Thefe two hundred and fortynine members fhall be elected after the nomination of reprefentatives to the legislative body fhall have been terminated, and there fhall be formed a feparate proces-verbal of it. The affembly of revifion fhall not be compofed of more than one chamber.

VI. The members of the third legiflature, who fhall have demanded a change, cannot be elected in the affembly of revifion.

VII. The members of the affembly of revifion, after having pronounced all at once the oath, "10 live free or die," fhall individually fwear, to confine themfelves to decide on the objects which shall have been fubmitted to them by the unanimous wish of three preceding legislatures; and to maintain, in other respects, with all their power, the conftitution of the kingdom, decreed by the National Conftituent Affembly in the years 1789, 1790, and 1791; and to be in all faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king.

VIII. The affembly of revifion fhall be bound to occupy itself afterwards, and without delay, in the objects which fhall have been fubmitted to its examination; and as foon as this task is finished, the two hundred and forty-nine new members, named over and above, fhall retire, without taking a part in any cafe in the legislative acts.

The French colonies and poffeffions in Afia, Africa, and America, although they make a part of the French empire, are not included in the prefent conftitution.

None of the powers inftituted by. the conftitution have a right to change it in its whole, or in its parts, excepting the reforms which may be made in it by the mode of revifion,

conformably to the regulations of Title VII. above.

The National Conftituent Affembly commits the depofit of it to the fidelity of the legiftative body, of the king, and of the judges, to the vigilance of fathers of families, to wives and to mothers, to the attachment of young citizens, to the courage of all Frenchmen.

The decrées paffed by the national affembly, which are not included in the act of conftitution, fhall be executed as laws; and those anterior laws which it has not altered, shall alfo be obferved fo long as they fhall not be revoked or modified by the legislative power..

(Signed) VERNIER, Prefident.

POUGEARD, COUPPE, MAILLY, CHATEAURENARD, CHAILLON, AUBRY, (Bishop of the Department of the Meufe) DARCHE, Secretaries.

Sept. 3, 1791. The national affembly having heard the conftitional act above read, after approving of it, declare, that the conftitution is finifhed, and that it can make no change in it. There shall be named immediately, a deputation of fixty members, to offer, the fame day, the constitutional act to the king.

(Signed as before)

Letter from the King to the National Affembly, announcing his Refolution to accept the Conftitution, Sept. 13.

Gentlemen,

I Have attentively examined the conftitutional act, which you have

pre

prefented for my acceptance. I accept it, and I will caufe it to be executed. At another time this declaration might have been fufficient; at prefent, I owe to the interefts of the nation, I owe to myself, to make known my motives.

I have always, fince the commencement of my reign, defired the reform of abuses, and in all acts of government wifhed to be regulated by the public opinion. Different caufes, among the number of which may be placed the fituation of the finances at my acceffion to the throne, and the immenfe expences of an honourable war, long fupported without increase of impofts, had establifhed a confiderable difproportion betwen the revenues and the expences of the ftate.

Impreffed with the extent of the evil, I not only fought the means of remedying it; I felt the neceffity of preventing its return. I had formed the project of fecuring the happinefs of the people upon a fixed bafis, and of fubjecting to invariable rules, even that authority of which I was the depofitary. I called on the nation to execute it.

In the courfe of the events of the revolution, my intentions never varied. When, after having reformed the ancient inftitutions, you be gan to fubftitute in their flead the firft effays of your work, I did not delay the expreffion of my fentiments till the whole conftitution fhould be known to me; I favour ed the establishment of its parts, even before I could judge of the whole and if the diforders which have attended almost all the periods - of the revolution, have too frequently afflicted my heart, I hoped that the law would refume force in the hands of new authority; and that, in approaching the term of your labours, every day would restore to it that refpect, without which the peo

ple can neither enjoy liberty nor happiness. I long perfevered in this hope, and my refolution only changed at the moment when it abandoned me. Let every one re

collect the moment at which I quit ted Paris; the conftitution was almost completed; and, nevertheless, the authority of the laws feemed to diminish every day; opinion, far from concentring in any point, was divided into a number of parts. The most violent counfels alone feemed to be received with any degree of favour; the licentioufness of the prefs was at its height; no power was refpected.

I could no longer perceive the expreffion of the general will in the laws which I every where faw without force, and without effect. Then, I am bound to declare, if you had prefented to me the conftitution, I fhould have been of opinion that the intereft of the people (the conftant and uniform rule of my conduct) did not permit me to accept it. I had only one fentiment; I formed only one project; I wished to get at a distance from all parties, and learn what was the real wifh of the nation.

The motives by which I was then influenced no longer fubfift; fince that time, the inconveniences and the evils of which I complained have ftruck you in the fame light as me; you have teftified an inclination to re-establish order; you have direct your attention to the want of difcipline in the army; you have perceived the neceflity of reftraining the abufes of the prefs. The revi fion of your labour has placed a mong the number of laws of regula tion, feveral articles which had been prefented to me as conftitutional, You have eftablished legal forms, for the revifion of those which you have placed in the constitution, ́In fine, the fentiment of the people appear to me no longer doubtful: (G 4)

have

have feen them at once difplayed, both by their adherence to your work, and by their attachment to the fupport of monarchical govern

ment.

