it only had recourse to them in extremity. By their means it endeavoured
to suspend the revolution, while by the means of the aristocracy it tried
to destroy it. Of all the popular leaders, Mirabeau had perhaps the
greatest ascendancy over the court, because he was the most winning, and
had the strongest mind.

The assembly worked unceasingly at the constitution, in the midst of these
intrigues and plots. It decreed the new judicial organization of France.
All the new magistracies were temporary. Under the absolute monarchy, all
powers emanated from the throne, and all functionaries were appointed by
the king; under the constitutional monarchy, all powers emanating from the
people, the functionaries were to be appointed by it. The throne alone was
transmissible; the other powers being the property neither of a man nor of
a family, were neither of life-tenure, nor hereditary. The legislation of
that period depended on one sole principle, the sovereignty of the nation.
The judicial functions had themselves that changeable character. Trial by
jury, a democratic institution formerly common to nearly all the
continent, but which in England alone had survived the encroachments of
feudalism and the throne, was introduced into criminal causes. For civil
causes special judges were nominated. Fixed courts were established, two
courts of appeal to prevent error, and a _cour de cassation_ intended to
secure the preservation of the protecting forms of the law. This
formidable power, when it proceeds from the throne, can only be
independent by being fixed; but it must be temporary when it proceeds from
the people; because, while depending on all, it depends upon no one.

In another matter, quite as important, the right of making peace or war,
the assembly decided a new and delicate question, and this in a sure,
just, and prompt manner, after one of the most luminous and eloquent
discussions that ever distinguished its sittings. As peace and war