62 Mae Darling 



Another attempt was made to induce the nobiHty to take some 

 action regarding the concihatory commission, according to the 

 account of Abbe Coster. He says that it was proposed to send a 

 deputation to the nobles to warn them that the clergy would 

 wait just an hour longer for an answer to their invitation to 

 name commissioners, and at the end of that time, if no reply 

 had been received, their commissioners would begin this work. 

 Coster says that this proposition received no more support than 

 the one to abandon their pecuniary privileges. ^^° 



The period, then, from ]\Iay ii to 13 had seen the naming of 

 the commissioners by the clergy, the decision of the nobles to 

 accept the proposition to appoint a conciliatory commission, but 

 without having named their commissioners and showing little 

 disposition to make any important concessions ; the third estate 

 had remained unwavering in its determination to do nothing that 

 could be interpreted as indicating that it had organized as a 

 separate order. Since the nobles had agreed to name commis- 

 sioners, it remained for the third estate to either refuse the 

 proposition and thus hasten the crisis, or to accept it and attempt 

 to find a peaceful settlement of the difficulties. 



The third estate thus became the center of interest. On May 

 14, the question was taken up as to whether they should appoint 

 conciliatory commissioners, and the discussion was continued 

 until Alay 18. It was Rabaut de Saint-Etienne who made the 

 motion on May 14 that the commons appoint sixteen commis- 

 sioners to confer with the deputies of the other two orders as to 

 means of bringing about a union of the orders, but with the 

 understanding that these commissioners should not consent to the 

 verification of credentials in the separate orders, or renounce the 

 principle of the unity of the states general. 



181 



the third estate still refused to organize and that the nobles had not named 

 the deputies as they had promised. This would indicate that the action 

 was proposed in the hope of hastening the action of these orders. 



i«o Coster, 13 mai. 



"^^"^ Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 19; Biauzat, 57; Du- 

 quesnoy, I, 19; Lettres dii Comte de Miraheaii, No. 3, 6; Journal des etats- 

 gencraiix, I, 23; Bulletins d'un agent secret, in La revolution frangaise, 

 XXIII, 366. 



264 



