TITLE VII. OF THE REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL

DECREES.

I. The National Constituent Assembly declares that the nation has the imprescriptible right to change its constitution: nevertheless, considering that it is more conformable to the national interests to make use of the right only to reform, by the means provided in the constitution itself, the articles of which experience shall have made the inconveniences felt, decrees that it shall proceed by an assembly of revision in the following form.

2. When three consecutive legislatures shall have expressed a uniform wish for the amendment of some constitutional article, the revision demanded shall take place.

3. The next legislature and the one following shall not propose the alteration of any constitutional article.

4. Of the three legislatures which may one after another propose any changes, the first two shall occupy themselves with that matter only in the last two months of their last session and the third only at the end of its first session or at the beginning of the second.

Their deliberations upon this matter shall be subject to the same forms as the legislative acts; but the decrees by which they shall have expressed their wish shall not be subject to the sanction of the King.

5. The fourth legislature, augmented by two hundred and forty-nine members elected in each department by doubling the usual number which it furnishes for its population, shall form the Assembly of Revision.

These two hundred and forty-nine members shall be elected after the selection of the representatives of the Legislative Body shall have been concluded and there shall be a separate record made of it.

The Assembly of Revision shall be composed of only one chamber.

6. The members of the third legislature which shall have requested the alteration cannot be elected to the Assembly of Revision.

7. The members of the Assembly of Revision, after having pronounced in unison the oath to live free or to die, shall take individually that "to confine themselves to pass upon the mat

ters which shall have been submitted to them by the uniform wish of the three preceding legislatures; to maintain, besides, with all their power the constitution of the kingdom, decreed by the National Constituent Assembly in the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, and in everything to be faithful to the nation, the law, and the King."

8. The assembly of revision shall be required to occupy itself afterwards and without delay with the matters which shall have been submitted to its examination: as soon as its work shall be concluded, the two hundred forty-nine members in augmentation shall retire, without power to take part in any case in legislative acts.

[Miscellaneous Provisions.]

The French colonies and possessions in Asia, Africa, and America, although they make up part of the French Empire, are not included in the present constitution.

None of the authorities instituted by the constitution has the right to change it in its entirety or in its parts, saving the alterations which can be made in it by way of revision in conformity with the provisions of title vir above.

The National Constituent Assembly delivers it as a trust to the fidelity of the Legislative Body, the King, and the judges, to the vigilance of the fathers of families, to the wives and the mothers, to the affection of the young citizens, to the courage of all the French.

The decrees rendered by the National Constituent Assembly which are not included in the constitutional act, shall be executed as laws, and the prior laws which have not been abrogated shall likewise be observed, in so far as the one or the other have not been revoked or modified by the legislative power.

The National Assembly having heard the reading of the above constitutional act, and after having approved it, declares that the constitution is completed and that it cannot be further changed.

There shall be appointed immediately a deputation of sixty members to offer within the day, the constitutional act to the King.

16. The King's Acceptance of the Constitution.

September 13, 1791. Moniteur, September 14, 1791 (Reimpression, IX, 655).

This document was read to the Constituent Assembly in explanation of the King's acceptance of No. 15. Three features call for particular notice: (1) the official defence of the King's flight, (2) the interpretation placed upon the revision recently effected in the final draft of the constitution, (3) the attitude of the King towards the general course of the Revolution and especially towards the new constitution.

REFERENCE. Aulard, Revolution Francaise, 164-166.

Gentlemen: I have examined attentively the constitutional act which you have presented to me for my acceptance; I accept it and shall cause it to be executed. This declaration might have sufficed at another time; today I owe it to the interests of the nation, I owe it to myself, to make known my

reasons.

