THE SIGHS OF FRANCE IN SLAVERY, Breathing after LIBERTY.  
By Way of MEMORIAL.  
Done out of FRENCH.  
LONDON, Printed for D. Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultry, 1689.   

The PUBLISHER to the READER.  
THese two Memorials I now give you, were sent me from France, and as I am in hopes of having frequently the like, I shall take great Delight in Imparting them to the Public: And the rather, since this Portrait of the present French Government, will give an Idea of what ours would have been, had King James continued upon the Throne.  
Licenced according to Order.   

THE SIGHS of FRANCE in SLAVERY, etc.  

I Memorial, Of the First of September, 1689.  
Of the Oppression of the Church, of the Parliaments, of the Nobles, and Cities.  
IT seems a fond saying, That People are not the less wretched for having several Companions in their Miseries, since it is certainly true, that the Heart suffers much more, when it suffers in the midst of all others who are happy. Among all the Goods whose loss we have reason to bewail, Liberty is, doubtless, of the principal. It is a hard matter to be a Slave in the midst of a thousand free Persons, without being concerned at one's slavery: Wherefore France ought to rouse up itself, and feel the Weight of the dismal Slavery it, groans under, considering the blessed Liberty other Neighbouring States enjoy under their Lawful Princes, and in the possession of their ancient Laws: And the Felicity England has newly obtained, by seeing the Fetters broken with which it was upon the point of being shackled, aught to revive and stir up anew in the Bosoms of all good Frenchmen, Love for their Country, Desires for the Return of Liberty, and the Design of shaking off that hideous Yoke that rests upon their shoulders. We see all around us, the Hollanders enjoying a happy Freedom; the Flemings under the King of Spain's Government possessing their ancient Privileges, the States of the Empire living under a Head not in a Condition to oppress them, the Free Cities in Germany retaining the Form of Republics; the States and Provinces subjected to the Electours and other Princes, basking in the repose of their Fortune under a Government mild and moderate. France alone, the finest Country in Europe, the Noblest part of the World, finds itself subjected to a Sway cruel, tyrannic, and to a Power that sets itself no bounds: A free People, and who have derived the name of Francs or Frenchmen from their ancient Liberty, are now under the greatest subjection of all People, without excepting those that groan under the Tyranny of the Turks. Now all Freedom is lost, even to that of speaking and bemoaning: Wherefore I send my Voice to Foreign Countries, in hopes it will return thence by Reflection, and that it will awake anew my Countrymen who sleep beside me under the weights of their Chains. With compassion do I view the cruel Tempest wherewith my Country is menaced, I bewail the Desolation of its Cities, the Death of its Children, and the loss of what the Tyranny of its Government has left it remaining: I cannot forbear wishing it a Recovery of Reason and Courage. Of Reason, that so it may apprehend that the Privileges of the People do not suffer any Prescription, and do not perish by the Usurpation of the Princes, and that thus an Age or two of Tyranny do not take away the Right of recovering its Liberty. Of Courage, that so it may lay hold on the present Circumstances, the most propitious that ever were for reducing the Government of the Realm to its Ancient Form, and to cast off the Yoke of this Despotic Power, according to which the French are treated with a harshness unknown to all people who live under Christian Princes. With the Interest of the People I cannot forbear considering the Interest of the Prince, lawful Heir to the Throne, to whom the Court is going to leave a Skeleton of a Kingdom, and an imaginary Crown. That Prince in the Campagne of Ph●isbourg showed himself not only brave and prudent, but full of good Nature: He now groans at the Infernal Barbarities that are exercised in the same places where he had exercised so much Humanity; and we are assured that he will much rather choose to Reign as a Father under the ancient Laws of the Kingdom, than to command as a Tyrant that sets himself above the Laws. Wherefore my Design is to perform these Four things in this Tract. 1. To show the Oppression and Tyranny under which all the Orders of France do groan, and the Misery they are reduced to under a Despotic power. 2. To consider in the second place, by what means the Court of France establishes its Yoke, and now upholds its absolute Power, and the Abuse it makes of it. 3. We shall see how much the present Government of France is different from that under which the Monarchy was founded, and wherein it subsisted so many Ages. 4. And lastly, We shall examine by what Means the favourable Circumstances of the present time may be improved for the reducing the Monarchy to its Ancient Government.  
For the understanding how great the Oppression is which France groans under, we have only to consider the Situation of the Parts which compose the State. The Church is certainly the First, the Noblest, and that which has ever retained the greatest Privileges, and the most of Liberty. But now in France the Church is subjected to the Tyranny of the Government, as well as all the rest: The French Kings have made themselves Popes, Muft●i's, High Priests, and absolute Princes over Sacred things; the Name of Papal Dignity and its Authority, are now there no more than mere Phantomes. The Priests of Jesus Christ are Slaves, the Holy Houses and consecrated to God, are exposed to the Furies of the Soldiery; Faith itself, and the Mysteries, depend absolutely on the Sovereign's Will. To render this sensible, I will not go far back; it is sufficient to set before our Eyes what has passed in our days, and in our own Remembrance. Let's call to mind, for Example, after what manner the Affair of the Five Propositions of Jansenius has been handled. The Court of France caused that Controversy to be defined at Rome as it pleased, after which there is no sort of Violence but which it committed and exercised for the subjecting the Disciples of St. Augustine to the Decisions it had by surprise obtained from the Court of Rome. It's well known what a noise the Formulary occasioned; how the Court caused a Form of Oath to be made, by which People acknowledged, not only that the five Propositions were Heretical, but that they were in Jansenius; that is to say, that the Court would needs then have the Pope to be Infallible, not only in matters of Right, but in matters of Fact; and all those who would not go along with this Current were deprived of their Benefices, drove away, banished, plunged into darksome Prisons: Above sixty of the Doctors of Sorbonne were turned out, exiled and confined; the Houses of the Religious Maids that would not obey, suffered Violence, and were dispersed. It is now Forty Years that the Court has continued this Persecution, and still at this day a vast number of Holy Priests are in Exile, in Prisons and Sufferings, for that they will not renounce the Grace of Jesus Christ efficacious by itself. Is this an Affair for the Court to intermeddle withal? is it not extending its Empire farther than that of God, which in things which are not of a sovereign necessity would have us mutually bear with one another? at least it is a matter to be left to the Church to dispatch, it is purely of its Resort; wherefore in this Case there ought not to be employed either Imprisonments, or Banishment, or Violence, or Royal Authority.  
