The most famous of these was called _The Twelve Articles_, printed and widely circulated in February.

[Sidenote: _The Twelve Articles_] The exact place at which they originated is unknown.

The authorship has been much disputed, and necessarily so, for they were the work of no one brain, but were as composite a production as is the Constitution of the United States.

The material in them is drawn from the mouths of a whole people.

Far more than in other popular writings one feels that they are the genuine expression of the public opinion of a great class.