have made themselves Popes, Muft [...]i's, High Priests, and absolute Princes over Sacred things; the Name of Papal Dignity and its Authority, are now there no more than meer Phantomes. The Priests of Jesus Christ are Slaves, the Holy Houses and consecrated to God, are expos'd to the Furies of the Souldi­ery; Faith it self, and the Mysteries, depend absolutely on the Sovereign's Will. To render this sensible, I will not go far back; it is sufficient to set before our Eyes what has pass'd in our dayes, and in our own Remembrance. Let's call to mind, for Example, after what manner the Affair of the Five [Page 6] Propositions of Jansenius has been handled. The Court of France caus'd that Controversie to be defin'd at Rome as it pleas'd, after which there is no sort of Violence but which it committed and exercis'd for the subjecting the Disciples of St. Augustine to the Decisions it had by surprize obtain'd from the Court of Rome. It's well known what a noise the Formulary occasion'd; how the Court caus'd a Form of Oath to be made, by which People acknowledg'd, not only that the five Propositions were Heretical, but that they were in Jansenius; that is to say, that the Court would needs then have the Pope to be Infallible, not only in matters of Right, but in matters of Fact; and all those who would not go along with this Cur­rent were depriv'd of their Benefices, drove away, banish'd, plung'd into darksome Prisons: Above sixty of the Doctors of Sorbonne were turn'd out, exil'd and confin'd; the Houses of the Religious Maids that would not obey, suffer'd Violence, and were dispers'd. It is now Forty Years that the Court has continued this Persecution, and still at this day a vast num­ber of Holy Priests are in Exile, in Prisons and Sufferings, for that they will not renounce the Grace of Jesus Christ effica­cious by it self. Is this an Affair for the Court to intermeddle withall? is it not extending its Empire farther than that of God, which in things which are not of a sovereign necessi­ty would have us mutually bear with one another? at least it is a matter to be left to the Church to dispatch, it is pure­ly of its Resort; wherefore in this Case there ought not to be employ'd either Imprisonments, or Banishment, or Violence, or Royal Authority.

After the Affair of the five Propositions is come that of the Rogalia; it is a Right by which the French Kings pretend to the Power of receiving the Fruits of vacant Bishopricks, and to supply, during the Vacancy, all the Benefices and Cures of Souls that fall vacant, and which are at the Bishops Nomination: The Affair seem'd to have been regula-ted in the General Council of Lyons; wherein it was forbidden to extend the Rogalia over such Bishopricks where that Right had not been before exercis'd: Several Bishops of France en­joy'd this Immunity: Lewis the Fourteenth has bethought him­self [Page 7] of subjecting them all to this Yoke. The Bishops of Alet and Pamiers, two of the most Holy Men of their Age, would not give way to the unjust Decrees and Acts which the King caused to pass in his Council, where he was Judge and Par­ty, in a Matter that ought to depend on the Holy See or a Council; and because that these holy Bishops address'd them­selves to the Holy See, that so the Pope might employ his Authority in maintenance of the Priviledges of the Church, it is past all expressing, what cruel Persecutions the two Church­es of Alet and Pamiers were exposed to: The Bishops and Chapters were deprived of their Temporalty, of Patrimoni­al Goods and Estates, and the Canons and Bishops were seiz'd; and thus they were reduced to the utmost Poverty, and this with so much Inhumanity, that their Friends were not allow'd to give them Alms; they have been banished into, and confin'd to Desarts, they have been Imprison'd, mena­ced with, and condemn'd to the severest Deaths; insomuch that the Court caus'd an Act or Sentence to pass in the Par­liament of Tholouse, which condemns one of the great Vicars of Pamiers to have his Head struck off by the hand of the Executioner, which was accordingly executed upon his Effi­gies, for that they could not seize on his Person: All such as had any ties of Kindred or Friendship with those two Bishops, their great Vicars, their Canons or Officers, were treated in like manner; they have been banisn'd to the farthest parts of the Kingdom, or thrown into Prisons, where they still suffer the utmost indignities and extreamest miseries.

The King to have a boundless Empire over the Church, after having establisn'd his Power over the Bishops, would needs extend it over all Religious Houses. It's well known that there were many that still retain'd the Priviledge that was formerly common to all the Societies of Men and Wo­men, which was that of respectively choosing Superiours of the Sex of each respective House; whereas now the Superi­ours of either Sex must be appointed by the Court, that so having its Creatures every where, it may reign every where: And as it takes to its self the Power of placing Superiours throughout, it recalls and changes them at pleasure, that so [Page 8] the Slavery may be to the Sovereign degree, and that no Person may be any longer permitted to do his Duty towards God, save as far forth as shall be pleasing to the King. It is in consequence of this Resolution that the Maidens of Saint Claire have been Persecuted, they being called Vrbanists; as also the House of Charonni, and of the Order of Clugni; in all these Houses have been introduced with the utmost violence Superiours of both sexes at the King's Nomination; the Doors have been broke open, the most sacred Sanctuaries violated, the Nuns have been taken away by force, they have been banish'd, impri­prison'd, and made to suffer all sorts of mischiefs. The Ab­by of Clugny, which is a religious Order, had always retain'd the Priviledge of electing its own Abbots, but it has been judg'd expedient not to have any regard to a Priviledge as ancient as the Order it self: The Court has annull'd the Election which the Religious had made of an Abbot regular, and of Authority, the Abby has been given to the Cardinal de Bouillon, that so the Court might have there a Slave to be the Tyrant of the Order, and answer for it to the Court. If things have turn'd otherwise, and if the Cardinal of Bouillon has not prov'd a Friend of the present Government, this renders not the Violence the less great.

Because that there is of the Temporal in Benefices, Princes have at least some pretext to aim at being Masters of the Col­lation; but the King, without any shadow of pretext has render'd himself absolute Master of what is most spiritual in the Church. At present the Faith of the Church depends on the Princes Authority. He causes to be held before his Eyes, and in his Metropolis, tumultuous Assemblies, compos'd of his own Creatures, and of Court Bishops; therein he causes to be de­cided, with full Authority, the nicest and most important matters. He submits the Pope to the Council, he deprives him of the Power of Excommunicating Kings; he declares that he is subject to Errour; he backs these temerarious Decisions with his own Royal Declarations; and if any one dares to own that he does not submit his Judgment to these Decisions, he is the object of the most cruel Persecution that can be ima­gin'd; he is to expect Imprisonment, Banishment, and Death it self.

