exprefsly enjoin you, therefore, foon after the receipt of the prefent let ter, to convene and affemble in the town of ——, in the fpeedieft manner you can, the most proper of the three claffes (trois etats) of the bailiwick or fenefchalfhip, of, that they may confer and communicate together on fubjects of complaints, grievances, and remonftrances, and the means and advice they may have to propofe to the general affembly of the faid ftates; and after having done thus much, they are to chufe and name fuch and fuch perfons, &c. and fo many and no more of every clafs-all of them worthy of this diftinguifhed mark of truft, on account of their integrity, and the fuperior abilities they are endowed with. The above convocations and elections fhall be made throughout the kingdom in the form prefcribed by the regulation annexed to the prefent letter. The deputies or reprefentatives of the provinces, bailiwicks, and fenefchalfhips fhall be furnished with proper inftructions, and fufficient power to propose, remonftrate, advife, and confent to every thing that may concern the prefent or future wants of the ftate, the reform of abuses, the establishment of steady and permanent order in every branch of the adminiftration, the general profperity of our kingdom, and the welfare of all and each of our fubjects; affuring them, that on our fide they fhall find our beft good will and affection for maintaining and executing whatever fhall have been concerted between us and the faid ftates, whether refpecting the impofts they fhall agree upon, or for the eftablishment of a conftant rule in all parts of the administration, or on the public order; promifing moreover to afk and to liften favourably to, their advice on what The day is at length arrived which my heart has fo long panted to fee, and I find myself surround ed by the reprefentatives of a nation it is my glory to command. A long interval has elapfed fince the laft convocation of the states general; but although thefe affemblies have not for fome time been held, I have not been fwayed by the steps of my late predeceffors, to re-eftablish a custom from which the nation may earnestly hope to acquire new vigour, and which may be the means of opening to it an additional fource of happiness. The public debt was already immenfe at my coming to the throne, and has increased under my reign; an expenfive but honourable war has been the caufe, and the augmentation of taxes the confequences of it; but an unequal levy has caufed them to be more feverely felt. A very general discontent, a too great defire for innovation, have taken hold of the people's minds, and will end in mifleading their judgment, if they do not haften to fix them by wife and moderate councils. It is with this confidence, gentle men, that I now affemble you, and I rejoice to fee that it has been juftified by thofe difpofitions which the two firft orders of the ftate have shewn, to renounce their own pecuniary privileges. The hope which I have cherished, to fee all the orders unite and concur with me in wishes for the public good, will, I am certain, not be deceived. I have already ordered very confiderable retrenchments of expence ; you will moreover furnish me with your fentiments on the fubject, which I fhall receive moft gladly; but in fpite of the refources which the ftricteft economy can fuggeft, I fear, gentlemen, that I fhall not be able to relieve my fubjects fo foon as I could with. I fhall order to be laid before you the exact state of the finances; and when you have examined them, I am affured you will propose to me the most effectual means to establish them on a permanent footing, and ftrengthen the public credit. This great and falutary work will claim your moft earnest attention; it is that which will fecure the internal tranquillity of the kingdom, and maintain its confequence among foreign powers. The public fpirit is in a ferment, but an affembly of the reprefentatives of the nation will certainly hearken to no other counfels but thofe founded on wifdom and prudence. You yourselves, gentlemen, have been able to judge on many recent occafions, that the people have been mifguided; but the fpirit which will rule over your deliberations will answer for the true fenti ments of a generous nation, whofe diftinguished character has ever been the love of their king. I fhall banish from me every other fenti ment. I know the authority and power 1789. of a juft king, furrounded by a faithful people, at all times attached to the principles of monarchy; thefe have caufed the glory and fplendour of France I ought and I ever fhall be the fupport of them. But whatever may be expected from the moft tender folicitude for the public good, whatever can be asked from a fovereign, the fincerest friend of his people, you may, you ought to hope from me. May a happy union reign in this affembly! And may this epocha become ever memorable for the hap pinefs and profperity of the country. It is the with of my heart; it is the most ardent defire of my prayers; it