172 BAILLT. 



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 hundred 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 