Let everyone recall the moment at which I went away from Paris: the constitution was on the point of completion, nevertheless the authority of the laws seemed to become enfeebled every day. Opinion, far from becoming fixed, was subdividing into a multitude of parties. The most extreme opinions alone seemed to obtain favor, the license of the press was at the highest pitch, no authority was respected. I could no longer recognize the mark of the general will in the laws which I saw everywhere without force and without execution. At that time, I am bound to declare, if you had presented the constitution to me, I should not have believed that the interest of the people (the constant and sole rule of my conduct) would permit me to accept it. I had only one feeling, I formed only one project; I wished to isolate myself from all the parties and to know what was truly the will of the nation.

The considerations which were controlling me no longer remain today; since then the inconveniences and evils of which I was complaining have impressed you as they did me; you have manifested a desire to re-establish order, you have directed your attention to the lack of discipline in the army, you have recognized the necessity of repressing the abuses of the press. The revision of your work has put in the number of the regu

lative laws several articles which had been presented to me a; constitutional. You have established legal forms for the revision of those which you have placed in the constitution. Finally, the opinion of the people is to me no longer doubtful; I have seen it manifested both in their adhesion to your work and their attachment to the maintenance of the monarchical government.

I accept then the constitution. I take the engagement to maintain it within, to defend it against attacks from without, and to cause it to be executed by all the means which it places in my power. I declare that, instructed by the adhesion which the great majority of the people give to the constitution, I renounce the co-operation which I had claimed in that work; and that, being responsible only to the nation, no other, when I renounce it, has the right to complain thereof. I should be lacking in sincerity, however, if I said that I perceived in the means of execution and administration, all the energy which may be necessary in order to give motion to and to preserve unity in all the parts of so vast an empire; but since opinions at present are divided upon these matters, I consent that experience alone remain judge therein. When I shall have loyally caused to operate all the means which have been left to me, no reproach can be aimed at me, and the nation, whose interest alone ought to serve as rule, will explain itself by the means which the constitution has reserved to it.

Signed,

LOUIS.

17. The Rejected Decrees.

The Legislative Assembly began its sittings October 1, 1791. Among the many difficult questions confronting it were those of the Emigrés and the non-juring clergy. These decrees represent the Assembly's solution of these problems. Both were rejected by the King. This rejection was a leading factor In producing both the declaration of war against Austria and the overthrow of the Monarchy.

REFERENCES. Gardiner, French Revolution, 100-102; Stephens, French Revolution, II, 31-39; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 125-126.

A. Decree upon the Émigrés. November 9, 1791. Duvergier, Lois, IV, 14-15.

The National Assembly, considering that the tranquility and security of the kingdom require it to take prompt and effective measures against Frenchmen who, despite the amnesty, do not cease to plot abroad against the French constitution, and that it is time finally to repress severely those whom indulgence has not been able to reclaim to the duties and sentiments of free citizens, has declared that there is urgency for the tollowing decree, and the decree of urgency being previously rendered, has decreed as follows:

I. The Frenchmen mustered beyond the frontiers of the kingdom are from this moment declared suspects for conspiracy against the fatherland.

2. If on the 1st of January next they are still in a state of muster, they shall be declared guilty of conspiracy; they shall be prosecuted as such and punished with death.

3. As to the French princes and public funétionaries, civil and ecclesiastical, and those who were such at the date of their departure from the kingdom, their absence at the above cited date of the 1st of January, 1792, shall make them guilty of the same crime of conspiracy against the fatherland; they shall be punished with the penalty provided in the preceding article.

5. The incomes of the conspirators condemned in contumacy shall be collected during their lifetime for the benefit of the nation, without prejudice to the rights of their wives, children, and lawful creditors.

13. Every Frenchman who, outside of the kingdom, sha!l engage and enroll persons to repair to the musters mentioned in articles 1 and 2 of the present decree shall be punished with death, in conformity with the law of October 6, 1790. The same penalty shall apply to every person who shall commit the same crime in France.

14. The National Assembly charges its diplomatic committee to propose to it the measures which the King shall be prayed to take in the name of the nation with respect to the adjacent foreign powers which permit upon their territories the musters of French fugitives.