CHAP. IV. 1789. 54. Resolutions tional As claring all if they were dissolved. June 17. to fulfil with zeal and fidelity the duties with which we are charged." Next they passed resolutions to the following effect,-"The National Assembly declares and decrees, that all taxes or imposts levied without its express, formal, and of the Na- free concurrence, shall instantly cease over the whole sembly, de- kingdom, on the day on which this Assembly is dissolved; taxes illegal in the mean time, all imposts and contributions, how illegal soever in their origin, shall continue to be levied until the day of its separation. As soon as it shall, with the concurrence of his majesty, fix the principles of the national regeneration, it will devote itself to the consolidation of the public debt-putting from this moment the whole creditors of the state under the safeguard of the honour and loyalty of the French nation. In fine, the Assembly, now become active, declares that it will without delay proceed to the consideration of the causes which have produced the present scarcity which afflicts the nation, and the investigation of the most efficacious means for its removal; for which purpose a committee shall be instantly appointed." These resolutions, so well calculated to meet the wishes of the great body of the i. 471, 472. public, were ordered to be printed, and sent into all the provinces.1 1 Parl. Hist. 55. Immense enthusiasm on these events. The able leaders of the Revolution knew human nature well when they passed these resolutions. On the one over France hand, by declaring all imposts of every description illegal from the moment of their own dissolution, they took the most effectual means that could be devised to prevent such an event; for it was evident that, in the present vehemently excited state of the public mind, the breaking up of the Assembly, with such a resolution standing on their journals, would be immediately followed by a general refusal to pay taxes, and consequent cutting off of the royal revenue, over the whole kingdom. On the other hand, the resolutions in favour of public creditors, and for the immediate investigation of the causes of the scarcity, held out the prospect of security to the former of these دو IV. 1789. important bodies, and that of relief to the immense multitudes who were suffering from the latter. No language, accordingly, can describe the enthusiasm which these decisive measures awakened over all France. Tears of joy were shed when the intelligence was received in the provinces. "A single day," it was said, "has destroyed eight hundred years of prejudice and slavery. The nation has recovered its rights, and reason resumed its sway." But the more thoughtful trembled at the consequences of such gigantic steps. "Not only," said they, "are the noblesse and the clergy set aside, usage disregarded, rights abolished, but the authority of the throne itself is undermined. In England, a balance is preserved between the ii. 215. three estates; but here the National Assembly has swallowed up every thing."1* 1 Riv. 18. Lab. iii. 64, 65. Droz, 56. ment of the of the unpo And now began a system hardly less ruinous in the end than the flagrant usurpation of the whole powers of the Commencestate, which the Tiers Etat had just committed. This was persecution the practice of publishing lists of the deputies who had pular depuvoted against the popular side, and exposing them to the ties. indignation or vengeance of the people. On the very next day after the decisive vote on the title of the Assembly, the names of the ninety constituting the minority were placarded at the Palais Royal and in the clubs, and the most extravagant falsehoods put forward to increase the excitement which prevailed. The multitude were every where told that the minority had voted against any constitution; and to such lengths did the calumnies go, and so completely were the people worked up, that little was wanting to make them burn the houses of the unpopular deputies. Mirabeau, aware of what was going on, took * Mirabeau, at this crisis, wrote to his friend Major Mauvillon in Prussia"If, as I cannot anticipate, the King gives his sanction to the new title which we have assumed, it will be evident that the deputies of the Tiers Etat have played away the monarchy at a game of hazard. Nothing can be clearer than that we are not ripe. The excessive folly, the fearful disorder of government, have made the Revolution red-hot: it has outstripped both our knowledge and our habits." MIRABEAU to MAJOR MAUVILLON, June 19, 1787; Lettres de Mirabeau à ses amis en Allemagne, 469. CHAP. IV. 1789. care not to be present at the final division, so that his name did not appear in the obnoxious list; and his friends appeased the people by telling them that he had voted on the right side. The multitude, ever carried away by the exhibition of a courage which they feel themselves incapable of imitating, were intoxicated with admiration of 1 Droz, ii. the majority of the Assembly, and vowed vengeance on all sides against the minority of traitors and aristocrats who had dared to oppose them.1 215. Lab. iii. 66. 