ABSTRACT
The Assembly at Bordeaux had been elected nominally for one purpose only—to establish peace with Germany. Many maintained that it had no mandate for anything else and that when once peace was signed it ought to dissolve. But France was faced by many pressing questions, and it seemed dangerous to have another general election after so short an interval. The Assembly persisted in regarding itself as a sovereign assembly, resting on the choice of the people of France and competent to decide whatever questions presented themselves. The most important question was the form of government under which the country was to live for the future. Of the 600 members of the Assembly at least two-thirds were in favour of a return to some form of monarchy, Legitimist, Orleanist, or Imperial. Yet this predominantly royalist Assembly established the Republic. That is the paradox of the next decade of French history.
