[17]
Excluded from the Government, the aristocracy is about to retire
into private life. Let us follow them to their estates: Feudal
rights instituted for a barbarous State are certainly a great draw-
back in a modern State. If appropriate in an epoch when property
and sovereignty were fused together, when the Government was local,
when life was militant, they form an incongruity at a time when
sovereignty and property are separated, when the Government is
centralized, when the regime is a pacific one. The bondage which,
in the tenth century, was necessary to re-established security and
agriculture, is, in the eighteenth century, purposeless thralldom
which impoverishes the soil and fetters the peasant. But, because
these ancient claims are liable to abuse and injurious at the
present day, it does not follow that they never were useful and
legitimate, nor that it is allowable to abolish them without
indemnity On the contrary, for many centuries, and, on the whole, so
long as the lord of the manor resided on his estates this primitive
contract was advantageous to both parties, and to such an extent
that it has led to the modern contract.
Pages:
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374