[Page 9]The World has ever look'd upon the Authority of esta­blishing new Orders, and of ruining those that are establish'd, as a Right annex'd to the Holy See: But the King has put himself in possession of that Right. It is universally known how the Maidens de l' Enfance were establish'd at Tholouse, under the Direction of Madam de Mondouville, and by the Pope's permission: Now for that the Directors of that House were suspected of being of the number of those called Janse­nists, the Houses of that Order have been ruin'd, the Abbess taken up and confin'd in the House of the Hospitalieres, near two hundred Maids of the Enfance turn'd out of their Hou­ses, pull'd from their Sanctuaries by Soldiers and Serjeants, and reduc'd to the utmost extremities.

If any thing be of the Jurisdiction of the Church, it is indubitable that the Versions of the Holy Writ are of that kind. The Word of God is the Milk of that Mother with which she nourishes her Children; it is for her to di­spense it according to her Wisdom, and according to Necessi­ties: Nevertheless the French Court has taken upon it, to regu­late our Lectures and our private Devotions; because that the Version of Mons comes from Persons who are no Friends of the Court, though they be most Catholick; that Version must needs be empoyson'd, that the Doctrine of Heaven must needs be become dangerous; by the King's Authority the Pub­lication and Reading of it are forbidden upon the utmost Pe­nalties. The same Course is taken with all other Books of Piety and Religion: it is sufficient that they have been com­piled by Doctors hated by the Court to render them bad; they are forbidden entrance into the Kingdom, the Intendants that suffer them to come in are disgraced, and the Eccle­siasticks who receive them are condemned to perpetual Im­prisonments, wherein the loss of Liberty is the least evil they are made to suffer.

When it pleases the King to fall out with the Pope, and appeal from his justest Proceedings, the Gallican Church must adhere to this Revolt: All Bishops, Chapters, Universities, Religious Houses, as well Men as Women, are oblidg'd there­unto: Orders are sent then to conform to the King's Will, [Page 10] and to sign them; if they are wanting therein, they are sure to meet with the severest Punishments: is not this the ut­most Violence; and where is the freedom of the Church, and of Suffrages?

But what is all this in comparison of what the Church has been oblig'd to do in the Persecution that has been excited against the Calvinists? I say nothing of that Persecution it self; the King will quickly see all he has gain'd by this Con­duct; it has already cost the King of England his Crown. This it is that has drawn upon France the most horrible Tempest that was ever form'd: The Church is, doubtless, concern'd in these troubles, not only as a Member of the State, but because in its own particular it runs a risque of suffering much, leaving however this apart, what reason has it not to complain of the Violence that has been done to it: It is constrain'd to receive those whom it ought to look up­on as Doggs and Swine in the Lord's Flock; it is forced to prophane the most sacred Mysteries, by exposing them to the sight of the Incredulous; it is compell'd, which creates a horrour to say and think, to expose the precious Body of its Saviour to the greatest of all Outrages. The Church is constrain'd to grant Communion to People who make pro­fession of abominating our Mysteries: Who is it that does this? It is the King, the King will have it so; and accord­ingly Orders are given to the Bishops, and wherever they are not executed, the Ecclesiasticks are in the Disgrace of the Court. The Calvinists have just occasion to complain of these Violences; but the Gallican Church has still more rea­son: The Calvinists communicate against their Wills in kinds which they only look upon as Bread and Wine, and thus they only prophane the symbols; but the Church is oblig'd to prophane the Flesh and Blood of its Saviour, and cause them to be eaten by the Prophane; this is certainly the ut­most Violence, and a sovereign Impiety: Is this an Affair within the jurisdiction of a temporal Prince? Ought not the Pope to be consulted upon the means of the Conversion of the Calvinists? Ought it not to be known of Him whether according to the Cannons it is allowable to force Hereticks [Page 11] to assist at the Celebration of the Mass? Ought it not like­wise to be known of him, whether it be convenient to force to the Communion People not perswaded? Instead of this, the King of his own Authority decides the nicest Cases of Conscience, without consulting other than one Confesso [...] and some Court-Bishops, and constrains the whole Gallican Church to submit to his Decisions. If this be not oppressing the Church, I understand nothing of the matter: And after this it is taken ill, that the Pope does not cause his Palace to ring with Hallelujahs, and that he looks with so much Indifference upon the Conversions made without his Authority, and against the Laws of the Church.

Lastly, To be perswaded of the Oppression which the Gallican Church suffers, there needs no more than to cast our eyes about. We shall see the Prisons are full of Priests, that several of them suffer extream miseries in the Prisons, that several are dead in them, of Hunger, Cold, and all sorts Calamities. We ought to consider the sad Estate and abject Scituation wherein are all the Lower Ecclesiasticks. The King raises Taxes under the name of Gratuitous Gifts upon the Clergy, which drain them, and render them miserable. The truth is, that the Bishops, and all those who hold great Benefices, find means to get from under this great Burden; but it becomes but the heavier to the Lower Clergy: The Curats bear the Burden; the Tenths are augmented: And many have not the Quarter-part of what belongs to them, for the maintaining themselves in a Condition of doing Ho­nour to the Church, but are to pay a great share of their little Benefices to the King. This occasions the Curats to be poor, and wretched, and despised. Formerly all was Sacred in the Church, both Goods, Estates and Persons; none dar'd to touch any thing that belonged to it, without incurring Ex­communication. There was, doubtless, a great deal of Excess in these Immunities, extended too far: But now Affairs are push'd into another Extremity; now neither any Character or Azylum is inviolable: Tyranny subdues all.

