the National Assembly. - The National Assembly itself invites us to
do so. For it announces that

"ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole
causes
of public misfortune, and of the corruption of governments."

It declares that

"the object of every political association is the preservation of
natural and
imprescriptible rights."

It enumerates them, "in order that the acts of legislative power and
the acts of executive power may at once be compared with the purpose
of every political institution." It desires "that every member of
the social body should have its declaration constantly in mind." -
Thus we are told to control all acts of application by the
principle, and also we are provided with the rule by which we may
and should accord, measure, or even refuse our submission to,
deference for, and toleration of established institutions and legal
authority.

What are these superior rights, and, in case of dispute, who will
decide as arbitrator? - There is nothing here like the precise
declarations of the American Constitution,[36] those positive
prescriptions which serve to sustain a judicial appeal, those
express prohibitions which prevent beforehand certain species of
laws from being passed, which prescribe limits to public powers,
which mark out the province not to be invaded by the State because