to the monarchy and recognised Louis XVI., and
could not dethrone him without a crime. The objection is puerile, if it
originates in minds who do not believe in the possession of the people
by dynasties. The Assembly at its outset had proclaimed the inalienable
right of the people; and the lawfulness of necessary insurrection, and
the oath of the Tennis Court (_Serment du Jeu de Paume_), were nought
but an oath of disobedience to the king and of fidelity to the nation.
The Assembly had afterwards proclaimed Louis XVI. king of the French. If
they possessed the power of proclaiming him king, they also possessed
that of proclaiming him a simple citizen. Forfeiture for the national
utility, and that of the human race, was evidently one of its
principles, and yet how did it act? It leaves Louis XVI. king, or makes
him king, not through respect for that institution, but out of respect
for his person, and pity for so great a downfall. Such was the truth; it
feared sacrilege, and fell into anarchy. It was clement, noble, and
generous. Louis XVI. had deserved well from his people; who well can
dare to censure so magnanimous a condescension? Before the king's
departure for Varennes, the absolute right of the nation was but an
abstract fiction, the _summum jus_ of the Assembly. The royalty of Louis
XVI. was respectable and respected, once again it was established.

XV.

But a moment arrived, and this moment was when the king fled his
kingdom, protesting against the will of the nation, and sought the
assistance of the army, and the intervention of foreign powers, when the
Assembly legitimately possessed the rigorous right of disposing of the
power, thus abandoned or betrayed. Three courses were open: to declare
the downfall of the monarchy, and proclaim a republican revolution; the
temporary suspension of the royalty, and govern in its name during its
moral eclipse; and, lastly, to restore the monarchy.

The Assembly chose the worst alternative of the three. It feared to be
harsh, and was cruel; for by retaining the supreme rank for the king, it
condemned him to the torture of the hatred and contempt of the people;
it crowned him with suspicions and outrages; and nailed him to the
throne, in order that the throne might prove the instrument of his
torture and his death.

Of the two other courses, the first was the most logical, to proclaim
the downfall of the monarchy and the formation of a republic.

The republic, had it bee