MIRABEAU 



225 



was sent by the French government on a secret 

 mission to Berlin, and there from Major ManviHon 

 he obtained the materials for his work, Stir la 

 Monarchie Prussienne sous Frederic le Grand (4 

 vols. 1787). When the States-general was con- 

 vened he offered himself as a candidate to the 

 nobles of Provence, and was rejected, whereupon 

 he turned to the tiers (tat and was returned en- 

 thusiastically for both Marseilles and Aix. He 

 chose to sit for the latter, and, badly received 

 though he was at first, soon showed himself a born 

 leader of men, as well as the one really practical 

 statesman in the Assembly. On the 17th June, 

 on the motion of Sieyes, the tiers flat constituted 

 itself as the National Assembly, and on the 23d 

 Mirabeau made his memorable answer to the royal 

 messenger, the Marquis de Dreux-Breze, who had 

 come from the king to command the deputies to 

 separate : ' If you have orders to remove us from 

 tins hall, you .must also get authority to use force, 

 for we shall yield to nothing but to bayonets.' 



Mirabeau's political sagacity and foresight 

 quickly made him a great force in the Assembly, 

 while his audacity and volcanic eloquence made 

 him at once the darling of the mob and the terror 

 of the court. Meantime he extended his influence 

 by unceasing diligence in journalistic work, and 

 for his tats-Generaux, Letlres d mes Commettants, 

 and Courrier de Provence, drew on the knowledge 

 and abilities of a host of coadjutors, such as the 

 Genevese Duroveray and 6tienne Dumont. Moved 

 by his instinctive dread of anarchy, he proposed 

 the establishment of a citizen -guard, out of which 

 grew tin- National Guard, but Tie trembled at the 

 ' nocturnal orgies ' of August 4, 1789, when in the 

 breathless legislation of a single night were swept 

 away together serfdom, feudal jurisdiction, manorial 

 ground-rent*, tithes, game-laws, saleable offices, 

 MM, clerical robing dues, municipal and provincial 

 privileges, privileges of rank, exemptions from 

 taxi 1 *, and plurality of offices and livings. None 

 of his contemporaries equalled him in breadth of 

 view, temperance in judgment, and freedom from 

 prejudice no actor in the great drama save himself 

 saw that ' the notion of equality is only a fit of the 

 revolutionary fever.' He saw clearly" the fatuity 

 of Mii'h schemes as the foolish Lafayette's theatrical 

 declaration of the rights of man, pointing out that 

 such a thing might well enough lie done after the 

 work of constructing the constitution had been 

 accomplished. Mirabeau was not iiersonally re- 

 sponsible for the furious emeute of October 5 and 

 6, which brought the king to Paris, for indeed 

 hatred of anarchy was his most deeply-rooted 

 political principle. As early as May 1789 he had 

 tried in vain to come to terms with Necker and 

 Lafayette, yet his character was too magnanimous 

 to .ii-ii,. revenge for the rebuffs with which his 

 overtures had been received. He formed a warm 

 friendship with the Count de la Marck, a particular 

 fiiend ot Marie Antoinette, and in conjunction 

 with him he drew up his first memoir for the guid- 

 ance of tlie court, just after the transference of the 

 king and Assembly to Paris. In this admirable 

 paper he set forth the necessity for a new constitu- 

 tion, the initiative to come from the king ; that 

 all that had lieen passed must lie ratified and a 

 ic,|ii,n-ihl ministry appointed after the pattern of 

 the English parliamentary usage ; and that the 

 king must leave Paris for some such loyal city as 

 lioneii, and throw himself frankly upon France. 

 He suggested a ministry, with Necker and Lafay- 

 ette as it* prominent members, himself to have" a 

 seat but no portfolio. But the infatuated queen 

 detested and distrusted the great tribune, and the 

 My, mad with suspicion and fear, passed a 

 suicidal self denying ordinance ( November 7, 17H9) 

 that no member should take office under the crown 

 327 



while holding his seat, or for six months after. 

 Mirabeau's hopes were thus blasted for the time, 

 yet he worked on with unabated energy. He 

 surrounded himself with a group of able and 

 enthusiastic friends who provided him with his 

 facts, and even wrote for him his speeches and 

 articles, content to efface themselves to enhance 

 a beloved master's glory. Never was there so 

 marvellous a collaboration of unpaid enthusiasm : 

 Dumont wrote the political speeches ; Claviere, 

 the financial ; the Abbe Lamourette, those on 

 the civil constitution of the clergy. Pellenc, the 

 private secretary, constantly accumulated facts ; 

 the Genevese Reybaz wrote the speeches on the 

 assignats, and on the right of making war and 

 peace. The orator took freely these materials so 

 generously prepared for him, fused them in the 

 alembic of his own marvellous genius, and stamped 

 them afresh with the impress of his own indi- 

 viduality. 



In the spring of 1790 communication opened 

 anew with the court, and fresh appeals were made 

 to Lafayette. If Miralieau was a. bitter enemy of 

 feudalism he was a devoted friend of order, and saw 

 the necessity of a strong executive as its founda- 

 tion, but he was constantly mortified to find him- 

 self mistrusted and misunderstood. His past rose 

 up in judgment against him, and he could not gain 

 the full confidence either of the respectable classes or 

 of the court as he himself said bitterly to Dumont, 

 'The sins which I committed in my youth are giv- 

 ine me their full punishment now.' The court pro- 

 vided money to pay his debts, which were scheduled 

 at 208,000 liv-res among them the bill for his wed- 

 ding-clothes and agreed to allow him 100 louis a 

 month, with 300 livres for De Comps, his copyist, 

 whereupon Miral>eau broke out into indiscreet ex- 

 travagance. He risked all his popularity by suc- 

 cessfully opposing Barnave's motion that the right 

 of peace ana war should rest not with the king but 

 the Assembly. On the 3d July the queen gave him 

 an intcrvieWin the gardens at Saint-Cloud, and at 

 its close Mirabeau, with the fine chivalry of his 

 nature, as he bent to kiss her hand, assured her 

 with the words, 'Madame, the monarchy is saved.' 

 But as the popular movement progressed his dream 

 of placing the king at the head of the revolution 

 became more and more a dream, and he was cut 

 to the heart to find, as he did by the winter of 

 1790, that the court did not yet grant him its full 

 confidence, but listened also to other counsellors 

 than himself, and that it would not accept his plan 

 of an appeal to the provinces. He inspired Mont- 

 morin in his management of foreign affairs, and 

 showed himself a really great financier in his 

 measures to avert national bankruptcy, while he 

 continued to interchange notes of advice with the 

 court. His secret aim was now to undermine the 

 popularity and influence of the Assembly, and com- 

 pel it to dissolve. Neither counter-revolution nor 

 foreign intervention were witliin his schemes, but 

 the advent of a new assembly, which he hoped to 

 guide to a moderate conception of liberty and to 

 wise concessions to the throne. He suggested the 

 establishment of a bureau of correspondence with 

 the provinces, a publishing committee to buttress 

 the cause of order with the throne as its centre, 

 a plan for gaining over the chief memliers of the 

 present Assembly in preparation for its dissolution, 

 and an organised system of ascertaining the 

 opinions of journalists and leading politicians. 

 But the queen would not commit herself to the 

 tribune, and Mirabeau's heart sank within him as 

 he saw slip from his grasp his great dream of 

 establishing a responsible parliamentary govern- 

 ment in France. This summer his health and eye- 

 sight gave way alarmingly, but he refused to abate 

 his giant labours. In December 1790 he was elected 



