Q Fred Morrorv Fling 



tude toward that government in 1789. In 1780 he was an 

 opponent of absohitism and an advocate of a government based 

 upon hiw as opposed to "no government," by which title he 

 designated absolutism. In 1789 this question was settled and 

 there was no longer need of emphasizing it. Mirabeau now 

 concerned himself more especially with the form of govern- 

 ment to be established and advocated a constitutional monarchy. 

 This difference — a very important one it would seem — ^the ex- 

 isting biographies do not bring out. With all of them 1789 is 

 the objective point, and all else tributary to it. Gradnauer 

 and Decrue treat of Mirabeau' s political views in their ulti- 

 mate form but concern themselves little with their evolution. 

 The latter announces the subject of my paper when he declares 

 that Mirabeau "saw in the judicial reform the principal end of 

 the revolution,"^ but he does not stay to develop the thought. 

 If Decrue has stated the case correctly, and I believe that he 

 has, a thorough understanding of Mirabeau' s work in the 

 Assembly can be attained only when we comprehend the sig- 

 nificance of that expression "judicial reform," and appreciate 

 just what Mirabeau understood by it. Nowhere can this point 

 be better studied than in his writings during the five years from 

 1775 to 1780. There the idea appears fully developed and un- 

 encumbered by any side issues. But before treating it in detail, 

 it will be necessary to examine Mirabeau' s life previous to 

 1780 and to note how naturally the ideas with which we are to 

 deal took shape under the influence of inherited tendencies and 

 surrounding conditions. 



If a small part of the particulars that we learn from Mirabeau 

 concerning his ancestors be true,^ they were indeed a remark- 



" "II voit dans la reforme judiciaire le but principal de la Revolution." 

 Revue historique, XXII, 340. 



2 The first volume of Montigny's work contains a memoire — ^ostensibly 

 by Mirabeau — in which these particvilars are recited. The memoire is 

 really the work of the Marquis and was copied by Mirabeau, who made 

 some slight changes. Mirabeau claimed the work as his own and it was 

 published as such by Montigny. Louis de Lomenie discovered the original 

 and exposed the fraud. 



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