16 Charles Kuhlmann 



France.^ But the Third Estate was not deceived as to 

 the real meaning of the conflict between the government 

 and the parliament sustained by the local nobility. When 

 Louis XVI. was compelled to abandon his reform program 

 and announce the assembly of the States General, it at- 

 tacked its former allies with surprising vigor and unity 

 in agitating for its own rights as an order. 



Foremost in this movement of the Third Estate were 

 those who were later to be elected deputies to the States 

 General. The signal of revolution was given by Cottin 

 as the instigator of resolutions adopted by Nantes on No- 

 vember 6.^ "The Third Estate demands that tke deputies 

 of this city to the coming estates of the province be ex- 

 pressl}' charged to ask that, from the present session, the 

 deputies of the Third Estate shall always be equal in num- 

 ber to those of the Clergy and Nobility combined, and that 

 to this effect the Nobility shall no longer participate in 

 the estates except by its deputies, the number of which is 

 to be determined by the three orders. . . . The Third 

 Estate demands that its deputies shall not enter the as- 

 sembly until the two first orders have deliberated over 

 and consented to its just demands, and (which is not to 

 be anticipated) that in case of refusal they shall give im- 

 mediate notice, in order that the Third Estate may ask 

 aid of the sovereign, sole chief of all justice." 



These resolutions were presented to the king by twelve 

 envoys, among whom were the future deputies Cottin, 

 Jarry, Duplessis, Chaillon, and Blin. Many municipal- 

 ities followed the example of Nantes in adopting the same 

 or similar resolutions which they presented to the goveru- 



^Cherest, La chute de Vancien regime, I and II, passim, and Pecquet, 

 Les origines de la Revolution en Bretagne, I. 



-These resolutions. Placets adresscs an Roi et a la Reine, are found 

 in the National Library at Paris, Lb39/66. Kerviler, Recherches et 

 notices, art. Cottin, says they were the work of Cottin. 



