If the institution of an upper chamber is rejected it is owing to the commonalty of the gentry (la plebe des gentilshommes) being unwilling to allow the great families a prerogative which they have abused.
V.The King's Incompetence and Generosity.
The most privileged of all--Having monopolized all powers, he takes upon himself their functional activity--The burden of this task--He evades it or is incompetent--His conscience at ease--France is his property--How he abuses it--Royalty the center of abuses.
One privilege remains the most considerable of all, that of the king; for, in his staff of hereditary nobles he is the hereditary general.
His office, indeed, is not a sinecure, like their rank; but it involves quite as grave disadvantages and worse temptations.

Two things are pernicious to Man, the lack of occupation and the lack of restraint; neither inactivity nor omnipotence are in harmony with his nature.

The absolute prince who is all-powerful, like the listless aristocracy with nothing to do, in the end become useless and mischievous .-- In grasping all powers the king insensibly took upon himself all functions; an immense undertaking and one surpassing human strength.

For it is the Monarchy, and not the Revolution, which endowed France with administrative centralization [1432].

Three functionaries, one above the other, manage all public business under the direction of the king's council; the comptroller-general at the center, the intendant in each generalship,[1433] the sub-delegate in each election, fixing, apportioning and levying taxes and the militia, laying out and building highways, employing the national police force, distributing succor, regulating cultivation, imposing their tutelage on the parishes, and treating municipal magistrates as valets.