L’Ancien Régime  (pp. 83­4, 103, 125):

          I have already pointed out how almost throughout 
     the whole kingdom the special life of the different 
     provinces had long since perished; that had helped very 
     much to make all Frenchmen very like each other. Despite 
     the diversities which still existed, the unity of the nation 
     was already clear; it is disclosed by the uniformity of the 
     legislation. The farther down the eighteenth century we 
     come there is a corresponding increase in the number of 
     royal edicts, royal declarations, decrees of Council, which 
     apply the same rules in the same manner to all parts of 
     the governed, who conceived the idea of a legislation 
     quite general and quite uniform, the same everywhere, the 
     same for all; this idea is revealed in all the successive 
     projects of reform that appeared during the thirty years