STATES GENERAL. his term is from the French Etats Generous, the assembly of the three orders of the king dom : the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate. The States General of France were convoked in 1614 under Louis XIII., and they did not meet again till 1785. The memorable convocation of the States General of France in 1789 led to the Revolution. A dispute arose between the two privileged orders and the third estate (tiers clat) about their mode of sitting and voting. It was at first proposed by the Breton members that the third estate should assume the name of National Assembly without re gard to the other two orders. Mirabeau opposed this proposition, but finally in the same year (17th June, 1789) the depu ties of the tiers tat with such deputies of the clergy as chose to join them, for none of the nobles accepted the invitation to join, assumed the name of the National Assembly, a term which had sometimes been used to designate the States General.
The king, Louis XVI., afterwards sanc tioned the union of the three estates in one National Assembly. One of the early acts of the National Assembly was the publication of the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen ;' a piece of absurd and incongruous declama tion which Mirabeau's good sense made him despise, and all sober people will be of his mind. [LIBERTY. The National Assembly continued its labours several months after the death of Mira beau, 2nd April, 1791. In September, 1791, the assembly presented to the king for his sanction the new constitution, which the king accepted, and the assembly dissolved itself on the 30th of the same month. The first National Assembly is generally called • l'assemblee constitu ante,' from its having framed the consti • tution. The constitution lasted about twelve months, and was followed by the Republic.