The scandalous scene of insubordination and plunder which had passed at Grenoble was formally disavowed by the actual conductors of the Dauphinese revolution. They threw the blame of it, with a very severe charge, on the subaltern Agents of the Juridical Department, and found in it an additional reason for desiring a constitution solidly established, and wisely balanced, to restore general order, and prevent in future these shocking contests between the Sovereign and his officers, between the Government and the people. The Assembly of the Nobility, on the 11th of May, sent up three Deputies to the Court, and immediately after separated; in the mean time, lodging in the hands of six of their Members full powers, and the right of convoking them whenever they should judge it necessary. The Deputies being well received at Versailles, endeavoured immediately by their letters to moderate the minds of their countrymen. It is but just too to observe, that the Magistrates of the Parliament had taken advantage of the first day of tranquillity to obey the King, and repair to their place of exile. Some days after their departure, at the call of the six Delegates of the Nobility, the superior Clergy, the Noblemen of Grenoble and its neighbourhood, the Municipality of that town, and several other Members

of the Tiers-Etat, assembled at the Hôtel-de-Ville, and the Baron des Adrets being President, opened a debate on the state of the province and of the whole kingdom. It was to no purpose that the Town-Major appeared, and in the King's name ordered them to separate. While they paid him formal deference, they shewed him that their resolution was not to be shaken. After a debate of twelve hours, the convocation of all the Orders of the province for the 21st of July following, at the town of Vizille, was resolved, and that, wonderful to say, unanimously by the two first Orders, while the majority of the third voted against it! The Municipals of Grenoble, in perfect harmony with the Clergy and Nobility, were immediately summoned to Versailles. There they heard the decree of the Council, promising the States-General, published; and perhaps flattered themselves that they had been the means of determining it. A few days after the publication of it, the Prime Minister invited to his house the Municipals and the three Deputies of the Nobility. He told them in the most gracious manner that their ancient Provincial States were going to be restored to them: "But

you surely would not have them," said he, "with all the feudal defects of those gothic in"stitutions, where so little account was made of

"the people:" and he proposed to them the States of Provence as a model. They all eagerly embraced the principle advanced by the Minister, who, on seeing the alacrity with which it was acknowledged, must have lost the hope of sowing division among the Orders either in Dauphiné or Britany. They parted promising to meet again; the Deputies openly professing that the resolutions of the Assembly of Vizille should be the rule of their conduct; and the Prime Minister secretly flattering himself that he should prevent the meeting of that Assembly.

The Mareschal de Vaux, the firmest, perhaps the most violent man in the French army, was appointed to command in Dauphiné in the place of the Duke de Tonnerre, who was recalled, as having been deficient in resolution or ability on the day of the insurrection in which he had nearly been assassinated. The Mareschal, as soon as he arrived, forbade under heavy penalties any person wearing the cockade of blue and yellow, which were the colours of Dauphiné, and had been made a badge of patriotism. The first order was obeyed; but it produced an immediate rupture between the Commandant and the Nobility. The dignity of Mareschal of France, a respect for which was so deeply engraven on the heart

of every nobleman and of every soldier, procured no attention to a warrior who had merited it by such long and honourable services. No body visited him, no answer was given to any of his invitations; and he was informed that all those who had been summoned to the Assembly at Vizille would attend it, whatever fate might be doomed for them. The Mareschal wrote in substance to the Government: " that he had "been sent too late; that when the Nobility of "a Province had declared that they would hold "an Assembly, they would hold it at the can"non's mouth; that not being able to prevent "the meeting, the only service he could be of "was to regulate and moderate it, by permitting "it, by suffering only the precise number of the

Deputies to go to the place of meeting; by

keeping away from them all idle, disorderly, "and dangerous persons; and by holding him"self ready to quell any tumult, if violence made "the interference of legal force necessary."

All this in fact he performed. He was applied to for permission to meet, and he granted it. Troops were stationed in all the avenues of Vizille to preserve the public peace, and prevent any disturbance of the debate of the Deputies, who repaired to their Sitting through two rows of

soldiers under arms. According to the Minister's advice, the Assembly were eager to put an end to the feudal defects of the gothic institutions. The Assembly consisted of two hundred and fifty Noblemen, among whom were some Ecclesiastics, and two hundred and fifty Municipals with some Citizens. They had the wisdom to reduce the number of voters to fifty, who fulfilled nearly the functions allotted to the Lords of the Articles in the ancient Parliaments of Scotland. The resolutions were proposed and drawn up by M. Mounier, Royal Judge at Grenoble, whose reputation commenced on that day. Being adopted by the fifty voters, they were presented for approbation to the rest of the Members present, who signed them with rapture. The three Orders unanimously resolved: "never to separate the interests of the "province from those of the whole kingdom; to "demand the States-General for France at the "same time with the Provincial States for

Dauphiné; to claim in both the double repre"sentation of the third Order already established "in all the Provincial Assemblies; lastly, to "solicit the King to abolish lettres de cachet, to "dismiss the present Ministers, and to recal pro"visionally the Parliaments till the holding of "the States-General." Among other resolutions, if not less important at least of an interest more