Here we see a regular process--a government issuing out of a constitution, formed by the people in their original character; and that constitution serving, not only as an authority, but as a law of control to the government.
In "Rights of Man," Paine explains how a legitimate government derives its power from a constitution established by the people, which then limits that government.
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It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?