debate,
they achieved their task in a few days, and they laid their proposals
before the Convention on June 10. The reporter was Herault de
Sechelles; but the most constant speaker in the ensuing debate was
Robespierre. After a rapid discussion, but with some serious
amendments, the Republican Constitution of 1793 was adopted, on June
24. Of all the fruits of the Revolution this is the most
characteristic, and it is superior to its reputation.

The Girondins, by their penman Condorcet, had omitted the name of God,
and had assured liberty of conscience only as liberty of opinion. They
elected the executive and the legislative alike by direct vote of the
entire people, and gave the appointment of functionaries to those whom
they were to govern. Primary assemblies were to choose the Council of
Ministers, and were to have the right of initiating laws. The plan
restricted the power of the State in the interest of decentralisation.
The Committee, while retaining much of the scheme, guarded against the
excess of centrifugal forces. They elected the legislature by direct
universal suffrage, disfranchised domestic servants, and made the
ballot optional, and therefore illusory. They resolved that the
supreme executive council of twenty-four should be nominated by the
legislature from a list of candidates, one chosen by indirect voting
in each department, and should appoint and control all ministers and
executive officers; the legislature to issue decrees with force of law
in all necessary matters; but to make actual laws only under popular
sanction, given or implied. In this way they combined direct democracy
with representative democracy. They restricted the suffrage, abolished
the popular initiative, limited the popular sanction, withdrew the
executive patronage from the constituency, and destroyed secret
voting. Having thus provided for the composition of power, they
proceeded in the interest of personal liberty. The Press was to be
free, there was to be entire religious toleration, and the right of
association. Education was to become universal, and there was to be a
poor law; in case of oppression, insurrection was declared a duty as
well as a right, and usurpation was punishable with death. All laws
were temporary, and subject to constant revision. Robespierre, who had
betrayed socialist inclinations in April, revoked his earlier
language, and now insisted on the security of property, proportionate
and not progressive tax