Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/603

STATES-GEXEKAL.] FRANCE 567 extent the interests of these bodies wero identical, and as, moreover, they both enjoyed a fatal immunity from the burdens of taxation, the chance of legislation or taxation on fair principles was very small indeed. Representing the clerical estate sat the bishops and abbots, together with a certain number of lower clergy ; in the noble house sat the holders of noble fiefs ; the third estate was represented (except in 1789) chiefly by deputies elected in the towns. These bodies had really no legislative power ; and though just before the Revolution the parliament of Paris opened the way to great changes by declaring that taxes could only be legally voted by the States-General, they had, as a fact, very little authority even in this respect ; in only a few cases did they sanction taxation or vote subsidies ; the royal power found it more convenient, till the bankrupt state of the country under Louis XVI. compelled it to call en the Estates for help, to arrange the taxation as it thought good. The great doctrine of the relation between tax-paying and political power was unknown in France. The true function of the Estates seemed to be limited to expressions of opinion on points submitted to them by the king, and to the lay ing before him, on their side, grievances which they had brought up in their cahiers or "quires," from the country. These grievances they could not remedy : all they could do v/as solemnly to call the attention of the king to them, who could redress them if be liked. This solemn process was almost the only occasion on which the Estates met together. They v/ T ent to church together at the opening, and then in one chamber were met by the king, who addressed them and dismissed them to their several chambers with the business he chose to entrust to their deliberations ; then, once more, at the end of their labours they all met again. At the upper end of the hall a platform was erected for the king and his court, the twelve peers, and the household officers ; on the right hand of it sat the clergy, on the left the nobles, in front, at the foot of the hall, the third estate. Each order presented its statement of grievances; the king replied with promises and assurances, which came to very little, and the Estates were then dismissed ; and if the court had gofc the money or the help it sought, very little more was thought about gravamina to be redressed. So little was their practical importance, so rarely were they con voked, that their composition, method of election or nomination, rules of procedure, rights and legislative com petency, were never made clear. It was not in the interests of the monarchy, or indeed of the privileged orders, that the Estates should have any power, or meet very often. This, then, was all that France, before the Re volution, ever had by way of what Englishmen call a parliament. The word parliament in France has always signified only a law court ; and the parliament of Paris, the chief law court of the realm, claimed a certain constitutional power, as having the duty of registering the royal edicts. As a rule, it proved itself the obsequious servant of the king s will; from time to time, however, it was stubborn, and, refusing to register, held that the royal edict so unregistered was void of authority. In such cases the king was wont to hold what was curiously styled a "lit de justice," a "bed of justice," or solemn visitation of the parliament, in which he personally attended and compelled the reluctant body to register his edict. These things, for the " generalities " or - "Pays d election," that is, for the chief part of France, were the sum total of constitutional life and power enjoyed, a total which, under a strong and determined monarch, or such a minister as Richelieu, meant absolutely nothing at all. In the outlying districts, called the " Pays d etats," more liberties existed ; these parts voted their own local taxation, and managed to a great extent their own local affairs; they were, however, a mere fringe round the borders of ancient France, the estate of Flanders (namely, Douai and Lille), Provence, Bdarn, Lower 1614-21. Navarre, Bigorre, Foix, Soule, Armagnac, Ne"bouzan, and Marsan. The States-General of 1614 did nothing; they faithfully represented the jealousies and ill-will between the orders, and broke up in confusion. Armand du Plessis of Riche- Riche lieu, bishop of Lu^ on, was the orator of the clergy on this lieu ap- occasion, the person charged to lay the grievances of his P ears> order before the king. This is the only interesting fact in the history of this meeting of the Estates. In 1615 Louis XIII. married Anne of Austria, who afterwards played a con siderable part in the troubles of the Fronde. For two years Marshal Ancre steered his perilous way between the young king, who cared little for him, his mother s favourite, not his, the princes of the blood, and the discontented Hugue nots. In 1617 the new favourite of Louis, Charles d Albert, count of Luynes, overthrew and killed him ; Leonora Galigai, his wife, was executed as a sorceress ; the queen- mother and Richelieu, who was just hoping to secure his foothold at court, both fell, she withdrew to Blois, he to Lucou ; the young king, weak and frivolous, fell into the hands of the noblesse. After a time the nobles were as little pleased with Luynes as they had been with Concini, and rallied round the court of Mary de Medici at Angers. Richelieu, whose great abilities had already been recognized, was charged by Luynes with the delicate task of attempt ing a reconciliation between the king and his mother : he succeeded by the treaty of Angers in 1620 in averting civil war. Then Luynes, thinking it well to amuse the king, marched with him into Be"arn, where the inhabitants, suddenly bereft (in 1617) of their rights as Protestants, were in open ferment and revolt. Here, as in all the south and west of France, the Huguenots were uneasy and sus picious ; the incidents of war in Bohemia, where the Calvinists had but just been crushed, and the political changss in the United Provinces, excited their already high- wrought feelings. They claimed the full benefit of the Edict of Nantes, which seemed to the court to be the esta blishment of a republic in the heart of the monarchy. In 1621 they held an assembly at their capital, La Rochelle, and made a kind of declaration of independence. They divided their 700 congregations throughout France into eight circles, after the German fashion, thus indicating a tendency towards decentralization, which must be offensive to the court and the general body of French people ; they arranged their own levies of men and money, and in fact went far towards the full organization of what they styled "the republic of the Reformed churches of France and Beam." They named the duke of Bouillon their chief, and made Lesdiguieres most plentiful offers. These great nobles, however, refused to join them, and the duke of Rohan with his brother Soubise became the heads of this Huguenot movement. There were in it not a few elements of con stitutional life ; these Protestants had a far better idea of wholesome government than prevailed elsewhere in France. The noblesse, however, would have nothing to do with them, and their efforts were of little avail. The king, who showed considerable energy, took the command against them, and encouraged his army to treat them with barbarous cruelty, for he was a weak and heartless creature. At the siege of Montauban, however, he failed completely, and had to with draw discomfited. Soon after this, in the end of 1621, Luynes was taken with camp fever and died. The king, who was weary of him, heard with pleasure the tidings of his death. Round him were now formed two parties, that of the queen-mother upheld by Richelieu, and that of the prince of Conde". The king, leaning towards the latter, which wished for war, set forth on a second campaign against the Huguenots, and conducted it with the same mischievous cruelty as before. The Huguenots showed