After I had read over the list of the persons and descriptions elected into the Tiers Etat, nothing which they afterwards did could appear astonishing.  Among them, indeed, I saw some of known rank, some of shining talents; but of any practical experience in the state not one man was to be found.  The best were only men of theory.  But whatever the distinguished few may have been, it is the substance and mass of the body which constitutes its character, and must finally determine its direction.  In all bodies, those who will lead must also, in a considerable degree, follow.  They must conform their propositions to the taste, talent, and disposition of those whom they wish to conduct:  therefore, if an assembly is viciously or feebly composed in a very great part of it, nothing but such a supreme degree of virtue as very rarely appears in the world, and for that reason cannot enter into calculation, will prevent the men of talents disseminated through it from becoming only the expert instruments of absurd projects.  If, what is the more likely event, instead of that unusual degree of virtue, they should be actuated by sinister ambition and a lust of meretricious glory, then the feeble part of the assembly, to whom at first they conform, becomes, in its turn, the dupe and instrument of their designs.  In this political traffic, the leaders will be obliged to bow to the ignorance of their followers, and the followers to become subservient to the worst designs of their leaders.

To secure any degree of sobriety in the propositions made by the leaders in any public assembly, they ought to respect, in some degree perhaps to fear, those whom they conduct.  To be led any otherwise than blindly, the followers must be qualified, if not for actors, at least for judges; they must also be judges of natural weight and authority.  Nothing can secure a steady and moderate conduct in such assemblies, but that the body of them should be respectably composed, in point of condition in life, of permanent property, of education, and of such habits as enlarge and liberalize the understanding.

In the calling of the States-General of France, the first thing that struck me was a great departure from the ancient course.  I found the representation for the third estate composed of six hundred persons.  They were equal in number to the representatives of both the other orders.  If the orders were to act separately, the number would not, beyond the consideration of the expense, be of much moment.  But when it became apparent that the three orders were to be melted down into one, the policy and necessary effect of this numerous representation became obvious.  A very small desertion from either of the other two orders must throw the power of both into the hands of the third.  In fact, the whole power of the state was soon resolved into that body.  Its due composition became, therefore, of infinitely the greater importance.