Meeting of the Estates-General, 1780. 95 
At this point, it appears that Mirabeau interposed to criticize 
the ideas and to reflect upon the motives of Fréteau in advancing 
such views. Fraternity, he grimly remarked, was the duty of 
all men, but principles alone could save rights and form the basis 
of justice and even of prudence. Consequently, he held that 
the nobles could not be received as noble deputies of the bailliages. 
He used, apparently, the following line of argument. The 
nobles then in the national assembly recognized in the fact 
that they had come to submit their credentials, that these could 
be passed upon only incommon. The verification in the chamber 
of the nobles was illegal and no one could participate in such. 
Furthermore, if this were not so, the nobles already united 
could not sanction as witnesses that which they had done as 
judges when they had no right to do so. Hence, those coming 
could never be received as deputies in any sense, but merely 
as nobles. At this reflection upon the motives and logic of 
Fréteau—an attack which Biauzat states brought forth murmurs 
and the cry of ‘‘Order!”’ from the assembly**—Fréteau himself 
indignantly rose to reply. He sought to explain his sentiments 
and he declared that, if he had been slow in uniting with the 
assembly, he had not been kept away by his mode of thinking. 
His opinion, he maintained, was stronger perhaps than that 
manifested in the decree of June 17. Instead of constituting © 
themselves national assembly, he held that the commons had 
the right to constitute themselves the states-general, thus show- 
ing less regard for the feelings of the other orders. This self- 
justification is said to have elicited the most sincere appreciation 
from the assembly, but he continued to talk on in extenuation 
of his views. He held that they could not refuse to receive the 
deputies as noble deputies of the bailliages and finally that they 
could no more close the doors to them than they had done to 
the city of Paris.*’ 
45 Courrier de Provence, Lettre XIV, 3. Mirabeau uses his favorite mode 
of reference to himself, ‘‘ Un député des communes,” in giving the points of 
his argument. The Point du jour (I, 57) gives a brief account of Mirabeau’s 
remarks; Assemblée nationale, I, 240-41; Biauzat, II, 142. 
46 Biauzat, II, 142. : 
47 Assemblée nationale, 1, 241-42; Point du jour, 1,57. The certainty of the 
arguments used in this debate is hard to establish. Each witness seems to 
209 
