Influence of the Breton Deputation 45 



ference shown to the privileged orders might even be in- 

 terpreted by the people as weakness.^ When the motion 

 was lost, they resigned themselves with sufficiently bad 

 grace to a period of waiting in which they felt that the 

 position of their order was continually more endangered. 

 They now formed a restless group, the group of advance 

 out of aL'cord with the prevailing opinion in their order, 

 taking every opportunity to urge that the time for de- 

 cisive action had arrived. ^ That they were kept well in- 

 formed of the progress of the conferences, we may assume, 

 since their leader, Le Chapelier, was member of the con- 

 ference committee.^ 



The necessity of justifying themselves in the eyes of 

 the people, an idea contained in the motion of the 14tli of 

 May, had been felt by numy outside of the Breton depu- 

 tation. Lalxuxle, who had favored Le Chapelier's motion 

 as a whole,"* on ]May 20th recurred to this part of it in a 

 new motion in which he asked that a committee be ap- 

 pointed charged with prei^aring those parts' of its i>ro- 



'Bulletin cle Brest. I, No. 2, pp. 6, 7. 



^On May 24, Champeaux-Palasne wrote: "Nous sommes ton jours 

 . . . dans la menie position. C'est-a-dire que nous attendons, pour 

 prendre un parti, que nos conferenciers aient fait leur rapport a I'as- 

 semblee. Comme les conferences ont commence hier, le rapport se 

 fera demain, et ce sera le signal de nos grandes operations." Socictv 

 iVEmulution. etc., vol. XXVI, p. 227. 



On June 5, the deputies of Saint-Brieuc wrote: "Toutes ces con- 

 ferences cependant n'aboutiront a rien, et il en faudra toujours revenir 

 au point de nous constituer en Assemblee nationale. II y a meme 

 longtemps qu'on eut du prendre ce parti, que la Bretagne avait pro- 

 pose et on commence a regretter de ne I'avoir pas fait." Ibid., 230. 



Le Roulx on May 26: "Je presume que M. Le Chapelier va etre 

 conduit a renouveller sa motion." 



^Le Chapelier, who from the first assumed the leadership of the 

 deputation and frequently acted as its spokesman, seems to have made 

 a strong impression upon the assembly of the Third Estate at a very^ 

 early period, probably during the debate on the motion of the 14th, 

 in which he was applauded (Boulle, May 22). He was elected on the 

 conference committee by 413 votes. Letter of the deputies of Saint 

 Brieuc, May 19. ^ocictc d'Emulation, etc., XXVI, p. 224. 



^Pellerin, May 20. Correspondence published by Bord, p. 25. 



251 



