The resources for the making of roads were of two kinds. The greater was the _corvée_, for all the great works that required only labour; the smaller was derived from the general taxation, the amount of which was placed at the disposition of the _Ponts et Chaussées_ for the expenses of works requiring science. The privileged classes--that is to say, the principal landowners--though more interested than all in the construction of roads, contributed nothing to the _corvée_ and, moreover, were still exempt otherwise, inasmuch as the taxation for the _Ponts et Chaussées_ was annexed to the _taille_, and levied in the same manner. Note (LX.)--Page 113, line 29. EXAMPLE OF FORCED LABOUR IN THE TRANSPORT OF CONVICTS. It may be seen by a letter, addressed by a Commissary at the head of the police department of convict-gangs, to the _Intendant_, in 1761, that the peasants were compelled to cart the galley-slaves on their way; that they executed this task with very ill will; and that they were frequently maltreated by the convict-guards, ‘inasmuch,’ says the Commissary, ‘as the guards are coarse and brutal fellows, and the peasants who undertake this work by compulsion are often insolent.’ Note (LXI.)--Page 113, line 32. Turgot has given descriptions of the inconvenience and hardship of forced labour for the transport of military baggage, which, after a perusal of the office papers, appear not to have been exaggerated. Among other things, he says that its chief hardship consisted in the unequal distribution of a very heavy burden, inasmuch as it fell entirely upon a small number of parishes, which had the misfortune of being placed on the high road. The distance to be done was often one of five, six, or sometimes ten and fifteen leagues. In which case three days were necessary for the journey out and home again. The compensation given to the landowners only amounted to one-fifth of the expense that fell upon them. The period when forced labour was required was generally the summer, the time of harvest. The oxen were almost always overdriven, and frequently fell ill after having been employed at the work--so much so that a great number of landowners preferred giving a sum of 15 to 20 livres rather than supply a waggon and four oxen. The consequent confusion which took place was unavoidable. The peasants were constantly exposed to violence of treatment from the military. The officers almost always demanded more than was their due; and sometimes they obliged the drivers, by force, to harness saddle-horses to the vehicles at the risk of doing them a serious injury. Sometimes the soldiers insisted upon riding upon carts already overloaded; at other times, impatient at the slow progress of the oxen, they goaded them with their swords, and when the peasants remonstrated they were maltreated. Note (LXII.)--Page 113, line 38. EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER IN WHICH FORCED LABOUR WAS APPLIED TO EVERYTHING.