56 Carl Christ ophclsmeier 



resolutions by which I think it necessary to support the title under 

 which I propose to you to constitute our assembly." He made a 

 final plea for his title and showed its advantages over that of 

 Sieyes. 



Mirabeau's speech was listened to with sustained attention. 1 It 

 was well heard all over the hall and was much applauded. A 

 little later, however, it was violently attacked. 



Another motion of which record has been made was that of 

 Mounier. He proposed that the assembly constitute itself as an 

 assemblee legitime des representants de la majeure partie de la 

 nation, agissant en I' absence de la mineure partie. 2 Mounier op- 

 posed the other titles as being dangerous and inexact. He sup- 

 ported in his turn several of the principles laid down by Sieyes 

 and Mirabeau. His motion at first gained some favor; Barnave 

 was one of the principal supporters of it. 3 He "defended this 

 motion with much art, much ingenuity, in trying to show that it 

 was conciliatory and similar to that of the Abbe Sieyes. He com- 

 batted ingeniously the title of representants du peuple." 



Rabaut de Saint-Etienne favored Mirabeau's title, "assemblee 

 des representants du peuple de France."* His motion contains 

 such expressions as the assembly "ought to be one because the 

 nation is one" ; consequently "all the operations and measures of 

 the assembly, both preliminary and subsequent ones, ought to be 

 one also" ; all the "deputies have an interest and a right to know 

 one another" ; "no one ought to be considered deputy of a bail- 

 liage, of a senechaussee, of a city, nor of a particular class of the 

 French people." Only those whose credentials were verified in 

 common were deputies. In a series of resolutions which he pre- 



1 Courrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 30; Young, 164. 



*Courrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 31-32; Journal des etats-generaux, 



I, 91-92. Both give the motion in the same words. Young, 164, says, 

 "the legitimate representatives of the majority of the nation." Biauzat, 



II, 117, says that a fourth motion was made, "tendante a nous faire de- 

 clarer representants de la plus grande partie de la nation." He thinks this 

 motion was made by Le Meunier (Demeunier"). He ascribes to Mounier 

 the title, "Representants de la nation." 



3 Ibid.; Oeuvres de Barnave, I, p. XLI. 



4 Journal des etats-generaux, I, 92-95 ; Coarrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 

 32. 



56 



