territory[2], and to each thousand of inhabitants, one noble family in
its weathercock mansion. In each village there is a curate and his
church, and, every six or seven leagues, a community of men or of
women. We have here the ancient chieftains and founders of France;
thus entitled, they still enjoy many possessions and many rights.

II. Their Possessions, Capital, and Revenue.

Let us always keep in mind what they were, in order to comprehend
what they are. Great as their advantages may be, these are merely the
remains of still greater advantages. This or that bishop or abbot,
this or that count or duke, whose successors make their bows at
Versailles, was formerly the equals of the Carlovingians and the first
Capets. A Sire de Montlhéry held King Philippe I in check.[3] The
abbey of St. Germain des Prés possessed 430,000 hectares of land
(about 900,000 acres), almost the extent of an entire department. We
need not be surprised that they remained powerful, and, especially,
rich; no stability is greater than that of an. associative body. After
eight hundred years, in spite of so many strokes of the royal ax, and
the immense change in the culture of society, the old feudal root
lasts and still vegetates. We remark it first in the distribution of
property.[4] A fifth of the soil belongs to the crown and the
communes, a fifth to the Third-Estate, a fifth to the rural
population, a fifth to the nobles and a fifth to the clergy.
Accordingly, if we deduct the public lands, the privileged classes own
one-half of the kingdom. This large portion, moreover, is at the same
time the richest, for it comprises almost all the large and imposing
buildings, the palaces, castles, convents, and cathedrals, and almost
all the valuable movable property, such as furniture, plate, objects
of art, the accumulated masterpieces of centuries.-- We can judge of