History of the Girondists; or personal memoirs of the patriots of the French Revolution. ... Translated by H. T. Ryde

Front matter

HISTORY OF THE GIRONDISTS; OR, JJctsonal ctlcmoirs of tl]c patriots OP THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. FROM UNPUBLISHED SOURCES BY ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE, Author of " Travels in the Holy Land," etc. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. TRANSLATED BY H. T. RYDE. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS. 1847.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. We have not thought it necessary to preface this recital by any introduction of the preceding epochs of the Revolution. We have not re-produced, with the minute elaboration of an annalist, the numerous parliamentary and military details of all the events of these forty months. Two or three times we have, in order to group men and circumstances in masses, made unimportant anachronisms. We have written after having scrupulously investigated facts and characters : we do not ask to be credited on our mere word only. Although we have not encumbered our work with notes, quotations, and documentary testimony, we have not made one assertion unauthorized by authentic me moirs, by unpublished manuscripts, by autograph letters, which the families of the most conspicuous persons have con fided to our care, or by oral and well-confirmed statements gathered from the lips of the last survivors of this great epoch.

Book I

Introduction. Mirabeau. Marries. Enters the National Assembly. His Master Mind. His Death and Character. Glance at the Revolution. The New Idea. Revolution defined. Revolutions the Results of Printing. Bossuet's Warnings. Rousseau. Fenelon. Voltaire. The Philosophers of France. Louis XVI. The King's Ministers. The Queen. Her Conduct and Plans. The National Assembly. Maury. Cazales. Barnave and the Lameths. Rival Champions. Robespierre. His Personal Appearance. Revolutionary Leaders. State of the King dom. Jacobin Club. Effects of the Clubs. Club of the Cordeliers. La Fayette. His Popularity. Characters of the Leaders. What the Revolution might have been. ------ Page 9

Book II

State of the Assembly. Discussions. The Periodical Press. The King and his Brothers. He meditates Escape. Various Plans of Flight. The King's embarrassed Position. Marquis de Bouille. The King and Mirabeau. Preparations for the King's Escape. Fatal Altera tions. Anxiety. Rumors. Count de Fersen. A Faithless Servant suspicious. Mode of Escape. Dangers of the Route. The Passport. Hopes of Success. Drouet recognizes the King. Narrowly saves his own Life. Varennes. Capture of the Royal Family. Entreaties of the King and Queen. Refusal of the Syndic and his Wife. Conduct of the Soldiers and People. Effect on the Queen. Conduct of the Pa risians. Their Rage. La Fayette attacked. Defended by Barnave. Power assu.ned by La Fayette. La Fayette's Proceedings. The King's Parting Address. Maniiesto. Proceedings of the Cordeliers and Jaco bins.

Robespierre's Address. Its Effect. Danton's Oration. His Audacity and Venality. Address of the Assembly. The King's Arrest known. His Hopes. The Queen's Despair. The Royal Family de part tor Paris. De Bouille's unavailing Efforts. Indignation of the Pop ulace. Barnave's noble Interference. Barnave gained over. Drouet's Declaration. The Entrance into Paris. Arrival at the Tuileries. Barnave and Potion's report to the Assembly. La Fayette and the Royal Family. The Queen's Courage. Effects of the Flight. The King should have abdicated. ---47

Book III

The Interregnum. Barnave's Conversion. His Devotion. His Meetings with the Queen. The King's Reply. Fatal Resolution of the " Ricrht." A Party that protests, abdicates. Address of the Corde liers to the National Assembly. Barnave's great Speech. Irresistible Advance of the Revolution. The Press. Camille Desmoulins. Marat. Brissot. Clamors for a Republic. Desmoulin's Attack on La Fayette. Petitions of the People. Robespierre's Popularity. Popular Meeting CONTENTS. VI in the Champ-de-Mars. Absence of the Ringleaders. "The Altar of the Countrv." The Remarkable Signatures. Advance of the National Guard, preceded by the Red Flag. Fearful Massacre. The Day alter. The Jacobins take Courage. Schisms in the Clubs. Attempts of Des moulins and Petion to restore Unity. Malouefs Plan for amending the Constitution.

