The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: And the Causes Which Led to That EventTocqueville, Alexis de
History
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789: And the Causes Which Led to That Event
Tocqueville, Alexis de
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Causes
With regard to the manner of voting in the Assembly of the
States-General the opinions differ. Most desire a separate vote for
each Order; others think that an exception ought to be made to this
rule in the votes upon taxation; whilst others again consider that it
should always be so. ‘The votes ought to be counted by individuals and
not by Orders,’ say the latter. ‘Such a manner of proceeding being
the only sensible one, and the only one tending to remove and destroy
that egotism of caste, which is the source of all our evils--to bring
men together and lead them to that result, which the nation has the
right to expect from an Assembly, whose patriotism and great moral
qualities should be strengthened by its united intelligence.’ As an
immediate adoption of this innovation, however, might prove dangerous
in the existing state of general feeling, many of the Instructions
provide that it should be only decided upon with caution, and that the
assembly had better decide whether it were not more prudent to put
off the system of individual voting to the following States-General.
The nobility demands that, in any case, each Order should be allowed
to preserve that dignity which is due to every Frenchman, and
consequently that the humiliating ceremonies, to which the _Tiers-État_
was subjected under the old system, should be abolished, as, for
instance, that of being obliged to kneel--‘inasmuch,’ says one of
these documents, ‘as the spectacle of one man kneeling before another
is offensive to the dignity of man, and emblematic of an inferiority
between creatures equal by nature, incompatible with their essential
rights.’
_The System to be established in the Form of Government, and the
Principles of the Constitution._--With regard to the form of
government, the nobility desired the maintenance of the monarchical
constitution, the preservation of the legislative, judicial, and
executive powers in the person of the King, but, at the same time, the
establishment of fundamental laws for the purpose of guaranteeing the
rights of the nation in the exercise of these powers.
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