is, in fhort, the price which I expect for the fincerity of my inten. tions, and my love for my people. The keeper of the feals will explain my intentions more fully, and I have ordered the director-general of the finances to lay before you the ftate of the kingdom. Letter from the King of France to the Being informed, that the difficulties which have been made relative to afcertaining the powers vested in the members of the ftates general ftill fubfift, notwithstanding the care taken by the commiffioners chosen by the three eftates to find out the means of fettling this point; I cannot fee without pain, and indeed much uneafinefs, the national affembly, which I have called together to be concerned with me in the new regulation of the kingdom, funk into inaction, which, if continued, would caufe all the hopes which I have formed for the happinefs of my people, and the benefit of the ftate, to prove abortive. Un (H) de: der thefe circumftances, I defire that the conciliatory commiffioners, already chofen by the three orders, refume their conferences to morrow at fix in the evening, in the prefence of my keeper of the feals and commiffioners, whom I fhall appoint, in order that I may be more particularly informed of the propofals for agreement which fhall be made, and directly contribute to fo defirable and preffing a state of harmony. I charge the perfon who fhall exercise the office of prefident to make known thefe my intentions to the affembly. Verfailles, May 28. Address of M. Baill, one of the Deputies of the Tiers Etat of France, to his Majefty, June 6, 1789. Sire, The deputies nf your faithful commons would long fince have folemnly prefented to your majefty the refpectful teftimony of their gratitude for the convocation of the ftates general, had their powers been verified, which would have been the cafe but for the obftacles thrown in the way by the nobles. They wait with the most anxious impatience for the moment of that verification, to enable them to offer you a more striking homage and token of their love for your facred perfon, for your auguft family, and their devotion to the interefts of the monarch, which are always infeparable from thofe of the nation. The folicitude your majefty experiences at the inaction of the ftates general, affords a fresh proof of the defire which animates your breaft to produce the happiness of France. Afflicted at this fatal inaction, the deputies of the commons have left no means untried to determine those of the clergy and the nobles to unite with them for the purpose of conftituting the national affembly; but the nobles having again manifefted their refolution of maintaining the verification of their powers feparately tranfafted, the conciliatory conferences opened on this important queftion were neceffarily at an end. Your majefty, defiring that they fhould be refumed, in prefence of the keeper of the feals, and commiffioners you have named, the deputies of the commons, certain that under a prince, who wishes to be the reftorer of France, the liberty of the national affembly can be in no danger, have chearfully 'concurred in your define as fignified to them. They are thorougnly convinced, that in the exact journal of thefe conferences laid before your majefty, you will discover nothing in the motives by which we are directed, but the principles of juftice and of reafon. Sire, your faithful commons will never forget what they owe to their king; never will they lofe fight of the natural alliance between the throne and the people, against ariftocracies, under whatever form, whofe power can be established only on the ruins of the regal authority, and the public happinefs. The French people, whofe glory it has been at all times to love their king, will always be ready to fpill their blood and lavish their property in fupport of the genuine principles of the monarchy. From the very first moment that the inftructions received by their deputies will permit them to exprefs a national with, you will judge, Sire, whether the reprefentatives of your commons do not prove themselves the most anxious of your fubjects to maintain the the rights, the honours, the dignities of the throne, to coufolidate the public engagements, to reftore the credit of the nation; you will acknowledge likewife, that they are not lefs juft towards their fellow-citizens, of every clafs, than devoted to your majefty Your faithful commons are moft deeply affected at the circumftance under which your majefty has the goodness to receive their deputation; and they take the liberty to addrefs to your majefty the univerfal expreflion of their regret, and of their refpectful fenfibility. His Majefty's Answer. I receive with fatisfaction the teftimonials of devotion and attachment to the monarchy, of the reprefentatives of the third eftate of my kingdom. All the orders of the state have an equal claim to my favour, and you may rely on my kindness and protection. Above all I recommend to you fpeedily to fecond, and that with a fpirit of prudence