Note 19 — Chapter III · PREPARATIONS OF THE PARISIANS FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE CITY. THE GUARDS, AND CITY WATCH, JOIN THE CITIZENS. THE ARMED CITIZENS APPOINT A COMMANDER IN CHIEF. CONDUCT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DURING THE DISTURBANCES AT PARIS. THEY PUBLISH A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS,—AND OFFER THEIR MEDIATION WITH THE CITIZENS,—WHICH IS HAUGHTILY REFUSED BY THE KING. PROCEEDINGS AT PARIS ON THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY. TAKING OF THE BASTILLE. THE MAYOR SHOT. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AT VERSAILLES. APPEARANCE OF THE KING IN THE ASSEMBLY. HIS SPEECH.
Reading edition
‘In August 1778,’ says Lally-Tolendal, ‘the laws were overturned; and twenty-five millions of men without justice or judges;—the public treasury without funds, and without resource;—the sovereign authority was usurped by the ministers;—and the people without any other hope than the states-general;—yet without confidence in the promise of the king.’
And, Mounier also gives a similar sketch. ‘We have not a fixed or complete form of government—we have not a constitution, because all the powers are confounded—because no boundary is traced out.—The judicial power is not even separated from the legislative.—Authority is dispersed; it’s various parts are always in opposition; and amidst their perpetual shocks the rights of the lower class of citizens are betrayed.—The laws are openly despised, or rather we are not agreed what ought to be called laws.’