It was M. de Lafayette who had the honor of supporting in the assembly of notables the royal project announced by M. de Calonne and advised by the Parliament.  In the ministry, MM. de Castries and De Breteuil had supported the equitable measure so long demanded by Protestants.  M. de Rulhieres had drawn up for the king a note, entitled:  Historic Evidences as to the Causes of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and M. de Malesherbes had himself presented to Louis XVI. a scheme for a law.  “It is absolutely necessary,” said he, “that I should render the Protestants some kind offices; my great-uncle De Baville did them so much injury!” The Assembly of notables appealed to the king’s benevolence on behalf of “that considerable portion of his subjects which groans under a regimen of proscription equally opposed to the general interests of religion, to good morals, to population, to national industry, and to all the principles of morality and policy.”  “In the splendid reign of Louis XIV.,” M. de Calonne had said, “the state was impoverished by victories, and the kingdom dispeopled through intolerance.”  “Are assemblies of non-Catholics dangerous?” asked M. Turgot.  “Yes, as long as they are forbidden; no, when they are authorized.”

The preliminary discussions had been calm, the great question was coming on; in theory, the notables were forced to admit the principle of equal assessment of the impost; in practice, they were, for the most part, resolved to restrict its application.  They carried the war into the enemy’s camp, and asked to examine the financial accounts.  The king gave notice to the committees that his desire was to have the deliberations directed not to the basis of the question but to the form of collection of taxes.  The Archbishop of Narbonne (Dillon) raised his voice against the king’s exclusive right to decide upon imposts.  “Your Royal Highness will allow me to tell you,” was the reply made to the Count of Artois, president of his committee, by an attorney-general of the parliament of Aix, M. de Castillon, “that there exists no authority which can pass a territorial impost such as that proposed, nor this assembly, august as it may be, nor the parliaments, nor the several states, nor the king himself; the States-general alone would have that power.”

Thus was proposed, in the very midst of the Assembly intended to keep it out, that great question of the convocation of the States-general which had been so long uppermost in all minds.  “It is the States-general you demand!” said the Count of Artois to M. de La Fayette.  “Yes, my lord,” replied the latter, “and something better still if possible!” The comptroller-general continued to elude inquiry into the state of the treasury.  M. Necker, offended by the statements of his successor, who questioned the truthfulness of the Report, addressed explanatory notes to the several committees of the Assembly.  He had already, in 1784, published