32 Charles Kuhlmann 



to their account,^ was now held in high esteem at the club,' 

 Following his conciliatory inclinations, he attempted in 

 this meeting to begin a movement for the purpose of caus- 

 ing an understanding between the three orders by means 

 of extra-legal meetings in which the questions, foreseen 

 to fall under discussion as soon as the States General 

 opened, might be debated. With this object in view, he 

 asked that for the next day a "comite general" of all the 

 deputies of the three orders be called in a large hall. This 

 was agreed upon, but Legendre assures us that the ma- 

 jority did not favor the project, nor could he see that any 

 good would result from such a "cohue," it having been 

 consented to out of condescendence to the ^'Orator of the 

 Dauphine," who had just won over sev<.ral cures for the 

 vote by head in the preliminary question of deciding how 

 the vote should be taken. ^ Nothing indicates whether or 

 not this meeting ever took place. 



It is not evident that the deputies of Bretagne from the 

 first contemplated the holding of two parallel series of 

 meetings. Their primary object had been to provide a 

 means of union among themselves for the two-fold pui^pose 

 of discussing the affairs of their province and deputation, 

 and for the preparation for the debates in the assembly. 

 But it is evident that in gatherings where the deputies of 

 whole provinces appeared, these objects could no longer 

 be served. Accordingly^, Le Roulx writes on April 30 that 

 it had been decided to hold, aside from the original assem- 

 bly, another daily, open to all the deputies who desired to 

 attend.^ This latter assembly was the so-called Breton 

 Club. 



^ Recherches sitr les causes qui ont empechc les Frangais cle devenir 

 libres. 



^Legendre and Moyot, May 1. 



^ "Outre cette' assemblee particuliere, il y aura une autre quotidi- 

 enne pour tous deputes qui voudront s'y rendre." MS. letter in Ar- 

 chives de Lorient. 



238 



