C. Decree for Provisional Enforcement of the Laws. September 21, 1792. Moniteur, September 22, 1792 (Reimpression, XIV, 8).

The National Convention declares that all the laws not abrogated and all the powers not revoked or suspended are maintained.

The National Convention declares that the taxes at present actually existing shall be collected as in the past.

D. Decree upon the Dating of Public Documents. September 22, 1792. Duvergier, Lois, V, 2.

A member demanded that henceforth documents be dated, the first year of the French Republic.

Another member proposed to join to that the era in use, the fourth year of liberty.

This amendment is rejected, and it is decreed that all the public documents shall bear henceforth the date of the first year of the French Republic.

E. Decree upon the Unity and Indivisibility of the Republic. September 25, 1792. Duvergier, Lois, V, 4.

The National Convention declares that the French Republic is one and indivisible.

28. Documents upon the Convention and Foreign Policy.

The adoption of the policy set forth in the first two of these decrees marks a great turning point in the history of the Revolution. Document A, passed hastily amid the enthusiasm following the French victory at Jemmapes, may be regarded as representing the Girondist theory of foreign policy. In contrast, document B 10ay be called the Montagnard theory. Document C represents the more practical and nederate policy of Danton. Special attention should be given to the effect of each of these decrees in foreign countries.

REFERENCES. Gardiner, French Revolution, 130-135; Stephens, French Revolution, II, 204-206; Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, V, 58, 81-83; Von Sybel, French Revolution, II, 235-237, 257-259, III, 41-43; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 242-245, 282-285.

A. Declaration for Assistance and Fraternity to Foreign Peoples. November 19, 1792.

The National Convention declares, in the name of the French people, that it will accord fraternity and assistance to all peoples who shall wish to recover their liberty, and charges the executive power to give to the generals the necessary orders to furnish assistance to these peoples and to defend the citizens who may have been or who may be harassed for the cause of liberty. The present decree shall be translated and printed in all languages.

B. Decree for Proclaiming the Liberty and Sovereignty of all Peoples. December 15, 1792. Duvergier, Lois, V, 82-84.

The National Convention, after having heard the report of its united committees of finances, war, and diplomacy, faithful to the principles of the sovereignty of the people, which do not permit it to recognize any of the institutions which bring an attack upon it, and wishing to settle the rules to be followed by the generals of the armies of the Republic in the countries where they shall carry its arms, decrees:

1. In the countries which are or shall be occupied by the armies of the Republic, the generals shall proclaim immediately, in the name of the French nation, the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all the established authorities and of the existing imposts and taxes, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seignioral rights, both feudal and censuel, fixed or precarious, of banalities, of real and personal servitude, of the privileges of hunting and fishing, of corvees, of the nobility, and generally of all privileges.

2. They shall announce to the people that they bring them peace, assistance, fraternity, liberty and equality, and that they will convoke them directly in primary or communal assemblies, in order to create and organize an administration and a provisional judiciary; they shall look after the security of persons and property; they shall cause the present decree and the proclamation herewith annexed to be printed in the language or idiom of the country, and to be posted and executed without delay in each commune.

3. All the agents and civil and military officers of the former government, as well as the persons formerly reputed noble, or the members of any formerly privileged corporation. shall be, for this time only, inadmissible to vote in the primary

or communal assemblies, and they shall not be elected to administrative or the provisional judicial power.

4. The generals shall directly place under the safeguard and protection of the French Republic all the movable and immovable goods belonging to the public treasury, to the prince, to his abettors, adherents and voluntary satellites, to the public establishments, to the lay and ecclesiastical bodies and communities; they shall cause to be prepared without delay a detailed list of them, which they shall dispatch to the executive council, and shall take all the measures which are in their power that these properties may be respected.

5. The provisional administration selected by the people shall be charged with the surveillance and control of the goods placed under the safeguard and protection of the French Republic; it shall look after the security of persons and property; it shall cause to be executed the laws in force relative to the trial of civil and criminal suits and to the police and the public security; it shall be charged to regulate and to cause the payment of the local expenses and those which shall be necessary for the common defence; it may establish taxes, provided, however, that they shall not be borne by the indigent and laboring portion of the people.

