On the Compromise Suggested by the Friends of the Ministry and the Privileged Orders
The ministry is most afraid of a form of deliberation that, by bringing matters to standstill, would also entail a suspension of any grant of the financial assistance that it expects. If agreement could only be found to cover the deficit, the rest would no longer matter. The three orders could argue as much and for as long as they liked. Indeed, the less progress they make, the more the ministry might hope to reinforce its arbitrary authority. This is what lies behind the appearance of a possible compromise that has begun to be circulated widely and that would be as useful to the privileged orders and the ministry as it would be fatal to the Third Estate.
This proposal is to vote by head in granting subsidies and on anything concerning taxation. The three orders would then withdraw to their separate chambers as if to impregnable fortresses, where the Third Estate would continue to deliberate without success, while the privileged orders
would continue to enjoy their privileges without further fear, and the ministry would remain the master. But can it be believed that the Third Estate would fall into so crude a trap? Since a vote on the subsidy has to be the Estates-General’s very last act, it will first have had to come to an initial agreement on a general form for all its deliberations; and it cannot
be doubted that this will not be far-removed from one which allows the assembly to maintain the use of all its wisdom and enlightenmen