Be these agents five, ten, one hundred, or a thousand, of what consequence is the number; and what matters the name?
It is always the government of man, the rule of will and caprice.
I ask what this pretended revolution has revolutionized?
We know, too, how this sovereignty was exercised; first by the Convention, then by the Directory, afterwards confiscated by the Consul.
As for the Emperor, the strong man so much adored and mourned by the nation, he never wanted to be dependent on it; but, as if intending to set its sovereignty at defiance, he dared to demand its suffrage: that is, its abdication, the abdication of this inalienable sovereignty; and he obtained it.
But what is sovereignty?
It is, they say, the POWER TO MAKE LAW.

[10] Another absurdity, a relic of despotism.

The nation had long seen kings issuing their commands in this form: FOR SUCH IS OUR PLEASURE; it wished to taste in its turn the pleasure of making laws.

For fifty years it has brought them forth by myriads; always, be it understood, through the agency of representatives.

The play is far from ended.
The definition of sovereignty was derived from the definition of the law.