Parliaments are the most August part of the State, they are naturally the Temples of Justice, the Sanctuaries and the [Page 12] Protectors of Persecuted Innocence: We shall hereafter see what their Priviledges were formerly. Now a dayes they are Companies without Authority, and almost without Ho­nour, by reason of the baseness and Injustice they are obliged to commit, to please the Court. Daily the King not only nulls the Decrees and Sentences of the Soveraign Courts, but he forces their Opinions: Now there is no longer any Code, or Digest, or Custom; Letters under the Privy Signet make all the French Law and Right: However unjust a procedure may be, it is sufficient that it pleases the Court to be Autho­rized. The Parliament of Paris was formerly a Bulwark against Tyranny; now it is the chief Instrument of it: It must verifie all the Edicts, the most cruel, and the most op­posite to the weal of the State, to the Liberty and Quiet of the People: If it dar'd to make use of the Right it has of opposing unjust Edicts and Declarations, it would certainly be interdicted the next day, and its Members plung'd into Dungeons: Inferiour Tribunals are fallen into the same sla­very; the Intendants of Provinces deprive them of all their Jurisdiction. They draw before them all Justice; and when an Innocent is to be condemned, the Intendant obtains a Com­mission from the Court: He culls out of several Prefidials People the most devoted to the Court, and pronounces ac­cording to the Orders he has received from above. Thus, properly, do they make a Mock of God and Justice: Infor­mations are taken, the Judges are made to opine upon an Affair already Judg'd, and upon Processes that come ready done and decided from Versailles. Places are made Vendible, they squeeze Money out of every thing, and by this means Justice it self is sold: The people are spent by endless pro­cedures, and thus all perish.

The Noblesse ought to be the Strength and Ornament of the State; certain it is, that formerly it almost shar'd the Soveraignty with the Kings, as will be made out hereafter. And indeed it was then the terrour of all Europe, and form'd the most illustrious Body in the World: Now it is in a De­jection which renders it the Contempt of the whole Earth. It is reduc'd to a small Number, what remains is beggarly [Page 13] and miserable: The foolish Expence which Kings have not taken care to regulate, may partly be the Cause of this Dis­order: But the Oppression and Tyranny of the Government have occasion'd it much more. This Nobless had formerly great Priviledges, now it is reduc'd to extremity as well as the rest of the State, and the Priviledges of the Nobles are no more than Shadows and Cobwebs that skreen them not from any thing. Their Farmers and their Lands pay the King such excessive Imposts, that the whole Revenue of the Fund is consumed. Under pretext of Remedying some Disor­ders, which undoubtedly deserv'd to be minded, Intendants have been sent into the Provinces, who exercise over the No­bles an insupportable Empire, and reduce it to Slavery. Now a Gentleman must have more than Right to gain his Process against a Peasant. A Serjeant of a Town insults his Lord, and is sure of being protected in all his Violences: The Lands and Farmers of Gentlemen far from being protected, are more burdened than others. The Gentleman now can no longer make any thing save of one parcel of Ground in his hands; the rest may be said to be for the King. But alas! there are very few Gentlemen that are in this Perplexity thrô the plurality of Lands; they have hardly one to dwell upon. All the ancient Nobles of France are reduced to Beggery.

In the room of the ancient Noôles, there starts up new. Nobles, who derive their Origine from the Favour of the Court, and their being employ'd in the Crown Revenues: These People purchase and possess all the best Lands in the Kingdom, and exercise over the ancient Gentlemen a kind of Despotick Empire: When they come to spend some Months in the Countrey, all the ancient Nobles flock in to cringe and creep to them: And many are there of Families that would not formerly have had a Domestick of so mean a Birth as the new Lord, think themselves most happy in that they can find room at his Table, to have the advantage of some Meals. This it is that has bastarded the Nobles of France, formerly so fam'd for their Courage and Bravery. The new Nobles have not deriv'd from their Ancestors the Blood that makes Courage, and the ancient Nobles have lost it through the Ha­bit [Page 14] of Slavery, through the Misery and sordidness wherein they are engaged by their present Condition. Besides, they are so lessen'd, that in Cantons where were formerly a hun­dred Families of Gentlemen, all making Figures, you shall not now find ten. The rest are as it were abyss'd and sunk into the Earth: And the Government is at work to alter the Houses which still subsist, by the means that have ruin'd the others. However, it has recourse to these wretched Nobles when the Arriere-ban is to be brought on foot, being one of the Means made use of to oppress it: And the Gentlemen must furnish what they have not.

There are Provinces where a hundred Pistolls cannot be found among the Nobility; and yet must they fit themselves with Arms, Horses and Servants to march to the Arriereban. You may judge how such a Troop can be equipped, and what Exploits are to be expected from them. Because that the French Nobility in the Kings Minority had manifested some good Intentions for the publick Weal and for Liberty, the Court resolv'd to humble it; and they have done it to such a Degree, that never was body in so low an estate. People ought not to flatter themselves, nought but the change of the Government can make the Gentlemen change their Condi­tion, and mount anew the ancient Nobility to that point of Glory it was formerly in.

