The great mass of deputies of that order, which come from
the country, show that the habits of tyranny over the people, are
deeply rooted in them. They will consent, indeed, to equal taxation; but
five-sixths of that chamber are thought to be, decidedly, for voting
by orders; so that, had this great preliminary question rested on this
body, which formed heretofore the sole hope, that hope would have been
completely disappointed. Some aid, however, comes in from a quarter
whence none was expected. It was imagined the ecclesiastical elections
would have been generally in favor of the higher clergy; on the
contrary, the lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these
deputations. These are the sons of peasants, who have done all the
drudgery of the service, for ten, twenty, and thirty guineas a year, and
whose oppressions and penury, contrasted with the pride and luxury of
the higher clergy, have rendered them perfectly disposed to humble the
latter. They have done it, in many instances, with a boldness they were
thought insusceptible of. Great hopes have been formed, that these would
concur with the _Tiers-Etat_, in voting by persons.
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