tracts and pamphlets had
inundated Paris and the provinces: some devoted to the defence of ancient
usages; the most part intended to prove that the Constitution of the
olden monarchy of France contained in principle all the political
liberties which were but asking permission to soar; some, finally, bolder
and the most applauded of all, like that of Count d'Entraigues, _Note on
the States-General, their Rights and the Manner of Convoking them;_ and
that of Abbe Sieyes, _What is the Third Estate?_ Count d'Entraigues'
pamphlet began thus: "It was doubtless in order to give the most heroic
virtues a home worthy of them that heaven willed the existence of
republics, and, perhaps to punish the ambition of men, it permitted great
empires, kings, and masters to arise." Sieyes' pamphlet had already sold
to the extent of thirty thousand copies; the development of his ideas was
an audacious commentary upon his modest title. "What is the third
estate?" said that able revolutionist. "Nothing. What ought it to be?
Everything?" It was hoisting the flag against the two upper orders.
"The deputies of the clergy and of the noblesse have nothing in common
with national representation," he said, "and no alliance is possible
between the three orders in the States-general."

It may be permissible to quote here a page or, so from the second volume
of this history. "At the moment when France was electing the constituent
assembly, a man, whose mind was more powerful than accurate, Abbe Sieyes,
could say, 'What is the third estate? Everything. What has it been
hitherto in the body politic? Nothing. What does it demand? To be
something.' There were in these words three grave errors. In the course
of the regimen anterior to 1789, so far was the third estate from being
nothing that it had every day become greater and stronger. What was
demanded for it in 1789 by M. Sieyes and his friends was not that it
should become something, but that it should be everything. It was to
desire what was beyond its right and its might; the Revolution, which was
its victory, itself proved this. Whatever may have been the weaknesses
and the faults of its adversaries, the third estate had to struggle
terribly to vanquish them, and the struggle was so violent and so
obstinate that the third estate was shattered to pieces in it and paid
right dearly for its triumph. It first of all found despotism instead of
liberty; and when the liberty returned, the