of the taille-payer has increased tenfold. In the
Ile-de-France,[5248] on an income of 240 livres, the taille-payer pays
twenty-one livres eight sous, and the nobles three livres, and the
intendant himself states that he taxes the nobles only an eightieth of
their revenue; that of Orleanais taxes them only a hundredth, while,
on the other hand, those subject to the taille are assessed
one-eleventh.--If other privileged parties are added to the nobles, such
as officers of justice, employee's of the fermes, and exempted townsmen,
a group is formed embracing nearly everybody rich or well-off and whose
revenue certainly greatly surpasses that of those who are subject to the
taille. Now, the budgets of the provincial assemblies inform us how much
each province levies on each of the two groups: in the Lyonnais district
those subject to the taille pay 898,000 livres, the privileged, 190,000;
in the Ile-de-France, the former pay 2,689,000 livres and the latter
232,000; in the generalship of Alencon, the former pay 1,067,000 livres
and the latter 122,000; in Champagne, the former pay 1,377,000 livres,
and the latter 199,000; in Haute-Guyenne, the former pay 1,268,000
livres, and the latter 61,000; in the generalship of Auch, the former
pay 797,000 livres, the privileged 21,000; in Auvergne the former pay
1,753,000 livres and the latter 86,000; in short, summing up the total
of ten provinces, 11,636,000 livres paid by the poor group and 1,450,000
livres by the rich group, the latter paying eight times less than it
ought to pay.

With respect to the vingtiemes, the disproportion is less, the precise
amounts not being attainable; we may nevertheless assume that the
assessment of the privileged class is about one-half of what it should
be. "In 1772," says[5249] M. de Calonne, "it was admitted that the
vingtiemes were not carried to their full value. False declarations,
counterfeit leases, too favorable conditions granted to almost all the
wealthy proprietors gave rise to inequalities and countless errors.
A verification of 4,902 parishes shows that the product of the two
vingtiemes amounting to 54,000,000 should have amounted to 81,000,000."
A seigniorial domain which, according to its own return of income,
should pay 2,400 livres, pays only 1,216. The case is much worse with
the princes of the blood; we have seen that their domains are exempt and
pay only 188,000 livres instead of 2,400,000. Under this system, which
crushes the wea