The only parliamentary act of M.La Fayette was a proclamation of the _rights of man_, which was adopted by the National Assembly.

This decalogue of free men, formed in the forests of America, contained more metaphysical phrases than sound policy.

It applied as ill to an old society as the nudity of the savage to the complicated wants of civilised man: but it had the merit of placing man bare for the moment, and, by showing him what he was and what he was not, of setting him on the discovery of the real value of his duties and his rights.

It was the cry of the revolt of nature against all tyrannies.

This cry was destined to crumble into dust an old world used up in servitude, and to produce another new and breathing.