8o Ethel Lee Howie 



suggested that there should be thirty on the committee, one from 

 each bureau. *°" The assembly decreed that all the members should 

 immediately go into the bureaus and choose one person by ballot 

 in each bureau to form this central committee. The committee 

 would begin work at six o'clock on that evening.*'^® The apparent 

 reason for hastening the work on the constitution was that at the 

 opening of the session on July 6 a report was circulated that the 

 Comte d'Artois had said, and even written, " that the assembly 

 was wise not to occupy- itself with a new constitution which they 

 (the government) were prepared to hinder and even to annul." 

 This same authority continues that " this news excited everyone 

 and is the principal cause for immediate action. They say that 

 it is urgent to work on the constitution without relaxation and the 

 committee of thirty was named to gain time." While the bureaus 

 were electing the members of this committee the Due d'Orleans 

 went from bureau to bureau to learn what each bureau was doing 

 and to urge them to lose no time. Furthermore we are told that 

 " at a meeting of the committee on subsistence on this evening the 

 Archbishop of Vienne and the Due d'Aiguillon assured those as- 

 sembled that the government did not wish the constitution dis- 

 cussed and that it had been decided to dissolve the states-general." 

 It seems that this report had a two- fold effect; it excited the people 

 so much that an attempt was planned to arouse the provinces 

 against the government and to prepare them to resist any meas- 

 ures against the assembly and it also caused the members of the 

 assembly to hasten the work on the constitution.**'^ 



On July 7 the names of those who had been chosen on this com- 

 mittee of thirty were read in the assembly.*^" It was observed 



^o'^ Point du jour, I, 124. 



408 Proces-verbal, I, No. 16, 6 ; Bulletins de I'assemblee nationale, July 

 6, says it was to meet at five o'clock. Biauzat, Sa vie et sa correspondance 

 (II, 161), says "this evening; " Journal de Paris, No. 189, 848 (July 6). 



*03 Bulletins d'un agent secret, July 7. 



^'^^ Assemhlce nationale, I, 381; Proces-verbal, I, No. 17, 6; Point du 

 jour, I, 125; Courrier de Provence, I, 17th letter, 14; Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 

 167; Bulletins de I'assemblee nationale, July 7, says there were 25 from 

 the third estate and five of the nobles on the committee. The list of 



362 



