- = 
: 
Meeting of the Estates-General, 1780. 163 
made full explanation of the circumstances under which he 
received the letter is not known. The procés-verbal of the cham- 
ber states merely that, before reading the letter, the president 
- announced that both he and the vice-president had been sum- 
moned by the king. Baron de Gauville, one of the nobility, 
indicates that the chamber knew of the president’s visit to the 
king. He states that the excitement felt in the chamber, while 
the president was with the king, changed into humiliation when 
it learned that the king had abandoned his nobles.* If the 
letter produced this effect upon very many, the ensuing dis- 
cussion must have been very lively. There seems to have been 
a great difference of opinion over the means best fitted to serve 
the king. Some insisted upon the closest adhesion to the 
principles already laid down in the decrees passed by the chamber; 
others were of the opinion that the circumstances demanded, if 
not the sacrifice of principles, at least the sacrifice of resistance; 
many felt that in obeying the king by uniting with the other 
two orders, they would best serve him, by bearing into the 
common hall of the estates-general the unvarying attachment 
of the nobility for the constitutional laws of the monarchy.® 
A few specific details of the debate are found in the account 
by the Deux amis de la liberté, but there is no indication as to 
the source of this information. It claims that sixty-five mem- 
bers, inspired by the reactionary D’Eprémesnil, wished to 
protest against the will of the majority. The Vicomte de 
Mirabeau went even further when he swore never to leave the 
chamber, but no one followed his example. The Duc de Lian- 
court and other patriotic members made stirring speeches in 
favor of acceptance.’ 
146; Bailli de Virieu, 104; Mercure de France: Journal Politique de Bruxelles, 
No. 27, 50. 
3 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 300. 
4 Gauville, 8. 
5 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 300-301; Histoire de la rév., 1, 239-240; 
' Boullé, Documents inédits, Revue de la rév., XIV, 28; Dorset, I, 226; Jallet, 
107; Barentin, 247; Coster, Récit, 345. 
6 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 300-301. 
1’ Histoire de la rév., 1, 239; Boullé, Docs. inédits, Revue de la rév., XIV, 28; 
Moleville, I, 247. Boullé had heard ‘‘ qu’elle [the letter] y donnait lieu a de. 
277 
