174 Jeanette Needham. 
then in the light of the interpretation of the principles contained 
in the orders of convocation, and finally the committee gave an 
outline of the difficulties disclosed by the request, upon which 
the assembly was to pass. The beginning of the colony was 
traced back to the seventeenth century, to the time when the 
brave filibusterers who had established it gave their allegiance 
to Louis XIV, while they retained the right to tax themselves. 
In 1713, the colonists granted financial aid to France, but with- 
out impairing in any way their right of self-taxation and of appor- 
tioning the sums so raised. Gradually the amounts turned over 
to the mother country increased from 6,000 livres in 1737 to 
60,000,000 fifty years later. Then Prieur, the reporter, showed 
that all the advantages of the colony and, consequently, the 
benefit to France would be greatly augmented if the estates 
_ should succeed in granting a good constitution to the colony, 
one freeing it from the oppressive régime which bound its industry 
and carried discouragement to the minds of the colonists. 
So far the reporter had viewed the question from the stand- 
point of commercial advantage to France. Now he looked at 
it from the side of the inherent rights of the colonists. The 
order of convocation in the decree of October, 1788, guaranteed 
the assembly of the estates-general to all the peoples of French 
dominion. Hence, the fact that this colony had been forgotten, 
unintentionally or purposely, in the letter of convocation did 
not impair its natural right to participate in the assembly. 
Prieur concluded the report by giving the statement of the 
committee’s analysis of the matter. The opinion was that 
there were three important questions involved, upon which the 
assembly must make the final decision. The first consideration 
was whether representatives of the colony should be admitted 
at all; the second touched the legality of their elections and 
the validity of their credentials; the third point was the number 
15 Point du jour, I, 61-62; Moniteur, I, 104. Although the Moniteur is 
merely a compilation, at this point it has been drawn from some source or 
sources other than the ones accessible to me. Only the Point du jour gives 
any detailed account of the committee report. Although the Moniteur uses 
the Point du jour, it has much more information regarding the affair of San 
Domingo than is found in the Point du jour. 
288 
