《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第九章·如此相似的人何以更割裂》第7节
In the highly-coloured description which Mr. Burke gave of the ancient constitution of France, he urged in favour of the constitution of the French nobility, the ease with which the middle classes could be ennobled by acquiring an office: he fancied that this bore some analogy to the open aristocracy of England. Louis XI. had, it is true, multiplied the grants of nobility; with him it was a means of lowering the aristocracy: his successors lavished them in order to obtain money. Necker informs us, that in his time the number of offices which conferred nobility amounted to four thousand. Nothing like this existed in any other part of Europe, but the analogy which Burke sought to establish between France and England on this score was all the more false. If the middle classes of England, instead of making war upon the aristocracy, have remained so intimately connected with it, it is not specially because the aristocracy is open to all, but rather, as has been said, because its outline is indistinct and its limit unknown--not so much because any man could be admitted into it as because it was impossible to say with certainty when he took rank there--so that all who approached it might look upon themselves as belonging to it, might take part in its rule, and derive either lustre or profit from its influence. Whereas the barrier which divided the nobility of France from the other classes, though easily enough passed, was always fixed and visible, and manifested itself to those who remained without, by striking and odious tokens. He who had once crossed it was separated from all those whose ranks he had just quitted by privileges which were burdensome and humiliating to them. The system of creating new nobles, far from lessening the hatred of the roturier to the nobleman, increased it beyond measure; it was envenomed by all the envy with which the new noble was looked upon by his former equals. For this reason the Tiers-Etat, in all their complaints, always displayed more irritation against the newly-ennobled than against the old nobility; and far from demanding that the gate which led out of their own condition should be made wider, they continually required that it should be narrowed.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里纠正了柏克的一个著名误解，这个误解在当时影响很大，因此他需要正面回应。柏克在《法国革命论》中曾为法国旧制度的贵族体制作辩护，他的论据之一就是法国的平民获取贵族身份相对容易，只要买到一个授爵职位就行。柏克据此认为法国贵族和英国贵族一样是开放的，不存在不可逾越的壁垒。托克维尔承认一个事实基础：路易十一确实大量封爵，当时是为了削弱旧贵族的势力；后来…