2233 INTRODUCTION 2$ 



partmental and municipal officers, was restricted.'*® While 

 the Constitution of the year 1793 and that of the third year 

 of the Republic were submitted to a vote in primary assem- 

 blies,^^ the decree abolishing the monarchy and establishing 

 the republic was not subjected to popular referendum.^" 

 It was in 1799 that Napoleon Bonaparte engineered the 

 coup d'etat of the i8th hrummre, which replaced the Direc- 

 toire by the Consulat provisoire. As the Premier Consul 

 he offered to the French nation a new constitution (known 

 as the Constitution of the 22 frimaire of the year VIII, De- 

 cember 13, 1799). This new instrument omitted the Decla- 

 ration of the rights of man and citizen, and did not guar- 

 antee the liberty of the press and conscience. It gave the 

 people the right to elect its deputies, to make through them 

 its laws and to regulate its finances. By this new constitu- 

 tion the right to vote was to be given to all citizens, and 



*^ The election law of Dec. 22, 1789, divides the French into pas- 

 sive and active citizens. The former are entitled to all civil rights 

 and protection ; only the latter are to take part in the formation of 

 government. "The qualifications required to be active citizens are: 

 (i) to be a Frenchman; (2) to have completed the 25th year of age; 



(3) to be actually domiciled in the canton, or at least for a year; 



(4) to pay a direct contribution equivalent to the local value of three 

 days of labor; (5) not to be in the condition of a domestic, that is, 

 not to be a paid servant." For a detailed description of the history 

 of the law and its actual application see F. V. A. Aulard, Histoire 

 politique de la revolution frangaise, Paris, 1901, pp. 60-80. 



*" The adoption by the National Convention of the Constitution 

 of June 24, 1793, was followed by a decree regulating the system of 

 the voting in the primary assemblies to which the Constitution was 

 to be submitted for popular acceptance or rejection (Archives par- 

 lamentaires de 1787 a i860, Recueil complet des debats legislatifs et 

 politiques des chambres frangaises, ser. I, vol. Ixvii, pp. 367-368). 

 The Constitution of the year III (Aug. 22, 1795) was adopted by a 

 primary assembly vote of 914.853 against 41,892 (Larousse, Grand 

 dictionaire universel du XIX" siecle, Constitution). The first French 

 revolutionary constitution of Sept. 3, 1791, was adopted in the Na- 

 tional Assembly and offered by order of the Assembly to the king 

 for acceptance. On Sept. 14, Louis XVI rendered the oath on the 

 constitution in the Assembly (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. xxx, pp. 189- 

 190, 635). 



""This decree was passed in the National Convention on Sept. 21, 

 1792. On the same day the Convention ordered the verbatim report 

 of the meeting to be sent to the departments and to the armies. Ic 

 was (irdt-rt'd furtlier that "the decree pronouncing the abolition of 

 the kingdom be solemnly proclaimed in Paris tomorrow and in all 

 muniiiiialitics the day after its receipt" (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. lii, 

 p. 74)- 



