University Studies 



Vol. IX JANUARY igog No. i 



The First Revolutionary Step (June ij, 1789) 



BY CARL CHRISTOPHELSMEIER 

 I 



The success or failure of the reforms anticipated from the 

 meeting of the states general depended primarily upon the solu- 

 tion of two fundamental questions, namely, representation and 

 organization. The sum total of opinions as to their settlement 

 was as broad and as deep in content as was the volume of the 

 revolutionary spirit itself, and the extremes of opinion differed 

 widely. A large majority of the nobles, including the superior 

 clergy, demanded that each order should be given what seemed 

 to them the constitutional one-third representation, while the de- 

 mands of the tiers-ctat ranged from representation proportionate 

 to the relative population of the three estates — which would have 

 entitled the tiers-etat to at least ninety-six out of every hundred 

 deputies — to a representation equal to one-half of all the delegates 

 to the states general. The king in his council (December 2j, 

 1788) decided that the third estate should be given a representa- 

 tion equal in number to the combined representation of the clergy 

 and of the nobility. This decision, although most unsatisfactory 

 to large circles of individuals of each of the three orders, was, 

 nevertheless, accepted with a sufficient measure of grace. The 

 solution was truly a great victory for the tiers-etat provided the 

 states general should constitute itself as a single assembly. 



University Studies, Vol. IX, No. 1, January 1909. 



