书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第216章

He must maintain a jail and a jailer. (It is not stated whether there was one). No sign of a gibbet is found in the seigniory.

He may appoint twelve notaries; only one, in fact, is appointed at Blet "and he has nothing to do," a M. Baujard, fiscal attorney. This commission is assigned him gratuitously, to keep up the privilege, "otherwise it would be impossible to find any one sufficiently intelligent to perform its functions."He appoints a sergeant, but, for a long time, this sergeant pays no rent or anything for his lodging.

4. Personal and real taille. In Bourbonnais the taille was formerly serf and the serfs mainmortable. "Seigniors still possessing rights of bordelage, well established throughout their fiefs and courts, at the present time, enjoy rights of succession to their vassals in all cases, even to the prejudice of their children if non-resident and no longer dwelling under their roofs." But in 1255, Hodes de Sully, having granted a charter, renounced this right of real and personal taille for a right of bourgeoisie, still maintained, (see further on).

5. Right to unclaimed property, cattle, furniture, effects, stray swarms of bees, treasure-trove; (no profits from this for twenty years past).

6. Right to property of deceased persons without heirs, to that of deceased bastards, the possessions of condemned criminals either to death, to the galleys or to exile, etc., (no profit).

7. Right of the chase and of fishing, the latter worth fifteen livres per annum.

8. Right of bourgeoisie (see article 4), according to the charter of 1255, and the court-roll of 1484. The wealthiest pay annually twelve bushels of oats at forty livres and twelve deniers parasis; the less wealthy nine bushels and nine deniers; all others six bushels and six deniers. "These rights of bourgeoisie are well established, set forth in all court-rolls and acknowledgments rendered to the king and perpetuated by numerous admissions the motives that have led former stewards and fermiers to interrupt the collection of these cannot be divined. Many of the seigniors in Bourbonnais have the benefit of and exact these taxes of their vassals by virtue of titles much more open to question than those of the seigniors of Blet."9. Rights of protection of the chateau of Blet. The royal edict of 1497, fixing this charge for the inhabitants of Blet and all those dwelling within the jurisdiction of its tribunals, those of Charly, Boismarvier, etc., at five sous per fire per annum, which has been carried out. "Only lately has the collection of this been suspended, notwithstanding its recognition at no late date, the inhabitants all admitting themselves to be subject to the said guet et garde of the chateau.

10. Right of toll on all merchandise and provisions passing through the town of Blet, except grain, flour and vegetables. (A trial pending before the Council of State since 1727 and not terminated in 1745;"the collection thereof, meanwhile, being suspended").

11. Right of potage on wines sold at retail in Blet, ensuring to the seignior nine pints of wine per cask, leased in 1782 for six years, at sixty livres per annum.

12. Right of boucherie or of taking the tongues of all animals slaughtered in the town, with, additionally, the heads and feet of all calves. No slaughter-house at Blet, and yet "during the harvesting of each year about twelve head of cattle are slaughtered." This tax is collected by the steward and is valued at three livres per annum.

13. Right of fairs and markets, aunage, weight and measures. Five fairs per annum and one market-day each week, but little frequented;no grain-market. This right is valued at twenty-four livres per annum.

14. Corvées of teams and manual labor, through seigniorial right, on ninety-seven persons at Blet (twenty-two carvées of teams and seventy-five of manual labor), twenty-six persons at Brosses (five teams and twenty-one hands). The seignior pays six sous for food, each corvée, on men, and twelve sous on each corvee of four oxen. "Among those subject to this corvée the larger number are reduced almost to beggary and have large families, which often induces the seignior not to exact this right rigorously." The reduced value of the corvées is forty-nine livres fifteen sols.

15. Benalité (socome), of the mill, (a sentence of 1736 condemning Roy, a laborer, to have his grain ground in the mill of Blet, and to pay a fine for having ceased to have grain ground there during three years). The miller reserves a sixteenth of the flour ground. The district-mill, as well as the windmill, with six arpents adjoining, are leased at 600 livres per annum.

16. Banalité of the oven. Agreement of 1537 between the seignior and his vassals: he allows them the privilege of a small oven in their domicile of three squares, six inches each, to bake pies, biscuits and cakes; in other respects subject to the district oven. He is entitled to one-sixteenth of the dough; this right might produce 150 livres annually, but, for several years, the oven has been dilapidated.

17. Right of the colombier, dove-cot. The chateau park contains one.

18. Right of bordelage. (The seignior is heir-at-law, except when the children of the deceased live with their parents at the time of his death. This right covers an area of forty-eight arpentss. For twenty years, through neglect or from other causes, he has derived nothing from this.

19. Right over waste and abandoned ground and to alluvial accumulations.

20. Right, purely honorary, of seat and burial in the choir, of incense and of special prayer, of funeral hangings outside and inside the church.