ABSTRACT
Legitimacy is one of those beautiful words to which the human mind is unable to attach any conception, but which, as words, have an inherent power infinitely greater than any human conception. But even supposing the relations between the National Committee and France to be as satisfactory as possible, the provisional government established on the newly liberated territory will nevertheless be infinitely far from possessing a degree of legitimacy that matches the terrible responsibilities which it will not be able to avoid. A provisional national representation would provide no remedy for this, since it would not itself contain any legitimacy. So long as the constitution of 1875 was more or less recognised by the French people as the norm of legitimacy, the elected parliament was legitimate; it was not so due to the fact that it was elected, but through its conformity with the constitution. The provisional government will have to look for legitimacy elsewhere.
