?A f i\ >^C) (Llnmuu*. t)nhVn. tVHtmi. MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE ALLET DU PAN. vol. r shown towards the maxims and the views of the monarch- ical and constitutional party of the first Assembly ; and the moment seems arrived for the writers who maintained and defended it, to present to the ordeal of philosophy and "I ln-ton their testimony and their conclusions. Consider- PREFACE. IX ing the prolonged succession of (hat multitude of historical and political writings in which the French Revolution is by turns attacked and defended, it would be difficult to deny a general disposition to re-open the question of the merit of the terrible work — to suffer the problem to be at last elucidated by all the lights of history and discussion. If, on the one hand, generous spirits seem more than ever convinced that the Assembly, the revolutionary issue of the States-General, gave a final solution to philosophy, and perhaps to religion, it is confidently demanded, on the other, whether faith in the absolute mission of the revolution is sufficiently well-grounded ; and, without pro- nouncing sentence, the majority of thinking men agree in the opinion that affairs are in a sufficiently bad case to make it worth while' to re-consider a dogma which weighs on modern politics as the authority of Aristotle did afore- time upon science. There was reason to hope, therefore, that a work in which the close of the last century is observed and judged by a highly sagacious historian, in which the great question is proposed and discussed by a political thinker of no common order, would be received with interest. Not only has this hope dissipated the hesitation which had hitherto prevented the publication of the papers and correspondence of Mallet du Pan, but it has suggested the idea of including in this impression various fragments of the writings, and especially of the political journals, which, whether during or previously to the revolution, laid the foundation of the writer's fame, and are now either rare or forgotten. The somewhat unusual frame-work ot these Memoir> X PREFACE. will therefore present at once the life of Mallet du Pan, and the essence of his lahours as a writer. This mixture of narrative and of extensive quotation is somewhat novel in French literature ; hut the method has in its favour the sometimes happy application which it has received in English biographies ; it is specially suited for making known those political writers whose productions, always occasional, can now possess but a partial interest, and which require, in order that they may be reperused with pleasure and profit, to be replaced in their date and historical point of view. The attractive story of an adventurous life will not be looked for in this work — not that the personal career of Mallet du Pan is devoid of interest, but this interest belongs to the times and events in which he moved. The value of Mallet, as well as his peculiar merit, is that of having seen closely — of having depicted and judged in his writings, the entire political movement of the last century, whether he observed the scene simply as a bystander, or whether, consulted by the great personages of the drama, he stated his views and offered his advice, and that of having always borne himself as in the presence of history, merging his life, so to speak, in the cause of the principles of justice and of reason engaged in those terrible contests. It is natural that the Memoirs which retrace such a career should offer almost exclusively, in conjunction witli the impressions and the thoughts of the man, a vivid picture of the persons and the things which occasioned them. Such are in fact, in great part, the following Memoirs, — the history of the French Revolution reflected, ;is it \s'i«. from the opening of the States-Ci'eneral to the PREFACE. XI days of the Consulate, which Mallet was still spared to witness and to judge. The materials of which the Memoirs are composed have been chosen — irrespectively of the journals and writings published by Mallet du Pan — tirst, of a Miscellany or sort of private journal in which Mallet, since his arrival in Paris, noted down his his- torical observations ; secondly, of a body of Memoirs or political advices which had been asked of the writer by several sovereigns, by the French Princes themselves, and also by various statesmen for their personal in- formation ; lastly, of the still considerable remains of a fertile correspondence, maintained by Mallet du Pan with his friends Malouet, de Pradt, Montlosier, Lally-Tolendal, Portalis, Sainte-Aldegonde, the Chevalier de Gallatin, M. de Hardenberg, and many other distinguished men. As far as possible, the purely conjectural discussions which naturally abound in many of these pages have been omitted ; but whatever partook of the nature of historic critique and philosophic judgment, whatever could serve to define the manner in which events were felt by con- temporaries, has been, and deserved to be, retained : we hope that it will be so considered. In one word, we have desired to produce an useful work, and we have been on our guard against allowing it to be in any sense a work of vanity, confident of thus honouring, with a respect which he would have accepted, the least vain of men, and most practical of thinkers. Nevertheless, the titles of pamphleteer and of historian are not the only ones it is our object to recall. There are aspects in the merit of Mallet du Pan, not the less valuable for belonging to his character and perhaps to XU PREFACE his education. We have attempted to develop a programme of the kind thus traced many years since by a pious hand : " That which appears to me the most interesting to he enforced in the record of my father's life," said the daughter of Mallet du Pan, " is the moral character of his mind — that independence of opinion which raised up against him so many enemies, and which so many men of various parties sought so often and so vainly to warp for their own purposes ; the courage with which during the years of the revolution he braved the threats, the imprecations, the writings, whether avowed or anonymous, of the enemies of the good cause. I have seen revolutionists come to him, to force him to retract some article in his journal, menacing him with their vengeance ; and my father