Power of the Assembly. The New Men. Condorcet. Danton. Brissot disowned by Robespierre. Charges made against him. Defended by Manuel. Girondist Leaders. - - Page 102

Book IV

Revolutionary Press. High State of Excitement. Removal of Vol taire's Remains to the Pantheon. The Procession. Voltaire's Charac ter. His War against Christianity. His Tact and Courage in opposing the Priesthood. His Devotion. His Deficiencies. Barnave's weakened Position. His momentary Success while addressing the Assembly. Sillery 's Defence of the Due d'Orleans. Robespierre's Alarm. Malouefs Speech in Defence of the Monarchy. Robespierre's Remarks. Constitu tion presented to the King. His Reply and Acceptance. Rejoicings. Uni versal Satisfaction. The King in Person dissolves the Assembly. 144

Book V

Opinions of the Revolution in Europe. Austria. — Prussia — Russia — England — Spain. State of Italy — Venice — Genoa — Florence — Piedmont — Savoy — Sweden. Gustavus III. Feelings of the People. Poets and Philosophers. England and its Liberty. America. Holland. Germany. Freemasonry. German School. French Emigration. Fe male Influence. Louis XVI. 's Letter. Conduct of the Emigrant Princes unsatisfactory to the King. Attempts of the Emigres. The German Sovereigns. Their Conference. The Revolt. The Declara tion. The Courts of Europe. The Princes disobey the King. Desire for War in the Assembly. Madame de Stael. Count Louis de Nar bonne. His Ambition. The Hero of Madame de Stael. M. de Segur's Mission. The Mission frustrated. The Duke of Brunswick. 170

Book VI

The New Assembly. Juvenile Members. First Audience with the King. Decrees of the Assembly. Vergniaud's Policy. Offensive Decree repealed. Rage of the Clubs. Indifference of the People. The King's Address to the Assembly. Momentary Calm. The Girondists The Clergy. The King's Religious Alarms. State of Religious Wor ship. Fauchet's Speech. The Abbe Tournc's Reply. Advantages of Toleration. Dacos. Gensonne. Isnard. Isnard's eloquent Address to the Assembly. His severe Measures. Decree against the Priests. New Policy of Louis XVI. Question of Emigration. Brissot advocates VVar. His Arguments. Condorcet. Vergniaud. His Character and his Speech against the Emigrants. Isnard's violent Harangue. Decision of the Assembly. Andre Chenier. Camille Desmoulins. State of Parties. Hopes of the Aristocracy.

La Fayette's Letter. La Fayette in Retirement. Candidates for Mayor of Paris. Petion and La Fayette. La Fayette's Popularity. Petion elected Mayor. 206

Book VII

Character of Parties. France worked for the Universe. Mechanism of the Constitution. The King's Veto. Defence of the Constitution. CONTENTS. VII No Balance os Power. All Odium falls upon the King. Order, the Life of Monarchy. When a Republic is needful. The Will of the People. Mistake of the Assembly. The King's Position. The Assem bly hesitates. Third Course open. The Republicans. - Page 248

Book VIII

Madame Roland. Her Infancy. Her Personal Appearance. Early Abilities. Habits. Her Father's House. Future Heloise. Influence of Birth in Society. Her Impression of the Court. Has many Suitors. M.Roland. His Career. Their Marriage. Mode of Life. La Pla tiire. Country Life. Madame Roland's Love for Mankind. The Rolands in Paris. Interview with Brissot. Reunion at Roland's. Madame Roland and Robespierre. Her Opinion of him. Her Anxiety for his Safety. ---------- 263

