The things we do!

Others again, to be
more secure, break open his safe, and throw his title-deeds into the
fire.[24] Public force is nowhere strong enough to protect him in
his legal rights. Officers dare not serve writs, the courts dare
not give judgment, administrative bodies dare not decree in his
favor. He is despoiled through the connivance, the neglect, or the
impotence of all the authorities which ought to defend him. He is
abandoned to the peasants who fell his forests, under the pretext
that they formerly belonged to the commune; who take possession of
his mill, his wine-press, and his oven, under the pretext that
territorial privileges are suppressed.[25] Most of the gentry of the
provinces are ruined, without any resource, and have not even their
daily bread; for their income consisted in seignorial rights, and in
rents derived from their real property, which they had let on
perpetual leases, and now, in accordance with the law, one-half of
this income ceases to be paid, while the other half ceases to be
paid in spite of the law.


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