The Convention, terrified at the thought of a general election, which might send up a malcontent or royalist majority, decided to impose itself on France for at least two years longer.

With an effrontery unparalleled in parliamentary annals, it decreed that the law of the new constitution, requiring the re-election of one-third of the deputies every year, should now be applied to itself; and that the rest of its members should sit in the forthcoming Councils.

At once a cry of disgust and rage arose from all who were weary of the Convention and all its works.

"Down with the two-thirds!" was the cry that resounded through the streets of Paris.
The movement was not so much definitely royalist as vaguely malcontent.

The many were enraged by the existing dearth and by the failure of the Revolution to secure even cheap bread.