The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely. They declare that among feudal and taxable rights and duties, the ones concerned with real or personal succession right and personal servitude and the ones that represent them are abolished with no compensation. All the others are declared redeemable, and the National Assembly will set the price and the method of buying them back. The rights that will not be suppressed by this decree will continue allowing birds to graze] and dovecotes is abolished. The pigeons will be locked up during times determined by the communities. During these periods, they will be considered prey, and anyone will be allowed to be collected until they are entirely paid back.
The exclusive right of fuies [to kill them on their properties.
- The exclusive right of hunting is also abolished. Any landlord has the right to destroy or have someone destroy any kind of prey, but only on the land he owns. All administrative districts, even royal, that are hunting preserves, under any denomination, are also abolished. The preservation of the King's personal pleasures will be provided—as long as properties and freedom are respected.
- All seigneurial justices are abolished with no compensation. Nevertheless the officers of these justices will go on with their duties until the National Assembly decides on a new judicial order.
- Any kind of tithes and fees, under any denomination that they are known or collected are abolished. Other tithes, whatever they are, can be bought back.
- All perpetual loans can be bought back. Any kind of harvest share can also be bought back.
- Venality of judicial fees and municipal offices is abolished. Justice will be dispensed at no cost. And nevertheless officers holding these offices shall fulfil their duties and be paid until the assembly finds a way to reimburse them.
- County priests' casual offerings are abolished and the priests will not be paid anymore.
- Financial, personal, or real privileges are abolished forever. Every citizen will pay the same taxes on everything.
- Every specific privilege of provinces, principalities, regions, districts, cities and communities of inhabitants, either in the form of money or otherwise, are abolished.
- Every citizen, whatever his or her origins are, can hold any ecclesiastic, civilian, or military job.
The August Decrees did destroy some parts of feudalism, but many dues were redeemable. However, the Tithe, much to the disgust of the church was totally abolished. As Mason in his book ‘Revolution’ noted: "Here the revolution had achieved a vast change. The overthrow of feudalism legitimised by the nervous deputies of Versailles, dampened down the fires of the peasant revolution in the countryside. Now Paris took and held control of the pace of the Revolution. The peasantry was basically satisfied. Paris still hungered for satisfaction’.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was not copied from the American example but stemmed from the common political philosophy created by the Enlightenment. It was largely drawn up by Lafayette and can be seen as a statement of the aims of the notables: social equality, protection of property, freedom of conscience, from arrest, of the press; equality before the law, of taxation and a career open to talent. The document was made up of 17 different articles. The first one states that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” This backs up the August Decrees of 1789 and effectively abolishes the idea of Divine Right of Kings. The other articles go into detail about equality and basic rights of man. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was a significant step in destroying the Ancien Regime and showed just how far France had come as a result of the ongoing revolution. The reforms of the local government were a very important step in changing how the country was run. Sieyés, who had set up the National Guard, prompted the reforms. The Assembly reformed local government by abolishing all the previous offices (with compensation, as 40% of the deputies were office holders) and all divisions of the country. France was divided into 83 Departments (Paris was divided into 48 'sections'), each administered by a council of 36 members elected by the 'active citizens'. Each department was divided into communes: there were over 40,000 communes, each a natural entity, run by an elected council and mayor. Public office was made open by election or appointment to men of talent and a uniform system imposed which has survived to this day. This was a dismantling not only of traditional institutions and absolute monarchy but also of the whole system of centralised government; it left the provinces with considerable local autonomy. It also presented the country with more equality and abolished the certain privileged areas of France. The main problems were that the Government failed to have a clear connection to the Local Governments and also the Local governments hardly had any revenue thus leading to bankruptcies. This totally changed how France was run, and could be viewed as the Constituent Assembly’s most significant change. Included in this reform was Toleration. This allowed people to be members of the Protestant Church, and eventually, Judaism. Previously followers of other religions than Catholicism were persecuted, and often executed for their ‘crimes.’ This, however, upset the Pope and other religious leaders, who felt that some of their authority and influence had been taken away. It was, though, a significant change from the old rule.
The reform of the judiciary meant that all royal, seigneurial and ecclesiastical courts were abolished. A judiciary separate from the executive and legislature was established with a 'police tribunal' in each commune (minor offences) of 3 or 5 elected officials; judges were elected and for criminal cases a jury system was introduced at department level. All forms of torture were abolished as were 'imaginary' crimes and the death penalty was restricted to murder, treason, arson forgery and conspiracy. Lettres de cachets were made illegal. There was a High Court and Courts of Appeal. Justice was made free and equal to all though it was dependent on the will of the "Nation" which meant, in effect, the active citizens. The new judicial system was one of the most enduring reforms of the National Assembly, for the first time justice was made free and equal to all and was therefore very popular. Within two years of the French justice system being barbarous and unfair, it was now arguably the most enlightened in Europe. However, it was the Civil Constitution of the Clergy that split the revolution right down the middle. The members of the Roman Catholic Church were already unhappy with the Assembly over the abolition of tithes, reorganisation of monastic orders and the nationalisation and sale of church lands to help clear debt.
Nevertheless, In July 1790 the Assembly proposed further reforms of the structure of the Church in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy: the number of bishops was reduced to 83 - one per department - and bishops as well as parish priests were to be elected by the active citizens; they would be paid, just as any other civil servant, by the State.
