M I R A B E A U. 
552 
His conduCt to his wife was brutal and unmanly, and his 
irregularities became fo excefTive and notorious, that fe- 
veral more lettres de cachet w ere ifl'ued againll him, either 
restraining him to particular places of refidence, or com¬ 
mitting him to prifon. Being at Pontarlier about 1775, 
he formed an acquaintance with Sophie Ruff'ei, wife to 
the marquis de Monnier, whole advanced years rendered 
him an unfuitable partner to a young and handfome 
fpoufe. Mirabeau leduced her affections ; and, upon the 
riifcovery of their connexion, he was confined in the cita¬ 
del of Dijon. He found means to make his efcape into 
Holland, where he was joined by the lady ; in the mean 
time a fevere fentence was ifl'ued againll him in France. 
By a ftratagem, he was taken into cuftody in his place of 
refuge, and brought back to France, where, in 1777, he 
was committed to the caftle of Vincennes. He there re¬ 
mained three years and feven months, notwithftanding all 
his efforts to obtain his enlargement, or the privilege of 
a trial; and it may well be fuppoled that fuch frequent 
experience of the rigours of arbitrary pow’er, how much 
foever he may have merited them, infpired him with a 
llrong predilection for a free government. Thefe impri- 
fonments, however, by checking his career of diffipation, 
were productive of improvement to his mind, which found 
no employment fo interelling as laying in ftores of infor¬ 
mation and reflexion, and acquiring the habit of literary 
compofition. He had already affilted his father in writing, 
and had formed an engagement with a bookfeller in Hol¬ 
land with refpeCt to fome intended works ; but it was in 
the prifon at Vincennes that he firll began to publilh. 
An abridgment of French grammar, and fome libertine 
productions, were among the earlielt fruits of his pen. 
They were followed by his celebrated “ Effai fur les Lettres 
de Cachet, and les Prilons d’Etat,” in which he pleaded 
for the right of every citizen to perfonal liberty, until he 
had been deprived of it by a legal trial, with all the energy 
of one who had been a fufferer under uncontrouled au¬ 
thority. This work he publilhed at Neufchatel, whither 
he had retired as foon as he was reftored to liberty. He 
then commenced an aCtion againll his father for main¬ 
tenance and arrears, in which he was fuccefsful. This 
encouraged him to inftitute a iuit againll his wife, for the 
purpole of gaining the cuftody of her perfon and property; 
and he pleaded his own caule before the parliament of 
Aix, in the prelence of the archduke Ferdinand and other 
diftinguifhed perfons; but, although his eloquence ex¬ 
cited general admiration, theinftances of his matrimonial 
mifconduCt were fo grofs, that he loft his fuit. 
With the afliftance of Chamfort, a man of letters of 
fome celebrity, he next compofed a work entitled, “ Con- 
liderations fur l'Ordre de Cincinnatus,” the fubjeCt of 
which was a projected fociety in the United States of 
North America, which the friends of republicanilm 
looked upon with jealoufy. During its compofition, he 
frequently confulted Dr. Franklin, then at Paris. He 
now entered into the literary profeflion for a maintenance ; 
and, accompanied by a female, who was to pafs for the 
comteffe de Mirabeau, he went to London, where he 
publilhed fome volumes of a W'ork called “ Le Con- 
lervateur,” in which an analyiis was given of the molt 
valuable current publications. Meeting with fmall en¬ 
couragement in England, he returned to Paris, and wrote 
fome pamphlets on the topic of public finance. In 1786 
he went to Berlin, not in any avowed public capa¬ 
city, but with the fecret orders, as fuppofed, of the mi- 
nilter Calonne, to obferve the politics of that court. He 
was admitted to a convocation with the great Frederic, 
then in his laft illnefs ; and he wrote two very free and 
important letters of advice, or memorials, to the next 
king on his acceffion. If he had any expectations of being 
employed in the new reign, they were fruftrated by his 
licentious character and his open profeflion of atheifm ; 
and he feems chiefly to have occupied himfelf at Berlin 
with laying in materials for his ftatiftical account of the 
Pruffian and Saxon Hates, and for his fecret and fatirical 
hiltory of the court of Pruflia. It is affirmed that during 
his refidence at Berlin he became a member of the famous 
fociety of Illuminati ; and important confequences of a 
connexion formed by his means between that fociety and 
the clubs of revolutionilts in France, are traced by writers 
who have diftinguilhed themfelves for their fagacity ill 
hunting plots and conlpiracies throughout Europe. Mi¬ 
rabeau publilhed an “ Effay on the SeCtof the Iliuminees,” 
which, appearing to difclofe its fecrets, is laid to mix with 
them fo many abfurd fictions as to involve the whole in 
ridicule. 
