The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: And the Causes Which Led to That EventTocqueville, Alexis de
History
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: And the Causes Which Led to That Event
Tocqueville, Alexis de
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Causes
_Liberty of the Person._--They desire that the servitude to the glebe
should be abolished wherever it still exists, and that means should be
formed to destroy the slave trade and to emancipate the negroes; that
every man should be free to travel or to reside wherever he may please,
whether within or without the limits of the kingdom, without being
liable to arbitrary arrest; that the abuses of police regulations shall
be reformed, and that henceforth the police shall be under the control
of the judges, even in cases of revolt; that no one shall be liable to
be arrested or tried except by his natural judges; that, consequently,
the state prisons and other illegal places of detention shall be
suppressed. Some of them require the demolition of the Bastille. The
nobility of Paris is especially urgent upon this point.
_Are ‘Lettres Closes,’ or ‘Lettres de Cachet,’ to be prohibited?_--If
any danger of the State renders the arrest of a citizen necessary,
without his being immediately brought before the ordinary courts of
justice, measures should be taken to prevent any abuses, either by
giving notice of the imprisonment to the _Conseil d’État_, or by some
other proceeding.
The nobility demands the abolition of all special commissions, all
courts of attribution or exemption, all privileges of _committimus_,
all dilatory judgments, &c., &c., and requires that the severest
punishment should be awarded to all those who should issue or execute
an arbitrary order; that in common jurisdiction (the only one that
ought to be maintained) the necessary measures should be taken for
securing individual liberty, especially as regards the criminal;
that justice should be dispensed gratuitously; and that useless
jurisdictions should be suppressed. ‘The magistrates are instituted
for the people, and not the people for the magistrates,’ says one of
the memorials. A demand is even made that a council and gratuitous
advocates for the poor should be established in each bailiwick;
that the proceedings should be public, and permission granted to
the litigants to plead for themselves; that in criminal matters the
prisoner should be provided with counsel, and that in all stages of
the proceedings the judge should have adjoined to him a certain number
of citizens, of the same position in life as the person accused, who
are to give their opinion relative to the fact of the crime or offence
with which he is charged (referring on this point to the English
constitution); that all punishments should be proportionate to the
offence, and alike for all; that the punishment of death should be
made more uncommon, and all corporal pains and tortures, &c., should
be suppressed; that, in fine, the condition of the prisoner, and more
especially of the simply accused, should be ameliorated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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