ances_, not only against the ordinary ordinances, but against
treaties with foreign powers, particularly concerning the papal bulls,
which led to its exercising a superior superintendence over the entire
government of the Church in France. These divers powers gave the
Parlement of Paris a very high position in the State, and it will be
frequently seen intervening in public affairs."

[Illustration: CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. PALAIS DE BOURBON PERISTYLE FACING
QUAI. DESIGNED BY GIRARDIN AND POSSET.]

Under Louis XI, there were parlements at Grenoble, Bordeaux, and Dijon;
greater freedom of appeal from the decisions of the seigneurial
tribunals to the court of the king, and the magistrates were relieved
from the fear of removal from office. We have already seen instances of
the affability of this monarch toward the bourgeoisie of Paris, and his
not unsuccessful attempts to identify himself with them; the tangible
benefits which he bestowed upon them were quite sufficient to win their
gratitude. Their offices were rendered immovable, they were exempted
from all taxation, their assemblies were authorized, the free election
of their magistrates, their city was carefully fortified, they were
armed to the number of sixty or eighty thousand men; he permitted them
to acquire, by purchase, the right which the nobles had to command the
_guet_, and to the noblesse was given the exercise of certain municipal
offices.

The _Etats Generaux_ of 1484, during the minority of Charles VIII, are
considered to have been the first of the truly representative national
assemblies, even the peasants in the most distant communes being
represented. The number of problems presented by the exigencies of the
government was formidable; during the royal session, Jean de Rely, canon
and deputy of Paris, addressed the monarch in an eloquent discourse,
half Latin and half French, bristling with texts and citations, then he
commenced to read the list of grievances demanding redress; he read
bravely for three hours, when it was perceived that the young king was
sound asleep, and the sitting was adjourned for two days. Neither
Francois I nor his son Henri II had any desire to appear before the
assembled representatives of the nation; the former replaced the _Etats
Generaux_ by a mixed assembly of notables and deputies of Bourgogne in
1526, and in the following year by an assembly of notables at Paris,
which sanctioned his violation of the treaty of Madrid, and g