If there are a number of these, they must be so defined and so balanced as to be of mutual assistance, instead of neutralizing each other by their opposition.

Whatever government is adopted, it must place matters in the hands best qualified to conduct them.

The law must not exist for the advantage of the minority, nor for that of the majority, but for the entire community .-- In regard to this first article no one must derogate from it, neither the minority nor the majority, neither the Assembly elected by the nation, nor the nation itself, even if unanimous.

It has no right arbitrarily to dispose of the common weal, to put it in peril according to its caprice, to subordinate it to the application of a theory or to the interest of a single class, even if this class is the most numerous.

For, that which is the common weal does not belong to it, but to the whole community, past, present, and to come.