has answered them with a firmness full of moderation and dignity, that he might be assassinated, but would never be induced to disavow his principles. A Protestant, he defended the Catholic clergy with all his talent, and with the warmth which animated his writings ; a republican, he defended the threatened monarchies ; because these were the causes of order and of morality. Menaced on all sides, harrassed by the fears of his friends and family, he remained ever unshaken, and ready to answer witli his head for the cause he defended; of uncertain health, he uniformly displayed unbending intrepidity; with the most limited fortune, he showed the most noble dis- interestedness ; and the elevation of his character is no less remarkable than his talents. Persons from the provinces, men of all ranks, came to thank him for the services rendered by him to the public cause and to themselves personally ; he was implored to continue his PREFACE. Xlll perilous task, and was overwhelmed with praises which failed to excite his vanity." The daughter of the pamphleteer, had she known the communications addressed by her father to the govern- ments of the Coalition, would have added, that the policy which he recommended to the statesmen of the empire, of Prussia, and of Great Britain, was a moral policy as elevated as the circumstances were momentous. If he was anions: the first to understand that it was no longer a question of military tactics a la Frederick II. in view of the daring of generals and the frenzied impetuositv of revolutionary masses, he felt yet more acutely that the French republicans would have the better of the powers if the latter would not forget their old policy of the balance of power and jealousy, to unite in a war of principles, and, above all, of justice. All the under-current of conquest in regard to France by the union of the allied States, appeared to him an iniquity of ill omen — an immense blunder — and this he declared with a sense of eloquent conviction. It will be for the reader to decide whether Mallet du Pan deserved, in fact, the place which we claim for him among the enlightened observers and judges of the close of the last century. But one merit will not be denied him after the perusal of these Memoirs — that of having always combined in a high degree, during his career as a writer, integrity of character with superiority of mind. I'l BRl'ARY, IS.") 2. C ONTE N T S THE FIRST V O L U M E. CHAPTER I. 1749 — 1773. Celigny — Mallet du Pan; his family — His studies at the College, and at the Academy of Geneva — Revolutions of Geneva in the eighteenth century — Mallet adopts the defence of the natives — His first political treatise — Friendship with Voltaire — The young Professor of History at Cassel — Inaugural Discourse: "What is the in- fluence of Philosophy on the Belles-Lettres r" — Letter from Voltaire — Mallet du Pan returns to Geneva . . 1 CHAPTER II. 1773—1784. Historical and political studies — Linguet — Mallet undertakes his defence, and contributes to his " Annales politiques etlitteraires" — Letter from Voltaire to .Mallet du Pan — Linguet at the Bastille — Mallet edits the continuation of the " Annales" — Character of the work — Act? of the American insurgents — Critical condition of Great Britain — The Abbe Kuynai — Mallet attacked in reference to Voltaire — His reply — Anecdotes — Letter from Vagneres , 2 -J b XV111 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. 1781 — 1782. Fresh disturbances at Geneva — The " Idees soumises par un mt'dia- teur sans consequence" — The Genevese Revolution of 1782; its analogy to the French Revolution — Geneva invested by the troops of Berne, France and Savoy — Excitement of the people — Mallet sent on a mission to M. de la Marmora — The city opens its gates — Account of these events in the " Memoires politiques"- — Brissot at Geneva . . . .58 CHAPTER IV. 1784—1789. Mallet du Pan quits Geneva and goes to Paris — The " Mercure de France" — M. Panckoucke intrusts to Mallet the political part of the " Mercure" — Revolution in Holland, and contention between Mallet and the Minister for Foreign Affairs — Mirabeau : " Analyse des papiers anglais" — News from England — Trial of Warren Hastings — Rage of Mirabeau and Brissot . . 83 CHAPTER V 1784 — 178!). Articles of Mallet in the literary department of the " Mercure - Montesquieu on Republics — Grotius and the law of nations- — Ideas upon political economy— Learning and manners at the close of the eighteenth century — Life of Mallet in Paris — Panckoucke' > household-- Buffnn — Anecdotes . . 112 CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER VI. 1785—1787. Private Journal of Mallet du Pan — Historical and moral observations concerning Paris from 1785 to 1789 . . . 130 CHAPTER VII. 1789—1792. Articles upon the English Constitution published in the " Mercure de France" before the meeting of the States General — Opinions of Mallet du Pan upon the first acts of the Constituent Assembly — Position and character of the "Mercure" after the suppression of the censorship . . . . . 1 G 1 CHAPTER VIII. 1789—1790. Opinions of Mallet in the "Mercure de France" from 1789 to 1792 — Declaration of the rights of man — Scenes at Versailles (October 5th and 6th) — Flight of Mounier ; retirement of Lally-Tollendal — Mallet du Pan threatened — His relations with Malouet become more intimate — Injustice of the majority — Declamations on the right — Civic oath — Provisional law on the liberty of the press 179 CHAPTER IX. 1 790. .Mallet du Pan's journey to Geneva — Return to Paris — Selfishness of the Constituent Assembly — Denunciation of a libel against M. de la Fayette — Article, in the "Mercure," on the year 17S9 — Duel XX CONTENTS. between Cazales and Barnave — Opinion on M. Necker — The Editor of the "Mercure" summoned by a deputation of citizens to write in favour of the Revolution — His declaration — He raises his voice in favour of the shamefully ill-treated Catholic clergy — Mirabeau ; his death — Particulars extracted from the notes of Mallet du Pan on the connection between Mirabeau and the Court . . . . . .201 CHAPTER X. 1791. Flight from Varennes — Domiciliary visit to Mallet du Pan — On the origin of factions — The King visits the Assembly to sanction the Constitutional Act — Opinion of the m " Mercure" on the Con- stituent Assembly .... 