[Footnote 2202: Perhaps we are here at the core of why all regimes end up becoming corrupt, inefficient and sick; their leaders take their privileges for granted and become more and more inattentive to the work which must be done if the people are to be kept at work and possible adversaries kept under control. (SR.)] [Footnote 2203: A special tax paid the king by a plebeian owning a fief. (TR)] [Footnote 2204: The right to an income from trust funds. (SR.)] [Footnote 2205: Arthur Young, I. 209, 223. "If the communes steadily refuse what is now offered to them, they put immense and certain benefits to the chance of fortune, to that hazard which may make posterity curse instead of bless their memories as real patriots who had nothing in view but the happiness of their country."] [Footnote 2206: According to valuations by the Constituent Assembly, the tax on real estate ought to bring 240,000,000 francs, and provide one-fifth of the net revenue of France, estimated at 1,200,000,000. Additionally, the personal tax on movable property, which replaced the capitation, ought to bring 60,000,000. Total for direct taxation, 300,000,000, or one-fourth--that is to say, twenty-five per cent, of the net revenue.--If the direct taxation had been maintained up to the rate of the ancient régime (190,000,000, according to Necker's report in May, 1689), this impost would only have provided one-sixth of the net revenue, or sixteen percent.] [Footnote 2207: Dumont, 267. (The words of Mirabeau three months before his death:) "Ah, my friend, how right we were at the start when we wanted to prevent the commons from declaring themselves the National Assembly! That was the source of the evil. They wanted to rule the King, instead of ruling through him."] [Footnote 2208: Gouverneur Morris, April 29, 1789 (on the principles of the future constitution), "One generation at least will be required to render the public familiar with them."] [Footnote 2209: Cf. "The Ancient Régime," book II, ch. III.] [Footnote 2210: French women did not obtain the right to vote until 1946. (SR.)] [Footnote 2211: According to Voltaire ("L'Homme aux Quarante Écus"), the average duration of human life was only twenty-three years.] [Footnote 2212: Mercure, July 6, 1790. According to the report of Camus (sitting of July 2nd), the official total of pensions amounted to thirty-two millions; but if we add the gratuities and allowances out of the various treasuries, the actual total was fifty-six millions.]