7 8 ' Carl Christ ophelsmeier 



of whatever nature, which shall not have been particularly, form- 

 ally, and freely granted by the assembly, shall cease entirely in 

 all the provinces of the kingdom, no matter what may be the form 

 of their administration." 1 



The purpose of the deputies in this decree may be easily seen. 

 The national assembly provided for non-interference in its busi- 

 ness. Heretofore the government had repeatedly interfered with 

 parliaments and states general ; it had even dissolved them. But 

 this assembly was considered by its members as a different body. 

 It was a national assembly and as such possessed and expressed 

 the highest authority of the state, the sovereignty of France. The 

 government was to be, thenceforth, at the mercy of the national 

 assembly. It could not exist without an income. The time when 

 a government and armies could live from plunder had passed-; 

 the nation was ready to regulate its own affairs. If the govern- 

 ment should undertake to interfere with the business of the as- 

 sembly or even to dissolve the assembly, it would henceforth 

 meet with difficulties which it would not be able to overcome. 

 After the national assembly had declared so strongly that its mis- 

 sion was to work for the good of France, its existence was se- 

 cured. Its decrees would be followed by the public, and if it were 

 dissolved, the government, in order to exist, would be forced to 

 call at once another national assembly. The people in their in- 

 structions to the deputies had expressed their wishes, they had 

 claimed their rights and made their demands, and if they should 

 be assembled for another election, they would be still more ex- 

 acting. The deputies knew that the government would bear all 

 these considerations in mind and that the government of Louis 

 XVI. was wretchedly weak. 



This decree was truly revolutionary. The national assembly 

 spoke as a sovereign; the king's power was no longer absolute; 

 the constituent assembly had begun its work in limiting the mon- 

 archy ; the idea of the divine right of kings had been rejected 

 and popular and national sovereignty had been declared. 



1 Proces-verbal, no. I, 10-14. Le Chapelier and Target prepared this 

 decree. Biauzat, II, 123, 124 ; Courrier de Provence, Lettre XII, 1-4 ; Du- 

 quesnoy, I, 106 ; Le point du jour, no. I, 5. 



78 