238 CHAPTER XI. 1791—1792. The Legislative Assembly — The " Mercure" declares against war — Political condition of Europe — Uneasiness of the minority of the Assembly — Secret intrigues against the Jacobins — Committees : projects for saving the King — Private notes of Mallet du Pan- Decrees of the Assembly relative to the assassins of Avignon, the colonies, and the emigrants — The Brissot ministry — Mallet's final articles in the " Mercure dc France" . . . 24'J CHAPTER XII. J 792. Louis XVI. entrusts to Mallet du Pan a political mission to the Emperor and the King of Prussia — Nature of the instructions given by the King to his agent— Departure of Mallet for Geneva, CONTENTS. XXI and thence for Frankfort — Coblentz — M. de Montlosier, and the Chevalier de Panat — The Princes are dissatisfied with the mission of Mallet — Occurrences of the 20th June — Letters of Malouet and the Abbe de Pradt — Conferences at Frankfort — Note from Louis XVI. — Opposition of the Russian minister, M. de Romanzoff — Tardy success of Mallet with the ministers of Russia and Austria — The manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick — Error of Bertrand de Moleville in his " Memoirs." . . . 288 CHAPTER XIII. 1792—1793. Return to Geneva — General Montesquiou invades Savoy — Prepara- tion for defence — The allied cantons send troops — Claviere — Generous conduct of Montesquiou — Mallet du Pan retires to Lausanne — Baron d'Erlach — Letter of Count Joseph de Maistre to Mallet du Pan — Death of Louis XVI. — Memoir addressed by Mallet du Pan to the Kings of Prussia and Sardinia . 341 CHAPTER XIV. 1793. Letter of Marechal de Castries — Mallet du Pan goes to Brussels — The Arch-Duke Charles, Lord Elgin, Sir J. Macpherson — Pro- ceedings of Dumouriez — Mallet publishes the "Considerations sur la Revolution francaise " — Indignation of the Emigres — Letter of Montlosier — Letter to Marechal de Castries . . 365 CHAPTER X V. 1793. Insurrections in the interior of France — Imprudent policy of the Governments of the Coalition regarding the insurgent departments and the Swiss Cantons — Representations on this subject addressed by Mallet to Lord Grenville .... 3f)0 XXI 1 CONTENTS CHAPTER XVI. 1794. Historical and political report drawn up for Lord Elgin — On the character of the French Revolution and its successive aspects — The means employed to oppose it — Its military and financial resources — State of public opinion in France — Debates in the English Parliament ..... 405 CONFIRMATORY DOCUMENTS AND APPENDIX. I. Extract from the " Mercure " on the theatres of Paris . 434 II. Memorial presented by Mallet du Pan to the Allied Powers on the part of Louis XVI. . . . 439 III. Letter from Colonel Thouvenot to Mallet du Pan . 461 IV. Letter from General Montcsquiou to D'lvernois. . 464 Letter from the Duke of Orleans (Louis Philippe) to the same ... . 461) MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF MALLET DU PAN. CHAPTER I. 1749 — 1773. Celigny — Mallet du Pan; his family — His studies at the College, and at the Academy of Geneva — Revolutions of Geneva in the eighteenth century — Mallet adopts the defence of the natives — His first political treatise — Friendship with Voltaire — The young Professor of History at Cassel — Inaugural Discourse: "What is the in- fluence of Philosophy on the Belles-Lettres ?" — Letter from Voltaire — Mallet du Pan returns to Geneva. Jacques Mallet du Pan was born in 1749, in the presbytery of Celigny, one of those lovely villages which crown the right bank of the Lake of Geneva. Planted with noble trees, traversed by abundant waters descending from the Jura, commanding by its position Lake Leman and the Savoyard Alps, Celigny, like Genthod and Coppet which adjoin it, is one of those charming places in which the ima- gination would more willingly place the cradle of a poet than that of a savant, a philosopher, or a politician. The fine trees of Genthod shaded Charles Bonnet, the wise VOL. I. B 2 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Abauzit, and the youth of Saussurc ; Coppct, which had harboured the sceptic Bayle, sheltered the retreat of Neekcr. These seeming mistakes of fate are not to be smiled at. Who would assert that poetical sentiment was deficient in Bonnet, de Suussure, or the amiable Abauzit ? A familiarity with the beauties of nature enlarges the men- tal perception ; and patriotism to the inhabitant of towns is quite a different sentiment from that which influences the man who has passed the season of lively impressions in presence of the great scenes of nature. In the midst of the severe conflicts which occupied his life, Mallet du Pan often gives expression to that kind of emotion to which the remembrance of a beautiful native country can alone open the heart. He passed his child- hood at Celigny with his father. The latter, the pastor of this Gencvese village, included in the Pays de Vaud and bordering on France, was much beloved there. He was a man of sound scn?.e, of gentle character and agreeable manners, and not deficient in a certain amount of talent as a preacher. The Gencvese clergy was mostly recruited from the ranks of the aristocracy ; the Pastor Mallet occu- pied therefore in the country a social position, which was further elevated by his marriage with Mademoiselle du Pan, the daughter of a syndic, and belonging to one of the most ancient families of the magistracy. There still reigned in the Republic, and particularly among its chiefs, that extreme simplicity of manners, which the Reformation and the austere institutions of Calvin had established and main- tained in the Protestant city.