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 386 FRANCE laration of the rights of men. They debated further upon a form of constitution, and early in September they voted that the legislative power should be vested in a chamber of depu- ties that should be chosen biennially. On Sept. 21, after violent disputes, they conferred upon the king the right of a suspensive veto with regard to the proceedings of this body. The king accepted these measures. In the mean time the manifestations of popular excitement had continued in Paris with but brief inter- missions ; and the prevailing scarcity of money and of food, the discussions concerning the royal veto, the flight of many of the higher and most unpopular nobles, and other causes, had kept the excitement at a high pitch. The pro- ceedings at a ball given for a royal regiment at Versailles aroused the populace still more ; and on Oct. 5 a vast multitude, comprising a large number of women, with some thousands of gardes franfaises and national guards, went from Paris thither, and a tumult ensued, which was barely checked by Lafayette's interposi- tion. Daybreak of the 6th witnessed renewed violence; the palace was invaded and several of the king's guards were killed ; and the exhi- bition of popular force resulted in the consent of the king and the assembly to transfer them- selves to Paris. The assembly now extended the right of suffrage to nearly all the people, who were to choose electors, who should in turn elect national deputies ; de6reed the con- fiscation of church property for the benefit of the state, and the creation of assignats (see ASSIGN ATS) ; and passed an act reorganizing the country into departments and smaller divisions. Louis confirmed all these measures; and in February, 1790, he appeared in the assembly, where he was received with considerable enthu- siasm, and sought to display a conciliatory and liberal spirit. On July 14 he took the oath of sup- port to the new constitution, with the deputies and other authorities, in the champ de Mars ; and for a time it seemed as if a constitutional mon- archy would remain established. But the con- flicts in the provinces continued and increased ; the assembly became more and more sharply divided into contending parties, and the popu- lar orators incited the people to further de- mands. The details of the history of this pe- riod may be found in the biographies of the principal actors in its events ; especially in those of Mirabeau, at this time the greatest man of the assembly, and of Marat, Desmoulins, Danton, and others, leaders of the republican clubs, now more than ever powerful. (See es- pecially JACOBINS.) A great part of the army shared the popular feeling; and those nobles who had emigrated (already called les emigres), gathering on the frontiers and seeking to raise troops, added to the causes of the coming storm. The refusal of the majority of the clergy to take an oath of conformity to the civil consti- tution of their order as prescribed by the as- sembly led to further troubles; the influence of the clubs in the assembly increased; the king was compelled to dismiss his ministry. Mirabeau seemed the only man capable of con- trolling affairs at this crisis. At the beginning of 1791 there was a probability that secret negotiations and his own inclination might in- duce him to take office under the king and give his most powerful aid to the preservation of the monarchy ; but all hope of this was brought to an end by his fatal illness, and he died on the 2d of April, at the most critical moment. In the months which followed the aspect of events grew daily graver. On the night of June 20 the king made an ill-arranged and disastrous attempt at flight from France, in- tending to escape and ultimately join the forces of the emigres, with whom Austria, Spain, Han- over, Sardinia, and Switzerland had united in a league to resist the revolution. Louis was stopped at Varennes and carried back to the capital. The assembly now fully assumed the executive power ; and though the king's flight was not itself made the formal ground of any action against him, with its failure the last ves- tige of his authority disappeared. Indeed, the assembly formally suspended the royal power until the completion of a new constitution upon which they were engaged the one subsequent- ly called, from the day of its completion, the constitution of the 3d of September. A multi- tude, influenced by the leaders of the clubs, gathered in the champ de Mars (July 17) to de- mand the deposition of the king, but Lafayette dispersed them after a brief conflict. The con- stitution of Sept. 3 prescribed that the legis- lative power should rest in an assembly chosen biennially, as had been before voted ; and still, as before, the nominal executive authority remained with the king, as did the suspensive veto. Louis took the oath to support this con- stitution on Sept. 14, and on the 30th the as- sembly dissolved, after passing a vote for the raising of 100,000 men for the defence of the frontiers. Prussia had on Aug. 27 joined the coalition of powers against France. The regu- lation which excluded from the legislative as- sembly (which began its sessions on Oct. 1) all members of the outgoing constituent assem- bly, and prescribed new elections, had the effect to throw the leadership of the new body into the hands of the more democratic party. Of the 745 members, the majority had been chosen through the influence of the clubs. Almost every shade of democratic opinion was repre- sented, from the earnest and high-minded re- publicanism of the leaders of the party soon to become famous as the Gironde, to the vio- lent extremes which found expression through men like Lacroix, Chabot, and Couthon. The most important early measures of the session were those which declared the emigres guilty of high treason, and condemned the recalci- trant priests as agitators. Louis vetoed both these measures, and thus greatly stimulated the rapidly increasing opposition to the royal power. An army of 160,000 men was now (December) raised by order of the assembly.