48 EMPLOYMENT OF THE TLEBISCITE C346 



Soliere cites and describes in some detail a number of cases 

 where treaties stipulating the cession of French territory to 

 England were submitted to the £tats Generaux for their 

 approval and he calls these cases plebiscites. He says : 



We shall now examine the plebiscite by the fitats Generaux. 

 Here . . . we are in the presence of regularily constituted bodies 

 which are to be consulted by royalty! It seems at the first glance, 

 that these declarations of the fitats Generaux should be compared 

 to the ratifications of treaties which under a constitutional regime 

 the sovereign must ask nowadays of the representatives of the na- 

 tion, rather than to plebiscites. However, it must not be forgotten 

 that the deputies to the fit'ats Generaux were, in matters of their 

 powers, subject to a regime which is called the maiidat imp^ratif. 

 They were obliged to present the complaints and objections with 

 which they were charged by their constituents. . . . The king's letters 

 of convocation specified the affairs for which they were convened 

 and they recommended to the Three Orders that they give to their 

 representatives sufficient powers for the expedition of the affairs 

 specified. Consequently, when the fitats Generaux ratified or re- 

 jected this or that treaty, it did so in accordance with the will of 

 the electors ; it was a plebiscite in two degrees.''" 



Luchaire's description of the rights and powers of the 

 fitats Generaux does not seem to justify Soliere's interpre- 

 tation. The two privileged orders were convoked by a royal 

 lettre dc semonce. 



The third estate, convoked by bailifTs and seneschals, comprised 

 under the name bonnes villcs and villcs insigncs, the entire urban 

 population not only of the domain, but of the kingdom. ... In the 

 cities which possessed a municipal organization, the procurcurs, 

 charged with the representation of the people in the Etats, were 

 elected either by universal suffrage (even the women having the 

 right to vote on certain points) or by restricted ballot through the 

 same electoral colleges which elected the magistrates. In the locali- 

 ties dependent upon seigneurial or royal power, or being without 

 municipal organs, the deputies were designated by general assembly 

 of the inhabitants, or even by the seigneur in accord with the 

 latter.«i 



Concerning the mandate of the deputies, Luchaire writes 

 that " it must have been conceived in the most general terms, 

 in such a fashion as to give them the most extended 

 powers." Differing most radically with Soliere's concep- 

 tion of the function of the fitats Generaux, he further 

 states : 



o" Soliere. p. i8. 

 "1 Luchaire, p. 503. 



