The Insurrection of October, 1789 23 



tion. It was claimed that the rights of the assembly relative to 

 the constitution and the decrees of August 4 were beyond the 

 power of the king's sanction or disapproval, and that all that had 

 been demanded of him was the promulgation pure and simple. 

 It was even proposed by Barnave to settle immediately the terms 

 in which the sanction should be given, and to send the president 

 to the king, to demand, without delay and during the session, 

 the promulgation of the decrees of August 4. 1 The action of 

 the king was regarded as a direct challenge to the assembly. 2 

 The discussion resulted in the adoption on the next day of the 

 following motion : "The assembly decrees that the president 

 go immediately to the king and implore him to order without 

 delay the promulgation of the decrees of August 4 and the days 

 following." 3 



The king's policy of procrastination would hardly serve him 

 in the face of such determined persistence. He was not in a 

 position to refuse absolutely, yet his reply on the following day 

 was hardly more than a subterfuge. "He was going to order the 

 publication of the decrees of August 4 in all his realm, but pro- 

 mulgation belonged only to -laws already drawn up." 4 



What interpretation could be put on the king's action in this 

 matter, if not that he intended to defer the promulgation of these 

 decrees until he should be in a position to defeat altogether the 

 wishes of the national assembly? And that such was indeed the 

 case is proved by the evidence of his own words. On the 5th of 

 August, 5 Louis. XVI. wrote the following letter to the Archbishop 

 of Aries: "I am pleased with this noble and generous proceed- 

 ing of the first two orders of the state. They have made great 

 sacrifices for the general reconciliation, for their country, for their 

 king. . . The sacrifice is fine; but I can only admire it; I will 

 never consent to despoil my clergy, my nobility . . . ; I will 

 not give my sanction to decrees which will despoil them, for then 



1 Proces-verbal de V assemblee nationale, No. LXXVIII. 

 2 Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 34^. 



3 Prods- -erbal de P assemblee nationale, No. LXXIX. 

 *Ibid., No. LXXX; Duquesnoy,/0«r«o/, I, 352. 

 ■ Revue historique, I/XVII, 2S0. 



289 



