登陆注册
5162900000014

第14章 CENTRALISATION(2)

Such seems to be the education and government appointed for man by the voluntatem Dei in rebus revelatum, and the education, therefore, which the man of science will accept and carry out.But the men of the Ancien Regime--in as far as it was a Regime at all--tried to be wiser than the Almighty.Why not? They were not the first, nor will be the last, by many who have made the same attempt.So this Council of State settled arbitrarily, not only taxes, and militia, and roads, but anything and everything.Its members meddled, with their whole hearts and minds.They tried to teach agriculture by schools and pamphlets and prizes; they sent out plans for every public work.A town could not establish an octroi, levy a rate, mortgage, sell, sue, farm, or administer their property, without an order in council.The Government ordered public rejoicings, saw to the firing of salutes, and illuminating of houses--in one case mentioned by M.de Tocqueville, they fined a member of the burgher guard for absenting himself from a Te Deum.All self-government was gone.A country parish was, says Turgot, nothing but "an assemblage of cabins, and of inhabitants as passive as the cabins they dwelt in." Without an order of council, the parish could not mend the steeple after a storm, or repair the parsonage gable.If they grumbled at the intendant, he threw some of the chief persons into prison, and made the parish pay the expenses of the horse patrol, which formed the arbitrary police of France.Everywhere was meddling.There were reports on statistics--circumstantial, inaccurate, and useless--as statistics are too often wont to be.

Sometimes, when the people were starving, the Government sent down charitable donations to certain parishes, on condition that the inhabitants should raise a sum on their part.When the sum offered was sufficient, the Comptroller-General wrote on the margin, when he returned the report to the intendant, "Good--express satisfaction."If it was more than sufficient, he wrote, "Good--express satisfaction and sensibility." There is nothing new under the sun.

In 1761, the Government, jealous enough of newspapers, determined to start one for itself, and for that purpose took under its tutelage the Gazette de France.So the public newsmongers were of course to be the provincial intendants, and their sub-newsmongers, of course, the sub-delegates.

But alas! the poor sub-delegates seem to have found either very little news, or very little which it was politic to publish.One reports that a smuggler of salt has been hung, and has displayed great courage; another that a woman in his district has had three girls at a birth; another that a dreadful storm has happened, but--has done no mischief; a fourth--living in some specially favoured Utopia--declares that in spite of all his efforts he has found nothing worth recording, but that he himself will subscribe to so useful a journal, and will exhort all respectable persons to follow his example: in spite of which loyal endeavours, the journal seems to have proved a failure, to the great disgust of the king and his minister, who had of course expected to secure fine weather by nailing, like the schoolboy before a holiday, the hand of the weather-glass.

Well had it been, if the intermeddling of this bureaucracy had stopped there.But, by a process of evocation (as it was called), more and more causes, criminal as well as civil, were withdrawn from the regular tribunals, to those of the intendants and the Council.

Before the intendant all the lower order of people were generally sent for trial.Bread-riots were a common cause of such trials, and M.de Tocqueville asserts that he has found sentences, delivered by the intendant, and a local council chosen by himself, by which men were condemned to the galleys, and even to death.Under such a system, under which an intendant must have felt it his interest to pretend at all risks, that all was going right, and to regard any disturbance as a dangerous exposure of himself and his chiefs--one can understand easily enough that scene which Mr.Carlyle has dramatised from Lacretelle, concerning the canaille, the masses, as we used to call them a generation since:

"A dumb generation--their voice only an inarticulate cry.

Spokesman, in the king's council, in the world's forum, they have none that finds credence.At rare intervals (as now, in 1775) they will fling down their hoes, and hammers; and, to the astonishment of mankind, flock hither and thither, dangerous, aimless, get the length even of Versailles.Turgot is altering the corn trade, abrogating the absurdest corn laws; there is dearth, real, or were it even factitious, an indubitable scarcity of broad.And so, on the 2nd day of May, 1775, these waste multitudes do here, at Versailles chateau, in widespread wretchedness, in sallow faces, squalor, winged raggedness, present as in legible hieroglyphic writing their petition of grievances.The chateau-gates must be shut; but the king will appear on the balcony and speak to them.

They have seen the king's face; their petition of grievances has been, if not read, looked at.In answer, two of them are hanged, on a new gallows forty feet high, and the rest driven back to their dens for a time."Of course.What more exasperating and inexpiable insult to the ruling powers was possible than this? To persist in being needy and wretched, when a whole bureaucracy is toiling day and night to make them prosperous and happy? An insult only to be avenged in blood.