Not a Kingdom is there wherein there are so many great and fair Cities as in France; herein consisted its strength. The Cities formerly did a little stand upon their Rights, by reason they were the Refuge and Retreat of such as were willing to withdraw themselves from the excessive Burdens of the Imposts. The greater part of these Cities had fair Priviledges, and more especially they enjoy'd exemption from Taxes. Wherefore as soon as an honest Peasant, or an In­habitant of a small City had acquired some Substance by his Industry, he took Refuge in a free Town, there to preserve what he had acquired. Now there is no Azylum against Ty­ranny. The Franchizes of the Cities, as well as the Privi­ledges of the other Bodies of the State, are no other than shadows and Names. They are still free Cities, pay no Taxes, [Page 15] but a thousand means have been contrived to oppress and ruine them. Great Cities had Revenues, they had in hand the Funds of sundry Individuals whose Credit they did not sail of, and when they were obliged to extraordinary Expen­ces, they met with no difficulty in finding out Money, because that the Town-houses punctually paid their Rents by the Means of the*Moneys which seve­ral Cities rais'd at pleasure upon them­selves, by particular Grants from Kings. Deniers d' Octroy which they enjoy'd, and by the power they had of im­posing upon their Citizens small Taxes for the Maintenance of the Publick. The King has seized on all their Moneys or Deniers d' Octroy: He has taken all the Revenues from the Town-houses: The Individuals are not paid, some­thing is yearly retrench'd from them, and in short, all is re­duc'd to nothing. It is not to be reckon'd how many Indivi­duals are become ruin'd and put hard to it by these means. The Cities have intirely lost their Credit; they must perish sooner than be able to borrow the smallest summ; because all that should be lent to them would be look'd upon as lost. The Cities pay no Taxes, but the Court requires of them, Subsistances, Winter-quarters, gratuitous Gifts: They raise les Ayzes; Imposts are laid upon Wine, Corn, the Mark of Money, and of Tynne, upon Tobacco, Paper, Executions of Judgements, Salt, the Chaces of Citics and Estates. The present Government has made a mighty clut­ter about, and challenges great Honour to it self for having better'd the Commerce of France. The late M. Colbert took great pains about it: In order to it he caused an East-India Company to be erected; set up Manufactures of Cloaths, Bar­racans, Chamlets, and other foreign Stuffs; that so we might find in France all we should have occasion for, and that our Money might not go to Strangers: But this has not lessened the misery, and Commerce instead of augmenting, is annihilated: because that Traffick only subsists in the going about of Money: Now the King by the terrible and excessive Taxes which he has raised upon all Merchandizes, has drawn to himself all the Money. And thus the source of Trade is drain'd: There are no sorts of Rigours and Cruelties but have been exercised by [Page 16] the Farmers of the Customs upon Merchants; a thousand Ro­gueries to find occasion to make Confiscations; Merchandizes unjustly seized, spoiled, and are consumed. Besides this, cer­tain Merchants through the Courts favour have monopolized Trade, and procur'd certain Priviledges to exclude all others thence, which has ruined an infinite number of people: And in fine, the Prohibition of Foreign Commodities far from having redounded to the advantage of Traffick, has, on the contrary, ruin'd it. It is not considered that Money is the Soul of Com­merce, and that the life of Money is in Motion. Commerce is only fostered by the passing of Money from one Countrey to another. We send our Corn, our Wines, our Manufactures to Foreigners, they send us Salt-fish, Spices, and their Stuffs, and Money rolls by this means. We have taught Strangers a Secret which they make use of to our Ruine: We must needs be with­out their Woollen-stuffes, they have found the means to set up Silk Manufactures, and to imitate our Stuffes; which is the occasion that Commerce is utterly ruined, and that of seven or eight thousand Trades that work'd at Tours, there are not now above Eight or nine hundred: And all this through the Despotick and soveraign sway that values it self upon doing all according to its Fancy, upon giving a new train to every thing, and reform­ing all things with an absolute Power. The Persecution of the Huguenots, another Effect of this Tyrannick Power, has put the last hand to the [...] of Commerce: Because that those People were excluded [...] Offices, they apply'd themselves wholly to Trade, [...] Corn, Wines and Manufactures: Now the Persecuti [...] [...] has been exercis'd against them, has oblig'd them to be go [...] as for what Money there was in the hands of Huguenot M [...]ts, they found it much more easie than others to wi [...] [...] And in going away, they have carried out of the [...] immense summs, which have drawn dry the Fount [...] Commerce; such as staid, have shut up their Purses, they [...]ade no longer, they think to settle matters by little and little in order to be gone. Thus are the Cities fall'n into misery by the Tyranny of the Government, as well as the rest of the Kingdom.

II. Memorial. Of the Fifteenth of September, 1689.
Of the Oppression of the People; of the Excessive Im­posts, and of the ill laying out of the Revenues.

AFter the Oppression of the Church, of the Nobles, of the Parliaments, and the Cities, we must see the Oppression of the People. It is fitting first to understand that in the present Government all is People. Quality, Distincti­on, Merit and Birth, are things no longer known. The Royal Authority is mounted so high, that all Distinctions vanish, all Lights are swallowed up: For in the Elevation that Mo­narch has attain'd to, all Humane Mortals are but the Dust of his Feet. Thus under the name of the People, Oppression and Misery have been spread over the Noblest and most elevated parts of the State. This Oppression of the People is first occasion'd by the prodigious number of Imposts, and by the excessive Leavies of Moneys that are made throughout all France. The matter of Imposts and Finances is now a-days a Science in France, and a man must be very shrow and able [Page 20] to speak of them pertinently: but it is sufficient that we say what we feel of them, and what the People know of them. There is a personal Tax, and a real Tax. There is an Impost upon Salt, upon Wines, upon Merchandizes, upon Funds, upon Rents. This unhappy Age has produc'd a Volume of Names, most of which were unknown to our Ancestors: or if any of those Names were known, they were not odious, by rea­son of the Moderation with which Tributes were impos'd and laid. Now a thousand Channels are open'd, through which the Blood of the People and Subjects is drawn, to be made to pour into the Abyss of the Princes insatiable gree­diness and immoderate Ambition. This is term'd Taille, Ga­belle, Aydes, Domaines, Douanes, Taillen, Subsistence, Winter-quarters, Garrisons, Marks of Silver and Tinne, Law; Paper, Franc­seille, Impost upon Tobacco, Controole des Exploits, Griffe des Af­firmations, Ayzez, Francfiefs, Enquiries by the Courts of Justice, Duties upon Wood, Entretiens de Tursies and Levies, Duties upon Water and Forests, Ban and Arriereban, whence there is no Re­demption save by paying; Parties Casuelles, Sales of Offices of Justice, Policy and Financy, Creation of new Rents, creation of new Offices, Polette, Finances for the preparation of Places, Taxes upon those that have manag'd the Kings Affairs; and an infi­nite number of others that do not occurre to our Memory; or which perhaps we know not, they being little known save by those that are concern'd in them. And it is of no use for my Intention, to make known to you the particulars of those Imposts, for the making you sensible of their Injustice and Weight. It is sufficient for the scope we have proposed to our selves, to make known to you the horrible Oppressi­on of those Imposts.

