[Footnote 108: The Abbé Sièyes was one of the deputies sent by the Third Estate from Paris, and the only clergyman in their delegation.] [Footnote 109: Sièyes' motion was to _summon_ the privileged. By vote of the Assembly the word was changed to invite.--_France and its Revolutions, by G. Long, Esq._, p. 12. "The Assembly," writes M. Bailly, its president, "deliberating after the verification of its powers, perceives that it is already composed of representatives sent directly by ninety-six hundredths, at least, of the whole nation. Nothing can be more exact than this assertion. The four hundredths that are absent, but duly summoned, can not impede the ninety-six hundredths that are present. "The Assembly will never lose the hope of uniting in its bosom all the deputies that are now absent; will never cease to call upon them to fulfill the obligation that has been imposed upon them of concurring with the sitting of the States-General. At whatever moment the absent deputies may present themselves in the session about to open, the Assembly declares beforehand that it will hasten to receive them, to share with them, after the verification of their powers, the continuance of the great labors which can not but procure the regeneration of France."] [Footnote 110: Necker estimated the Third Estate at ninety-_eight_ hundredths of the population.] CHAPTER X. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. First Acts of the Assembly.--Confusion of the Court.--Hall of the Assembly closed.--Adjournment to the Tennis-court.--Cabinet Councils.--Despotic Measures.--The Tennis-court closed.--Exultation of the Court.--Union with the Clergy.--Peril of the Assembly.--The Royal Sitting.--Speech of the King. The first measure adopted by the National Assembly was worthy of itself. It was voted that the taxes already decreed, though not legally assessed by the consent of the nation, should be punctiliously paid. Instead of repudiating the enormous public debt, they appropriated it as their own and placed it under the safeguard of the nation. They then appointed a committee immediately to attend to the distresses of the people, and to devise measures for their relief. How vast the contrast between this magnanimity of the people and the selfishness and corruption of the court, as developed through ages! Thus terminated the eventful 17th of June, 1789, which may almost be considered the birthday of the nation of France. Before this event the _people_ had hardly a recognized existence. Though the cradle of its infancy has been rocked with storms, and though in its advancing manhood it has encountered fearful perils and the sternest conflicts, yet its progress is surely onward to dignity and repose.