Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/125

Rh pronounced in unison the oath to live free or to die, shall take individually that “to confine themselves to pass upon the matters which shall have been submitted to them by the uniform wish of the three preceding legislatures; to maintain, besides, with all their power the constitution of the kingdom, decreed by the National Constituent Assembly in the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, and in everything to be faithful to the nation, the law, and the king.”

8. The assembly of revision shall be required to occupy itself afterwards and without delay with the matters which shall have been submitted to its examination : as soon as its work shall be concluded, the two hundred forty-nine members in augmentation shall retire, without power to take part in any case in legislative acts.

[Miscellaneous Provisions.]

The French colonies and possessions in Asia, Africa, and America, although they form part of the French dominion, are not included in the present constitution.

None of the authorities instituted by the constitution has the right to change it in its entirety or in its parts, saving the alterations which may be made in it by way of revision in conformity with the provisions of title vii above.

The National Constituent Assembly delivers it as a trust to the fidelity of the legislative body, the king, and the judges, to the vigilance of the fathers of families, to the wives and the mothers, to the affection of the young citizens, to the courage of all the French.

The decrees rendered by the National Constituent Assembly which are not included in the constitutional act, shall be executed as laws, and the prior laws which have not been abrogated shall likewise be observed, in so far as the one or the other have not been revoked or modified by the legislative power.

The National Assembly having heard the reading of the above constitutional act, and after having approved it, declares that the constitution is completed and that it cannot be further changed.

There shall be appointed immediately a deputation of sixty members to offer, within the day, the constitutional act to the king.