Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/385

 Charlety : La ]'ente des Biois A^ationaiix 375 takes up the rural districts and the urban gilds in turn. The texts of the cahiers themselves are preceded by succinct accounts of the situation, size, and activities of the parish or town and of the amount of the tithe and taille. Here and there the editor adds a brief and valuable ex- planatory note. Of the impression made by the parish cahiers them- selves there is unfortunately no opportunity to speak here, for we must turn to the other and rather more complicated volume of M. Charlety. The extent of the possessions of the church in 1789 and the results of their confiscation and subsequent sale by the nation are matters of almost contemporary interest, since they are so often alluded to in current discussions. Hitherto there has been no way of reaching well- grounded conclusions on the subject; but the volume in hand serves at least to illustrate in a single district the kind of material that is still available even if it is inadequate to form the basis of general conclusions. The editor has found it impossible to do more than summarize the inven- tories and entries of the sales. He does not attempt to give the documents themselves in extenso, for this would involve the useless repetition of legal formulas. " II ne pouvait etre question que de faire un choix dans la masse tres abondante de ces documents. La regie suivie a ete de donner seulement, et sous la forme la plus breve, les documents qui font connaitre I'etat des biens nationalises et les operations de la vente." It is to be regretted that one so well qualified to point out the bearing of the arid lists which make up his volume should have contented him- self with a very brief introduction, in which he does little more than suggest one reason why the property usually brought much more than its estimated value, and secondly that he finds no indication of surprise or indignation on the part of the clergy during the process of national- ization. The conclusions to be drawn from the material he declares to be too numerous and too obvious to justify even a simple enumera- tion, especially as regards the most important question of all. the social and economic effects of the transfer of such a mass of property. He hints, however, that we are soon to have a doctor's dissertation upon this point. Part I. (])p. 1-174) is devoted to the inventories of ecclesiastical property by institutions, based mainly upon the reports made by the clergy, and secondly to the inventories of the hicns nationaux by com- munes. Part II. relates to the sales: (i) to the real estate (pp. 177- 519) and (2) to the personal property (pp. 520-561). The volume closes with an appendix of cognate documents, including statements of the questions submitted by the local authorities to the committee of the National Assembly, a list of the old measures alluded to in the inven- tories; a table of the fluctuations in the paper currency from January I, 1791, to its suppression; and finally a list of the indemnities granted to the former emigres in the department of the Rhone by the law erf 1825. Extensive indexes are also furnished of names of places, of the former owners of the property, and of those into whose hands it fell.