Mirabeau and the French Revolution

Front matter

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Preface

When I began these pages it was with the intention of preparing- a course of lectures; but as the work progressed I, at last, decided to put the material gathered into book form. My original design was to trace briefly the causes of the French Revolution, and to group its principal events around Mirabeau, then Danton, and, lastly, Robespierre, — the men who were the manifestation of the Revolution in its three distinctive periods. This purpose is not wholly abandoned, for I hope to find time in the moments stolen from the duties of an exacting profession to carry out the plan as first conceived. My present purpose is to follow this book with the biographies of Danton and Robespierre.

Charles F. Warwick.

Philadelphia, April, 1905.

CHAPTER I Pa,,j

The French Revolution — Its Causes Remote and Immediate—The State— The Church— Henry IV.— Edict of Nantes ii

Chapter II

Jesuits and Jansenists — The Clergy — The People — The Nobles — The Manorial Lords — Courtiers — Game Laws — Corvees — Feudal Burdens — The Gabelle — Farmers General — Military Service — Administration of Justice — Paris 32

CHAPTER III Louis XIV. — His Power — Etiquette — Extravagance of the Court— The Glory of the King 55

Chapter VI

Financial Condition Immediate Cause of French Revolution — Turgot — Necker — Calonne — The Notables — Lomenie de Brienne — States General Summoned — Necker Recalled 104

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CHAPTER VII p^^.

Meeting of the States General — Mirabeau 115

Chapter X

Sophie de Monnier — Seduction of Sophie — Mirabeau in Prison at Vincennes — Letters to Sophie — Lettres de Cachet — Trial at Pontarlier — Suit at Aix 160

CHAPTER XI Madame de Nehra — Mirabeau's Wanderings — His Extravagance — Mirabeau's Energy — His Manner of Work — His Biographers 180

Chapter XII

Necker and Calonne — Meeting of Necker and Mirabeau ' — Mirabeau Seeks Secretaryship of the Notables — Stands as Deputy of Third Estate — Campaign in Aix and Marseilles 191

CHAPTER XIII Double Representation for Third Estate — Mirabeau Decides to Stand for Aix — Paris 203

CHAPTER XIV P^cE

States General in Session— The King's Speech— The Orders — Attempted Suppression of Mirabeau's Paper — Mirabeau's First Triumph — Commons Steadfast — Robespierre 212

CHAPTER XV Death of the Dauphin — Third Estate Calls on Nobles and

■• Clergy to Submit to Common Verification — Name of

Convention — Spirited Debate — Sieyes — Oath of the

Tennis Court — Royal Sitting — Assembly Refuses to

Adjourn — Mirabeau Defies the Order of the King . . 235

CHAPTER XVI Dismissal of Necker — Breteuil Named Minister — Camille Desmoulins — Fall of the Bastile — Versailles — Louis Visits the Assembly — Louis goes to Paris — Desertion and Emigration of the Nobles — Talleyrand 259

CHAPTER XVII Necker Recalled — His Return a Triumph — Amnesty — Mirabeau Excuses Violence of the Mob — The Constitution — Declaration of Rights — Abolition of Privileges — August the Fourth 280

CHAPTER XVIII Progress of the Revolution — Mirabeau's Part in the "Events — Maury — Cazales — Assembly's Address to the People — Address to the King 290

CHAPTER XIX Necker Proposes Income Tax of Twenty-five Per Cent. i ' — Mirabeau Supports Necker — Mirabeau Seeks Popularity in the Districts — His Ambition to be a Minister 301

CHAPTER XX p^^.

