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The causes of the French revolution [by J. Russell].
The causes of the French revolution - by J. Russell Author:John Russell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE PEOPLE. 47 war, in the complete subjection of the parliament. But a permanent body preserves the memory of their privileges; and wh... more »en the great king was dead, the parliament recollected that they had a right of remonstrance before placing the royal edicts on their records. This pretension led to many contests between the crown and the parliament, which have lost their interest from the absorbing importance of the times which followed. It was seldom that these disputes had an origin of much consequence to the people; and the result was never to their benefit. But they served for the time to keep up some appearance of freedom ; and the language used hi the French parliament was, at times, not unworthy of an English House of Commons. The parliament was composed of men who obtained their seats by purchase ; and, as the savings of the holder were generally employed to buy the reversion for his son, the highest judicial offices became, in fact, hereditary, upon the payment of a fine. Yet we should be mistaken if we concluded that this venality of offices produced the bad effects which would at first sight be supposed. It is in thenature of abuses in the political body, as of chronic diseases in the physical, to adapt themselves in some degree to the constitution. The nobility of the long robe formed, in France, a distinct caste ; generation after generation were bred up in the traditionary maxims of the courts; and although the individuals must have been in many cases unfit, yet, as a whole, they probably did their duty better than the same number of persons chosen by court influence or office intrigue would have done. Certain feelings of honour; a kind of chivalrous pride in maintaining their dignity, — as remote as possible, indeed, from our abstract n...« less