NAMED FIRST DEPUTY OF PARIS. 169 



impossible to defend both opinions. The early pages of 

 the pamphlet might appear embarrassed and obscure, 

 whilst in the rest there might be found great refinement, 

 elegance, and appreciations full of taste. 



ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES. BAILLY IS NAMED FIRST 



DEPUTY OF PARIS ; AND SOON AFTER DEAN OR SEN- 

 IOR OF THE DEPUTIES OF THE COMMUNES. 



The Assembly of the Notables had no other effect than 

 to show in a stronger light the disorder of the finances, 

 and the other wounds that were galling France. It was 

 then that the Parliament of Paris asked for the convoca- 

 tion of the States General. This demand was unfavour- 

 ably received by Cardinal de Brienne. Soon afterwards 

 the convocation became a necessity, and Necker, now in 

 the ministry, announced, in the month of November, 

 1788. that it was decreed in Council, and that the king 



' O 



had even granted to the third estate a double represen- 

 tation, which had been so imprudently disputed by the 

 courtiers. 



The districts were formed, on the king's convocation, 

 the 21st of April, 1789. That day was the first day of 

 Bailly's political life. It was on the 21st of April that 

 the Citizen of Chaillot, entering the Hall of the Feuil- 

 lants, imagined, he said, that " he breathed a new atmos- 

 phere," and regarded " as a phenomenon that he should 

 have become something in the body -politic, merely from 

 his being a citizen." 



The elections were to be made in two gradations. 

 Bailly was named first elector of his district. A few 

 days after, at the general meeting, the Assembly called 

 him to the Board in quality of secretary. Thus it was 

 our fellow-academician who, in the beginning, drew up 



