52 Ethel Lee Howie 



agreed that a delegation should be admitted. The vote was about 

 to be taken on the number to be admitted when word was brought 

 that the minority of the clergy and the majority of the nobles were 

 on their way to the common hall.^^^ The question was dropped 

 for that day and was not taken up again until July 3 when Prieur 

 brought the question before the assembly.^'^ Three questions, he 

 stated, must be decided : " Did San Domingo have any right to 

 send a deputation? Was the deputation regular? How many 

 deputies should be admitted ? The first two questions had already 

 been decided " so the question now was, how many should be 

 admitted? He stated that the committee itself was undecided 

 regarding the number which should be admitted.^^" The report of 

 Prieur started a debate which lasted during July 3 and 4. In con- 

 sidering the proper basis for representation the negro question was 

 naturally raised, and the debate on July 3 centered on this. Mira- 

 beau, Turkheim, Bouche and Garat claimed that suffrage should 

 be the basis of representation and that so long as the blacks had no 

 part in the government they should not be represented. Mirabeau 

 said that the colony should not claim any other basis of repre- 

 sentation than what had served the French provinces.^^^ If colo- 

 nial riches and reports of commerce were considered so must the 

 great fortune that husbandry puts into the balance of commerce.-^^ 

 " The maritime cities and the great merchants," he felt, " would 

 also have a right to claim a greater representation.^®^ The colony 



278 Proces-verbal, No. 9, 5. 



^'^^ Point du jour, I, 99; Biauzat, Sa vie et sa correspondance, II, 157; 

 Assemhlee nationale, I, 323 ; Gazette de Leyde, Sup. No. 56, July 5 ; Cour- 

 tier de Provence, I, i6th letter, 4; Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 158; Proces- 

 verbal, I, No. 14, I ; Bulletins de I'asscmhlee nationale, July 3 ; Journal de 

 Paris, No. 186, 835 (July 5). 



2S0 Assemblee nationale, I, 323. 



-^'^ Point du jour, I. 99; Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 159. 



282 Point du jour, I, 99. 



"^^^ Joint du jour, I, 99; Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 159, names the cities of 

 Lyon, Nantes, Rouen and states " il faudra adopter des bases de repre- 

 sentation tellement metaphysiques qu'elles deviendront purement arbi- 

 traire." Assemblee nationale, I, 324, gives the names of Nantes, Mar- 

 seille", Toulon ; Bulletins de I'assemblce nationale, July 3, mentions Bor- 

 deaux, Nantes, Marseilles. 



334 



