Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 73 
Before deputations were despatched to the other orders, the 
courriers of the clergy was sent to notify them of the action to 
be taken. The nobility expressed its readiness to receive the 
delegation which was sent at once. It was composed of the 
Bishops of Lugon and Nimes with Villebanois, Maury, Coster 
and Martinet, who soon returned to report concerning their 
reception and the reply of the president of the nobility. The 
latter assured them that the nobility ever recognized in the 
deliberations of the order of the clergy, the wisdom which char- 
acterized that body, and the principles upon which rested the 
happiness and stability of the empire." 
At this point,. the courrier returned from the third estate and 
explained that the order had adjourned, but that he had seen 
the dean, Bailly, who told him, as already noted, that the deputa- 
ll Barmond, Récit, 272; Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 268-269. The 
Récit states that six were selected to carry the decrees to the nobility, namely, 
the Bishops of Lugon and Nimes, with Villebanois, Coster, Maury, and 
Martinet, but the record of the nobility gives the names of eight. These are 
the Bishop of Augouléme, the Bishops of Lugon and six abbés, namely, Damas, 
Maury, Villebanois, Le Pelletier, Coster, and Martinet. The speech made 
by its president is not given in the record of the nobility. 
Apropos of this deputation, it is well to give an incident by Coster con- 
cerning his connection with it. He records it in his account of the session 
of June 26, saying that the decree in question was that on pecuniary privileges 
and states that the third estate refused to receive the deputation. Evidently 
he is in error, for there is no record in the Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse of 
the sending of such a delegation to them by the clergy nor is the refusal to 
receive it found in the accounts of the national assembly. It was a deputation 
with the clergy’s decree of June 25 which the third estate refused to receive. 
The incident touching his appointment on the committee reveals his idea 
of his own importance and also his implacable hostility toward the third 
estate. He says the president named him a member of the deputation to 
the third estate. At this, he rose in protest: ‘‘ Qu’il n’avait encore été nommé 
d’aucune députation; que cependant il avait l’honneur l’appartenir 4 une 
classe de députés, la premiére aprés les évéques, savoir les archidiacres, dig- 
nitaires des églises cathédrales; qu’il avait eu l’honneur d’en faire l’observation 
a M. le Cardinal, il y a avait plus d’un mois; que M. de Cardinal n’y avait 
fait aucune attention, et qu’il le nommait aujourd’hui, pour la premiere fois, 
a une députation peu honorable; qu’l ne voulait pas faire son apprentissage 
par une pareille commission, et le président eut égard a ces rémontrances, l’6ta 
de la députation du tiers pour le mettre de celle de la noblesse.” 
187 