I accept then the conftitution; I engage to maintain it at home, to defend it againit attacks from abroad, and to cause it to be exeruted by all the means which it puts in my power.

I declare that, informed of the adherence of the great body of the people to the conftitution, I renounce the right of concurring, which I had claimed in this work, and being refponfible only to the nation, no other, while I renounce it, can have a right to complain.

I should, however, deviate from truth, if I affirmed that I perceived in the means of execution and adminiftration, all the energy neceffary to give motion and preferve the unity In all the parts of fo vaft an empire; but fince opinions are divided upon thefe fubjects, I confent that the ecifion fhould be left to the teft of experience alone. While I fhall have faithfully employed all the means which are entrusted to me, no reproach can be laid on me; and the nation, whofe intereft alone ought to be the fupreme rule, will explain itself by thofe means which the conftitution has referved to it.

But, gentlemen, for the fecurity of liberty, for the ftability of the conftitution, for the individual hap pinefs of all Frenchmen, there are interes in which an imperious duty prefcribes to us to combine all our efforts: thefe interefts are, refpect for the laws, the re eltablishment of order, and the re-union of all citizens. Now that the conftitution is definitively fettled, Frenchmen living under the fame laws ought to know no enemies but thofe who infringe

them. Difcord and Anarchy; theft are our common enemies.

I will oppose them with all my power: it is neceffary that you and youri rfucceffors fecond me with energy; that the law, without attempting to establish its dominion over the mind, thay equally protect all those who fubmit their conduct to it; that thofe, whom the fears of perfecution and of trouble have driven from their country, be af fured of finding at their return fafe. ty and tranquillity. And, in order to extinguith the animofities, to foften the evils which a great revolution always brings in its train; that law may, from this day, begin to receive a full execution, let us confent to an oblivion of the past. Let thofe accufations and profecu- · tions which originate folely from the events of the revolution, be for ever extinguished in a general reconci→ liation. I fpeak not of those who have been folely influenced by their attachment to mecan you regard them as criminals? As to those who by exceffes, in which I can perceive perfonal injuries have brought upon them the prosecution of the laws, I fhall prove in my conduct to them, that I am the king of all the French.

(Signed)

LOUIS.

P. S. I was of opinion, gentlemen, that I ought to pronounce my folemn acceptance of the conftitution in the very place in which it was formed of confequence I fhall come in perfon to-morrow at noon to the national affembly.

The King's Speech to the Nationa "Affembly on accepting the Conftit tren, Sept. 14.

Gentlemen,

1 COME to confecrate, in this place, folemnly, the acceptance

your fellow-citizens, that the happiness of the French ever has been, and ever will be, the object of my wishes; that I neither have, nor can have, any intereft but the general intereft; that my profperity confifts only in the public profperity; that I fhall exert all the powers entrusted to me to give efficacy to the new fyftem; that I fhall communicate it to foreign courts; and fhall, in every thing, prove that I can be happy only in the happiness of the people of France,

Tell them alfo, that the revolu. tion has reached its period, and that the firmeft fupport of the conftitution is now the re-eftablishment of order. You, gentlemen, in your feveral departments, will undoubtedly fecond my vigilance and care with all your power; you will give the firft example of fubmiffion to the Jaws which you have framed; in the capacity of private citizens you will difplay the fame character as in the capacity of public men; and the ,people, feeing their legiflators exercife, in private life, thofe virtues which they have proclaimed in the national affembly, will imitate them, difcharge with pleasure the obligations which the public interest impofes on them, and cheerfully pay the taxes decreed by their reprefentatives. It is by this happy union of fentiments, of wishes, and exertions, that the conftitution will be confirmed, and that the nation will enjoy all the advantages which it guarantees.

The PRESIDENT'S ANSWER.

Sire,

THE adherence of the nation ratifies the conftitution decreed by the affembly of the reprefentatives of the nation. Your majefty has accepted it, and the public joy is a fufficient

By the grace of God, and by the constitutional law of the ftate, king of the French. To all citizens-greeting:

I HAVE accepted the conftitution: I will ufe all my endeavours to maintain it, and caufe it to be executed.

The revolution is completed. It is time that the re-establishment of order fhould give to the conftitution the fupport which is ftill most neceffary; it is time to fix the opinion of Europe on the destiny of France, and to fhew that the French are worthy to be free.

But my vigilance and my cares ought ftill to be feconded by the concurrence of all the friends of their country, and of liberty. It is by fubmiffion to the laws; it is by ab. juring the spirit of party, and all the paffions which accompany it; it is by a happy union of fentiments, of wifhes, and of endeavours, that the conftitution will be confirmed, and that the nation will enjoy all the advantages which it fecures.

Let every idea of intolerance then be abandoned for ever; let the rafh defire of independence no longer be confounded with the love of liberty; let thofe pernicious terms of reproach, with which it has been attempted to inflame the people, be irrevocably banished; let religious opi