w the great families a prerogative which they have abused.

V. The King's Incompetence and Generosity.

The most privileged of all--Having monopolized all powers,
he takes upon himself their functional activity--The burden
of this task--He evades it or is incompetent--His
conscience at ease--France is his property--How he abuses
it--Royalty the center of abuses.

One privilege remains the most considerable of all, that of the king;
for, in his staff of hereditary nobles he is the hereditary general.
His office, indeed, is not a sinecure, like their rank; but it involves
quite as grave disadvantages and worse temptations. Two things are
pernicious to Man, the lack of occupation and the lack of restraint;
neither inactivity nor omnipotence are in harmony with his nature. The
absolute prince who is all-powerful, like the listless aristocracy with
nothing to do, in the end become useless and mischievous.--In grasping
all powers the king insensibly took upon himself all functions; an
immense undertaking and one surpassing human strength. For it is
the Monarchy, and not the Revolution, which endowed France with
administrative centralization [1432]. Three functionaries, one above
the other, manage all public business under the direction of the king's
council; the comptroller-general at the center, the intendant in
each generalship,[1433] the sub-delegate in each election, fixing,
apportioning and levying taxes and the militia, laying out and building
highways, employing the national police force, distributing succor,
regulating cultivation, imposing their tutelage on the parishes,
and treating municipal magistrates as valets. "A village," says
Turgot,[1434] "is simply an assemblage of houses and huts, and of
inhabitants equally passive. . . . Your Majesty is obliged to decide
wholly by yourself or through your mandataries. . . . Each awaits your
special instructions to contribute to the public good, to respect the
rights of others, and even sometimes to exercise his own." Consequently,
adds Necker, "the government of France is carried on in the bureaux.
. . .The clerks, relishing their influence, never fail to persuade
the minister that he cannot separate himself from command in a single
detail." Bureaucratic at the center, arbitrariness, exceptions and
favors everywhere, such is a summary of the system. "Sub-delegates,
officers of elections, receivers and comptrollers of the vingtiemes,
commi