His scientific life was now over, his political life was to begin; in the notoriety of that political life his great scientific and philosophical knowledge was to be forgotten, the high position he had given up denied, and he himself scoffed at as an ignorant charlatan, who had sold quack medicines about the streets of Paris, and been glad to earn a few sous in the stables of the comte d'Artois. In 1788 the notables had met, and advised the assembling of the states-general. The elections were the cause of a flood of pamphlets, of which one, _Offrande à la patrie_, was by Marat, and, though now forgotten, dwelt on much the same points as the famous brochure of the Abbé Siéyès: _Qu'est-ce que le tiers état?_ When the states-general met, Marat's interest was as great as ever, and in June 1789 he published a supplement to his _Offrande_, followed in July by _La constitution_, in which he embodies his idea of a constitution for France, and in September by his _Tableau des vices de la constitution d'Angleterre_, which he presented to the Assembly. The latter alone deserves remark. The Assembly was at this time full of anglomaniacs, who desired to establish in France a constitution similar to that of England. Marat had seen that England was at this time being ruled by an oligarchy using the forms of liberty, which, while pretending to represent the country, was really being gradually mastered by the royal power. His heart was now all in politics; and he decided to start a paper. At first appeared a single number of the _Moniteur patriote_, followed on the 12th of September by the first number of the _Publiciste parisien_, which on the 16th of September took the title of _L'Ami du peuple_ and which he edited, with some interruptions, until the 21st of September 1792.