“ 
2 oe 
ae) eg QUITS THE MAYORALTY. 211 
indicate them, when the march of events leads us, in 
following our unfortunate colleague, to the revolutionary 
tribunal. 
BAILLY QUITS THE MAYORALTY THE 12TH OF NOVEM- 
BER, 1791.—THE ESCHEVINS.—EXAMINATION OF 
THE REPROACHES THAT MIGHT BE ADDRESSED 
TO THE MAYOR. 
T resume the biography of Bailly at the time when he 
quitted the Hétel de Ville after a magistracy of about 
two years. 
On the 12th November, 1791, Bailly convoked the 
Council of the Commune, rendered an account of his 
administration, solemnly entreated those who thought 
themselves entitled to complain of him, to say so without 
reserve; so resolved was he to bow to any legitimate 
complaints; installed his successor Pétion, and retired. 
This separation did not lead to any of those heartfelt 
demonstrations from the co-labourers of the late Mayor, 
which are the true and the sweetest recompense to a 
good man. 
I have sought for the hidden cause of such a constant 
and undisguised hostility towards the first Mayor of Paris. 
I asked myself first, whether the magistrate’s manners 
had possibly excited the susceptibilities of the Eschevins.* 
The answer is decidedly in the negative. Bailly showed 
in all the relations of life a degree of patience, a suavity, 
a deference to the opinions of others, that would have 
soothed the most irascible selflove. 
Must we suspect jealousy to have been at work? No, 
no; the persons who constituted the town-council were 
* Eschevin was a sort of town-councilman, peculiar to Paris and to 
Rotterdam, acting under a mayor. 
