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anecdote requires no comment , nor was it by any means a solitary case ! With such examples as these before his eyes , well might Fenelon say , in one of his Dialogues of the Dead , It is necessary that a people should have written laws , always the same , and con- * secrated by the whole nation ; that these laws should be
paramount to everything else ; that those who govern should derive their authority from them alone ; possessing an unbounded power to do all the good the laws prescribe , and restrained from every act of injustice which the laws prohibit / These just and enlightened sentiments were published in France long before the revolution of 1789 , up to which time the king ' s will was the supreme
law . For want of such precise and equal laws the abuses attending the collection of the taxes were almost insupportable . The kingdom was parcelled out into generalities , with an intendant at the head of each , into whose hands the whole power of the crown was delegated for all affairs of finance . The generalities were subdivided into elections , at the head of which was a sub-delegue *
appointed by the intendant . The rolls of the taille , capitation , vingtremes , and other taxes , were distributed amongst districts , parishes , and individuals , at the pleasure of the intendant , who could exempt , change , add or diminish at pleasure ! And to crown all , the people were compelled to pay heavy and arbitrary
imposts , from which the nobility and clergy were totally exempted ! The penal code of finance , fraught with oppression and murder , was rendered more frightful by the different punishments inflicted in different provinces for the same crime , real or alleged . Thus in Provence , smugglers of salt , armed and assembled to the
number of five , were fined 500 livres , and sent to the gallies for nine years , whilst in other parts of France the punishment was death ! And to add insult to injustice , all families liable to the taille , in certain provinces were enrolled , and their daily consumption of salt fixed by the tax-gatherer , which they were forced to buy whether they wanted it or not , under the penalty of heavy fines * .
Happily , the law of France rests no longer on tradition , or the ipse dixit of judges , or the will of tax-gatherers , or other arbitrary or feudal power ; and , therefore , in the study of it , reference to never-ending and not unfrequently conflicting decisions , or to the passions or prejudices of the great , whether of the laity or clergy , is no longer a necessary part of the system . These results of a
recently-formed code , in the construction of which the benefits to be derived from the application of the knowledge of an enlightened age to the principles of jurisprudence have been rendered available , are consolidated into a compact and definite shape . Formerly—that is , before the revolution of 1789—not only each province had its peculiar code , some formed on the Roman law , others on tradition and local custom , and the whole replete with ? Young ' s Travel ! iu France . Cahiors of 1789 .
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16 Notices of France * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/16/
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