8 Jeanette Needham. 
The other new point in the assembly’s policy of persistency— 
the decision to print its records’—was an act of almost direct 
defiance to the government which demanded closed sessions 
and which would prevent, as far as possible, the dispersion 
among the people of knowledge of the assembly’s acts. By the 
printing of its records, the national assembly would not only 
give a certain legality and dignity to its stand, but, above all, 
it would acquaint the nation with the actual workings of the 
body. Through this means of direct appeal, there would come 
the opportunity to create popular sentiment in its favor. Such 
a result of its action was highly essential at this time, since 
popular opinion was the only support the assembly could sum- 
mon to uphold its position. Such a support would be vitally 
necessary in case the situation, then pending, was rendered 
critical by the reactionary party about the king. 
The government, on its side, in addition to policing the hall 
within and without, took further steps to impress its policy upon 
the deputies and to gain recognition of its action on June 23 
from the unrecognized national assembly. By two letters, one 
from the grand master-of-ceremonies, M. de Brézé, and another 
from the guard of the seals, Barentin, it sought to emphasize 
officially that which it had been attempting to accomplish by 
means of troops since the morning of June 23, namely, the 
order that the third estate should enter the hall by the door in 
the Rue des Chantiers.2 When the general condition of affairs 
que l’auteur de l’arrété ait défendu cette addition, en citant le privilége des 
communes anglaises, l’avis d’un troisitme membre, que |’addition exigerait 
la sanction royale, a prévalu.”’ 
7 Procés-verbal, No. 6, 1; Point du jour, I, 45. Mr. Baudouin, who was 
named as official printer, had been elected a député suppléant of the third 
estate of Paris. (Brette, Les Constituants, 7.) The order of events differs 
in the two sources. The Procés-verbal has this item immediately atter the 
reading of the two decrees. The Point du jour, on the other hand, places 
the record of this action much farther along, after the officer s report con- 
cerning the troops. This is a good instance of how two independent and 
reliable sources may differ. 
8 Point du jour, 1, 45; Procés-verbai, No. 6, 1; Boullé, Documents inédits, 
Revue de la vév., XIII, 74; Assemblée nationate, I, 212; Bailly, I, 223. The 
first two sources say that two letters were received and read; the other two 
mention only one, that from the grand-master-ot-ceremonies. The Assemblée 
122 
