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ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMAINS 
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EMINENT 
{ This Article is devoted to the Reception of Biograpbical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, &c.5 
F 
Pie ee (OON Ss: 
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we requeft the Communications of fuch of our Readers as can affif us in thefe olyeéts. | 
Anecdotes of Perfons connected with 
the French Revolution. 
MERLIN DE Dovay, 
FROM a poor cottage, has attained the 
fifth fhare of. a throne, in the moft 
powerful nation on the globe. His father 
was a cottager at Ancheim, a village about 
feven miles from Douay. Inthe Abbey 
of Ancheim, Merlin, when a boy, was 
placed as a fervant. He attended the 
monks when performing mafs, and was 
alfo an Enfant de Chaur, or Chorijier. He, 
however, refided among the fervants, and 
on extraordinary occafions, waited on 
company in the dining-room. 
Being a fimart. ready boy, a monk 
kindly undertook to teach him to read ; 
and foon perceiving that he hada great 
inclination to improve himfelf, the monk 
perfuaded the brotherhood to fend him 
to the college at Douay. In this femi- 
nary he foon diftinguifhed himfelf in the 
moft honourable manner, among his fel- 
low-ftudents. 
The monks of Ancheim wifhed to 
make a prieft of him; he, however, en- 
treated that they would permit him to ftu- 
dy law. The brotherhood aJlowed him 
to follow his inclination; and fupported 
him during the period of his ftadies, 
fupplying him with whatever money he 
_ Wanted. 
As foon as he was admitted a counfel- 
lor in the parliament of Douay, his old 
benefaétors intrufted to him the conduét 
of the affairs of their Abbey; and ob- 
tained the fame office for him from the 
chapter ef Cambray, whofe revenues 
being very confiderable, produced him 
a handlome income—Notwithftanding, 
however, thefe multiplied kindnefles, fo 
well were the monks fatisfied with his 
conduét, that they procured him an 
union wh a lady of great property, 
fitter to one of the brotherhood. After 
having fettled him in this comfortable 
manner, they procured him, partly by 
purchafe, and partly by intereft, an of- 
fice of fecretary to the king, a charge 
which, however, was attended with no 
other advantages than that of rendering 
his family noble, after twenty years’ re- 
tention. 
At the election of the States-general, 
he was elected deputy for the Tiers Etat 
oe 
of French Flanders ; a circumftance that 
roufed the envy of his colleagues, who 
were accuftomed to call him ? Ecervelé 
Merlin. When he firft arrived at Paris, 
he took a fecond floor for himfelf and his 
wife, in one of the ftreets which are near 
the Palace Royal. Though retired in 
appearance, he often received vifits from 
Muirabeau, and other members. He foon 
found means, however, to diftinguith 
himfelf; and aéted a very brilliant part 
in the Committee of Feodality. It was 
he, indeed, who firft propofed the equal 
divifion of the paternal inheritance among 
all the children, in oppofition to the bar- 
barous practice, adopted by vanity, and 
fanétioned by cuftom, in confequence of 
which, the whole patrimony was fquan- 
dered on the eldeft fon. 5; 
Merlin, like Camus, is indebted for 
all he pofieffes to the Church; and, like 
Camus, he became one of its greateft ene- 
mies. Having a complete knowledge of 
ecclefiaftical aifairs, he was the better en- 
abled to denounce its corruptions and 
abufes. 
At the end of the firft affembly, the 
department of Paris offered him a chair 
in its tribunal, but he accepted a fimilar 
_fituation in that of Douay, obferving, 
“that the place of his nativity de- 
manded, and had a right to the pre- 
ference, ¢ 
When the convention was convoked, 
Merlin was once more elected a deputy, 
by his former conftituents; but he was 
little heard of duting the reign of the. 
Girondifts, When the revolutionary go- 
vernment took place, he moved the ta- 
mous decree of the 17th September rela- 
tive to fujpedied perfons, and the no lefs 
famous law of the 7th Nrvo/e, concerning 
the equal {ucceflion of fons to the inhe- 
ritance of their parents. 
When the faction of Robefoierre was 
overthrown, Merlin became a member of 
the Committee of Public Safety, and fu- 
perintended the important, department 
of foreign affairs, It was he who fuper- 
vifed the correfpondence between. the 
committee and M. Barthelemy, lately 
one of the Direétors, and then a diplo~ 
matic agent in Switzerland, relative to 
fome negociations for a partial peace ; it 
was he alfo who prefented the foreign 
minifers to the Convention. His {peech 
en 
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