Aristocracy: The Constituted Bodies 33
might prevail malgré lui, so to speak, from a mere want of public spirit, or lack of
confidence in the significance of public institutions.
THE PROVINCIAL ESTATES AND PARLEMENTS OF FRANCEIn France there were two kinds of bodies of a public character that played an active
role in political life, as distinct from the bureaucrats and functionaries of the king.
They were the Provincial Estates and the Parlements. The former resembled the
assemblies of estates, diets, or parliaments found in other parts of Europe. In most
of the French provinces the estates had gradually ceased to meet. In the eighteenth
century they still met only in Languedoc, Brittany, Burgundy, Artois, and Bearn;
and only in the first two were the Provincial Estates of any importance. In Langue-
doc and Brittany they exercised a power of consent to taxation by making a “free
gift” to the king. This consent was sometimes forced, but they enjoyed more real
freedom in dividing the tax burden among the individual taxpayers. In general, they
defended the constitutional liberties of their provinces, as incorporated in the old
agreements, or “contracts,” by which the provinces had come under the French
crown in former times.
The Estates of Languedoc met once a year. The archbishop of Narbonne always
presided. The First Estate consisted of the 23 bishops of the province. The Second
Estate consisted of 23 “barons,” not elected by the nobles of Languedoc but ap-
pointed by the King to represent them. The Third Estate consisted of 46 “votes”—
the same as the other two houses combined. These 46 votes were exercised by 68
deputies, 2 from each diocesan city, and 1 or 2 from various other towns in turn by
a system of rotation. Many of these towns were what came to be called rotten bor-
oughs in England—places once notable enough to be chosen for representation,
but since decayed. Usually it was the town magistrates who attended the estates.
No one was elected to the Estates of Languedoc. Voting was not by chamber, but
by head. With double representation for the Third Estate, and with voting by head,
the Estates of Languedoc before the Revolution enjoyed the two formal advan-
tages demanded by the Third Estate on a national scale for the Estates General of
- The burghers, however, who could muster as many votes as clergy and nobles
combined, by no means dominated the assembly of Languedoc. Some of the may-
ors who sat for towns enjoyed noble status. Two- thirds of the burgher representa-
tives came from diocesan cities, where the influence of the bishops was strong. It
was the bishops who governed in Languedoc, in cooperation with the King’s
agent, the intendant, because the bishops alone sat by personal right, and hence
year after year, and because bishops, being often appointed for administrative tal-
ents, were willing and able to carry on public business. It was the archbishop of
Narbonne who presided at the estates, and the important committees that func-
tioned between meetings of the estates, for such matters as roads and public works,
had in each case a bishop for their chairman.
The Estates of Brittany met every two years, in three houses, with vote by house,
not by head. The First Estate included both bishops and other churchmen, but was
less influential than in Languedoc. Forty towns sent deputies to the Third Estate,