4 Charles Kuhlmann 



intention of the deputies to prepare themselves for the discussions 

 in the National Assembly they could not well admit friends and 

 enemies alike, even as mere spectators. So, to allay the suspi- 

 cions of the people of Paris, they received into membership an 

 ever-increasing number of citizens who by their character and 

 reputation would discredit all evil reports.^ But this policy, very 

 fatal to the society in the end, contributed in March, 1790, to 

 bring about the revolt of some one hundred and twenty deputies 

 who were offended at the influence non-deputies were thus en- 

 abled to exercise upon the decisions of the National Assembly. 

 These secessionists established themselves in a rival club at the 

 house of the Comte de Crillon, holding its meetings upon the 

 same days and hours as those of the Jacobins, and admitting all 

 members of the latter society who were at the same time deputies 

 to the National Assembly. This greatly alarmed the Jacobins, 

 who began at once to make overtures of peace. On March 15, 

 1790, Charles Lameth, then president of the society, followed by 

 a large number of members, appeared at the Crillon assembly 

 and besought its members earnestly to return in the interest of 

 unity among the patriots. They promised that thereafter two or 

 three sessions a week should be held from which non-deputies 

 would be excluded. What agreement was finally reached — cer- 

 tainly not the one here proposed — we do not know, but the efforts 

 of the Jacobins were successful in bringing the schism to an end.- 

 But the presence of non-deputies was not the only cause that 

 had driven some of the members of the National Assembly from 

 the society. The Lameths and their friends had already begun 

 to exercise more influence than some were able to endure. So 

 severe was the personal strife, that Charles Lameth declared the 

 Comte de Crillon and Larochfoucauld to be "vile courtisans."^ 

 It was supposed, too, by some that the society was directed by a 

 secret committee composed of Barnave, the Lameths, D'Aiguil- 

 lon, Duport, Labord, and Baron Menou, who assembled at a 

 place in the Rue Saint-Nicaise or Basse-du-Rempart. This con- 



' Dubois-Cranc^, Analyse de la revolution frangaise, p. 51, cited by 

 Aulard, I, xix. 



■^ Duquesnoy,yi3«r«a/, I, bulletin of March 16, 1790. 

 ^Ibid. 



232 



