III. 1788. CHAP. arts had a vast effect upon the people, they were entirely lost upon the Notables. Of the six bureaux or divisions into which the assembly was divided, five reported that the convocation and voting should be according to the old form; the remaining one, headed by Monsieur Count of Provence, whose liberal principles were well known, De Stael, supported the double representation. In that bureau, the vote was carried by the casting vote of Monsieur himself, so that but for him the decision of all the bureaux would have been the same.1 1 Lab. ii. 324, 325. i. 170, 171. Th. i. 29. i. 256. 132. duces the King to double the and leave the mode of voting unsettled. The decided resistance of such important bodies as the Necker in parliament of Paris and the Notables of France to the projects of doubling the Tiers Etat, and voting in a single Tiers Etat, chamber, might well have made Necker hesitate in the course which he was pursuing. The Comte d'Artois, the Prince of Condé, and the other princes of the blood, except Monsieur, soon after presented a memorial of great ability to the King, in which the dangers of the proposed innovation are pointed out with surprising force and accuracy, and the consequences foretold precisely as they afterwards occurred.* But nothing could overcome malheureusement pour vous, le Roi vous prend au mot, et que les étatsgénéraux soient convoqués, comment vous en tirerez-vous?-R. Nous chicanerons sur la forme, et nous demanderons la forme de 1614.-Q. Pourquoi cela? -R. Parceque selon cette forme, le Tiers Etat sera représenté par des gens de loi; ce qui nous donnera la prépondérance.” — See Catéchisme du Parlement, 1788; Histoire Parlementaire, i. 254. * "Sire! L'état est en péril. Votre personne est respectée; les vertus du monarque lui assurent les hommages de la nation: mais une révolution se prépare dans les principes du gouvernement; elle est annoncée par la fermentation des esprits. Des institutions réputées sacrées, et par lesquelles cette monarchie a prospéré pendant tant de siècles, sont converties en questions problématiques, ou même décriées comme des injustices. "Les écrits qui ont paru pendant l'assemblée des Notables, les mémoires qui ont été remis aux princes soussignés, les demandes formées par diverses provinces, villes, ou corps; l'objet et le style de ces démandes et de ces mémoires-tout annonce, tout prouve un système d'insubordination raisonnée, et le mépris des lois de l'état. Tout auteur s'érige en législateur: l'éloquence, ou l'art d'écrire, même dépourvu d'études, de connoissances, d'expérience, semblent des titres suffisans pour régler la constitution des empires: quiconque avance une proposition hardie, quiconque propose des changements des lois, est sûr d'avoir des lecteurs et des sectateurs. Tel est le malheureux progrès de cette effervescence que les opinions qui auraient paru il y a quelque temps les plus repré hensibles, paraissent aujourd'hui raisonnables et justes: et ce dont s'indignent III. 1788. 1 Hist. Parl. the infatuation of the Swiss minister; and, unfortunately, CHAP. Louis, judging of others by himself, and ever anxious to do what his people wished, went into his views. On the 27th December 1788 the fatal edict appeared-the Dec. 27. death-warrant of the French monarchy-which declared that "the number of deputies in the States-general shall be at least a thousand that this number shall be made up as nearly as possible in proportion to the population and taxes of each bailiwick: and that the number of deputies of the Tiers Etat shall be equal to that of the two other orders put together: and that proportion shall be established in the letters of convocation." Nothing was said as to i. 235, 236. the form of assembly or voting, whether by order or head.1* aujourd'hui les gens de bien passera dans quelque temps peut-être pour régulier et légitime. Qui peut dire où s'arrêtera la témérité de ses opinions? Déjà les droits du trône sont mis en question: les droits des deux ordres de l'état divisent les opinions; bientôt les droits de propriété seront attaqués ; l'inégalité des fortunes sera présentée comme un objet de reforme; déjà on a proposé la suppression des droits féodaux comme l'abolition d'un systême d'oppression, reste de la barbarie. C'est de ces nouveaux systêmes, c'est du projet de changer les droits et les lois, qu'est sortie la prétention qu'annoncent quelques corps du Tiers Etat d'obtenir pour cet ordre deux suffrages aux états-généraux, tandis qui chacun des deux premiers ordres continuerait à n'en avoir qu'un seul. Les princes soussignés ne peuvent dissimuler l'effroi que leur inspirerait pour l'état le succès des prétentions du Tiers Etat, et les funestes conséquences de la révolution proposée dans la constitution des Etats; ils y découvrent un triste avenir. Le Tiers Etat, averti par ce premier succès, ne serait pas disposé à se contenter d'une concession sans objet et sans intérêt réel, tant que le nombre de députés serait augmenté sans que le nombre des suffrages fut changé. Plusieurs bureaux, ont exposé l'injustice et le danger d'une innovation dans la composition des états-généraux, ou dans la forme de les convoquer la foule des prétentions qui en résulteraient; la facilité, si les voix étaient comptées par tête et sans distinction d'ordres, de compromettre, par la séduction de quelques membres des autres ordres, les intérêts de ces ordres, et la destruction de l'équilibre si sagement établi entre les trois ordres, et la ruine éventuelle du Tiers Etat même."-Mémoire de M. Le Comte D'Artois, le Prince de Condé, le Prince de Bourbon, et le Prince de Conti; Dec. 1, 1788. Histoire Parlementaire de France, i. 256, 260. This memoir is history traced out with prophetic hand by anticipation; but it passed at the time among the whole philosophers, and, of course, in all the popular societies, as mere drivelling the prejudices of a worn-out, ignorant, and corrupted aristocracy. * The following table exhibits the progressive change in the number of the different orders at different periods of French history: There was no fixed proportion, the royal edict summoning them having in CHAP. III. 1788. 