130 Ethel Lee Howie 



(3) among the troops, for "French soldiers brought together in 

 the midst of discussions, sharing the passions and the interests of 

 the people can forget that an agreement has made them soldiers, 

 while remembering that nature made them men " ; (4) there would 

 be danger for the work of the assembly which could be completely 

 successful, only when the people regarded the deputies as entirely 

 free. " There is besides a contagion in intense impulses ; we are 

 only men; distrust of ourselves, fear of seeming to be weak can 

 draw us on further than we had intended to go. We shall be 

 possessed of other violent and immoderate counsels ; calm reason, 

 quiet wisdom do not deliver their oracles in the midst of tumults, 

 disorders and partisan scenes " ; (5) danger of a great revolution. 

 " Some great revolutions have had less striking causes. More than 

 one enterprise fatal to nations has been announced in a manner less 

 disastrous and less formidable." A warning was given against 

 those who talked too lightly of the nation, representing it " accord- 

 ing to their idea, sometimes insolently, rebelliously, seditiously ; 

 sometimes docile, submitted to the yoke, prompt to bend the head 

 in order to retain it." 



The statement was then made that they were ready to obey the 

 king because he commanded in the name of the law, but that they 

 were ready to resist all commands of those who abused the name 

 of the king. The king was then asked to send the soldiers to the 

 posts from where his counsellors had drawn them ; to send away 

 the artillery destined for the frontiers ; to send away, especially, 

 the foreign troops. "Your majesty has no need of them. Why 

 should a king, adored by twenty-five million French, collect at a 

 great expense thousands of foreigners? Sire, in the midst of your 

 children be guarded by their love. The deputies of the nation are 

 called to consecrate with you the imminent rights of the royalty 

 on the immutable basis of the liberty of the people. But when they 

 fulfill their duty, when they yield to reason, to their feelings, will 

 you expose them to the suspicion of having yielded only through 

 fear ? Ah ! the authority that every heart tenders to you is alone 

 pure and immovable; it is the just return for your kindness and 

 the everlasting endowment of princes, of whom you will be the 

 model." 



412 



