having any knowledge of his personal income, he may pay whatever seems
to him proper. There are no proceedings against him, if he is a noble;
the greatest circumspection is used towards persons of high rank. "In
the provinces," says Turgot, " the capitation-tax of the privileged
classes has been successively reduced to an exceedingly small matter,
whilst the capitation-tax of those who are liable to the taille is
almost equal to the aggregate of that tax." And finally, "the
collectors think that they are obliged to act towards them with marked
consideration" even when they owe; "the result of which," says Necker,
"is that very ancient, and much too large amounts, of their
capitation-tax remain unpaid." Accordingly, not having been able to
repel the assault of the revenue services in front they evaded it or
diminished it until it became almost unobjectionable. In Champagne, on
nearly 1,500,000 livres provided by the capitation-tax, they paid in
only 14,000 livres," that is to say, "2 sous and 2 deniers for the
same purpose which costs 12 sous per livre to those chargeable with
the taille." According to Calonne, "if concessions and privileges had
been suppressed the vingtièmes would have furnished double the
amount." In this respect the most opulent were the most skillful in
protecting themselves. "With the intendants," said the Duc d'Orleans,
"I settle matters, and pay about what I please," and he calculated
that the provincial administration, rigorously taxing him, would cause
him to lose 300,000 livres rental. It has been proved that the princes
of the blood paid, for their two-twentieths, 188,000 instead of
2,400,000 livres. In the main, in this régime, exception from taxation
is the last remnant of sovereignty or, at least, of independence. The
privileged person avoids or repels taxation, not merely because it
despoils him, but because it belittles him; it is a mark of the
commoner, that is to say, of former servitude, and he resists the fisc
(the revenue services) as much through pride as through interest.