lettres de noblesse, patents of nobility

1, 22. maltôtier, name given to the traitants (see above p. 8(S, ]. 27, note ); originally it conveyed no derogatory idea, but very soon it came to be regarded as an insuit on account of the scandalous rapacity displayed by the farmers of the taxes. Thus: "Si vous en croyez des personnes aigries l'une contre l'autre, et que la passion domine, l'homme docte est un savantasse, le magistrat un bourgeois ou un praticien, le financier un maltôtier, et le gentilhomme un gentillatre." (La Bruyère.) The substantive maltôte — maltolte from the mediœval L. inala tolta, a bad or unjust tax, meant a tax arbitrarily enforced.

1. 26. le dixième, a kind of income and property tax raised on ail estâtes, houses, offices, commissions, annuities, &c. It was suppressed in 1718.

1. 30. à qtiarante francs le viarc, at the rate of forty francs the eight ounces' wciglit. The value ol the marc has often iluctuated.

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