Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 51 
and suggested that only the first should receive attention by 
the bureaus. Both proposals were adopted by a very large 
majority. The bureaus were notified to meet at six o’clock 
that same evening to examine the first declaration, and to draft 
_ the project of a decree based on the results of their work. The 
chamber adjourned until the next day at nine o’clock.!° 
The nobility showed no haste in approving the king’s declara- 
tions, but that they would accept them was very likely. Sup- 
port of the policy of the third estate by any considerable number 
of the nobility seemed a very remote probability. Nevertheless, 
the important event of the session of the national assembly on 
June 25 was to be the union of the minority of the nobles. 
VII 
That the clergy had once joined the assembly increased the 
probability of its doing so again after June 23, but the adhesion 
of the nobility, even in small part, who had shown little inclina- 
tion toward the third estate seemed to have greater significance, 
occurring, as it did, after the royal session in which everything 
had been done in the interests of the upper classes. Besides the 
nobles, several more of the clergy followed, on June 25, the ex- 
ample of the majority of their order. Some of these, in making 
explanation of their action, merely stated their desire to be 
with the majority; others said they came to end the divisions 
existing among the estates that the objects for which they had 
been convoked might be taken up; and others had joined the 
assembly because of changed instructions. 
The minutes show that immediately after the opening of the 
session four curés appeared, one of whom bore a declaration 
from a fifth... M. Tridon, curé of Rongéres and deputy from the 
sénéchaussée of Moulins, explained, in submitting his credentials, 
that he came because the circumstances were such that the 
estates-general must be held and that it was obligatory upon 
those composing it to adopt any means which would remove 
10 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 263. 
1 Procés-verbal, No. 7, I. 
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