"Malheureux peuple, voila ce que vous vaut en dernier resultat
l'expropriation de l'Eglise, & la durete des decrets taxateurs du
traitement des ministres d'une religion bienfaisante; & deformais
ils seront a votre charge: leurs charites soulageoient les pauvres;
& vous allez etre imposes pour subvenir a leur entretien!"- De
l'Etat de la France, p. 81. See also p. 92, and the following pages.
In order to persuade the world of the bottomless resource of
ecclesiastical confiscation, the Assembly have proceeded to other
confiscations of estates in offices, which could not be done with
any common color without being compensated out of this grand
confiscation of landed property. They have thrown upon this fund,
which was to show a surplus disengaged of all charges, a new charge-
namely, the compensation to the whole body of the disbanded
judicature, and of all suppressed offices and estates, a charge
which I cannot ascertain, but which unquestionably amounts to many
French millions. Another of the new charges is an annuity of four
hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling, to be paid (if they
choose to keep faith) by daily payments, for the interest of the first
assignats. Have they even given themselves the trouble to state fairly
the expense of the management of the church lands in the hands of
the municipalities to whose care, skill, and diligence, and that of
their legion of unknown underagents, they have chosen to commit the
charge of the forfeited estates, the consequence of which had been
so ably pointed out by the bishop of Nancy?
But it is unnecessary to dwell on these obvious heads of
encumbrance.
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