After the Affair of the five Propositions is come that of the Rogalia; it is a Right by which the French Kings pretend to the Power of receiving the Fruits of vacant Bishoprics, and to supply, during the Vacancy, all the Benefices and Cures of Souls that fall vacant, and which are at the Bishop's Nomination: The Affair seemed to have been regula-ted in the General Council of Lions; wherein it was forbidden to extend the Rogalia over such Bishoprics where that Right had not been before exercised: Several Bishops of France enjoyed this Immunity: Lewis the Fourteenth has bethought himself of subjecting them all to this Yoke. The Bishops of Alet and Pamiers, two of the most Holy Men of their Age, would not give way to the unjust Decrees and Acts which the King caused to pass in his Council, where he was Judge and Party, in a Matter that ought to depend on the Holy See or a Council; and because that these holy Bishops addressed themselves to the Holy See, that so the Pope might employ his Authority in maintenance of the Privileges of the Church, it is passed all expressing, what cruel Persecutions the two Churches of Alet and Pamiers were exposed to: The Bishops and Chapters were deprived of their Temporalty, of Patrimonial Goods and Estates, and the Canons and Bishops were seized; and thus they were reduced to the utmost Poverty, and this with so much Inhumanity, that their Friends were not allowed to give them Alms; they have been banished into, and confined to Deserts, they have been Imprisoned, menaced with, and condemned to the severest Deaths; insomuch that the Court caused an Act or Sentence to pass in the Parliament of Tholouse, which condemns one of the great Vicars of Pamiers to have his Head struck off by the hand of the Executioner, which was accordingly executed upon his Effigies, for that they could not seize on his Person: All such as had any ties of Kindred or Friendship with those two Bishops, their great Vicars, their Canons or Officers, were treated in like manner; they have been banisned to the farthest parts of the Kingdom, or thrown into Prisons, where they still suffer the utmost indignities and extremest miseries.  
The King to have a boundless Empire over the Church, after having establisned his Power over the Bishops, would needs extend it over all Religious Houses. It's well known that there were many that still retained the Privilege that was formerly common to all the Societies of Men and Women, which was that of respectively choosing Superiors of the Sex of each respective House; whereas now the Superiors of either Sex must be appointed by the Court, that so having its Creatures every where, it may reign every where: And as it takes to its self the Power of placing Superiors throughout, it recalls and changes them at pleasure, that so the Slavery may be to the Sovereign degree, and that no Person may be any longer permitted to do his Duty towards God, save as far forth as shall be pleasing to the King. It is in consequence of this Resolution that the Maidens of Saint Claire have been Persecuted, they being called Vrbanists; as also the House of Charonni, and of the Order of Clugni; in all these Houses have been introduced with the utmost violence Superiors of both sexes at the King's Nomination; the Doors have been broke open, the most sacred Sanctuaries violated, the Nuns have been taken away by force, they have been banished, impriprisoned, and made to suffer all sorts of mischiefs. The Abbey of Clugny, which is a religious Order, had always retained the Privilege of electing its own Abbots, but it has been judged expedient not to have any regard to a Privilege as ancient as the Order itself: The Court has annulled the Election which the Religious had made of an Abbot regular, and of Authority, the Abbey has been given to the Cardinal de Bovillon, that so the Court might have there a Slave to be the Tyrant of the Order, and answer for it to the Court. If things have turned otherwise, and if the Cardinal of Bovillon has not proved a Friend of the present Government, this renders not the Violence the less great.  
Because that there is of the Temporal in Benefices, Princes have at least some pretext to aim at being Masters of the Collation; but the King, without any shadow of pretext has rendered himself absolute Master of what is most spiritual in the Church. At present the Faith of the Church depends on the Prince's Authority. He causes to be held before his Eyes, and in his Metropolis, tumultuous Assemblies, composed of his own Creatures, and of Court Bishops; therein he causes to be decided, with full Authority, the nicest and most important matters. He submits the Pope to the Council, he deprives him of the Power of Excommunicating Kings; he declares that he is subject to Error; he backs these temerarious Decisions with his own Royal Declarations; and if any one dares to own that he does not submit his Judgement to these Decisions, he is the object of the most cruel Persecution that can be imagined; he is to expect Imprisonment, Banishment, and Death itself.  
The World has ever looked upon the Authority of establishing new Orders, and of ruining those that are established, as a Right annexed to the Holy See: But the King has put himself in possession of that Right. It is universally known how the Maidens de l' Enfance were established at Tholouse, under the Direction of Madam de Mondouville, and by the Pope's permission: Now for that the Directors of that House were suspected of being of the number of those called Jansenists, the Houses of that Order have been ruined, the Abbess taken up and confined in the House of the Hospitalieres, near two hundred Maids of the Enfance turned out of their Houses, pulled from their Sanctuaries by Soldiers and Sergeants, and reduced to the utmost extremities.  
If any thing be of the Jurisdiction of the Church, it is indubitable that the Versions of the Holy Writ are of that kind. The Word of God is the Milk of that Mother with which she nourishes her Children; it is for her to dispense it according to her Wisdom, and according to Necessities: Nevertheless the French Court has taken upon it, to regulate our Lectures and our private Devotions; because that the Version of Mons comes from Persons who are no Friends of the Court, though they be most Catholic; that Version must needs be empoisoned, that the Doctrine of Heaven must needs be become dangerous; by the King's Authority the Publication and Reading of it are forbidden upon the utmost Penalties. The same Course is taken with all other Books of Piety and Religion: it is sufficient that they have been compiled by Doctors hated by the Court to render them bad; they are forbidden entrance into the Kingdom, the Intendants that suffer them to come in are disgraced, and the ecclesiastics who receive them are condemned to perpetual Imprisonments, wherein the loss of Liberty is the least evil they are made to suffer.  
When it pleases the King to fall out with the Pope, and appeal from his justest Proceed, the Gallican Church must adhere to this Revolt: All Bishops, Chapters, Universities, Religious Houses, as well Men as Women, are obliged thereunto: Orders are sent then to conform to the King's Will, and to sign them; if they are wanting therein, they are sure to meet with the severest Punishments: is not this the utmost Violence; and where is the freedom of the Church, and of Suffrages?  
