348 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



mous dictionary, and of the useless 

 profuseness of most modern rhe- 

 toricians. 



The revolution robbed Marmon- 

 tel of his place, salaries, fortune, and 

 resources. The old government 

 had been just and liberal towards 

 him, and he was not ungrateful : 

 from sentiment as well as reflection 

 he was no partaker either in the 

 enthusiasm or errors into which the 

 events of 1789 led so many men of 

 letters. Grateful for the magnani- 

 mous concessions which the king 

 had made to his subjects in the 

 month of December, 1788, he was 

 not deceived by the strange inno- 

 vations, the establishment of which 

 was prepared by conspirators and 

 the disciples of anarchy. 



However, he had it in his power 

 to take a part in that stormy scene, 

 and to go through it with more 

 success than his companion Bailly, 

 whose approaching popular fortune 

 he little suspected, and to whom he 

 was far superior in political know- 

 ledge, firmness of character, and 

 justness of thought. They were 

 both appointed electors by the Tiers- 

 Etat of the commune of Paris. Mar- 

 montel appeared at the electoral 

 assembly with distinguished marks 

 of favour; he was generally pointed 

 out as one of the deputies who 

 would be elected ; this popularity 

 lasted six days. 



The electoral body, usurping the 

 rights and the language of an in- 

 dependent political body, took it 

 into their heads that they would 

 govern the state and the king. 

 Upon an incendiary motion, made 

 by the declaimer Target, it was re- 

 solved, among other things, to give 

 orders to his majesty, that, without 

 delay, the press should be allowed 

 unlimited liberty. 



Marmontel opposed, with all his 

 power and eloquence, a conduct so 

 seditious. He found himself alone 

 in this opinion in which he persist- 

 ed : his credit vanished ; and he was 

 struck from the list of candidates. 



Neither fear, nor seduction, nor 

 policy could shake his mind. He 

 loudly professed his principles, his 

 contempt of those that prevailed, 

 and his horror at the criminal means 

 by which they were made to pre- 

 vail. I have heard him confound- 

 ing, with all the weight of a sound 

 and noble reason, dangerous men, 

 whose aversion was not to be incur- 

 red with impunity. 



About the end of the year 1791j 

 when he thought that all was irre- 

 coverably lost, he retired with his 

 wife and children, to a cottage 

 which he had purchased in Nor- 

 mandy. In 1 7^2, finding that anar- 

 chy made rapid strides, he thought 

 of leaving France and taking refuge 

 in Switzerland : a project which I 

 persuaded him to relinquish, as the 

 smallness of his fortune and the fate 

 of his family would not permit it. 



Although totally absorbed in the 

 education of his children and in 

 literary labours, he was persecuted 

 in his retreat, and more than once 

 imprisoned. At length, revolution- 

 ary tyranny having blunted its 

 bloody sword, before it could whet 

 a new-modelled one, France seem- 

 ed to breathe for some days. It 

 was in that short interval, during 

 the spring of 1797, that Marmontel, 

 by the voice of the worthy people 

 of his department, was returned a 

 deputy to the legislature. He 

 yielded to the pressing intreaties of 

 his electors much more than to 

 their illusion, in which he was not 

 a partaker. Coolly discriminating 

 circumstances, plans, and obstacles. 



