An essay on privileges, and particularly on hereditary nobility: Wiritten (sic) by the Abbé Sieyès, a member of the national assembly, and translated into English, with notes, by a foreign nobleman, now in England
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- An essay on privileges, and particularly on hereditary nobility: Wiritten (sic) by the Abbé Sieyès, a member of the national assembly, and translated into English, with notes, by a foreign nobleman, now in England translation has paratext
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The translator’s 'Advertisement' which frames the translation, remarks that it was the influence of this pamphlet, along with 'Qu’est que c’est que le Tiers Etat', that was largely responsible for, "the important changes which have been so happily affected in France, and particularly the abolition of Titles and Nobility”. He goes on to explain that, "The publication of it in this country, at the present crisis, my answer two good purposes. A candid perusal of this work will certainly serve to remove the prejudices of Englishmen, against what is at present considered as the most obnoxious measure of the National Assembly (i.e. the removal of these titles); and it will also serve to evince to what a dangerous excess a blind veneration for absurd Gothic imitations may be carried, and how careful other nations ought to be be of deifying a particular class or order of citizens. The reader will find in this pamphlet, the little ground which reason, or the truth of things, afford for these pernicious feudal establishments… he will see that they absorbed and annihilated all that was good in morals, all that could have been conducive to public prosperity". The tide runs at present strong in this country in favour of regal power and aristocratical influence. No period could therefore be more proper to submit to the public eye writings, the tendency of which is to moderate the rage of submission, and to recal (sic) the public to the free use of their reason upon political topics. The attention which has been paid to a late well-written, but extremely superficial pamphlet, too strongly evinces the necessity of bringing forces into the field in support of liberty and truth”. The translator is referring here to Edmund Burke’s 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' here and goes on to inform the reader that he had intended to add some observations on Burke's publication in the preface but it became too long "in proportion to the absurdities I had to encounter" so has decided to publish it separately. In an early footnote he remarks that, contrary to what some might think, British nobles have very similar privileges to their French counterparts, which are just as "odious" and "oppressive" (p.3). In another, he compares "the Privileges of the British nobility" to the false colours used by pirates "to ensnare the unsuspecting merchant", since they. “Can often give distinction to a knave; And make a lord, whom nature made a slave.” (p.9) Another footnote points to the absurd class distinctions used between the nobility themselves before going on to complain about the injustice of the current libel laws (p.36-37). Moving on to the subject of marriage, he identifies the source of their wealth as largely deriving from these ludicrous social distinctions, noting the attraction for so many heiresses, drawing "about eight or nine out of ten [to] go from the city to St James's. "How many beautiful villas, purchased by many years toil and labour, are transferred from industrious and sober families, to increase the riches of an overgrown one, or to fill up the vacancies of some ruined nobleman?" He concludes this note with a quote from William Shenstone, "Flavia in vain has wit and charms, And all that shines and all that warms; In vain all human race adore her, For lady Mary ranks before her." (p.72)
Notes
Epigraph by Juvenal