Of the grievances, complaints and
remonstrances of the members of the third estate of the balliage
of Versailles.
Constitution
Art. 1. The power of making laws resides in the king and the
nation.
Art. 2. The nation being too numerous for a personal exercise of
this right, has confided its trust to representatives freely
chosen from all classes of citizens. These representatives
constitute the national assembly.
Art. 3. Frenchmen should regard as laws of the kingdom those alone
which have been prepared by the national assembly and sanctioned
by the king.
Art. 4. Succession in the male line and primogeniture are usages
as ancient as the monarchy, and ought to be maintained and
consecrated by solemn and irrevocable enactment.
Art. 5. The laws prepared by the States General and sanctioned by
the king shall be binding upon all classes of citizens and upon
all provinces of the kingdom. They shall be registered literally
and accurately in all courts of law. They shall be open for
consultation at all seats of municipal and communal government;
and shall be read at sermon time in all parishes.
Art. 6. That the nation may not be deprived of the portion of
legislation which is its due, and that the affairs of the kingdom
may not suffer neglect and delay, the States General shall be
convoked at least every two or three years.
Art. 7. No intermediate commission of the States General may ever
be established, since deputies of the nation have no right to
delegate the powers confirmed to them.
Art. 8. Powers shall be conferred upon delegates for one year
only; but they may be continued or confirmed by a single
re-election.
Art. 9. The persons of deputies shall be inviolable. They may not
be prosecuted in civil cases during their term of office; nor held
responsible to the executive authorities for any speech made in
the assembly; but they shall be responsible to the States General
alone.
Art. 10. Deputies of the Third Estate, or their president or
speaker, shall preserve the same attitude and demeanor as the
representatives of the two upper orders, when they address the
sovereign. As regards the three orders there shall be no
difference observed in the ceremonial made use of at the
convocation of the estates.
Art. 11. Personal liberty, proprietary rights and the security of
citizens shall be established in a clear, precise and irrevocable
manner. All letters de cachet1
shall be abolished forever, subject to certain modifications which
the States General may see fit to impose.
Art. 12. And to remove forever the possibility of injury to the
personal and proprietary rights of Frenchmen, the jury system
shall be introduced in all criminal cases, and in civil cases for
the determination of fact, in all the courts of the realm.
Art. 13. All persons accused of crimes not involving the death
penalty shall be released on bail within twenty-four hours. This
release shall be pronounced by the judge upon the decision of the
jury.
Art. 14. All persons who shall have been imprisoned upon
suspicion, and afterwards proved innocent, shall be entitled to
satisfaction and damages from the state, if they are able to show
that their honor or property has suffered injury.
Art. 15. A wider liberty of the press shall be accorded, with this
provision alone: that all manuscripts sent to the printer shall be
signed by the author, who shall be obliged to disclose his
identity and bear the responsibility of his work; and to prevent
judges and other persons in power from taking advantage of their
authority, no writing shall be held a libel until it is so
determined by twelve jurors, chosen according to the forms of a
law which shall be enacted upon this subject.
Art. 16. Letters shall never be opened in transit; and effectual
measures shall be taken to the end that this trust shall remain
inviolable.
Art. 17. All distinctions in penalties shall be abolished; and
crimes committed by citizens of the different orders shall be
punished irrespectively, according to the same forms of law and in
the same manner. The States General shall seek to bring it about
that the effects of transgression shall be confined to the
individual, and shall not be reflected upon the relatives of the
transgressor, themselves innocent of all participation.
Art. 18. Penalties shall in all cases be moderate and
proportionate to the crime. All kinds of torture, the rack and the
stake, shall be abolished. Sentence of death shall be pronounced
only for atrocious crimes and in rare instances, determined by the
law.
Art. 19. Civil and criminal laws shall be reformed.
Art. 20. The military throughout the kingdom shall be subject to
the general law and to the civil authorities, in the same manner
as other citizens.
Art. 21. No tax shall be legal unless accepted by the
representatives of the people and sanctioned by the king.
Art. 22. Since all Frenchmen receive the same advantage from the
government, and are equally interested in its maintenance, they
ought to be placed upon the same footing in the matter of
taxation.
Art. 23. All taxes now in operation are contrary to these
principles and for the most part vexatious, oppressive and
humiliating to the people. They ought to be abolished as soon as
possible, and replaced by others common to the three orders and to
all classes of citizens, without exception.
[Articles 24-27 continue to discuss taxation systems and
reforms.]
...
Art. 28. In case of war, or other exceptional necessity, no
loan shall be made without the consent of the States General, and
it shall be enacted that no load shall be effected, without
provision being made by taxation for the payment of interest, and
of the principal at a specified time.
