《旧制度与大革命·卷三·第五章·绝对权力一旦被制伏革命的真面目立刻显现》第10节
No doubt, it was very late in the day to seek to maintain the old constitution of the States-General, even if it were reformed. But this resolution, however rash, was supported by the law of the land, which had still some authority. The Government had tradition in its favour, and still had its hand upon the instrument of the law. If the double number of the commons and the vote of the three Orders in common had been conceded at once, no doubt a revolution would have been made, but it would have been made by the Crown, which by pulling down these old institutions itself might have deadened their fall. The upper classes must have submitted to an inevitable necessity. Borne in by the pressure of the Crown, simultaneously with that of the commons, they would at once have acknowledged their inability to resist. Despairing of their own ascendency, they would only have contended for equal rights, and would have learnt the lesson of fighting to save something, instead of fighting to retain everything. Would it not have been possible to do throughout France what was actually done by the Three Orders in Dauphiny? In that province the Provincial Estates chose, by a general vote, the representatives of the Three Orders to the States-General. Each Order in the provincial State had been elected separately and stood for itself alone; but all the Orders combined to name the deputies to the States-General, so that every noble had commoners among his constituents, and every commoner nobles. The three representations, though remaining distinct, thus acquired a certain resemblance. Could not the same thing have been done elsewhere than in Dauphiny? If the Orders had been constituted in this manner, might they not have co-existed in a single Assembly without coming to a violent collision?
注释摘要
托克维尔在此处处理的是一个反事实推论，一种"假如当初……或许不至于……"的假设。他把读者的目光引向一个具体的历史岔路口：王室宣布三级会议召集之后，关于第三等级代表人数加倍、以及三等级是分别议事还是合厅表决，这两件事是被分开处理的——人数加倍许了，合厅表决却悬而不答。托克维尔认为，这是个致命的半吊子。他的论证方式很能代表全书兼有形而上明澈与行政实务眼光的特点…