* * The family of Mallet were fond of relating an anecdote of which the great grandfather of our journalist was the hero. An envoy MALLET DU PAN. 3 In accordance with the republican usage universal among Genevese families of all ranks, Mallet commenced his studies at the College of Geneva, founded by Calvin, and at that time occupied by distinguished professors. His precocious superiority always secured to him the highest prizes of his class. At the age of fifteen he entered the Auditoires* simultaneously with Claviere, afterwards Minister of Finance to the Convention, and with two other individuals destined to take an active part in the revolutions of Geneva — the Syndic Dentand and the Minister Gasc. Among the Pro- fessors of Philosophy, Mallet was fortunate in finding Bertrand, a worthy disciple of the great Euler, and de Saussure, the youthful successor of his illustrious uncle Bonnet, in the academic chair. Having completed his course of philosophy, Mallet for a time studied the law, but his ardent mind was already occupied with far other objects : his ideas — luxuriant, indeed, but as yet ill defined — found vent in attempts at literary composition, in which were united some thought, much vehemence, some obscu- rity and but little taste : they were the raw productions of a school-boy. But scarcely had he emerged from the Academy at the age of twenty, when he commenced his career as a politician and journalist, by conduct and writings from the Court of France presenting himself to the first syndic to make his ceremonial visit, found the worthy magistrate seated at his kitchen hearth on his return from the Council, and watching with interest the manufacture of brisselets (a kind of domestic pastry). The fire- place was capacious : the republican statesman cordially invited the Ambassador to be seated, and partake of his collation, a naive piece of politeness which was graciously accepted by the representative of Louis XIV. * A name given at Geneva to the Academy. B 2 4 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of which we can comprehend neither the nature nor the tendency unless we call to mind the political agitations which convulsed Geneva during the eighteenth century. These revolutionary troubles, now but imperfectly remem- bered even by the Genevese, are banished by us to an obscure place in history ; yet in their day they commanded the attention of all Europe ; and excited an amount of interest disproportioned indeed to the narrow theatre where they were enacted, but not to the wishes and presentiments of their age. Perhaps undue honour has been accorded to the policy of this small Republic, when it has been regarded as the mother of the republican liberty of our times : reason and social science played a less brilliant part than has been believed in the interminable discussions of this litigious nation. But the two greatest names of the eighteenth cen- tury, the names of Voltaire and Rousseau are connected with them ; and it must be admitted that more than one distinguished writer issued from this school. Only to speak of those who have left important works, the advo- cate De Lolme, the annalist of the English Constitution; M. Necker, Mallet du Pan, D'lvernois, Dumont, the expounder of Bentham — these had all learned directly from the revolutions of Geneva what illusions the wisest men are liable to mistake for the true conditions of freedom. We may be allowed, then, to take a retrospective view of the political annals of Geneva, and to seek in them the expla- nation of the events which involved Mallet du Pan, at so early an age, in the fierce contests of politics. Had not a Pope, who was Duke of Savoy, and who had observed the Genevese close]} 7 , complained as far MALLET DU PAN. 5 back as the fifteenth century of the discontented cha- racter of that small nation, one might be tempted to account for the restless spirit which has harassed it at so many periods of its history, from the mode in which it has been recruited since the Reformation. The refugees of all countries who arrived within its walls had preferred quitting their native land to changing their opinions : arguing with fervour on behalf of their creeds, all had become more or less filled with a jealous feeling of their rights. But whatever be its origin, this cha- racter for debate found occasion for its exercise, even after the great struggles of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, in the midst of the theological disputations which, during the seventeenth, shook the ancient authority of St. Augustin, and ended by substituting for calvanistic orthodoxy in Geneva itself, a rationalism essentially opposed to it. On the accomplishment of this revolution, and the exhaustion of theologic acrimony, the restlessness of the Genevese spirit took another direction. All at once it made the discovery of what it might have known for a century — that the administration circulated in a certain number of families, which reigned indeed without pomp or harshness, preserving with traditional reverence the ancient religious and republican austerity infused into the habits of the country by the efforts of Calvin. Long as this aristocratic regime had been established, the first who opened his eyes to its abuses, fancied that he woke from a long sleep, and attempted to oppose new laws as a barrier to the ambition of the aristocracy : and the feeling ni' the people seconded his own. The abuses whose redress 6 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF was demanded were redressed ; precautions were adopted against the exclusiveness of the aristocracy ; but the spirit that had dictated these complaints was insatiable, for it was the restless genius of modern democracy, which, in this confined corner of the world, was already arising in its strength and ready to respond to concessions by inexhaustible exactions. It was not yet foreseen, that, marching from stage to stage, from generation to gene- ration — carried forward towards an undefinable goal by the generous desires of sincere hearts as much as by the violent impulsion of the base — aided by the reason of the wise as by the error of the inconsiderate, it could not repose even after victory. Whether through pride, or the instinct of self-preservation, the Genevese aristocracy, offended at this sudden alarm, and thus rendered more jealous of privileges legitimatized in its eyes by the sanc- tion of time, and by the gentle and conscientious manner in which they were asserted, endeavoured to quell these discontented feelings, and take vengeance by punishing their instigators. The aristocracy for the first time showed themselves violent and indiscreet, and imprudently began to deserve the mistrust of which they complained : they ordered the arrest of a member of their own body, who, after taking the initiative in remonstrances, had announced others, and caused him to be shot in the prison- court. From that moment there was disunion in this little community into which discord should never have in- truded. There