《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第九章·如此相似的人何以更割裂》第5节
One circumstance which seems very peculiar to France, was that at the very time when the order of nobility was thus losing its political powers, the nobles individually acquired several privileges which they had never possessed before, or increased those which they already enjoyed. It was as if the members enriched themselves with the spoil of the body. The nobility had less and less right to command, but the nobles had more and more the exclusive prerogative of being the first servants of the master. It was more easy for a man of low birth to become an officer under Louis XIV. than under Louis XVI.; this frequently happened in Prussia at a time when there was no example of such a thing in France. Every one of these privileges once obtained adhered to the blood and was inseparable from it. The more the French nobility ceased to be an aristocracy, the more did it become a caste. Let us take the most invidious of all these privileges, that of exemption from taxation. It is easy to perceive that from the fifteenth century until the French Revolution, this privilege was continually increasing, and that it increased with the rapid progress of the public burdens. When, as under Charles VII., only 1,200,000 livres were raised by the taille, the privilege of being exempted from it was but small; but when, under Louis XVI., eighty millions were raised by the same tax, the privilege of exemption became very great. When the taille was the only tax levied on the non-noble classes, the exemption of the nobility was little felt; but when taxes of this description were multiplied a thousandfold under various names and shapes--when four other taxes had been assimilated with the taille--when burdens unknown in the Middle Ages, such as the application of forced labour by the Crown to all public works or services, the militia, &c.--had been added to the taille with its accessories, and were distributed with the same inequality, then indeed the exemption of birth appeared immense. The inequality, though great, was indeed still more apparent than real, for the noble was often reached through his farmer by the tax which he escaped in his own person; but in such matters as this the inequality which is seen does more harm than that which is felt.
注释摘要
托克维尔在此处揭示了一个极具法国特色的悖论：贵族作为一个政治实体正在迅速丧失统治权，而贵族个体却获得了前所未有的优待与特权。这种分离运动在旧制度最后两个世纪里同步加速。等级（order）曾经意味着参与地方治理、主持领主法庭、在省三级会议中与第三等级共同议事——这些权力到了十八世纪几乎消失殆尽。但恰恰在公共职能萎缩的同时，王室却慷慨地将一系列专属于贵族身份的…