172 BAILLY. 
tion induced him to accept of a duty that he thought 
above his powers,—he who always depicted himself as 
timid to an extreme, and not possessing a facility of 
speaking. 
Men’s minds were more animated, more ardent in 1789 
than those would admit who always see in the present a 
faithful image of the past. But calumny, that murder- 
ous arm of political party, already respected no position. 
Knowledge, loyalty, virtue, did not suffice to shelter any 
one from its poisoned darts. Bailly experienced it*on 
the very day after his nomination to such an eminent post 
as President of the Communes. 
On the 29th of May, the Communes had voted an 
address to the king on the constantly recurring difficul- 
ties that the nobility opposed to the union of the States 
General in one assembly. In order to carry out this 
most solemn deliberation, Bailly solicited an audience, in 
which the moderate and respectful expression of the anx- 
iety of six hundréd loyal deputies was to be presented to 
the monarch. In the midst of these strifes the Dauphin 
died. Without taking the trouble to consult dates, the 
court party immediately represented Bailly as a stranger 
to the commonest proprieties, and totally deficient in feel- 
ing; he ought, they said, to have respected the most al- 
lowable of griefs ; his importunities had been barbarous. 
I had imagined that such ridiculous accusations were 
no longer thought of; the categorical explanations that 
Bailly himself gave on this topic, seemed to me as if they 
would have sufficed to convince the most prejudiced. I 
was deceived, Gentlemen; the reproach of violence, of 
brutal insensibility, has just been repeated by the pen of 
a clever and a conscientious man. I will give his recital: 
“Scarcely two hours had elapsed since the royal child 