was no end to the mutual watching and contention of parties, and of the attempt on the one hand to maintain, on the other to change, their position. It would he lmio- ; m d tedious tn relate bv what legislative MALLET DU PAN. 7 processes — or rather perhaps by what intrigues — each party sought to gain its end. The right of applying a negative (a species of legislative veto opposed by the magistrates to the motions of the citizens), obstinately asserted by the Government, passionately contested by the citizens, was a political bugbear which prevented a perception of the true constitutional remedies applicable to the troubles of the Republic. An exposition of it here would neither interest nor enlighten : it will be enough to state that this right gave the name of negatives to the partisans of the aristocracy, whilst their adversaries (who would more recently have been called liberals), who expressed their demands through the medium of repre- sentation, adopted the title of representatives* A pamphlet mania took possession of the excited townsmen ; and the irritation of the wrangling, passing from the writings into the hearts of the writers, burst out at times in open violence. Blood flowed, and it was found necessary to have recourse to the Swiss Cantons and even to France (a dangerous expedient) in order to pacify the republicans, who had become incapable of preserving them- selves from the peril of civil war. In 1738 especially, the allies had terminated the conflict by a sort of arbitration, which procured for the Republic a repose of some years' duration. But the treatise of Rousseau, " L'Inegalite des * These party names eventually became familiar, even to strangers . Voltaire gave celebrity to them by frequent allusions. In his tale, " L'Homme aux quarantc ecus," he savs, to give an idea of the miracle-working gaiety of M. Andre : " II aurait fait, soupcr gaie- ment ensemble un Corse et un Genois, un reprtsentunt de Geneve et un m'gatif, un mufti et un archeveque,"' o MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF conditions," and his " Contrat social," although an ideal- ized sketch from the system of the Genevese Constitution, contribute to reanimate the fanaticism of political discon- tent : the dogma of popular sovereignty inflamed men's minds, and the representatives of the bourgeoisie, with re- doubled exigency, seized every opportunity of provoking the aristocracy, and of stripping it for their own profit of its political advantages. Whatever resistance or move- ment the provoked Senate attempted, to deliver itself from these ever more galling aggressions, excited the clamour of its adversaries, who were conscientious in their mistrust, and played their part of victims in all sincerity. Moreover, the indiscreet tone of the agents of France, now mixed up with the affairs of Geneva, served for a pretext ; and great was the exultation of republican pride, when one of the representatives asked the Chevalier de Bouteville to his face, when the latter spoke of his master's wishes : " Is your King our's ?" When the Senate, thinking to make a show of justice and of firmness in imitation of the parlement of Paris, committed the double blunder of burning " Emile " before the H6tel-de-Ville by the hands of the hangman, and of proscribing the person of its author, the indignation of the party did not miss so fair an opportunity of bursting forth into threats. For a moment opinion was sus- pended by an able treatise of the Procureur-General Tronchin, who, discussing calmly and with moderation the sentence simultaneously pronounced against the "Emile" and Rousseau, presented the political constitution of the country in an a>peet calculated to recal the affection <>t the Genevese, who piqued themselves on living" under a MALLET DU PAN. 9 system so republican, free, and honest. The readers of these earnest and sensible words could not but recollect themselves : "A free people should be vigilant, and rely on none but itself for the defence of its liberty ; but that restless alarm which frightens itself with its own cries is not vigilance." The conclusion of the " Lettres ecrites de la campagne " is also remarkable. " Why this perturbation amid an administration framed to inspire confidence ? Be not astonished, Sir ; liberty has its storms ; these are tributes which must be paid to it, and paid with as little distaste as need be. The same objects arc viewed very differently ; and I have alwavs remarked that the most strong and elevated minds, devoted to the interests of liberty, seldom regard authority with- out some uneasiness. Their eyes, opened to its disadvan- tages, are closed more or less to its necessity. But with a thinking people errors cannot last very long : men return to that medium which is attained but slowly in matters of o-overnment ; and, after manv efforts and wearisome uncer- tainties, they perceive at length that the ties and the principle of a free government have their origin in a rational confidence, because confidence has its bounds, and distrust has none." But Rousseau did not accept this apology for a sentence which branded him without judgment and without defence. He replied to the " Lettres ecrites de la campagne " by the "Lettres de la montagnc ;" the political portion of which had the effect of neutralizing the impression pro- duced by the prudent language of Tronchin. And yet this book, which is still read, for the sake of Rousseau's eloquence, by strangers indifferent to the quarrels of the 10 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Republic of Geneva, contained lessons by which the repre- sentatives might have profited, had they been less blinded by their pretensions. To those who may or might have imagined that because of all the noise then made in Geneva, that city was a prey to an odious despotism, the victim of an aristocracy irresponsible and unpatriotic, this declara- tion of Rousseau himself may be cited. " Your ma- gistrate is just in indifferent matters ; I even believe him inclined to be so always ; his posts are far from lucrative ; he renders justice, and sells it not ; he is per- sonally honourable — disinterested ; and I know that, in this most despotic council, uprightness and virtue always reign. In showing you the consequences of the right of negative, I have told you less what its