50 Carl Christophclsmeier 



had been given for the spirits to calm themselves and for the 

 friends of the public welfare to come to the support of justice 

 and reason. The deputies had shown great moderation and cour- 

 age. "However, time is gliding away, the pretensions, the 

 usurpations of the two orders have increased ; your wise modera- 

 tion has been taken for weakness; one (the opposite party) has 

 conceived the hope that ennui, anxiety, public misfortunes, con- 

 stantly increased by almost unheard of circumstances, would 

 force you to some pusillanimous or rash step. Behold, this is the 

 moment for reassuring yourselves, and for inspiring your adver- 

 saries with discretion, with fear, I almost said, with terror, in 

 showing from your first operations foresight and ability joined 

 with the gentle firmness of reason." 



Continuing, Mirabeau indicated how easy it was just now to 

 take very radical resolutions, especially if urged on by a passion- 

 ate speech. He flattered the assembly and reproached the upper 

 orders. 1 The private interests of the orders were opposing the 

 general interests. The orders wished to keep the nation divided 

 into two classes, "oppressors and oppressed ; they exert them- 

 selves to perpetuate a sham constitution according to which a 

 single word pronounced by one hundred and fifty-one individuals 

 can check the king and twenty-four million men; 2 a constitution 

 according to which two orders that are neither the people nor 

 the prince will make use of the second (the king) in order to op- 

 press the first, of the first (the people) in order to frighten the 

 second, and of circumstances in order to reduce everything which 

 is not they to nothingness." But all these truths teach them "the 



noble and great" than the one of Sieyes, "not more prudent and wise, 

 however." "II parla pendant pres d'une heure ; le patriotisme qui l'animait 

 ne lui permit pas de penser a la fievre qui le travaillait dans ce moment, 

 ou plutot il triompha de son mal pour ne s'occuper que des maux de la 

 patrie. Jamais il ne parla avec tant de feu, tant d'eloquence; jamais il ne 

 dit des verites aussi dures, aussi energiques a la noblesse et au clerge." 

 See also Lettres de Mirabeau au Major dc MauviUon, 467. 



1 Courrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 9: "Vos droits sont si evidents, vos 

 reclamations si simples, et les precedes des deux ordres si manifestement 

 irreguliers, leurs principes tellement insoutenables, que le parallele en 

 serait au-dessus de l'attente publique." 



2 By one hundred and fifty-one, Mirabeau means the majority of the 

 deputies in any one of the chambers of the clergy and of the nobility. 



50 



