Thus there is no difficulty at all in answering the question, what
should have been done? The Nation ought to have been convoked to depute
a set of extraordinary representatives to the capital with a special
mandate to draft the constitution of an ordinary National Assembly. I
would not have wanted these representatives to have been given any
power to become, under any other quality, an ordinary assembly, in
keeping with the constitution that they themselves had established. I
would have been fearful that instead of working solely for the national interest,
they would have paid too much attention to the interest of the
body that they were about to form. In politics, mixing up and conflating
power is what constantly makes it impossible to establish social order on
earth. Inversely, by separating what should be distinct, it will be possible
finally to solve the great problem of establishing a human society
arranged for the general advantage of those who compose it.
One might ask why I have taken so long to deal with what should have
been done. The past, it will be said, is past. My answer is, firstly, that
knowledge of what should have been done can lead to knowledge of
what will be done. In the second place, it is always good to set out principles
that are true, especially on a subject so new for most minds. Finally,
What is the Third Estate? 143
32It is only too amusing to see the majority of nobles forcing themselves to travesty
protests that at the bottom of their hearts they fear as being favourable to despotism, as an
insurrection against royal authority. They are not at all afraid of depicting the unfortunate
Third Estate, which they deny has any energy of its own and whose courage they explain in
terms of maneuvers by the ministry itself, as a band of rebels against the king. Among themselves
the nobles say that nothing is more dangerous to liberty than the language of the
Third Estate, because it looks too much like the following: “Sire, do with us what you will,
provided that you do not leave us to be devoured by the aristocrats.” At the same time, they
say to the king, “The people have their eyes on your throne; take care, they are aiming to
overthrow the monarchy.” With that kind of an attitude, why not simply undertake to excite
a populace that is always blind and always superstitiously responsive to any movement it
pleases the aristocracy to give it? At least it would spare them the trouble of having to say
“That is your Third Estate.” But honorable men everywhere will then be able to reply,
“Those are your aristocrats!” How easy it would be for us to become the first nation in the
world, namely the freest and most happy, if there were no aristocrats!
the truths set out in this chapter will serve the better to explain those in
the one to follow