RESIGNS THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR. 177 



ate, that Mirabeau addressed from his place the well- 

 known apostrophe to M. de Breze. The President 

 disapproved both of the basis and the form of it ; he 

 felt that there was no sufficient motive ; for, said he, the 

 Grand Master of the Ceremonies made use of no menace ; 

 he had not in any way insinuated that there was an in- 

 tention to resort to force ; he had not, above all, spoken 

 of bayonets. At all events, there is an essential differ- 

 ence between the words of Mirabeau as related in almost 

 all the Histories of the Revolution, and those reported 

 by Bailly. According to our illustrious colleague the 

 impetuous tribune exclaimed, " Go tell those who sent 

 you, that the force of bayonets can do nothing against 

 the will of the nation." This is, to my mind, much 

 more energetic than the common version. The expres- 

 sion, " We will only retire by the force of bayonets ! " 

 had alwaj'S appeared to me, notwithstanding the admira- 

 tion conceded to it, to imply only a resistance which 

 would cease on the arrival of a corporal and half-a-dozen 

 soldiers. 



Bailly quitted the chair of President of the National 

 Assembly on the 2d of July. His scientific celebrity, 

 his virtue, his conciliating spirit, had not been superfluous 

 in habituating certain men to see a member of the Com- 

 munes preside over an assembly in which there was a 

 prince of the blood, a prince of the church, the greatest 

 lords of the kingdom, and all the high dignitaries of the 

 clergy. The first person named to succeed to Bailly was 

 the Duke d'Orleans. After his refusal, the Assembly 

 chose the Archbishop of Vienne (Pompignan). 



Bailly recalls to mind with sensibility, in his memoirs, 

 the testimonies of esteem that he obtained through his 



difficult and laborious presidency. The 3d of July, on 



8* 



