10 



pectations were so little favorable that expresses were sent off 

 to Nantes intimating that the National Assembly might forci- 

 bly find it necessary to take refuge in some distant city. '■■ 



"The 21st. It is impossible to have any other employment 

 at so critical a moment than going from house to house de- 

 manding news, and remarking the opinions and ideas most 

 current. The present moment is, of all others, perhaps, that 

 which is most pregnant with the future destiny of France. 

 The step the commoners have taken of declaring themselves 

 the National Assembly, independent of the other orders, and 

 of the king himself, precluding a dissolution, is in fact an as- 

 sumption of all the authority in the kingdom. They have at 

 one stroke converted themselves into the long parliament of 

 Charles 1/'^ 



Bertrand de Moleville refers to the resolution "prepared by 

 M. Mounier, who was convinced like the rest of his colleagues, 

 that the plan of the ministry was to dissolve the States- 

 General. '^34 



Calonne points out that up to the 20tli of June the king was 

 in full possession of his rights to convoke, prorogue or dis- 

 solve the Estates; that on that day a portion of the Assembly, 

 influenced by fear, took an oath "to violate these same 

 rights.'''*^ 



But why accumulate additional evidence ! The testimony of 

 participants, witnesses and contemporaries points to the same 

 conclusion as that drawn directly from the study of events. 

 The Oath of the Tennis Court, far from being "only a slight 

 although important advance on the state of affairs on June 

 19th," was clearly one of the most momentous resolutions 

 taken by the National Assembly. It was the assumption by 

 the representatives of the people of the sovereignty that public 

 opinion had already transferred from the king to the people. 



33 Young. Arthur: Travels in France. Fourth Edition. London. 1892. 

 pp. 170-172. 



34 Moleville: Histoire de la revolution. 14 vols. Paris. 1801-3. i, 195. 



35 Calonne; Etat de la France. A Loudres. 1790. p. 336. 



