Sire.

TH

HE deputies of your faithful Commons would long fince have folemnly prefented to your Majefty the respectful teftimony of their gratitude for the convocation of the ftates general, had their powers been verified, which would have been the cafe but for the obstacles thrown in the way by the nobles. They wait with the most anxious impatience for the moment of that verification, to enable them to offer you a more striking homage and token of their love for your facred perfon, for your auguft family, and their devotion to the interests of the monarch, which are always infeparable from those of the nation.

The folicitude your Majefty experiences at the inaction of the ftates general, affords a fresh proof of the defire which animates your breaft to produce the happiness of France.

Afflicted at this fatal inaction, the deputies of the Commons have left no means untried to determine thofe of the clergy and the nobles to unite with them for the purpofe of conftituting the national affembly; but the nobles having again manifefted their refolution of maintaining the verification of their powers feparately tranfacted, the conciliatory conferences opened on this important queftion were ne. ceffarily at an end.

Your Majefty, defiring that they fbould be refumed, in prefence of the keeper of the feals, and commifioners you have named, the deputies of the Commons, certain that under a Prince, who wishes to be the reftorer of France, the liberty of the national affembly can be in no danger, have chear

fully concurred in your defire as fignified to them. They are thoroughly convinced, that in the exact journal of thefe conferences laid before your Majefty, you will difcover nothing in the motives by which we are directed, but the principles of justice and of reafon.

Sire, your faithful Commons will never forget what they owe to their king; never will they lofe fight of the natural alliance between the throne and the people, against aristocracies, under whatever form, whofe power can be established only on the ruins of the regal authority, and the public happiness. The French people, whofe glory it has been at all times to love their king, will always be ready to fpill their blood and lavish their property in fupport of the genuine principles of the monarchy. From the very first moment that the inftructions received by their deputies will permit them to exprefs a national with, you will judge, Sire, whether the reprefentatives of your Commons do not prove themfelves the moft anxious of your fubjects to maintain the rights, the honours, the dignities of the throne, to confolidate the public engagements, to reftore the credit of the nation; you will acknowledge likewife, that they are not lefs juft towards their fellow-citizens, of every clafs, than devoted to your Majefty.

Your faithful Commons are most deeply affected at the circumftance under which your Majesty has the goodness to receive their deputation; and they take the liberty to addrefs to your Majefty the univerfal expreffion of their re

gret,

confider as neceffary in the prefent crifis, and which ought to take place for the general good of the kingdom.

The Declaration of Rights, which has been agreed to by the National Affembly of France, and fanctioned by the King, and which forms the Bafis of the new Conftitution of

France.

HE reprefentatives of the peo

THE ple of France, formed into

a national affembly, confidering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of human rights, are the fole caufes of public misfortunes and corruptions of government, have refolved to fet forth, in a folemn declaration, thefe natural, imprefcriptible, and unalienable, rights: that this declaration being conftantly prefent to the minds of the members of the body focial, they may be ever kept attentive to their rights and their duties: that the acts of the legislative and executive powers of government being capable of being every moment compared with the end of political inftitutions, may be more refpected; and alfo, that the future claims of the citizens, being directed by fimple and inconteftible principles, may always tend to the maintenance of the conftitution, and the general happinefs.

For these reasons the national affembly doth recognize and declare, in the prefence of the Supreme Being, and with the hope of his bleffing and favour, the following facred rights of men and of citizens.

I. Men were born and always continue free, and equal in refpect of their rights. Civil diftinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.

II. The end of all political affociations is the prefervation of the natural and imprefcriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, fecurity, and refiftance of oppreffion.

III. The nation is effentially the fource of all fovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not exprefsly derived from it.

IV. Political liberty confifts in the power of doing whatever does not injure another. The exercise of the natural rights of every man, has no other limits than thofe which are neceffary to fecure to every other man the free exercife of the fame rights; and thefe limits are determinable only by the law.

V. The law ought to prohibit only actions hurtful to fociety. What is not prohibited by the law fhould not be hindered; nor fhould any one be compelled to that which the law does not require.

