Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/517

Rh MIKABEAU 495 The months he spent at Berlin were important ones in the history of Prussia, for in them Frederick the Great died. The letters just mentioned show clearly what Mirabeau did and what he saw, and equally clearly how unfit he was to be a diplomatist ; for, with all his knowledge of men and his influence over them, he thought (and showed he thought) too much of himself ever to be able to surprise their secret thoughts and intentions. He certainly failed to conciliate the new king Frederick William ; and thus ended Mirabeau s one attempt at diplomacy. During his journey he had made the acquaintance of a Major Mauvillon, whom he found possessed of a great number of facts and statistics with regard to Prussia ; these he made use of in a great work on Prussia published in 1788, as Romilly says, to show that he could write more than a fugitive pamphlet. But, though his Monarchic Prussienne gave him a general reputation for historical learning, he had in this same year lost a chance of political employment. He had offered himself as a candidate for the office of secretary to the Assembly of Notables which the king had just con vened, and to bring his name before the public published another financial work, the Denunciation de V Agiotage, dedicated to the king and notables, which abounded in such violent diatribes that he not only lost his election, but was obliged to retire to Tongres ; and he further injured his prospects by publishing the reports he had sent in during his secret mission at Berlin. But 1789 was at hand ; the states-general was summoned ; Mirabeau s period of pro bation was over, and he was at last to have that oppor tunity of showing his great qualities both as statesman and orator on a worthy arena. On hearing of the king s determination to summon the states-general, Mirabeau started for Provence, and offered to assist at the preliminary conference of the noblesse of his district. They rejected him ; he appealed to the tiers etat, and was returned both for Aix and for Marseilles. He elected to sit for the former city, and was present at the opening of the states-general on May 4, 1789. From this time the record of Mirabeau s life forms the best history of the first two years of the Constituent Assembly, for at every important crisis his voice is to be heard, though his advice was not always followed. It is impossible here to detail minutely the history of these two eventful years ; it will be rather advisable to try and analyse the manner in which Mirabeau regarded passing events, and then show how his policy justifies our analysis. Mirabeau possessed at the same time great logical acutcness and most passionate enthusiasm ; he was there fore both a statesman and an orator, and the interest of the last two years of his life lies mainly in the gradual but decided victory of the statesmanlike and practical over the impulsive and oratorical qualities. From the beginning Mirabeau recognized that government exists in order that the bulk of the population may pursue their daily work in peace and quiet, and that for a Government to be successful it must be strong. In this practical view of the need of a strong executive lies one of Mirabeau s greatest titles to the name of statesman. At the same time he thoroughly com prehended that for a Government to be strong it must be in harmony with the wishes of the majority of the people, and that the political system of Louis XIV. was now fall ing for lack of this. He had carefully studied the English constitution in England under the guidance of such men as Lord Lansdowne, Sir Gilbert Elliot, and Romilly, and appreciated it with the wise approval of its powers of ex pansion which characterized the new Whigs, and not with the blind admiration of Burke. He understood the key notes of the practical success of the English constitution to be the irresponsibility of the king, the solidarity of the ministers, and the selection of the executive from among the majority of the representatives of the country; and he hoped to establish in France a system similar in principle, but without any slavish imitation of the details of the English constitution. In the first stage of the history of the states-general Mirabeau s part was very great. He was soon recognized as a leader, to the chagrin of Mounier, because he always knew his own mind, and was prompt at emergencies. To him is to be attributed the successful consolidation of the National Assembly, its continuance in spite of De Breze&quot; and the carpenters, and the address to the king for the with drawal of the troops assembled by De Broglie. When the taking of the Bastille had assured the success of the Revolution, he was the one man who warned the Assembly of the futility of passing fine-sounding decrees and the necessity for acting. He declared that the famous night of August 4 was but an orgy, giving the people an immense theoretical liberty while not assisting them to practical freedom, and overthrowing the old regime before a new one could be constituted. Still more did he show his foresight when he attacked the dilatory behaviour of the Assembly, which led to the catastrophes of the 5th and 6th October. He implored the Assembly to strike while the iron was hot, and at once solve in a practical manner the difficult problems presented by the abolition of feudalism. But the Assembly consisted of men inexperi enced in practical politics, who dreamed of drawing up an ideal constitution preluded by a declaration of rights in imitation of the Americans ; and for two months the Assembly discussed in what words the declaration should be expressed, while the country was in a state of anarchy, declaring old laws and customs abolished and having no new ones to obey or follow, disowning the old adminis trative system and having no new one yet instituted, while Paris was starving and turbulent, and the queen and her friends planning a counter-revolution. The result of these two months theorizing was the march of the women to Versailles, and the transfer of the king to Paris. Mirabeau now saw clearly that his eloquence would not enable him to guide the Assembly by himself, and that he must there fore try to get some support. He wished to establish a strong ministry, which should be responsible like an English ministry, but to an assembly chosen to represent the people of France better than the English House of Commons then represented England. He first thought of becoming a minister at a very early date, if we may believe a story contained in the Memoires of the Duchesse d Abrantes, to the effect that in May 1789 the queen tried to bribe him, but that he refused to be bribed to silence, and expressed his wish to be a minister. The indignation with which the queen repelled the idea may have been the cause of his thinking of the Due d Orleans as a possible constitutional king, because his title would of necessity be parliamentary. But the weakness of Orleans was too palpable, and in a famous remark Mirabeau expressed his utter contempt for him. He also attempted to form an alliance with Lafayette, but the general was as vain and as obstinate as Mirabeau himself, and had his own theories about a new French constitution. Mirabeau tried for a time, too, to act with Necker, and obtained the sanction of the Assembly to Necker s financial scheme, not because it was good, but because, as he said, &quot;no other plan was before them, and something must be done.&quot; Hitherto weight has been laid on the practical side of Mirabeau s political genius ; his ideas with regard to the Revolution after the 5th and 6th October must now be examined, and this can be done at length, thanks to the publication of Mirabeau s correspondence with La Marck, a study of which is indispensable for any correct knowledge of the history of the Revolution between 1789 and 1791.