On the Conflict of Parties in the Jacobin Club 9 



the society as a whole, others^ absolved the majority of its mem- 

 bers, while fixing the blame upon the "Triumvirate."^ These 

 latter, like Mirabeau and jNIontmorin, set themselves the task of 

 destroying the power of the leaders in the club, after which the 

 other members might perhaps be directed to better objects.- As 

 long as this attempt was evident as the work of the reactionary 

 party, it could not fail to have an effect exactly the contrary to 

 the one interKled, for to be the object of attack from this quarter 

 was to be designated as a good patriot. Much more dangerous 

 were the maneuvers led by Mirabeau, aided by Montmorin and 

 La Marck. Duport and Alexander Lameth, in their violent at- 

 tack upon Mirabeau on February 28, 1791, had intended to drive 

 him from the club, but failed completely. A burst of applause 

 greeted Mirabeau's reply to his opponents, and his correspond- 

 ence shows that he did not consider himself defeated.^ He knew 

 that the position of the Lameths and their friends was not at all 

 secure and that their very violence evidenced their embarrass- 

 ment.* But on March 2, an extremely clumsy act of Duquesnoy 

 spoiled everything. Like Mirabeau and many others, Duquesnoy 

 had been denounced by Lameth on the 28th of February and 

 now had the evil inspiration of replying in a letter to the Jacobins, 

 which seemed to them to divulge the plan they had so long sus- 

 pected, namely, that an attempt was being made to divide the 

 society. Duquesnoy openly praised the majority of the members 

 but severely took to task the Lameths and their friends. "I will 

 tell you, then," he wrote, "with the frankness appropriate for all, 

 that the most dangerous enemies of liberty are those who, like 

 M. Lameth, concealing a profound ambition tuider the mask of 

 patriotism, regard the people only as a ladder upon which to 

 mount to power. . . . The insupportable despotism of the 

 MM. Lameths and of several of their friends has driven from 



^See pamphlets published by Aulard in volume two. 



''Bacourt, II, 384, note 45, December 4, 1790, and III, Mirabeau to La 

 Marck, March 4, 1791, 78. 



^See the debate on the 28th of February, 1791, in Aulard, II, 95-113. 



*Bacourt, III, note 49, January 17, 1791. La Marck thoucrht the Jacobin 

 leaders on the verge of overthrow even in December, 1790. Letter to 

 Mercy-Argenteau, December 30, 1790, Bacourt, II, 530. 



237 



