it not folely because it is believed to be useful? The conftitution has left, to the king this glorious prerogative, and has confirmed to him the only authority which he should defire to exercife. Would not your reprefentatives have been culpable, if they had facrificed twenty-fix millions to the intereft of one man? The labour of citizens fupports the power of the state; but the maxim of abfolute power is to confider the public contributions as a debt paid to defpotifm. The national affembly has regulated its expences with the ftricteft juftice; they thought themselves bound, when acting in the name of the nation, to act munificently, and when they were to determine what part of the public contributions fhould be allowed to the first functionary, thirty millions were allotted for him and the royal family; but this is represented as a trifling fum! The decrees upon the fubject of peace and war have taken from the king and his minifters the power of facrificing the people to the caprices of courts, and the definitive ratification of treaties is referved to the reprefentatives of the nation. The lofs of a prerogative is complained of. What prerogative? That of not being obliged to confult the national will. when the blood and the fortunes of citizens were to be facrificed. Who can know the wifh and the interests of the nation better than the legislative body? It is wifhed to make war with impunity. But have we not had, under the ancient government, fufficient experience of the terrible effects produced by the ambition of ministers? We are accused of having def poiled the king, in forming the judicial power, as if he, king of a great nation, ought to appear in the administration of justice, for any other purpose than that of caufing the law to be observed, and its judgments executed? It is wifhed that he fhould have the right of granting pardons and changing punishments; but does not all the world know, how fuch a right would be exercifed, and upon whom the benefit of it would fall? The king could not exercife it by himself, and after having prohibited royal defpotiím, it was very natural to prohibit that of the minifters. The neceflity of circumstances has fometimes obliged the national affembly to interfere contrary to its inclination, in the affairs of adminiftration. But ought it not to act, when the government remained in blameable inertnefs? Is it, therefore, neceffary to fay, that neither the king, nor the minifters, have the confidence of the nation? The focieties of friends of the conftitution have fupported the revolution; they are more necessary than ever; and fome perfons prefume to fay that they govern the adminiftrative bodies and the empire, as if they were the deliberating. bodies! Frenchmen! all the powers are organized; all the public func tionaries are at their posts; the national affembly watches over the fafety of the ftate; may you be firm and tranquil! One danger alone threatens us. You have to guard against the fufpenfion of your lahours; against delay in the payment of duties; against any inflammatory meafures which commence in anarchy, and end in civil war, It is to thefe dangers, that the national aflembly call the attention of citizens. In this crifis, all private animofities and private interests fhould difappear. Thofe who would preferve their liberty fhould thew that tranquil firmnets which appals tyrants. May the factious, who hope to fee every thing overturned, find order maintained, and the conftitution confirm ed and rendered more dear to Frenchmen, by the attacks made upon it. The capital may be an example to the reft of France. The departure of the king excited no diforders there, but, to the confufion of the malevolent, the utmost tranquility prevails in it. To reduce the territory of this empire to the yoke, it will be neceffary to deftroy the whole nation. Déspotifm, if it pleases, may make fuch an attempt. It will either fail, or at the conclufion of its triumphs, will find only ruins. The French Conftitution, as finally fettled by the National Conftituent Affembly, and presented to the King the 3d Sept. 1791. Declaration of the Rights of Man, and of the Citizens. The reprefentatives of the French people, formed into a national affembly, confidering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of men, are the fole caufes of public grievances, and of the corruption of government, have refolved to exhibit, in a folemn declaration, the natural, unalienable, and facred rights of man, in order that this declaration, ever prefent to all the members of the focial body, may inceffantly remind them of their rights and of their duties; to the end that the acts of the legiflative power, and thofe of the executive power, being able to be every moment compared with the end of all political inftitutions, may acquire the more refpe&t; in order alfo that the remonftrances of the citizens, founded henceforward on fimple and inconteftable principles, may evertend to maintain the conftitution, and to promote the general good. fembly recognizes, and declares in For this reafon, the national afthe prefence, and under the aufpices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of men and of citizens: ARTICLE I. free and equal in rights: focial dif All men are born, and