4 Charles Kuhhnarm 



exemplified in the history of the devolution by Montjoie. 

 When we have brushed aside ^sucli material as nearly or 

 totally worthless in the establishment of fact, there re- 

 mains the principal task of reconstructing the positive 

 picture. An entirely different class of evidence exists in 

 the records left by former members of the club or by those 

 temporarily in contact with it and, at the time, not hostile 

 to it — records full of errors and colored, not by passion, 

 but by time and subsequent events. It is upon this per- 

 plexing material, ver^^ general in character and small in 

 volume, that Zinkeisen has based the chapter in which he 

 does indeed succeed in clearing away the myths with which 

 the enemies of the Revolution had enshrouded the club, 

 but in Avhich he is also led into many errors and false con- 

 jectures, due to the nature of the evidence out of which, 

 it must be said, he attempted to make too much.^ Nor does 



^No sufficient purpose would be served to criticise Zinkeisen's work 

 in detail. Its unsatisfactory character is best felt if, after reading 

 his chapter, we ask ourselves what definite facts, concerning the work 

 of the club, we have learned. Some of his errors may, however, be 

 pointed out briefiy. In vol. I, p. 60. he savs that the Breton Club was 

 founded at the suggestion of Mirabeau, as if Le Chapelier and the 

 deputies of Bretagne had been strangers to the idea of clubs! I have 

 shown in chap. I, sec. II, that the Breton organization at Versailles 

 was the natural outgrowth of the events in Bretagne, and in chap. II, 

 sec. I, how the so-called Breton Club naturally grew out of the smaller 

 Breton Committee. On p. 85 of the same volume, he argues from 

 facts to motives, and as a result places the whole Breton deputation 

 in a wrong light. "Als . . zur Zeit der Verhandlungen iiber das Veto, 

 Chapelier und seine Freunde vom Club Breton die Stadte der Bretagne 

 aufgehetzt hatten, und diese, namentlich Rennes und zwei andere, 

 Deputationen mit Adressen an die National-Versammlung schickten," 

 etc. Compare this with the evidence from the correspondence of the 

 Breton deputies presented in chap. II, sec. VII. On p. 72, he states 

 that the Breton Club controlled the elections in the assembly. On 

 the other hand, we know that, if they had a special candidate in the 

 election on the 3d of August, he was defeated when Thouret was 

 elected. Bulletin (le Brest I, No. 34. Nor is it certain that Le Chape- 

 lier was the formal candidate of the club. See note 1, p. 77, below. 

 It is, moreover, certain that in the election at the close of August 

 they were defeated, for they considered Langres and several of the 

 secretaries as belonging to the "cabal" which they most bitterly op- 

 posed. Bulletin cle Rennes, II, No. 3. Letter of Hardy de la Largere, 

 Archives d'llle et Yilaine, L. 294. See also pp. 57-60, below, and 

 note 1, p. 58. 



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