Sieyes, the most important of them all, judges that "the whole English constitution is charlatanism, designed for imposing on the people;"[2132] he regards the English "as children in the matter of a constitution," and thinks that he is capable of giving France a much better one.

Dumont, who sees the first committees at the houses of Brissot and Clavieres, goes away with as much anxiety as "disgust." "It is impossible," he says, "to depict the confusion of ideas, the license of the imagination, the burlesque of popular notions.

One would think that they saw before them the world on the day after the Creation." They seem to think, indeed, that human society does not exist, and that they are appointed to create it.

Just as well might ambassadors "of hostile tribes, and of diverse interests, set themselves to arrange their common lot as if nothing had previously existed." There is no hesitation.

They are satisfied that the thing can be easily done, and that, with two or three axioms of political philosophy, the first man that comes may make himself master of it.