CHAPTER V.

PARTIES AND POLITICIANS UNDER THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 98-128

No real party-government in the Assembly.--Gradual formation of parties.--The Conservative Right and its various groups.--Maury and Cazalés.--Mounier, Malouet and their friends.--The party of Reform.--Bailly, Sieyès, Talleyrand, Lafayette, Mirabeau, and others.--Duport, Barnave and Lameth.--Robespierre and the extreme Left.--Predominance of the democratic party outside the Assembly.--The Cordeliers, the Jacobins and other clubs.--The birth of modern journalism.--Prominent journalists and newspapers.--Mirabeau and Barère.--Brissot, Loustallot and Camille Desmoulins.--Marat and the _Ami du Peuple_.--Royalist journals.--Mallet du Pan and the _Mercure_.--Important politicians of this period.--Philippe of Orleans.--Necker.--The Comte de Provence.--Lafayette.--Mirabeau.--Mirabeau's exceptional insight and ability.--His aims and attitude from the first.--His desire to establish a strong, popular Government.--His vain attempts to win Lafayette.--His ascendency in the Assembly.--His notes for the Court and plans for reconciling the Crown with the Revolution.--Summary of his character.