National Assembly

Origin of the expression

Perhaps the best known National Assembly was that established during the French Revolution in 1789, known as the Assemblée nationale. Consequently, the name is particularly common in Francophone countries. It was also the name of the legislature during France's Second Republic and the Third Republic, and since 1946 has been the lower house of the French parliament, first under the Fourth Republic, and from 1958, the Fifth Republic.

The expression, however, did not originate in 1789. It was already in use in the French language of the times. Louis XIII (1601–1643), par la grace de Dieu Roy de France & de Navarre, in a Declaration of April 14, 1627, concerning the sovereignty of his kingdom, prohibits ministers of foreign countries from any jurisdiction in France, citing, as precedent, his Lettres de Declaration of April 17, 1623, forbidding religious officials from treating with foreign countries. He describes his Declaration as ordonné qu'en Assemblées Provinciales & Nationales des nosdites sujets. This was the "registration" that the Parlement of Paris refused to perform for Louis XVI in 1787–1788. When the Estates-General of 1789 formed the National Assembly of 1789, they did not believe they were instituting anything new. In the Assembly of Notables of 1787, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette had used National Assembly and Estates General synonymously when he suggested that France needed a national assembly to solve its financial problems.

National Assembly is also found in some Commonwealth countries. Its use there is not a translation of Assemblée nationale, as the phrase is equally embedded in the English language. For example, at the end of the First English Civil War, an Act of Parliament, 1648, "Concerning the Members of the Classical and Congregational Presbyteries, in the several counties of the Kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales," establishes a national congregational church in England and Wales, corresponding to the presbyteries of Scotland. The language is: "The National Assembly shall be constituted of members chosen by and sent from the several Provincial Assemblies." This National Assembly appears to have no direct link to any French words, although the concept is the same.

Unicameral national legislatures

Lower house of bicameral national legislature

Upper house of bicameral national legislature

Entire bicameral legislature

In such cases, the individual lower or upper houses have a name other than "assembly".

Historical

Other

Notes

References

References

1. Merriam-Webster. (1986). "Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged with Seven Language Dictionary". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc..
2. Le Gentil, Jean. (1675). "Recueil des actes, titres et mémoires, concernant les affaires du clergé de France, augmenté d'un grand nombre de Pieces, & mis en nouvel ordre". Frederic Leonard.
3. (1661). "The civil warres of Great Britain and Ireland: containing an exact history of their occasion, originall, progress, and happy end". Printed by R.W. for Philip Chetwind.