only be imposed by law, and according to
the social contract the laws must be the same for all citizens. This is
the only restriction upon the sovereign power,[13] but it is a
restriction which follows from the very nature of that power, and it
carries in itself its own guarantees.[14]

The conception of an original right, which man brings with him into
society and which appears as a restriction upon the rights of the
sovereign, is specifically rejected by Rousseau. There is no fundamental
law which can be binding upon the whole people, not even the social
contract itself.[15]

The Declaration of Rights, however, would draw dividing lines between
the state and the individual, which the lawmaker should ever keep before
his eyes as the limits that have been set him once and for all by "the
natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man."[16]

The principles of the _Contrat Social_ are accordingly at enmity with
every declaration of rights. For from these principles there ensues not
the right of the individual, but the omnipotence of the common will,
unrestricted by law. Taine comprehended better than Janet the
consequences of the _Contrat Social_.[17]

The Declaration of August 26, 1789, originated in opposition to the
_Contrat Social_. The ideas of the latter work exercised, indeed, a
certain influence upon the style of some clauses of the Declaration, but
the conception of the Declaration itself must have come from some other
source.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: "Est-il necessaire de prouver, qu'un tel acte ne vient
point de Montesquieu, mais de J.-J. Rousseau?... Mais l'acte meme de la
declaration est-il autre chose que le contrat passe entre tous les
membres de la communaute, selon les idees de Rousseau? N'est ce pas
l'enonciation des clauses et des conditions de ce contrat?"--_Histoire
de la science politique, 3me ed._, pp. 457, 458.]

[Footnote 8: "Ces clauses, bien entendues, se reduisent toutes a une
seule: savoir l'alienation totale de chaque associe avec tous ses droits
a toute la communaute."--_Du contrat social_, I, 6.]

[Footnote 9: "De plus, l'alienation se faisant sans reserve, l'union est
aussi parfaite qu'elle peut l'etre et nul associe n'a plus rien a
reclamer." I, 6.]

[Footnote 10: "Car l'Etat, a l'egard de ses membres, est maitre de tous
leurs biens par le contrat social." I, 9.]

[Footnote 11: "... Les possesseurs etant consideres comme depositaires
du bien public." I, 9.]

[Footnote 12: