Estates-General of France

“ The mode of proceeding against those who had been inhabitants, was directed to be by application to the County Court, who are empowered to give judgment and sentence, that all the estate of such persons should be forfeited for the use of State. The Court is then directed to grant administration of the estates, as in case of interstates estates.–The administrators were to sell such estates, institute suits, recover and pay debts, and deliver over the surplus, if any, into the Treasury of the State. ”

“ Tax-gatherers were chosen by the inhabitants of each locality, but the chief officers of finance, four in number, were appointed by the King. This administrative organization, created on a sound basis, marked the establishment of a complete financial system. The Assembly, which thus transferred the administration of all matters of taxation from the people at large to the King, did not consist of a combination of the three estates, but simply of persons of position--namely, prelates, nobles, and bourgeois of Paris, in addition to the leading magistrates of the kingdom. ”

“ Section 1 of the act of 1898, passed by the general assembly of the state, defines 'property' to include 'all personal property, all rights, credits, bonds, and securities, promissory notes, open accounts, and other obligations, all cash, all money loaned at interest, and all movable and immovable, corporeal and incorporeal articles or things of value owned and held and controlled within the state of Louisiana by any person in any capacity whatsoever.' Section 7 of the act provides that it shall be the duty of the assessor to place upon the tax roll all property subject to taxation. ”

“ Where an estate has passed, under a legislative grant, into the hands of a purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice, the state is restrained, either by general principles which are common to our free institutions, or by the particular provisions of the Constitution of the United States, from passing a law whereby the estate so purchased can be impaired and invalidated. ”

“ An ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory, and the clear result of the evidence taken before the Royal Commission was, that on the large estates, the expenditure of capital was the most generous, and the land was best developed by the application of all the improvements of modern science and mechanics. ”

“ The preference due to the law of the ward's domicile, and the importance of a uniform administration of his whole estate, require that, as a general rule, the management and investment of his property should be governed by the law of the state of his domicile, especially when he actually resides there, rather than by the law of any state in which a guardian may have been appointed or may have received some property of the ward. ”

“ This case requires us to determine whether and what interests that came into enjoyment upon the death of the donee of a general power of appointment should be included for federal estate tax purposes in the donee's gross estate. ”

“ This last peculiarity of French scenery is chiefly owing to the great subdivision of property which has taken place in consequence of the confiscation of church lands, and properties of the noblesse and emigrants, and of the subsequent sale of the national domains, at very low or even nominal prices, to the lower orders of the peasantry. To such a degree has this subdivision extended, that in many parts of France there is no proprietor of land who does not labour with his own hands in the cultivation of his property. ”

“ The land tax falls upon land not built upon in proportion to its net yearly revenue. It is collected in accordance with a register of property (cadastre) drawn up for the most part in the first half of the 19th century, dealing with every piece of property in France, and giving its extent and value and the name of the owner. The responsibility of keeping this register accurate and up to date is divided between the state, the departments and the communes, and involves a special service and staff of experts. ”

“ Art. 2. Subject to the jurisdictional rules that govern the French courts of Our Empire, legal actions, civil or commercial, securities or real estates are judged, as a first or last resort, at the rate which will be fixed by Vizerial Order, by special jurisdictions called customary courts. These courts also have jurisdiction in all matters of personal status and inheritance. ”

“ Thus the assessors are directed in the first place to bring in certificates of the names of every person dwelling within their districts, "and of the substance and values of them in ready money, goods, chattels, and other personal estate." Every person is to be rated for personal {293} estate at the place where he shall reside, and, if not a householder, at the place where he resides at the execution of the Act, or if out of the realm, where he was last resident; "and for the better discovery of personal estates," every householder is to give an account of his lodgers. ”

“ The Land Commission may purchase any untenanted land which they consider necessary for the purchase of facilitating the resale, or redistribution, of estates purchased, or proposed to be purchased, by them, and the foregoing provisions of this Act, with respect to advances for the purchase of parcels of land comprised in estates, shall apply in the case of the sale by the Commission of any parcel of such untenanted land. ”

“ No Bill or amendment making provision for the transference to public ownership of any land or for the extinguishment or modification of rights therein, including rights or privileges in respect of land revenue, shall be introduced or moved in either Chamber of the Federal Legislature without the previous sanction of the Governor-General in his discretion, or in a Chamber of a Provincial Legislature without the previous sanction of the Governor in his discretion. ”

“ But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed with Governor Denny to pass an act taxing the proprietary estate in common with the estates of the people, which was the grand point in dispute, they omitted answering the message.
When this act, however, came over, the proprietaries, counseled by Paris, determined to oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accordingly they petitioned the king in Council, and a hearing was appointed in which two lawyers were employed by them against the act, and two by me in support of it. ”

“ It was ordained by the charter that, if the heir be a minor, he shall, immediately upon his majority, enter upon his estate, without paying any relief; the king shall not sell his wardship; he shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing waste or hurting the property; he shall uphold the castles, houses, mills, parks, and ponds, and if he commit the guardianship of the estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to find surety to the same purpose. ”