Book IX

New Assembly. Roland's Position. De Molleville. M. de Nar bonne. Treachery of the Girondists. Narbonne's Policy and Success. His Popularity. Robespierre his sole Opponent. Robespierre's Desire for Peace. His Views. His Rupture with the Girondists. His Speech against War. Louvet's Reply. Brissot's Efforts. - 284

Book X

Committee of the Girondists. Its Report. Gensonne. His Reply. Guadet. Vergniaud's Proclamation. Constitutionalists for War. Nar bonne's Report. The Pamphleteers. Unpopularity of the Veto. Out break at Avignon. Jourdan. San Domingo. Negro Slavery. Men of Color. Oge. His Execution. Insurrection of the Blacks at San Domingo. Increase of Disorder. The Abbe Fauchet. His Career. Charges against him. Riot in Caen Cathedral. Insurrection at Mende. National Guard drives out the Troops. Insubordination. Universal Bloodshed. The Swiss Soldiers. Their Revolt pardoned. Chcnier's Remonstrance. Dupont de Nemours. Petion's weakness. Robes pierre's Interference. Gouvion. Couthon. Triumph of the Swiss Soldiers. ----- 300

BOOK XL

Increasing Disturbances. Murder of Simoneau. Due d'Orleans- His peculiar Position. The Duchesse d'Orleans. Due disliked at Court. Forms the Palais Royal. Madame de Genlis. Her Talents. The Duke Citizen. Mirabeau's Estimate of the Duke. La Fayette's Interference with the Due d'Orleans. Plans of the Girondists. Due d'Orleans made Admiral. His Declaration. Details. Avoided by the King's Friends. Becomes a Jacobin. Vergniaud's great Eloquence. His powerful Appeal. Its Effects. ------ 337

Book XII

The Emperor Leopold. De Lessart's Dispatch. His Impeachment. De Narbonne's Dismissal. Death of Leopold. Supposed to be poisoned. His Vices and Virtues. Conspiracy. Assassination. Anka stroem. Death of Gustavus. Joy of the jacobins. Brissot's Policy. Accusation of M. de Lessart. Roland and the Girondist Minis try. CONTENTS. VIII

Book XIII

Dumouriez's Talent and aptitude. Education and Acquirements. Favier Corsica. Paoli. Dumouriez sent to Poland. Stanislaus Pol icy Dumouriez at Cherbourg. His Tact; Appearance. Dumouriez and Madame Roland. Roland's Vanity. His Opinion ot the King. His Wife's Sagacity. Dumouriez in favor with the King. His Inter view with the Queen. His Advice. Bonnet Rouge. Dumouriez and Robespierre. Petion and the Bonnet Rouge. The King s Letter. Trea chery of the Girondists. Roland's Letter to the King. Letter of the Girondist Chiefs. Dumouriez's Policy. Danton. Hatred of Robes pierre and Brissot. Camille Desmoulins. Brissot s Attack on Robes pierre. Guadet. Robespierre's Defence. - - - - -378

Book XIV

Quarrel between Girondists and Jacobins. Violence of the Journals. Marat's atrocious Writings. Duke of Brunswick. Mirabeau's Opinion of him. Dumouriez's Plan. The King himself proposes War. Slight Opposition. Condorc.es s Manifesto. War declared. State of Belgium. Revolt. German Confederation. French Nobility and Emigres. Comte de Provence Comte d'Artois. Mallet-Dupan, the King's Confidant. 416

Book XV

Dumouriez's Tactics. Servan's Proposition. Change of Ministry. Dumouriez's Infidelity. Another Change of Ministers. Dumouriez quits Paris. Barbaroux. Madame Roland's Plans for a Republic. Increase of the Girondists. Buzot. Danton: his Origin and Life. Progress. Hostilities in Belgium. Due de Lauzun. Luekner. State of France. ------ ----- 437