同类推荐
  • Some Short Stories

    Some Short Stories

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 州县提纲

    州县提纲

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 忆平泉杂咏 忆春耕

    忆平泉杂咏 忆春耕

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Vital Message

    The Vital Message

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五代新说

    五代新说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 绝世神医之泠然幽仙

    绝世神医之泠然幽仙

    以一曲舞动霓裳,尘飞雾散,引得荧火翩跹飞舞,世称泠然幽仙的帝雪嫣常以一纱覆面,无人知其容,只道是:青毡泠落客心存,曲终然悲临玉座。始怜幽竹山窗下,一枝仙葩入阁来。恍惚之间,清冷似不食人间烟火的她却消失不见,只余他独自惆然,再见却已是陌路人,甚至指剑相向……
  • 女皇临世倾城狂女

    女皇临世倾城狂女

    何为皇者,踏天地,扭乾坤,掌命运。她是傲视天地的女皇,孤独冷傲,寡亲缘情缘,唯有权利,却在渡天劫之中丧命,然,却幸运重生,可,重生之后却难以修行。破废体,逆转命运,重归辉煌,而此生她决定不再孤独,她愿得一心人执手相看江山,共赏人世繁华!【片段一】“既为废体,我虽无力改变,但,我却要扭转命运,打破废体的宿命,成就无上辉煌!”重生之后的她指天起誓。【片段二】“你既为我的女人,自然有我来护你周全!”某男深情地说道。“你既为我的男人,自然有我来护你平安!”某女气势更盛!【女主开始弱逐渐变强,男主越来越强】
  • 邪王溺宠妻:妖孽五小姐

    邪王溺宠妻:妖孽五小姐

    废材五小姐嫁给了嗜血钰王爷,大家都说,傻子对傻子,绝配!但是当事人五小姐不服了,“摔!说好的不近女色的傻子王爷呢?怎么会是头万年也喂不饱的狼!这让我怎么追杀敌人!”“这可冤枉本王了,是夫人太过秀色可餐”,司徒墨冉妖嘴角上扬妖孽一笑,“敌人有为夫处理,为夫如此辛苦夫人是不是要犒劳本王一下呀?”
  • 玛丽

    玛丽

    柳回春不喜欢雨天,他也不怎么喜欢晴天,他偏爱阴天。阴天时,他会带一把伞出门,长柄伞,木质手柄,黑色伞面,在一个非常不起眼的角落,还用黑色丝线绣上了他的名字缩写。再说说柳回春另外一个比较“显而易见”的怪癖吧,或者说是他的职业习惯——他只在阴天约见委托人,且从不在自己的侦探事务所与他们见面,从不。这天是十一月三号,一个阴天,柳回春带着他的黑伞出门。
  • 纯真告别

    纯真告别

    《纯真告别》是出版史上的一个奇迹,上市仅6个月就销售600多万册,创下吉尼斯世界之最;总销3000万册,获评“20世纪全球三大畅销小说”;荣获美国亚马逊评选「人生必读的 100 本书」。安妮,一个独立的女孩,善良坚定,是爱情的虔信者。那个曝烈夏日闯入她生命的英国气质的男子身上,有她一生受困的真爱之谜。詹妮弗,拥有睥睨一切的美貌,却无法摆脱家庭的阴影。从青春懵懂的欧洲到生活安稳的美国,再到她功成名就的法国,她渴望完美的家庭和婚姻,却一生流离。尼丽,一个火焰一样的女孩,拥有璀璨的天赋和与娇小身形不相称的旺盛生命力。名利的焰火一次次绽放,她却坠入无尽循环的寂寞和空虚。
  • 乡村小妖孽

    乡村小妖孽

    美女师父传授他绝世神功、超凡医术后飘然离去。为了寻找师父,他只能高调行事。他相信,只有高调才能在茫茫人海中寻找到美女师父!
  • 直播之末世逃生

    直播之末世逃生

    灵气复苏时代,海青感染了未知病毒,变成恐怖丧尸。只有最无用的水系异能,面对四面八方的猎杀,只能拼命逃跑。一款位面直播系统绑定到他,在有亿万主播的平台,他一个小小丧尸主播,要如何才能杀出一条血路?星际看客发出弹幕:《主播刚才脚下踩的,是能提升体质的星光草吧,那可是三百万积分一株的灵药。》叫我修真大佬:《主播身后的红色果子,是炼筑基丹的主要材料,操……》承包我的主播:《只有我觉得主播逃命的姿势很帅气吗?》……ps:位面直播间是金手指,剧情为主,直播为辅。
  • 嗜血魔王狂宠丑妃

    嗜血魔王狂宠丑妃

    啸月,22世纪的异能杀手之王,在一场任务中死亡,当她一朝穿越,身世成迷,从小自力更生,天生神魔体,丹药毒丸信手拈来,且看她如何掀起大陆风云,携手魔王纵横四海八荒
  • 采华连王上佛受决经

    采华连王上佛受决经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Vicar of Wakefield

    The Vicar of Wakefield

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。