“ As we read the article, it declares that, in all the states of the Union by whose laws aliens are permitted to hold real estate, so long as such laws remain in force, Frenchmen shall enjoy the right of possessing personal and real property by the same title, and in the same manner, as citizens of the United States. They shall be free to dispose of it as they may please, by donation, testament, or otherwise, just as those citizens themselves. ”

“ The Swedish diet had also four—clergy, barons, burghers and peasants.
The system of estates, based on the medieval conception of society as divided into definite orders, formed the basis of whatever constitutional forms survived in Europe till the French Revolution. In England, of course, it had early become obscured, the House of Commons representing the whole nation outside the narrow order of the peers. The creation of an estate of lesser nobles or landowners had been prevented by the fusion of the knights of the shire with the burgesses ”

“ The representatives of the third estate declare themselves a 'National Assembly.'
221. With these ideas in mind, the Estates assembled in Versailles and held their first session on May 5, 1789. The king had ordered the deputies to wear the same costumes that had been worn at the last meeting of the Estates in 1614; but no royal edict could call back the spirit of earlier centuries. ”

“ One-third of the members of the council retire every two years. The council meets publicly as frequently as business requires. It enacts by-laws, levies taxes, supervises education, and represents the interests of the commune, if occasion arises, before the sovereign, the States-General, and the provincial estates. All of its legislative acts are liable to veto by the crown, and the municipal budget requires regularly the approval of the committee of the provincial estates. ”

“ The Act of 1903 gave considerable powers to the Estates Commissioners to improve small and uneconomic holdings by the purchase of untenanted land, to be re-sold to the tenants or sons of tenants on the estate, or to the occupiers of holdings not exceeding £5 in rateable value in the neighbourhood, or to tenants evicted from their holdings since 1878, or in case such tenant is dead, to a person nominated by the Land Commission as his representative. ”

“ Where the local people's governments at or above the county level grant land-use right for development of real estate, they must, based on the quota set by the people's governments at or above the provincial level, draw up plans for the total area for annual granting of the land-use right, which shall, according to the regulations of the State Council, be reported to the State Council or the provincial people's government for approval. ”

“ The General Assembly may define and classify real estate devoted to agricultural, horticultural, forest, or open space uses, and may by general law authorize any county, city, town, or regional government to allow deferral of, or relief from, portions of taxes otherwise payable on such real estate if it were not so classified, provided the General Assembly shall first determine that classification of such real estate for such purpose is in the public interest for the preservation or conservation of real estate for such uses. ”

“ The title can usually be fully investigated from the documents in the registry. Official searches for mortgages are commonly resorted to, at a cost of about 5 francs. Under the monarchy the land system was practically copyhold tenure, but greater validity was attached to the Court Rolls than was the case in England. The present system was established by a law of 1790 after the abolition of seigniorial institutions in 1789. This was modified by the Code Napoleon, and further perfected by a law of 1855. The average value of transactions in France is very small. ”

“ Strong opposition to a grant of the power of compulsory purchase which the Bill embodied was raised, in the House of Commons, as well as ultimately in the House of Lords. Its contemplated changes in dealing with what are called "congested estates" and "congested districts," being those in which the holdings of tenants are too small to yield a decent living, were also a subject of criticism and opposition. The Bill received some amendment in the House of Commons, before having its third reading and passage on the 18th of September. ”

“ The Council shall provide a venue for assisting the Senior Real Property Officers in the development and implementation of the agency asset management plans. The Council shall work with the Administrator of General Services to establish appropriate performance measures to determine the effectiveness of Federal real property management. ”

“ According to the rigour of English legal doctrine there can be no owner of land except the Crown itself. The fee simple of land—the greatest right in it which a subject can possess—is not in truth ownership, but a mere encumbrance upon the ownership of the Crown. It is a tenancy or lease granted to a man and his heirs. ”

“ The sale of the national property seems not to have sensibly increased small properties nor sensibly diminished the number of the large ones. The Revolution developed moderate sized properties. In 1848, the large estates numbered 183,000 (23,000 families paying 300 francs taxes, and more, and possessing on the average 260 hectares of land, and 160,000 families paying from 230 to 500 francs taxes and possessing on the average 75 hectares.) ”

“ Other examples of property which ought not to have been created, are properties in public trusts; such as judicial offices under the old French régime, and the heritable jurisdictions which, in countries not wholly emerged from feudality, pass with the land. Our own country affords, as cases in point, that of a commission in the army, and of an advowson, or right of nomination to an ecclesiastical benefice. A property is also sometimes created in a right of taxing the public ”

“ This act certainly requires that a French subject, who would entitle himself, under it, to hold lands in fee, should be a citizen according to the law which might be in force at the time of acquiring the estate. ”

“ The first modern estate tax law had included in the gross estate transfers in contemplation of, or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at, death, except 'a bona fide sale for a fair consideration in money or money's worth.' Section 202 (b) , Revenue Act of 1916, 39 Stat. 756, 777. Dower rights and other marital property rights were intended to be included in the gross estate since they were considered merely an expectation, and in 1918 Congress specifically included them. ”

“ Each agency with real property management responsibilities shall, by September 30, 2005, and every third year thereafter, prepare a report on its progress in identifying, protecting, and using historic properties in its ownership and make the report available to the Council and the Secretary. ”