VI. The law is an expreffion of the will of the community. All citizens have a right to concur, either perfonally or by their reprefentatives, in its formation. It should be the fame to all, whether it protects or punishes; and all being equal in its fight, are equally eligible to all honours, places, and employments, according to their different abilities, without any other diftinction than that created by their virtues and talents.

VII. No man should be accused, arrested, or held in confinement, ex

cept

cept in cafes determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed. All who promote, folicit, execute, or caufe to be executed, arbitrary orders, ought to be punished: and every citizen called upon or apprehended by virtue of the law, ought immediately to obey, and renders himself culpable by refiftance.

VIII. The law ought to impofe no other penalties than fuch as are abfolutely and evidently neceffary; and no one ought to be punished but in virtue of a law promulgated before the offence, and legally applied.

IX. Every man being prefumed innocent till he has been convicted, whenever his detention becomes indifpenfable, all rigour to him, more than is neceffary to fecure his perfon, ought to be provided against by the law.

X. No man ought to be molefted on account of his opinions, not even on account of his religious opinions, provided his avowal of them does not difturb the public order established by the law.

XI. The unrestrained com

ing the other expences of ment, it ought to be divided equally among the members of the community, according to their abili ties.

XIV. Every citizen has a right, either by himself or his reprefentative, to a free voice in determining the neceflity of public contribu tions, the appropriation of them, and their amount, mode of affeffment, and duration.

XV. Every community has a right to demand of all its agents an account of their conduct.

XVI. Every community in which a feparation of powers and a fecurity of rights is not provided for, wants a conftitution.

XVII. The right to property being inviolable and facred, no one ought to be deprived of it, except in cafes of evident public neceffity legally ascertained, and on condition of a previous juft indemnity.

Extract from the Declaration of the Emperor to the States at Bruxelles, March 8, 1789.

HE States of this province

nions being one of the moft precious rights of man, every citizen may fpeak, write, and publifh freely, provided he is refponfible for the abufe of this liberty in cafes determined by the law.

XII. A public force being neceffary to give fecurity to the rights of men and of citizens, that force is inftituted for the benefit of the community, and not for the particular benefit of the perfons to whom it is entrusted.

XIII. A common contribution being neceffary for the fupport of the public force, and for defray

the 2d inft. the Minifter Plenipotentiary notified to them a difpatch, figned by the Emperor's own hand, which was principally in answer to the addrefs of the first orders of the State, on the 29th of January laft.

This declaration, fay the ftates, ftrikes the final blow at our conftitution, in denying us the right of being tried by our own judges, according to the ancient law of the land, and denying the right of the Council of Brabant to participate in the legiflation of the country.

We

"I have, moreover, ordered my Government General to carry into full force the laws I have ordained, and to fpare no methods to put them into the fpeedieft execution, without minding (in regard to any of my fubjects who may difpute them) the common forms of law, which were only made for ordinary cafes. At the fame time, I acquaint you, that I have broken and annulled thofe claufes and conditions by which fome of the Courts have exceptions, and new modified my orders.

"Not doubting but you will think with me, that if my dignity and my rights require, that

I should take fome effectual meafures to deftroy for ever that odious difgrace, which, for the honour of the nation, I would wish to forget the remembrance of, it is even for its own intereft, as well as mine, that I fhould purify the conftitution, in many inftances obfcure and inexcufeable, and to fix it upon a proper bafis.

"I cannot give you a ftronger proof of my clemency, nor of my real affection, than in communicating my intentions, which, after what has happened, I was fully authorised to do by my fovereign power alone.

"I muft likewise acquaint you, that the mitigation of the rigorous parts of my difpatch of the 7th January laft, only holds good fo long as every order of my citizens obferve the implicit refpect it owes me; and that if there fhould ftill be found refractory perfons, who fhould be guilty of the least feditious ftep injurious to my authority, I have given implicit orders to my Government General to act against thofe culprits without obferving the ufual forms of law, which in all fuch cafes are to be made fubfervient to the neceffity of the cafe.

(Signed) JOSEPH. And under it, DR. LEDEROR. Vienna, Feb. 1789.”