Jean-Paul Marat, the people's friend;

Front matter

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JEAN-PAUL MARAT

Preface To Second Edition

The exhaustion of the first edition of the following work within a year of publication has induced the publishers to undertake the present cheap edition, which will place it within the reach of all who are interested in the French Revolution, including such for whom the price of the former edition proved an obstacle.

The book has 'been extensively reviewed both in this country and in America, and its reception by the press generally has been more favourable than I expected as regards an attempt to portray in its true colours one of the typical historic embodiments of hostility to class privilege and wrong.

There have been, of course ', exceptions — one critic ', writing in a IV hig journal generally regarded as sane, concluded his article with the remark that Marat died a " homicidal maniac " / Such literary lunacy as this one would think could only nowadays injure the reputation of the journal in which it appears, in so far as it has any effect at all. Besides this, vi MARAT

an article on the subject of "Marat" appeared in another journal, supposed to be the weekly organ of Tory culture, which, had it appeared where one might have expected it, in the " Mudborough Mercury" or some other local luminary of provincial primrose journalism, would only have been treated with the contempt it merited, but which, coming from the columns of the " Saturday Review" with its one-time reputation for being at least clever and scholarly in its criticism^ whatever might be its opinions, deserves perhaps a few words of animadversion.

The writer starts by a paragraph of simple abuse of book and author, describing the former as worthless and the latter as knowing next to nothing of his subject. Such violent charges one would have thought might have been supported by some show of proof ; yet the only tangible criticism of a pertinent character is what is at worst the discovery of the misprint of one letter in a name ! For the rest, the " Reviewer " [save the mark !) makes an exhibition of himself clearly indicating the extent of his knowledge of the French Revolution. He is evidently ignorant of the fact that there were two Montmorins, one [Marc Amand de Montmorin) the ex-minister, and the other (Louis Victor Lux de Montmorin) the Governor of Fontainebleau, both of whom were tried (the former at the bar of the Assembly) about the same time, and both of whom perished in the September massacres.

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If it can be maintained that the first was not conclusively proved guilty ', the same can hardly be said of the second, the returned emigre, him of the incriminating document, who was the person to whom Marat referred.

As further evidence of the erudition of my anonymous critic who doth protest so much, I may here confess that in the first edition there was a rather important slip, now corrected, in a date, which, if he had had the wits to see it, would have afforded him a better opportunity for crowing at my expense, than the misprint of an &for an o in a proper name.

Words fail this gentleman of the "Saturday Review" at the thought of my statement that the so-called " victims " of the September massacres were mainly " hangers-on of the noble and wealthy" Tet, though only a humble author and not a Saturday Reviewer, I claim the right, notwithstanding, of using the English language correctly, and of describing as above the mercenary Swiss Guard hired to defend the King and Court, and even the Cures who were in prison for avowedly espousing the cause of the Royalist plotters — and of thus describing them irrespective of whether they were personally rich or poor.

The present cheap edition, sad to say, deprives my reviewer of the last consolation he applies to his soul in his concluding paragraph, based on the original price of the book. He is of course as well aware as viii MARAT

any one else that the reactionary " daub " ftz/fe/ Marat has been finally disposed of by the evidence for the first time brought together in English by me, and something like a "portrait" has been substituted. Hence his unmannerly fury !

For the rest, the book has been carefully gone over for this edition ; additions and corrections have been made in many places, and minor inaccuracies [there was only one that could have been fairly described as at all material) have been remedied. In fine, the author ventures to hope that in its present shape, at least, the volume will satisfy, on the ground of historical accuracy, any fair-minded critic, however exacting may be his demands.

Preface

As being perhaps the best abused man in modern history, the "People's Friend" has always exercised a fascination over the writer of this volume. The verdict of the" world" on a public character, as well as on moral worth in general and its opposite, like the public opinion of the "world" on other matters, represents, as a rule, simply and solely, the verdict of class-prejudice and ignorance. The reason is that the dominant class ', by virtue of its economic position, can succeed in imposing moral judgments in accordance with its material class-interests upon the whole of society, including the ignorant and unthinking mass of those who are direct sufferers from the system by which it profits. It is, in fact, a fairly safe plan to ascertain for oneself " what most people think " on such questions, and then assume the opposite to be true. The result is a good working hypothesis, which remains, of course, to be possibly modified or even abandoned by subsequent investigation, but which is generally the nearest approach to truth we can make x MARAT

in the absence of the requisite knowledge for forming an unbiassed judgment. Acting on this principle, the very extravagance of abuse with which Marat had been assailed suggested to me the probability that an exceptionally noble and disinterested character lay behind it. Modern research on the subject of the French Revolution has certainly more than justified this assumption. The old legend of "the monster Marat" has been so completely blown to the winds that any historian who attempted to resuscitate it nowadays would assuredly put himself out of court with all serious students of the French Revolution.