Book XVI

King Petion. His Policy. Murder of De Brissac. Another Phase of the Revolution. Santerre, Legendre, Instigators of 20th June. Prepa ration. Disposition of the Lower Orders. The Mobs excited. The Alarm of the King. The Assembling of the People. St. Huruge. Thcroigne de Mericourt. Her Fate. The Procession. Rœderer's Courage. Huguenin's Declaration. The Mob admitted. Defence at the Tuileries. Movement of the Populace. The Troops faithless. Fury of the Mob. The King's Defenders. Madame Elizabeth. Legendre's Insolence. The Bonnet Rouge. " Vive le Roi." The Dangers of the Queen. Princesse de Lamballe. Queen and Royal Children. San terre. Deputation to the King. Petion's Duplicity. Retirement of the Rebels. Merlin's brutal Remark. The Marseillaise. Its Origin and Popularity: universally adopted. - -.--__ HISTORY OF THE GIRONDISTS.

Introduction

. I now undertake to write the history of a small party of men who, cast by Providence into the very centre of the greatest drama of modern times, comprise in themselves the ideas, the passions, the faults, the virtues of their epoch, and whose life and political acts forming, as we may say, the nucleus of the French Revolution, perished by the same blow which crushed the destinies of their country. This history, full of blood and tears, is full also of instruc tion for the people. Never, perhaps, were so many tragical events crowded into so short a space of time, never was the mysterious connection which exists between deeds and their consequences developed with greater rapidity. Never did weaknesses more quickly engender faults, — faults crimes, — crimes punishment. That retributive justice which God has implanted in our very acts, as a conscience more sacred than the fatalism of the ancients,* never manifested itself more unequivocally ; never was the law of morality illustrated by a more ample testimon}7, or avenged more merci lessly.

Thus the simple recital of these two years is the most luminous commentary of the whole Revolution ; and blood, spilled like water, not only shrieks in accents of terror and pity, but gives, indeed, a lesson and an example to mankind. It is in this spirit I would indite this work. The impartiality of history is not that of a mirror, which merely reflects objects, it should be that of a judge who sees, listens, * See an elegant exposition of this idea in Schlegel's Dramatic Litera ture (Standard Library Edition, page 67.) 1* MIRABEAU. and decides. Annals are not history ; in order to deserve that appellation it requires a conviction ; for it becomes, in after times, that of the human race. Recital animated by the imagination, weighed and judged by wisdom,— such is history as the ancients understood it ; and of history conceived and produced in such a spirit, I would, under the Divine guidance, leave a fragment to my country.

II. HISTORY OF THE GIRONDISTS. Mirabeau had just died. The instinct of the people led them to press around the house of his tribune, as if to demand inspiration even from his coffin ; but had Mirabeau been still living, he could no longer have given it ; his star had paled its fires before that of the Revolution ; hurried to the verge of an unavoidable precipice by the very chariot he himself had set in motion, it was in vain that he clung to the tribune. The last memorial he addressed to the king, which the Iron Chest has surrendered to us, together with the secret of his venality, testify the failure and dejection of his mind. His counsels are versatile, incoherent, and almost childish : — now he will arrest the Revolution with a grain of sand — now he places the salvation of the Monarchy in a proclamation of the crown and a regal ceremony which shall revive the popularity of the king, — and now he is desirous of buying the acclamations of the tribune, and believes the nation, like him, to be purchasable at a price.

The pettiness of his means of safety are in contrast with the vast increase of perils ; there is a vagueness in every idea ; we see that he is impelled by the very passions he has excited, and that un able any longer to guide or control them, he betrays, whilst he is yet unable to crush, them. The prime agitator is now but the alarmed courtier seeking shelter beneath the throne, and though still stuttering out terrible words in behalf of the nation and liberty, which are in the part set down for him, has already in his soul all the paltriness and the thoughts of vanity which are proper to a court. We pity o-enius when we behold it struggling with impossibility. Mirabeau was the most potent man of his time ; but the greatest individual contending with an enraged element appears but a madman.

