176 Jeanette Needham. 
Dauphiné supplied only 500,000 livres, yet it had twenty-four 
deputies.19 
On the first two points, the committee readily came to a 
favorable agreement, but there had been a division over the 
number to be admitted. Thirty-seven had been elected origi- 
nally, but only twenty were then asking to be received.?? One 
half of the committee voted to seat the entire delegation. The 
other half would admit but twelve—and those only for the 
session then ensuing—but would recognize the remaining eight 
as alternates.27. The report of the committee was referred to 
the whole assembly for definitive action. 
In the debate that followed, the general sentiment was that 
justice and expediency dictated the granting of a place in the 
national legislature to San Domingo, although the ways and 
means proposed to effect that result differed. Despite the 
fact that the Marquis of Sillery had only a consultative voice 
and by his own statement was not very well informed about the 
colony, he opened the discussion in announcing that he could 
not see any conceivable reason for debarring this important 
dependency from participation in the states general. And, 
evidently as the most cogent reason in his opinion, he added 
that the recent American revolution should prove a sufficient 
warning to France of the necessity of such a step.” 
The next speaker of whom there is mention, Delaville Le 
Roulx, favored the admission of the deputation, but held that 
the authorization of the king was necessary before the assembly 
could legally make such a decision.2* This objection, however, 
seems to have been met by the counter contention that all 
19 Point du jour, I, 63; Moniteur, I, 104. The first gives the fuller 
account. 
20 Assemblée nationale, 1, 260; Moniteur, I, 104; Jallet, 107; Etats-généraux, 
Extrait du journal de Paris, 1, 124; Boullé, Docs. inédits, Revue de la rév., XIV, 
28: 
"1 Point du jour, 1, 63; Moniteur, I, 104; Assemblée nationale, I, 260. 
22 Point du jour, 1, 63-64; Moniteur, I, 104. One account supplements 
the other. 
23 Moniteur, 1, 104; Assemblée nationale, I, 260. No name is given in the 
letter, but the view is ascribed to several referred to as ‘‘ Il y a eu des per- 
sonnes.”’ 
290 
eh Sci alti ee ee i 