1. By the Immense Summs that are exacted.

2. By the violence and excesses that are committed in raising them.

3. By the ill Use that is made of them.

4. And lastly, by the Misery the People are reduced to.

First, Dear and unhappy Countrey men, you must know, that the Imposts which are exacted of you, do possibly make up a greater summ than that which all the Princes [Page 21] of Europe together do derive from their Dominions. It is certain that France pays two hundred Millions in Imposts, near three quarters whereof go into the King's Coffers, and the rest goes for the Charges of the gathering, for the Far­mers, for the Officers, for the Guards, for the Receivers, for the gains of the Financiers, and to erect new Fortunes, which are almost made in a day. For the raising the bare Impost on Salt, there is a vast Army of Officers and Arch­ers: Now I lay it down as matter of Fact, and which I would prove at the peril of my Life, that all the Kings of Spain, England, Sweden, Denmark, the Emperor, all the Princes of Germany and Italy, the Republicks of Venice and Holland, out of time of War do not derive from their Do­minions two hundred Millions of ordinary Tribute; the thing is notorious, and I fancy that no body calls it in question. I beseech you to have attention to this, and ex­amine whether ever prodigy of Tyranny proceeded so far: Now on the other side there is no saying that France is as large as the rest of Europe, for it makes but the tenth part of it; nor is it to be said that it is a sign of its Wealth, for France has its sandy Grounds and its Desarts as well as other Countries; it has very good and very fer­tile Cantons, but other Countries have also the like; it has nothing that comes near the fertility of Flanders, and of Holland, or of Hungary; it has fewer uncultivated Lands than Spain, it has full as many as Germany and Italy: thus there is no other cause of those immense Revenues of the Crown than the Violence and Tyranny of the Government; this is a sensible proof of it, and against which nothing can be answer'd. The Court does annually exact of the Realm, possibly four or five times more than there is Money in Commerce; and if the Treasury had all at once, all that is drawn from the State, there would not be so much as one single Penny in the rest of the Kingdom: Thus all the Money in France must pass four or five times at least through the Hands of the King's Officers.

[Page 22]If the Tyranny is evident and clear, in the immense summs which are raised upon France, it is no less so in the manner of raising them. People have establish'd Kings for the preservation of the Persons, Lives, Liberties and Goods of individuals; but the Government of France is mounted to that excess of Tyranny, that now the Prince looks upon all as belongfng to him in Property: He impo­ses Tribute, and such as he pleases, without consulting ei­ther the People, or Grandees, or States, or Parliaments. I am going to tell you a thing which is certain, which a thousand People know, though most of our French-men are ignorant of it: Under the Ministry of Monsieur Colbert it was had in Consultation whether the King should not put himself in actual Possession of all the Funds, and all the Lands of France, and whether they should not all be re­duced into Royal Demesne, to be enjoyed and settled on whom the Court should think convenient, without having regard either to ancient Possession, or to Inheritance, or to other Rights, just as the Mahometan Princes of Turkey, Persia, and Mogull, have made themselves Masters in Property of all Funds, and the Possession of which they give to whom they think fitting, but only for Life: Monsieur Col­bert sent for a*Bernier. famous Traveller, who had spent several Years in the Eastern Courts, and examin'd him a long time about the manner of administring those Estates; and this induc'd the Traveller to publish a Letter directed to that Minister, wherein he endeavours to shew that this Unhappy Tyranny is the Cause that the finest Countries in the East are become Desarts; no Body any longer possesses any Fund in Property, wherefore no Body any longer thinks of improving them; they draw from them as much as they can; they exhaust them, as knowing they only possess them during Life; nay, and this is the occasion that Men marry very little, have only Con­cubines, and scatter themselves in a thousand dirty barren Pleasures, because they have it not at heart to raise up Families, to which they have nothing to leave. See, I be­seech you, to what a pass you are come, and under what [Page 23] Government you live; when there shall come an Admini­strator of the Finances, that shall be a degree bolder than was Monsieur Colbert; all your Inheritances will be wrested from you in one day, you will become Farmers, and pay to your Prince the rent of all your Properties. The main of the thing is already done; already is the Prince perswa­ded that he has a right to do this; the Considerations of Conscience are already annihilated, he has only been de­tain'd by reasons of State: Be assured that Reasous of State are not eternal Truths, and that they change when occa­sion offers.

How many Excesses and Violences are there committed in the Leavy of the Imposts? the smallest Collector of the Ex­cise is a sacred Person, has an absolute Power over Gentle­men, over the Members of Justice, and over all the People; one blow given is capable of ruining the most potent of Sub­jects: They take away out of houses, Moveables, Cattel, Mo­ney, Corn, Wine, and all that is found. The Prisons are full of miserable Wretches, that are oblidg'd to answer for summs which they have impos'd upon other Wretches that cannot pay what is exacted of them. Nothing is more harsh and cruel than the Impost upon Salt: People are made to pay ten or twelve Pence the Pound, for a thing which Nature, the Sun and the Sea gives us for nothing, and which might be had for a Farthing. Under colour of raising the Dues upon Salt, the Kingdom is cover'd with a vast Army of Villains, call'd, Archers de la Gabelle, who go into Houses with Authority, break into the most secret Places, and fail not of finding false. Salt, wherever they think Money may be found; the poor Wretches are fined immense summs, they are forc'd to rot in Prisons, Families are ruin'd. Salt is impos'd in most places, and each Family is forc'd to take three times more than it can spend. In Countreys border­ing upon the Sea, they will not suffer the poor Peasunt to carry away the Sea-water, they break his Pitcher, beat the People, and imprison them. In a word, there is no sort of [Page 24] Violence but is thereby committed, as well as by raising the other Imposts, which is perform'd with horrible Charges, seizures of the Fruits, Imprisonments, Pleas before the Com­missioners and Court of Aids, Expences that exceed the Prin­cipal: They put into the hands of the Rabble the means of revenging themselves on their Enemies, and of mortifying People of fashion. A Collector imposes upon a Man a Tax twice or thrice beyond his Revenue: Now what Remedy? You must pay by Provision three or four hundred Crowns, to which a Man is taxed, who does not possess the moiety of that Revenue; afterwards you are to look for your remedy, that is to say, mount from Bar to Bar unto the sovereign Court, plead three or four Years, spend in Law three times as much as the Principal is worth, and at the end of all this get nothing; for they who manage the King's Affairs, and look after his Dues, have always reason, and are always in the right. France is one of the Countries in the World the most abounding in Wine, and this was formerly its Wealth, but is now its Poverty: The Imposts upon Wines (as well Wines that are transported as those that stay at home) are so great, that they almost swallow up all, and the Proprie­tor has nothing.

