62 Carl Christophelsmeier 



address be presented to the king and to the public. The king's 

 veto power was necessary. "May our assertion [of the right of 

 the majority] become a law? Yesterday, today, we are still the 

 deputies of the commons. May a simple expression of our will 

 transform us into a national assembly? In this manner he fur- 

 ther criticised the motion and title proposed by Sieyes, modified 

 to asscmblee des represenlants de la nation. "What does the or- 

 ganization as representants de la nation signify? What law au- 

 thorizes it? Where is the sovereign will that has expressed this 

 just and useful intention? Are we alone the legislative power? 

 Are we able to supply it? Has the general will authorized you 

 to act thus ? Have your constituents instructed you to constitute 

 yourselves in this manner? It is true, gentlemen, that you are 

 more essentially the representatives of the nation than are the 

 deputies of the clergy and the nobility ; for the first elements of 

 the social and political power consist in the national body which 

 has appointed us. But instead of annihilating them [the orders] 

 you put them into action against you, if you go beyond your pow- 

 ers." Sieyes' title was a direct criticism on the other orders. 

 "This attack provokes instantly a defense, a resistance, a schism." 

 The eloquence and good sense of this speech did not influence 

 the assembly. Its effect was negative ; it even hurt Mirabeau's 

 motion. Dumont says, speaking of Mirabeau's motion : "This 

 motion, not very well understood at first, was not strongly op- 

 posed, but when Malouet, who passed for a ministerial, was seen 

 to support it and was bringing the moderates to his way of think- 

 ing, the popular party in alarm commenced a violent attack on 

 Mirabeau. The word pcuple, at first thought synonymous with 

 the word nation, was now placed in another light, as having been 

 invented to form opposition with the nobility and clergy who 

 were not the people and pretended to be above them. Invectives 

 were not spared. Mirabeau was termed an aristocrat in disguise 

 who had insidiously endeavored, by this title, to vilify the true 

 representatives of the French nation. The tempest, increasing 

 by degrees, seemed to burst with tenfold fury. 1 Mirabeau's mo- 



1 Dumont, 73. Mirabeau was not trusted and was often accused of being 

 sold to the court. See especially the letters of Duquesnoy. 



62 