A fall is only majestic when accompanied by virtue. mirabeau. 11 Poets say that clouds assume the form of the countries over which the}- have passed, and moulding themselves upon the valleys, plains, or mountains, acquire their shapes and move with them over the skies. This resembles certain men, whose genius being as it were acquisitive, models itself upon the epoch in which it lives, and assumes all the indi viduality of the nation to which it belongs. Mirabeau was a man of this class : he did not invent the Revolution, but was its manifestation. But for him it might perhaps have remained in a state of idea and tendency. He was born, and it took in him the form, the passion, the language which make a multitude say when they see a thing — There it is. He was born a gentleman and of ancient lineage, refugee and established in Provence, but of Italian origin : the pro genitors were Tuscan.

The family was one of those whom Florence had cast from her bosom in the stormy excesses of her liberty, and for which Dante reproaches his country in such bitter strains for her exiles and persecutions. The blood of Machiavel and the earthquake genius of the Italian re publics were characteristics of all the individuals of this race. The proportions of their souls exceed the height of their destiny : vices, passions, virtues are all in excess. The women are all angelic or perverse, the men sublime or depraved, and their language even is as emphatic and lofty as their aspirations. There is in their most familiar corres pondence the color and tone of the heroic tongues of Italy. The ancestors of Mirabeau speak of their domestic affairs as Plutarch of the quarrels of Marius and Sylla, of Cæsar and Pompey.

We perceive the great men descending to trifling matters. Mirabeau inspired this domestic majest} and virility in his very cradle. I dwell on these details, which may seem foreign to this history, but explain it. The source of genius is often in ancestry, and the blood of descent is sometimes the prophecy of destiny. III. Mirabeau's education was as rough and rude as the hand of his father, who was styled the friend of man, but whose restless spirit and selfish vanity rendered him the persecutor of his wife and the tyrant of all his family. The only virtue he was taught was honor, for by that name in those days they dignified that ceremonious demeanor which was too fre quently but the show of probity and the elegance of vice. mirabeau marries. Entering the army at an early age, he acquired nothing of military habits except a love of licentiousness and play.

The hand of his father was constantly extended not to aid him in rising, but to depress him still lower under the con sequences of his errors : his youth was passed in the prisons of the state ; his passions, becoming envenomed by solitude, and his intellect being rendered more acute by contact with the irons of his dungeon, where his mind lost that modesty which rarely survives the infamy of precocious punishments. Released from jail, in order, by his father's command, to attempt to form a marriage beset with difficulties with Mademoiselle De Marignan, a rich heiress of one of the greatest families of Provence, he displayed, like a wrestler, all kinds of stratagems and daring schemes of policy in the small theatre of Aix. Cunning, seduction, courage, he used every resource of his nature to succeed, and he succeeded ; but he was hardly married, before fresh persecutions beset him, and the stronghold of Pontarlier gaped to enclose him.

A love, which his Lettres a Sophie has rendered immortal, opened its gates and freed him. He carried off Madame de Monier from her aged husband. The lovers, happy for some months, took refuge in Holland ; they were seized there, separated and shut up, the one in a convent and the other in the dungeon of Vincennes. Love, which, like fire in the veins of the earth, is always detected in some crevice of man's destiny, lighted up in a single and ardent blaze all Mirabeau's passions. In his vengeance it was outraged love that he appeased ; in liberty, it was love which he sought and which delivered him ; in study, it was love which still illustrated his path. Entering obscure into his cell, he quit ted it a writer, orator, statesman, but perverted — ripe for anything, even to sell himself, in order to buy fortune and celebrity.

The drama of fife was conceived in his head, he wanted but the stage, and that time was preparing for him. During the few short years which elapsed for him between his leaving the keep of Vincennes and the tribune of the National Assembly, he employed himself with polemic labors, which would have weighed down another man, but which only kept him in health. The Bank of Saint Charles, the Institutions of Holland, the books on Prussia, the skirmish with Beaumarchais, his style and character, his lengthened pleadings on questions of warfare, the balance of European power, finance, those biting invectives, that war of words with the ministers or men of the hour, resembled the Roman ENTERS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 13 forum in the days of Clodius and Cicero. We discern the men of antiquity in even his most modern controversies.

