Article 15 was both theoretical and reactionary against actual abuses. If the nation was to be supreme over all of its agents, it could only hope effectually to maintain that superiority by holding all its functionaries strictly accountable. Practical experience under the monarchy in the collection and the expenditure of finances had impressed an effective lesson upon the French people of the abuses incident to irresponsible officers. The _Cour des Aides_, in its noteworthy remonstrance of 1775, reviewed the status of the financial administration. The injustice of the _ferme_, the arbitrariness of the bureaucracy, the complexity of the system, the failure of popular petitions to reach the throne, and the need of thorough reform, were clearly set forth.[39] Then, too, Necker, by the publication of his _Compte rendu_ (1781) and _L’Administration des finances_ (1785), had afforded the nation a glimpse of public finances imperfect, yet in the highest degree stimulating to its curiosity.[40] As an illustration of the status of public opinion, the Notables in 1787 demanded that some report of receipts and expenses should be published annually, and that capable men, foreign to the administration, should be called to the _conseil des finances_ for reviewing the work.[41] Here, too, the _cahiers_ were practically a unit in their demands. “Art. 17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.” Private property under the _ancien régime_ was not sacred. De Tocqueville cites the following, which may serve us for illustration of the condition: “A royal declaration was made, suspending in time of war repayment of all loans contracted by towns, villages, colleges, communities, hospitals, charitable houses, trade corporations and others, repayable out of town dues by us conceded, though the instrument securing the said loans stipulates for the payment of interest in the case of non-payment at the stipulated time. Thus not only is the obligation of repayment at the stipulated terms suspended, but the security itself is impaired.”[42] This article, seventeenth, was also reactive against the grievous and burdensome _corvées_, military convoys, and forced transportation of convicts.[43] The remaining seven articles are more theoretical, covering the doctrines of liberty, equality, natural and inalienable rights, national sovereignty, the social contract and the separation of powers. The views expressed were, in the main, accepted at least in theory in the American States. France was not, however, indebted to the colonies for them; although their germinal ideas had been introduced from the teachings of foreign writers, notably from the English, they had grown up in France largely as a home product.