192 Jeanette Needham. 
committed to the ideas of the first declaration of the king,—of 
that there could be no doubt. 
Yet, close observers of the situation looked upon the action of 
June 27 as a repudiation of the declarations of June 23. Count 
Mercy wrote on July 4 that after the union of the orders ‘‘ there 
reigns a moment of calm, much more apparent than real... . 
The king has purchased this momentary truce by the most cruel 
sacrifice, that of retracting his wishes solemnly proclaimed in 
the royal session of June 23.’’27 
Arthur Young held that the king had overturned ‘‘his own 
act of the séance royale by requiring them [the upper orders] 
to join the commons, full in the teeth of what he had ordained 
-before.’”’?? The author of the Correspondance secréte in the 
Russian archives declared on June 27:22 ‘‘The commons and, 
dare we say it, the nation triumph! Is it reason and justice, 
is it fear alone which has effected this strange revolution? Good 
citizens do not attempt to fathom this question.... The 
union is a grand fact. The experience of its powers and the 
authorization of more than nine tenths of the nation will soon 
place the patriotic party in a position to surmount all difficulties. 
The decree of the council and the imperative course of the king 
of June 23, are annulled, and as soon as the verification of 
credentials has been completed, there is no doubt that the,estab- 
lishment of a new constitution will be the first object of the 
deliberations.” 
Jefferson considered that the ‘‘great crisis’ was over: ‘‘The 
triumph of the Jvzers is considered as complete. Tomorrow 
conférer avec M. le cardinal de La Rochefoucauld, président de la minorité 
du clergé et M. le duc de Luxembourg, président de la majorité de la noblesse 
sur des prétendus préliminaires 4 l’assemblée d’aujourd’hui.”’ The use of the 
aujourd'hui at the close seems to be an error. Otherwise, the account tallies 
with Bailly’s own report. Biauzat had not learned what action Bailly had 
taken in regard to the invitation, so we are dependent upon Bailly alone for 
the details of his arrangement for, and participation in, the conference. 
27 Arneth and Flammermont, Correspondance secréte de Comte de Mercy- 
Argenteau avec l’empereur Joseph II et le Prince de Kaunitz, I, 253. 
28 Young, 182. 
29 Lescure, Correspondance secréte inédite sur Louis X VI, Marie-Antoinette, 
la cour et la ville de 1777 & 1792, II, 366-367. 
306 
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