Prefatory note.
The author of this essay has made some attempt briefly to outline the intellectual, social, and political causes which led to the changes in the form of government of France, and at the same time to sketch the salient features of her organic law.
Parliamentary governments, like that of Great Britain, and presidential systems, similar to that of the United States, have been compared to the parliamentary Republic of France.
Such an extended period of French history has been dealt with that it has only been possible to accord a brief consideration to the many questions of Constitutionalism, which would, under other circumstances, have received a closer analysis than the cursory one which the author has made. However, it was intended to produce a general commentary and criticism, and reference is therefore invited to the Constitutional laws which have been translated and placed in the appendix of this work, in support of the positions assumed.
Although the Constitutional life of France lies within the period treated in this essay, still it is true that as early as the time that immediately followed the Middle Ages, society revived and secured popular franchises from the Crown and the nobles. These historic facts disclose the very germs of Constitutional law.
In 1302, Philip the Fair summoned the tiers é'tat, being delegates from the towns, to meet the nobles and prelates
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