efreshed, from a general election, had encountered no support. It
remained that he should compose the working machinery for his
essential doctrine, that the law is the will of him that obeys, not of
him that commands. To do this, the Abbe Sieyes abolished the historic
Provinces, and divided France into departments. There were to be
eighty, besides Paris; and as they were designed to be as nearly as
possible equal to a square of about forty-five miles, they differed
widely in population and property. They were to have an average of
nine deputies each: three for the superficial area, which was
invariable; three, more or less, for population; and again three, more
or less, according to the amount which the department contributed to
the national income. In this way territory, numbers and wealth were
represented equally.

Deputies were to be elected in three degrees. The taxpayers, in their
primary assemblies, chose electors for the Commune, which was the
political unit, and a square of about fifteen miles; the communal
electors sent their representatives to the department, and these
elected the deputy. Those who paid no taxes were not recognized as
shareholders in the national concern. Like women and minors, they
enjoyed the benefit of government; but as they were not independent,
they possessed no power as active citizens. By a parallel process,
assemblies were formed for local administration, on the principle that
the right of exercising power proceeds from below, and the actual
exercise of power from above.

This is mainly the measure which has made the France of to-day; and
when it became law, in December, the chief part of the new
Constitution was completed. It had been the work of these two months,
from August 4 to September 29. The final promulgation came two years
later. No legislative instrument ever failed more helplessly than this
product of the wisdom of France in its first parliamentary Assembly,
for it lasted only a single year.

Many things had meanwhile occurred which made the constructive design
of 1789 unfit to meet the storms of 1792. The finances of the State
were ruined; the clergy and the clerical party had been driven into
violent opposition; the army was almost dissolved, and war broke out
when there was not a disciplined force at the command of Government.
After Varennes, the king was practically useless in peace, and
impossible in times of danger and invasion; not only because of the
degradatio