You might say that this would have led to too many delays. No more,
in truth, than the sequence of expedients that has served only to make matters more muddled. Moreover, it is also a question of adopting the
means appropriate to the ends, not simply of spinning out time. If anyone
had wanted, or known how, to pay homage to true principles, it would
have been possible to do more for the Nation in four months than, even
though I take them to be very powerful, the course of enlightenment and
public opinion could do in half a century.
But you might say, what would have become of privilege, what would
have become of the distinction between the three orders, if the majority of
citizens had nominated extraordinary representatives? The answer is that
they would have become what they should be. The principles outlined
here are absolutely certain. Either they have to be recognized or there will
be no social order. The Nation is always the master of every reform to its
constitution. Above all, it cannot avoid having to give itself one whose
provisions are certain when its constitution is in dispute. Everyone can see
that now. But you ought to be able to see too that it would be impossible
to alter the constitution at all if the Nation was simply one side in the dispute.
A body that is subject to constituted forms cannot do anything other
than make its decisions according to its constitution. It cannot give itself
another one. It ceases to exist as soon as it moves, speaks, or acts otherwise
than in the forms imposed upon it. The Estates-General, even if it were
assembled, would not therefore be competent to decide anything to do
with the constitution. This is a right that belongs to the Nation alone, independently,
as we keep repeating, of all forms and all conditions.
The privileged orders, as can be seen, have good reason for trying to
muddle principles and ideas in this matter. They intrepidly proclaim now
the opposite of what they set forth six months ago. Then there was but
one cry in France: we have no constitution and demand that one be established.
Now, we not only have a constitution, but, to believe the privileged
orders, it also contains two excellent and inviolable provisions.
The first is the division of the citizenry into orders. The second is the equality
of influence of each order in the formation of the national will. We have
already given enough proof of the reasons why, even if all these things really
did form our constitution, the Nation would still be the master to
change them. What more specifically still needs to be examined is the nature
of that equality of influence over the national will that, it is said,
ought to be attributed to each order. We will now proceed to show that
this idea is the most absurd that there is and that no nation could ever put
anything like this into its constitution