advocates will do, when once they are sovereign, than what they continue to do in the hope of becoming so. Once recognized as such, it will be their interest to be always just, as it is even now to be generally just ; but woe to those who shall dare to have recourse to the laws, and to claim freedom ! Against them anything becomes allowable and legitimate. Equity, virtue, interest itself, cannot stand before the love of domi- nation ; and he who will be just when in power, spare no injustice to attain it." # In point of fact, the cause of Rousseau was that which least touched the representatives, and they forgot him alto- gether when, in 1768, a fresh explosion of disturbance had wrung from the Senate an edict which transferred the authority from its hands to those of the representatives, or rather of their chiefs; the conquest not of liberty, but of a party, and which, under pretext of re-establishing harmony * " Lettres ccrites dc la montagne," 2eme partic. MALLET DU PAN. 1 1 between the various orders of the State, established the independence of one only. It was no longer an effort for the reform of abuses, but for the humiliation of certain magistrates ; and the bourgeoisie, as has been expressively said, accepted, in the edict of 1768, not the assurance of its rights, not the limitation of the power of its magis- trates, but an increase of power in its chiefs.* The ungrateful neglect in which the victorious party left the remonstrances of Rousseau, was not the only fact which occurred to confirm the truth of the reproach addressed by the author of " Emile " to his friends, when he told them that, " at Geneva the essential had been always neglected in favour of the apparent ; that attention should be directed less to authority, and more to freedom." This success once obtained, and its superiority over the authority of the Senate established, the representative party showed little care for the grievances of a considerable part of the Genevese population, which had, nevertheless, by placing itself under that party's direction, lent it the formidable support of numbers and of passions combined. * To complete the picture, it should be added, that, finally, by the mortification of the aristocracy, the lower order of the townspeople got the better of the higher; and this fatal and wretched distinction, which divided a small city into two, was the easily renewed source of these rancorous civil dissensions. Flournois, one of the chiefs of the representative party, admitted this himself, at the time, in a conference which he had with a distinguished magistrate, whose journal lies before us. "He concurred with me," writes M. Phili- bert Cramer, " on some general principles. He agreed in thinking that the separation of the higher and the hirer, the difference of habits, the bestowal of offices by the aristocracy, the exclusion of several of the lower citizens, whom it offended, could not but produce dissen- sion and acrimony. We agreed in all the preliminary points." e\c. 12 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF In fact, up to this time, the only antagonism — the only question had been between the aristocracy on the one hand, and some hundreds of citizens on the other, (trades- men mostly,) proud of their citizenship and of their ancient rights, which filled their heads even after having ceased to satisfy them. The whole political body of the nation was composed of a close council or executive power, of a Legislative Council, (the Two Hundred,) and of the Council General, or General Assembly of the citizens ; and the entire question debated with so much increasing rancour, turned on the preponderance claimed bv the Senate for its own body, for the Council General bv the representatives. But these different bodies formed in reality but one half at the utmost of the population ; the other being composed of strangers admitted to inhabitancy, and of their children and descendants, who, born in the territory of the Republic, and passing under the name of natives, constituted almost the entire in- dustrial class of the population. Now, sojourners and natives were excluded from the liberal and commercial professions ; nor were they eligible to the rank of officers in the military companies. Yet this class, brought up like others in the school of Calvin, felt themselves their equals in instruction and intelligence ; in many eases, their fortune also bordered on opulence; and it may be easily conceived with how discontented and jealous an eye this class beheld the perpetuation of its constitutional dis- qualification for commerce; and military dignities. In its turn, this class found its tribunes to express indignation in its name at the selfish neglect to which the representative party abandoned it after the acquisition of the edict of MALLET DU PAN. 13 1 768. The representatives who had forced the aristocracy to share with them, but who had no notion of sharing with others, now displayed extreme irritation at the claims and remonstrances of the natives, and anger increasing on both sides, arms were taken up in 1770. After scenes of violence which did no honour to the repre- sentatives, the natives were quickly crushed ; and the bourgeoisie, eager as it had been in denouncing the abuses of power, now uniting in its own person the three characters of legislator, of judge, and of party to the suit, decreed, without evidence, the proscription of the chief remonstrants, and denounced as a disturber of the public peace whoever should speak of the rights of the na- tives* * What was on the point of happening, in consequence of these vigorous measures, is well known. M. tie Choiseul nourishing, for nearly three years, irritation against the Swiss and against Geneva, for the little deference paid to his advice in the interminable disputes on constitutional guarantees, was planning the construction of roads to divert from Geneva and the Pays de Vaud the transit of merchandize, and direct it to Vcrsoix, a French village, on the banks of Lake Leman, which might easily be made a port and a commercial town. Voltaire, who had received the impulse from the Minister, or possibly had communicated it to him, seized, with his usual avidity, the opportunity offered by the disturbances of Geneva, of rapidly colonizing both Versoix and his own Ferney. The dis- content