…[you ought] at least to give a satisfactory answer with good legal arguments to justify your acts and procedures without alleging either the sovereignty which you have [on various occasions] claimed to possess or unfounded and frivolous reasons that are irrelevant to the matter and are based neither on the treaties and accords nor on your previous actions nor on the instruction given to the Council of State. We expect from you arguments based on equity, law, reason and natural common sense. For in the absence of a legitimate prince the sovereignty belongs to the commonalty and not to you, gentlemen, who are only servants, ministers, and deputies of the commonalty and have commissions which are limited and restricted not only in time but also in subject matter. These are conditions as widely different from sovereignty as is the power of the subject from that of the prince or of the servant from that of the master, or, to express it more clearly, as heaven is from earth, for sovereignty is limited neither in power nor in time.