" The whole letter
is one long cry of rage; it is rancor of this stamp which is to
fashion Joseph Lebons and Fouch?s. - In this situation and with
these sentiments it is evident that the lower clergy will treat its
chiefs as the provincial nobility treated theirs.[31] They will not
select "for representatives those who swim in opulence and who have
always regarded their sufferings with tranquility." The curates, on
all sides "will confederate together" to send only curates to the
States-General, and to exclude "not only canons, abb?s, priors and
other beneficiaries, but again the principal superiors, the heads of
the hierarchy," that is to say, the bishops. In fact, in the States-
General, out of three hundred clerical deputies we count two hundred
and eight curates, and, like the provincial nobles, these bring along
with them the distrust and the ill-will which they have so long
entertained against their chiefs. Events are soon to prove this. If
the first two orders are constrained to combine against the communes
it is at the critical moment when the curates withdraw. If the
institution of an upper chamber is rejected it is owing to the
commonalty of the gentry (la pl?be des gentilshommes) being unwilling
to allow the great families a prerogative which they have abused.
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