Parisians, mostly women, marched on Versailles and laid siege to the royal palace. Louis and his family were rescued by Lafayette, who, on demand of the crowd, escorted them to Paris. After this episode some conservative members of the Constituent Assembly, which followed the king to Paris, handed in their resignations. In Paris, both the court and the assembly became increasingly subject to pressures from its citizens. Radical sentiment became predominant in the assembly, but the original objective, a constitutional monarchy, was retained.The first draft of the constitution received the approval of the French monarch on July 14, 1790, at elaborate ceremonies in Paris, attended by delegations from all parts of the nation. By the terms of the document, the provinces of France were abolished, and the country was divided into departments, each named for a mountain or stream and provided with a local elective administrative apparatus. Hereditary titles were outlawed, trial by jury in criminal cases was ordained, and fundamental modification of French law was projected. By the institution of property qualifications for the vote, the constitution confined the electorate to the middle and upper classes. The constitution vested legislative authority in a Legislative Assembly, to consist of 745 members elected by an indirect system of voting. Although executive authority was vested in the king, strict limitations were imposed on his powers. His veto power was merely suspensive, and the assembly had effective control of his conduct of foreign affairs. Severe restrictions on the power of the Roman Catholic church were legalized through a series of articles, called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the most important of which confiscated all ecclesiastical estates. To relieve financial distress, the state was authorized to issue a new form of paper currency, called assignats, which were secured by the seized lands, constituting a tenth of Franc...
