opening of States General of i/'Sp 3. 



order, although apparently of minor importance, was a source of 

 annoyance to the third estate. It emphasized the distinction be- 

 tween the orders, the thing which the commons most wished to 

 avoid. The deputies of the third estate were insisting that the 

 orders should be united and form one assembly ; anything which 

 indicated that the government considered the states general as 

 made up of separate orders naturally irritated the commons. 

 The distinction between the orders was emphasized still more 

 at the reception by the manner in which the deputies were pre- 

 sented to the king. Instead of being presented simply as deputies 

 of the states general, regardless of the classes which had elected 

 them, the deputies of each order were admitted separately — the 

 clergy at eleven o'clock in the morning, the nobles at one o'clock, 

 and the third estate at four.'^ Biauzat states, however, that the 

 deputies of the commons, instead of being presented to the king 

 at the hour named, were obliged to wait for three " mortal " hours 

 in the Salle d'Hercule, their turn not arriving until 7 o'clock.^ 

 This tedious waiting, added to the fact that they had been pre- 

 ceded by the other two orders, was sufificient cause for com- 

 plaint. We are told, furthermore, that the deputies of the 

 commons were not received by the king in the same room where 

 the clergy and the nobility had been received.^ If this is true 

 and if the members of the third estate were aware of the dis- 

 tinction that was being made, it could not but have added to their 

 indignation. It is clear that the government, everi before the 

 opening of the states general, had adopted a course which would 

 arouse the opposition and suspicion of the third estate. 



When, at length, the time for the presentation of the repre- 

 sentatives of the third estate arrived, the deputies passed in single 

 file, so Biauzat describes the ceremony, through a number of 

 apartments, to the king's chamber. Here they passed in front 



'' Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 3; Journal des etats- 

 gcneraux, I, 23; Mcrcure de France, III, 9 mai, 1789, Journal politique de 

 Bruxelles, 74. 



® Biauzat, Correspondance, II, 22. 



^ Rabaut, Pri-cis, 68. Mercure de France, 16 mai, 1789, Journal politique 

 de Bruxelles, 131. 



205 



