Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 175 
of deputies to be granted seats.!® In the first case, the com- 
mittee was unanimously in favor of an admission which was 
dictated by natural rights as well as by a sane policy. The 
line of argument was that the colonial planters were French, 
they were taxed by France, and, as national soldiers, helped to 
defend France. If they had been united with France, either by 
conquest or by treaty, they would have been given representa- 
tion in the assembly of the nation of which they were a part. 
Then the pertinent inquiry was made whether voluntary sub- 
mission should make their lot more rigorous and their rights less 
respectable.!” 
As to the second question, a thorough examination left no 
doubt in regard to the legitimacy of both election and creden- 
tials.'8 The third point, however, caused difficulty, because 
there was no suitable basis upon which to found a decision as 
to the number. The continental provinces could not be used 
as a basis for comparison. As the colony had only 40,000 free 
inhabitants and ten or eleven times as many blacks, population 
could not be used because, in that event, the colony would have a 
very ordinary representation which would be a manifest in- 
justice. In the judgment of the committee, the matter should 
be taken up from the standpoint of the importance of the colony, 
its extended coast line, its wealthy planters, its immense com- 
merce of 600,000,000 livres annually, requiring five hundred 
vessels and twenty thousand sailors to move it, its great tax. 
16 Procés-verbal, No. 9, 5, says: ‘‘ M. le rapporteur a observé que la question 
se réduisait 4 deux points principaux; savoir, si l’assemblée recevrait des 
députés de la colonie de St. Domingue, et en quel nombre elle les recevrait.” 
The Point du jour, I, 62, names the three questions, as does also the Assemblée 
nationale, I, 259-60, but in different language. Courrier de Provence, Lettre 
XIV, 5-6, gives three points in the same language as those found in the 
Point du jour. Etats-généraux, Extrait du journal de Paris, 1, 124; Mercure 
de France: Journal Politique de Bruxelles, No. 27, 52. 
17 Point du jour, 1, 62-63; Procés-verbal, No. 9, 6; Moniteur, I, 104. 
18 Point du jour, 1, 63; Assemblée nationale, 1, 260, says: ‘‘ Lesecond n’a 
pas été absoluement approuvé;’’ Moniteur, I, 104, gives this: ‘‘ Sur la 
seconde question, il annoncé que le comité a jugé les pouvoirs sufficants, et 
que la nomination des députés est valable quoique le réglément de convocation 
n’ait pas été strictement observé.” 
289 
