POLITICAL PARTIES, FRENCH. The states-general, that is to say, a convoca tion made up of deputies from all classes in France, convened by royal order in 1789, opened ,its sessions May 5, in Paris. It was called the constituent assembly, but by its own act, June 17, 1789, named itself the national assembly. At its opening, which was in a temporary hall erected for the purpose at Versailles named the "hall of the three orders," there was no such distinction as "left" or "right" to characterize political opinion. The deputies of the kere-etat, or common people, as distinguished from the nobility and clergy, were in that building seated in the lowest and back seats; while the nobles occupied elevated seats prepared for them on the left side of the hall, and the clergy the corresponding seats on the right side. The nobles numbered 285,. the clergy 308, and the commons 661. Mirabeau, though of the nobility, had been deprived of its privileges for misdemeanors, and entered the assembly as one of the deputies of the tiers eiat, and was seated with them on the floor of the great hall. Among the deputies on the floor were also Bailly, Robespierre, Danton, Barnave, Sieyes, Camille Desmoulins, and a host of others. who little dreamed then of the conspicuous figure they were soon to make in history. For a time the nobles and the clergy endeavored to have separate sit tings from the commons; but the latter resolutely refused to go on with business except as one body. A universal desire for the abrogation of all feudal privileges seized all classes, and even those who were about to lose them resolved to offer voluntarily as a sacrifice what they foresaw would soon be demanded. On the motion of the marquis de Noailles, Aug. 4. 1789, all feudal privileges except royalty were abolished, including those of the religious orders. All deputies were thenceforward at liberty to range them selves according to their individual opinions and affiliations. The revolution was is full ferment in Paris, and demanded that the king, the court, and the assembly should come thither. The great riding hall connected with the Tuileries was prepared for the assembly. There the seats seem to have been as in an amphitheater. The histo rians of the revolution here for the first time allude to la draite and la gauche, the right, and the left, as representing the extremes of political opinion. At that time the represent atives of the old nobility and clergy and their friends grouped themselves on the right side of the hall, those with less decided opinion occupied the center, and deputies of more boldly progressive opinions took the left side. The most violent democrats seem to have taken the highest seats on the extreme left, probably to be in more direct communication with the populace outside. "Danton took his seat on the high and remote benches which gave the name of ' the mountain,' to the thorough-going revolu tionists who sat there." Mirabeau, though the leader in all the great reforms of that convention, was not in the classification of "time mountain." It was his pride to consider
himself alone a party. It was not, however. until the flight of-Louis XVI. in 1791, that parties in the assembly became sharply defined so that the left signified republicans alone. Previous to that time the assembly, though legislating to root out all other feudal institutions, had been singularly moderate as to royalty; and had shaped the new con stitution for France so as to keep the king as the nominal executive. completely subject to constitutional control, yet still an integral part of the new system. But after his flight, capture, and return to Paris, the subject of royalty became the puppet of the demagogues.
Potion and Robespierre charged " the center" with weakness for not declaring the throne vacant, and proceeding to judge the king. In the center were then Mirabeau, 13arnave, and a group of strong men with whom the more radical mountain was beginning to measure swords. The club c,f the Jacobins thenceforward directed the policy of "the left." The assembly after its two years' work on the new constitution interdicted its mem bers from becoming members of the new legislative assembly. It resulted that the experienced statesmen of the old center were not in the new legislative assembly. Most of the old members of " the left" were members of the Jacobin club, and the old mem hers of the center were not. The club had every element of forensic and political power, anti all the turbulent population of the city in affiliation. The left and the mountain in the assembly became little more than its mouth-piece, voicing the aggressive and destruc tive force of the revolution. It was not republican, it was ultra•democratic. Its appe tites for absolute equality were only equaled by the individual appetites of its leaders for absolute power. Inspired by Robespierre and Damon from without, Chabot and 13azire were the club speakers from the mountain. Below that group, but still on the left, or left center, and known as ardent republicans, were the party of the Gironde—all new members—men of education, young, gifted, and ambitious. They prided themselves on their superiority in character and qualifications to the leaders of the Parisian club, and actuated by pure and noble motives, would not associate with them or submit to their leadership. Its principal members were Vergniand, Gantlet, Gensonne, Barbarous. The house of Mine. Roland was their place of meeting, and the genius of that noble woman was one of their inspirations. Eloquence and fine philosophy was their forte. Too proud to use the means employed by the Jacobins to secure popular support in the city, and too advanced in their radical republicanism to have the support of the classes who regretted the downfall of the old order of things, though outnumbering the mountain, they were not able to make head against the club which governed Paris and laid out the work of the assembly.