The work of rehabilitating the memory of Marat owes its initiation, and in part completion, to the exhaustive labours of the late M. Bougeart and to the equally minute and careful researches of M. Chevremont. M. Bouge art's excellent Life of Marat in two volumes appeared in 1865. The French Imperial authorities, the representatives of privilege, class-interest, and its malice, avenged themselves on the man who had cleared the memory of the great enemy of power and privilege by sentencing him to four months* imprisonment. Since then M. Chevremont has untiringly worked in the same direction as his friend Bougeart. His two thick volumes on the " Esprit politique " of Marat, containing a verbatim reproduction of all that is most valuable in his political writings, is a monument of industry and of devotion to

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the memory of the " People's Friend" In addition to these two writers may be mentioned the " (Euvres de jf.-P. Marat " of the late M. Vermorel, containing an excellent collection of the more important articles in Marat's journals ; besides his placards and manifestoes. The researches of MM. Bougeart and Chevremont form the foundation of the present Life. All the three works mentioned are, I believe, out of print.

Of the older histories of the French Revolution, that of Villaume is the fullest and the fairest as regards Marat. The first to undertake the rehabilitation of Marat in this country was Mr. Bowen Graves, in an article in the " Fortnightly Review " for February 1 874. It was followed, at an interval of rather more than three years, by an article in the " Gentleman s Magazine " for November 1 877, by the present writer, and a year later by a small volume on the same lines. This little book is also no longer obtainable, so far as I am aware. Since then articles have appeared in various periodicals, endeavouring to show Marat as he really was. Foremost amongst Marat's vindicators in the English language must be mentioned Mr. Morse Stephens, both in the first two volumes of his excellent, but unfortunately unfinished " History of the French Revolution," as well as in the " Fncyclopcedia Britannica" (gth edition, article " Marat"), in the xii MARAT

columns of the " Academy" and in two articles in the " Pall Mall Magazine "for September and October 1896. I must not forget to mention also the eminent artist, M. Georges Pilotelle, who, although a Parisian, has resided in this country since 1875, and whose collection of Marat relics is perhaps the most complete and valuable existing. Through his kindness, some of these are reproduced in the present work. M. Pilotelle is a friend of M. Chevremonfs, and has imbibed a full measure of the latter s enthusiasm for the " People's Friend."

The chief source of biographical as of other information concerning Marat is, of course, the collection of his political writings from 1789 till 1793, which may be consulted in the Bibliotheque Nationale. These have been carefully gone through by most of the authors mentioned, as well as by the present writer. The ordinary histories of the French Revolution are for the most part worthless, the portions treating of Marat reproducing, and in some cases, as with Michelet, even embellishing, the calwnnies and slanders of his adversaries. References to Marat in the voluminous " Memoir es " left by contemporaries of the Revolution are largely secondhand. The malignafit fabrications of Barbaroux and Madame Roland have been sufficiently exposed, though their clumsiness and absurdity are such as to render this almost superfluous. The " Memoir es de

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Brissot," though from the pen of a vehement personal enemy \ contain a few biographical facts which, if obviously presented in a light intentionally hostile to Marat, may not be altogether destitute of truth. Of the assassin, Charlotte Corday, enough and more than enough has been written. M. Vatel has collected probably all the available material about her. Dr. Cabanes, whose work, " Marat inconnu" contains many interesting facts concerning the great " Montagnard" has also made some researches on the subject. The " proces verbal" of the trial may still be seen. The facts concerning Charlotte Corday and the assassination have been brought together in a narrative form by M. Paul Gaulot in his " Grande s J our nee s Revolutionnaires," pp. 45-108. The reports of the debates in the " Convention" the " Moniteur," and other contemporary newspapers have also been consulted, together with the early numbers of the " Musee Neuchdtelois" the latter for the few ascertainable biographical facts concerning Marafs early life and that of his family at Boudry and Neuchdtel.

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Index

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Jean-Paul Marat .... Frontispiece

The House at Boudry where Marat was Born . .16

The Village Pump at Boudry . . . 32

Portrait of Marat . . . . .112

No. 681 of the "Ami du Peuple," stained with the Blood of Marat, and recovered, after his Assassination, by his Sister, Albertine Marat . . . .288

Assassination of J. -P. Marat, 13TH July 1793 . . 304

Marat some Hours after his Assassination . . 320

Tomb of Jean-Paul Marat .... 326