But what is all this in comparison of what the Church has been obliged to do in the Persecution that has been excited against the Calvinists? I say nothing of that Persecution itself; the King will quickly see all he has gained by this Conduct; it has already cost the King of England his Crown. This it is that has drawn upon France the most horrible Tempest that was ever formed: The Church is, doubtless, concerned in these troubles, not only as a Member of the State, but because in its own particular it runs a risque of suffering much, leaving however this apart, what reason has it not to complain of the Violence that has been done to it: It is constrained to receive those whom it ought to look upon as Dogs and Swine in the Lord's Flock; it is forced to profane the most sacred Mysteries, by exposing them to the sight of the Incredulous; it is compelled, which creates a horror to say and think, to expose the precious Body of its Saviour to the greatest of all Outrages. The Church is constrained to grant Communion to People who make profession of abominating our Mysteries: Who is it that does this? It is the King, the King will have it so; and accordingly Orders are given to the Bishops, and wherever they are not executed, the ecclesiastics are in the Disgrace of the Court. The Calvinists have just occasion to complain of these Violences; but the Gallican Church has still more reason: The Calvinists communicate against their Wills in kinds which they only look upon as Bread and Wine, and thus they only profane the symbols; but the Church is obliged to profane the Flesh and Blood of its Saviour, and cause them to be eaten by the Profane; this is certainly the utmost Violence, and a sovereign Impiety: Is this an Affair within the jurisdiction of a temporal Prince? Ought not the Pope to be consulted upon the means of the Conversion of the Calvinists? Ought it not to be known of Him whether according to the Cannons it is allowable to force Heretics to assist at the Celebration of the Mass? Ought it not likewise to be known of him, whether it be convenient to force to the Communion People not persuaded? Instead of this, the King of his own Authority decides the nicest Cases of Conscience, without consulting other than one Confessor and some Court-Bishops, and constrains the whole Gallican Church to submit to his Decisions. If this be not oppressing the Church, I understand nothing of the matter: And after this it is taken ill, that the Pope does not cause his Palace to ring with Hallelujahs, and that he looks with so much Indifference upon the Conversions made without his Authority, and against the Laws of the Church.  
Lastly, To be persuaded of the Oppression which the Gallican Church suffers, there needs no more than to cast our eyes about. We shall see the Prisons are full of Priests, that several of them suffer extreme miseries in the Prisons, that several are dead in them, of Hunger, Cold, and all sorts Calamities. We ought to consider the sad Estate and abject Situation wherein are all the Lower ecclesiastics. The King raises Taxes under the name of Gratuitous Gifts upon the Clergy, which drain them, and render them miserable. The truth is, that the Bishops, and all those who hold great Benefices, find means to get from under this great Burden; but it becomes but the heavier to the Lower Clergy: The Curates bear the Burden; the Tenths are augmented: And many have not the Quarter-part of what belongs to them, for the maintaining themselves in a Condition of doing Honour to the Church, but are to pay a great share of their little Benefices to the King. This occasions the Curates to be poor, and wretched, and despised. Formerly all was Sacred in the Church, both Goods, Estates and Persons; none dared to touch any thing that belonged to it, without incurring Excommunication. There was, doubtless, a great deal of Excess in these Immunities, extended too far: But now Affairs are pushed into another Extremity; now neither any Character or Azylum is inviolable: Tyranny subdues all.  
Parliaments are the most August part of the State, they are naturally the Temples of Justice, the Sanctuaries and the Protectors of Persecuted Innocence: We shall hereafter see what their Privileges were formerly. Now a days they are Companies without Authority, and almost without Honour, by reason of the baseness and Injustice they are obliged to commit, to please the Court. Daily the King not only nulls the Decrees and Sentences of the Sovereign Courts, but he forces their Opinions: Now there is no longer any Code, or Digest, or Custom; Letters under the Privy Signet make all the French Law and Right: However unjust a procedure may be, it is sufficient that it pleases the Court to be Authorized. The Parliament of Paris was formerly a Bulwark against Tyranny; now it is the chief Instrument of it: It must verify all the Edicts, the most cruel, and the most opposite to the weal of the State, to the Liberty and Quiet of the People: If it dared to make use of the Right it has of opposing unjust Edicts and Declarations, it would certainly be interdicted the next day, and its Members plunged into Dungeons: Inferior Tribunals are fallen into the same slavery; the Intendants of Provinces deprive them of all their Jurisdiction. They draw before them all Justice; and when an Innocent is to be condemned, the Intendant obtains a Commission from the Court: He culls out of several Prefidials People the most devoted to the Court, and pronounces according to the Orders he has received from above. Thus, properly, do they make a Mock of God and Justice: Informations are taken, the Judges are made to opine upon an Affair already Judged, and upon Processes that come ready done and decided from Versailles. Places are made Vendible, they squeeze Money out of every thing, and by this means Justice itself is sold: The people are spent by endless procedures, and thus all perish.  
The Noblesse ought to be the Strength and Ornament of the State; certain it is, that formerly it almost shared the Sovereignty with the Kings, as will be made out hereafter. And indeed it was then the terror of all Europe, and formed the most illustrious Body in the World: Now it is in a Dejection which renders it the Contempt of the whole Earth. It is reduced to a small Number, what remains is beggarly and miserable: The foolish Expense which Kings have not taken care to regulate, may partly be the Cause of this Disorder: But the Oppression and Tyranny of the Government have occasioned it much more. This Nobless had formerly great Privileges, now it is reduced to extremity as well as the rest of the State, and the Privileges of the Nobles are no more than Shadows and Cobwebs that screen them not from any thing. Their Farmers and their Lands pay the King such excessive Imposts, that the whole Revenue of the Fund is consumed. Under pretext of Remedying some Disorders, which undoubtedly deserved to be minded, Intendants have been sent into the Provinces, who exercise over the Nobles an insupportable Empire, and reduce it to Slavery. Now a Gentleman must have more than Right to gain his Process against a Peasant. A Sergeant of a Town insults his Lord, and is sure of being protected in all his Violences: The Lands and Farmers of Gentlemen far from being protected, are more burdened than others. The Gentleman now can no longer make any thing save of one parcel of Ground in his hands; the rest may be said to be for the King. But alas! there are very few Gentlemen that are in this Perplexity through the plurality of Lands; they have hardly one to dwell upon. All the ancient Nobles of France are reduced to Beggary.  
In the room of the ancient Noôles, there starts up new. Nobles, who derive their Origine from the Favour of the Court, and their being employed in the Crown Revenues: These People purchase and possess all the best Lands in the Kingdom, and exercise over the ancient Gentlemen a kind of Despotic Empire: When they come to spend some Months in the Country, all the ancient Nobles flock in to cringe and creep to them: And many are there of Families that would not formerly have had a Domestic of so mean a Birth as the new Lord, think themselves most happy in that they can find room at his Table, to have the advantage of some Meals. This it is that has bastarded the Nobles of France, formerly so famed for their Courage and Bravery. The new Nobles have not derived from their Ancestors the Blood that makes Courage, and the ancient Nobles have lost it through the Habit of Slavery, through the Misery and sordidness wherein they are engaged by their present Condition. Besides, they are so lessened, that in Cantons where were formerly a hundred Families of Gentlemen, all making Figures, you shall not now find ten. The rest are as it were abyssed and sunk into the Earth: And the Government is at work to alter the Houses which still subsist, by the means that have ruined the others. However, it has recourse to these wretched Nobles when the Arriereban is to be brought on foot, being one of the Means made use of to oppress it: And the Gentlemen must furnish what they have not.  
