38] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
apprehend ; and a fecond explofion 
like that of the Baftile feemed al- 
readv in view. The king’s veto 
was, however, the prefent oftenfible 
caufe of tumult. If that was al- 
lowed, the clergy and nobles, they 
cried, will renew all their power; 
—** We mutt att, and inftantly too, 
« elfe, in three days, France will 
« be enflaved.”” In the height of 
this ferment, two violent refolutions, 
which were’ tranfmitted from the 
towns of Rennes and Dinant, pro- 
duced a fimilar effet to what a 
large quantity of oil poured upon a 
fire already raging might have 
done. . 
In this ftate of things the king, 
ever difpofed to accommodate and 
conciliate, in the hope of reftoring 
quiet, and if poffible of eftablifh- 
ing good temper, determined to 
foften matters with refpect to the 
veto; a conceffion which came the 
better from him, as the affembly 
were involved in a fort of a dilem- 
ma from their own paft declaration, 
that his fanétion was neceflary to 
the pafling of laws, fo that they 
could not with any propriety pro- 
ceed to thofe extremities on the 
fubje&, which the moft violent of 
the republican party wifhed. Neck- 
ar was accordingly difpatched to 
the affembly with a memoire, pro- 
pofing a veto which fhould only 
have the power of fufpending laws 
during one or two legiflatures. ‘This 
was received with evident fatisfac- 
tion, excepting by fome of the moft 
violent of thofe who fupported (not 
the king, but) the fovereignty, 
who would not admit any modifica- 
tion of the vero, and infifted that he 
had been ill advifed by his minifters 
in propofing the conceffion. They 
being, however, over-ruled, it was 
at length agreed, that the king 
fhould have the power to fufpend 2 
law during two legiflatures; but, 
that if the third aflembly perfifted 
in it, he fhould then be obliged to 
give his fanétion. ba 
It was a curious circumftance in 
Mirabeau’s conduét, that while he 
fupported the royal veto with the 
utmoft vehemence of his character, | 
and that one of the beft fpeeches 
he ever made was upon that ground, © 
his emiflaries in Paris were in- 
ftru€ted to perfuade the people that 
he oppofed it with all his might; 
and to fupport the delufion, he took 
care to quit the affembly juft before 
the divifion, that his vote might not 
appear as a record againtft it. 
Another bufinefs of not lefs im- 
portance underwent at the fame time 
a courfe of long and great difcuffion. 
This was, “whether the national — 
“«< aflembly fhould be compofed of 
“one or two chambers?” The 
committee of conftitution had al- 
ready given their opinion upon this 
fubjeét, by recommending a fenate 
and a houfe of reprefentatives, each _ 
of which fhould poffefs a negative 
upon the proceedings of the other. 
This, or fomething like it, bearing © 
fome refemblance to the Britifh 
conftitution, was, as we have for- 
merly feen, the favourite fcheme 
with Lally, Clermont, and the — 
other leaders of the moderate 
party, who, equally zealous with 
the republicans, for the eftablifh- | 
ment of a free government, confi- — 
dered a limited monarchy, with a | 
conftitution fo formed as that the — 
principal parts fhould opesate as — 
mutual and perpetual checks upon 
each other, as affording the faireft 
profpect for the attainment and per- — 
manence of that objet. 
It may be eafily underftood, that — 
the party who now held all power 
exclulively 