Banquet of the Guards — Fifth and Sixth of October — Royal Family go to Paris — They Occupy the Tuileries — The Assembly Follows the King to Paris — The Duke of Orleans 311

CHAPTER XXI Murder of Frangois the Baker — Mirabeau Intrigues for a Portfolio — Motion of Petion — Mirabeau's Speech against the Amendment Proposed by Blin — Mirabeau's Negotiations with the Court — Mirabeau Pensioned — His Interview with the Queen 328

CHAPTER XXII Mirabeau Makes Overtures to Necker and La Fayette — Mirabeau and the Court — Mirabeau's Manner of Living — Was Mirabeau Venal? — The King and the Revolution 345

CHAPTER XXIII Marquis de Favras — Confiscation of Church Property — Assignats 361

CHAPTER XXIV Court Party Endeavors to Secure New Elections in the Districts — Festival of the Federation — Massacre at Nancy 372

CHAPTER XXV Necker Resigns — Rabaut St. Etienne's Motion — Mirabeau Elected President of the National Assembly — His Address to the Quakers — Emigration of the King's Aunts — Mirabeau at the Club of the Jacobins 391

CHAPTER XXVI Mirabeau's Closing Days — His Death — His Funeral — Was He Poisoned ? 410

CHAPTER XXVII Page

Mirabeau Compared with his Colleagues— Orator— Author — Statesman — Politician — Religious Views — Slave Trade 422

CHAPTER XXVIII Mirabeau's Vices and Virtues— Manner of Dress— His Extravagance — His Vanity— Could He have Saved the Monarchy ? — Conclusion 453

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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PAGB

MiRABEAU. Engraved by Br6a after a bust modelled from life by Desseine Frontispiece

The Sporting Barons. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 32

Only a peasant The Tax Gatherer. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 44

" These blood-suckers never relaxed their efforts"

The Toilet of the Queen. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill . 60

" What importunity !"

Franklin at the Court of Louis XVL Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 94

" As the Ambassador of the young Republic he was most warmly and enthusiastically received"

Robespierre. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 122

" Watching with his squinting, snake-like eyes, the king who, in time, was to be his victim"

MiRABEAU AND SoPHiE IN AMSTERDAM. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 160

" He worked for Dutch publishers, and toiled far into the night. . . . But they were happy, and love made their burdens light"

Streets of Paris. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 206

" Beggars were on every hand, pickpockets and petty thieves mingled with the throng and industriously plied their trade"

MiRABEAU ADDRESSING THE MESSENGER OF THE KiNG.

Engraved by E. Bocourt. The original engraving is in the possession of Wm. J. Latta, Esq., of Philadelphia, through whose courtesy the print is here reproduced. . 252 xiii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FAGB

The Bastile, Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 272

" Its dark, deep dungeons, where the prisoners, on a level with the common sewers, lived besieged and menaced by rats, toads, and every kind of vermin"

MiRABEAU DEFYING THE ORDER OF THE KiNG. Drawn

by Jno. R. Neill 292

" Go tell your master we are here by the will of the people"

The Head of Foulon with a Wisp of Hay in its Mouth. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 328

"Satan himself first invented the placing of a human head at the end of a lance"

MiRABEAU AND Marie ANTOINETTE. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 342

" Madame, when your august mother admitted one of her subjects to the honor of her presence, she never dismissed him without allowing him to kiss her hand"

Preparing the Field of Mars for the Festival of THE Federation. Drawn by Jno. R. Neill 380

"A Duchess may have removed her glove to shake hands with a soiled laborer"

MiRABEAU AT THE JACOBINS. Drawn by J no. R. Neill.. 408

" One brave man, assailed from all sides, fighting his battle alone"

Fac-simile of a Letter written by Mirabeau. The original is in the possession of Wm. J. Latta, Esq., of Philadelphia, by whom it was kindly loaned for this work 438

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Chapter I The French Revolution — Its Causes Remote

AND IMMEDIATE THE STATE THE CHURCH

HENRY IV. EDICT OF NANTES

The most interesting and fascinating period in the history of modern times is that in France extending from the reign of Louis XIV. to the battle of Waterloo, In fact, there are but few, if any, epochs in the world's history in which more useful lessons are taught to the philosopher, the statesman, and the student of human nature. The contrasts are strongly marked. There is offered for our study and contemplation every phase of life from the highest to the lowest stratum of society. We witness the dazzling splendor of a corrupt court, the suffering and the degradation of an oppressed people, a Revolution without a parallel in the history of man, followed by a succession of the most glorious military victories the world has ever seen.

