838 



MIRABEAU MIRACLE. 



likewise wrote against the plan of Joseph II. to 

 make the Scheldt free, and, against Linguet's famous 

 work, his Doutes sur la Libertf de I Escaut. He 

 \\;i^ Jilso a coadjutor in the French journal, published 

 in London, Le Courrier de i Europe. In his subse- 

 quent writings on the Caisse d'Escompte, the Banqtte 

 de St Charles, the Actions ties Eaux, he discussed the 

 grounds of public credit, and of speculations in the 

 public stocks, according to Adam Smith's principles, 

 with much eloquence. This and the satirical por- 

 traits of famous persons, brought his works into re- 

 pute. He nevertheless solicited in vain, of the 

 minister of finance, Calonne, the office of consul in 

 Pantzie or Hamburg. He now lived some months 

 of 1786 in Berlin, and then went to Brunswick, but re- 

 turned to Berlin in the same year, probably with secret 

 commissions from his court. In Berlin he collected in- 

 formation and projected the plan of the ingenious, but 

 far from faultless work, De la Monarchic Prussienne, 

 which was executed by his friend Mauvillon. His 

 description of Frederic II. is especially admired. In 

 1787, Mirabeau returned to France. Calonne having 

 convoked the notables, Mirabeau brought out his 

 Denonciation de I' Agiotage, au Roi et aux Notables. 

 The king, on account of the offensive character of 

 this pamphlet, ordered the author to be imprisoned ; 

 but he escaped, and wrote a continuation of his De- 

 nonciation de V Agiotage. He niw wrote his Avis 

 aux Bataves. At that time there also appeared (von 

 Dohm asserts, V. 409, without the consent of Mira- 

 beau) the letters on the Prussian court, written in 

 confidence to Calonne, entitled Histoire secrete de la 

 Conr de Berlin, ou Correspond, d'un Voyageur Fran- 

 cois, dcpuis le 5 Juitl. jusqii' au 19 Janv., 1787 

 (1789, 2 volumes.) This work was an indiscreet dis- 

 closure of his political manoeuvres, and was written 

 in the tone of a libel. It excited general reprehen- 

 sion of a man so unscrupulous as to make of the 

 secrets of hospitality, and the confidence of his friends 

 and the government, an offering to the public appe- 

 tite for scandal. The work was condemned, by the 

 parliament, to be burnt by the common hangman. 

 U hen the estates were actually convoked, he went 

 to Provence for the purpose of being elected ; but 

 tiie noblesse of the province refused him a place 

 junong them, on the ground that none were entitled 

 to it but the possessors of fiefs. He was now chosen, 

 by acclamation, a deputy of the third estate, where 

 he soon obtained an immense influence. The 23d of 

 June was one of the most remarkable days of his 

 political career. It was decisive of the fate of the 

 monarchy. The king, after making important con- 

 cessions in this memorable sitting, had ordered the 

 assembly to separate. The assembly, however, re- 

 mained together in their seats. The marquis of Breze, 

 master of ceremonies, came to remind the assembly 

 of the orders of the monarch. Mirabeau, in the name 

 of his colleagues, made the celebrated answer, " The 

 commons of France have resolved to deliberate. We 

 have listened to the king's exposition of the views 

 which have been suggested to him ; and you, who 

 have no claim to be his organ in this assembly, 

 you, who have here no place, nor vote, nor right of 

 speaking, you are not the person to remind us of 

 Iris discourse. Go, tell your master that we are here 

 by the order of the people, and that nothing shall 

 drive us hence but the bayonet." Mirabeau had 

 already made an unsuccessful attempt to establish an 

 understanding with the ministers, with a view of re- 

 lieving the distracted state of his pecuniary affairs. 