Art. 29. The amount which each citizen shall be obliged to pay, in
case of war, by reason of an increase in the existing taxes, at a
certain rate per livre, shall be determined beforehand by the
States General in conjunction with the king. The certainty of
increase ought to have a marked effect in preventing useless and
unjust wars, since it clearly indicates to Frenchmen the new
burden they will have to bear, and to foreign nations the
resources which the nation has in reserve and at hand to repulse
unjust attacks.
[Articles 30-47 relate to wartime debt, coining new money, and
appointments to municipal, military, and clerical offices.]
...
Art. 48. Deputies of French colonies in America and in the
Indies, which form an important part of our possessions, shall be
admitted to the States General, if not at the next meeting, at
least at the following.
Art. 49. All relics of serfdom, agrarian or personal, still
remaining in certain provinces, shall be abolished.
Art. 50. New laws shall be made in favor of the Negroes in our
colonies; and the States General shall take measures towards the
abolition of slavery. Meanwhile let a law be passed, that Negroes
in the colonies who desire to purchase their freedom, as well as
those whom their masters are willing to set free, shall no longer
be compelled to pay a tax to the domain.
Art. 51. The three functions, legislative, executive and judicial,
shall be separated and carefully distinguished.
The communes of the bailliage of Versailles have already
expressed themselves in respect to the necessity of adopting the
form of deliberation per capita in the coming States
General. The reform of the constitution will be one of their
principal duties. This magnificent monument of liberty and public
felicity should be the work of the three orders in common session;
if they are separated, certain pretensions, anxieties and
jealousies are bound to arise; the two upper orders are likely to
oppose obstacles, perhaps invincible, to the reform of abuses and
the enactment of laws destined to suppress such abuses. It seems
indispensable that in this first assembly votes should be taken per
capita and not by order. After the renunciation by the upper
two orders of their pecuniary privileges; after all distinctions
before the law have been abolished; when the exclusion of the
third estate from certain offices and positions has been done away
with,--then the reasons which to-day necessitate deliberation per
capita will no longer exist.
The communes of Versailles therefore refrain from expressing a
positive opinion upon the future composition of the national
assemblies and upon the method of their deliberation. They defer,
with all confidence, the decision of this important question to
the wisdom of the States General.
Our prayer is that the methods determined upon shall be such as
will assure forever, to the king and to the nation, those portions
of the legislative power which respectively belong to them; that
they shall maintain between them a perfect equilibrium in the
employment of this power; that they shall conserve, forever, to
the nation its rights and liberties; to the king his prerogatives
and the executive power in all its fullness. Finally that these
methods should be so combined as to produce that circumspectness
and lack of haste so necessary to the enactment of laws and that
they will effectually prevent all hasty counsels, dissensions
amongst deputies and immature conclusions.
May all deputies to this august assembly, impressed with the
sanctity and extent of their obligations, forget that they are the
mandatories of some special order and remember only that they are
representatives of the people. May they never be forgetful of the
fact, that they are about to fix the destinies of the foremost
nation of the world!
...
The ExecutiveArt. 52. It shall be ordained by the constitution
that the executive power be vested in the king alone.
Art. 53. The king shall dispose of all offices, places and
positions, ecclesiastical, civil and military, to which he has at
present the right of appointment.
Art. 54. All the provincial estates, or commissions representing
them, shall receive his immediate orders, which it shall be their
duty to obey provisionally.
Art. 55. His consent shall be necessary to all bills approved by
the States General in order that they may acquire the force of law
throughout the realm. He may reject all bills presented to him,
without being obliged to state the reasons of his disapproval.
Art. 56. He shall have the sole right of convening, proroguing and
dissolving the States General.
The JudiciaryArt. 57. The sale of the judicial office shall be
suppressed as soon as circumstances will permit, and provision
made for the indemnification of holders.
Art. 58. There shall be established in the provinces as many
superior courts as there are provincial estates. They shall be
courts of final jurisdiction.
Art. 59. All exceptional and privileged seigniorial courts shall
be abolished, as well as other courts rendered useless by the
abolition of certain taxes which caused their erection, and by the
adoption of a new system of accounts under the exclusive control
of the States General.
...
Art. 64. Judges of all courts shall be obliged to adhere to the
letter of the law, and may never be permitted to change, modify or
interpret it at their pleasure.
...
Such are the bases of a constitution founded upon the eternal
principles of justice and reason, which alone ought to regulate
henceforward the government of the realm. Once they are adopted,
all false pretensions, all burdensome privileges, all abuses of
all kinds will be seen to disappear. Already a considerable number
of balliages have expressed their desires concerning the
reforms and abolitions to be effected in all branches of the
administration; the necessity for these drastic changes has been
so evident that it is sufficient merely to indicate them.
