the kingdom, effect a regeneration of the state, and maintain 

 the true principles of monarchy, may not be prevented from 

 continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced 

 to take up its sittings,"^ clearly bear out the last interpreta- 

 tion. What, then, was the intention of the Assembly, simply 

 to announce its mission or to declare that nohody should i^revent 

 it from fulfilling its tnissionf Which point was the essential 

 one in the oath % 



To assert, without support from other evidence, that either 

 interpretation is the only true one, would be arbitrary pro- 

 cedure. Such a procedure would be a violation of the com- 

 monly accepted rules of historical method. By a study of the 

 oath in its historical setting, and by no other means, shall we 

 be able to decide between the two interpretations. 



That the purpose of the States-General was to form a consti- 

 tution was an idea firmly fixed in the minds of the people on 

 the eve of the convocation of the Assembly.''' This is estab- 

 lished beyond the possibility of a doubt by a great mass of 

 cahiers and pamphlets.^ Another thing especially clear was 

 the idea that nobody had the right to prevent the Estates from 

 accomplishing that purpose.^ It was denied by the framers 

 of the cahiers that "the Estates could be dissolved by any- 

 body but themselves ""^° or that "any authority could dissolve 

 the National Assembly without its consent."'^ 



When the Estates assembled in Versailles in May, the depu- 

 ties of the Third Estate were not hostile to the king. Auiard 

 has shown by an abundance of evidence, that primarily the 

 movement was not antimonarchial.^^ So far as any hostility 

 existed it was directed against the privileged orders. "The 



6 Proc6s-verbal de rassembl^e des communes, etc. A Paris, i. No. 3, 

 p. 6. 



7 Champion, E, : La France d' apres les cahiers de 1789. Paris, 1897. 

 ch. iii. 



8 See the word "Constitution" in the index to the Archives parle- 

 mentaires, vol. viii, pp. 178-211. 



9 Chdrest, ii, p. 460. 



10 Arch, pari., ii, p. 38. 



11 Ibid, iii, p. 154. 



12 La Revolution Frangaise. July, 1898, p. 6. 



