Q74 
prived of life.-—Their represent- 
atives, however, judged there was a 
medium whereby to reconcile the 
wishes of the people, the spirit of 
the constitution, the safety of the 
state, and that of the King: and this 
consisted in the measure of suspend- 
ing the King from his functions, 
convoking the people to judge him 
in a convention, and yielding their 
places to that convention as soon as 
it could be assembled. 
By the suspension, the threads 
of collusion between the executive 
and the foreign powers were cut 
asunder, An appeal to the people is 
an homage paid to its sovereignty, 
and to the constitution: the people 
alone, by a new deputation, could 
pronounce between the King and 
the present legislature. If the mis- 
understanding, the treasons, and 
misfortunes of France spring from 
any constitutional source, the people 
alone could find out the evil, and 
apply to it a cure. 
This vigorous measure, to which 
France will owe her preservation, 
has been applauded by all the na- 
tion: the citizens, the administra- 
tions, the armies, have almost uni- 
versally adhered to it—And yet 
this measure seems to have alarmed 
some of ihe neutral powers, who 
had continued their agents in France, 
One of these potentates, whose prin- 
ciples by France are respected, and 
whose alliance is greatly valued, pro- 
fesses a strict neutrality, anda re- 
solution not to interfere with the 
internal government of France; yet 
expresses, at the same time, the 
keenest solicitude about the King’s 
situation; and thus declares a re- 
solution to be neutral and not. to 
be neutral in the same breath; the 
ambassador is. accordingly recalled, 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1702. 
under the pretext that the King is 
suspended. ; 
Other potentates have followed 
the same line of conduct, without 
making use openly of the same lan- 
guage; but dictated, as is evident, 
by the same principles. 
The representatives of the French 
people are therefore under the ne- 
cessity, from the duty they owe to 
their constituents, and in order to 
perpetuate a good understanding 
between France and the said poten- 
tates, of hereby exposing the prin- 
ciples of political jurisprudence, in 
order to set before the potentates in 
question the errors which influence 
their conduct. 
They have all of them, in reality, 
acknowledged the French constitu- 
tion. Now that constitution lays it 
down as a principle, that the people 
has an unalienable right, against 
which there lies no prescription, to 
change its own government when 
it thinks convenient. On the other 
hand, the constitution specifies di- 
vers cases, in which the King is un- 
derstood to have incurred abdica- 
tion. 
Into some such case the King is 
judged to have now fallen by the 
representatives of the French people; 
and they are seconded by innumer- 
able addresses, by facts and proofs 
incontestible; but it not being 
equally evident that the present case 
is one of those wherein a legislature 
is authorised to pass sentence, the 
legislature remit the judgment to 
the nation itseif, and suspend the 
King till the trial commences: in 
doing this, the legislature has made 
use of the power granted to it by 
the constitution, in the case of the 
King’s being absent, or by a neces- 
sary analogy, of his being in a fair 
° 
