champion, judge, interpreter and administrator of the rights of man,
and which, in the name of these superior rights, may protest or
rebel, as it seems best, not only against the legitimate acts of
legal powers, but also against the authentic text of the
Constitution and the Laws.[39]

Consider, indeed, these rights as they are proclaimed, along with
the commentary of the speaker who expounds them at the club before
an audience of heated and daring spirits, or in the street to the
rude and fanatical multitude. Every article in the Declaration is a
dagger pointed at human society, and the handle has only to be
pressed to make the blade enter the flesh.[40] Among "these natural
and imprescriptible rights" the legislator has placed "resistance to
oppression." We are oppressed : let us resist and take up arms.
According to this legislator, "society has the right to bring every
public agent of the Administration to account." Let us away to the
Hôtel-de-Ville, and interrogate our lukewarm or suspected
magistrates, and watch their sessions to see if they prosecute
priests and disarm the aristocrats; let us stop their intrigues
against the people; let us force these slow clerks to hasten their
steps. - According to this legislator "all citizens have the right
to take part in person, or through their representatives, in the
formation of the law." There must thus be no more electors
privileged by their payment of a three-franc tax. Down with the new
aristocracy of active citizens! Let us restore to the two millions
of proletarians the right of suffrage, of which the Constitution has
unjustly defrauded them! - According to this legislator, "men are
born and remain free, and equal in their rights." Consequently, let
no one be excluded from the National Guard; let everybody, even the
pauper, have some kind of weapon, a pike or gun, to defend his