I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 601: Polish Song - End

The Patriot Party received 20 zlotys from this funding, so they temporarily stopped mentioning their "religious freedom" doctrine.

Prince Poniatowski nodded with satisfaction and continued: "Regarding the estates of the nobles, as long as they are virtuous and defenders of freedom and the constitution, we should recognize their legitimacy and ensure the safety of the land and all other property."

His words were immediately praised by members of the Hetman Party, a conservative aristocratic group.

A Hetman leader from Ukraine reminded: "Your Highness, there are still noble privileges..."

"Yes, privileges." Prince Poniatowski signaled the patriots with his eyes to wait, and then said, "For those privileges that are harmless, I think they can continue to be retained. As for which privileges will harm other citizens, this will be decided by a vote of the Great Sejm."

This was the rhetoric that Sieyès had taught him. First of all, he had to stabilize the conservative nobles, otherwise the Constitutional Union would likely fall apart—the conservatives held more than a quarter of the seats in the Great Sejm.

In practice, the constitutional promise of protecting aristocratic privileges was of little use.

As long as the Grand Sejm later passed a resolution determining that a privilege was "harmful", it could be abolished by constitutional provisions.

The top leaders of the Hetman Party looked at each other, and no one raised any objections, which was considered as their approval of this clause.

The prince looked at the next item in the manuscript: "Mr. Kountai proposed that 'all Polish citizens enjoy equal status'. I suggest that this legislation should not be included for the time being..."

The Patriot Party immediately protested: "How can this be possible?"

"If equality cannot be achieved, then what is the meaning of the Constitution?!"

"You are taking away the rights of the people that the Constitution is most supposed to protect..."

The prince raised his hand and pressed it down, saying, "We should avoid causing too much impact on the country. And this is just a conceptual proposal. The constitutional provisions that protect the lives and property of citizens, that citizens can freely purchase land, and that any citizen has the right to serve as an officer or government official will be retained."

The Patriot Party also came this time based on the principle of unity and cooperation as much as possible, and immediately fell silent again.

If ordinary citizens can be guaranteed everything from personal safety to property and the holding of public office, then they basically enjoy most of the equality, and the aristocracy can only have some advantages in etiquette and "harmless privileges."

Joseph was well aware of how much hatred the phrase "all men are born free and equal" would arouse in today's Europe.

Historically, it was because of this clause in the May 3rd Constitution that Poland lost the support of almost all countries, except France, which had already undergone a major revolution at that time.

Therefore, he had previously emphasized to Sieyès not to let the Poles set up this flag.

"Then we will finalize the terms of the Sejm." Prince Poniatowski looked at the crowd. "The Grand Sejm shall be voted on by majority vote. No one may veto a vote."

In fact, he had previously, at Joseph's suggestion, and the king had drawn up a decree to "suspension of the free veto", stipulating that the veto could not be used within three years.

This also greatly reduced the resistance to the Polish Constitution. At this time, this article will be formally added to the Constitution.

Those who could come to the Tin Dome Palace were all progressive factions in Poland, and they had long hated the veto. Voices of approval immediately rang out around them.

Prince Poniatowski then read out the clauses on the election of Sejm members and curbing vote-buying, and then closed the manuscript in his hand.

Compared with the historical May 3rd Constitution, he did not mention radical clauses such as abolishing serfdom, abolishing the election of the king and changing it to hereditary succession, establishing a Polish government with separation of powers, and requiring the nobility and clergy to pay tithes for military expansion.

These contents are actually the fantasies of Polish idealists. For example, the last one, "noble tithe", not only failed to collect much money after implementation, but also pushed most of the nobility and clergy to the opposite side of the government.

The constitution, which was streamlined by Joseph and fine-tuned by Sieyès, has discarded these unrealistic contents, and the impact on Poland will be greatly reduced.

1791 12 Month 6 Day.

The Polish Great Sejm convened a Constituent Assembly. The whole of Warsaw was shrouded in tension and expectation.

The outside of the parliament hall was filled with citizens. No one was shouting slogans. Everyone just watched silently as the parliamentarians walked into the Great Sejm one after another between the two teams of guards.

It was totally different from the historical voting on the Constitution on May 3, when the vote was conducted in secret, fearing that it would be discovered by the conservative aristocrats.

The police in Warsaw are as busy as ever, not to maintain order, but to deal with the difficult cases that have occurred frequently recently.

Outside a villa on the west side of the Narew River, police officers were cleaning up Baron Osiskovic's body.

Several female relatives cried loudly with the help of servants, but soon a police officer came to the Baroness and said with a cough: "It's a pity, but we have confirmed that the Baron must have fallen from the balcony by himself..."

An agent from the Freedom and Security Committee who was hiding not far away pulled his hood and turned away after hearing what the police said.

He was a member of the Bar Confederation and an ardent patriot who had personally assassinated four Russian nobles more than ten years ago.

After receiving a pardon from the king, he joined the Polish intelligence service.

Baron Osiskovich was the one he killed last night, but he was very experienced and disguised the death as falling from a building.

Baron Osiskovich is a staunchly pro-Russian MP. Today, he will certainly vote against the constitution in the Great Sejm.

So he must die!

In recent months, more than a dozen pro-Russian factions similar to Osiskovich have been "purged". Those former members of the Bar Alliance are not afraid of death at all. More than a decade ago, they dared to kidnap the king and assassinate several members of parliament without blinking an eye. Several pro-Russian members of parliament were killed by them at their own expense.

Of course, they would also try to make it look like an accidental death to avoid being noticed by the Russians.

While the police were dealing with Osiskovic's body, Count Branicki's carriage was stopped by a group of heavily armed soldiers on the south side of Warsaw's Holy Cross Street.

The Targowica Alliance leader jumped out of the car and roared angrily: "You idiots, do you know who I am?"

However, he soon noticed the badge on the soldier's collar, and his face suddenly darkened: "Are you Prince Poniatowski's guard?"

"Yes, Count." An officer saluted him with his hat. "There are rioters ahead. For your safety, please stay here for the time being."

"Asshole, I want to go to the Great Sejm to vote!" Seeing that the officer was unmoved, Branicki waved to the driver, "Turn around, let's go around."

Two soldiers suddenly came forward and pried the axle of his carriage wheel crooked.

(End of this chapter)