MIKVBEAU. COMTE DB. 



MIRABEAU. COMTE DE. 



HI 



d four sittinga, Silyes, Barnave, and Catuui denied the 

 y of th* royal sanitiou. Mirabeau howoer persisted that the 



king's t*lt-*" was indispsoable ; and he coutiuueJ to support his 

 I title of representative* of the people. Mirabeau's opinion 

 was violently oppo', and the denomination of " National 



|y," which bad been sometime* used to designate the States- 



OwMtal. was adopted on th* 17th of June, on the motion of Sieyes, 

 th* minority who voted against it oontisting of ninety deputies. 

 Mirabom abwnt- d himself to avoid voting on the question. He wrote 

 to hi* Moid Major Mauvillou of tho Prussian service as follows : 

 "Supposing even that the king should give his sanction to tho new 

 till* which we bar* assumed, it is still true that tho deputies 

 if th* third estato have staked a kingdom at a game of chance, 

 whilst I wished to play at game of chess in which I was the 

 ktrooge**. It is certain that tho nation is not ripe, Tho excessive 

 ignorance, the frightful disorders of the government have forced a 

 bot-houM revolution, and we are carried beyond our capabilities and 

 our instructions." (' Lettres do Mirabeau a un de set Amis en 

 AlUmagne.') ' 



But the great step once taken by the Commons, Mirabrau was 

 faithful to them, and bol.ily supported the rights which they bad 

 assumed. After the memorable royal sitting of the 23rd of June, in 

 which Louis ordered the three estates to deliberate in separate 

 chambers, the deputies of tho Commons still retained their seats in 

 the common hall ; and when the Marquis de Bribe*, grand master of 

 th* ceremonies, reminded them of the king's orders, Mirabeau rose 

 and sail : " We have listened, sir, to the intentions which have been 

 noected to the king ; but yon, who cannot act as his interpreter to 

 the National Assembly you, who hold here neither seat, nor vote, nor 

 right of speaking you are not a fit person to remind us of his speech. 

 Oo, and tell those who have sent you, that we ore sitting hero by the 

 I ower of the people, and that bayonets alone can drive us hence." 

 All the deputies cried out, " That is the vote of the Assembly, and 

 our firm resolution ; " and the grand master withdrew. When he 

 reported to Louis the answer of the Commons, the king, after a few 

 moments' silence, said peevishly, " Well, if they will not quit the boll, 

 let them stay in it" Mirabeau was now acknowledged as the chief 

 l*ad*r in the National Assembly, and he continued to hold this supre- 

 macy for nearly two years, till the time of his death. Without belong- 

 ing exactly to any party, he was courted or feared by all. He wished 

 to form a party truly national ; and on the 27th of Juno he made a 

 speech, in which, after telling bis colleagues that agitation and tumult 

 could only be favourable to the enemies of liberty, he exhorted them 

 to calui the people, and save them from tho excesses into which a 

 furious seal might lead them. And he drew on eloquent sketch of 

 the advantage* which a rational constitution would ensure to Frauc ; 

 the equality of taxation, the freedom of industry, economy in the 

 finance*, the written law substituted for ministerial caprice. 



Louis XVI., after having sanctioned and even commando 1 the 

 union of the three estates into one National Assembly, allowed his 

 courtiers to collect a great number of troops near Paris and Versailles, 

 as if to overawe that anembly. It was then that Mirabeau, on the 

 bth of July, in an eloquent speech, denounced the measures of the 

 court as a plot agiinst the independence of the representatives of 

 th* nation, and moved a firm though respectful address to the king, 

 whom he excused, as if unconscious of what was being done in his 

 name, rrqu< slinghim to remove the troops from the neighbourhood 

 of the capital. The address was voted in the midst of acclamations. 

 It baa brtn said that this address, as well as many of Mirubeau's 

 >1 ches, was written for him by othir*. But his oratorical powers 

 arv proved by hi* extempore spteches and replies, which, as well as 

 hi* prepared speech*, have the same form and pressure, tho same 

 logic, the same inspiration, and bis own peculiar bold and somewhat 

 c*rel**l manner. He doubtless made use of notes with which his 

 friends supplied him, but he bad the art of making them his own 

 and stamping them with his original character. This is fully ant 

 honourably acknowledged in many places by Dumont himself, who 

 claims (and w* see no reason for questioning his statement) the greatest 

 hare in having written for Mirabrau. 



Louis XVI. made an evasive answer to the address; the people o 

 Paris took the alarm, which was increased by tha sudden dismissal o 

 N*ek*r, and an ituumction, ltd by Danton, Camille Desmoulins, 

 BttrUrrr, and others belonging to the club of the I'slais Royal, broke 

 out in the capital, which led to the destruction of the Bastille on the 

 13th of July, and the organisation of the militia of Paris. During this 

 stormy p*nod Mirabeau was constantly with the Assembly, day and 

 night, at Versailles, supporting tho firmness of the members, insisting 

 on th* Dtcc*wty of the king withdrawing tho troops from tbe capita] 

 and M-ndicg repeated deputations to tbe palace for that purpoee. Th 

 king at l*t coow.Ud to rrmov* th* troops, and went himself to Tori 

 on th* 1 7lh, wbr* b* sanctioned tbe formation of tbe new municipality 

 the arming of tbe militia, and other popular measures. Th* Ilevolutio 

 as DOW couiplet*, and th* old monarchy was dead. It has been sale 

 that Mirabrau bad conspired with th* Paris insurgents, in order t 

 make th* I hike of Orleans lieutenant general of tha kingdom ; bu 

 thi* accusation, as referring to that epoch, was at least premature. 

