20 Charles Kuldmann 



The real relation of historical forces would be more cor- 

 rectly^ represented by saying that their club was an evi- 

 dence and a result of their unity. Both their committee 

 and their club were undoubted factors in their power in 

 the assembly, but the fundamental causes of their unity 

 lie deeper. They must be sought for in Bretagne rather 

 than at Versailles. AVhat reasons can be assigned to ex- 

 plain why their mere artificial organization should have 

 been any more lasting or effective than similar organiza- 

 tions formed by the dei>uties from other i)i'o^^iii^^s "^ ^ 

 They were the representatives of a province whose cent- 

 ury-long struggles in defense of its independent life had 

 given its people, far from possessing the French charac- 

 ter even to-day, a strong sense of a separate national] ty,- 

 a feeling just reawakened by the parliamentary opposi- 

 tion of 1787-1788. It is not uncommon to find in the lo- 

 cal literature of 1788-1789, the people of Bretagne called 

 the "Breton Nation."^ Many of the caliiers demanded 

 the preservation of the special regime until that time in 

 force, and it is a significant fact that one of the first things 

 undertaken by the deputies upon their arrival at Ver- 



^As, for instance, the deputation of Languedoc. Leon Pignaud, 

 Un agent secret sous la Revolution et I'Empire, Le Comte d'Antraigues 

 p. 70. Zinlteisen, I, 59: "Fast jede Provinz fand sich in abgeson- 

 derten Vereinen zusammen, welche jedoch meistens nur gesellschaft- 

 liche Beriihrungspunkte ohne bestimmte politsclie Zwecke sein soil- 

 ten." 



-Pocquet, Les origines de la Revolution en Bretagne, I, Intro, pp. 

 XIX-XX. "Malgre cela (the centralizing work of the Revolution) 

 qu'on le pardonne au patriotisme d'un Breton, — on peut dire que la 

 Bretagne existe encore. .Nul pays n'a garde plus profondement em- 

 preintes les traces de son ancienne unite, plus vivants les souvenirs 

 de cette vie provinciale qui fit tant de fois battre le coeur de ses en- 

 fants. Mieux encore peut-etre que la Provence, elle a conserve dans 

 le demembrement des choses sa personalite; car elle aussi a eut sa 

 langue, sa poesie, ses moeurs, sa nationalite." 



^See the procvs-verhal of the election at Quimper, April 18. Archives 

 Nationales. BA2G, liasse 169i''s. Extrait dxi procc s-verbal des seances 

 de la scncchaussce de Quimper des 16, 17, . . . 23 avril. 17S9. The 

 address of the inhabitants of the country. Bib. Nat. Le23/161. 



232 



