M1QUELON MIRABEAU. 



837 



inents of the Upper and Eastern Pyrenees, on the 

 heights of the chain of mountains which forms the 

 boundary between France and Spain. They are 

 mostly herdsmen, hunters, coal-burners, &c. They 

 are warlike, and inclined to plunder. They also 

 accompany travellers on the mountain-passes, and 

 receive high pay for their protection. In war, they 

 are dangerous partisans, who often descend into 

 France in troops. In the war with Napoleon, they 

 made themselves formidable to the French troops in 

 Catalonia. 



MIQUELON ; an island in the Atlantic ocean, 

 near the southern coast of Newfoundland, belonging 

 to France; lat. 47 4' N.; Ion. 56 2(X W. To the 

 south of it lies Little Miquelon (Petite Miquelori), 

 which, since 1783, has been connected with it by a 

 sand-bank. These islands are under the direction of 

 the commandant of St Pierre (see Pierre, Sf), and are 

 occupied only by a few families engaged in the 

 fisheries. 



MIRABEAU, HONORE GABRIEL RICQUETTJ, count 

 of, so famous for his influence in the French revolu- 

 tion, was born March 9, 1749, at Bignon, in Pro- 

 vence, and died at Paris, April 2, 1791. He sprang 

 from a celebrated family. Nature gave him violent 

 passions and a robust frame. Education might have 

 made him a truly great man ; but the propensities of 

 his genius were checked, and the development of his 

 energies perverted. When fourteen years of age, 

 he entered a military boarding school, where he 

 studied mathematics, made some progress in music 

 and drawing, and became a proficient in bodily exer- 

 cises. But as his moral education was entirely 

 neglected, the most vehement passions grew with his 

 growth. While yet a boy, he published a eulogy 

 on the great Conde, and some pieces in verse. On 

 leaving school, he entered the military service ; and his 

 intercourse with young and dissipated officers made 

 him familiar with all theirvices. His active mind, how- 

 ever, could not remain idle, and he read all the books 

 which he could procure on the military art. He also 

 fell in love ; and his passion was marked by all the im- 

 petuosity of his character. His father, who systemati- 

 cally thwarted his inclinations, now procured his 

 confinement in a fortress on the island of Re. He 

 was even on the point of having him sent to the 

 Dutch colonies. But the friends of the family suc- 

 ceeded in preventing it. This abuse of the paternal 

 power decided the son's hatred of despotism. After 

 his liberation, he went, as a volunteer, to Corsica. 

 He distinguished himself, and obtained a commission 

 as captain of dragoons ; but as his father refused to 

 purchase him a regiment, he abandoned, though un- 

 willingly, the military profession. During the war in 

 Corsica, he wrote a memoir respecting it, with re- 

 marks on the abuses of the Genoese aristocracy, and 

 gave it to his father, who destroyed it. In conformity 

 with the request of his father, he now settled in 

 Limousin, and employed himself in cultivating the 

 earth and in conducting lawsuits. But he soon became 

 weary of his situation. His domestic circumstances, 

 moreover, were unhappy. In 1772, he had received, 

 in Aix, the hand of Mademoiselle de Marginane, an 

 amiable young lady, with prospects of large fortune. 

 But his extravagant propensities soon involved him 

 in a debt of 160,000 livres. His contentious and 

 inflexible father took advantage of the embarrass- 

 ments of his son, and obtained from the Chatelet in 

 Paris, an interdict, by which he confined him to his 

 estate. Here he published his Essay on Despotism. 

 He soon after left his place of confinement, to avenge 

 an insult offered to his sister ; and a new lettre de 

 cachet imprisoned him, in 1774, in the castle of If, 

 from whence he was transferred to Joux, near Pon- 

 tarlier, in 1775. Here he first beheld his Sophia, 



the wife of the president Monnier, a man of advanced 

 age. She was well affected towards him. His pas- 

 sion for her soon became extremely violent. But St 

 Maurice, the commander of the fortress, was his rival. 

 In order to escape from the persecutions of this man 

 and his father, he fled to Dijon, whither his mistress 

 followed. He was seized, and his father obtained 

 new letters of arrest. Meanwhile M. de Malesherbes, 

 who was then minister, and felt much good will for 

 the young Mirabeau, gave him a hint to escape from 

 the country. He fled to Switzerland, and Sophia re- 

 joined him there. He then took refuge in Holland 

 with his mistress. The offended husband entered a 

 complaint for seduction. Mirabeau was condemned 

 to death, and was decapitated in effigy. In Holland, 

 he went under the name of St Matthew, and lived 

 unnoticed with Sophia, his books, and some friends. 

 During the years 1776 and 1777 he supported him- 

 self and his mistress altogether by his literary labours. 

 Among other things, Mirabeau translated, in con- 

 junction with Durival, Watson's History of Philippe 

 II. Learning that his father accused him of the 

 blackest offences, he avenged himself by sending 

 abroad libels against him. His father now effected a 

 violation of international law, and a police officer was 

 sent to Holland, with letters of arrest, signed by 

 Anielot and Vergennes. Mirabeau and his mistress 

 were arrested, in 1777, without the consent of the 

 Dutch governor. Mirabeau was incarcerated at 

 Vincennes ; but Sophia, being far advanced in preg- 

 nancy, was resigned to the inspection of the police. 

 After her delivery of a daughter, she was conveyed 

 to the convent of St Clara, at Gien. During an im- 

 prisonment of three years and a half, at Vincennes, 

 Mirabeau wrote the celebrated Lettres a Sophie; 

 Lettres originates de Mirabeau (1792, 4 vols.) Of 

 these, Lettres tcrites du Donjon de Vincennes (1777 

 1780, 3 vols.), a new edition appeared in 1820. 

 Their accent is passionate, and the style is various, 

 flowing, and forcible. Mirabeau's health was much 

 affected by his confinement, and under many bodily 

 sufferings, he wrote, with the assistance of Calmet's 

 Dictionary of the Bible, his Erotica Billion, a very 

 free picture of the excesses of physical love, among 

 different nations, particularly the Jews. At the same 

 time, he projected a grammar and a treatise on 

 mythology, translated Johannes Secundus, and ex- 

 posed the abuses of despotic authority in his energetic 

 work on Lettres de Cachet. As he was denied paper, 

 he tore out the blank leaves in the beginning and end 

 of the books allowed him. He concealed the leaves 

 in the lining of his clothes, and left the prison with 

 the manuscript of his Lettres de Cachet thus sewed 

 in. His long incarceration had wearied his persecu- 

 tors. The judges also saw that the conduct of 

 Mirabeau's father, whose own character was far from 

 moral, could only proceed from revenge and hatred. 

 Tlie son was therefore released, in 1780, and seems 

 to have become reconciled with his father, for he 

 lived with him, and left the paternal mansion only to 

 obtain the revocation of the sentence of death pro- 

 nounced against him in Portarlier, in which he suc- 

 ceeded in 1782. At the same time, Sophia recovered 

 her dowry and freedom. Mirabeau now returned to 

 Provence, and tried to effect a reconciliation with his 

 wife. But nothing could overcome the opposition of 

 his wife's relatives. He therefore had recourse to 

 the law, and a process -took place which was honour- 

 able to neither party, and which his wife gained. 

 Mirubeau now went to London. His letters show 

 that his opinions respecting England were not, in 

 general, very favourable. He wrote there the Con- 

 siderations sur rOrdre de Cincinnatus an order of 

 which he disapproved, as the beginning of a military 

 aristocracy in the United States of America. He 



