ncipality of Dombes which
produces nearly 70,000 livres income.[1444]--When we come to read the
Red Book further on we shall find 700,000 livres of pensions for the
Polignac family, most of them revertible from one member to another, and
nearly 2,000,000 of annual benefits to the Noailles family.--The king
has forgotten that his favors are mortal blows, "the courtier
who obtains 6,000 livres pension, receiving the taille of six
villages."[1445] Each largess of the monarch, considering the state of
the taxes, is based on the privation of the peasants, the sovereign,
through his clerks, taking bread from the poor to give coaches to the
rich.--The center of the government, in short, is the center of the
evil; all the wrongs and all the miseries start from it as from the
center of pain and inflammation; here it is that the public abscess
comes to the head, and here will it break.[1446]

VI. Latent Disorganization in France.

Such is the just and fatal effect of privileges turned to selfish
purposes instead of being exercised for the advantage of others. To him
who utters the word, "Sire or Seignior" stands for the protector who
feeds, the ancient who leads."[1447] With such a title and for this
purpose too much cannot be granted to him, for there is no more
difficult or more exalted post. But he must fulfill its duties;
otherwise in the day of peril he will be left to himself. Already,
and long before the day arrives, his flock is no longer his own; if
it marches onward it is through routine; it is simply a multitude of
persons, but no longer an organized body. Whilst in Germany and in
England the feudal regime, retained or transformed, still composes a
living society, in France[1448] its mechanical framework encloses only
so many human particles. We still find the material order, but we
no longer find the moral order of things. A lingering, deep-seated
revolution has destroyed the close hierarchical union of recognized
supremacies and of voluntary deference. It is like an army in which
the attitudes of chiefs and subordinates have disappeared; grades are
indicated by uniforms only, but they have no hold on consciences. All
that constitutes a well-founded army, the legitimate ascendancy of
officers, the justified trust of soldiers, the daily interchange of
mutual obligations, the conviction of each being useful to all, and
that the chiefs are the most useful all, is missing. How could it be
otherwise in an army whos