Robespierre and Miraheau at the Jacobins g 



would become, whenever it should please him, head of the army, com- 

 mandant of the national guards, lieutenant general of the kingdom, dis- 

 tributor of all favors and first minister with ministers as clerks (cotnntis), 

 that is to say, being at the same time slave and despot, subject and master, 

 he will be the most redoubtable of tyrants. 



Then, after explaining how a ministry independent of Lafayette 

 would serve to destroy his present influence, he continued : 



But such a man, limited to the command of a body of national guards, 

 subordinated to the municipality of Paris, under the eye of the legislature, 

 and without the favor of the king, would never become formidable to 

 good ministers, strong in all the authority of the national assembly which 

 they would understand how to direct and of which they would be the 

 civic and revered professors and not the mutinous and rebellious disciples, 

 would know how to employ every means of leading public opinion. Then, 

 if he were merely ambitious, he would abandon his place of his own 

 accord; then his most ardent adherents, deceived in their hopes, would 

 be the first to abandon him; then the so-called hero would vanish." 



In this very connection it is to be noted that until the close of 

 1790 Mirabeau had not found in the composition of the ministry 

 anything to encourage him in the belief that a better time was 

 approaching. In October he had done his share in the work lead- 

 ing to the overthrow of the old Necker ministry.^^ But here again 

 he was profoundly disappointed. Montmorin, the very man, 

 whom, after Necker's resignation, he most detested as the crea- 

 ture of Lafayette,^*' had been spared and of the new ministers 

 appointed, despite all his protests and warnings, one, at least, was 

 regarded as Lafayette's man.^' Hence, although the special ad- 

 viser of the court, he still saw himself without direct influence in 

 the government, while his rival preserved his position of advan- 

 tage. At last, however, the private counsellors of the king and 

 the queen became convinced that if he was to be of any use to 

 them he must be allowed to act in concert with the ministry, that 



" Bacourt, II, 25-32. 



" On October 28, 1790, La Marck wrote to Mercy-Argenteau that Mira- 

 beau had provoked the attack upon the ministry. Bacourt, II, 283. 



" Thirty-eighth note to the court. Bacourt, II, 274-80. 



" La Marck states that Duportail, who was made minister of war, was 

 one of Lafayette's devoted friends. Bacourt, I, 229. 