The period began with the reign of a proud, pompous, and voluptuous prince, the lineal succes-

II sor of a long line of kings, who claimed to rule by divine right, and ended in an imperialism established by an audacious usurper, who was socially a plebeian, by birth a foreigner, and so far as royal hereditary blood was concerned, had not a drop of it in his veins.

Into this period are crowded events and incidents of the most exciting and instructive character. We have absolutism in its most pronounced form, leading to anarchy of the most radical type, the one as lawless as the other; the overturning of the monarchy was but a change from misrule to no rule.

The brilliant and corrupt court, with its stilted etiquette and formal ceremony, was expensive, luxurious, and useless; the people, taxed to maintain this display and waste, were hungry, almost naked, and impoverished.

The injustice, the tyranny, the accumulated wrongs and miseries of centuries produced a Revolution that was one of the most violent upheavals recorded in the history of governments among men. When it broke upon the nation it was like opening the dykes of an angry flood that, escaping from its confinement, carried everything before it to destruction. Feudalism, Bourbonism, the church, dynasties, king, queen, princes of the blood, nobles, laws, customs, traditions, prerogatives, privileges, pensions, exemptions, were swept away to ruin upon its raging torrent.

It was only in France that so terrific a convulsion could have taken place. It was distinctively a revolution of an impulsive, emotional people that had suffered long under tyranny, vassalage, and serfdom. It was of gradual growth, but as inevitable as fate. Under the melancholy conditions that existed it was imperative ; delay only increased and aggravated the causes and strengthened the argument and reasons for its necessity. The indifference, extravagance, insolence, and inhumanity of the nobles had created the conditions that provoked this unrestrained violence.

The mob came from their faubourgs like a swarm of naked demons vomited out of the mouth of hell, " vagabonds, ragged fellows, — many almost naked with appalling faces, beings one does not remember to have seen by daylight, — a frightful physiognomy, a hideous attire."

There is no sight more terrifying than an excited and enraged mob in motion; its raucous voice, the anger depicted in its aspect, its power for destruction, the very uncertainty of its action, which creates the additional dread of suspense, strike terror into the heart of the bravest. The individual faces may not be repulsive nor forbidding, but in a mass they assume a different aspect, and every head seems to be that of a Gorgon.

The government was in the streets; the women of the market were the prime ministers; the creators and censors of public opinion were the rabble. It was a wild orgy of hate, a revelry of crime. Religion and authority were defied and overthrown. Atheism set up the god of self, undermined religious faith, which is the strongest foundation of society, and made the mistake of judging the virtue of the church by the vice of the prelate.

The lamp-post and, later, the guillotine, became 13 the altars upon which were immolated the victims of anarchy. The mob actually delighted in the shedding of human blood, it developed the instinct of the cannibal, its appetite grew by what it fed on, and after slaughtering its enemies it turned like a Saturn to devour its own children.

It exulted over the cruel and cowardly murder of the Princess Lamballe, and, in fiendish demoniacal glee, combed the locks and washed the face of the gory head and triumphantly carried it on a pike, to shake it before the windows of the Temple, where was imprisoned the fallen and humiliated queen.

It shouted with delight when the king, Marie Antoinette, and the lovely Princess Elizabeth went to execution.

It covered with flowers the dying Mirabeau, followed him with tears in solemn and respectful procession to the Pantheon, and then afterwards, in hate, exhumed his body and scattered his ashes to the four winds of heaven. Inconstant in its loyalty, like all mobs, fickle, variable as the wind, it sacrificed its idols one after the other in this deluge of blood. It followed, with shouts of derision, the tumbril that carried the Duke of Orleans to the scaffold. It yelled itself hoarse with joy when the Girondists, the hope of the Revolution, mounted the guillotine. It had no pity for poor Camille Desmoulins, who had so often charmed it with his eloquence. It applauded when the monster, Hebert, the mighty titanic Danton, and, at last, the " incorruptible" Robespierre, paid the penalty of relying on its support and trusting to its whimsical loyalty. Unreasonable, impressionable, impulsive, a word aptly spoken could turn it from its purpose, or send it on a new errand of crime. Its idol of to-day became the victim of its wrath to-morrow.