6. When the provisional administration shall be organized the National Convention shall appoint commissioners from within its own body to go to fraternise with it.

7. The executive council shall also appoint national commissioners, who shall repair directly to the places in order to co-operate with the generals and the provisional administration selected by the people upon the measures to be taken for the common defence, and upon the means employed to procure the clothing and provisions necessary for the armies, and to meet the expenses which they have incurred and shall incur during their sojourn upon its territory.

8. The national commissioners appointed by the executive council shall every fifteen days render an account to it of their operations. The executive council shall approve, modify or reject them and shall render an account thereof directly to the Convention.

9. The provisional administration selected by the people and the functions of the national commissioners shall cease as

soon as the inhabitants, after having declared the sovereignty and independence of the people, liberty and equality, shall have organized a free and popular form of government.

10. There shall be made a list of the expenses which the French Republic shall have incurred for the common defence and of the sums which it may have received, and the French nation shall make arrangements with the government which shall have been established for that which may be due; and in case the common interest should require that the troops of the Republic remain beyond that time upon the foreign territory, it shall take suitable measures to provide for their subsist

ence.

II. The French nation declares that it will treat as enemies the people who, refusing liberty and equality, or renouncing them, may wish to preserve, recall, or treat with the prince and the privileged castes; it promises and engages not to subscribe to any treaty, and not to lay down its arms until after the establishment of the sovereignty and independence of the people whose territory the troops of the Republic have entered upon and who shall have adopted the principles of equality, and established a free and popular government.

12. The executive council shall dispatch the present decree by extraordinary couriers to all the generals and shall take the necessary measures to assure the execution of it.

The French People to the

People.

Brothers and friends, we have conquered liberty and we shall maintain it. We offer to cause you to enjoy this inestimable blessing, which has always belonged to us and which our oppressors have not been able to take away from us without crime.

We have driven out your tyrants: show yourselves free men and we will guarantee you from their vengeance, their projects, and their return.

From this moment the French nation proclaims the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all the civil and military authorities which have governed you up to this day, and of all the imposts which you support, under whatever form they exist; the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seigniora! rights, both feudal and censuel, settled or precarious, of ban

alities, of real and personal servitude, of the privileges of hunting and fishing, of the corvees, of the gabelle, of the tolls, of the octrois, and generally of every species of taxes with which you have been charged by your usurpers; it also proclaims the abolition among you of every noble corporation, sacerdotal and others, of all prerogatives and privileges contrary to equality. You are from this moment, brothers and friends, all citizens, all equal in rights, and all equally called to govern, to serve, and to defend your fatherland.

Form yourselves immediately into primary and communal assemblies, make haste to establish your provisional administrations and judiciaries, in conformity with the provisions of article 3 of the above decree. The agents of the French Republic will co-operate with you in order to assure your welfare and the fraternity which ought to exist henceforth be

tween us.

C. Decree upon Non-Intervention. April 13, 1793. Duvergier, Lois, V, 248.

The National Convention declares, in the name of the French people, that it will not interfere in any manner in the government of the other powers; but it declares at the same time, that it will sooner be buried under its own ruins than suffer that any power should interfere in the internal régime of the Republic, or should influence the creation of the constitution which it intends to give itself.

The National Convention decrees the penalty of death against anyone who may propose to negotiate or treat with the hostile powers which may not have previously recognized in a solemn manner the independence of the French Republic, its sovereignty, and the indivisibility and unity of the Republic, founded upon liberty and equality.

29. Documents upon the Convention and Religion.

Document A shows the original attitude of the Convention towards religion, which was substantially that of the Constituent Assembly. (See No. 6.) Under various influences that attitude was gradually changed. The royalist sympathies of the non-juring priests led to document B, the Girondist sympathies of the constitutional clergy to document C. At the end of the year 1793 the