24 Laura B. Pfeiffer 



of the representatives of the nation was with the dismissed 

 ministry, and the sending of Roland's letter to the eighty-three 

 departments was nothing else than an appeal to the nation.'^ 



The names of the men who were to replace the fallen ministers 

 were announced to the assembly on June 13 in a letter from the 

 king.-- Dumouriez was leader of this ministry.-^ 



On the same day that the dismissal of the Girondist ministry 

 was made public, Dumouriez, as minister of war, read a mcmoire 

 in the assembly, upon the department of war, in which he 

 criticized his predecessors, Degrave and Servan, complained of 

 the deplorable state of the army and reported that several strong 

 places were in a defenceless condition.-* He was frequently 

 interrupted by murmurs. The Left at once accused him of 

 treason and threatened to send him to the high court of Orleans 

 and decreed that he must lay before the assembly within twenty- 

 four hours, documents in proof of his assertions. They reasoned 

 that if his accusations were true, he was a criminal for having 

 precipitated the country into war at such a time and if they were 

 not true he was a calumniator."^ 



But the anger of the assembly was mild compared with that 

 of the Jacobins and of the press. Dumouriez was unsparingly con- 

 demned by both.^" Fearing an uprising, he again urged the king 

 to sanction the decrees, but Louis continued to procrastinate, 

 asking for a little more time, and so kept Dumouriez expecting 

 his sanction.-' Finally the king refused to sign and Dumouriez, 



^'Lescure, Correspondance secrete, 601-603, lettre 20. 



^^ Moniteur, XII, 657; Revolutions de Paris, XII, 516; Memories de 

 Dumouriez, II, 280-81. 



^ The other members of the new ministry were Mourgues, minister of 

 interior and M. de Neuillac of foreign affairs. Duranthon and Lacoste 

 remained and the ministry of finance was left vacant. King's letter, Mon- 

 iteur, XII, 657; Chaumette, Memoires, 6, note 2; Bacourt, Correspondance 

 entre le comte de Mirabeau et le comte de La Marck, III, 311, Montmorin 

 to La Marck, June 19, 1792. 



'* Monitetir, XII, 669 gives the complete mcmoire. 



"■'Ibid., XII, 660. 



^Aulard, La socicte des Jacobins, IV, 2-3; Revolutions de Paris, XII, 

 522, ff. 



'"Memoires de Dumouriez, II, 295. 



220 



