Quiz: What Is the Third Estate?

All 32 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. To what does Sieyès compare the Third Estate in chapter 1?

   A child still learning to walk alone A sleeping giant who does not know his own strength A fine house built on shifting sand A strong man, one arm in chains
2. 2. Which province does Sieyès praise for excluding the fisc’s men and other dependents from eligibility for the Third?

   Dauphiné Franche-Comté Provence Languedoc
3. 3. Under which king was a small number of good towns enough to form a chamber of Commons?

   Louis XI Philip the Fair Henry IV Louis XIV
4. 4. What image does Sieyès use for the citizens’ equality before the law?

   A river that waters every field alike, whatever the rank or wealth of its owner A pyramid of the orders, resting on the broad base of the common people below A ladder whose rungs every citizen may climb by his own merit and his own labour The law at the centre of a globe, all citizens at equal distance on its surface
5. 5. Which maxim does Sieyès give to keep the representative body from forming a corporate spirit?

   Make its seats hereditary Elect its members for life Let each order choose a third of it Renew a third each year
6. 6. Whose “pretty saying” is “Why change? We are so well off!”?

   A bishop’s A Breton noble’s A farmer-general’s Calonne’s
7. 7. If the Third Estate alone cannot form the Estates-General, what does Sieyès say it will form?

   A Chamber of Commons A National Assembly A cour plénière A National Convention
8. 8. According to Sieyès’s reading of French history, who has really reigned in France?

   The court The parlements The provincial estates The King alone
9. 9. With what image does Sieyès explain the slow progress of social architecture?

   Rome was not built in a day A ship must be rebuilt plank by plank while still at sea Men built cottages long before they raised palaces Oaks grow slowly from acorns
10. 10. What does the old nobility require of new nobles before letting them sit with it?

    Payment of a heavy fee to the order Proof of four generations and a hundred years Service as an army officer A royal letter of admission
11. 11. In the first plan for the provincial assemblies, in what capacity were members to be called?

    As members of their order As proprietors By royal nomination By lot
12. 12. What does Sieyès call an Estates-General dominated by the privileged?

    An assembly of notables A cour plénière A clerico-nobili-judicial assembly A chamber of peers on the English model
13. 13. Where, according to chapter 5, is the nation to be found?

    In the Estates-General of the three orders At the court In the parlements In the forty thousand parishes
14. 14. Where does Sieyès propose to send the families who claim descent from the conquerors?

    Back to the forests of Franconia To the colonies in the West Indies To Brittany To the frontier fortresses as garrisons
15. 15. In the epigraph, what is the philosopher’s function?

    To reconcile the three orders To advise the King’s ministers To graduate the pace of reform to the difficulties To mark the goal
16. 16. What characterises the third period in the formation of a political society?

    The action of the real common will Conquest by a foreign people Government by proxy The play of individual wills
17. 17. To what does Sieyès compare the claim that two hundred thousand privileged should make two-thirds of the common will?

    Maintaining that two and two make five Putting the cart before the horse Asking the wolf to guard the sheep Building a house on sand
18. 18. What share of the public functions does Sieyès say the Third Estate makes up?

    Ninety-nine hundredths Nineteen-twentieths Two-thirds Half
19. 19. How many nobles does Sieyès estimate for the whole kingdom?

    81,400 200,000 About 400,000 At most 110,000
20. 20. According to the plan of the work, what has the Third Estate been until now in the political order?

    Something One third of the nation Everything Nothing
21. 21. What is the second demand of the Third Estate?

    Two-thirds of all the deputies in the Estates-General As many deputies as the other two orders together A separate chamber for the towns The abolition of the clergy as a separate order of the state
22. 22. In his comparison with a diet of maritime peoples, to whom does Sieyès liken the aristocrats?

    Dutch admirals Spanish treasure fleets Venetian merchant princes The Barbary corsairs
23. 23. What other growth since 1614 does Sieyès say nobody would deny representation to?

    The new regiments of the royal army and navy The new dioceses created by the Church The colonies in America and the Indies The new provinces united to France
24. 24. According to the remark Sieyès quotes, what did the Notables do in 1788?

    They demanded a cour plénière They voted to double the Third They defended their privileges against the nation They defended their privileges against the throne
25. 25. Which Latin phrase does Sieyès apply to the noble order?

    Vox populi, vox Dei Salus populi suprema lex Primus inter pares Imperium in imperio
26. 26. How does chapter 1 define a nation?

    All who own land within one territory and pay their taxes into its treasury A people sharing a common descent, language and customs over many centuries A body of associates living under a common law and represented by one legislature All the subjects of a single king, of whatever order, province or estate they are
27. 27. Which of these is not one of Sieyès’s four classes of private work?

    Merchants and dealers Families working the land Personal services, from the liberal professions to domestic service Holders of seigneuries
28. 28. Whose work is the constitution, according to chapter 5?

    The constituent power of the nation The Estates-General The ordinary legislative body The King
29. 29. Which kind of interest does Sieyès consider the great danger in a national assembly?

    National interest Personal interest Common interest Corporate interest
30. 30. What does Sieyès say must be done with the privileged class, the “malignant humour” in the body of the nation?

    It must be given a third of the votes It must be given a separate chamber It must be neutralised It must be bought out
31. 31. Which two bailliages does Sieyès compare to show that representation follows population and contribution?

    Poitou and Gex Paris and Versailles Lyon and Bordeaux Rennes and Nantes
32. 32. What does Sieyès say is worth more than the English constitution itself?

    The House of Lords Trial by jury The royal veto The navy