Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 75 
the thirty-seven and he interrupted the session immediately to 
read it to the chamber, but there is no evidence that any further 
notice was taken of the communication.2, The matter before 
the house, the decrees of the different bureaus, again engaged 
their attention. In the meantime, some one had taken steps 
to put these projects into form for presentation. Noting their 
strong similarity, a deputy drafted a decree which embraced 
practically all the ideas of the ten individual proposals. This 
decree was then read to the assembly.* 
It dealt at some length with the reasons for the nobility’s 
acceptance of the declaration. In explanation of their motives, 
it said: ‘‘The order of the nobility, eager to give to the king 
some proof of its fidelity and its respect; moved by the perse- 
vering pains which His Majesty has deigned to take to bring 
the orders to a desirable conciliation; considering how important 
it is for the nation to profit without delay from the great benefit 
of the constitution, indicated in the second declaration of the 
intentions of the king, read at the session of the 23d of this 
month; urged, also by its desire to be able to consolidate the 
public debt, and to realize the abandonment of its pecuniary 
privileges as soon as the re-establishment of the constitutional 
bases will permit it to deliberate upon these two objects, to which 
the nobility attaches national honor as well as the dearest wish 
of its constituents; without being bound by the form of the 
aforesaid session, valid for the present session of the estates- 
general only, and without establishing any precedent for the 
future;’’—these were the considerations which led the chamber 
to accept ‘‘purely and simply the propositions contained in the 
first declaration of the king read at the session of June 23.” 
It is significant to note that both the upper orders were seeking a 
rapprochement with the king on the basis of renouncing some of 
2 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 264-265. The contents of the letter are 
given above in the account of the reception of the nobles in the national 
assembly. 
8 Tbid., 266; Barmond, Récit, 276. There are a few unimportant textual 
variations in the copy given in the minutes of the nobility and that found 
in the minutes of the clergy, to whom the decree was communicated June 26, 
but these do not change the meaning. 
189 