General DemandsArt. 66. The deputies of the prévôté
and viscompté of Paris shall be instructed to unite
themselves with the deputies of other provinces, in order to join
with them in securing, as soon as possible, the following
abolitions:
Of the taille;
Of the gabelle;
Of the aides;
Of the corvé;
Of the ferme of tobacco;
Of the registry duties;
Of the free-hold tax;
Of the taxes on leather;
Of the government stamp upon iron;
Of the stamps upon gold and silver;
Of the interprovincial customs duties;
Of the taxes upon fairs and markets;
Finally, of all the taxes that are burdensome and oppressive,
whether on account of their nature or of the expense of
collection, or because they have been paid almost wholly by
agriculturists and by the poorer classes. They shall be replaced
with other taxes, less complicated and easier of collection, which
shall fall alike upon all classes and orders of the state without
exception.
Art. 67. We demand also the abolition of the royal preserves (capitaineries);
Of the game laws;
Of jurisdictions of prévôtés;
Of banalités;
Of tolls;
Of useless authorities and governments in cities and provinces.
...
Art. 69. We solicit also the establishment of free schools in
all country parishes.
Art. 70. We demand, for the benefit of commerce, the abolition of
all exclusive privileges:
The removal of customs barriers to the frontiers;
The most complete freedom in trade;
The revision and reform of all laws relative to commerce;
Encouragement for all kinds of manufacture, viz.: premiums,
bounties and advances;
Rewards to artisans and laborers for useful inventions.
The communes desire that prizes and rewards shall always be
preferred to exclusive privileges, which extinguish emulation and
lessen competition.
Art. 71. We demand the suppression of various hindrances, such as
stamps, special taxes, inspections; and the annoyances and
visitations, to which many manufacturing establishments,
particularly tanneries, are subjected.
Art. 72. The States General are entreated to devise means for
abolishing guild organizations, indemnifying the holders of
masterships; and to fix by the law the conditions under which the
arts, trades and professions may be followed without the payment
of an admission tax, and at the same time to provide that public
security and confidence be undisturbed.
...
Art. 74. They [deputies of the Third Estate] shall demand
complete freedom of transport for grain among the various
provinces of the kingdom, without interference from any court
whatsoever.
...
Art. 77. The abolition of all places of refuge for debtors.
Art. 78. That no merchant or trader may be admitted to any
national assembly or any municipal body, who has demanded
abatement from his creditors; still less if he is a fraudulent
bankrupt; and he may not be re-established in his rights until he
has paid the whole amount of his indebtedness.
...
Art. 88. That all state prisons shall be abolished, and that
means shall be taken to put all other prisons in better sanitary
condition.
Art. 89. That it may please the States General to provide means
for securing a uniformity of weights and measures throughout the
kingdom.
Art. 90. That the laws upon lods and ventes shall be
examined and rendered uniform throughout the kingdom.
Art. 91. That parishes shall be furnished with power to redeem the
tax upon the transfer of land.
Art. 92. That dîmes shall be suppressed and converted into
a money rent based upon the price of corn and of the mark of
silver, rising proportionately with the combined increase in value
of corn and of the mark of silver.
Art. 93. Since clergymen in general ought not to occupy themselves
with worldly affaires, there ought to be provided for bishops,
archbishops and all holders of benefices a decent income and one
suitable to their dignity; accordingly the property of the church
in each province ought to be sold under the supervision of the
provincial estates, which shall assume the duty of paying to
holders of benefices the sums accorded to them by the States
General.
...
Various Matters[Articles 1-3 relate to the military and the
king's guard.]
Art. 4. That barbarous punishments, taken from the codes of
foreign nations and introduced into the new military regulations,
be abolished, and replaced with regulations more in conformity
with the genius of the nation.
[Articles 5, 6 and 7 relate to notarial and registry fees.]
Art. 8. That it be permitted to contract loans by means of bills
or short-term certificates of debt, bearing interest at the legal
rate, without it being necessary to alienate the capital so
pledged.
Art. 9. In case the property of the church be not sold, that
leases shall be continued by the successors of the present
holders; at least that they shall not suffer a reduction of more
than one-third.
Art. 10. That canals be constructed in all provinces of the
kingdom where they will be useful.
Art. 11. That the working of mines be encouraged.
Art. 12. That a new schedule be made of the expenses of funerals,
marriages and other church functions.
Art. 13. That cemeteries be located outside of cities, towns and
villages; that the same be done with places of deposit for refuse.
Art. 14. That the funds for the support of the lazarettos,
formerly located in rural parishes, having been united with the
endowments of hospitals, country people shall be permitted to send
their sick to the city hospitals.
Art. 15. That the laws of the kingdom shall be equally the laws of
the French colonies.
Art. 16. That all kinds of employment suitable for women shall be
reserved for them by special enactment.
