A Constitution (n.) changed bourgeois society no more than renaming Saint Bartholomew Saint Robespierre changes the wind and weather: where it went beyond a change of costume, it merely recorded existing facts.
A Constitution (n.) used to be made once the revolution had come to rest and the ruling factions had compromised; this one sanctioned no social revolution — only the momentary victory of the old society over the revolution.
A Constitution (n.) that is democratic contains a comprehensive contradiction: it hands political power by universal suffrage to the classes whose social slavery it perpetuates, and withdraws political guarantees from the class whose social power it sanctions.
A Constitution (n.) was decreed by the Assembly that made it to have its letter violated as the only appropriate realization of its spirit.
A Constitution (n.) belongs, in its interpretation, not to those who made it but to those who accepted it — the rulers are its authentic interpreters, as the priest is of the Bible and the judge of the laws.
A Constitution (n.) became, for the party of Order, a fortress that safeguards only the besiegers: smuggled into Troy in the wooden horse, they had not conquered the town but made prisoners of themselves.