 Negotiations were afterwards entered into between 

 him and the court. He required a pension of 40,000 

 francs a week, and the promise of such a diplomatic 

 or ministerial post as he should select, after the re- 

 tisublisliinent of the royal authority. These demands 



were conceded, and he received the pension for 

 several weeks. It was agreed that a dissolution of 

 the assembly should be effected by an expression of 

 the will of the nation, and that a new assembly 

 should be convoked, com posed of men of more mod- 

 erate opinions. While the negotiations were pend- 

 ing, Mirabeau redoubled his activity in the assembly, 

 and at the Jacobin club. Suspicions were already 

 entertained of his defection from the revolutionary 

 party, and clamours had already been raised against 

 him, when a fever closed his stormy life, April 2, 1791. 

 The news of his decease was received with every 

 mark of popular mourning : his funeral was solem- 

 nized with the utmost pomp. His body was deposited 

 in the Pantheon, from which, however, in 1793, his 

 remains were taken and dispersed by the populace, 

 who then stigmatised him as a royalist. Mirabeau 

 was the creature of his passions ; the early restraints, 

 which had been imposed upon him, served only to 

 inflame them ; and, with all the resources of genius, 

 a decision and energy of will which yielded to no op- 

 position, an audacity of purpose which shrunk before 

 no difficulties, he united an insatiable ambition. His 

 orations are collected in the work entitled Mirabeau 

 peint par lui-meme (1791, 4 volumes), and in the 

 Collection compl. des Travaux de Mirabeau d I'As- 

 semblee nationale par Meja,n (1791, etc., 5 vols.), in 

 Esprit de Mirabeau (1804), Lettres inedites de Mira- 

 beau, publ. par Fitry (Paris, 1816, 2 vols.). in his 

 (Euvres oratoires (complete, at Paris, 1819, 2 vols.), 

 and (Euvres choisies de Mirabeau (Paris, 1820). 

 Concerning his connexion with the court, the Me- 

 moirs of Mad. Campan (Paris, 1823, 3 vols.), con- 

 tain some remarkable disclosures. The fifth livrai- 

 son of the Memoires des Contemporains (Paris, 1824) 

 consists of four parts, containing Mem. sur Mirabeau 

 et son Epoque, sa Vie litteraire et privee, etc. 



MIRACLE (Latin, miraculum, a wonder, a pro- 

 digy ; in the original Greek, anfAiiat, nga;) is usu- 

 ally defined to be a deviation from the course of 

 nature, or an event in a given system which cannot 

 be accounted for by the operation of any general prin- 

 ciple in that system. But this definition seems to 

 omit one of the elements of a miracle, viz., that it is 

 an event produced by the interposition of an Intelli- 

 gent Power for moral purposes ; for, otherwise, we 

 must consider every strange phenomenon, which our 

 knowledge will not permit us to explain, as a mira- 

 culous event. To the atheist, who does not admit 

 the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, a miracle is 

 an impossibility, a contradiction in terms. A mira- 

 culous event cannot, indeed, prove the existence of 

 God, for it presupposes it ; but it may prove the 

 moral government of the world by the Deity, or the 

 divine character of a communication which claims to 

 come from him. It is in this light that we must con- 

 sider miracles as the proofs of a revelation ; and, in 

 fact, a revelation is itself a. miracle. If one claims 

 to be a teacher from God, he asserts a miraculous com- 

 munication with God : this communication, however, 

 cannot be visible, and visible miracles may therefore 

 be necessary to give credibility to his pretensions. To 

 those who deny the possibility of miracles, a revela- 

 tion is impossible. The use, then, of a miraculous 

 interposition in changing the usual course of nature is 

 to prove the moral government of God, and to explain 

 the character of it. As to the nature of miraculous 

 events, we may distinguish those which do not appear 

 supernatural in themselves, but are rendered so by 

 the manner in which they are produced, as cures of 

 diseases by a touch or a word, and those which are 

 supernatural in themselves, as in the burning bush 

 which was not consumed, the stopping of the course 

 of the sun, &c. In proof of miraculous occurrences, 

 we must have recourse to the same kind of evidence 



