"Et que la noblesse, quelque ancienne qu'elle soit, ni aucun emploi, charge ni dignité, soit un titre pour dispenser nos sujets de payer les impositions réelles et personnelles." II. The subsisting divisions of the Provinces into districts "of greater or less extent" shall remain very much as before. They shall retain their ancient usages, but notwithstanding shall be mutually independent in respect of administration. III. Each District shall be further subdivided into cities, boroughs, and parishes (or divisions composed of several villages); and each of these subdivisions shall have its own officers charged with matters of finance and police. These officers shall be chosen from among the persons living, and holding property, in the place itself. The election shall take place in an annual meeting (assemblée) convened for the purpose. IV. Immediate steps shall be taken to prepare a Schedule, or statement of property and income, to cover each District and to serve as the basis of assessment. V. In each District there shall be holden an annual Assembly, which shall last fifteen days, and which shall consist of: (_a_) The officers of the principal city of the District. (_b_) One deputy from each of the boroughs. (_c_) A certain number of the officers of the Parishes and smaller divisions (arrondissements) to be returned in rotation. The holders of large landed properties may also attend. In this Assembly the financial and other affairs of the District shall be transacted, and deputies shall be chosen to represent the District in the Provincial Estates. "_La liberté est l'appui du Trône: l'ordre rend légitime la liberté._"--"Considérations" (1764). VI. In each of the Provinces of our Realm there shall be holden Provincial Estates, which shall consist of deputies chosen in the District Assemblies. The Estates shall also include certain great landholders (Propriétaires), to whom the perpetual right to be present at the Estates will be granted in consideration of the dignity and extent of their possessions in the Province, of which they shall be regarded as the Peers. VII. Such members of the nobility as have a right to attend the Estates shall have certain privileges of ceremony and none other. It is our pleasure that the nobility do not constitute a separate body in the said Estates; and that no person of birth, however noble, shall be present, who is not either a deputy from some District, or who does not hold property which connects his interests intimately with those of the Province. Such Peers of the Province may be present by proxy.