The Counter Revolution of June-July 79 



VIII 



Thus far we have considered only the organization and unifica- 

 tion of the assembly, but it must be remembered that practically all 

 the cahiers demanded a constitution and that the deputies con- 

 sidered this the most important part of their work. Some of the 

 cahiers of the privileged orders implied that a constitution 

 already existed and that all that was necessary was to amend 

 this constitution, while the cahiers of the third estate generally 

 assumed that a new constitution must be made. The clergy 

 and nobles based their ideas on tradition and precedent, but the 

 third estate wished to ignore the old institutions of France, which 

 had never been approved by the people, and to leave the states- 

 general free to mould the constitution to meet their wishes. In 

 the discussions which occupied the attention of the assembly after 

 the union of the orders impatience to take up work on the consti- 

 tution was frequently manifested and it was only natural that this 

 should be one of the first questions to be considered after the 

 organization of the assembly was well under way. 



On July 6 it was proposed that the assembly should "occupy 

 itself at once with fixing the constitution of the kingdom and 

 that there should be established a particular committee to prepare 

 the order of the work."^**^ This committee was to be known as 

 the bureau of correspondance or central committee and was to 

 correspond with all the other bureaus.*"* Among the questions to 

 be considered by this committee was that of a declaration of 

 rights. *°^ Rabaud de Saint-Etienne, reporter for the committee 

 on rules, presented a project for the establishment of a committee 

 of sixteen for this purpose, but the assembly felt that on such a 

 vital question a larger number would act more wisely and more 

 deliberately .*°^ According to the Point du jour, the president 



*03 Pfoces-verbal, I, No. 16, 3; Biauzat, Sa vie et sa correspondance, II, 

 161; Journal de Paris, No. 189, 848 (July 6). 



^'^'^ Point du jour, I, 123; Courrier de Provence, I, 17th letter, 14; As- 

 semblee nationale, 379 ; Bulletins de I'assemblce nationale, July 6 ; Journal 

 de Paris, No. 189, 848 (July 6). 



^^^ Assemble e nationale,!, 2,79', Bulletins de I'asscmblee nationale, July 6. 



^^^ Point du jour, I, 124; Bulletins de I'assemblee nationale, July 6. 



361 



