《旧制度与大革命·卷三·第三章·法国高等法院如何循着旧例反而倾覆了王权》第2节
The King then, according to custom, caused the new edicts to be brought down to the Parliament: and the Parliament, equally according to custom, laid its humble remonstrance at the steps of the throne. The King replied; and Parliaments insisted. For centuries things had gone on thus, and the nation heard from time to time this sort of political dialogue carried on above its head between the sovereign and his magistrates. The practice had only been interrupted during the reign of Louis XIV. and for a time. But the novelty lay in the subject of the debate and the nature of the arguments. This time the Parliament, before it proceeded to register the edicts, called for all the accounts of the finance department, which we should now call the budget of the State, in support of the measures; and as the King naturally declined to hand over the entire government to a body which was irresponsible and non-elected, and so to share the legislative power with a Court of Justice, the Parliament then declared that the nation alone had the right to raise fresh taxes, and thereupon demanded that the nation should be convoked. The Parliament grasped the very heart of the people, but held it only for a moment. The arguments put forward by the Magistracy in support of their demands were not less novel than the demands themselves. The King, they said, was only the administrator and not the owner of the public fortune: the representative and chief officer of the nation, not its master. Sovereignty resided in the nation itself. The nation alone could decide great questions: its rights were not dependent on the will of the sovereign; they took their being from the nature of man; they were as inalienable and indestructible as human nature itself. ‘The institution of the States-General,’ they declared, ‘is a principle founded on the rights of man and confirmed by reason.’ ‘Common interest has combined men in society, and given rise to governments: that alone can maintain them.’ ‘No prescription of the States-General can run against the nature of things or against the imperishable rights of the nation.’ ‘Public opinion is rarely mistaken: it is rare that men receive impressions contrary to truth.’
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段里抓住了一个决定性的历史瞬间：表面上看，国王与高等法院仍在照祖制行事，实际上，两者对话的内容和性质已经彻底改变了。他首先复述那个沿用了几个世纪的程序——国王将新法令送达高等法院，高等法院则向王座呈递谦逊的谏诤，国王答复，法官们再坚持。这种仪式化的政治对话，在国民头上往复进行，构成法国君主制日常的宪法景观。托克维尔特意点出，这个惯例只在路易十…