Bills of Rights in England were moderate in terms, compared with our Declaration of Independence, and with the Declarations of Rights first announced by France in the throes of terrible revolution, and since recognized among the permanent triumphs of that prodigious outbreak. Until this period there had been no written Constitution in France, though since there have been many in succession. The earliest, in September, 1791, was preceded by a Declaration of Rights, proposed by Lafayette, which, after setting forth that “ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public evils and of the corruption of Governments,” undertakes to announce what it calls “the natural rights of man, inalienable and sacred”; and this is done-- “To the end that this Declaration, being constantly present to all the members of the social body, may incessantly recall to them their rights and their duties; to the end that the acts of the legislative power, and those of the executive power, being every moment capable of comparison with the object of every political institution, may be more respected by them; to the end that the claims of the citizens, being henceforth founded on simple and incontestable principles, may always turn to the maintenance of the Constitution and to the happiness of all.” This too elaborate, but instructive preamble, is followed by an article with a generality of expression not unlike that of our own Declaration:-- “ARTICLE I. Men are born and continue free and _equal in rights_.” In the sixth article of the Declaration this is explained by declaring that the law “ought to be the same for all, whether it protect, whether it punish,” and then it speaks of “all citizens being _equal in its eyes_.”[298] In June, 1793, another Constitution was adopted, which, after a brief preamble, opens with these articles:-- “ARTICLE I. The object of society is the common happiness. Government is instituted to guaranty to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights. “ARTICLE II. These rights are equality, liberty, security, property. “ARTICLE III. _All men are equal_ by nature and _before the law_.”[299] Here the new statement begins to appear. Men are equal by nature and before the law.