 Mini-ran n.ay hare known or suspected the intentions of the party o 

 tb* Dak* f Orleans, but hs also knew th* weakness of the duk 



personal character, his bad reputation, and his want of popularity ; 

 whilst Louis was still very popular with the people at large. At a 

 aUtr period, on the 5th and 6th of October, when the populace of 

 'aris went to Versailles, insulted the royal family, and threatened 

 leir lives, a plot was attributed to the Duke of Orleans, and Mirabean 

 wss implicated in the supposed conspiracy; but the National Assembly 

 eclared that there was no ground of accusation against either, 

 lumont, who lived at that time in Mirabeau's intimacy, examines the 

 latter pretty closely, and, in the end, leaves it in doubt. That some 

 ommnuic itions from the duke's party were made to Mirabeau through 

 ,acloa, the unprincipled author of the ' Liaisons Dangereuses,' ami a 

 ami liar of the duke, seems certain ; but the intentions of the conspi- 

 rators, and how far Mirabrau participated in them, are still involv- .1 in 

 lystcry. Dumont seems to think that the object of the movement 

 w^s to frighten the king away, and then to appoint tho duke lieutenant- 

 eneral of the kingdom, in which case Mirabeau might have supported 

 iin in the Assembly, anil have been appointed in return prime-am, 

 which post was the object of his ambition. 



Mirabeau was one of the committee -of five appoint d to present the 

 model of a declaration of the rights of man, on the motion of the 

 metaphysician Sieyes. But he was, from the first, opposed to this 

 eclnratiou, which be considered as a puerile fiction. He however set 

 bout the task with his friends Dumont, Clavicre, and Duroveray 

 ud "there were we, wrilin.% disputing, adding, striking out, and 

 xhsusting both time and patience upon this ridiculous subject. At 

 ?ngth we produced our piece of patchwork, our mosaic of pretended 

 ntural rights, which never exiited. The principle? intended to be 

 established by this declaration are dangerous in themselves ; for legis- 

 ators should not be tied down to general proposition*, which they are 

 fterwards obliged to alter and modify ; above all, they must not be 

 ramped by false maxims. Men are born free and equal ! That is not 

 rua ; on the contrary, they are born in a state of weakness and neces- 

 sary dependence. Kqual! how are they so, or ho v can they be so? 

 f by equality is understood equality of talents, of virtue, of industry, 

 if fortune, then the falsehood is manifest." Mirabeau, on presenting 

 he project to the Assembly, ventured to make some objections to it, 

 and proposed to defer the declaration of rights until the constitution 

 hould be completed. " I can safely predict," said he, " that any 

 teclaratian of rights anterior to the constitution will prove but the 

 almanac of a single year!" He however withdrew his motion out of 

 weariness and disgust, and the declaration was decreed. (Dumont's 

 Recollections.') 



During this discussion the violent members of the Breton club 

 afterwards the Jacobin club) charged Mirabeau with abusing his 

 alents, as if he wished to involve tho Assembly in contradictory reso- 

 utions ; and one of them, stooping to personalites, reproached him 

 with the irregularities of his private life. Mirabeau answered, with 

 dignified calmness, " Ufa doubt that in the course of a stormy youth, 

 Mrtly by the fault of others, but chiefly by my own, I bav committed 

 ninny wrongs, and that there are few men who have afforded more 

 matter for bad report and more pretexts for slander ; but I dare attest 

 to yon all, that as a public man, as a political writer or speaker, no one 

 can boast of greater courage, iu.lep mleuce, disinterestedne.i*, or of 

 ;reater uniformity and consistency of principles. Thirty volumes of 

 writings are there to prove my assertion." 



Then came the famous night sitting of the 4th of August, in which 

 the Assembly, on the motions of several members of the nobility and 

 clergy, abolished feudal rights, game-lawi>, tithes, privileges, and 

 indemnities, pensions not for actual services, the corporations of trades, 

 and all the provincial franchises, states, and assemblies, as well as the 

 charters of peculiar towns; questions involving an entire political 

 system were decided in a few hours, put to the vote, and passed by 

 general acclamation. From this sitting Mirabe.tu, Sioyos, and other 

 leading members happened to be absent. The following day the first 

 two strongly reprobated this hurried work; Sieyes mad<< a speech 

 against the sudden abolition of tithes, which he ended by the words, 

 "They want to bo free, and know not how to ba just." Mirabeau 

 exclaimed to Dumont, " This is just the character of our 1'n n.-himn ; 

 they are three months disputing about syllables, and in a single night 

 they overturn the whole venerable edifice of the monarchy." 



The next important discussion was that on tho king's veto. Mirabeau 

 had determined to support the absolute veto, which, in the absence of 

 a second or upper house, he considered of vital importance to the 

 monarchy. His speech on the occasion excited much surprise and 

 dissatisfaction among tho deputies. .Sieyes opposed the absolute veto, 

 and liiirnave and Pe'tion proponed a suspensive or temporary one. 

 Their motion was carried. Mirabeau did not vote on that oc 

 and such was the importance which even his antagonists attached to 

 bis name, that Camille Desmoulins and other democrats boldly asserted 

 that he bad voted in their favour. 



Mirabeau's speech on the national bankruptcy was to him a complete 

 triumph. In this speech he supported tho minister Necker, to whom 

 he was personally hostile, in his plan of a forced loan to make up tho 

 deficit in the revenue. Several members had proposed modifications, 

 which Mirabeau thought would destroy the effect of the measure. Ho 

 proceeded to remark upon the dangerous state of the public credit, 

 tho failure of the revenue, and represented a national bankruptcy, 

 with ail iU horrors, as the probable consequence of the rejection of 



