74 Jeanette Needham. 
tion would not have been received had the national assembly 
been in session.” . 
Rebuffed in their attempt to secure recognition of their 
position from the national assembly, the clergy devoted the 
remainder of the session to the question of pecuniary privileges. 
The promoteur seems to have put the matter before the house. 
The minutes of the minority state that it was their desire to 
take up the question of the abandonment of their pecuniary 
privileges, just as soon as the chamber of the clergy had been 
constituted. Evidently because time did not permit such action 
that day, the clergy agreed to make the consideration of their 
financial privileges one of the first matters of business on June 
26.4%. By supporting the king in his efforts to relieve the financial 
embarrassment of the government, they might count upon his 
aid in other affairs of special interest to the clergy 
IX 
The first declaration of the king received a much more thorough 
examination from the nobility on June 25 than from the clergy. 
As soon as the minutes of the previous meeting were read, the 
reports of the ten bureaus upon the first declaration were made, 
members selected from each bureau giving accounts of the 
results of the examination and presenting the decrees drafted 
in each bureau.! 
It was at this stage in the report from the bureaus, that the 
nobility learned that a group of their members had deserted the 
order. The president had just received the letter signed by 
12 Barmond, Récit, 272-273; Duquesnoy, I, 131; Coster, Récit, 343 June 
26. As indicated above, Coster tells this incident on June 26, as referring to 
the decree concerning pecuniary privileges. Bailly himself had forgotten 
this incident when he wrote his Mémoires in 1792, but (V. I, 246) he makes 
this reference to the matter: ‘‘ Le Journal de Versailles dit, nombre 7, suppl., 
p. 49, que, la séance de ce jour étant levée, le courrier du clergé vint annoncer 
une députation des membres restés dans sa chambre. II lui fut répondu que 
la séance était levée; mais que d’ailleurs, le clergé étant dans l’assemblée on 
n’avait aucune députation a recevoir de cet ordre. Je n’ai point mémoire de 
ce fait.” 
13 Barmond, Récit, 273. 
1 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 264. 
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