Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/642

 624 MIRABEAU he visited Berlin, where he published a pam- phlet upon Cagliostro and Lavater, and Moses Mendelssohn, ou la Reforms politique des Juifs. After paying a short visit to Paris, he re- turned with a secret mission from the French ministry. For six months he held a semi-offi- cial correspondence, and accumulated materi- als for a great work upon the Prussian mon- archy. In 1787 he returned to France, and wrote a pamphlet, Denonciation de V agiotage, directed against Calonne, and followed some time after by a similar attack on Necker's policy. Being threatened with another lettre de cachet, he went to Brunswick, where he completed his work De la monarchic prus- sienne, which was published the next year (8 vols. 8vo and 4 vols. 4to). With the exception of the few months of his mission to Prussia, he had recently been greatly embarrassed by pe- cuniary difficulties; but now he found himself in the most wretched situation, and it was prob- ably under the pressure of sheer penury that he published, under the title of Histoire secrete de la cour de Berlin, his confidential letters to the French ministry. This publication was or- dered to be burned by the executioner. The convocation of the states general being now announced, he went to Provence in the begin- ning of 1789, and presented himself for elec- tion to the nobility of this province ; but he soon drew upon himself their implacable hos- tility by his boldness in the discussions as to the mode of election. He was finally expelled from their assembly, as having no fief of his own, and threw himself into the arms of the third estate. Several times he was called upon by the authorities to exhort the people during riotous disturbances. He was elected to the states general for both Marseilles and Aix, and decided to sit for Aix. In the assembly he never had a party ; but by logic and elo- quence he swayed it at will on almost every important occasion. He encouraged the third estate to maintain their rights against the pre- tensions of the other orders, and at the end of the royal sitting of June 23 he sent the grand master of ceremonies back to the king with this bold answer : " Go and tell your master we are here by the power of the people, and that we are only to be driven out by that of the bayonet." But, detesting mob license no less than tyranny, he advocated the royal pre- rogative of the veto, and, while " utterly op- posed to a counter revolution," declared himself ready to make an effort .for "the restoration of the king's legitimate authority as the only means of saving France." In consequence of this, part of his debts, about 80,000 francs, were secretly paid by order of the king, and he received a monthly pension of 6,000 francs. He also received four notes of 250,000 francs each ; but these were given back to the king at Mirabeau's death. This has been cited as evidence of his venality, though he pursued a line of policy dictated by his convictions. On May 20, 1790, in r.n elaborate oration, he sup- ported the king's right to declare peace or war, in opposition to several celebrated orators, and especially Barnave, whose popularity was now more than equal to his own. Barnave was borne in triumph, while Mirabeau was charged with treason and corruption. Three days la- ter he ascended the tribune, defended himself with fervid and convincing eloquence, and came out triumphant. The mass of business which Mirabeau now carried on simultaneously was prodigious. In addition to his duties as a deputy, he published a journal, which, first un- der the title of Journal des Etats Generaux, then Lettres a mes Constituants, and finally Courrier de Provence, gave a report of the sit- tings, and freely discussed all the questions of the day. In these labors he called around him coadjutors, such as Dumont, Duroveray, Rei- baz, and others, who not only wrote for his pe- riodical, but assisted him in the preparation of documents, and even of his speeches. But his strength became exhausted by his herculean labors, rendered still more dangerous by high living and licentiousness. On March 27, 1791, though very ill, he occupied his seat in the as- sembly and spoke five times. When he went home, his friend and physician Cabanis saw that his end was approaching. The news of his ill- ness spread over Paris like a public calamity ; the chausse" e d' Antin, the street in which he lived, was thronged by the multitude ; bulletins were printed and distributed every hour ; twice a day the king sent to his house for tidings. After a night of terrific suffering, at the dawn of day he addressed Cabanis : " My friend, I shall die to-day. When one has come to such a juncture, there remains only one thing to be done ; that is, to be perfumed, crowned with flowers, and surrounded with music, in order to enter sweetly into that slumber from which there is no awaking." He ordered his bed to be brought near the window, and looked with rapture at the brightness of the sun and the freshness of his garden. His death was mourn- ed by the whole nation; every one felt that the ruling spirit of the revolution had passed away. His body was carried in pomp by the assembly and the people to the church of Ste. Genevi&ve ; but three years later, by order of the convention, it was removed to the church- yard of St. Catherine, the burial place of crim- inals. Editions of Mirabeau's works have been published by Barthe (8 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1819- '20), and by Merilhou (9 vols. 8vo, 1825-'7) ; but neither of these collections is complete, while their biographical notices are far from correct. Many of his productions have had but one edition, and are now difficult to find. The Memoires biographiques, litteraires et poli- tiques de Mirabeau, by Lucas Monti gny, his adopted son (9 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1834-'5), are as yet, in spite of serious defects, the most valu- able source of information on the subject. See also Correspondance entre le comte de Mirabeau et le comte de La March pendant les annees 1789, 1790 et 1791 (3 vols., Paris, 1851); Dumont's