The Physiocrats advocated as a remedy for this injustice a system which should make the taxes proportionate to each one’s productive riches. Turgot, taking the first step towards the realization of this idea, said, in defense of his proposal for the abolition of _corvées_, February, 1776: “The expenses of government having for their object the interest of all, all should contribute to them; and the more one enjoys the advantages of society, the more one should regard himself honored in sharing the expenses.[34] But his efforts were vain; for the privileged classes esteemed their exemptions too highly to submit tamely to a burdensome reform; hence they stubbornly persisted in their resistance to innovations in the customary methods of collecting taxes. Nevertheless there was a growing sentiment in favor of reform;[35] so that when the _cahiers_ of 1789 were prepared, the majority of those of the higher orders acceded to an equal partition in the burdens of the fisc.[36] “Art. 14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, upon the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put, and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection, and the duration of the taxes.” The French monarch, as in other European countries, from the time that the royal domains were found insufficient to meet the governmental expenses, was engaged in a continual struggle with the nation over the right to grant subsidies. The nation asserted only sporadically and incoherently its right to vote these supplies. For the French did not manifest that persistent and determined resistance to appropriations, unrequited by redress of political grievances, which their English neighbors exhibited so often and in such a marked degree. Nevertheless, during a minority or under a weak monarch, when able popular leaders flourished, the cause of the people was more stubbornly maintained. The States General claimed this guardianship in earlier days; but in the two centuries previous to the Revolution it was the _Parlement_ of Paris that contended with increasing vigor and obstinacy against the arbitrary exactions of the king. As a final resort, it asserted, July 30, 1787, that “le principe constitutionnel de la monarchie française était que les impôts fussent consentis par ceux qui devraient les supporter.”[37] The continued and inextricable confusion of finances was the immediate cause of the calling of the Notables, and later of the States General. So far had the public sentiment reacted against the actual fiscal mismanagement, that the _cashier_ were well-nigh unanimous in seeking for the nation the right to grant subsidies.[38] “Art. 15. Society has a right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.”