Montesquieu

In many of the old French laws we find the spi­rit of the monar­chy. In cases invol­ving pecu­niary penal­ties, non-nobles are puni­shed less than nobles.1 In cri­mes it is just the oppo­site2 : the noble loses honor and his voice in court, whe­reas the com­mo­ner who has no honor is puni­shed cor­po­rally.

1

“If as to cancel a warrant, the non-nobles owe a fine of forty sous, and the nobles of sixty livres” (Somme rural, book II, p. 198, Got. ed. of 1512).

2

See Le Conseil by Pierre Desfontaines, ch. xiii, esp. art. 22.