system with all its iniquitous rights was abolished in fewer hours than it had lasted centuries.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man was the first reconstructive act of the National Assembly, which declared the following principles to be the basis of the new Government. Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in rights. All sovereignty emanates from the nation, and should be wielded for its welfare. The will of the people makes the laws and enforces them by public authority. The voting of taxes belongs to the nation as a whole. Illegal arrests and depositions without trial by jury are abolished. All citizens, without distinction, are eligible for public offices. The natural, civil, and religious liberty of men, and their absolute independence of all authority save that of the law, forbid any inquiries into their opinions, speeches, and writings, as long as they do not disturb order, or interfere with the rights of others.
This Declaration of Rights was adopted on the 26th of August, and its principles were to be embodied in the Constitution which it was the main business of this Assembly to frame.
A combination of three men, by no means united amongst themselves, dominated the Revolution at this the first stage of its progress: Necker—the popular minister, at one moment idolized of the people, and within a few months after his triumphal return to Paris forced to leave it secretly with his wife, a disgraced and heartbroken man; the chivalrous Lafayette—who had won golden opinions by fighting in the American War or Independence, made Commander-General of the National Guards in 1789; and Mirabeau—another Samson, to whose colossal strength alone it seemed given to curb the unloosed forces of the Revolution;
