ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL (France). The states-general (q.v.), convoked by Louis XVI. of France, and opened May 5, 1789. consisted of the two privileged orders, clergy and nobles, and of the tiers-etat or commons The privileged orders refusing to join the third estate and deliberate in a common chamber, the latter, of its own authority, June 17, assumed the title of Assemblee Nationale, and the right to act in the name of France. The court attempted to annul this resolution in a royal sitting. June 23; but the deputies of the third estate, along with the liberal members of the other two orders, had bound themselves by oath not to separate until they had given France a constitution, and had declared every attempt at violence on the part of the court. treason. They refused to quit the common hall, and the court yielded, and commanded the nobles and clergy to join the national A. This was the beginning of the revolution, and the A. proceeded with astounding rapidity to metamorphose old France. The abolition of all privileges on the 4th of Aug. was followed by !hat of hereditary jurisdiction, and of restraints on religion and the press, and by the declaration of the tights of man (q.v.). In Feb., 1790, the monastic orders were suppressed, and all remnants of feudalism swept away; in March, lettres de cachet and the oppressive salt-tax were abolished; in June. all orders and titles of nobility. In July, non-Catholics had the property confiscated from their ancestors restored; Jews were relieved from personal taxation; and game-laws done away. A decree of Oct. 18 abolished the cruel criminal penalties of Louis XIV. In Jan., 1791 all corporations and guilds were abolished, and free-trade introduced. In Feb., political rights were conceded to Quakers; in May, the customs at city gates were abolished; in June, the torture; the violation of the secrecy of letters was also declared criminal. In Sept., all citizens, of whatever color or religion, received polit ic-al rights.
The principles on which the assembly proceeded were the sovereignty of the people, the independence of the communes, the limitation of the royal power through a condi tional veto (q.v.), the separation of the political authorities. and the responsibility of .ministers. Accordingly, the A., shortly after it was constituted, declared that to it alone, subject to the royal veto, belonged the legislative power. Several decrees, in Sept., 1789. determined that the legislative body should form only one chamber, and should be renewed every two years; other decrees declared the king inviolable, and the throne inalienable. A decree of 7th Nov. forbade the deputies to undertake the place of ministers; in Dec., the new organiistion of the communes was begun. Jan., 1790, France was divided into departments; in April, trial by jury was introduced; in May, it was declared that the right of war and peace belonged to the nation alone, that is, to the A.
In regard to finance, which had been the immediate cause of the assembly's being convoked, the reforms were equally thorough. It was decreed at the outset that taxes were to be apportioned and raised without regard to rank or person. Then followed the
approval of a loan of 80 millions of francs. A decree of Nov., 1789, ordered the publi cation of the public accounts; another in Dec. established a national bank. In Mar., 1790, appeared the first law sanctioning the sale of 400 millions' worth of the national domains; and in April, another ordering the issue of assignats (q.v.) on the national property; in Oct., these assignsts were declared to bear no interest. These measures were followed, in the beginning of 1791, by a series of laws regarding coining, taxation, encouragement to industry, revenue-management, etc. A committee of the A. appointed to reform church matters, made a complete overturn of the old ecclesiastical system. After a declaration that Catholicism had ceased to be the state religion, tithes were abolished, and churchproperty confiscated. Church ornaments and valuables were appropriated as patriotic gifts to the state; the civil jurisdiction of the bishops was taken away, and monks and nuns were freed from their vows. The clergy were put under a civil consti tution. Each department was a see, and the communes ruled and paid bishop and cures. All the clergy were amenable to the civil courts, without appeal to the pope or the inter ference of any ecclesiastical authority whatever. Every clergyman had to take an oath accepting this constitution, which led to the emigration of a number, and subsequently to enactments of excessive rigor against refractory priests (pretres insermentes).
The A. having thus laid the revolution on a foundation of 3250 decrees, and having sworn to the new constitution, and got it accepted by the king, closed its sittings, Sept., 30, 1791. From its having framed the constitution (which lasted only 12 months), this assembly is usually called the constituent A. It made way for the LEGISLATIVE ASSEM BLY, which was to reform the civil and criminal laws in accordance with the spirit of the new constitution, A decree had provided that no member of the constituent should be returned to the legislative A. But the democratic party received such preponderance at the elections, that the A. forgot its mission from the very first, and commenced a war with the remnants of the royal authority, which ended, Aug. 10, 1792, with the over throw of the throne and the suspension of the king. The constitution had provided for an appeal to the nation in extreme cases, and the legislative A. now exercised that right by convoking a national convention (q.v.), which, being invested with the powers of the sovdreign, was to decide on the fate of the monarchy, and remodel the whole political system.
The title of national A. has been assumed by various other parliamentary bodies, originating in popular commotions, and aiming at radical political changes; as the French A. that met after the revolution of Feb., 1848, followed, April, 1849, by a legislative A.; the German national A. at Frankfort ; and the Prussian national A. Under the existing French republic, the senate and the chamber of deputies unite to form the national A.