This would bring the Church under state control and the Pope, Pius VI, refused to accept this loss of his primacy: he also knew that a 'counter-revolution' was growing which aimed to recreate the old order. Louis was forced to accept the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and, when opposition began to grow, he was forced to sign an order insisting that every priest take an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (November 1790). Only seven bishops and about half the clergy agreed: the rest, mainly in western France, refused and became 'non-jurors': a religious war had begun and the non-jurors became the spearhead and organisation of the counter-revolution while anti-clericalism grew amongst those who supported the Revolution. In March and April 1791 the Pope denounced the Civil Constitution, the Declaration of Rights and the Revolution: the split was to last until the Concordat of 1801. Doyle said, "The French Revolution had many turning points; but the oath of the clergy was, if not the greatest, unquestionably one of them. It was certainly the Constituent Assembly's most serious mistake."
In rural areas, which were conservative and Catholic, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was condemned, but in urban areas (especially Paris) where deism had a stronghold, the National Assembly's actions were praised. The Civil Constitution, like the Revolution itself, originated in the fiscal crisis that the National Assembly inherited from the crown. Needing substantial revenues, the assembly targeted church lands, which accounted for 10 percent of all landed wealth in France. The legislature divested the church of its property and in exchange took charge of its expenses and administration. The revolutionaries, imbued with the Enlightenment's criticism of the Catholic religion, suspected bishops and archbishops of resisting all change. To ensure the loyalty of parish priests, the assembly (in whose employ the priests now found themselves) added to the Civil Constitution a requirement that all clergy swear an oath of allegiance to the nation. However, almost half refused to do so. Because most "refractory priests" (those who refused the oath) lived in the countryside, the Civil Constitution—designed to promote national unity and prevent religion from becoming a source of resistance to the Revolution—instead generated considerable resentment among the peasantry. This resentment increased with the decree of 9 March 1792, authorizing the confiscation of grain to prevent "hoarding."
Another reform of the Constituent assembly was the economic reform. The old fiscal system was largely abolished in the summer of 1789. The Assembly introduced a tax on land, which raised 75% of the needs of the State (240 million livres); another tax was put on personal income and commercial profits. A 'patriotic contribution' was called for by Mirabeau that raised 100 million livres. More money was needed and on Talleyrand's proposal it was agreed to nationalise the land of the Church, which could then be sold. In May 1790 treasury bonds, known as 'assignats', with interest at 5% were issued and the scheme worked well though inflation began to eat into their value: in July 1791 they still retained 92% of their value. Guilds were abolished in February 1791 and on June 14 1791 the Loi le Chapelier was passed; it was aimed against trade unions and forbade meetings of workers/employers designed to change working hours or pay. A unitary system of weight and measures was established, internal custom posts and tolls on roads abolished introducing free trade in the internal market. The reforms helped clear the national debt, as well as helping peasants. They also standardised money and measures across the country.
This was significant because until now, systems in France were different from one town to another and the interest from debts was still climbing.
The final major reform of the Constituent or National Assembly came with the Constitution of 1791. Accepted by Louis on September 14 1791 (after the failure of his escape bid at Varennes) this was the constitutional government that occupied a great deal of debate in the Assembly. Louis accepted at the October Days that he was 'King of the French'; this was 'popular sovereignty', power was derived from the people. Louis was to be head of the Executive for the Assembly had agreed to the ideas of Montesquieu on the separation of power. There was a hereditary monarchy but the king was really the first servant of the state with a civil list of 25 million livres. He could appoint his own ministers but they had to be outside the Assembly and all the orders issued by the King had to be countersigned by a minister. He could suspend laws (but not financial laws) for two parliaments - four years. He could only declare war or make peace with the permission of the Assembly. This was no real problem as the Assembly declared that the French people renounced all wars of conquest. Real power in France was taken from the executive and given to the legislature - the National Assembly and the 'Legislative Assembly' that was to take over from the National Assembly. It was to meet for two years and consist of one chamber (unicameral), which, except for the use of the King's 'suspensive veto' could make any laws they wanted. The electoral system was arranged so that the bourgeois dominated. As Cambon remarked "In place of the Commons, Nobles and Clergy, we now have the rich, the Richer, and the Richest" but even so the system adopted was more democratic than the British one which, at the time, they looked to as a model. It was based on Sieyés' suggestion of the 'active' and the 'passive' citizen. Passive citizens - everybody - were entitled to civil rights but only 'active citizens' could vote. An active citizen had to pay some taxes, so nearly 4 million men could vote at the 'primary election' to elect the candidates for the secondary election: the secondary electors had to pay at least 10 days wages in tax: these secondary electors then elected the 'deputy' who had to pay 52 livres in taxes i.e. only about 55000 men could become deputies and they were all bourgeois. Doyle put it that "The essence of the constitution of 1791 was to keep the executive weak...Uniformity and decentralisation were the keynotes of the administrative organisation undertaken by the Constituent Assembly."
The constitution, after so much debate and trouble, lasted only eleven months.
The Constituent Assembly changed France immensely in the reforms discussed above. Compared to the Ancien Regime, the new order was totally different and arguably more effective and efficient. For example, the August Decrees had abolished most of the feudal rights of the first and second estates and made the peasantry happier. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the August Decrees, Nationalism and Toleration had significantly altered the running of the church. Absolute Monarchy and the theory of Divine Right of Kings had been stopped by the Declaration of the Rights of Man, part of the 1791 Constitution. This made the monarchy a constitutional monarchy; taking away most of the Kings powers, meaning nearly everything he wanted to pass had to go through the Constituent Assembly. Not all of the Ancien Regime was changed though. Some things stayed intact because of the Noble’s ability to buy back some of their rights, such as being able to tax peasants to use their land. By October 1791, the executive in the Constitutional Assembly felt that the Assembly had run its course, and in that month it was permanently dissolved, with the Legislative Assembly taking its place.
