Miraheau an Opponent of Absolutism 23 



was too much of a statesman, he was too familiar with history 

 to be misled by the teachings of Rousseau; he had suffered too 

 much, he was too much in earnest in his efforts to secure civil 

 liberty for his fellow countrymen to be satisfied to follow in 

 the footsteps of Montesquieu. Both of these men and many 

 others were active in the work of regenerating society, but 

 neither of them saw as clearly as Mirabeau the point at issue; 

 neither of them struck such heavy, continuous, effective blows 

 as he. 



It was natural for one who had passed so many years of his 

 life in prisons of state to throw into the foreground of his re- 

 forms demands for personal liberty and personal security. Civil 

 liberty, wrote Mirabeau, is the basis upon which all society 

 rests' and the law exists to maintain this liberty.- Without a 

 government based upon law all is insecure^ and the state even 

 under a gracious ruler may suffer many of the evils attendant 

 upon absolutism.^ Experience, then, that taught Mirabeau the 

 value of civil liberty, taught him also the value of law^ as a 

 guarantee of that liberty and convinced him that the reign of 

 law*should never be suspended.*' 



The law, he continued, must ever be supreme''' for only thus 



• "Qu'importe la liberte politique k qui n'a plus la liberie civile? N'est 

 ce ijas celle-ci que toute constitution doit surtout assurer?"' Des lettres 

 de cachet, p. 88. 



' Des lettres de catchet, p. 168. 



^ "Les nations seront le jouet d'un seul on d'un petit nombre, tant que 

 leurs legislations ne limiteront pas I'autorite de leurs chefs, de mani^re 

 qu'ils ne puissent jouir que de la felicite publiqvie." Des lettres de cachet, 

 p. 167. 



•* Des lettres de cachet, p. 87. 



■'"' "Ces loix qu'il etait impossible de refuser k un peuple, h moins de lui 

 declarer qu'on vouloit le gouverner par les principes orientaux." Des let- 

 tres de cachet, p. 2. 



® "II n'y a point de cas ou il faille meme pour un moment, violer la lib- 

 erty." Decrue, Revue historique, XIII, p. 310. 



^ "II faut etre esclave ou libre: c'est-a-dire, soumis aveugl^ment au droit 

 du plus fort, ou ne dependre que des regies eternelles de I'dquit^." Des 

 lettres de cachet, p. 321. 



67 



