Miraheau an Opponent of Absolutism 13 



cause of millions of Frenchmen. ^ What son could feel safe so 

 long as the father exercised a power resembling in many 

 respects that of the Roman parent? What man in all France 

 could rest secure, when the machinations of an enemy might 

 render him the victim of a lettre de cachet and consign him to 

 a dungeon for life? Many others had suffered as Mirabeau 

 suffered. He alone combated despotism "while he groaned 

 beneath its fetters."^ He had • "meditated a long time upon 

 his subject" and was justified in believing that he had "looked 

 at it from all sides. "^ I have shown what Mirabeau suffered 

 under arbitrary rule, and I have now to deal with his criticism 

 upon it and with the reforms that he demanded. 



The material upon which the study is based is found in the 

 "Essai sur le despotisme," "Avis aux Hessois," "Lettres 

 originales de Mirabeau," and "Des lettres de cachet et des 

 prisons d'etat. ""* 



The "Essai sur le despotisme" is a rambling work of three 

 hundred and six pages. The book lias been well characterized 

 by Lucas Montigny. He says that "a long and fruitless appli- 

 cation has convinced me that in order to find a plan for it, it 

 would be necessary to make one.'"^ It bears all the marks of 



' Die Leliron Montesquieu's, Rousseau's und die der Oekonomisten be- 

 herrschten die damalige Zeit ; sammtlich waren diese Lehreu hervorge- 

 gangen aus der Unzufriedenheit mit dem besteheuden absoluten Regiment." 

 Gradnauer, p. 14. 



^ Des lettres de cachet, vol. I, p. XI. 



3 Ibid, vol. I, p. XI. 



•• Essai sur le despotisme. Troisieme edition, Corrigee de le main de 

 I'Auteur svir I'exemplaire de la seconde edition achete a sa vente. A. Paris, 

 1792. 



Avis aux Hessois, et autres peuples de I'Allemagne, vendus par leurs 

 princes a TAngleterre. Cleves, 1777. 



Lettres originales de Mirabeau, ecrites du donjon de Vincennes, pen- 

 dant les annees 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780 Recueillies par P. Manuel. 



Troisieme edition, 8 vols., A Paris, An 6 de la Republique, (1798, v. st.) 



Reponse aux conseils de la raison. Par I'Auteur de TAvis aux Hessois. 

 Amsterdam, 1777. ^ 



Des lettres de cachet et de prisons d'etat. Ouvrage posthume, com- 

 pose en 1778. A Hambourg, MDCCLXXXII. 



" Memoires de Mirabeau, IV, p. 9. 



57 