There are Provinces where a hundred Pistols cannot be found among the Nobility; and yet must they fit themselves with Arms, Horses and Servants to march to the Arriereban. You may judge how such a Troop can be equipped, and what Exploits are to be expected from them. Because that the French Nobility in the King's Minority had manifested some good Intentions for the public Weal and for Liberty, the Court resolved to humble it; and they have done it to such a Degree, that never was body in so low an estate. People ought not to flatter themselves, nought but the change of the Government can make the Gentlemen change their Condition, and mount anew the ancient Nobility to that point of Glory it was formerly in.  
Not a Kingdom is there wherein there are so many great and fair Cities as in France; herein consisted its strength. The Cities formerly did a little stand upon their Rights, by reason they were the Refuge and Retreat of such as were willing to withdraw themselves from the excessive Burdens of the Imposts. The greater part of these Cities had fair Privileges, and more especially they enjoyed exemption from Taxes. Wherefore as soon as an honest Peasant, or an Inhabitant of a small City had acquired some Substance by his Industry, he took Refuge in a free Town, there to preserve what he had acquired. Now there is no Azylum against Tyranny. The Franchises of the Cities, as well as the Privileges of the other Bodies of the State, are no other than shadows and Names. They are still free Cities, pay no Taxes, but a thousand means have been contrived to oppress and ruin them. Great Cities had Revenues, they had in hand the Funds of sundry Individuals whose Credit they did not sail of, and when they were obliged to extraordinary Expenses, they met with no difficulty in finding out Money, because that the Town-houses punctually paid their Rents by the Means of the 
* Moneys which several Cities raised at pleasure upon themselves, by particular Grants from Kings.  Deniers d' Octroy which they enjoyed, and by the power they had of imposing upon their Citizens small Taxes for the Maintenance of the Public. The King has seized on all their Moneys or Deniers d' Octroy: He has taken all the Revenues from the Town-houses: The Individuals are not paid, something is yearly retrenched from them, and in short, all is reduced to nothing. It is not to be reckoned how many Individuals are become ruined and put hard to it by these means. The Cities have entirely lost their Credit; they must perish sooner than be able to borrow the smallest sum; because all that should be lent to them would be looked upon as lost. The Cities pay no Taxes, but the Court requires of them, Subsistances, Winter-quarters, gratuitous Gifts: They raise les Ayzes; Imposts are laid upon Wine, Corn, the Mark of Money, and of Tin, upon Tobacco, Paper, Executions of Judgements, Salt, the Chases of Citics and Estates. The present Government has made a mighty clutter about, and challenges great Honour to itself for having bettered the Commerce of France. The late M. Colbert took great pains about it: In order to it he caused an East-India Company to be erected; set up Manufactures of , Barracans, Chamlets, and other foreign Stuffs; that so we might find in France all we should have occasion for, and that our Money might not go to Strangers: But this has not lessened the misery, and Commerce instead of augmenting, is annihilated: because that Traffic only subsists in the going about of Money: Now the King by the terrible and excessive Taxes which he has raised upon all Merchandizes, has drawn to himself all the Money. And thus the source of Trade is drained: There are no sorts of Rigours and Cruelties but have been exercised by the Farmers of the Customs upon Merchants; a thousand Rogueries to find occasion to make Confiscations; Merchandizes unjustly seized, spoiled, and are consumed. Besides this, certain Merchants through the Court's favour have monopolised Trade, and procured certain Privileges to exclude all others thence, which has ruined an infinite number of people: And in fine, the Prohibition of Foreign Commodities far from having redounded to the advantage of Traffic, has, on the contrary, ruin'd it. It is not considered that Money is the Soul of Commerce, and that the life of Money is in Motion. Commerce is only fostered by the passing of Money from one Country to another. We send our Corn, our Wines, our Manufactures to Foreigners, they send us Saltfish, Spices, and their Stuffs, and Money rolls by this means. We have taught Strangers a Secret which they make use of to our Ruin: We must needs be without their Woollen-stuffes, they have found the means to set up Silk Manufactures, and to imitate our Stuffs; which is the occasion that Commerce is utterly ruined, and that of seven or eight thousand Trades that worked at Tours, there are not now above Eight or nine hundred: And all this through the Despotic and sovereign sway that values itself upon doing all according to its Fancy, upon giving a new train to every thing, and reforming all things with an absolute Power. The Persecution of the Huguenots, another Effect of this Tyrannic Power, has put the last hand to the 〈◊〉 of Commerce: Because that those People were excluded 〈◊〉 Offices, they applied themselves wholly to Trade, 〈…〉 Corn, Wines and Manufactures: Now the Persecuti●● 〈◊〉 has been exercised against them, has obliged them to be go 〈…〉 as for what Money there was in the hands of Huguenot M●…ts, they found it much more easy than others to wi● 〈◊〉 And in going away, they have carried out of the 〈…〉 immense sums, which have drawn dry the Fount●… Commerce; such as stayed, have shut up their Purses, they ●…ade no longer, they think to settle matters by little and little in order to be gone. Thus are the Cities fallen into misery by the Tyranny of the Government, as well as the rest of the Kingdom.   
The End of the First Memorial.   

THE SIGHS OF FRANCE IN SLAVERY, Breathing after LIBERTY.  
The SECOND MEMORIAL.  
Done out of FRENCH.  
LONDON, Printed for D. Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultry, 1689.   

THE SIGHS of FRANCE in SLAVERY, etc.  

II. Memorial. Of the Fifteenth of September, 1689.  
Of the Oppression of the People; of the Excessive Imposts, and of the ill laying out of the Revenues.  