When the financial difficulties of the French govern¬ 
ment had produced the refolution of aflembling the nota¬ 
bles, he returned to Paris, and immediately endeavoured 
to attraCl notice by a pamphlet againll ftock-jobbing, 
which vt'as read with great intereft. The freedom of its 
remarks, however, offended the adminillration fo much, 
that an order was ifl'ued for his apprehenfion, which he 
evaded by a temporary concealment near Liege. He was 
foon permitted to return to Paris, and ingratiated him¬ 
felf with the minifter Brienne, by writing againll Necker. 
He vifited Berlin in this fummer, 1787, where his friend 
Mauvilion (fee his article) was employed in conjunction 
with him in preparing for the prefs the work entitled, 
“ Hiftoire de la Monarchic Pruffienne.” This was pub¬ 
lilhed in 1788, in 4 vols. 4to. and 8 vols. 8vo. and obtained 
for the author a high reputation for political and llatifti- 
cal knowledge. In the next year appeared the “ Hiftoire 
fecrete de la Cour de Berlin,” in which the reigning king 
of Pruflia and feveral great perfonages in his court were 
treated with fo much difrefpeCl, that the work was ordered 
by the parliament of Paris to be burned by the common 
hangman. It was difowned by Mirabeau, though no one 
doubted that the greater part of it, at leaft, was his com¬ 
pofition. 
The aflembly of the llates-general could not fail of ex¬ 
citing the higheft expectations in one of Mirabeau’s ar¬ 
dour of mind and felf-confidence ; and he viewed the ap¬ 
proaching troubles of the kingdom as pregnant with 
events in which his abilities would enable him to take a 
leading part. No man of the time, indeed, was equally 
qualified to fhine in political warfare. Poffeffed of a flu¬ 
ent and forcible eloquence, capable of bearing all before 
it in popular debate, and of a prefence of mind which no 
emergency could difconcert, verled in all the arts of in¬ 
trigue, and habituated to the clofeft application, accuf- 
tomed to lead the opinions of the public, and deriving 
more popularity from the boldnefs of his writings than he 
loft by the diffolutenefs of his morals, he was perfectly 
fitted to aCt on the tumultuous theatre of revolutionary 
politics. The total want of principle which he had hi¬ 
therto difplayed mull exclude him from the lift of real pa¬ 
triots ; yet it cannot be doubted that he was upon con¬ 
viction a friend to thofe public rights upon which all juft 
and enlightened government is founded. At the time 
of the elections he went to Provence with the hope of 
being chofen one of the deputies of the nobleffe for that 
province ; but, being rejected as not pofieffing a fief in it, 
lie opened a grocer’s fhop at Aix, put on an apron and 
fold his wares, and rendered himfelf fo popular, that he 
was eleCted, with the greateft acclamations, deputy of the 
tiers-etat of that city. On the meeting of the itates he 
took a ftep well calculated to l'upport his confequence in 
the eyes of the public. He fet up a daily paper, which he 
entitled, “ Lettres de Mirabeau a les Commettans,” 
which gave fuch an account of the debates as might ferve 
the interells of the popular party. _ The government in 
vain attempted to fiupprefs it, and its circulation became 
very extenfive. He foon diftinguilhed himfelf as the moll 
eloquent of the few extemporaneous l'peakers, and took 
a leading part in thofe dilputes between the different or¬ 
ders, which ended in the affumption of the character of 
national ajjemllij by the tiers-etat. When, after the royal 
fitting in June 1789, the deputies had been ordered by 
the king to depart, and the order was repeated by M. de 
Breze, 