We may fancy that we hear the first roarings of those popular tumults which were so soon to burst forth, and which his voice was destined to control. At the first election of Aix, rejected with contempt by the noblesse, he cast himself into the arms of the people, certain of making the balance incline to the side on which he should cast the weight of his daring and his genius. Marseilles contended with Aix for the great plebeian ; his two elections, the discourses he then de livered, the addresses he drew up, the energy he employed, commanded the attention of all France. His sonorous phrases became the proverbs of the Revolution ; comparing himself, in his lofty language, to the men of antiquity, he placed himself already in the public estimation in the ele vated position he aspired to reach.

Men became accustomed to identify him with the names he cited ; he made a loud noise in order to prepare minds for great commotions ; he announced himself proudly to the nation in that sublime apostrophe in his address to the Marseillais : " When the last of the Gracchi expired, he flung dust towards heaven, and from this dust sprung Marius ! Marius, less great for hav ing exterminated the Cimbri than for having prostrated in Rome the aristocracy of the nobility." From the moment of his entry into the National Assembly he filled it : he was the whole people. His gestures were commands ; his movements coups d'etat. He placed himself on a level with the throne, and the nobility felt itself sub dued by a power emanating from its own body. The clergy, which is the people, and desires to reconcile the democracy with the church, lends him its influence, in order to destroy the double aristocracy of the nobility and bishops.

All that had been built by antiquity and cemented by ages fell in a few months. Mirabeau alone preserved his presence of mind in the midst of this ruin. His character of tribune ceases, that of the statesman begins, and in this he is even greater than in the other. There, when all else creep and crawl, he acts with firmness, advancing boldly. The Revolution in his brain is no longer a momentary idea — it is a settled plan. The philosophy of the eighteenth century, moderated by the prudence of policy, flows easily, and modelled from his lips. His eloquence, imperative as the law, is now the talent of giving force to reason. His language lights and inspires everything ; and though almost HIS MASTER MIND. alone at this moment, he has the courage to remain alone. He braves envy, hatred, murmurs, supported by the strong feeling of his superiority.

He dismisses with disdain the passions which have hitherto beset him. He will no longer serve them when his cause no longer needs them. He speaks to men now only in the name of his genius. This title is enough to cause obedience to him. His power is based on the ascent which truth finds in all minds, and his strength again reverts to him. He contests with all parties, and rises superior to one and all. All hate him because he commands ; and all seek him because he can serve or destroy them. He does not give himself up to any one, but negotiates with each : he lays down calmly on the tumultuous element of this assembly, the basis of the reformed constitution : legislation, finance, diplomacy, war, religion, political econom)7, balances of power, every question he approaches and solves, not as an Utopian, but as a politician.

The solution he gives is always the precise mean between the theoretical and the practical. He places reason on a level with manners, and the institutions of the land in consonance with its habits. He desires a throne to support the democracy, liberty in the Chambers, and in the will of the nation, one and irresistible in the government. The characteristic of his genius, so well defined, so ill understood, was less audacity than just ness. Beneath the grandeur of his expression is always to be found unfailing good sense. His very vices could not repress the clearness, the sincerity of his understanding. At the foot of the tribune he was a man devoid of shame or virtue : in the tribune he was an honest man. Abandoned to private debauchery, bought over by foreign powers, sold to the court in order to satisfy his lavish expenditure, he pre served, amidst all this infamous traffic of his powers, the in corruptibility of his genius.

Of all the qualities of a great man of his age, he was only wanting in honesty. The peo ple were not his devotees, but his instruments, — his own glory was the god of his idolatry; his faith was posterity; his conscience existed but in his thought ; the fanaticism of his idea was quite human; the chilling materialism of his age had crushed in his heart the expansion, force, and crav ing for imperishable things. His dying words were "sprin kle me with perfumes, crown me with flowers, that I may thus enter upon eternal sleep." He was especially of his time, and his course bears no impress of infinity. Neither his character, his acts, nor his thoughts have the brand of HIS DEATH. immortality. If he had believed in God, he might have died a martyr, but he would have left behind him the religion of reason and the reign of democracy.