of the natives afforded him hopes that a considerable number of these industrious and intelligent workmen would establish them- selves near him ; and he neglected nothing to attract them, and, with them, that productive trade in watchmaking of which Geneva had at that time almost the monopoly; whilst, under the orders of Al. de Choiseul, a port was being constructed at Versoix, and the streets laid down of a town destined to be a colony for the dissatisfied watchmakers. Voltaire received the emigrants in the most liberal 14 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF The cause of the natives had been advocated with spirit, and not without ability, by Bercnger, the future historian of his country. After its defeat, it found a brave and unexpected avenger in Mallet du Pan, who had scarcely quitted the benches of the Academy. His family, his connexions, his social position — [ill naturally identified Mallet with the interests of the negative party. But the same generosity which, twenty years later, placed all the energy of his republican character at the service of an oppressed King, made him warmly embrace the cause of the natives. He had conceived an enthusiastic admira- tion of Berenger, a man of ardent and sensitive mind, of moderate and honourable character, who deserved the gratitude rather than the dislike of his opponents. With a sickly aspect, this chief of the natives had nevertheless an intrepid heart. In one of the popular tumults which pre- manner, established them, provisionally, in his chateau, and was all on the alert to get his manufacture of watches into active opera- tion. He was full of hopes ; and, in his enthusiasm, wrote to his friends, M. d'Argental, the Marquis de Jaucourt, and the Due de Kichelieu : "I have received at my house the French watchmakers hitherto settled in Geneva ; I have restored some fifty families to their country. My little chateau is full, at this moment, of Genevese refugees to whom I afford protection. I have wounded men about me ; have lent money to these workmen to assist them in their business. The theatre-room, you know, is changed into a work- shop ; gold is melted ; wheels are polished, where verses were de- claimed ; in six weeks' time they have filled, with watches, a case for Cadiz," &c. The Minister Choiseul fell, and with him the colonizing pro- ject. In vain did Voltaire try to go on : his watches did not sell ; the Government was apathetic. At length, Geneva saw its watch- makers, tired of sulking to no purpose, return to its walls. MALLET DU PAN. 15 ceded the crisis to which his friends were victims — at the moment when two bands of citizens and of natives, armed and furious, were on the point of firing, he threw himself between them, and, by his intreaties, and by his resolute bearing, forced his friends to retire, and thus spared the Republic a bloody contest. His name was not the less, however, placed first on the list of proscribed natives. No more was needed to excite the indignation of his young admirers. Mallet, careless what feelings he might kindle, published, under the title of " Compte rendu de la defense des citoyens bourgeois de Geneve, par un natif," one of the most violent performances which that troublous epoch produced. 1 * The motto, borrowed from Voltaire's " Rome sauvee," supplies a sufficient indication of the spirit of the production : " Aujourd'hui nos tyrans, autrefois nos egaux." Such in fact, appeared to the young writer, the repre- sentatives and their leaders. The councils he merely accused of impolicy and cowardly weakness ; but he could not find terms strong enough to denounce the men who, after so many liberal declamations, had shown themselves such harsh despots. With the intractable severity of his age, he could see in the conduct of the Representative Commissioners nothing but iniquitous motives, or tin 1 impulse of ridiculous vanity. The commissioners were neither so criminal nor so absurd ; patriotism, as well * " Compte rendu de la defense des citoyens bourgeois de Ge- neve," adresse aux Commissaires des Ileprc'sentants, par un citoyen natif, 1771. A note by the Editors, attributes the writing to a sup- posititious M. Lambert; but the precaution was not in good earnest, and the true author, caring little to conceal himself, was soon known. 16 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF as interest led them, by dint of energy, to attempt an escape from the everlasting law which has always placed, and will always place the victors, in a contest, at the mercy of their auxiliaries. They had thought it politic to attract towards themselves a portion of the natives, by appearing generously to associate the two causes ; but, after their success, they had counted with uneasiness the number of their allies, whom they perceived ready to become 1 their enemies, and whose already imperious remonstrances seemed to them as dangerous to the Republic as the encroachments of the aristocracy. When age and ex- perience had sharpened his penetration, Mallet became more indulgent to the chiefs of the bourgeois ; at this time he saw only their inconsistency and the despotism of their policy. He accused them, with an almost insulting closeness of reasoning, of violating the natural rights they had been themselves foremost in claiming ; and, referring to some street squabbles too well calculated to irritate, he imputed to the domineering pride of the citizens their mal- practices against the popular class of artizans. " The ma- jesty, the dignity, of the sovereign people," which the representatives were eternally talking of — such expressions from their mouths, seemed to him worse than insolence. " There is no medium," he says ; " political inequality must be the consequence of moral inequality, or else be abolished altogether. Vainly has tin; attempt been made of making- masters of equals. It was hard to perceive our masters in those who came sometimes to ask alms of us ; and it was yet more hard to persuade our reason of the justice of their being so."