ment.
Clergy, nobles, and third estate, there was not in any of their minds any
revolutionary yearning or any thought of social war. It is the peculiar
and the beautiful characteristic of the states-general of 1484 that they
had an eye to nothing but a great political reform, a regimen of legality
and freedom.

Two men, one a Norman and the other a Burgundian, the canon John Masselin
and Philip Pot, lord of la Roche, a former counsellor of Philip the Good,
Duke of Burgundy, were the exponents of this political spirit, at once
bold and prudent, conservative and reformative. The nation's sovereignty
and the right of the estates not only to vote imposts but to exercise a
real influence over the choice and conduct of the officers of the crown,
this was what they affirmed in principle, and what, in fact, they labored
to get established. "I should like," said Philip de la Roche, "to see
you quite convinced that the government of the state is the people's
affair; and by the people I mean not only the multitude of those who are
simply subjects of this crown, but indeed all persons of each estate,
including the princes also. Since you consider yourselves deputies from
all the estates of the kingdom, why are you afraid to conclude that you
have been especially summoned to direct by your counsels the commonwealth
during its quasi-interregnum caused by the king's minority? Far be it
from me to say that the reigning, properly so called, the dominion, in
fact, passes into any hands but those of the king; it is only the
administration, the guardianship of the kingdom, which is conferred for a
time upon the people or their elect. Why tremble at the idea of taking
in hand the regulation, arrangement, and nomination of the council of the
crown? You are here to say and to advise freely that which, by
inspiration of God and your conscience, you believe to be useful for the
realm. What is the obstacle that prevents you from accomplishing so
excellent and meritorious a work? I can find none, unless it be your own
weakness and the pusillanimity which causes fear in your minds. Come,
then, most illustrious lords, have great confidence in yourselves, have
great hopes, have great manly virtue, and let not this liberty of the
estates, that your ancestors were so zealous in defending, be imperilled
by reason of your soft-heartedness." "This speech," says Masselin, "was
listened to by the whole assembly very attentively and very favorably