57. Measures of the noblesse. June 18. The aristocratic party were thunderstruck by this measure, but they possessed neither power nor capacity sufficient to counteract its influence. The Marquis de Montesquiou proposed what appeared the only rational course, which was, that to counterbalance this stretch of power by the commons, the nobles and clergy should address the King to constitute them into an Upper Chamber; but they wanted resolution, or were too blinded by passion to adopt it. It was with difficulty he could bring his speech to a conclusion, so frequent and vehement were the clamours with which he was assailed. In truth, the proposal itself was, in the circumstances of the two Upper Chambers, fraught with difficulty, if not danger. Vengeance on the rebellious commons was what the more vigorous breathed: the prudent, with reason, dreaded the infusion into their order of the numerous democratic curés in the order of the clergy. The number of the clergy attached to the Revolution was so great that it was doubtful how the majority would stand, if they were united with the noblesse in a single chamber. The Duke of Luxembourg, the Cardinal Rochefoucauld, and the Archbishop of Paris, besought the King to adopt energetic measures, and support their orders against the usurpation of the commons; and the nobility by a large majority Parl. Hist. passed a solemn and most vigorous resolution to that effect, 39. Th. in the form of a protest, which was laid before the King. vii. 39. But it was all in vain. The majority of the nobles indeed i. 464. Mig. i. 60. Lac. were resolute, but the court was vacillating.2 Decision in action belonged only to the commons, who had the advantage of depending on their own will alone, and they, in consequence, speedily obtained the whole power of the state.* CHAP. IV. 1789. 58. the subject Debates on ber of the June 19. But though the nobles were thus resolute to resist the usurpation of the commons, a very different spectacle was exhibited in the chamber of the clergy. The numerous in the chambody of the curés in that assembly, who sympathised, clergy; both from interest and inclination, with the commons, made the most strenuous efforts to induce their order to take part with the Tiers Etat. The debate lasted eight days. The Abbé Maury poured forth, in prophetic and eloquent strains, the loudest denunciations of danger and ruin, alike to the throne and the altar, if the usurpations of the commons were not arrested. But all his efforts, and all the influence of the prelates and higher orders of the clergy, were unable to preserve the curés and lower ecclesiastics from being carried away by the torrent of democracy. On the roll being called, one hundred and thirtyseven voted for the motion of the Archbishop of Paris, which was, that they should verify their powers in their own Chamber-one hundred and twenty-nine for the * The address of the nobles on this occasion stated,—“The spirit of innovation threatens the fundamental laws of the constitution. The order of the noblesse have observed the law and former usage; they respectfully solicit the same observance from others. Your majesty has suggested, by your ministers, a plan of conciliation; the order of noblesse have adopted it, with the reservation of the principles with which it is imbued-it has presented its resolution to your majesty, and deposited it in your hands. The deputies of the order of the Tiers Etat conceive that they can concentrate in their own hands the whole powers of the States-general, without awaiting either the concurrence of the other orders or the sanction of your majesty; they have arrogated to themselves the power of converting their decrees into laws; they have ordered them to be printed and sent to all the provinces; they have, by a single decree, destroyed the whole taxes, and revived them for a period fixed by themselves, of their single authority, without the concurrence of the King or the other orders. It is in the hands of your majesty that we deposit our protests, and we have no warmer desire than to concur with you in measures for the general good. If the rights which we maintain were personal to ourselves, we should have less confidence in maintaining them: but the interests we defend are common to your majesty with ourselves; they are the bulwarks of the Tiers Etat themselves in a word, of the whole French people." - Protestation de la Noblesse, 19 Jan. 1789; Hist. Parl. ii. 476, 478. IV. 1789. CHAP. verification in common, and nine for the same measure, but with the restriction, that they should dispose of the matter of the powers themselves in the common hall. The dignified clergy, upon this result being announced, clapped their hands, and exclaimed that they had the majority. But their triumph was of short duration. The minority of one hundred and twenty-nine now proposed to the nine dissentients, that they should acquiesce in their proposal of a simple and unqualified verification in common; and upon the latter refusing, they all declared in one voice that they would accept the reservations, and that they now had the majority, which was certainly true, of ONE. On this the Archbishop of Paris, and the whole prelates who had voted with them, declared that the matter had been settled by the previous decision in their favour; and rising from their seats withdrew, without having closed the meeting or adopted any resolution. The majority of one hundred and thirty-eight, however, remained; and, others having come in before the roll was again called, their number was ultimately swelled to a hundred and forty-nine, which was published the same night to the capital, and received with unbounded transports. Thus was the decisive vote in the clergy, as well as that in the Tiers Etat, carried in favour of the Revolu209. Hist. tion by a majority of one-an extraordinary coincidence, when it is recollected that the same majority brought in the Reform Bill in Great Britain.1 1 Deux Amis, i. 208, Parl. i. 475, 476. 59. Necker's measures in this crisis. Great was the consternation of M. Necker at these decisive events, which so clearly demonstrated that he had lost the control of the movement, and that his power of directing the tempest he had had so large a share in conjuring up was at an end. Such was his vanity, and ignorance of the nature of a popular insurrection, that he flattered himself to the very last with the idea that the commons, out of gratitude to him for the duplication of their numbers, would prove entirely submissive to his will, and that they would willingly acquiesce in any arrange |