82 Charles Kuhlmanh 



that it does not pertaiu to the inimicipalities of Bretagne 

 to express the views of the Senechaussec, Avhich have not 

 conciiiTecl in the adhesion, and that it pertains still less 

 to their authority to drag after it the suffrages of all the 

 other provinces of the kingdom which respects in silence 

 the freedom of opinion in its representatives. . . . 

 You have subjected our devotion to a test too severe in 

 charging us with the commission of presenting to the as- 

 sembly the two decrees of the 2d and 6th ( ? ) ^ of Sep- 

 tember. We were not able to charge ourselves with that 

 commission without betrajang the confidence with which 

 you have honored us, without departing from your inten- 

 tions which, without doubt, were to concur in the forma- 

 tion of a National Assembly, free, respectable, and re- 

 spected. It would -cease to have these august characters 

 if it were reproached in advance Avith daring to abandon 

 itself to questions hostile to French liberties, and of a 

 nature to degrade the eminent powers confided to it, when 

 it is menaced in advance with the arming against it of 

 the people of whom it is the worthy representative, when, 

 in order to obstruct the liberty of its decrees, it is de- 

 nounced in advance as the enemy of the country, accused 

 of infamy and treason." In a postscript, they added : 

 "We will not permit ourselves to give advice to the prov- 

 ince, but we shall here make a reflection; and we say that 

 if the decree of the 2d is such as it is known, and the ad- 

 hesions which it has obtained are the general views of all 

 the Bretons, as several of our correspondences say, there 

 remains no other course for Bretagne than to revoke all 

 its deputations, assemble its estates, and there determine 

 the Breton constitution. We will not dare to extend our 

 regards over the future which such a separation would 



^Should be the 7th. 



288 



