s his king
as ministering satellite; divides the spoil, not now by violence
and murder, but by soliciting and finesse. These men call themselves
supports of the throne, singular gilt-pasteboard caryatides in that
singular edifice! For the rest, their privileges every way are now much
curtailed. That law authorizing a Seigneur, as he returned from hunting,
to kill not more than two Serfs, and refresh his feet in their warm
blood and bowels, has fallen into perfect desuetude,--and even into
incredibility; for if Deputy Lapoule can believe in it, and call for the
abrogation of it, so cannot we. (Histoire de la Revolution Francaise,
par Deux Amis de la Liberte (Paris, 1793), ii. 212.) No Charolois, for
these last fifty years, though never so fond of shooting, has been in
use to bring down slaters and plumbers, and see them roll from their
roofs; (Lacretelle, Histoire de France pendant le 18me Siecle (Paris,
1819) i. 271.) but contents himself with partridges and grouse.
Close-viewed, their industry and function is that of dressing gracefully
and eating sumptuously. As for their debauchery and depravity, it is
perhaps unexampled since the era of Tiberius and Commodus. Nevertheless,
one has still partly a feeling with the lady Marechale: "Depend upon it,
Sir, God thinks twice before damning a man of that quality." (Dulaure,
vii. 261.) These people, of old, surely had virtues, uses; or they could
not have been there. Nay, one virtue they are still required to have
(for mortal man cannot live without a conscience): the virtue of perfect
readiness to fight duels.

Such are the shepherds of the people: and now how fares it with the
flock? With the flock, as is inevitable, it fares ill, and ever worse.
They are not tended, they are only regularly shorn. They are sent for,
to do statute-labour, to pay statute-taxes; to fatten battle-fields
(named 'Bed of honour') with their bodies, in quarrels which are not
theirs; their hand and toil is in every possession of man; but for
themselves they have little or no possession. Untaught, uncomforted,
unfed; to pine dully in thick obscuration, in squalid destitution
and obstruction: this is the lot of the millions; peuple taillable et
corveable a merci et misericorde. In Brittany they once rose in revolt
at the first introduction of Pendulum Clocks; thinking it had something
to do with the Gabelle. Paris requires to be cleared out periodically
by the Police; and the horde of hunger-stricken v