Influence of the Breton Dcjuitatiou 39 



tempted all the means of persuasion in order that the two 

 orders unite to vote by head, if they persist in refusing 

 this important demand, to cut to the quick, in declaring 

 that the Third Estate, being essentially the nation, con- 

 stitutes truly the representation of the entire kingdom 

 by its representatives at the States General."^ The same 

 fundamental thought had been incorporated in the im- 

 portant caliicrs of Rennes, of which article 2 reads : "It 

 is by a fatal error that that which is called the Third Es- 

 tate, which comprises more than ninety-nine hundredths 

 of the nation, has been qualified order and placed in the 

 balance with the two privileged classes. That error ought 

 now to cease, and that which has until now been named 

 Third Estate in the kingdom shall be comprised, with or 

 without the privileged, under the same denomination, and 

 called People, or Nation, the only name which expresses 

 the truth and is worthy the dignity of the Nation."- 



What aid they anticipated from the government in the 

 execution of such a program we have no evidence to show. 

 In their correspondence, they hardly permitted themselves 



tate in common, the deputies of the latter order would never have 

 referred to it as an assembly of their order alone', as they did on a 

 number of occasions. Thus in the Bulletin cle Rennes, No. I, 4, is the 

 passage, "Les deputes du Tiers-Etat de Bretagne se sont reunis." 

 Again in No. 2, "Les deputes du Peuple de Bretagne." So also Pel- 

 lerin on May 15: "Les deputes du Tiers-Etat de Bretagne s'assem- 

 blent dans leur chambre particuliere." 



From the foregoing, I conclude that the cures of Bretagne— although 

 individual members may have attended both the Breton Committee 

 and the Breton Club — did not in any real sense form a part of either 

 of these organizations until the union of the orders in June — and we 

 have no positive evidence to show that they did even then. If now 

 v,-e remember that as early as August, 1789, a number of the Breton 

 ctm's were so far out of accord with the Revolution as to resign their 

 commissions as deputies, we may well question whether any of the 

 credit or discredit attaching to the work of the Breton Club is to be 

 assigned to them, especially since the principal work of the club, jj> 

 far as wc know, was performed in its efforts in the period of the 

 conferences and organization of the Assembly, and in aiding to carry 

 through the 4th of August resolutions. 



^A7~chives de Lorient. 



^Archives nationales, BA26, liasse ITG^is 



245 



