Grievances of Third Estate

“Grievances of the Third Estate”

Thesis: Hoping the reform government and the French society, the Third Estate forgot its misfortunes and expressed their sentiment for the king to accept their list of grievances, complaints, and concerns.

• Wishes
• Subjects of the third estate are equal and that there is no social distinction
• The three estates work together in united effort to contribute to the needs of the state equally
• No citizen lose his liberty; no arrest without proper cause
• Govt should not intercept mail and detain citizens in case of conspiracy against the state
• Property of citizen should remain inviolable
• Personal tax should be abolished (capitation, taille, vingtiemes)
• Any tax should be borne equally without distinction of social classes
• Tax of corvee should be borne by all classes of citizens equally and without distinction

• Wishes for Justice
• Administration of justice be reformed by restoring execution of ordinances, or by reforming sections of welfare
• Venality of offices should be stopped
• Number of offices in courts should be reduced
• Study of law should be reformed
• General customary law should be drafted of all articles common to all custom
• Deliberations in court, which prevent third estate from having a say, should be changed
• Military ordinances should not continue a degrading distinction between officers born into nobility and those born into third estate

• Wishes for Finance
• Fees of aides should be made uniform throughout the entire kingdom and reduced
• Tax of gabelle should be eliminated or regulated
• Taxes on hides should be suppressed
• All useless offices in police or administration should be abolished

• Wishes for agriculture
• Right to hunt should never affect property of citizen
• Individuals and community should be permitted to free themselves from rights of banalite and corvee by payments
• Militia should be suppressed and replaced by voluntary enlistment at expense of provinces for they are destructive