In the Abbe Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes's famous declaration one can see something of the fascination the French patriots had with English representative goveminent, and how those ideas guided the initial phases of the French Revolution.

What is a nation? A body of associates, living under a common law, and represented by the same legislature, etc.

Is it not evident that the noble order has privileges and expenditures which it dares to call its rights, but which are apart from the rights of the great body of citizens? It departs there from the common law. So its civil rights make of it an isolated people in the midst of the great nation. This is truly imperium in imperia. In regard to its political rights, these also it exercises apart. It has its special representatives; which are not charged with securing...