[p. 491]
|491| Forefathers”. (The whole course of the proceedings shows that the opposition of the estates of the realm concerned the one point, that by the royal constitution as given the former one was not restored, that consequence not annulled.)
Moreover, as is well known, the demand of the estates of the realm that, even during the King’s lifetime, their concurrence should extend to the taxes already existing had no success, owing to the early death of the King, just as, by their non-acceptance of the royal constitution, which granted them fresh negotiations on the taxes upon a change of government, they have cut off such negotiations.
To complete the historical account of the main moments of the constitutional charter, there would still have to be cited the second part of it, the general provisions in relation to the constitution of the kingdom and the rights and obligations of the royal subjects. These, however, admit of neither an extract nor an appraisal; they are simple organic provisions which speak for themselves and make up the rational foundation of a condition of public law. E.g. § 52. All subjects are equal before the law; they have access to all offices of state; neither birth nor any one of the three Christian confessions excludes from them. – § 53. To the public burdens and levies all have, according to the laws, to contribute proportionately equally. – § 55. Every subject has, if he is free of military obligation or has satisfied it, the right of emigration. – § 56. Every subject is free to choose his estate and trade according to his own free inclination and to train himself for it and so on. These principles admit only the remark that it can never occur to estates of the Empire to reject them, and that only a repugnant perversity, obstinacy, or whatever one might wish to call it, could bring such an assembly
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