The Counter Revolution of June-July 133 



that the Archbishop of Chartres proposed that copies of the letter 

 of the king be distributed in the bureaus and that the question be 

 discussed the next day but no action was taken by the assembly. ^''^ 

 So conservative was the assembly that no mention was made in the 

 Proces-verhal of the discussion. Thus it appears that the assembly 

 took the answer of the king at its face value and although it was 

 generally known that the government was planning a coup d'etat 

 the members of the assembly were unwilling to take any action 

 which would precipitate any clash with the king. 



XIII 



What was the significance of this failure to act on the part of 

 the assembly? What had been gained since the union of the 

 orders ? The third estate by assuming that the union was perma- 

 nent had succeeded in bringing about verification of credentials in 

 common. It had, furthermore, secured a single assembly with 

 majority rule for, in spite of the protests against a single assembly 

 and against vote by head, and in spite of imperative instructions 

 urged by the upper orders as obstacles in the way of a single 

 assembly, the orders had finally been absorbed. Organization and 

 unification were completed by the election of officers, the distribu- 

 tion of the members into bureaus and the establishment of com- 

 mittees. The activities of the assembly had been limited to some 

 discussions on subsistence and finance and a plan of work on 

 the constitution. That public opinion was in sympathy with the 

 assembly was shown by the addresses sent from various sections 

 of the country. However, the reform work of the assembly had 

 not yet begun, although an instrument had been created for the 

 passage of a constitution. A single assembly with majority rule 

 put the control of reform into the hands of the middle class. 

 What then could prevent the assembly from reforming France? 

 An armed force in the hands of the king. Such a force was 

 already being gathered and it was believed that the king intended 

 to use it to force his June measures through or to dissolve the 

 assembly. 



606 Duquesnoy, Journal, I, 187; Courrier de Provence, I, 19th letter, 413; 

 Assemblee nationale, I, 469. 



