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At each proclamation, cries of “Long live the constitution, the nation and the king” made themselves heard everywhere. The purest satisfaction was expressed on the face of every individual who witnessed this majestic ceremony. As the year 1791 began, the contrast with the beginning of the previous year could not have been greater. The year 1790 had begun in an atmosphere of deep unease, with most of the old institutions of the kingdom suppressed but the ones destined to supplant them not yet in place. At the beginning of 1791, however, the new departmental administrations were functioning smoothly, as were the district tribunals – except in Paris, where they would open in January, 1791 – and the establishment of the new institutions created a deep sense of pride and accomplishment. Furthermore, at the beginning of 1790 there had been much uncertainty regarding Louis's attitude toward the Revolution, stemming especially from the arrest of the marquis de Favras. Louis's visit to the National Assembly on February 4 had dissipated these doubts, however, and the goodwill generated by that visit, as well as by the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, carried over well into 1791. Few in the nation doubted that Louis had completely aligned himself with the Revolution, and that the nation and the monarch were united in a sense of common purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It seems that one is taken up with destroying, as much as the remains of prejudices will put up with it, these former divisions of France into dioceses, governments, généralités and bailliages, which are no longer suitable to the representative order and could only maintain seeds of scission and ideas of corps and ordres. As the year 1789 began, and a sense of the nation began to crystallize, France was gripped by the imminent convening of the Estates-General, which was universally viewed as the forum for solving the problems facing the country. The level of enthusiasm was partially sustained, however, by a misapprehension on the part of the clergy and the nobility on the one hand, and the Third Estate on the other. For their part, many within the clergy and nobility, especially the latter, interpreted the December 27, 1788, decision by the Crown to double the representation of the Third Estate as an independent action that did not necessarily amend the traditional method of voting by order. The Third Estate, however, believed that vote by head was implicit in the doubling of its representation, and most elements within it felt a sense of gratitude toward Louis for the action. The drafting of cahiers in preparation for the opening of the Estates-General particularly encompassed many of the contradictory currents circulating in France during the early months of 1789. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]