) 
% 
e 
@ 
Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 105 
a brief report concerning the audience in which he had presented 
the decree to the king. He read his own speech and the short 
response of the king, which expressed the latter’s satisfaction 
with the conduct of the nobility and which assured them that 
they could count upon his kindness and protection. 
The president then named eight nobles under the leadership 
of the Count de Lachastre to present the decree to the clergy.? 
The chamber voted that it should be communicated to the third 
estate in a similar manner. But, in view of the antagonism of 
that body to the policy of the nobility, the handling of this 
affair became a matter requiring special attention. Evidently, 
the deputation to the clergy, or its leader, formulated the address 
delivered to that body,? but the content of the speech to be 
delivered to the national assembly was considered by the whole 
chamber. Two members had prepared projects for discussion. 
The first, said to have been very detailed, apparently explained 
and justified the policy of the nobility. The minutes of the 
order which do not give its content, merely state that it com- 
prised not only a statement of the motives of the conduct of the 
nobility up to that day, but also the course which they intended 
to pursue in effecting the great work in which they were to 
co-operate. The evident necessity of a careful examination of 
every phase of this discourse, lest it contain something which 
might be wrongly interpreted, led the assembly because of lack 
of time to lay it aside and consider the second project which 
was briefer. To salve the feelings of the author of the first, 
it was explained that it would fit perfectly some other occasion 
when there was need of justifying the motives of the nobility. 
1 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 295. Neither speech nor response is 
given in the Procés. 
2 [bid.; Barmond, Récit, 274. The Procés-verbal gives the following mem- 
bers: Vicomte de Chalon, Comte de Lachastre, Comte de Versay, Vicomte 
de Mirabeau, Comte d’Andlau, De Piis, Comte du Ludre, Marquis de Ternay. 
The minutes of the clergy mention no names, not even the names of the 
spokesman. 
3 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 297. The Procés omits all reference 
to the drafting of the address used by the deputation to the clergy. The 
Comte de Lachastre read it when he reported to the nobility after the return 
of the deputation, probably, or the whole group formulated it. 
219 