remain, tinctions cannot be founded but on common utility. ciations is the preservation of the II. The end of all political affunatural and imprefcriptible rights of man: there rights are liberty, property, fecurity, and refiftance againft oppreffion. III. The principle of fovereignty refides effentiafly in the nation: no body of men, no individual, can exercife an authority that does not emanate exprefsly from that fource. IV. Liberty confifts in the power of doing every thing except that the exereife of the natural rights of which is hurtful to another: hence, everyman, has no other bounds than thofe that are neceffary to enfure to other members of fociety the enjoyment of the fame rights: thofe bounds to be determined by the law only. bid thofe actions alone, that are V. The law has a right to forhurtful to fociety. Whatever is not forbidden by the law, cannot be hindered; and no perfon can be conftrained to do that which the law ordaineth not. VI. The law is the expreffion of have a right to concur perfonally, the general will: all the citizens or by their reprefentatives, in the formation of the law: it ought to be the fame for all, whether it protest, or whether it punish. All citizens itizens being equal in the eye of the law, are equally admiffible to public honour, places and offices, according to their capacity, and without any other diftinction but that of their virtue, or their talents. VII. No man can be accufed, arrested, or detained, except in cafes determined by the law, and according to the forms which the law hath prefcribed. Those who folicit, difpatch, execute, or caufe to be executed, arbitrary orders, ought to be punished; but every citizen that is fummoned, or feized, in virtue of the law, ought to obey inftantly the becomes culpable by refiftance. VIII. The law ought to establish fuch punishments only as are ftrictly and evidently neceffary; and no perfon can be punished, but in virtue of a law established and promulgated prior to the offence, and legally applied. IX. Every man being prefumed innocent till fuch time as he has been declared guilty, if it fhall be deemed abfolutely neceffary to arrest a man, every kind of rigour employ. ed, not neceffary to fecure his perfon, ought to be feverely punished by the law. X. No perfon fhall be molefted for his opinions, even fuch as are religious, provided that the manifeftation of thofe opinions does not disturb the public order eftablished by the law. XI. The free communication of thought, and of opinion, is one of the most precious rights of man. Every citizen, therefore, may freely fpeak, write, and publifh his fentiments; fubject, however, to anfwer for the abufe of that liberty, in cafes determined by the law. XII. The guarantee of the rights of men and citizens involves a neceffity of public force. This force is then inftituted for the advantage XIII. For the maintenance of the public force, and for the expences of administration, a common contribution is indifpenfably neceffary: this contribution fhould be equally divided amongst all the citizens, in proportion to their abilities. XIV. Every citizen has a right, by himfelf, or by his reprefentatives, to decide concerning the neceffity of the public contribution; to confent to it freely; to look after the employment of it; to determine the quantity, the diftribution, the collection, and duration. XV. Society has a right to demand from every public agent, an account of his adminiftration. XVI. That fociety in which the guarantee of rights is not affured, nor the feparation of powers determined, has no conflitution. XVII. Property being a right inviolable and facred, no perfon can be deprived of it, except when the public neceffity, legally afcertained, thall evidently require it, and on condition of a juft previous indemnification. The national affembly, defirous of establishing the French conftitution on the principles which it has juft now recognifed and declared, abolishes, irrevocably, thofe inftitutions which are injurious to liberty, and equality of rights. There is no longer any nobility,. nor peerage, nor hereditary diftinctions, nor difference of orders, nor feudal government, nor patrimonial jurifdiction, nor any of the titles, de nominations and prerogatives which are derived from them; nor any of the orders of chivalry, corporations, or decorations, for which proofs of nobility were required; nor any kind of fuperiority, but that of public ble peaceably, and without arms, functionaries in the exercife of their in complying with the laws of po functions. No public office is henceforth bereditary or purchofiable. No part of the nation, nor any individual, can henceforth poffefs any privilege or exception from the common rights of all Frenchmen. There are no more wardenfhips or corporations, in profeffions, arts, or trades. The law recognifes no longer any religious vous, nor any other engagement which would be contrary to natural rights, or to the conftitution, TITLE I. Fundamental Regulations guaranteed by the Conftitution. The conftitution guarantees, as natural and civil rights, 1. That all the citizens are admiffible to places and employments, without any other dinftiction than that of virtue and talents. 2 That all taxes fhall be equally divided among all the citizens, in proportion to their abilities. 