The temper of the mob was fiendish when the opportunity came for revenge. Could anything else have been expected ? The fault lay at the door of the rich, powerful, and privileged classes; the people were not to blarpe, they were not responsible for the existing conditions, nor had they created the causes that induced the Revolution. The nobles had laughed at their distresses, sneered at their complaints, scoffed at their petitions, and forced them to submit to their cruel exactions. When in the days of famine the starving peasants cried for bread they were told to eat grass, and yet it was upon the money wrung by taxation from these poor creatures that the nobles were enabled to live their lives of pleasure and debauchery. They scorned, humiliated, and tortured the poor; they seemed to take special delight in venting their spite upon the victims of their injustice. The young nobles, in their wild escapades, were, at times, wanton and ingenious in their cruelty. They set at defiance every law of God and man and committed acts so atrocious, so inhuman in their character, that they cannot be described without offending decency. They inflicted torture upon their victims — men and women — in mere sport; they were controlled by a lustful, fiendish disposition that outraged every sentiment of humanity. The fury of the wild and savage pikemen

IS in the days of " The Red Terror" may, in a measure, be excused when we recall the deeds of these unworthy scions of ancient and distinguished names. The bleeding heads of the aristocrats on the pikes of the sans-culottes were but the revenge of the agonized and bleeding hearts of the longsuffering poor.

When we study the events that preceded the Revolution we marvel that it so long delayed its coming. Even Rome m^de some reparation for her spoliation and tyranny by amusing her people with the games of the circus, by providing them with the luxury of public baths, and by feeding them with bread paid for out of the public treasury; but France taxed, robbed, and starved her poor to furnish amusement, pomp, and splendor to her frivolous and luxurious court.

To trace the causes of the French Revolution necessitates a study of the history of France from the beginning of the feudal system as well as a careful study of the qualities, the characteristics, the laws, the moral, social, political, physical, and racial features of the French.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the Gauls, who had been in possession of France, were conquered by the Franks under Clovis, and the latter laid the foundations of the French monarchy and established the most severe and rigorous system of feudalism known throughout Europe. The Franks exacted from the conquered people all the dues of feudal superiors, and built up a system of separate states that took centuries to weld into one

realm.

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Democracy in France was of much later growth than in Switzerland and the Netherlands. While Italy was dotted with free cities and republics, while popular rights were being secured and constitutional liberty was being fostered, the feudalism of France was crushing the people under the rule of king and lords.

The friction between the crown and its vassals was constant and irritating. A combination of a few powerful barons would often interfere with the purposes of an ambitious king and in many ways curtail his power and influence. Allegiance to the crown sat lightly upon these haughty lords, who were absolute in their own manors or domains and brooked no insolence from any superior, in fact, often defying in open rebellion even the king himself. In times of foreign invasion they had frequently to be won over to the aid of the crown, and at such times, in consideration of their services, exacted concessions that strengthened their power and independence.

France was a great kingdom of many little kingdoms, and the* struggle was a long and bitter one to consolidate and cement these separate and distinct parts into one whole and to centralize the supreme authority in onie head, the monarch.

The civil wars of the Fronde helped to break the independence of the barons and, at last, under the vigorous administration of Richelieu, the crown was made absolute. " In a word," says Mignet, " power had become more and more concentrated, and as it had passed from the many to the few, it 2 17 came, at last, from the few to be invested in one alone."

No longer did the king have to depend upon the feudal lords for his army, for now he had means to support his own and was able to wage war against a foreign enemy or compel obedience from a rebellious vassal.

The church was another enemy to the absolutism of the crown, it was an " imperium in imperio," and its first allegiance was due to Rome. Its power was not confined within the limits of any state, it was world wide. It was ever jealous of its rights, and always ready to resent any attempt made by the state to encroach upon its jurisdiction. It had built up a system that was based upon divine creation and authority. Its wealth, its vast possessions and privileges, its influence over the minds and consciences of men gave it an immense power in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. It had no standing army, but it had, instead, that terrible weapon of excommunication that made the most defiant monarch tremble and do penance. When it fulmined its decree from Rome, the king who defied its authority became an outcast, a social pariah ; he was shorn of his power and his people absolved from their allegiance.