Thus is all France reduc'd to the utmost Poverty. In the former Reigns, that is to say, since the Ministry of Cardi­nal Richelieu, and under that of Cardinal Mazarine, France was already loaden with great Imposts, but the manner of raising them, though it was very just, yet did much less ex­haust the Kingdom than the manner of raising them now: At that time Credit and Protection had room; the Gentle­man that had Credit protected his Parish, and especially his Farmers, and caus'd their Taxes to be diminish'd: The great Lord screen'd his Vassals from Oppression; the Judge and the Magistrate had his People whom he upheld; few rich Persons were there but made Friends to shelter themselves from Op­pression. Thus the whole burden fell upon People without Protection, and without Friends, who indeed were utterly [Page 25] miserable: But at least there remained in the Kingdom a vast number of People who were at their ease, and who did Honour to the State: The present Government has succeeded that; Monsieur Colbert has made a Project of Reformation of the Finances, and has caused it to be exe­cuted with the utmost rigour: But wherein does this Re­formation consist? It is not to lessen the Imposts for the ease of the People? it is in augmenting them very much, by spreading them over all those that formerly put them­selves under cover by their own Credit, and that of their Friends. The Gentleman has no longer any Credit to ob­tain the diminution of the Tax to his Parish, his Farmers pay as well as others, and more. The Officers of Justice, Lords, and other Persons of Character, have now no long­er any Credit, to the Prejudice of the King's Revenue; all pays, this is a mighty Ayr, a mighty shew of Justice: But what has this fair Justice produc'd? It has ruin'd all People: The Wretches whom the Imposts have ruin'd in the former Years have been discharg'd, but that discharge can in no wise contribute to the raising them up again; they have now nothing left, and of nothing nothing comes. And besides the burdens that have been left upon them, though something less, are more than sufficient to hinder them from getting up again. In the mean while, those who had Protection, having no longer any, they bear the burden in their turns, and by this means all is ruined without exception. Thus you see to what that great shrewdness in Finances does redound, that was so much boasted of in the late Monsieur Colbert: He has augmented the King's Revenues above the half.

First, He has augmented the Imposts.

Secondly, He has assign'd the raising of them upon all People that were at their ease in the Kingdom. And,

Finally, He has retrench'd the great Gains of the Finan­ciers: He has stretch'd the King's Farms to the utmost ex­tremity: They who take up the King's Dues, have nothing more left to gain by, those Spunges are squeez'd dry. [Page 26] Much the same Method did we use to make People of Bu­siness disgorge all they had got in the former Ministry. Courts of Justice have been erected, wherein the superin­tendant Foucquet, as also all Intendants of the Finances, Treasurers of the Exchequer, Traitans, Farmers, Receivers, even to petty Clarks, are made to come to an Account: They have been made to restore all they had taken, nay, and all they had not taken, with unheard of Violences and In­justice: The only Justice there has been in this Prosecu­tion, is, that those Gentlemen who had done great In­justices to private Persons and other Individuals, have run the Gauntlet of the same Injustice, under the King and Governments Authority. Thus do they exact and raise Imposts; if this be not the utmost Tyranny, I must own that I understand nothing of the matter.

After this if we consider the use that has been made of those immense Summs that are leavied with so many Ex­cesses and Exactions, we shall therein also see all the Cha­racters of Oppression and Tyranny. It sometimes happens that Princes and Sovereigns make Leavies that seem excessive, and which indeed do extreamly incommode individuals: But this is when they are forced thereunto, by what is call­ed the Needs and Necessities of the State: There is no such like thing in France; there is neither Needs nor State: No State: Formerly the State entered every where, nought else was discours'd of save the Interests of the State, of the Needs of the State, of the Preservation of the State, of the Service of the State; to speak so now a-dayes, would li­terally be accounted a Crime of High Treason. The King has taken the Place of the State: It is for the King's Ser­vice, it is the King's Interest, it is for the Preservation of the King's Provinces and Revenues. In short, the King is all, and the State is no longer any thing; and these are not only words and terms, they are realities. At the French Court there is now no other Interest known than the Kings Personal Interest, that is to say, His Grandeur and [Page 27] his Glory: This is the Idol to which are sacrific'd Princes, Grandees, the Little, Families, Provinces, Cities, Finances, and generally all. Thus it is not for the good of the State that these horrible exactions are made, for there is no long­er any thing of the State, nor is it for Needs; for France never had fewer, excepting within these few Months; for these thirty Years it had no Enemies, save such as it would by all means incurr: It might have lived in perfect Tranquility, All the Powers of Europe that might give it any Umbrage were brought low: The Thrones were possessed either by In­fant Princes, or by Sovereigns of a mean Capacity, and of a calm, a peaceable humour, exempt from ambition. The Trea­ties of Munster and of the Pyrences had extended its Frontiers, and had put under cover its antient Provinces by the New Countries that had been yielded to it. Never did France see so propitious a time, and so proper to live happy in, and to become rich and powerful. And on the contrary, never did its misery and slavery mount to so high a pitch: Wherefore its Money has not been employed in its defence, and in re­pelling the Invasions of the Enemy.

This Money is only employed in fostering and serving the greatest Self-love, and the vastest Pride that ever was. It is so vast an Abyss, that it would have swallowed up not only the Wealth of the whole Kingdom, but that of all other States, if it could have seiz'd it, as it endeavoured to do. The King has caus'd more false Incense to be given him, than all the Demy-gods of the Pagans have had real: Never was Flattery push'd to such a degree: Never did Man love Praises and vain glory to the point that Prince has courted it. He fosters in his Court and about him a crowd of Flatterers, that enhance upon one another: He not only permits the erecting of*The Statue of the Place des Victoires, with this Inscription, Viro Im­mortali. Statues to him, on the foot of which are engraven Blasphemies to his Honour, and below which are fetter'd all the Nations of the World in Chains; but he himself causes himself to be put into Gold, Silver, Brass, Copper, Marble, Cloth, Pictures, Paintings, triumphant Arches, [Page] Inscriptions: He fills all Paris, all his Pallaces, and the whole Kingdom with his Name and his Deeds; as if he had left the Alexanders, the Caesars, and all the He­roes of Antiquity a thousand leagues behind him: And all for having snapt from a weak and minour Prince, three or four Provinces; for having known to take advantage of the Divisions of the Empire, and of the little Union and Undestanding that is between its Members; for having stript a poor Duke; for having purchas'd several important places; for having desolated half of his own Kingdom by the persecution of Calvinism. Thus you see what the Great­ness of Lewis the great amounts to, it is a self-love of an im­mense greatness. And it is that enormous passion which de­vours so many Riches, and to which so many Sacrifices are made.