and of peace, the accomplishment of the benefits I am impatient to confer on my people, and which they confidently expect from my fentiments in their favour. It feemed to me, that you had only to finish the work I had be-. gun; and the nation expected impatiently the moment, when, in conjunction with the beneficent views of its fovereign, and the enlightened zeal of its reprefentatives, it was about to enjoy that profperous and happy ftate which such an union ought to afford. The ftates general have now been opened more than two months, and have not yet even agreed on the preliminaries of its operations. Inftead of that fource of harmony which fhould fpring from a love of the country, a moft fatal divifion fpreads an alarm over every mind. I am willing to believe, and I fhall tion of Frenchmen is not changed: be happy to find, that the difpofibut, to avoid reproaching either of you, I fhall confider, that the renewal of the ftates general after fo preceded it, the object of this affemlong a period, the turbuk nce which bly, fo different from that of your ancestors, and many other obj &ts, have led you to an oppofition, and to prefer pretenfions to which you are not entitled. I owe it to the welfare of my kingdom, I owe it to myself, to diffipate thefe fatal divifions. It is with this refolution, Gentlemen, that I convene you once more Speech of the King of France to the around me - I do it as the common States General, June 23. father of all my people--I do it as the defender of my kingdom's laws, that I may recal to your memory the true fpirit of your conftitution, and refift thofe attempts which have been aimed against it. But, Gentlemen, after having clearly established the refpective rights of the different orders, I expect from the zeal of the two principal claffes-I expect from their attachment to my perfon-I expect from the knowledge they have of (H 2) the the preffing urgencies of the ftate, that in those matters which concern the general good, they fhould be the first to propofe a re-union of confultation and opinion, which I confider as neceflary in the prefent crifis, and which ought to take place for the general good of the kingdom. Addrefs, prefented to the King by a Deputation of the National Affembly of France, on the Approach of numerous Bodies of Troops to the Capital, July 10. Sire, You have invited the national affembly to evince its confidence in you by this you have anticipated its moft ardent wishes. We come to repose the most ferious apprehenfions in the bofom of your majefty. If we were the object of thofe apprehenfions, if we had the weakness to be alarmed for ourselves, you would have the goodnefs and condefcenfion to allay our fears; and, even in blaming us for having doubted your intentions, you would treat our anxiety with tendernefs; you would remove the caufe of it; you would leave not the least uncertainty with refpect to the fituation of the national affembly. But, fire, we do not implore your protection; that would be to wound your juftice. We have conceived apprehenfions; apprehenfions which, we prefume to fay, are excited by the pureft patriotifm; by a regard to the intereft of our conftituents, to the tranquillity of the public, and to the happiness of a beloved monarch, who, having paved the way to the felicity of the nation, ought certainly himself to walk unobftructed in it., In the dictates of your heart, fire, confifts the true fecurity of Frenchmen. When troops are advancing from every quarter; when camps are formed around us; when the metropolis is invefted; we enquire, with astonishment, does the king diftruft the fidelity of his people? If he could have doubted it, would he not have poured his paternal anxieties into our bofoms? What can thefe menacing preparations mean? Where are the enemics of the ftate and of the king, whom it is neceffary to fubdue? Where are the rebels, where the leaguers, to be reduced?-With one voice the capital, and the whole kingdom, anfwer, We love our king; and adore the fupreme Being, for having prefented us, in his goodnefs, with fuch a fovereign. пе Sire, nothing but the pretext of the public good can render your majefty's confcience fubfervient to deception. If the perfons who have given thefe counfels to your majefty, had fufficient confidence in their principles to lay them before us, that mament would be productive of the nobleft triumph of truth. The ftate has nothing to dread but the wicked principles, which dare to befiege even the throne itfelf, and which respect not the confcience of the most upright, the most virtuons of princes. And from what circumftance of your reign, fire, can they infer, that you have reafon to queftion the affection and attachment of your fubjects? Are you lavifh of their blood? Are you cruel and implacable? Have you viɔlated juffice? Do the people impute their calamities to you? Is your name ever mentioned in their complaints? Can thefe evil counsellors affert, that the people are impatient of your yoke; that they are tired of the |