AFter the Oppression of the Church, of the Nobles, of the Parliaments, and the Cities, we must see the Oppression of the People. It is fitting first to understand that in the present Government all is People. Quality, Distinction, Merit and Birth, are things no longer known. The Royal Authority is mounted so high, that all Distinctions vanish, all Lights are swallowed up: For in the Elevation that Monarch has attained to, all Humane Mortals are but the Dust of his Feet. Thus under the name of the People, Oppression and Misery have been spread over the Noblest and most elevated parts of the State. This Oppression of the People is first occasioned by the prodigious number of Imposts, and by the excessive Levies of Moneys that are made throughout all France. The matter of Imposts and Finances is now a-days a Science in France, and a man must be very shrew and able to speak of them pertinently: but it is sufficient that we say what we feel of them, and what the People know of them. There is a personal Tax, and a real Tax. There is an Impost upon Salt, upon Wines, upon Merchandizes, upon Funds, upon Rents. This unhappy Age has produced a Volume of Names, most of which were unknown to our Ancestors: or if any of those Names were known, they were not odious, by reason of the Moderation with which Tributes were imposed and laid. Now a thousand Channels are opened, through which the Blood of the People and Subjects is drawn, to be made to pour into the Abyss of the Princes insatiable greediness and immoderate Ambition. This is termed Taille, Gabelle, Aids, domains, Dovanes, Taillen, Subsistence, Winter-quarters, Garrisons, Marks of Silver and Tin, Law; Paper, Francseille, Impost upon Tobacco, Controole des Exploits, Griffe des Affirmations, Ayzez, Francfiefs, Inquiries by the Courts of Justice, Duties upon Wood, Entretiens de Tursies and Levies, Duties upon Water and Forests, Ban and Arriereban, whence there is no Redemption save by paying; Parties Casuelles, Sales of Offices of Justice, Policy and Financy, Creation of new Rents, creation of new Offices, Polette, Finances for the preparation of Places, Taxes upon those that have managed the King's Affairs; and an infinite number of others that do not occur to our Memory; or which perhaps we know not, they being little known save by those that are concerned in them. And it is of no use for my Intention, to make known to you the particulars of those Imposts, for the making you sensible of their Injustice and Weight. It is sufficient for the scope we have proposed to ourselves, to make known to you the horrible Oppression of those Imposts.  
1. By the Immense Sums that are exacted.  
2. By the violence and excesses that are committed in raising them.  
3. By the ill Use that is made of them.  
4. And lastly, by the Misery the People are reduced to.  
First, Dear and unhappy Country men, you must know, that the Imposts which are exacted of you, do possibly make up a greater sum than that which all the Princes of Europe together do derive from their Dominions. It is certain that France pays two hundred Millions in Imposts, near three quarters whereof go into the King's Coffers, and the rest goes for the Charges of the gathering, for the Farmers, for the Officers, for the Guards, for the Receivers, for the gains of the Financiers, and to erect new Fortunes, which are almost made in a day. For the raising the bare Impost on Salt, there is a vast Army of Officers and Archers: Now I lay it down as matter of Fact, and which I would prove at the peril of my Life, that all the Kings of Spain, England, Sweden, Denmark, the Emperor, all the Princes of Germany and Italy, the Republics of Venice and Holland, out of time of War do not derive from their Dominions two hundred Millions of ordinary Tribute; the thing is notorious, and I fancy that no body calls it in question. I beseech you to have attention to this, and examine whether ever prodigy of Tyranny proceeded so far: Now on the other side there is no saying that France is as large as the rest of Europe, for it makes but the tenth part of it; nor is it to be said that it is a sign of its Wealth, for France has its sandy Grounds and its Deserts as well as other Countries; it has very good and very fertile Cantons, but other Countries have also the like; it has nothing that comes near the fertility of Flanders, and of Holland, or of Hungary; it has fewer uncultivated Lands than Spain, it has full as many as Germany and Italy: thus there is no other cause of those immense Revenues of the Crown than the Violence and Tyranny of the Government; this is a sensible proof of it, and against which nothing can be answered. The Court does annually exact of the Realm, possibly four or five times more than there is Money in Commerce; and if the Treasury had all at once, all that is drawn from the State, there would not be so much as one single Penny in the rest of the Kingdom: Thus all the Money in France must pass four or five times at least through the Hands of the King's Officers.  
If the Tyranny is evident and clear, in the immense sums which are raised upon France, it is no less so in the manner of raising them. People have established Kings for the preservation of the Persons, Lives, Liberties and Goods of individuals; but the Government of France is mounted to that excess of Tyranny, that now the Prince looks upon all as belongfng to him in Property: He imposes Tribute, and such as he pleases, without consulting either the People, or Grandees, or States, or Parliaments. I am going to tell you a thing which is certain, which a thousand People know, though most of our Frenchmen are ignorant of it: Under the Ministry of Monsieur Colbert it was had in Consultation whether the King should not put himself in actual Possession of all the Funds, and all the Lands of France, and whether they should not all be reduced into Royal Demesne, to be enjoyed and settled on whom the Court should think convenient, without having regard either to ancient Possession, or to Inheritance, or to other Rights, just as the Mahometan Princes of Turkey, Persia, and Mogul, have made themselves Masters in Property of all Funds, and the Possession of which they give to whom they think fitting, but only for Life: Monsieur Colbert sent for a 
* Bernier.  famous Traveller, who had spent several Years in the Eastern Courts, and examined him a long time about the manner of administering those Estates; and this induced the Traveller to publish a Letter directed to that Minister, wherein he endeavours to show that this Unhappy Tyranny is the Cause that the finest Countries in the East are become Deserts; no Body any longer possesses any Fund in Property, wherefore no Body any longer thinks of improving them; they draw from them as much as they can; they exhaust them, as knowing they only possess them during Life; nay, and this is the occasion that Men marry very little, have only Concubines, and scatter themselves in a thousand dirty barren Pleasures, because they have it not at heart to raise up Families, to which they have nothing to leave. See, I beseech you, to what a pass you are come, and under what Government you live; when there shall come an Administrator of the Finances, that shall be a degree bolder than was Monsieur Colbert; all your Inheritances will be wrested from you in one day, you will become Farmers, and pay to your Prince the rent of all your Properties. The main of the thing is already done; already is the Prince persuaded that he has a right to do this; the Considerations of Conscience are already annihilated, he has only been detained by reasons of State: Be assured that Reasous of State are not eternal Truths, and that they change when occasion offers.  
