ancient rights again restrain the fiscal hand. The clearer the
resemblance of the proprietor to the ancient independent sovereign
the greater his immunity. - In some places a recent treaty guarantees
him by his position as a stranger, by his almost royal extraction. "In
Alsace foreign princes in possession, with the Teutonic order and the
order of Malta, enjoy exemption from all real and personal
contributions." "In Lorraine the chapter of Remiremont has the
privilege of assessing itself in all state impositions."[13] Elsewhere
he is protected by the maintenance of the provincial Assemblies, and
through the incorporation of the nobility with the soil: in Languedoc
and in Brittany the commoners alone paid the taille[14] -Everywhere
else his quality preserved him from it, him, his chateau and the
chateau's dependencies; the taille reaches him only through his
farmers. And better still, it is sufficient that he himself should
work, or his steward, to communicate to the land his original
independence. As soon as he touches the soil, either personally or
through his agent, he exempts four plowing-areas (quatre charrues),
three hundred arpents,[15] which in other hands would pay 2,000 francs
tax. Besides this he is excempt on "the woods, the meadows, the vines,
the ponds and the enclosed land belonging to the chateau, of whatever
extent it may be." Consequently, in Limousin and elsewhere, in regions
principally devoted to pasturage or to vineyards, he takes care to
manage himself, or to have managed, a certain portion of his domain;
in this way he exempts it from the tax collector.[16] There is yet
more. In Alsace, through an express covenant he does not pay a cent of
tax. Thus, after the assaults of four hundred and fifty years,
taxation, the first of fiscal instrumentalities, the most burdensome
of all, leaves feudal property almost intact.[17] -- For the last
century, two new tools, the capitation-tax and the vingtièmes, appear
more effective, and yet are but little more so. - First of all,