ssembled, the act of
government, declaring the state of siege, must be converted into a
proposal for a law in the first fifteen days after the meeting of the
chambers.

ART. 67. The French people declare farther, that, in the delegation it
has made, and now makes, of its powers, it has not intended, and does
not intend, to confer the right of proposing the re-establishment of
the Bourbons, or of any prince belonging to that family, on the
throne, even in case of the extinction of the imperial dynasty; or the
right of re-establishing either the ancient feudal nobility, or feudal
and seigniorial rights, or tithes, or any privileged and predominant
form of worship; or the power of making any infringement of the
irrevocability of the sale of national domains: it formally prohibits
the government, the chambers, and the citizens, from every proposal
in respect to these.

Done at Paris, the 22d of April, 1815.

(_Signed_) NAPOLEON.
By the Emperor,
_The minister secretary of state,_
(_Signed_) The Duke of BASSANO.

* * * * *

This additional act did not answer the general expectation.

The public had hoped, to receive from Napoleon a new constitution,
freed from the faults and abuses of the preceding constitutions; and
it was surprised, grieved, dissatisfied, when it saw, by the very
preamble of the additional act, that it was nothing but a
_modification_ of the former constitutions, decrees of the senate, and
other acts, by which the empire was governed.

What confidence, people cried, can such a production inspire? What
guarantee can it afford the nation? Do we not know, that it was by
means of these decrees of the senate, that Napoleon sported with our
most sacred laws? and, since they are now maintained and confirmed,
may he not employ them, as he formerly did, to interpret after his
own fashion his additional act, alter its nature, and render it
illusory?

It had been to be wished, undoubtedly, that the additional act had not
revived the name, and borrowed the assistance, of all the senatorial
acts, become on so many accounts objects of the public contempt and
derision: but this was impossible[7]. They were the basis of our
institutions; and they could not have been proscribed in a body,
without arresting the progress of government, and subverting the
established o