rity that the national will should always prevail,
through its agents; the others, that they should be able to obstruct
it. They struggled for an enlarged construction, and strove to break
the barrier, in the republican or the royalist direction.

The discussion opened by a skirmish with the clergy. They observed the
significant omission of a State church in the Declaration of Rights,
and feared that they would be despoiled and the Church disestablished.
The enthusiasm of the first hour had cooled. One after another,
ecclesiastics attempted to obtain the recognition of Catholicism. Each
time the attempt was repulsed. The clergy drifted fast into the temper
which was confessed by Maury when he said, "The proposed measure would
enable the Constitution to live: we vote against it."

The scheme of the Committee was produced on August 31, and was
explained by Lally in a speech which is among the finest compositions
of the time. He insisted on the division of the legislative, and the
unity of the executive, as the essentials of a free government. On
the following day Mirabeau spoke on the same side. He said that the
danger was not from the Crown, but from the representatives; for they
may exclude strangers and debate in secret, as the English law allows,
and these may declare themselves permanent, and escape all control.
Through the king, the public possesses the means of holding them in
check. He is their natural ally against usurping deputies, and the
possible formation of a new aristocracy. The legislature enjoys a
temporary mandate only. The perpetual representative of the people is
the king. It is wrong to deny him powers necessary for the public
interest. It is the partial appearance of a view that was expanded by
Napoleon.

Mounier defended his plan on September 4. On several points there was
no large variety of opinion. It was practically admitted that there
could be no governing without Parliament, that it must meet annually,
that its acts require the royal assent, that it shall be elected
indirectly, by equal districts, and a moderate property franchise.
Mounier further conceded that the Constitution was not subject to the
royal veto, that Ministers should not be members of the Assembly, that
the Assembly, and not the king, should have the initiative of
proposing laws, and that it should have the right of refusing
supplies. The real question at issue was whether the representatives
of the people should be checked