the peers of the kingdom, on the 13th of July, 1787; by the states of
Dauphine in the assembly of Vizille; by the clergy in its assembly at
Paris. The provincial states had prepared the public mind for them; and
the notables were their precursors. The king after having, on the 18th of
December, 1787, promised their convocation in five years, on the 8th of
August, 1788, fixed the opening for the 1st of May, 1789. Necker was
recalled, parliament re-established, the plenary court abolished, the
bailiwicks destroyed, and the provinces satisfied; and the new minister
prepared everything for the election of deputies and the holding of the
states.

At this epoch a great change took place in the opposition, which till then
had been unanimous. Under Brienne, the ministry had encountered opposition
from all the various bodies of the state, because it had sought to oppress
them. Under Necker, it met with resistance from the same bodies, which
desired power for themselves and oppression for the people. From being
despotic, it had become national, and it still had them all equally
against it. Parliament had maintained a struggle for authority, and not
for the public welfare; and the nobility had united with the third estate,
rather against the government than in favour of the people. Each of these
bodies had demanded the states-general: the parliament, in the hope of
ruling them as it had done in 1614; and the nobility, in the hope of
regaining its lost influence. Accordingly, the magistracy proposed as a
model for the states-general of 1789, the form of that of 1614, and public
opinion abandoned it; the nobility refused its consent to the double
representation of the third estate, and a division broke out between these
two orders.

This double representation was required by the intellect of the age, the
necessity of reform, and by the importance which the third estate had