Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/189

 i] THE GREAT REVOLUTION, 165 tried to arre'it Espremenil, his chief adversary, but in vain ; the other members would not give him up, and when he was called for, answered, " We are all Espremenils." 6. The States General, 1789. — Seeing no other hope, Louis recalled Necker to his cabinet, and called together the States General at Versailles on the 5th of May, 1789. These States consisted of representatives of the nobility, clergy, and Tiers Etat or commons ; but nobody knew the bounds of their powers, and in the universal sense of wrong and vehement desire for the voice of the people, the Third Estate was inclined to stretch them to the uttermost. The first question was whether the verification of powers, that is, the examination of the return of each member, should take place by orders or all together. The Third Estate presently took the name of the National Assonbly. The king meant to appear among them, and the great hall of the Third Estate was being prepared, when its members tried to enter. Finding it closed, they thought violence was intended, and, repairing to a tennis court near at hand, swore to stand by one another till they should have framed a constitution. The king insisted on the three orders keeping apart, but the Third Estate remained, and the king sent a message bidding them withdraw. The answer came from the Cou7it of Mirabeau : "Tell your master that we are sent here by the people, and that his bayonets alone can drive us from our post." They then voted that the person of a member of the National Assembly was sacred. The king presently yielded, and the nobles and clergy joined the Third Estate in the Assembly. They then began to consider bf. their reforms. Some of the nobles and clergy were against all change which could alter thgli- positions. These were called aristocrats, and were re- garded with great disfavour. But many of both these orders and also of the Third Estate would have made cautious and prudent reforms. The party of change included, besides most of the Third Estate, such nobles and clergy as were ready to abandon those of their privi- leged rights which they felt to be mischievous. The most extreme of the democrats held that all men are natur- ally equal, that hereditary rights were an usurpation, and that kings, priests, and nobles were alike tyrants over the will, the conscience, and the person. These were afterwards called Jacobins, from a club which met at the old convent of the Jacobin friars, and in which they gained the upper hand. They had much power over the