ABSTRACT
Before examining the mental characteristics of the Legislative Assembly, this chapter summarises the considerable political events which marked its short year's life. The Legislative Assembly, formed of new men, presented quite a special interest from the psychological point of view. Few assemblies have offered in such a degree the characteristics of the political collectivity. The psychological characteristics of the Legislative Assembly were those of the Constituent Assembly, but were greatly accentuated. They may be summed up in four words: impressionability, mobility, timidity, and weakness. Conscious of its impotence, the Legislative Assembly dissolved itself a fortnight later in order to give way to the Convention. The history of the two previous revolutionary Assemblies proves once more to what point events carry within them their inevitable consequences. The first measures of the Constituent Assembly were rational and voluntary, but the results which followed were beyond all will or reason or foresight.
