2 Charles Kuhlmann 



on his part, but the expression of a fact, the clear concep- 

 tion of the similarity of conditions of which his colleagues 

 were certainly not unaware — perhaps, even, they were con- 

 sciously imitating at Versailles a course which their order 

 had already, in form, although not definitely, completed 

 in their province. 



That the deputies coming from a province which had 

 just undergone such a revolution would bring with them 

 advanced views generally will be inferred without argu- 

 ment, but to show more exactly what their personal ex- 

 perience had been and what their sentiments were when 

 they entered the States General, I have written chapter 

 I, which, however, does not pretend to be more than the 

 most essential outline. This chapter furnishes, so to 

 speak, the means of understanding the second. 



In chapter II, I have attempted to give an account of the 

 motions introduced or sustained by the Breton deputies 

 as a body or by their club, always in close connection with 

 the incidents of the moment and the fundamental motives 

 which were evidently influential. The object here was to 

 trace the influence of this nucleus in the assembly and the 

 manner in which it was exercised. For this purpose, even 

 had the evidence permitted, it was not necessary to give a 

 separate account of the Breton Club and of the organiza- 

 tion composed exclusiA^ely of the deputies of Bretagne. 



Admittedly the evidence is not abundant. Much is left 

 obscure or not conclusively proved, yet, upon the essential 

 points enough light is thrown to show by what system 

 the group of deputies in question was consistently guided ; 

 to show that in the most fundamental questions they were 

 the ones who pressed the principles of the Revolution to 

 their ultimate consequences, and that in the crises of the 

 early period it was from them that the cry of rally, of re- 

 sistance to the forces of the old order of things went out. 



208 



