Influence of the Breton Deputation 33 



Details regarding the internal organization of the club 

 are entirely wanting. We know nothing of the manner 

 in which its meetings were organized or controlled. They 

 seem to have had a president to preside over the debates/ 

 which, however, probably seldom assumed a formal char- 

 acter, for Barnave early in 1790 describes them as "con- 

 versations."^ The Breton deputies never designated it by 

 the name "club," nor is it so named in any strictly contem- 

 poraneous document, as far as I have been able to learn. 

 The term occurs first in Mounier's Expose de ma conduite, 

 late in 1789, after the club had ceased to exist. Even 

 here, it is not called the "Breton Club," but spoken of as 

 composed of a. gr^up of deputies who were accustomed to 

 "unite in a club." In the correspondence of the deputies, 

 it is never in name distinguished from the smaller assem- 

 bly composed exclusively of the deputies of Bretagne. 

 "Oomite de Bretagne," "Chambre de Bretagne," "Chambre 

 de la Province," or "Assemblee de la Province," are terms 

 applied to both, and it is sometimes diflicult or impossible 

 to determine which of the two is intended. It is certainly 

 clear that, to the minds of the Breton deputies, the club 

 never lost its character as an organization strictly in 

 their hands. Without a fixed program of meetings, its 

 workings and existence continued to depend upon the will 

 of the Breton deputies in whose hall it assembled and who 

 determined when it should come together. These depu- 



'Dubois-Crance, Analyse de la Revolution frangaise, p. 49, says: 

 "Lanjuinais presidait cette reunion." Both Buchez et Roux in His- 

 toire parlementaire de la Revolution, II, 36, and Droz, Histoire du' 

 regne de Louis XVI., II, 169, mention the Duke d'Aiguillon as having 

 been president. Aulard, Intro. The Breton committee was later for- 

 mally organized into committees and corresponded as a body, Le-« 

 gendre being president of it in February, 1790. See the Bulletin de 

 Brest for Nov.-Mar., 1789-179C. In No. 16, vol. I, is a letter by Le- 

 gendre, written as president of the organization. 



-Aulard, La Socicte des Jacobins, I, Intro. XXVIIl. Rvglement de 

 la Socicte des Amis de la Constitution. 



239 



