heir superiors were consuming
their princely revenues in palaces of luxury and indolence. The
objects for which this body was convened, being of the first order of
importance, I felt it very interesting to understand the views of the
parties of which it was composed, and especially the ideas prevalent,
as to the organization contemplated for their government. I went,
therefore, daily from Paris to Versailles, and attended their debates,
generally till the hour of adjournment. Those of the Noblesse were
impassioned and tempestuous. They had some able men on both sides,
actuated by equal zeal. The debates of the Commons were temperate,
rational, and inflexibly firm. As preliminary to all other business,
the awful questions came on: Shall the States sit in one, or in distinct
apartments? And shall they vote by heads or houses? The opposition was
soon found to consist of the Episcopal order among the clergy, and two
thirds of the _Noblesse_; while the _Tiers Etat_ were, to a man, united
and determined. After various propositions of compromise had failed,
the Commons undertook to cut the Gordian knot. The Abbe Sieyes, the most
logical head of the nation, (author of the pamphlet '_Qu'est ce que le
Tiers Etat?_' which had electrified that country, as Paine's 'Common
Sense' did us,) after an impressive speech on the 10th of June, moved
that a last invitation should be sent to the Nobles and Clergy, to
attend in the hall of the States, collectively or individually, for the
verification of powers, to which the Commons would proceed immediately,
either in their presence or absence. This verification being finished,
a motion was made, on the 15th, that they should constitute themselves a
National Assembly; which was decided on the 17th, by a majority of four
fifths. During the debates on this question, about twenty of the Cures
had joined them, and a proposition was made, in the chamber of the
Clergy, that their whole body should join. This was rejected, at first,
by a small majority only; but, being afterwards somewhat modified, it
was decided affirmatively, by a majority of eleven. While this was under
debate, and unknown to the court, to wit, on the 19th, a council was
held in the afternoon, at Marly, wherein it was proposed that the King
should interpose, by a declaration of his sentiments, in a _seance
royale_. A form of declaration was proposed by Necker, which, while it
censured, in general, the preceedings, both of the Nobles