Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/476

462 document very grand and sublime, would not abandon the word rights. Malouet and others pointed out the inevitable mischief of proclaiming to the uneducated people the dogma of utter freedom and equality, but in vain; the declaration was passed, and the people soon showed in what sense they understood it, and, carrying it to the extreme application, proceeded to destroy all ranks, properties, and principles, on the authority of the assembly; and would, in time, have reduced France to a desert, scattered with dead men's bones, had not a military dictator stepped in and stopped their imagined right to do just whatever they pleased.



From the rights of man the assembly passed to the constitution, and entered on the important question, whether there should be two legislative chambers or only one. Mounier, Lally-Tollendal, Rochefoucauld, Liancourt, and a fair others, including Necker, were for a second chamber, like the English house of peers. But the absurdity of an upper house, after the declaration of the perfect equality of all men, was too preposterous. Barnave, Duport, and the Lamethes, were opposed to more than one chamber, and Mirabeau was of the same opinion, from his hatred of the aristocracy. It was decided that there should be no second chamber. Then came the question, whether the king should have a veto on decrees sent up to him from the assembly, or only the function of promulgating them, as the executive power. It was soon seen that not a shred of power would be left to the crown; that all would be absorbed into the assembly, and used not independently by them, but at the dictation of the sovereign people. The people were declared to be all free and equal, and why should they be hampered by the resolutions of even their own deputies? They were resolved to rule not merely through the assembly, but over the assembly. The very proposal to give the king a veto, roused all France. The Palais Royal was in a fiery ferment. There, Camille Desmoulins, and the old marquis St. Huruque, who had been imprisoned for family quarrels, were indignant at the very idea of a veto. They declared that the national guard was becoming an aristocracy; La Fayette, a Cromwell. It was necessary, then, to go to Versailles, and call both the king and the assembly to account. On Sunday, the 30th of August, they met, and accused Mounier, menaced Mirabeau, and set out in march