How many Excesses and Violences are there committed in the Levy of the Imposts? the smallest Collector of the Excise is a sacred Person, has an absolute Power over Gentlemen, over the Members of Justice, and over all the People; one blow given is capable of ruining the most potent of Subjects: They take away out of houses, Movables, , Money, Corn, Wine, and all that is found. The Prisons are full of miserable Wretches, that are obliged to answer for sums which they have imposed upon other Wretches that cannot pay what is exacted of them. Nothing is more harsh and cruel than the Impost upon Salt: People are made to pay ten or twelve Pence the Pound, for a thing which Nature, the Sun and the Sea gives us for nothing, and which might be had for a Farthing. Under colour of raising the Deuce upon Salt, the Kingdom is covered with a vast Army of Villains, called, Archers de la Gabelle, who go into Houses with Authority, break into the most secret Places, and fail not of finding false. Salt, wherever they think Money may be found; the poor Wretches are fined immense sums, they are forced to rot in Prisons, Families are ruined. Salt is imposed in most places, and each Family is forced to take three times more than it can spend. In countries' bordering upon the Sea, they will not suffer the poor Peasunt to carry away the Sea-water, they break his Pitcher, beat the People, and imprison them. In a word, there is no sort of Violence but is thereby committed, as well as by raising the other Imposts, which is performed with horrible Charges, seizures of the Fruits, Imprisonments, Pleas before the Commissioners and Court of Aids, Expenses that exceed the Principal: They put into the hands of the Rabble the means of revenging themselves on their Enemies, and of mortifying People of fashion. A Collector imposes upon a Man a Tax twice or thrice beyond his Revenue: Now what Remedy? You must pay by Provision three or four hundred Crowns, to which a Man is taxed, who does not possess the moiety of that Revenue; afterwards you are to look for your remedy, that is to say, mount from Bar to Bar unto the sovereign Court, plead three or four Years, spend in Law three times as much as the Principal is worth, and at the end of all this get nothing; for they who manage the King's Affairs, and look after his Deuce, have always reason, and are always in the right. France is one of the Countries in the World the most abounding in Wine, and this was formerly its Wealth, but is now its Poverty: The Imposts upon Wines (as well Wines that are transported as those that stay at home) are so great, that they almost swallow up all, and the Proprietor has nothing.  
Thus is all France reduced to the utmost Poverty. In the former Reigns, that is to say, since the Ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, and under that of Cardinal Mazarine, France was already loaden with great Imposts, but the manner of raising them, though it was very just, yet did much less exhaust the Kingdom than the manner of raising them now: At that time Credit and Protection had room; the Gentleman that had Credit protected his Parish, and especially his Farmers, and caused their Taxes to be diminished: The great Lord screened his Vassals from Oppression; the Judge and the Magistrate had his People whom he upheld; few rich Persons were there but made Friends to shelter themselves from Oppression. Thus the whole burden fell upon People without Protection, and without Friends, who indeed were utterly miserable: But at least there remained in the Kingdom a vast number of People who were at their ease, and who did Honour to the State: The present Government has succeeded that; Monsieur Colbert has made a Project of Reformation of the Finances, and has caused it to be executed with the utmost rigour: But wherein does this Reformation consist? It is not to lessen the Imposts for the ease of the People? it is in augmenting them very much, by spreading them over all those that formerly put themselves under cover by their own Credit, and that of their Friends. The Gentleman has no longer any Credit to obtain the diminution of the Tax to his Parish, his Farmer's pay as well as others, and more. The Officers of Justice, Lords, and other Persons of Character, have now no longer any Credit, to the Prejudice of the King's Revenue; all pays, this is a mighty Air, a mighty show of Justice: But what has this fair Justice produced? It has ruined all People: The Wretches whom the Imposts have ruined in the former Years have been discharged, but that discharge can in no wise contribute to the raising them up again; they have now nothing left, and of nothing nothing comes. And besides the burdens that have been left upon them, though something less, are more than sufficient to hinder them from getting up again. In the mean while, those who had Protection, having no longer any, they bear the burden in their turns, and by this means all is ruined without exception. Thus you see to what that great shrewdness in Finances does redound, that was so much boasted of in the late Monsieur Colbert: He has augmented the King's Revenues above the half.  
First, He has augmented the Imposts.  
Secondly, He has assigned the raising of them upon all People that were at their ease in the Kingdom. And,  
Finally, He has retrenched the great Gains of the Financiers: He has stretched the King's Farms to the utmost extremity: They who take up the King's Dues, have nothing more left to gain by, those Sponges are squeezed dry. Much the same Method did we use to make People of Business disgorge all they had got in the former Ministry. Courts of Justice have been erected, wherein the superintendent Foucquet, as also all Intendants of the Finances, Treasurers of the Exchequer, Traitans, Farmers, Receivers, even to petty Clarks, are made to come to an Account: They have been made to restore all they had taken, nay, and all they had not taken, with unheard of Violences and Injustice: The only Justice there has been in this Prosecution, is, that those Gentlemen who had done great Injustices to private Persons and other Individuals, have run the Gauntlet of the same Injustice, under the King and Governments Authority. Thus do they exact and raise Imposts; if this be not the utmost Tyranny, I must own that I understand nothing of the matter.  
After this if we consider the use that has been made of those immense Sums that are levied with so many Excesses and Exactions, we shall therein also see all the Characters of Oppression and Tyranny. It sometimes happens that Princes and Sovereigns make Levies that seem excessive, and which indeed do extremely incommode individuals: But this is when they are forced thereunto, by what is called the Needs and Necessities of the State: There is no such like thing in France; there is neither Needs nor State: No State: Formerly the State entered every where, nought else was discoursed of save the Interests of the State, of the Needs of the State, of the Preservation of the State, of the Service of the State; to speak so now a-dayes, would literally be accounted a Crime of High Treason. The King has taken the Place of the State: It is for the King's Service, it is the King's Interest, it is for the Preservation of the King's Provinces and Revenues. In short, the King is all, and the State is no longer any thing; and these are not only words and terms, they are realities. At the French Court there is now no other Interest known than the Kings Personal Interest, that is to say, His Grandeur and his Glory: This is the Idol to which are sacrificed Princes, Grandees, the Little, Families, Provinces, Cities, Finances, and generally all. Thus it is not for the good of the State that these horrible exactions are made, for there is no longer any thing of the State, nor is it for Needs; for France never had fewer, excepting within these few Months; for these thirty Years it had no Enemies, save such as it would by all means incur: It might have lived in perfect Tranquillity, All the Powers of Europe that might give it any Umbrage were brought low: The Thrones were possessed either by Infant Princes, or by Sovereigns of a mean Capacity, and of a calm, a peaceable humour, exempt from ambition. The Treaties of Munster and of the Pyrences had extended its Frontiers, and had put under cover its ancient Provinces by the New Countries that had been yielded to it. Never did France see so propitious a time, and so proper to live happy in, and to become rich and powerful. And on the contrary, never did its misery and slavery mount to so high a pitch: Wherefore its Money has not been employed in its defence, and in repelling the Invasions of the Enemy.  
