50. Constitution of the Year III.
August 22, 1795 (5 Fructidor, Year III). Duvergier, Lois, VIII, 223–242.
This constitution was drawn up after the suppression of the insurrection of Prairial, which had demanded that the constitution of the Year I should be put in operation. It was referred to the people, but coupled with the requirement that at least two-thirds of the members of the Convention must be elected to the two legislative councils. This "decree of the two-thirds" led to the unsuccessful royalist insurrectio of Vendémiaire. The new constitution was then put into effect (October 26, 1795). It remained in operation until 18 Brumaire. The general plan for the legislative and executive branches of the government calls for notice: the former should be compared with those of the constitution of 1791 and of the Year I (see Nos. 15 and 39), the latter with those of the same documents and of No. 45. The basis for suffrage and office-holding should also be compared with the earlier constitutions.
References. Gardiner, French Revolution, 247–250; Mathews, French Revolution, 277–280; Fyffe, Modern Europe, I, 100–103 (Popular ed., 68–69); Fournier, Napoleon, 54; Lanfrey, Napoleon, I, 48–50; Von Sybel, French Revolution, IV, 394–404; Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 392–397, 487–488; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, VIII, 227–230, 374–376; Aulard, Révolution française, Part III, Ch. I; Jaurès, Histoire socialiste, V, 128–134.
Decleration of the Rights and Duties of Man and Citizen.
The French people proclaim in the presence of the Supreme Being the following declaration of the rights of man and citizen:
Rights.
1. The rights of man in society are liberty, equality, security, property.
2. Liberty consists in the power to do that which does not injure the rights of others.
3. Equality consists in this, that the law is the same for all, whether it protects or punishes.
Equality does not admit of any distinction of birth, nor of any inheritance of authority.
4. Security results from the co-operation of all in order to assure the rights of each.
5. Property is the right to enjoy and to dispose of one's goods, income, and the fruit of one's labor and industry.
6. The Law is the general will expressed by the majority of the citizens or their representatives.
7. That which is not forbidden by the law cannot be prevented.
No one can be constrained to do that which it does not ordain.
