This idea had been elaborated by Montesquieu,
and deeply affected the constitution-making of the eighteenth century
both in France and in the United States.
[Sidenote: Legislative Provisions]
The legislative authority was vested in one chamber, styled the
"Legislative Assembly," the members of which were chosen by means of a
complicated system of indirect election. [Footnote: That is to say, the
people would vote for electors, and the electors for the members of the
Assembly.] The distrust with which the bourgeois framers of the
constitution regarded the lower classes was shown not only in this
check upon direct election but also in the requirements that the
privilege of voting should be exercised exclusively by "active"
citizens, that is, by citizens who paid taxes, and that the right to
hold office should be restricted to property-holders.
[Sidenote: Weakness of the King under the Constitution]
Nominally the executive authority resided in the hereditary king. In
this respect, most of the French reformers thought they were imitating
the British government, but as a matter of fact they made the kingship
not even ornamental.
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