3. That the fame crimes fhall be fubject to the fame punishments, without any diffinétion of perfons. The conftitution in like manner guarantees, as natural and civil rights, liberty to every man to go, ftay, or depart, without being ar refted, or detained, except according to the forms determined by the con ftitution. Liberty to every man to fpeak, write, print and publifh his thoughts, without the writings being fubjected to cenfure or infpection before their publication, and to exercife the religious worship to which he is at tached. Liberty to the citizens to affem lice. Liberty to address to the conftituted authorities, petitions figned by individuals. The legislative power can make no law which would attack, or impede the exercise of the natural and civil rights expreffed in the prefent title, and guaranteed by the conftitution; but as liberty confifts only in the power of doing whatever neither injures the rights of another, nor the public fafety, the law may establish penalties against acts, which, attacking either the rights of others, or the public fafety, would be injurious to fociety. The conftitution guarantees the inviolability of proverty, or a juft and previous indemnity for that, of which, public neceffity, legally proved, fhall require the facrifice. Property, deftined to the expence of worship, and to all fervices of public utility, belongs to the nation, and fhall at all times be at its difpofal. The conftitution guarantees all the alienations which have been, or which fhall be made according to the forms established by the law. The citizens have a right to elect or chufe the minifters of their reli gions. There shall be created and organifed, a general establishment of public aid for the education of deferted children, to relieve the infirm poor, and to procure work for the healthy poor, who have not been able to find it for themselves. There fall be created and organifed, a public inftruction, com mon to all citizens, gratuitous with regard to thofe parts of tuition indifpenfable for all men, and of which the establiments fhall be gradually diftributed, in a proportion combin ed with the divifion of the king dom. There fhall be established, national feftival, to preferve the remem brance of the French revolution, to keep up fraternal affection amongst the citizens, and attachment to the conftitution, the country, and the laws. There fhall be drawn up, a code of civil laws, common to all the kingdom. TITLE 11. Of the Divifion of the Kingdom, and the State of the Citizens. I. The kingdom is one and in divifible; its territory is divided into eighty-three departments; every department into diftricts; each dif. trict into cantons. II. Thofe are French Citizens, Who are born in France, of a French father; Who, having been born in France, of a foreign father, have fixed their refidence in the kingdom; Who, having been born in a foreign country, of a French father, have returned to fettle in France, and have taken the civic oath. In fine, who having been born in a foreign country, being defcended, in whatever degree, from a Frenchman or Frenchwoman who had left their country from religious motives, come to refide in France, and take the civic oath. III. Thofe who having been born out of the kingdom, of foreign parents, but refide in France, become French citizens, after five years of continued refidence in the kingdom; if, befides, they have acquired immoveable property, or married a Frenchwoman, or formed an eftablishment of agriculture or commerce, and if they have taken a civic oath. IV. The legislative power may, from important confiderations, naturalize a foreigner, upon no other 1791. condition than that of refiding in France, and taking the civic oath. V. The civic oath is, "Ifwear to be faithful to the Nation, the Law, and the King; and to maintain, with all my power, the conftitution of the kingdom, decreed by the National Con fituent Affimbly, in the years 1789, 17979 and 1791. VI. The quality of a French citizen is loft: ft, By naturalization in a foreign country; 2d, By being condemned to penalties which involve the civic degra dation, provided the perfon condemned be not re-instated; 3d, By a fentence of contumacy, provided the fentence be not annulled; 4th, By an affociation with any foreign order of chivalry, or any foreign body, which fhall fuppofe either proofs of nobility, or diftinction of birth, or require religious VII. The law regards marriage folely as a civil contract. The legif. lative power fhall eftablifh for all the inhabitants, without diftinction, the mode by which births, marriages, and deaths, fhall be afcertained, and fhall appoint the public officers, who fhall receive and preferve the cer tificates of them. VIII. French citizens, confidered with refpect to thofe local relations which arife out of their affociation in cities, and in certain divifions of territory in the country, form the communities. The legislative power may fix the extent and boundary of each community. IX. The citizens who compofe each community, have a right of choofing, for a time, according to the forms prefcribed by the law, thofe among them, who, under the name of municipal officers, are charged with the management of (F) the |