On the one hand, their office, as
nowadays with the notaries' ?tude, or a membership of the stock-board,
was personal property. Their places, and many others, such as posts
in the judiciary, in the finances, in bailiwicks, in the Pr?sidial, in
the Election,[75] in the salt-department, in the customs, in the Mint,
in the department of forests and streams, in presidencies, in
councils, as procureurs du roi in various civil, administrative and
criminal courts, holding places in the treasury, auditors and
collectors of the various branches of the revenue - all of which
offices, and many others, had been alienated for more than a century
by the State in return for specified sums of ready money; thenceforth,
they fell into the hands of special purchasers; the title of each
possessor was as good as that of a piece of real property, and he
could legally sell his title, the same as he had bought it, at a given
price, on due advertisement![76] On the other hand, the different
groups of local functionaries in each town formed their own
associations, similar to our notarial chambers, or those of our stock-
brokers; these small associations had their own by-laws, meetings and
treasury, frequently a civil status and the right of pleading, often a
political status and the right of electing to the municipal
council;[77] consequently, besides his personal interests, each member
cherished the professional interests of his guild.
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