Editing French Directory (section)

===Drafting the new Constitution===

The 1789 [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] was attached as a preamble, declaring "the Rights of Man in society are liberty, equality, security, and property".{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|p=702}} It guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of labour, but forbade armed assemblies and even public meetings of political societies. Only individuals or public authorities could tender petitions.

[[File:François Boissy d-Anglas.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas]], one of the principal authors of the [[Constitution of 1795]]]]

The judicial system was reformed, and judges were given short terms of office: two years for justices of the peace, five for judges of department tribunals. They were elected, and could be re-elected, to assure their independence from the other branches of government.

The new legislature had two houses, a [[Council of Five Hundred]] and a [[Council of Ancients]] with two hundred fifty members. Electoral assemblies in each [[Cantons of France|''canton'' of France]], which brought together a total of thirty thousand qualified electors, chose representatives to an electoral assembly in each [[Departments of France|department]], which then elected the members of both houses. The members of this legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients could not initiate new laws, but could veto those proposed by the Council of Five Hundred.

The Constitution established a unique kind of executive, a five-man Directory chosen by the legislature.<ref>J. F,. Bosher, ''The French Revolution'' (1988), pp. 226–230</ref><ref>Gershoy, ''The French Revolution and Napoleon'' (1964) pp. 303–308</ref> It required the Council of Five Hundred to prepare, by secret ballot, a list of candidates for the Directory. The Council of Ancients then chose, again by secret ballot, the Directors from that provided list. The Constitution required that Directors be at least forty years old. To assure gradual but continual change, one Director, chosen by lot, was replaced each year. Ministers for the various departments of State aided the Directors. These ministers did not form a council or cabinet and had no general powers of government.

The new Constitution sought to create a [[separation of powers]]; the Directors had no voice in legislation or taxation, nor could Directors or Ministers sit in either house. To assure that the Directors would have some independence, each would be elected by one portion of the legislature, and they could not be removed by the legislature unless they violated the law.<ref name=tulard>Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard, Alfred Fierro, ''Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française'', Robert Laffont, Paris, 1998, pp. 198–199. (In French)</ref>

Under the new [[Constitution of 1795]], to be eligible to vote in the elections for the Councils, voters were required to meet certain minimum property and residency standards. In towns with over six thousand population, they had to own or rent a property with a revenue equal to the standard income for at least one hundred fifty or two hundred days of work, and to have lived in their residence for at least a year. This ruled out a large part of the French population.

The greatest victim under the new system was the City of Paris, which had dominated events in the first part of the Revolution. On 24 August 1794, the committees of the sections of Paris, bastions of the Jacobins which had provided most of the manpower for demonstrations and invasions of the Convention, were abolished. Shortly afterwards, on 31 August, the municipality of Paris, which had been the domain of Danton and Robespierre, was abolished, and the city placed under direct control of the national government. When the Law of 19 [[Vendémiaire]] Year IV (11 October 1795), in application of the [[Constitution of the Year III|new Constitution]], created the first twelve ''[[arrondissement]]s'' of Paris, it established twelve new committees, one for each ''arrondissement''. The city became a new [[Departments of France|department]], the [[Seine (department)|Department of the Seine]], replacing the former Department of Paris created in 1790.<ref>Fierro, Alfred, ''Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris'' (1996), Robert Laffont, p. 608, (French)</ref><ref>''Loi du 19 vendémiaire, an 4. Tableau de l'emplacement des chef lieux de département'', published in 1795, 15 pages [https://books.google.com/books?id=5rN9mgEACAAJ]</ref>