hink of them. We have only to read the registers of the
States-General[1311] to see that spirit of philanthropy spreads from
Paris even to the chateaux and abbeys of the provinces. I am satisfied
that, except for a few country squires, either huntsmen or drinkers,
carried away by the need of physical exercise, and confined through
their rusticity to an animal life, most of the resident seigniors
resembled, in fact or in intention, the gentry whom Marmontel, in his
moral tales, then brought on the stage. Fashion took this direction, and
people in France always follow the fashion. There is nothing feudal
in their characters; they are "sensible" people, mild, very courteous,
tolerably cultivated, fond of generalities, and easily and quickly
roused, and very much in earnest. For instance like that amiable
logician the Marquis de Ferrieres, an old light-horseman, deputy from
Saumur in the National Assembly, author of an article on Theism, a moral
romance and genial memoirs of no great importance; nothing could be more
remote from the ancient harsh and despotic temperament. They would be
glad to relieve the people, and they try to favor them as much as they
can.[1312] They are found detrimental, but they are not wicked; the evil
is in their situation and not in their character. It is their situation,
in fact, which, allowing them rights without exacting services, debars
them from the public offices, the beneficial influence, the effective
patronage by which they might justify their advantages and attach the
peasantry to them.

But on this ground the central government has taken their place. For a
long time now have they been rather feeble against the intendant,
unable to protect their parish. Twenty gentlemen cannot not assemble
and deliberate without the king's special permission.[1313] If those of
Franche-Comte happen to dine together and hear a mass once a year, it is
through tolerance, and even then this harmless group may assemble
only in the presence of the intendant. Separated from his equals, the
seignior, again, is further away from his inferiors. The administration
of the village is of no concern to him; he is not even tasked with its
supervision. The apportionment of taxes, the militia contingent,
the repairs of the church, the summoning and presiding over a parish
assembly, the making of roads, the establishment of charity workshops,
all this is the intendant's business or that of the communal officers
whom the in