ABSTRACT
It has been demonstrated to Your Majesty how important it is to preserve the only method of convoking the Estates which is constitutional, the mode hallowed by law and custom: the distinction between the orders, the right to deliberate in separate chambers, equality of votes [between them] – these unchangeable foundations of the French monarchy [. . .]
Nobles could be as concerned about civil liberties as educated members of the Third Estate, a fact which serves to remind us that the liberal attack on arbitrary government had aristocratic roots.
