Miraheau an Opponent of Absolutism 27 



Nowhere in bis earlier works does Mirabeau present a scheme 

 of what he considered a government fit for France. Why 

 should he ? He was no more of a dreamer, of an idealist, at 

 this time than he was ten years later. He recognized now as 

 he did then that the French people were not a nation of savages 

 just issuing from the woods, but one with a long and interesting 

 past, and a past that could not be overlooked. To make a 

 clean sweep of all existing social and political forms that a new 

 and ideal structure might be erected on a foundation free from 

 debris, would not have recommended itself to his mind at this 

 moment any more than it did in 1789. He possessed as much 

 hard common sense now as then and had advanced very far in 

 his training for a public career. Possessing in an eminent 

 degree the historical sense, he always counted with the existing 

 and endeavored to answer the question: "What changes are 

 necessary and possible at this timer* 



Civil liberty was the work that Mirabeau aimed at.^ This 

 could be guaranteed to all men only so long as the law was 

 supreme, and justice was meted out in accordance with that 

 law. But what if the law should be unjust, the expression of 

 a tyranical and absolute spirit l Then the laws must be re- 

 formed to express the wishes of the people, and must conform 

 to the laws of nature and universal principles of right. The 

 laws should be made by the people and for the welfare of the 

 people, not by the king and for the welfare of the king. This 

 law-making power should be exercised by the people through 

 their representatives. There was nothing revolutionary in this 

 demand nor was Mirabeau in making it going any farther than 

 the Marquis had already gone.'- The representative idea was 



' "PouRsant plus loin la confusion des termeB, il designe souvent sous le 

 nom de Joi la constitution, comme si la constitution ne tendait qu'a une 

 seule tin, etablir une loi propre a garantir les accuses du despotisms minig^ 

 terial."' Decrue, Revue historique, XXIII, 340. 



* " Jeder will et-vas fiir den Konig sein, denn jeder segnet ihn und halt 

 sich fiir frei, wenn or einigen Anteil an der Verwalt ung hat. Darum 

 furchte man nichts von 'Reprasentation des Volkes.' '" . Stern, I, 24. 



71 



