Influence of the Breton Deputation 37 



writer stated ou the 9th of July that a short time before 

 about 100 had been in attendance.^ 



II 



THE MOTION OF THE BRETON DEPUTIES TO ORGANIZE A NA- 

 TIONAL ASSEMBLY MAY 14 



Everything- indicates that tJie deputies of Bretagne ar- 

 rived at Versailles enibued with the sentiment that, since 

 the Third Estate formed such a large portion of the na- 



fra7iQaise. etc., vol. II, p. 68, the number is given as 150, but as Con- 

 dorget was not present and since Gregoire participated, it is evident 

 that the latter's account should be given preference, especially since 

 the small number present is a fact that was specially noted in the 

 meeting. See the extracts in Aulard. 



'Correspondence published by Brette in La Revolution frangaise, 

 July-December, 1892. Letter of July 9. 



Aulard (I, p. V), supporting his statement upon that of Alexandre 

 Lameth (Histoire de FAssemblee constitiiante, I, 421), and Zinkeisen 

 (I, 61) without any further qualifications, represent the cures of 

 Bretagne as having been members of the club. This statement is 

 certainly contradicted by a mass of contemporaneous evidence. It is 

 true that as far as we know there was nothing whatever in the nature 

 of formal conditions excluding cwres from attendance at the club, and 

 it is certain that the Breton cures at first worked in close understand- 

 ing with the Breton deputies of the Third Estate in affairs concern- 

 ing their province, for Le Roulx wrote on May 3, "Dans I'Assemblee 

 provinciale des deputes de Bretagne, Ton va faire la concordance des 

 cahiers des deputes laics et des deputes ecclesiastiques et fondre le 

 tout en un seul cahier." This work, however, was given to a commit- 

 tee (letter of Legendre May 5, in which it is stated a committee of 

 twelve- was appointed of which he was member) and did not require 

 the union of the two orders in the Breton Committee. In the Affiches 

 de Rennes it is expressly stated (No. 43, May 13, 1789) in a letter of 

 the deputies. May 3, that these committeemen were appointed in a 

 meeting of the "Deputes du peuple de Bretagne," by which is meant 

 the deputies of the Third Estate, — so that even here the cures were 

 not present. In the same paper. No. 42, is a letter from Versailles 

 dated May 1, in which occurs the following passage: "Les deputes 

 du Peuple et du Clerge du second ordre de Bretagne, s'occupent d'un 

 memoire en reponse aux protestations et declarations du Clerge et 

 de la Noblesse, arretees a Saint-Brieuc," which shows that they made 

 common cause against the privileged orders of their province, but also 

 that the writers did not include the cures under the name peuple. 



Further, the cvres of Bretagne most vigorously seconded the prin- 

 ciples of the Third Estate, in the assembly of the Clergy. They 



243 



