72 Charles Kuhlmann 



by the clamor of the violent. The refusal to elect depu- 

 ties had been against the advice of a large number and 

 had never been jjermitted to come to a discussion or even 

 to a formal vote, a noisy manifestation having been taken 

 as the expression of the will of the assembly.^ There 

 were, therefore, nmny who regretted that their order was 

 not represented in the National Assembly, and who began 

 in July to make an effort to obtain representation. For 

 once the deputies of Bretagne showed themselves willing 

 to go farther than even the assembly to meet the advances 

 of those who had been their bitterest enemies. On July 

 24, when the question of the validity of their deputation 

 came before the assembly, Le Chapelier, in answering a 

 question rt^garding the desirability of inviting the Nobil- 

 ity to elect its deputies, said that in reality both the upper 

 Clergy and the Nobility had exercised the full right con- 

 ferred by the election regulations in refusing to elect, but 

 in order to open the door to reconciliation the deputies 

 of the Third Estate of Bretagne joined in the invitation 

 in question,* . The assembly, however, merely declared the 

 right of the Nobility to elect without adding the invita- 

 tion, which did not satisfy the order. ^ After some iso- 

 lated efforts had been made in the province,^ a certain 

 Scott appeared at the Breton Committee during the first 

 week in September and asked in the name of the Nobility 

 that the deputies of Bretagne support in the National As- 

 sembly a resolution annulling the oath^ of his order and 



'Letter of the Bishop of Rennes, April 18. Archives Nationales. 

 BA25. MS. 



''Bulletin de Rennes, I, No. 36, supra. 



^Bulletin de Brest, I, Nos. 30 and 32. 



^Oath to consent to no change in the constitution of the province, 

 or to participate in any assembly or administration by which the 

 provincial estates were replaced. It was taken in a dramatic scene 

 in the assembly at Rennes the 8th of January preceding. Pocquet, 

 Les origines de la Revolution en Bretagne, II, 188-189. 



278 



