HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



[61 



just be observed, in this place,* 

 that in the former, due regard was 

 paid to the equal distribution of 

 justice; and that in the latter, the 

 authority of the laws as well as the 

 personal freedom and property of 

 individuals, were consulted by the 

 annexation of responsibility in many 

 cases to the sundry offices of ad- 

 ministration. — But,on the other, the 

 consuls were not responsible in any. 

 It was ordained that the citizens 

 of every commercial district should 

 jjoint out by their votes those they 

 conceived to be the most proper to 

 manage their public affairs. The 

 number so pointed out would form 

 a list of men, worthy of confidence, 

 amounting to a tenth of the num- 

 ber of citizens having a right to 

 vote. Out of this list were to be 

 chosen the public functionaries of 

 the district. The citizens compre- 

 hended in the communal lists of a 

 department, were likewise to point 

 out a tenth part of their own 

 number. Hence there was formed 

 a second list, called departmental, 

 from whicli were to be chosen the 

 public functionaries of the depart- 

 ment. The citizens whose names 

 stood on, likewise named a tenth 

 part of their own number. Thus 

 was formed a third list, which com- 

 prehended the citizens of the de- 

 partment eligible to public national 

 functions. All the lists made up in 

 virtue of this last article, in the 

 departments, were addressed to the 

 senate, and composed the national 

 list: out of which list the senate 

 I was to choose the national func- 

 tionaries, as above observed. 



This new constitution, as an uni- 

 versal subject, as might be expected, 

 of critical observation, and in Paris, 

 according to the genius of the Pa- 

 risians, of jokes and raillery. The 

 French nation, it was there ac- 

 knowledged, must always have 

 some darling idol. That which 

 they had now got, possessed this 

 advantage, that it might be wor- 

 shipped without a breach of the 

 second commandment ; since it was 

 not the " likeness of any thing in 

 the heavens above, or in the earth 

 beneath." While some praised it for 

 its unprecedented originality, and 

 ingenious combinations, and launch- 

 ing forth on the occean of possibi- 

 lity and human nature, conducted, 

 not merely by shores and land- 

 marks, but chiefly by the polarity of 

 reasons, others for that very reason 

 condemned it. Constitutions were 

 not things to be formed like mathe- 

 matical diagrams, or like syllogisms, 

 by recluse metaphysicians, but grew 

 out of examples and precedents, 

 which could alone fix the nature of 

 any constitution, and the limits of 

 any form of government. 



The most prominent feature in 

 this new production was the great 

 and almost unlimited, or at least, 

 in fact, illimitable power of the 

 first consul. One party of reasoners 

 dreaded and detested this as the 

 grave of liberty: others expressed 

 an opinion that it was not greater 

 than tlie temper of the French 

 nation and the circumstances of the 

 times demanded. On one side, an 

 observation of Mr. Hume's t was 

 quoted, that if the king's negative. 



• Tills new constitution of tiie French republic is inserted, at fall length, in the 

 appendix of our last volume, ])agc 14i'. 



t This writer was very popular, and almost adored by the French. And cer- 

 tainly, though he is partial to abstiliit(^ monarchy, and a sworn enemy to democracy, 

 his writings had a great share in bringing about the revolution. 



