In September, 1787, he received a visit from Lavoisier, Berthollet, Fourcroy, Monge, and Vandermonde. Dr. Beddoes, who was travelling through France at the time, and happened to be in Dijon, joined the party. The object of the meeting was to discuss several experiments explanatory of the new doctrine. In 1789 an attempt was made to get him admitted as a member of the Academy of Sciences; but it failed, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of Berthollet and his other chemical friends. The French revolution had now broken out, occasioned by the wants of the state on the one hand, and the resolute determination of the clergy and the nobility on the other, not to submit to bear any share in the public burdens. During the early part of this revolution Morveau took no part whatever in politics. In 1790, when France was divided into departments, he was named one of a commission by the National Assembly for the formation of the department of the Côte d'Or. On the 25th of August, 1791, he received from the Academy of Sciences the annual prize of 2000 francs, for the most useful work published in the course of the year. This was decreed him for his Dictionary of Chemistry, in the Encyclopédie Méthodique. Aware of the pressing necessities of the state, Morveau seized the opportunity of showing his desire of contributing towards its relief, by making a patriotic offering of the whole amount of his prize. When the election of the second Constitutional Assembly took place, he was nominated a member by the electoral college of his department. A few months before, his name had appeared among the list of members proposed by the assembly, for the election of a governor to the heir-apparent. All this, together with the dignity of solicitor-general of the department to which he had recently been raised, not permitting him to continue his chemical lectures at Dijon, of which he had already delivered fifteen gratuitous courses, he resigned his chair in favour of Dr. Chaussier, afterwards a distinguished professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris; and, bidding adieu to his native city, proceeded to Paris. On the ever memorable 16th of January, 1793, he voted with the majority of deputies. He was therefore, in consequence of this vote, a regicide. During the same year he resigned, in favour of the republic, his pension of two thousand francs, together with the arrears of that pension.