sted. Even Sieyes was willing to have
two Houses, and even three, provided they were, in reality, one House,
deliberating in three divisions, but counting all the votes in common.
He also proposed that there should be a renewal of one-third at a
time; so that there would be three degrees of the popular infusion and
of proximity to Mother Earth.

Mounier, with some of his friends, deserves to be remembered among
the men, not so common as they say, who loved liberty sincerely; I
mean, who desired it, not for any good it might do them, but for
itself, however arduous, or costly, or perilous its approach might be.
They subordinated the means to the end, and never regarded conditional
forms as an emanation of eternal principles. Having secured the Rights
of Man, they looked with alarm at future legislation, that could not
improve, and might endanger them. They wished the Constituent Assembly
to bind and bar its successors as far as possible; for none would ever
speak with so much authority as the genuine voice of the entire
people.

By an extraordinary fortune, the nation, this time, had responded
wisely. It was certain that it would not always do so well. It had
passions; it had prejudices; it was grossly ignorant; it was not
disinterested; and it was demoralised by an evil tradition. The French
were accustomed to irresponsible power. They were not likely to
consent that the power in their hands should be inferior to that which
had been exercised over them, or to admit that an entire people is not
above the law which it obeys. It was to be expected that they would
endeavour by legislation to diminish those securities for the minority
and the weaker cause which were appointed by the Rights of Man.
Opinion was changing rapidly, and had become more favourable to
violence, more indulgent to crime. A draft project of the Rights of
Man had appeared, in which the writer avowed that, by the law of
nature, a man may do what he likes in the pursuit of happiness, and,
to elude oppression, may oppress, imprison, and destroy.

The man who wrote thus quickly acquired a dread ascendancy over the
people, and was able to defy police and governments and assemblies,
for it was the beginning of Marat. Lists of proscription were
circulated; threatening letters poured in on the deputies; and Paris,
at the end of August, was preparing to march upon Versailles, to expel
obnoxious members, and, when they ceased to be inviolable, to put them
on