, 1776, he had formulated his plan. In that month he presented to
the King his memorable Six Edicts, the first of which was the most
celebrated state paper he ever wrote. It was the Edict for the
Suppression of the Corvee. The corvee threw the burden of maintaining
the highways on the peasantry by exacting forced labor. It was
admittedly the most hateful, the most burdensome, and the most wasteful
of all the bad taxes of the time, and Turgot, following the precedent of
the Roman Empire, advised instead a general highway impost. The proposed
impost in itself was not considerable, and would not have been
extraordinarily obnoxious to the privileged classes, but for the
principle of equality by which Turgot justified it: "The expenses of
government having for their object the interests of all, all should
contribute to them; and the more advantages a man has, the more that man
should contribute."

Nor was this the most levelling of Turgot's arguments. He pointed out
that though originally the exemption from taxation, which the nobility
enjoyed, might have been defended on the ground that the nobles were
bound to yield military service without pay, such service had long
ceased to be performed, while on the contrary titles could be bought for
money. Hence every wealthy man became a noble when he pleased, and thus
exemption from taxation had come to present the line of cleavage between
the rich and poor. By this thrust the privileged classes felt themselves
wounded in their vitals, and the Parliament of Paris, the essence of
privilege, assumed their defence. To be binding, the edicts had to be
registered by the Parliament among the laws of France, and Parliament
declined to make registration on the ground that the edicts were
unconstitutional, as subversive of the monarchy and of the principle of
order. The opinion of the court was long, but a single paragraph gives
its purport: "The first rule of justice is to preserve to every one what
belongs to him: this rule consists, not only in preserving the rights of
property, but still more in preserving those belonging to the person,
which arise from the prerogative of birth and of position.... From this
rule of law and equity it follows that every system which, under an
appearance of humanity and beneficence, would tend to establish between
men an equality of duties, and to destroy necessary distinctions, would
soon lead to disorder (the inevitable result of equality), and would
bri