This Money is only employed in fostering and serving the greatest Self-love, and the vastest Pride that ever was. It is so vast an Abyss, that it would have swallowed up not only the Wealth of the whole Kingdom, but that of all other States, if it could have seized it, as it endeavoured to do. The King has caused more false Incense to be given him, than all the Demigods of the Pagans have had real: Never was Flattery pushed to such a degree: Never did Man love Praises and vain glory to the point that Prince has courted it. He fosters in his Court and about him a crowd of Flatterers, that enhance upon one another: He not only permits the erecting of 
* The Statue of the Place des Victoires, with this Inscription, Viro Immortali.  Statues to him, on the foot of which are engraven Blasphemies to his Honour, and below which are fettered all the Nations of the World in Chains; but he himself causes himself to be put into Gold, Silver, Brass, Copper, Marble, Cloth, Pictures, Paintings, triumphant Arches, Inscriptions: He fills all Paris, all his Palaces, and the whole Kingdom with his Name and his Deeds; as if he had left the Alexanders, the Caesars, and all the Heroes of Antiquity a thousand leagues behind him: And all for having snapped from a weak and minour Prince, three or four Provinces; for having known to take advantage of the Divisions of the Empire, and of the little Union and Understanding that is between its Members; for having stripped a poor Duke; for having purchased several important places; for having desolated half of his own Kingdom by the persecution of Calvinism. Thus you see what the Greatness of Lewis the great amounts to, it is a self-love of an immense greatness. And it is that enormous passion which devours so many Riches, and to which so many Sacrifices are made.  
Thus the immense Revenues of the Crown are employed, First in sumptuous Buildings, for the King's glory. We shall never know what Versailles cost; and should we know it and say it, Posterity would never believe it in the least. It costs nothing to build and erect stately Piles, with prodigious charges, then pull them down again, to raise them up afresh upon a new Platform, issuing from the Caprice of an Architect coming from God knows where. His Ancestors were not well enough lodged: The Lovure, Fountainbleau, S. , were too small to lodge such a Prince; something greater and more magnificent than all this was necessary. That the King's Grandeur might appear the more, it was requisite to build that magnificent Palace in a place disgraced by Nature, and bring thither all the Ornaments which it was deprived of, with prodigious Expenses. It is a Place dry and without Water, and to convey Waters thither the face of Nature must be changed, Valleys be made where there were Mountains, Waters raised up to the Clouds, the Current of Rivers diverted, Ponds and Lakes made in places where there were no other than sandy Grounds: Who can reckon the Millions of Gold that have been spent, and the Thousands of Men that have perished in the bare Works of the River of Ewer? Is it not a mighty Delight for a State that finds its Veins drained to the very last drop of its Blood, and its Bowels torn out of its Bosom, to see them employed for the erecting Eternal Monuments to the Vanity of the Prince? Will it not be a solid advantage for the Kingdom, when it shall be one day said that it is a Work of Lewis the Great? He has consumed therein two or three hundred Millions; He has forced Nature; He has buried more Lead in the Entrails of the Earth, than is got out of Mines in several years; He has spared nothing to enrich it with Marbles, Guildings, Paintings, rich Movables, precious Jewels that have been purchased or brought from all parts of the World. After this, who can have any regret for his Money, his Movables, his Funds, that have been torn away by Exactions?  
So great a Prince, so superbly lodged, cannot be at any mean Expense in so great a House. Wherefore, in it, must be consumed in Tables, in Officers, in Mistresses, in Trains that are kept for them, in Fortunes conferred upon their Relations, in Feasts, Operas, Comedies, Ballets, in what is called Apartments, in Presents to Women and Favourites, in Guards and in Pensions, there must, I say, be expended once or twice more than was formerly expended in the maintaining of Armies and the Frontier Places of the State. Is not this well laying out the Money of the Kingdom? Can it be questioned but that the King is all, and that His Self-love is the Divinity to which all is sacrificed? The King makes some Expenses which seem to be for the Public: He has caused a Canal to be made for the Conjunction of the two Seas. This is for the conveniency of Commerce. I know not whether the Prince is Himself the Cully of his own Heart. But no body questions but that this prodigious Undertaking, which can never be accomplished, was formed out of a principle of Vainglory as well as the rest. It is to leave to Posterity a Monument of his Grandeur by the prodigious Expenses He shall have been at in such a Work. The truth is, that it will not subsist, and that the Floods will ruin it the first year it shall be neglected; and that at the long run it will be abandoned, because the Expense of the Maintenance will by much surpass the profit. But no matter; these will be great Ruins that will denote the Greatness of Soul of Him that formed the Project of them, and upon which will be written Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excedit ausis.  
Would you know another Article of Expense which consumes prodigious Sums? It is the immense Liberalities bestowed upon Favourites, the making of Creatures and new Princes in the World. The Family of Tellier possesses, possibly, fourscore or a hundred Millions of Land; the Family of Colbert has much about the same, and others proportionably. There are Subjects in France much richer than are several Sovereigns in Europe, who, nevertheless, make a fair figure. If regard was had to the State and to its Interests, the Expenses could not be worse laid out; for the new Grandees that start up from the Dirt, and mount up to the side of the Throne, only serve to pull down the ancient Houses, and bring them to nothing. They are the Tyrants of the State, and the Bloodsuckers. It would be much more useful that the Wealth was spread among the Public, than Pocketed by one private Person. It may be said to be Wealth lost for the Kingdom, for out of those great Reservers into which the King causes all the substance of his Subjects to flow, there never comes out any thing again for the good of the State, since that those great Families are exempt from all charges. In fine, there is injustice in reducing so many Families to Beggary, for the causing People of a low and mean Birth to live in a Royal abundance, and in the midst of a thousand superfluities. But no matter, this makes, and this proves the Prince's Greatness. These are Colossuses, that show the vast Imagination and great Capacity of the Workman. People will one day show those stately Houses of rue Erection, and say, Those are the Works of Lewis the Great; judge how great He was that made them. Unless it comes to pass that a new Star should rise with the Successor, which should pour upon those new-raised Houses the very same Influences as those which have desolated the Foucquets and his like, which every Individual hopes for his Comfort and Revenge.  
