In the first of these, the Third Estate should meet separately. It will
not assemble with the clergy or the nobility and will not vote with them
either by order or by head. It is vital to insist upon the enormous difference
between an assembly of the Third Estate and those of the other two orders.
The former represents twenty-five million individuals and is
charged with deliberating upon the affairs of the Nation. The latter, even
if they unite, have been entrusted with powers by about two hundred
thousand individuals and are concerned solely with their privileges. The
Third Estate, it is said, cannot form the Estates-General all by itself.