XXIIL 1789. rity can only be esteemed so long as it is tempered BOOK with justice. We beseech your majesty not to suffer apparent or momentary advantages to divert your attention, as they may only produce unhappy consequences. Your majesty will sooner or later discover the justness of our representations." A bed of justice being in defiance of the warn ings and threatenings of parliament held, and the edict for the establishment of the COUR PLENIERE forcibly enregistered, the most violent commotions ensued throughout the kingdom, which every where wore the appearance of hostility and war. The first president of the parliament, in the name of that assembly, informed the king, that the parliament would acknowledge no authority which infringed on the complete exercise of their prerogatives. The parliament of Rouen pronounced the edicts in question to be null and void, and all persons assisting in the execution of them to be traitors to the nation; and for this daring act of patriotism lettres de cachet were immediately executed against them. The parliaments of Rennes, of Grenoble, and of Metz, distinguished by their zeal in the same cause, were in like manner ordered into banishment. Great bodies of the military were in motion; and every step taken on the part of the court indicated a resolution to persevere in the plan of coercion, when, on the sudden, the courage of the king and his mi 1789. BOOK nisters once more totally failed them; and an orXXIII. der of council was published, August 8, fixing the convocation of the States to the first of May, 1789, and SUSPENDING during the interval the institution of the COUR PLENIERE. On the 16th of August a second arrêt of council was promulgated, avowing the inability of the court to answer the ordinary demands upon the royal treasury; and directing the future payments to be made in the proportion of three-fifths in money, and two-fifths in notes bearing an interest of five per cent. This was regarded as a direct act of bankruptcy; and the clamor, confusion, and consternation, which ensued, were so great, that the archbishop of Toulouse, no longer able to resist the torrent, thought proper to resign his of fice, after an administration of little more than a year, distinguished by its inconsistency, imbecility, and temerity. To console him in his disgrace, he was translated to the rich archiepiscopal see of Sens, and decorated with the Roman purple. The voice of France called aloud for the reinstatement of M. Necker, who was now a second time placed at the head of the finances. The reputation of the new minister operated as a sort of charm. By the adoption of wise measures adapted to the present exigencies, the immediate embarrassments of government were removed. All eyes were now turned to the approaching convocation 1789. 283 of the States General, previous to which a second BOOK convention of the Notables was held (October 5, XXIII. 1788) in order to determine several important questions that had arisen relative to the formation of the assembly of the States. It appeared to be nearly the unanimous opinion of the Notables, that it should be constructed on the model of the last assembly convened in 1614; and a doubt was even suggested whether any power short of that of the States General deliberating in the antient manner, by the established orders of nobles, clergy, and the tiers état, could superinduce upon any material alteration. The Notables were dissolved on the 12th of December, 1788. The final decision of the court was at length made known by a de cree of council, dated 27th of December; by which it was determined, that the number of deputies to the ensuing States General should not fall short of one thousand; that it should be apportioned with all practicable accuracy to the population and financial contributions of the different baillages; and that the representation of the tiers état should be equal to the sum of the representations of the other two orders a concession eagerly desired by the nation, and attended with the most important XXIII. 1789. BOOK Versailles, and the session was opened by a speech from the king, couched in terms of patriotic and paternal regard, such as princes well know upon occasion how to adopt. Although the excessive repugnance of the court to the adoption of this measure had been most notorious, his majesty congratulated the assembly on the arrival of the day. which he had so long panted to see. "The public spirit (said the monarch) is in a ferment, but an assembly of the representatives of the nation will certainly hearken tó no other counsels than those founded on justice and wisdom. Whatever may be expected from the most tender solicitude for the public good, whatever can be asked from a sovereign the sincerest friend of his people, you may, you ought to hope from me." At this period, no doubt, the court was ready to submit to the ne cessity, which it could not but recognise, of making great and permanent concessions for the satisfaction of the nation, and the restoration of the public tranquillity. But to ascribe to the monarch the most distant idea of a voluntary departure from the antient and established prerogatives of sovereignty would be the extreme of weakness. and credulity. The first object of the States was the "verifica tion of their powers." This ceremony the tiers état insisted, to the astonishment of the superior orders, could only take place in a common assem XXIII. 1789. bly, voting not by orders, but by poll. The admis- BOOK sion of this pretension involved in it no less than the absolute subversion of the antient constitution of the States; and it was resisted in the strongest manner by the superior orders, as a flagrant usurpation. On the other hand the tiers état plainly perceived that the antient mode of voting by orders would reduce them, the real representatives of the people, to whom it peculiarly appertained to estab lish freedom in France, to mere cyphers. By an ordonnance passed in the reign of Charles V. surnamed "the Wise," A. D. 1355, the unanimous consent of the three estates was indeed declared to be necessary to make a new law: so that had the people possessed any privileges, this provision might be regarded as the bulwark of the national liberty. But when the people were reduced to a state of bondage, and the object was to establish an equality of rights, it operated strongly and manifestly to their disadvantage. After six weeks of inaction, the tiers etat, at the suggestion of the abbé Sieyes (June 17), took the daring and deci sive step of declaring itself the legislative body, by Assume the appellation of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, and tion of Naproceeded to the verification of their powers. On the 19th of June, the chamber of the clergy passed a resolution, importing their acquiescence in the decision. Alarmed in the highest degree at the situation of affairs, the monarch held on the the appella tional Assembly. |