Those who carried out the coup d'etat of Brumaire (November, 9-10) 1799, declared the establishment of the provisional government of the Consuls and started drafting of the new constitution. The ideas of Sieves, one of the members of the revolutionary group and the theorist of it, were adopted as the foundation of the constitution. However, Napoleon Bonaparte interfered with the work of the drafting committee and proceeded to revise the draft so as to make it fit to his purpose. Thus the Constitution of the Year VIII came into being on December 13th with the signatures of the committee members and was later approved by the national plebiscite according to the provision of the constitution. The new constitution, unlike the earlier ones, does not have in the preamble any declaration of rights and consists of only 95 articles. It is briefer than any of the preceding ones, and contains, among others, provisions for the rights of citizenship, the Senate, the legislative power, the government, the courts, and the responsibilities of public functionaries etc. The executive power resides in the three Consuls, the First Consul being entitled to the right of promulgating laws, and appointment and dismissal of officials, civil and military, and remaining two Consuls being only entitled to consultative voice. The members of the legislatures, and all the public officials central and departmental, were all elected by the people formally. Thus the ideals of Sieyes who had, under the principle of the sovereignity of people, tried to prevent the dictatorship by dividing powers, crumbled before the intervention of Napoleon Bonaparte and came to be even utilized by him for his purpose.
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