SENIOR DEPUTY OF THE COMMUNES. 171 



Such an accusation imposed on me the duty of carrying 

 the appreciation of this wisdom, of this intelligence that 

 is held up against us, even to numerical correctness. The 

 following is the result: the majority of the votes was 

 159 ; Bailly obtained 173 ; this was fourteen more than 

 he required. If fourteen votes had changed sides the 

 result would have been different. Was this an incident, 

 I ask, to exclaim so much against? 



Bailly showed himself deeply affected by this mark of 

 the confidence with which he was regarded. His sensi 

 bility, his gratitude, did not prevent him, however, from 

 recording in his memoirs the following naive observation : 

 &quot; I observed in the Assembly of the Electors a great dis 

 like for literary men, and for the academicians.&quot;* 



I recommend this remark to all studious men who, by 

 circumstances or by a sense of duty, may be thrown into 

 the whirlpool of politics. Perhaps I may yield to the 

 temptation of developing it, when I shall have to charac 

 terize Bailly s connection with his co-laborers in the first 

 municipality of Paris. 



The great question on the verification of the powers 

 was already strongly agitated, the day that Bailly and 

 the other Deputies of Paris for the first time were able 

 to go to Versailles ; our academician had only spoken 

 once in that majestic assembly, viz : to induce the adop 

 tion of the method of voting by members being seated or 

 standing, when, on the 3d of June, he was named Sen 

 ior of the Deputies of the Communes (or Commons). 

 Formerly, the right of presiding in the third house of 

 the kingdom belonged to the provost of the merchants. 

 Bailly iix his diffidence thought that the assembly, in as 

 signing the chair to him, had wished to compensate the 

 capital for the loss of an old privilege. This considera- 



