12 Carl Christophelsfneier 



when the members were stirred up by the discussion they became 

 bolder and Le Chapelier's more resolute proposition gained sup- 

 port. 1 It was then that such revolutionary ideas as the following 

 were expressed : "the licrs-ctat is the nation, the privileged classes 

 are only small fractions thereof ; my opinion is that we ought to 

 go and declare it to them to-day, or tomorrow at the latest, and 

 that we act upon this principle" ; "a nation ought to exist 

 without privileged classes" ; "until today we have remained in- 

 active, but it is the slumber of the lion, which when it is awak- 

 ened rushes more ferociously upon its prey." Duquesnoy wrote 

 that the motion of Rabaut de Saint-Etienne would probably carry, 

 "but I doubt not that before the end of the month the tiers will 

 determine to declare that it is the nation, that it alone is the 

 nation. "- 



Practically all the deputies of the tiers-etat agreed with Le 

 Chapelier that they should constitute themselves as a national 

 assembly with as many deputies of the clergy and of the nobles 

 as would join them. They disagreed only as to the most suitable 

 time for taking this action. This vacillation showed in itself 

 that the third estate was not yet ready to take the decisive step. 

 The leaders, such as Mirabeau, saw this, and, for this and other 

 reasons already mentioned, they counseled delay. Mirabeau pro- 

 posed a compromise between the two conflicting plans. He 

 showed the merits and demerits of the two motions. But the 

 motion of Rabaut, he considered weak, suppliant, and therefore 

 humiliating to the commons. He suggested therefore that they 

 invite the clergy, not the nobility, "because the nobility orders 

 while the clergy negotiates." He said that the nobility could not 

 be conciliated. 3 



"Biauzat, II, 64-65. 



2 Duquesnoy, I, 19-20, 22. 



3 Courrier de Provence, Lettre IV, 8-17. Mirabeau spoke on May 15, 

 for on the evening of that day Duquesnoy (I, 22) writes: "Le comte de 

 Mirabeau a voulu parler moderement, mais il n'a pu faire taire son car- 

 actere longtemps ; il a perce bien vite. . . ." The Rccit, 22-23, gives 

 the import of it under the date of May 15. The secret agent to a minister 

 speaks of it on May 17 in a letter written at Paris (La revolution fran- 

 caisc, XXIII, 366). He writes for the first time about the motions of 

 "Rabaut de Saint-Etienne, Le Chapelier, and Malouet and says that Mira- 



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