III. The First Revolutionary Acts in 1789

One of the first signs of the gathering storm that would soon sweep over France was the fact that the king found himself obliged to convoke “les Etats generaux” (Estates-General) in 1788-which body was almost forgotten, and had not met in more than a century. It was made up of three estates—the clergy, or first; the nobility, or second; and the commons, or third. Delegates were elected in 1788, and in May, 1789. Twelve hundred assembled—some 300 of the first estate, 300 of the second estate, and 600 of the third.PFF2 734.2

At the very beginning a difficulty arose over the question of votes—should they be counted by head or by estate? As this question was not resolved in a manner satisfactory to the third estate, the latter, on June 17, proclaimed itself the “National Assembly.” This was the first revolutionary act. The king annulled this decision, whereupon Mirabeau declared that the Assembly would not disperse, and on July 9, 1789 it declared itself to be the “Constituent Assembly.” ^{7J. Isaac, Histoire revolution-empire premiere moitie du XIXe siecle, pp. 8-12.} On July 14, 1789, the proletarians of Paris seized and destroyed the huge royal fortress of the Bastille, the grim, visible emblem of absolutism. In August the National Assembly heatedly debated the question of the tithes, or taxes, for the clergy. In the same month the Assembly adopted its “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” And in October a mob marched to Versailles and urged the king to come to Paris to recognize the tricolor of the revolution. ^{8Ibid., pp. 13, 14; see also Edmond de Pressense, The Church and the French Revolution, pp. xxi, xxii.}PFF2 734.3