When the pledge, given by the Treaty of Amiens, to restore the Order of St John with a national Maltese "langue," could not be fulfilled, political leaders began demanding instead the re-establishment of the " Consiglio Popolare " of Norman times (without reflecting that it never had legislative power); but by degrees popular aspirations developed in favour of a free constitution on English lines.
During 1822 and the succeeding years he travelled about Europe on the search for materials for his Collection des chroniques rationales fran4aises ecrites en langue vulgaire cat XIII e au X VI' siècle (47 vols., 1824-1829).
Charpentier in his Excellence de la langue francaise (1683) had anticipated Perrault in the famous academical dispute concerning the relative merit of the ancients and moderns.
Thus he accepts the shallow dictum of Condillac that toute science se reduit d une langue bien faite.
After winning some academic prizes, Rivarol distinguished himself in the year 1784 by a treatise Sur l'universalite de la langue francaise, and by a translation of the Inferno.