170 BAILLY. 
the celebrated procés-verbal of the meetings of the elec- 
tors of Paris, so often quoted by the historians of the 
revolution. 
Bailly also took an active part in drawing up the rec- 
ords of his district, and the records of the body of elec- 
tors. The part he acted in these two capacities: could 
not be doubtful, if we judge of it by the three following 
short quotations extracted from his memoirs: “'The na- 
tion must remember that she is sovereign and mistress to 
order every thing..... It is not when reason awakes, 
that we should allege ancient privileges and absurd pre- 
judices..... I shall praise the electors of Paris who 
were the first to conceive the idea of prefacing the 
French Constitution with a declaration of the Rights of 
Man.” 
Bailly had always been so extremely reserved in his 
conduct and in his writings, that it was difficult to sur- 
mise under what point of view he would consider the 
national agitation of *89. Hence, at the very begin- 
ning, the Abbé Maury, of the French Academy, pro- 
posed to unite himself to Bailly, and that they should 
reside at Versailles, and have an apartment in common 
between them. It is difficult to avoid a smile when one 
compares the conduct of the eloquent and impetuous 
Abbé with the categorical declarations, so distinct and so 
progressive, of the learned astronomer. 
On Tuesday, the 12th of May, the general assembly 
of the electors proceeded to ballot for the nomination of 
the first deputy of Paris. Bailly was chosen. 
This nomination is often quoted as a proof of the high 
intelligence, and of the wisdom of our fathers, two quali- 
ties which, since that epoch, must have been constantly 
on the decline, if we are to believe the blind Pessimists. 
