-269; Cambridge Modern History, VIII., Chap. 7.]

*314. The Constitution of the Year I. (1793).*--The constitution of 1791
was in operation rather less than a twelvemonth. The _Corps
legislatif_ elected under it, after precipitating war with Austria,
gave way before the rising demand for the abolition of monarchy,
called into being a constituent convention of 782 members, and voted
its own dissolution.[423] September 21, 1792, the Convention met and
decreed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a
republic.[424] Mindful for the time of the purpose of its (p. 292)
creation, the new assembly appointed, October 11, a committee of nine
to which was intrusted the task of drafting a republican constitution.
February 15, 1793, the committee reported, and June 24 the Convention
adopted an ultra-republican frame of government, the principal
features of which were an executive council consisting of twenty-four
members chosen by the legislative body from candidates named by the
secondary electors of the departments; a unicameral _Corps legislatif_
chosen indirectly by manhood suffrage for one year, with power to
enact "decrees," but only to propose "laws"; and an arrangement
whereby projected laws were to be communicated to primary assemblies
of citizens to be voted upon after the principle of the
referendum.[425]

[Footnote 423: The members of the Convention were
elected by manhood suffrage, one of the last acts
of the Legislative Body having been the repeal of
the tax qualification required by the constitution
of 1791.]

[Footnote 424: September 22 was reckoned the first
day of the Year I. of French liberty, and the
fundamental law of June 24, 1793, was known as the
constitution of the Year I. For an illuminating
sketch of the rise of the republic see H. A. L.
Fisher, The Republican Tradition in Europe (New
York, 1911), Chap. 4.]

[Footnote 425: Text in Duguit et Monnier, Les
Constitutions, 66-78; Helie, Les Constitutions,
376-384; Anderson, Constitutions, 171-184. Summary
in Block, Dictionnaire General, 497-498.]

*315. The Constitution of the Year III. (1795).*--By reason of the
intensity of party