opening of States General of i^8p 33 



gives a summary of the arguments advanced by a deputy from 

 Auvergne, presumably Malouet. He declared that he was in- 

 terested in hastening the work for which all France waited with 

 impatience ; he insisted that there could be no danger in sending 

 the deputation, its object being merely to declare to the other 

 orders that the commons could proceed with the verification of 

 credentials only in the presence of the three orders united and, 

 hence, such a deputation could not have the effect of con- 

 stituting the commons a separate order. The speaker argued that 

 such an act on the part of the third estate would, on the one hand, 

 be evidence of the sincere desire of the deputies to accomplish 

 the work for which they were assembled and also, on the other 

 hand, it would lay the blame for this " inexcusable delay " on the 

 shoulders of the clergy and of the nobility. ^° 



Mirabeau again led the opposition against Malouet's motion. ^^ 

 The arguments advanced against the motion, according to the 

 Rccit, were that the commons could not send a deputation so 

 long as their credentials were not verified, since a deputation 

 carried the idea of an organized body back of it and that inac- 

 tivity on the part of the commons was the best means of bringing 

 success to the third estate and of forcing the privileged orders to 

 accept their demands.^^ 



50 Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 7. The account ends 

 thus : " II a termine en disant que les communes, par cette demarche, d'un 

 cote, mettraient en evidence un ardent desir de remplir I'object pour lequel 

 elles etaient assemblees; et de I'autre, etabliraient le clerge et la noblesse 

 dans une demeure inexcusable." 



^1 Duquesnoy, I, 10; Biauzat, II, 38; Lettrcs du Comte de Mirabeau, 

 No. I, II (Letter to an English lord). Biauzat says that Mirabeau took 

 the opposing side; Duquesnoy simply speaks of the " fureur " of Mira- 

 beau. While it is possible that the letter here referred to in the collection 

 of Mirabeau's letters was not written by Mirabeau, it evidently expresses 

 his opinions. The writer has the following to say in regard to the attitude 

 of the third estate: "Cette conduite est sage; car pour repeter une ex- 

 pression heureuse du discours du directeur-general, il ne faiit pas etre 

 envicux du temps; lui seul propage I'instruction, etablit I'harmonie, appaise 

 les discords. Toute demarche des communes, les eiit en compromis en 

 donnant des avantages et des pretextes a leur adversaires, ou exposes a 

 des resistances plus actives, a des contrarietes plus ardentes." 



52 Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 7, 8. 



235 