Let's lastly come to the Expenses that seem the best laid out. The King expends infinitely in Pensions. Hardly is there a Prince in Europe but to whom He is become tributary. Where He cannot gain the Prince Himself with Money, He gains Favourites, the Ministers, and oftentimes the Princess, who sleeps in the Sovereign's Bosom; they are paid large Pensions, Presents are made them: and by this means our Court reigns ; the King expends infinitely in Armies and in Troops. In the midst of Peace He maintains more Forces than the most Warlike of his Ancestors did maintain in the most cruel Wars. He makes War upon his Neighbours, which ever redound to his profit. In Wars He lugs after him prodigious Armies, but He has also augmented the Kingdom with Five great Provinces, Alsace, la Franche Comte, Lorraine, Luxembourg and Flanders, which make a Kingdom, and render France the terror of all Europe. Can Expenses be better employed? and can one have regret for what one has lost, since the Public has gained so much thereby? In effect it is an Expense well laid out, supposing the Principle they now build at Court, That the Prince is all, that the People is nothing, and that all aught only to tend to the King's Grandeur. For certainly all this serves to compose the Surname of Great, which is added to the Name of Lewis. But if instead of this false Principle we suppose the true Principle, which is, That the Good of the State and of the Public aught to be the Sovereign's Law, it would appear that what is called the Glory of France, is the greatest of all its Evils. Because that those Conquests (of which so much Honour is made) are unjust, odious and burdensome to the State. They are unjust. Our Money and our Forces have served to seize three Provinces from a Pupil King, under I know not what Title. And in virtue of a certain Right of the Children of the first Marriages, which has only vigour in some Places of Brabant, which only regards private Persons: Nay, and to which Renunciation had been made by Marrying the Daughter of Spain, by an Act as express and solemn as had ever been made. Our Money is laid out to gain Ministers in Foreign Courts, that so they may persuade their Masters to sell us Places. Thus did we acquire Dunkirk from the English, and Cazal from the Duke of Mantua, that have cost so many Millions. Our Finances are squandered away in paying Traitors that sell us Towns, or facilitate the Conquest of them to us. Thus was Strasbourg acquired, and most of the Conquered Countries. In fine, the Money of the Realm is laid out to maintain numerous Armies, and carry on unjust Wars, which render the French Name odious to all Europe, persuade the World that France aims at the Universal Monarchy, and that it thinks to attain thereunto by Infidelities, Treasons, Violences, Violation of the most holy Treaties, of Peace's, Capitulations, by unheard-of Barbarities, by Burn, and dismal Desolations. Though Conquests were worth any thing to us, were they to be purchased at such a rate?  
But furthermore, Who is there but sees that the Conquests, instead of proving the Grandeur of State, are onorous to it, and its ruin? We are mad, and it is our folly that fosters our slavery. When the King wins a Battle, takes a City, subdues a Province, we make Bonfires, and no pitiful poor Creature but fancies himself raised a foot higher, and annexes the Greatness of the King to his own Idea. This rewards him for all his Losses, and comforts him for all his Miseries. And He does not consider that He loses gradually as the King gains. First, the Prince's Greatness does ever prove the Misery of his Subjects. For the more Puissant a Prince is, the more He abandons Himself to his Passions, because He satisfies them with the more ease. Now Ambition, Avarice, Luxury, Expenses, are ever the Passions of the Great. With the more ease they oppress, the more they oppress. And accordingly we see that the Subjects of Princes Potent in Demesns, in Money, in Provinces, in Arms, are ever the most wretched and the most oppressed. Let us but view in the East how People live under those powerful Emperors of Turkey, Persia, and the great Mogul; wherefore it is the Interest of the People to keep their Kings in a mediocrity of Power, that so they may not oppress their Liberty. Secondly, Now should I be glad that our Frenchmen, who pride themselves so much in five or six Provinces, and above two hundred places which the King has conquered or built, from Dunkirk as far as Basle, I should be glad, I say, they would tell me at whose costs those Provinces are kept, guarded and maintained? The new Subjects are Lions and Wolves that are held by the Ears; they gnash their teeth, and are ever ready to devour, as soon as they see an opportunity for so doing: They have an abhorrence for the French sway, and only watch for occasions to cast off its Yoke; wherefore they are ever to be under Guards. And indeed we have not been contented with the ancient Citadels that were found in the conquered Provinces: New ones have been built throughout all Flanders, on the Sarre, on the Rhine, and even to the Gates of Basle. How many Garrisons, how many Governors are there to be maintained? I lay it down as matter of Fact, that the King does not receive from those conquered Countries the half quarter of what is necessary to keep them; who is it that furnishes the rest? Is it not the ancient Demesne of the Crown? Does it not come from the ancient Provinces? Thus you see what the Provinces of Normandy, Britain, Champagne, Guyenne, Languedock, etc. gain by the matter: They must furnish thirty or forty Millions to maintain the King's Grandeur, and preserve his Conquests. Lastly, To be fully convinced how much these New Conquests are burdensome to the State, consider the jealousy of the Neighbours; though these New Subjects should be subdued, and accustomed to obey the King, their Neighbours would then be accustomed to see him possess their substance, and their ancient Patrimony: And would they not be under apprehensions, that by leaving him what he has already taken, they should afford him the means of taking what he has not yet in his hands. To proceed with the same rapidity France has done, the most Christian King would be Master of all Europe in twenty Years time: This is well understood, and this is what will ever egg on our Neighbours to make Leagues and conspire our Ruin: You see the Effect of the Prophecy. Whence comes this formidable League of all Christian Princes, who unanimously conspire our Ruin, save from the Jealousy created in them by the King's greatness? wheresore France must perpetually keep great Armies on foot, and who shall pay them? it will not be the Country newly conquered: On the contrary, that must be eased, that so it may not join with our Enemies; and besides, it will be looked upon as sufficiently galled, by being the Stage of War. Thus it is the old Kingdom of France that must bear all the burdens, and which is already overwhelmed with the weight of its New Conquests. Now this is the use made of the Finances, and of the immense Sums squeezed out of us.  
Now to make manifest the Oppression the People are under from the Imposts, it is expedient to describe the miseries France has thereby been reduced to: But it is requisite to draw the Curtain over this Object; nothing ought to be said upon it, because enough cannot be said upon it: It is requisite for a Body to be here as we are to speak of it well; the Kingdom is so lessened, speaking generally, that there is a quarter part, or third, fewer Inhabitants than there were fifty Years ago: With exception to Paris, whither all People flock as to a Sanctuary, and which by this means daily augments; the Cities are the half lessened in Riches and Inhabitants: Some had enriched themselves by Commerce, but the failure of Commerce ruins them: Other Cities, especially the smaller, are half Desert: There are Cities that paid the King thirty or forty thousand Livres that now cannot furnish ten. The upper Country is become desolate: The Burroughs and Villages are hardly ought other than Dilapidations; several Lands are uncultivated for want of hands to cultivate them: The Peasant lives after the most wretched manner imaginable, and they are as black and tawny as the Slaves of Africa, and all that is in them proclaims their misery. Money is no longer to be found in the Provinces, the Noblesse is beggarly, the Citizen in distress; those who have Money conceal it as if they concealed a Criminal of State at their House. No other Money is now seen than what turns into the King's Coffers.   
The End of the Second Memorial.  
FINIS.   

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