Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/648

* MIR. 576 MIRABEAU. divided, usually according to the number of males at the "last census, being redistributed «heuever necessary. Kach family receives meadow, forest, and arable land, tlie meadow being sometimes kept in common and only the grass divided. The mir, or village comnuine, as a body is assessed for ta.es by the Central Gov- ernment, and the burden of ta.atiou is distributed among the heads of families, according to the amount of laud occupied by each. Each mir is self-governing with elected ollieers, and adjoining niirs may be grouped in volasts or snuiU cantons. The system is very old, but is gradually chang- ing, as a mir nuiy now go over to private owner- ship of land and inheritance of property on vote of two-thirds of its members. Consult: Wallace. Ilussiu (London. 1877) ; Keussler, Zur lleschich- te und Krilik den hiim-rlklien (lemcindibcsitzes ill lyu.f.sldiid (Saint Petersburg, 1876-87). MJRABEAU, me'ra'bi', G.4.BRIEL HoNORfi RlQUETl. Count de (174!l-ni). A French writer, orator, and statesman. He was the second son of Victor Riqueti, Marquis de Xlirabeau. a cele- brated economist, and was born at Bignon, near Nemours. March !), 1740. .fler several years imder a tutor, the young Mirabeau was ])laced (1707) in a fashionable militarj- school in Paris, where he became proficient in languages and in the accomplishments of good society. In 1767 he joined the Berry cavalry regiment and the ne.t year he received a .second lieutenant's commission, but his freaks of conduct and his love aft'airs, one of which brought him into rivalry with his colonel, caused his imprisonment in the citadel of the island of Re. from which he was released, at his father's instigation, in March, 17(!!t. The condition of his release was that he should join the expedition to Corsica, and as a member of the legion of Lorraine he served with credit in the subjugation of that isUuul. In 1771 he was connnissioned captain of dragoons, and in 1772 he was married at Aix to Marie Kmilic de Covet, only daugliter of the Marquis de Marignane. Of tliis union one son, Victor, was l)ni-n in 177:{. but lie died in 1778. Debts, quarrels with his father and wife, and an altercation with the .Marquis de Villeneuve- Monans. led to his imprisonment by lettrc de cachet in the Castle of If in 1774. whence he was transferred to the Castle of .loux, near Pontarlier, the next year. Being at freedom to visit Pontar- lier. he made the acquaintance of the Mar- quis de Monnier, an old man of seventy, and hi-; twenty-two-year-old wife. Marie Thi'rfse Richard de IlufTey. Forgetful of his obligations to the Marquis.Mirabeau fell violently in love with the young Marqiise: trouble ensueil. an<l Mirabeau finally escajied to Switzerland, where he was joined by Sophie, as he called his mistress, and in October, 1776. they settled in .msterdam, where Mirabeau gained a livelihood as a hack writer. In the meantime, the French courts pa*ed sentence upon the runaway lovers, who were arrested in May. 1777. and brought to Paris, where Sophie was kept under close surveillance, while Alirabenu was imprisoned at Vincennes. For three years and a half he was kept in close confinement, but through his guard, a brother Freemason, he was able to carry on his famims (■orre-pdiidi'iire with Sophie. These letters mark the culmination of Mirabenii's wild and vicious career. As n prisoner he devoted himself to the translation of numerous ilassics, ami to the pro- duction of various original works, some of which were later published. After his release in Decem- ber, 1780, he forsook Sophie, who, after another loc allair, conuuitted suicide in 1789. Then he returned to Pontarlier, secured the revocation of the death sentence, which had been passed on him for the seduction of Sopliie, and later went to .ix, where, after a trial in which he ably conducted his own suit, he was legally separated from Ills wife in 1783. Because of his suits at Pontarlier, he found it advisable to leave France for a few months, which he spent at Neuchatel, where he met the (iencvese Liberals Clavi&re and Duroveray, and where he published his Dcs lettres de cachet el den /jrisaiis d'elut, the best known of his earlier writings. From Sejitember, 178.'i, to August, 1784, he was in Paris, where he seems to have begun his life-long intimacy with Henriette van Harcn, a young woman of nineteen, known as Madame de Xehra, whose influence over Jlira- bcau was exerted entirely for his good. In August, 1784, he withdrew to London to allow another , storm to blow over. In England he met his old schoolfellow, Sir Gilbert Elliot (later first Earl ; ofMinto),Mr. (later Sir) Samuel Romilly, Lord Lansdowne. and other well-known men. He ' there wrote the Coiisidira lions xiir I'ordre de ' Ciiiciniuilus, which caused a sensation in the : Cnited States. After nine months in Eng- land, the intercessions of iladame de Xehra enabled him to return to Paris, where he en- tered into intimate relations with the Genevese exiles and other Liberals, like Brissot. and wrote numerous panqdilets on financial ques- tions, published during 178.'). These were followed (1787-1789) by his attacks on stock-jobbing and his criticisms on Nccker's administration of the finances. Tn the meantime, he had twice visited Prussia, once on a secret mission for the Govern- ment. On his first visit (Decend>er. 1785. to May, 1786) he was received by Erederick the Great, whose death occurred iluring his second visit at Berlin (.July. 1786. to .Tanuary. 1787). In 1787 he failed in an attempt to secure the position of Secretary to the Assembly of Nota- bles, and his attacks on Xcckcr drove him to take refuge in Prussia. Returning from this third visit to Berlin, he published in 1788 his most famous work, Dc la mdiiarehie pnissiciine .■ioii.s Frederic le Grand {8 vols, and atlas. London, 1788). In October. 1788, Mirabeau once more was reconciled with his father, and in .Tanuary, 1789, he arrived at Aix to iiarticipatc in the elec- tions to the States-General. In Ajuil. having been ejected bv his own order, the nobility, he was elccte<l bv'the Third Estate both of Aix and of Marseilles'to the Statcs-General, and he chose to r<q)resent the former i-ity.' Uv was in Paris in time to publish on May "2. 1789, the first number of his newspaper, which, after some changes of title, finally look the name of Cniirrier dc Prorence, and a few days later to be present at the opening of the States-General at Versailles, He never had a following upon whom he could depend in the States-General, where his success was always a result of his ability to take advantage of tem- piirarv enthusiasm or excitement — an ability which gave him a reputation for boldness, for knowing his own mind, for oratorical powers, and for many of the arts of the demagogue. The true greatness of Mirabeau was not revealed