Thus the immense Revenues of the Crown are employ'd, First in sumptuous Buildings, for the Kings glory. We shall never know what Versailles cost; and should we know it and say it, Posterity would never believe it in the least. It costs nothing to build and erect stately Piles, with prodigious charges, then pull them down again, to raise them up afresh upon a new Platform, issuing from the Caprice of an Archi­tect coming from God knows where. His Ancestors were not well enough lodged: The Louvre, Fountainbleau, S. Germain, were too small to lodge such a Prince; something greater and more magnificent than all this was necessary. That the King's Grandeur might appear the more, it was requisite to build that magnificent Pallace in a place disgrac'd by Nature, and bring thither all the Ornaments which it was depriv'd of, with prodigious Expences. It is a Place dry and without Water, and to convey Waters thither the face of Nature must be chang'd, Valleys be made where there were Mountains, Waters raised up to the Clouds, the Current of Rivers diverted, Ponds and Lakes made in places where there were no other than sandy Grounds: Who can reckon the Millions of Gold that have been spent, [Page 29] and the Thousands of Men that have perish'd in the bare Works of the River of Eure? Is it not a mighty Delight for a State that finds its Veins drain'd to the very last drop of its Blood, and its Bowels torn out of its Bosom, to see them employ'd for the erecting Eternal Monuments to the Vanity of the Prince? Will it not be a solid advantage for the King­dom, when it shall be one day said that it is a Work of Lewis the Great? He has consum'd therein two or three hundred Millions; He has forc'd Nature; He has buried more Lead in the Entrails of the Earth, than is got out of Mines in se­veral years; He has spared nothing to enrich it with Marbles, Guildings, Paintings, rich Movables, precious Jewels that have been purchas'd or brought from all parts of the World. After this, who can have any regret for his Money, his Mova­bles, his Funds, that have been torn away by Exacti­ons?

So great a Prince, so superbly lodg'd, cannot be at any mean Expence in so great a House. Wherefore, in it, must be con­sumed in Tables, in Officers, in Mistresses, in Trains that are kept for them, in Fortunes conferr'd upon their Relations, in Feasts, Opera's, Comedies, Ballets, in what is call'd Appart­ments, in Presents to Women and Favourites, in Guards and in Pensions, there must, I say, be expended once or twice more than was formerly expended in the maintaining of Armies and the Frontier Places of the State. Is not this well laying out the Money of the Kingdom? Can it be question'd but that the King is all, and that His Self-love is the Divinity to which all is sacrific'd? The King makes some Expences which seem to be for the Publick: He has caus'd a Canal to be made for the Conjunction of the two Seas. This is for the conveniency of Commerce. I know not whether the Prince is Himself the Cully of his own Heart. But no body questions but that this prodigious Undertaking, which can never be accomplish'd, was form'd out of a principle of Vain-glory as well as the rest. It is to leave to Posterity a Monument of his Grandeur by the prodigious Expences He shall have been at in such a Work. The truth is, that it will not subsist, and that the Floods will [Page 30] ruin it the first year it shall be neglected; and that at the long run it will be abandoned, because the Expence of the Mainte­nance will by much surpass the profit. But no matter; these will be great Ruines that will denote the Greatness of Soul of Him that form'd the Project of them, and upon which will be written ‘Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excedit ausis.’

Would you know another Article of Expence which con­sumes prodigious Summs? It is the immense Liberalities bestow'd upon Favourites, the making of Creatures and new Princes in the World. The Family of Tellier possesses, possibly, fourscore or a hundred Millions of Land; the Family of Colbert has much about the same, and others proportionably. There are Sub­jects in France much richer than are several Soveraigns in Eu­rope, who, nevertheless, make a fair figure. If regard was had to the State and to its Interests, the Expences could not be worse laid out; for the new Grandees that start up from the Dirt, and mount up to the side of the Throne, only serve to pull down the ancient Houses, and bring them to nothing. They are the Tyrants of the State, and the Blood-suckers. It would be much more useful that the Wealth was spread among the Publick, than Pocketed by one private Person. It may be said to be Wealth lost for the Kingdom, for out of those great Re­servers into which the King causes all the substance of his Sub­jects to flow, there never comes out any thing again for the good of the State, since that those great Families are exempt from all charges. In fine, there is injustice in reducing so many Families to Beggery, for the causing People of a low and mean Birth to live in a Royal abundance, and in the midst of a thousand superfluities. But no matter, this makes, and this proves the Prince's Greatness. These are Colossusses, that shew the vast Imagination and great Capacity of the Workman. People will one day shew those stately Houses of rew Erecti­on, and say, Those are the Works of Lewis the Great; judge how great He was that made them. Unless it comes to pass that a new Star should rise with the Successor, which should [Page 31] pour upon those new-rais'd Houses the very same Influences as those which have desolated the Foucquets and his like, which every Individual hopes for his Comfort and Revenge.

