"Observe especially that we pay to foreigners above fifteen millions of annuities on the _Hôtel-de-Ville_; and that Henry the IVth, on his accession, having found two millions of debt in all on this imaginary _Hôtel_, very wisely paid off a part, to ease the state of this burden.
"Consider that our civil wars were the occasion of the treasures of Mexico being poured into the kingdom, when Don Philip _el Discreto_ took it into his head to buy France, and that since that time, our foreign wars have eased us of a good half of our money.
"These are partly the causes of our poverty; a poverty which we hide under varnished ceilings, or with the help of our dealers in fashion. We are poor with taste. There are some officers of revenue, there are contractors or jobbers, there are merchants, very rich; their children, their sons-in-law, are also very rich, but the nation in general is unfortunately not so."
This old man's discourse, well or ill grounded, made a deep impression on me; for the curate of my parish, who had always had a friendship for me, had taught me a little of geometry and of history: and I begin to reflect a little, which is very rare in my province. I do not know whether he was right or not in every thing, but being very poor, I could very easily believe that I had a great many companions of my misery.
I very readily make known to the _universe_ that I have a landed estate which would yield me forty crowns a year, were it not for the tax laid on it.
There came forth several edicts from certain persons, who, having nothing better to do, govern the state at their fire-side, the preamble of these edicts was, "that the legislative and executive was born, _jure divino_, the co-proprietor of my land;" and that I owe it at least the half of what I possess. The enormity of this legislative and executive power made me bless myself. What would it be if that power which presides over "the essential order of society," were to take the whole of my little estate? The one is still more divine than the other.
The comptroller general knows that I used to pay, in all, but twelve livres; that even this was a heavy burden on me, and that I should have sunk under it, if God had not given me the talent of making wicker baskets, which helped to carry me through my trials. But how should I, on a sudden, be able to give the king twenty crowns?