3 1 2 Travels in France 



Monsieur Decretot, the celebrated manufacturer and deputy, 

 from Louviers. At the National Assembly— The Count de 

 Mirabeau speaking upon the question of the members of the 

 chamber of vacation, in the parliament of Rennes, was truly 

 eloquent, — ardent, lively, energic, and impetuous. At night to 

 the assembly of the Duchess d'Anville; the Marquis and Madame 

 Condorcet there, etc., not a word but politics. 



loth. The chief leaders in the National Assembly are Target, 

 Chapellier, Mirabeau, Bernave, Volney the traveller, and, till the 

 attack upon the property of the clergy, I'Abbe Syeyes; but he 

 has been so much disgusted by that step that he is not near so 

 forward as before. The violent democrats, who have the reputa- 

 tion of being so much republican in principle that they do not 

 admit any political necessity for having even the name of a king, 

 are called the enrages. They have a meeting at the Jacobins, 

 called the revolution club, which assembles every night in the 

 very room in which the famous league was formed in the reign of 

 Henry III.; and they are so numerous that all material business 

 is there decided before it is discussed by the National Assembly. 

 I called this morning on several persons, all of whom are great 

 democrats; and mentioning this circumstance to them, as one 

 which favoured too much of a Paris junto governing the kingdom, 

 an idea which must, in the long run, be unpopular and hazardous; 

 I was answered that the predominancy which Paris assumed at 

 present was absolutely necessary for the safety of the whole 

 nation; for if nothing were done but by procuring a previous 

 common consent, all great opportunities would be lost and the 

 National Assembly left constantly exposed to the danger of 

 a counter-revolution. They, however, admitted that it did 

 create great jealousies, and nowhere more than at Versailles, 

 where some plots (they added) are, without doubt, hatching at 

 this moment, which have the king's person for their object: riots 

 are frequent there, under pretence of the price of bread; and 

 such movements are certainly very dangerous for they cannot 

 exist so near Paris without the aristocratical party of the old 

 government endeavouring to take advantage of them, and to 

 turn them to a very different end from what was, perhaps, 

 originally intended. I remarked, in all these conversations, that 

 the belief of plots among the disgusted party for setting the king 

 at liberty is general; they seem almost persuaded that the 

 revolution will not be absolutely finished before some such 

 attempts are made ; and it is curious to observe that the general 

 voice is, that if an attempt were to be made, in such a manner as 