133. Necker's this step. Nothing can be more instructive than to see the arguments by which Necker supported this great and decisive addition to the popular influence. He rested his opinion on the unanimity expressed on this point in all the reasons for petitions to the King from the towns and municipalities of the kingdom, on the general concurrence of the writers who had published their opinions, and on the recent decisions of the majority of the parliaments. "All hope," said he," of a successful issue would be lost, if it were made to depend on establishing harmony between three orders essentially at variance in their principles and interest. To put an end to the injustice of pecuniary privileges, and maintain a proper equilibrium between the Tiers Etat and the other orders, we must give it a double representation; without that there would always be a majority of two to one against it: whereas, when all are compelled to look to the common interest, they will only adopt the laws which impose the least burden upon the community, and will thus compel the Tiers Etat to accept the impost which at present they deem most onerous. We ascribe too much importance to this last order. The Tiers Etat, by their nature and their occupations, must ever 1 Mem. de be strangers to political passions. Their intelligence and goodness of disposition are a sufficient guarantee against all the apprehensions at present entertained of their excesses."1 Necker, given in Lab. ii. 326, 327. 134. Elections, and extraordinary negligence The elections commenced soon after, and, as might have been expected with a conceding government and an inflamed people, almost all terminated in favour of the with which popular party. They were carelessly conducted by the constituted authorities. The crown made no attempt to influence the returns, the nobility little; the importance of attending to the qualifications of those who exercised the elective franchise was not understood; and, after a they were conducted. each instance fixed the relative numbers. But the Tiers Etat, in general, sent about two-thirds, or somewhat more, of the other two orders taken together.MONTGAILLARD, i. 435, 436. CHAP. III. 1788. few days, every person decently dressed was allowed to vote without any questions being asked. Upwards of three millions of electors concurred in the formation of the Assembly, being more than triple the number which, with the same population, now forms the constituency of the united parliament of Great Britain. The parliaments had little influence in the choice of the deputies, the court none; the noblesse elected a few liberal persons of their rank, but the great bulk of their representatives were firmly attached to the interests of their order, and as hostile to the Tiers Etat as to the oligarchy of great families which composed the court. The inferior clergy named deputies attached to the cause of freedom, and the bishops those likely to uphold the hierarchy. Finally, the Tiers Etat chose a numerous body of representatives, firm Dumont, 57. in their attachment to liberty, and ardently desirous of extending the influence of their order.1 1 Th. i. 26. 135. distress in winter of Every thing contributed at this period to swell the torrent of popular enthusiasm. The minds of men, Dreadful strongly agitated by the idea of an approaching revolu- Paris in the tion, were in a continual ferment; the parliaments, nobles, 1788-9. and dignified clergy, who had headed the movement, already saw themselves assailed by the arms which they had given to the people. No words can convey an idea of the transports which seized the public mind at the prospect of the regeneration of society. The pamphlets swelled from hundreds to thousands; every hall in Paris was filled with popular meetings and debating clubs, where the most extravagant levelling doctrines were most loudly applauded; the journals daily added to the universal enthusiasm. No bounds, it was thought, could be set to the general felicity which was approaching, by the admission of the people into the practical direction of affairs. Even the elements contributed to swell the public effervescence, and seemed to have declared war on the falling monarchy. A dreadful storm of hail, in July 1788, laid waste the provinces, and produced such a diminution in CHAP. III. 1788. 1 Th. i. 36, 37. Lac. vi. 6,7. Pr. Hist. i. 290, 291. 136. Disturbances in Brittany and Pro vence. the harvest as threatened all the horrors of famine; while the severity of the succeeding winter exceeded any thing that had been experienced since that which followed the disasters of Louis XIV. The monetary crisis which had taken place in August 1788, in consequence of the edicts relative to the payments of the rentes two-fifths in paper, augmented to a very great degree the general distress. The charity of Fénélon, which immortalised the former disastrous epoch, was now equalled by the humane beneficence of the clergy of Paris; but all their efforts could not embrace the immense mass of indigence, which was swelled by the confluence of dissolute and abandoned characters from every part of France. These wretches assembled round the throne, like the sea-birds round the wreck, which are the harbingers of death to the sinking mariner, and already appeared in fearful numbers in the streets on occasion of the slightest tumult. They were all in a state of destitution, and for the most part owed their lives to the charity of the ecclesiastics, whom they afterwards massacred in cold blood in the prison of Carmes.1 Disturbances of a very serious kind soon after broke out in Brittany, already the seat of so vehement a fermentation, on occasion of the contests with the parliaments. But it strangely contrasted in principle and object with the previous convulsion. Already over all France, the parliaments, terrified at the work of their own hands, and anticipating their own speedy extinction in the superior majesty and power of the States-general, were desirous of pausing in their career, or even retracing their steps. But it was too late. They had sown the wind, and must reap the whirlwind. Divisions had broken out in Brittany between the noblesse and the Tiers Etat, immediately after their united victory over Brienne and the throne; the latter contended for the abolition of a hearth-tax from which the former enjoyed exemption, and the collection of which was often attended with vexation. The |