6 Carl Christ ophelsmeier 



missioners of the other two orders. 1 This information caused a 

 fiery discussion among the commons which ended only on May 

 1 8. Immediately after the deputation had left the hall, attention 

 was called to the gross inconsistencies on the part of the nobles ; 

 it was asked of what earthly use it was to adopt the plan of 

 appointing conciliatory commissioners when the nobles had al- 

 ready definitely constituted themselves as a separate and inde- 

 pendent order. And how revolting were the words of the Due 

 de Praslin when he spoke of the desire of the nobles for fraternal 

 union, when they had shown, by their very action of constituting 

 themselves, just the opposite desire. The debate was interrupted 

 by the arrival of a deputation of the clergy, which again pre- 

 sented the plan of May 7, giving as an explanation for this repeti- 

 tion that on the former day the tiers-etat had requested the prop- 

 osition in writing. 2 On May 7 the commons had neither ac- 

 cepted nor rejected the proposition of the clergy. But since the 

 nobility had now accepted it, the situation had changed. It was 

 at this time most essential for the deputies of the tiers-etat to 

 maintain the full confidence of their constituents and also not 

 openly to offend or defy the privileged classes, including the king 

 and the court. They could not afford to appear arbitrary and 

 irreconcilable in the eyes of the people. When the question 

 whether commissioners should be elected or not came up in the 

 commons on May 14, Rabaut de Saint-Etienne proposed that 

 sixteen deputies be selected to meet with the commissioners of 

 the clergy and of the nobility to hear their propositions ; that the 

 commissioners should occupy themselves, however, only with 

 plans favorable to the union of all the deputies of the states gen- 

 eral. "The commissioners elected must never abandon the prin- 

 ciple of vote by head and of the indivisibility of the states 

 general." 3 



1 Recit, 15-17; Etats-generaux, 20, 28-29, 30-31; Duquesnoy, I, 14; Biau- 

 zat, II, 36, 59-60 ; Courrier de Provence, Lettre III, 2-4. 



2 Recit, 17-19; Courrier de Provence, Lettre III, 2, 4-5; Biauzat, II, 56; 

 Duquesnoy, I, 17-19. The lofty and haughty manner in which the Due de 

 Praslin read the decrees of his order offended the commons even more 

 than the decrees themselves. 



3 The Etats-generaux, 31-33, and the Journal des etats-generaux, I, 23-27, 



