Five weeks had already elapsed in useless parleys. The third estate,
perceiving the moment had arrived for it to constitute itself, and that
longer delay would indispose the nation towards it, and destroy the
confidence it had acquired by the refusal of the privileged classes to co-
operate with it, decided on acting, and displayed herein the same
moderation and firmness it had shown during its inactivity. Mirabeau
announced that a deputy of Paris had a motion to propose; and Sieyes,
physically of timid character, but of an enterprising mind, who had great
authority by his ideas, and was better suited than any one to propose a
measure, proved the impossibility of union, the urgency of verification,
the justice of demanding it in common, and caused it to be decreed by the
assembly that the nobility and clergy should be _invited_ to the Salle des
Etats in order to take part in the verification, which would take place,
_whether they were absent or present_.

The measure for general verification was followed by another still more
energetic. The commons, after having terminated the verification on the
17th of June, on the motion of Sieyes, constituted themselves _the
National Assembly_. This bold step, by which the most numerous order and
the only one whose powers were legalized, declared itself the
representation of France and refused to recognise the other two till they
submitted to the verification, determined questions hitherto undecided,
and changed the assembly of the states into an assembly of the people. The
system of orders disappeared in political powers, and this was the first
step towards the abolition of classes in the private system. This
memorable decree of the 17th of June contained the germ of the night of
the 4th of August; but it was necessary to defend what they had dared to
decide, and there was reason to fear such a determination could not be
maintained.