and the nobility had attempted to throw the whole burden of it upon the third estate; the third estate had very properly claimed that each of the three orders should, share proportionately in this expense, and the chancellor had with some difficulty got it decided that the matter should stand so.  On the 14th of March, accordingly, the six sections of the estates met and elected three or four deputies apiece.  The deputies were a little surprised, on entering their sessions-hall, to find it completely dismantled:  carpets, hangings, benches, table, all had been removed, so certainly did the government consider the session over.  Some members, in disgust, thought and maintained that the estates ought not to separate without carrying away with them the resolutions set down in their general memorial, formally approved and accompanied by an order to the judges to have them executed.  “But a much larger number,” says Masselin, “were afraid of remaining too long, and many of our colleagues, in spite of the zeal which they had once shown, had a burning desire to depart, according to the princes’ good pleasure and orders.  As for us, we enjoined upon the three deputies of our Norman nationality not to devote themselves solely to certain special affairs which had not yet been terminated, but to use redoubled care and diligence in all that concerned the general memorial and the aggregate of the estates.  And having thus left our commissioners at Tours and put matters to rights, we went away well content; and we pray God that our labors and all that has been done may be useful for the people’s welfare.”

Neither Masselin nor his descendants for more than three centuries were destined to see the labors of the states-general of 1484 obtain substantial and durable results.  The work they had conceived and attempted was premature.  The establishment of a free government demands either spontaneous and simple virtues, such as may be found in a young and small community, or the lights, the scientific method, and the wisdom, painfully acquired and still so imperfect, of great and civilized nations.  France of the fifteenth century was in neither of these conditions.  But it is a crown of glory to have felt that honest and patriotic ambition which animated Masselin and his friends at their exodus from the corrupt and corrupting despotism of Louis XI.  Who would dare to say that their attempt, vain as it was for them, was so also for generations separated from them by centuries?  Time and space are as nothing in the mysterious development of God’s designs towards men, and it is the privilege of mankind to get instruction and example from far-off memories of their own history.  It was a duty to render to the states-general of 1484 the homage to which they have a right by reason of their intentions and their efforts on behalf of the good cause and in spite of their unsuccess.