Other bodies, surviving, although stunted, the assembly of the clergy and the provincial assemblies, still protect an order, and four or five provinces; but this protection extends only to the order itself or to the province, and, if it protects a special interest it is commonly at the expense of the general interest.
II.

The Clergy Assemblies of the clergy .-- They serve only ecclesiastical interests .-- The clergy exempted from taxation .-- Solicitation of its agents .-- Its zeal against the Protestants.
Let us observe the most vigorous and the best-rooted of these bodies, the assembly of the clergy.

It meets every five years, and, during the interval, two agents, selected by it, watch over the interests of the order.

Convoked by the government, subject to its guidance, retained or dismissed when necessary, always in its hands, used by it for political ends, it nevertheless continues to be a refuge for the clergy, which it represents.

But it is an asylum solely for that body, and, in the series of transactions by which it defends itself against fiscal demands, it eases its own shoulders of the load only to make it heavier on the shoulders of others.