he balance of reason and opinion, and found
wanting; and a favorable opportunity was only required, and the first
that presented itself was eagerly seized to put in practice what had
been already resolved upon in theory by the wits, philosophers, and
philanthropists of the eighteenth century. From the first calling
together the general council of the nation to deliberate and determine
for the public good, in the then prevailing ferment of the popular
feeling and with the predisposing causes, not a measure of finance was
to be looked to, but a revolution became inevitable. All the _cahiers_,
or instructions given to the deputies by the great mass of their
constituents, show that the kingdom at large was ripe for a material
change in its civil and political institutions, and for the most part
point out the individual grievances which were afterward done away with.

The States-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789. They consisted of
the representatives of the nobility, of the clergy, and of the _Tiers
Etat_ or people in general, the number of the last having been doubled
in order to equal that of the other two. They heard mass the evening
before at the Church of St. Louis, in the same dresses, and with the
same forms and order of precedence as in 1614, the last time they had
ever been assembled. The King opened the sitting with a speech which
gave little satisfaction, as it dwelt chiefly on the liquidation of the
debt and the unsettled state of the public mind, and did not go into
those general measures on which the views of the assembly were bent and
from which alone relief was expected. The first question which divided
opinion and led to a conflict was that regarding the vote by head or by
order. By the first mode, that of counting voices, the commons would be
numerically on a par with the privileged classes; by the latter, their
opponents would always have the advantage of two to one. In order to
keep this advantage, and prevent that reform of abuses which the Third
Estate was supposed to have principally at heart, the Court did all it
could to separate the different orders, first by adhering to etiquette,
afterward by means of intrigue, and in the end by force.

On the day following the meeting, the deputies of the three estates were
called upon to verify their powers, which the nobles and clergy wished
to do apart; but the commons refused to take any steps toward this
object, except conjointly, or as a general legi