The organization of the Roman Church commands the admiration of the world. It is one of the greatest creations ever conceived and devised by the wit and intellect of man. The church is an army waging a persistent and relentless warfare in the cause of religion. Its campaign lasts not for a season, but for all time. The army never sleeps,

i8 never camps over night; it is ever on the march, following the standard of the cross beyond the seas, over the deserts, into benighted regions, combating heresy and converting the heathen. It brooks no opposition within its fold, it deals summarily with the rebellious. It commands obedience to its teachings, implicit faith in its doctrines, and promises to the faithful eternal life. Its only purpose is to proselyte the world and to enlarge the scope of its influence and power.

It is one great empire. Its domain is the universe, its capital is Rome, its subjects owe an allegiance to one head; they speak every known tongue, but have only one creed, one law. Its policies are catholic; its influence and purposes are eternal. It brings to its service the prince and the beggar; it is democratic in its methods of salvation, imperialistic in its organization and power.

Its altars are found in every clime, in every zone. Its domain extends into those far remote lands whose shores are washed by the waters of the polar seas. It reaches from the east coast of America to the furthermost island in Polynesia, from the west coast of Africa to New Guinea, from Patagonia to Greenland, from Kamtchatka to Tasmania. Its followers are found in the lands of Confucius, Buddha, and Mahomet; everywhere in the known world its cross glitters and its doctrines are taught. It has lasted for centuries, at times shaken by schism, heresy, and dissension, but through all its perils and vicissitudes it has retained its entity, its faith, and its integrity, and will exist until the world dissolves, until the last second of recorded time.

A struggle for supremacy with so mighty a power as this required all the intelligence, courage, and force the state could bring to bear.

The contest in France continued uninterruptedly for centuries; it was long and bitter and was waged with all the arts and methods of intrigue and subtle diplomacy known to crafty churchmen and resourceful politicians, but gradually the state gained the ascendancy, and the pope in the reign of Francis I. granted to the crown the power of nomination to ecclesiastical dignities.

There was at no time a struggle for mastery between the king and a stubborn churchman, such as that witnessed in England in the days of Henry II. and Thomas a'Becket, nor did a French king ever have to go to Canossa as the result of a conflict with the pope. The French clergy did not produce such a character as Becket, nor did a French king provoke so savagely the wrath of Rome as did Henry IV., of Germany,

The encroachment, however, upon the power of the church was gradual but sure; her wealth was not diminished, nor were her estates confiscated, nor her privileges and exemption from taxation abolished, but she was deprived of her temporal power, and her right of appointment to ecclesiastical offices was greatly curtailed.

This long conflict between the state and the church, however, had not estranged the loyalty of the people from the latter. No people were ever more devoted or more closely wedded to their religious faith than the French, and yet no nation was ever so overwhelmed, at last, by irreligion and infidelity.

It was in France that the first example is offered of the inclination of the Roman Church to use methods of extreme violence against dissenters. The Albigenses, in the south of France, were reformers who separated from the communion of Rome in the thirteenth century. A crusade was preached against them by Pope Innocent III., and an army of half a million men, under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, invaded the rebellious territory and, after many years of bitter and persistent warfare, eradicated the heresy until not a vestige of it was left. The land was swept as by a fire.

It was during this period that the tribunal of the Inquisition was first set up, — about the year 1210, — and began that cruel system of coercion by torture that endeavored to control the faith and the reason of men. Spinoza, philosophizing on this subject, says : " Men are so made as to resent nothing more impatiently than to be treated as criminal on account of opinions which they deem true, and charged as guilty for simply what wakes their affection to God and men. Hence, laws about opinions are aimed not at the base, but at the noble, and tend not to restrain the evil-minded, but rather to irritate the good, and cannot be enforced without great peril to the government. . . . What evil can be imagined greater for a state than that honorable men, because they have thoughts of their own and cannot act a lie, are sent as culprits into exile ! What more baneful than that men, for no guilt or wrong-doing, but for the generous largeness of their mind, should be taken for enemies and led off to death, and that the torture bed, the terror of the bad, should become, to the signal shame of authority, the finest stage for the public spectacle of endurance and virtue!"