Let's lastly come to the Expences that seem the best laid out. The King expends infinitely in Pensions. Hardly is there a Prince in Europe but to whom He is become tributary. Where He cannot gain the Prince Himself with Money, He gains Favourites, the Ministers, and oftentimes the Princess, who sleeps in the Soveraign's Bosom; they are paid large Pen­sions, Presents are made them: and by this means our Court reigns every-where; the King expends infinitely in Ar­mies and in Troops. In the midst of Peace He maintains more Forces than the most War-like of his Ancestors did maintain in the most cruel Wars. He makes War upon his Neigh­bours, which ever redound to his profit. In Wars He luggs after him prodigious Armies, but He has also augmented the Kingdom with Five great Provinces, Alsace, la Franche Comte, Lorraine, Luxembourg and Flanders, which make a Kingdom, and render France the terrour of all Europe. Can Expences be better employed? and can one have regret for what one has lost, since the Publick has gain'd so much thereby? In ef­fect it is an Expence well laid out, supposing the Principle they now build at Court, That the Prince is all, that the People is nothing, and that all ought only to tend to the King's Grandeur. For certainly all this serves to compose the Sir-name of Great, which is added to the Name of Lewis. But if instead of this false Principle we suppose the true Principle, which is, That the Good of the State and of the Publick ought to be the So­veraign's Law, it would appear that what is called the Glory of France, is the greatest of all its Evils. Because that those Conquests (of which so much Honour is made) are unjust, odious and burthensome to the State. They are unjust. Our Money and our Forces have served to seize three Provinces from a Pupil King, under I know not what Title. And in vertue of a certain Right of the Children of the first Marria­ges, which has only vigour in some Places of Brabant, which [Page 32] only regards private Persons: Nay, and to which Renuncia­tion had been made by Marrying the Daughter of Spain, by an Act as express and solemn as had ever been made. Our Mo­ney is laid out to gain Ministers in Foreign Courts, that so they may perswade their Masters to sell us Places. Thus did we acquire Dunkerk from the English, and Cazal from the Duke of Mantua, that have cost so many Millions. Our Fi­nances are squander'd away in paying Traytors that sell us Towns, or facilitate the Conquest of them to us. Thus was Strasbourg acquired, and most of the Conquer'd Countries. In fine, the Money of the Realm is laid out to maintain numerous Armies, and carry on unjust Wars, which render the French Name odious to all Europe, perswade the World that France aims at the Universal Monarchy, and that it thinks to attain there­unto by Infidelities, Treasons, Violences, Violation of the most holy Treaties, of Peaces, Capitulations, by unheard-of Bar­barities, by Burnings, and dismal Desolations. Though Con­quests were worth any thing to us, were they to be purchas'd at such a rate?

But furthermore, Who is there but sees that the Conquests, instead of proving the Grandeur of State, are onorous to it, and its ruin? We are mad, and it is our folly that fosters our slavery. When the King wins a Battle, takes a City, subdues a Pro­vince, we make Bonefires, and no pitiful poor Creature but fancies himself rais'd a foot higher, and annexes the Great­ness of the King to his own Idea. This rewards him for all his Losses, and comforts him for all his Miseries. And He does not consider that He loses gradually as the King gains. First, the Prince's Greatness does ever prove the Misery of his Subjects. For the more Puissant a Prince is, the more He abandons Himself to his Passions, because He satisfies them with the more ease. Now Ambition, Avarice, Luxury, Expences, are ever the Passions of the Great. With the more ease they oppress, the more they oppress. And accordingly we see that the Subjects of Princes Potent in Demesns, in Money, in Provinces, in Arms, are ever the most wretched [Page 33] and the most oppressed. Let us but view in the East how People live under those powerful Emperors of Turkey, Per­sia, and the great Mogul; wherefore it is the Interest of the People to keep their Kings in a mediocrity of Power, that so they may not oppress their Liberty. Secondly, Now should I be glad that our French-men, who pride themselves so much in five or six Provinces, and above two hundred places which the King has conquer'd or built, from Dunkirk as far as Basle, I should be glad, I say, they would tell me at whose costs those Provinces are kept, guarded and maintain'd? The new Subjects are Lyons and Wolves that are held by the Ears; they gnash their teeth, and are ever ready to de­vour, as soon as they see an opportunity for so doing: They have an abhorrence for the French sway, and only watch for occasions to cast off its Yoak; wherefore they are ever to be under Guards. And indeed we have not been contented with the antient Cittadels that were found in the conquer'd Provinces: New ones have been built throughout all Flanders, on the Sarre, on the Rhine, and even to the Gates of Basle. How many Garrisons, how many Governours are there to be maintained? I lay it down as matter of Fact, that the King does not receive from those conquer'd Countries the half quarter of what is necessary to keep them; who is it that furnishes the rest? Is it not the antient Demesne of the Crown? Does it not come from the antient Provinces? Thus you see what the Provinces of Normandy, Brittany, Champagne, Guy­enne, Languedock, &c. gain by the matter: They must fur­nish thirty or forty Millions to maintain the King's Gran­deur, and preserve his Conquests. Lastly, To be fully con­vinced how much these New Conquests are burdensome to the State, consider the jealousie of the Neighbours; though these New Subjects should be subdued, and accustomed to obey the King, their Neighbours would then be accustom­ed to see him possess their substance, and their antient Patrimony: And would they not be under apprehensions, that by leaving him what he has already taken, they should [Page 34] afford him the means of taking what he has not yet in his hands. To proceed with the same rapidity France has done, the most Christian King would be Master of all Europe in twenty Years time: This is well understood, and this is what will ever egg on our Neighbours to make Leagues and conspire our Ruine: You see the Effect of the Pro­phecy. Whence comes this formidable League of all Chri­stian Princes, who unanimously conspire our Ruine, save from the Jealousie created in them by the Kings greatness? wheresore France must perpetually keep great Armies on foot, and who shall pay them? it will not be the Coun­trey newly conquer'd: On the contrary, that must be eas'd, that so it may not join with our Enemies; and besides, it will be looked upon as sufficiently galled, by being the Stage of War. Thus it is the old Kingdom of France that must bear all the burdens, and which is already over­whelmed with the weight of its New Conquests. Now this is the use made of the Finances, and of the immense Summs squeez'd out of us.

Now to make manifest the Oppression the People are under from the Imposts, it is expedient to describe the miseries France has thereby been reduc'd to: But it is re­quisite to draw the Curtain over this Object; nothing ought to be said upon it, because enough cannot be said upon it: It is requisite for a Body to be here as we are to speak of it well; the Kingdom is so lessen'd, speaking generally, that there is a quarter part, or third, fewer Inhabitants than there were fifty Years ago: With exception to Paris, whither all People flock as to a Sanctuary, and which by this means daily augments; the Cities are the half lessen'd in Riches and Inhabitants: Some had enrich'd them­selves by Commerce, but the failure of Commerce ruines them: Other Cities, especially the smaller, are half De­sart: There are Cities that paid the King thirty or for­ty thousand Livres that now cannot furnish ten. The up­per Countrey is become desolate: The Burroughs and [Page 35] Villages are hardly ought other than Dilapidations; se­veral Lands are uncultivated for want of hands to cul­tivate them: The Peasant lives after the most wretched manner imaginable, and they are as black and tawny as the Slaves of Affrica, and all that is in them proclaims their misery. Money is no longer to be found in the Provinces, the Noblesse is beggarly, the Citizen in distress; those who have Money conceal it as if they conceal'd a Criminal of State at their House. No other Money is now seen than what turns into the King's Coffers.