50 Jeanette Needham. 
people. You will thus add to the title, which you already have, 
to their attachment and consideration.’”® 
It was highly appropriate, that, at the end of this report, 
the president should have laid on the table the king’s discourses — 
and declarations, sent as true copies by M. Laurent de Villedeuil, 
secretary of state.6 Doubtless, these had been in part the product 
of the influence of the nobility. They were read to the chamber,’ 
but before any action upon them occurred, the committee of 
verification reported favorably upon the credentials of two 
members, the Chevalier de Chalon from the sénéchaussée of 
Castelmoron and the Comte de Panetier, from the sénéchaussée 
of Couserans, both of whom were granted a seat.® 
Just what occurred next is not clear from the minutes of the 
nobility, but the proposal evidently had to do with the king’s 
declaration. One of the deputies made a motion, said to have 
been strongly supported by one of his co-deputies, both asserting 
that the proposal was a necessary consequence of the king’s 
first declaration. Unfortunately the text of the motion is not | 
given, but several deputies maintained that it was wholly 
foreign to the declaration. After some discussion, the previous 
question was called for, to ascertain whether it was necessary 
to deliberate upon the motion at this time. By the ensuing 
vote, 193 to 58, the motion was shelved,® and the assembly 
returned to the examination of the declaration. | 
To facilitate this work, a deputy proposed to submit the 
preliminary examination to the ten bureaus into which the _ 
chamber was already divided, that the assembly might be aided 
in deciding more promptly upon the action to be taken relative 
to the declarations. Another deputy pointed out that the 
second declaration, which simply gave notice of the king’s 
beneficent intentions, did not require immediate consideration, — 
prs ia rm a 
CO RPGR eT ir, wg i had Re 
sl “89D 
5 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 251; Elats-généraux, Extrait du journal 
de Paris, I, 93-94. The sentiments expressed are similar, in many respects 
to those found in the concluding paragraphs of the first discourse delivered on 
June 23, by the king. 
6 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 251-252. 
7 Tbtd., 252. 
8 Ibid., 262. 
9 ITbid., 262-263. 
164 