Does it not seem strange, in the light of th present civilization, that it was ever considered possible to change an opinion of the mind by the torture of the body? Is a recantation of a belief to be depended upon if made under such circumstances? Did the opinion of Galileo undergo a change because he was threatened with the rack? No more than did the earth stop its motion.

But intolerance was the spirit of the age ; men's minds had not been enlightened, they were blinded by bigotry and superstition — the twin daughters of ignorance. The church but reflected the thought of the times, for this system which appears so cruel and unreasonable to all of us to day received the unqualified endorsement and support of the wisest and best men among the laity as well as the clergy.

The judges who sat in the tribunal of the Inquisition were, to be sure, religious fanatics, but outside of this, no doubt, they were devout, honest. God-fearing and exemplary in their lives. They were not naturally cruel, they would not have tortured anything except a heretic. They were simply influenced and dominated by that spirit of religious intolerance that blinds men to the truth and has, in every age, halted the world in its progress.

It is hard to believe that any act could be more intolerant In its character than that known as the edict of 1550 against heretics, enacted at the instance of Philip n. Under its provisions no citizen was allowed " to print, copy, keep, conceal, sell, buy, or give any book or writing made by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, or any other heretic, nor break or injure the images of the Virgin or the Saints, nor to hold or attend any meeting where heretics teach." The punishment prescribed for its violation was death by sword, by fire, or by burial alive. A like punishment was provided for those who would dare to lodge, shelter, entertain, nurse, feed, or clothe a suspected heretic. Even failure to betray a heretic, though he were a friend, was punished by death.

Intolerance and bigotry were not confined to one sect nor to one state. They controlled all classes of Christians, and, unfortunately, their spirit has not entirely disappeared even in this age of boasted civilization and enlightenment.

In the reign of Elizabeth of England, in retaliation of the bull of Pope Pius V., a law was passed which provided that if any Catholic shall convert a Protestant to the Romish church they shall both suffer death for high treason ; and this was not an exceptional act, it was characteristic of the cruel bigotry of the times. There were hundreds like it, but this is cited simply to give an idea of the intolerance that prevailed throughout all Christendom.

The act was carefully considered, passed Parliament, received the sanction of the queen and the approval of the people. The Anglican and the

Calvinist were just as intolerant as the Romanist, After Calvin had escaped martyrdom at Paris he returned to Geneva to send Servetus to the stake.

The world had not reached the point where the church and the state were willing to concede to the people the right to enjoy religious and political liberty. Perhaps, too, the times and the conditions were not ripe for these blessings. It was not an age when anyone could, with impunity, have uttered the truth that " for their religious opinions men are responsible to God alone." It took centuries of tears and blood and strife, in the efforts that were made, to reconcile the world to the acceptance of this great truth, and after all this sacrifice, even to-day, in many lands, the light has not yet penetrated the darkness.

The stake, the rack, and the thumbscrew were used to control the consciences of men. Religious sectarian contention plunged nations into wars that were cruelly and relentlessly waged in the name of the gentle teacher of Nazareth, who taught men to love one another.

It was an age when men believed in coercion rather than persuasion, force rather than argument. Freedom of inquiry was out of the question. What right had the people to think for themselves ? The civic duty of the citizen was to submit patiently and willingly to the tyranny and absolutism of the crown and his religious duty to accept without question the dogmas of the church.

The advocate Barbier, in the eighteenth century, shows the subservient disposition of that age when he writes : " I believe that one has to fulfil his duties honorably without concerning one's self with state affairs in which one has no mission and exercises no power." On the other hand, it was the duty of the faithful to accept the doctrines of the church with implicit belief. To question, was to doubt; to doubt, was to sin, and there was no sin blacker nor more deadly than heresy.

It was believed and argued that so important was the matter of faith in the scheme of the salvation of men's souls, that no method was too severe that would save the people from heresy and its dire and dreadful consequences. To be sure, the spirit of religious intolerance has been modified by time, but until it entirely disappears the difference between the past ages and our own, in this matter of intolerance, is after all only one of degree.