On May 30, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was augmented by five members. These were Couthon, Herault de Séchelles, Mathieu, Ramel, and Saint Just. They lost no time in the elaboration of a Constitution, and by June 22, were ready to report. Herault de Séchelles made the final reading June 24. Delegates were sent all over France to receive the vote of the primary assemblies for the acceptance of the Constitutional Act; 1,801,918 votes were cast for its adoption. Their glowing report was made August 9th by Gossuin, and the next day was fixed as a national festival “consecrated to the inauguration of the Constitution of the Republic.” The artist, David, planned the ceremonies. The glorious fundamental law was not, however, to reign in France. France must be defended from invasion, civil war must be subdued, and then the rest of Europe must be delivered from political slavery. In just two months after this inaugural festival, the Convention decreed that the provisional government should be revolutionary till peace. When peace came, a new monarch was enthroned. But these enthusiastic men of 1792 and 1793 had given France a name and an ideal; they had placed above her horizon a star of hope. When oppression shall make them weary, or when the popular spirits shall rise, they shall think of a republic as the aim and end of political effort. FOOTNOTES [1] Ritchie, Natural Rights, p. 1; M. Charles Borgeaud, _Établissement et Revision des Constitutions en Amérique et en Europe_, 240-242; Dr. Geo. Jellinek, _Die Erklärung der Menschen- und Bürgerrechte_, p. 10. [2] Two requests for a Declaration of the Rights of Man came from Paris, _intra muros_; one from the Nobility, _Archives parlementaires_, v, 271; the other from the Third Estate, _Ibid._, v, 281. The latter cahier contains a formulated Declaration of thirteen articles. The general cahier of Rennes, _Arch. Parl._, v, 538, that of the Third Estate of Annonay, _Arch. Parl._, ii, 50, and that of the Third Estate of Nemours, _Arch. Parl._, iv, 161, ask for the Declaration of Rights. [3] _Arch. Parl._, viii, 216. [4] _Ibid._, 221 et seq. [5] _Ibid._, 221-222. [6] _Ibid._, 230-231. [7] _Ibid._ [8] _Arch. Parl._, 341. [9] _Ibid._, 422.