The Memoir es de Bailly 13 



concerned him was worthy of record.^ In justification it should 

 be said that in recording "the facts that passed under his eyes" 

 he could not well have avoided speaking much of himself, and 

 he certainly did not do so in an offensive manner. Conservative 

 in his views, never favorable to extreme measures or methods,- 

 he was considerate of those who disagreed with him. Not in 

 harmony with the ideas of Mirabeau or of Abbe Maury, he was 

 not blind to their ability, and praised that in them that was 

 worthy of praise.^ He was just toward Lafayette and acknowl- 

 edged his popularity, although in a sense his rival.'* Irritated 

 by the disregard of his authority by the municipal assembly of 

 Paris, he often criticised that body severely, but his point of view 

 is not unreasonable, and the facts as found in the Proces-verhal 

 might have justified a more vigorous attitude on his part.^ 



Bailly was not a great man, although he held important places. 

 One even wonders, at times, how he went so far in the midst 

 of men of so much greater knowledge of affairs and of so much 

 greater political ability. In the early days of the revolution, 

 perhaps these very things, by arousing jealousy, hampered their 

 possessor more than they helped him. Bailly's point of view is 

 that of the educated, middle-class reformer, who would have 

 established a constitution that recognized the class to which he 

 belonged and placed the ministry under the control of the as- 

 sembly. He even believed that this could be done in coopera- 

 tion with the king and that his pension would not suffer from 



■'He describes with evident satisfaction (I, p. 1*22), the applause that 

 greeted the announcement, on June 8, of his election as president of the as- 

 sembly. Ibid., I, p. 256, concerning the enthu'^iastic treatment he received 

 at the hands of the people of Chaillot; I, p. 278, the expression of appreci- 

 ation of Bailly's services voted by the assembly. These are but a few illus- 

 trations of his naive expressions of satisfaction over his popular successes. 

 See II, p. 150, the letter of Marmontel, also I, p. 26. 



2 The two volumes are proof of this. His acts during 1789 and his com- 

 ments upon these acts show him to be a man fundamentally opposed to ex- 

 treme measures. 



^Mkntoires de Bailly, I, p, 8, for Maury, and I, p. 303, for Mirabeau. 



*In spite of the Prochs-verbal of the electors of Paris he is quite sure that 

 he was elected mayor before Lafayette was elected commandant of the city 

 militia. Memoire^ de Bailly, II, p. 25; also, II, pp. 47, 135, 143, 145. 



'-Ibid., II, pp. 72, 73, 92, 143, 147, 195, 261. 



343 



