Experience, however, is unimportant to the members of the Constituent
Assembly; under the banner of principles they sunder one after another
all the ties which keep the two powers together harmoniously.--There
must not be an Upper Chamber, because this would be an asylum or a
nursery for aristocrats. Moreover, "the nation being of one mind," it
is averse to "the creation of different organs." So, applying ready-made
formulas and metaphors, they continue to produce ideological definitions
and distinctions.
The King must not have a hold on the legislative body: the executive
is an arm, whose business it is to obey; it is absurd for the arm to
constrain or direct the head. Scarcely is the monarch allowed a delaying
veto. Sieyès here enters with his protest declaring that this is a
"lettre de cachet[2301] launched against the universal will," and
there is excluded from the action of the veto the articles of the
Constitution, all money-bills, and some other laws.--Neither the monarch
nor the electors of the Assembly are to convoke the Assembly; he has no
voice in or oversight of the details of its formation; the electors are
to meet together and vote without his summons or supervision. Once the
Assembly is elected he can neither adjourn nor dissolve it. He cannot
even propose a law;[2302] per-mission is only granted to him "to invite
it to take a subject into consideration." He is limited to his executive
duties; and still more, a sort of wall is built up between him and the
Assembly, and the opening in it, by which each could take the other's
hand, is carefully closed up. The deputies are forbidden to become
ministers throughout the term of their service and for two years
afterwards. This is because fears are entertained that they might
be corrupted through contact with the Court, and, again, whoever
the ministers might be, there is no disposition to accept their
ascendancy.[2303] If one of them is admitted into the Assembly it is not
for the purpose of giving advice, but to furnish information, reply to
interrogatories, and make protestations of his zeal in humble terms
and in a dubious position.[2304] By virtue of being a royal agent he
is under suspicion like the King himself, and he is sequestered in his
bureau as the King is sequestered in his palace.--Such is the spirit
of the Constitution: by force of the theory, and the better to secure a
separation of the powers,[2305] a common understanding between them
is for ever rendered impossible, and to make up for this impossibility
there remains nothing but to make one the master and the other the
clerk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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