000 francs, and then, on the 1st of May, 1787, dissolved it.
The new minister had, however, come to the opinion that his
predecessor's programme was the only possible one, and as soon as he
had got rid of the Notables, his late colleagues, he attempted to get
the Parlement of Paris to register the new laws.

The Parlement resisted; and popular discontent became a serious feature
of the situation. The Chancellor, Lamoignon, was burnt {44} in effigy
by the mob. In July, 1787, the Parlement of Paris demanded that the
States-General of the kingdom should be assembled. For a whole year
the struggle between the judges and the ministers grew hotter and
hotter. The arrest of d'Espremenil, one of the leaders of the
Parlement, in May, 1788, led to severe rioting in Paris, and only the
energetic use of police and troops saved the situation. Not only did
the provincial Parlements support that of Paris in its resistance to
the Court, but the provinces themselves began to stir, and finally, a
month after d'Espremenil's arrest, a large meeting at Grenoble decided
to call together the old Estates of the province, the province of
Dauphine.

This was almost civil war, and threatened to plunge France back into
the conditions of two centuries earlier. The Government ordered troops
to Grenoble to put down the movement. The commanding general, however,
on arriving near the city, found the situation so alarming that he
agreed to a compromise, whereby the Estates were to hold a meeting, but
not in the capital of the province. Accordingly, at the village of
Vizille, on the 21st of July, several hundred persons assembled,
representing the three orders, nobility, clergy, and {45} Third Estate
of the province; and of these it had been previously agreed that the
Third Estate should be allowed double representation.

The leading figure of the assembly of Vizille was Jean Joseph Mounier.
He was a middle class man, a lawyer, upright, intelligent, yet
moderate, who felt the need of reform, and who was prepared to labour
for it. He inspired all the proceedings at Vizille, and as secretary
of the Estates, had the chief part in drawing up its resolutions.
These demanded the convocation of the States-General of France, pledged
the province to refuse to pay all taxes not voted by the
States-General, and called for the abolition of arbitrary imprisonment
on the King's order by the warrant known as the _lettre de cachet_.

The effect of the resol