Mirabeau, in a word, was the reason of the people ; and that is not yet the faith of humanity ! IV, Grand displays cast a veil of universal mourning over the secret sentiments which his death inspired to all parties. Whilst the various belfries tolled his knell, and minute guns were fired : whilst, in a ceremony that had assembled two hundred thousand spectators, they awarded to a citizen the funeral obsequies of a monarch ; whilst the Pantheon, to which they conveyed his remains, seemed scarcely a monu ment worthy of such ashes, — what was passing in the depths of men's hearts ? The king, who held Mirabeau's eloquence in pay, the queen, with whom he had nocturnal conferences, regretted him, perhaps, as the last means of safety : yet still he in spired them with more terror than confidence ; and the humiliation of a crowned head demanding succor from a sub ject must have felt comforted at the removal of that de stroying power which itself fell before the. throne did.

The court was avenged by death for the affronts it had under gone. He was to the nobility merely an apostate from his order. The climax of its shame must have been to be one da}7 raised by him who had abased it. The National Assem bly had grown weary of his superiority; the Due d'Orleans felt that a word from this man would unfold and crush his premature aspirations ; M. de La Fayette, the hero of the bourgeoisie, must have been in dread of the orator of the peo ple. Between the dictator of the city and the dictator of the tribune there must have been a secret jealousy. Mira beau, who had never assailed M. de La Fayette in his discourses, had often in conversation allowed words to escape with respect to his rival which print themselves as they fall on a man. Mirabeau the less, and then M. de La Fayette appeared the greater, and it was the same with all the orators of the Assembly.

There was no longer any rival, but there were many envious. His eloquence, though popular in its style, was that of a patrician. His democracy was delivered from a lofty position, and comprised none of that covetousness and hate which excite the vilest passions of the HIS CHARACTER. human heart, and which see in the good done for the people nothing but an insult to the nobility. His popular senti ments were in some sort but the liberality of his genius ihe vast expansiveness of his mighty soul had no resemblance with the paltry impulses of demagogues. In acquiring rights for the people he seemed as though he bestowed them. He was a volunteer of democracy. He recalled by his part, and his bearing, to those democrats behind him, that from the time of the Gracchi to his own, the tribunes who most served the people had sprung from the ranks of the patricians.

His talent, unequalled for philosophy of thought, for depth of reflection, and loftiness of expression, was another kind of aristocracy, which could never be pardoned him. Nature placed him in the foremost rank ; and death only created a space around him for secondary minds. They all endeavored to acquire his position, and all endeavored in vain. The tears they shed upon his coffin were hypocritical. The people only wept in all sincerity, because the people were too strong to be jealous, and they, far from reproaching Mirabeau with his birth, loved in him that nobility as though it were a spoil they had carried of from the aristocracy. Moreover, the nation, disturbed at seeing its institutions crumbling away one by one, and dreading a total destruc tion, felt instinctively that the genius of a great man was the last stronghold left to them.

This genius quenched, it saw only darkness and precipices before the monarchy. The Jacobins alone rejoiced loudly, for it was only he who could outweigh them. It was on the 6th of April, 1791, that the National As sembly resumed its sittings. Mirabeau's place, left vacant, reminded each gazer of the impossibility of again filling it ; consternation was impressed on ever}7 countenance in the tribunes, and a profound silence pervaded the meeting. M. de Talleyrand announced to the Assembly a posthumous address of Mirabeau. They would hear him though dead. The weakened echo of his voice seemed to return to his country from the depths of the vaults of the Pantheon. The readino was mournful. Parties were burning to measure their strength free from any counterpoise. Impatience and anxiety were paramount, and the struggle was imminent.