The Fretich Revolution 399 the prejudice and against the protests of the whole French people. [Pluralities should be prohibited, monasteries reduced in numbers, and holidays suppressed or decreased.] 7. The rights which have just been restored to the nation should be consecrated as fundamental principles of the mon- archy, and their perpetual and unalterable enjoyment should be assured by a solemn law, which should so define the rights both of the monarch and of the people that their vio- lation shall hereafter be impossible. 8. Among these rights the following should be especially noted : the nation should hereafter be subject only to such laws and taxes as it shall itself freely ratify. 9. The meetings of the Estates General of the kingdom should be fixed for definite periods, and the subsidies judged necessary for the support of the state and the public service should be voted for no longer a period than to the close of the year in which the next meeting of the Estates General is to occur. 10. In order to assure to the third estate the influence to which it is entitled in view of the number of its members, the amount of its contributions to the public treasury, and the manifold interests which it has to defend or promote in the national assemblies, its votes in the assembly should be taken and counted by head. 11. No order, corporation, or individual citizen may lay claim to any pecuniary exemptions. . . . All taxes should be assessed on the same system throughout the nation. 12. The due exacted from commoners holding fiefs should be abolished, and also the general or particular regulations which exclude members of the third estate from certain posi- tions, offices, and ranks which have hitherto been bestowed on nobles either for life or hereditarily. A law should be passed declaring members of the third estate qualified to fill all such offices for which they are judged to be personally fitted. 13. Since individual liberty is intimately associated with national liberty, his Majesty is hereby petitioned not to Granting of subsidies. Regular meetings of the Estates General. Vote by head. No exemp- tions from taxes. Privileges of the nobility in holding office to be abolished. Lettres de cachet.
