*****
The National Assembly, then, (for that is the name they take,) having
shown through every stage of these transactions a coolness, wisdom, and
resolution to set fire to the four corners of the kingdom, and to perish
with it themselves, rather than to relinquish an iota from their plan
of a total change of government, are now in complete and undisputed
possession of the sovereignty. The executive and aristocracy are at
their feet; the mass of the nation, the mass of the clergy, and the
army are with them: they have prostrated the old government, and are now
beginning to build one from the foundation. A committee, charged with
the arrangement of their business, gave in, two days ago, the following
order of proceedings.
'1. Every government should have for its only end, the preservation
of the rights of man: whence it follows, that to recall constantly
the government to the end proposed, the constitution should begin by a
declaration of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.
'2. Monarchical government being proper to maintain those rights, it has
been chosen by the French nation.
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