a positive fact," says Hua, "of which we were all witnesses; we always lost a hundred votes on the call of the house."--Towards the end they give up, and protest no more, except by staying away: on the 14th of June, when the abolishment of the whole system of feudal credit was being dealt with, only the extreme left was attending; the rest of the "Assembly hall was nearly empty"; out of 497 deputies in attendance, 200 had left the session.[2243] Encouraged for a moment by the appearance of some possible protection, they twice exonerate General Lafayette, behind whom they see an army,[2244] and brave the despots of the Assembly, the clubs, and the streets. But, for lack of a military chief and base, the visible majority is twice obliged to yield, to keep silent, and fly or retreat under the dictatorship of the victorious faction, which has strained and forced the legislative machine until it has become disjointed and broken down.[2245] ***** [Footnote 2201:"Correspondence (manuscript) of Baron de Staël," with his Court in Sweden. Oct. 6, 1791.] [Footnote 2202: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France, in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.--Dumouriez, "Mémoires," III. ch. V: "The Jacobin party, having branches all over the country, used its provincial clubs to control the elections. Every crackbrain, every seditious scribbler, all the agitators were elected ... very few enlightened or prudent men, and still fewer of the nobles, were chosen."--Moniteur, XII. 199 (meeting of April 23, 1792). Speech M. Lecointe-Puyravaux. "We need not dissimulate; indeed, we are proud to say, that this legislature is composed of persons who are not rich."] [Footnote 2203: Mathieu Dumas, "Mémoires," I. 521. "The excitement in the electoral assemblages was very great; the aristocrats and large land-owners abstained from coming there."--Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la Mark, III. 246, Oct.10, 1791. "Nineteen twentieths of this legislature have no other transportation (turn-out) than galoshes and umbrellas. It has been estimated, that all these deputies put together do not possess 300,000 livres solid income. The majority of the members of this Assembly have received no education whatever."] [Footnote 2204: They rank as Maréchaux de camp, a grade corresponding to that of brigadier-general. They are Dupuy-Montbrun (deceased in March, 1792), Descrots-d'Estrée, a weak and worn old man whom his children forced into the Legislative Assembly, and, lastly, Mathieu Dumas, a conservative, and the only prominent one.]