STATE: PAPERS. 
discharging the duties of his station 
with all possible zeal and diligence, 
and to contribute all in his power 
to endeavour to promote good 
order in the administration ot the 
affairs of this city. 
Decreed, &c. 30th Jan. 1795. 
(Signed) G. Brenper, 
A. Branpis, Secretary. 
Public Instrument cf the new Order 
of Things solemnly published at the 
Hague. 
Declaration of the Rights of Man 
and of a Citizen. 
LIRERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY. 
THE provisional representatives 
of the people of Holland, believing 
that they owe to their fellow- 
citizens a solemn declaration of the 
principles upon which their pro- 
ceedings and actions depend, to 
all those to whom these presents 
shall come, or who shall hear them 
read, health, they make known, 
That we are fectly con- 
vinced the power, which has been 
confided to us, repeses only on the 
free choice of our fellow-citizens, 
and that it is from this choice alone 
we have received it; that no su- 
preme power resides in us;~ but 
that the proper sovereignty rests in 
the people, and this in such a 
manner, that the people can conter 
the exercise of it on their repre. 
sentatives, but can never alienate 
it from themselves: that we are 
assured the evils which this day 
bear so heavily on this country, and 
the other provinces, owe their 
origin principally to the perverse 
ideas which have been distilled into 
the people by artifice and violence: 
and therefore it is the duty of the 
‘Pepresentatives of the people, who 
205 
desire to be faithful to their duty, 
to lay down certain and evident 
principles, and to fix them as the 
rule of their condu&; for. though 
we thought the final settlement of 
these rights éught to be the first 
work of a national convocation of 
the representatives of the people 
named to decree and fix a form of 
. government, we nevertheless owe 
to the confidence which our fellow- 
citizens have placed in us, to. make 
a public 4nd solemn recognition of 
the rights of man, and of a citizen, 
in declaring, as we recognize and 
declare by these presents, 
That all men are born with 
equal rights, and that these natural 
rights cannot be taken from them. 
That these rights are equality, 
liberty, safety, property, and re- 
sistance to oppression. 
That liberty is the faculty which 
belongs to every man, to be able to 
do that which does not affect the 
rights of other men; therefore its 
natural limitation is found in this 
principle, ‘* Do not to another that 
«€ which thou would not wish him 
*¢ todo unto thee.’* 
That therefore it is permitted to 
all and to each to make Known to 
others his thoughts and sentiments, 
be it by the way of the press, or by 
any other means. 
That each man has the right to 
serve God in such manner as he 
pleases, without being in this 
respect any way restrained. 
‘That safety consists in the ces. 
tainty of not being troubled by 
another in the exercise of his 
rights, nor in the peaceable pos- 
session of property legally acquired- 
! Yiiat each man has the right of 
sufftage in the legislative assembly, 
of the entire society, eather per~ 
‘ sonally 
