Miraheaii an Opponent of Absolutism 5 



of the French Kevolution,"^ has much to say about Mirabeau, 

 but he is too much of a hero worshipper to give us a true like- 

 ness of the man. The picture is one-sided, too highly colored 

 and frequently incorrect. As it deals only with the last two 

 years of Mirabeau's life, it is necessarily incomplete. 



But it was not alone the lack of a satisfactory biography of 

 Mirabeau in English that led me to turn my attention to the 

 subject. Six years ago when I began my work. Stern's life of 

 Mirabeau had not appeared, nor the last three volumes by the 

 Lomenies. French readers were then but a little better oflf 

 than English readers are to-day. Since that time the gap has 

 been filled. There remain, however, many points demanding 

 fuller treatment; many interesting questions concerning the life 

 of Mirabeau that still remain to be considered. Some of these 



1 have endeavored to answer. My monograph on "Mirabeau 

 and the French Constitution, "~ was an attempt to show not only 

 what Mirabeau's political views were in 1789 but to what ex- 

 tent they had influenced the work of the Assembly during its 

 first year. The paper entitled "Mirabeau's Speech of May 20, 

 1790"-^ was not written solely to make clear the outcome of the 

 great debate on the right to make war and declare peace, but 

 to bring out in its proper light one side of Mirabeau's character, 

 and that side not the brightest. That episode proved conclu- 

 sively that his political ethics were no better than his private 

 morality. The study that I now offer endeavors to elucidate 

 another critical point in Mirabeau's life. 



There is a very interesting difference between the attitude of 

 Mirabeau toward the French government in 1780 and his atti- 



' Stephens, H. Morse: The French Revolution, New York, 1886-1891, 



2 vols. 



2 Fling, F. M. : Mirabeau and the French Constitution in the years 1789 

 and 1790, Ithaca, 1891. ««r 



3 Fling, F. M. : Mirabeau's Speech on May 20, 1790, Papers of the Amer- 

 ican Historical Association, Volume V, parts 1-2. 



49 