* * " Comptc rendu," p. 31. MALLET DU PAN. 17 There are in this performance sound truths and political maxims firmly and well advanced ; throughout we discover the stamp of a mind bordering on maturity. The vehemence of its accusations often exceeds the bounds of moderation and justice. Eleven years later, Mallet explained himself thus, relative to this, his first publication : " In 1 770, at twenty years of age, I maintained what all magistrates, negatives, members of the popular party, have since maintained, that the natives had been wrongfully killed, condemned, or imprisoned. I main- tained this in a publication not ' abominable ' (as it was termed), but resentful, and often unjust — such as the fire of youth is apt to throw off." " The ' Compte rendu,' " says a contemporary, " made a vivid and lasting impression ; it became the text-book of the natives, who taught their children to read from it."* Perused with eagerness by the natives, with indignation by their adversaries, and above all by the representative chiefs, it created scandal ; and a sentence of the Council con- demned it to a fate similar to that undergone by " Emile" eight years previously, namely, to be torn and burned in front of the Town-Hall by the hands of the public execu- tioner, as a libel, " seditious, derogatory to the honour of the State, the council, the citizens, and the burgesses "f One can easily believe that this rigour of the magis- trate was more than equalled by the severity which our audacious tyro encountered from his neighbours, especially * " Memoires inedits d'Isaac Cornuaud," v. in, p. 438. + Extract from the Minutes of the Lower Court, February 2'jnd. 1771. See the unpublished collection of case? extracted from the.-e Minute-. b\ M. Mallet Plantamoui VOL, I. ( 18 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF from the bourgeois who had fiired so ill in his book. Doubtless, this ebullition of party spirit avenged on him in more ways than one the excess of his zeal for the natives ; for in the following year, in virtue of the trials which he said he had already undergone, he dissuaded the Alpine painter, Bourrit, implicated like himself in these dissensions, from the strife of politics. " Content your- self," he wrote to him, " with two or three friends, your amiable w T ife, and your organ. So will you secure the health which at present you sacrifice to a mad passion for politics, and too restless an interest in what does not concern you." Yet it was to his generous interest in the sufferings of the natives that Mallet owed the friendship of Voltaire, whose share in these quarrels is still unexplained.* This connection, which lasted till the death of the philosopher, was not the least severe test to which the independence of the future journalist was subjected. At the com- mencement of their acquaintance, Mallet set no bounds to the enthusiasm which the cordiality and conversation of a man, eminent in the art of adapting himself to each in- dividual, could not fail to inspire. On the other hand, Voltaire discerned such talent and penetration in the poli- tician of twenty, that without hesitation he recommended him to the Landgrave of Ilessc-Cassel, who had applied to him for a professor of history and belles-lettres in his * A celebrated historian, Count Alexis de Saint-Priest (of the French Academy), who is now occupied with an extensive work on Voltaire and his Times, will doubtless throw light on this strange incident in the connexion between the turbulent Republic and its restless neighbour. MALLET DU PAN. 19 Academy. Thus was early opened to Mallet a career well suited to his tastes, and to the peculiar qualities of his mind. He gratefully accepted Voltaire's proposal, and set off at the commencement of the year 1772,* full of ardour, and resolved, with all the sincerity of inexperience, to open the mind of his future hearers to the love of virtue and of truth. The address which he delivered to the Landgrave and his Court, on assuming the professor's chair, shows clearly what illusions were still entertained by this child of the eighteenth century, and at the same time what doubts and troubles were beginning to beset his pre- cocious reason. He had adopted as the theme of his address the favourite question of the time : " What is the influence of philosophy on the belles-lettres *?"f Filled with gratitude to Voltaire, " the eagle who had condescended to inspire his youth ;" still more deeply imbued with the republican sentiments of which he was a strenuous votary, Mallet, with that stern conscientiousness which never knew what it was to bend, did not fail to give full expression to his ideas of liberty, and his admiration of the high-priest of philosophy. Nevertheless, beneath this pompous and passionate culogium, from the rhetorical emphasis universal in such discourses, there transpires, we * The Landgrave writes to Voltaire on the 28th of February, 1772: " M. Mallet has, within these few days, delivered me your letter. He seemed to me a very sensible young man, and one who expresses himself verv well. To complete his eulogium, I need only say, that he comes recommended to me by the Ne.-tor of our litera- ture." f " Quelle est l'influencc de la philosophic sur les belles-lettres, discours inaugural prononce a. Cassel. le 8 Avril, 1772," par M. Mal- let, Professeur en Histoire el en Belles-lettres Francaises. (Cassel). C 2 20 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF perceive, a severe estimate of that for which the orator's enthusiam seems to be unqualified : it is felt that his homage is addressed to illusions and abstract conceptions rather than to realities. Here and there, the young pro- fessor enters into the very spirit of his age : he speaks of the increasing corruption, and of the decay of letters in terms which give earnest of rectitude of principle and independent observation. " By what fatality," he says, " does it happen that, with so much philosophy, there are so few philosophers — so well-defined a morality, and so many irregularities ? I know not : but it is a charge against us, that genius has succeeded in polishing our manners without improving our morals. It is but too certain that the season of degeneracy approaches ; that, satiated with beauty, the taste palls, so that the meridian line of our discoveries is already in the shade. It is but too true, that in the train of political corruption, cupidity, luxury, and profusion, literature be- comes debased, talents are degraded, feelings are blunted and callous. Labour wearies minds enervated by an epicurean life, and the intellect, finding effort a burden, falls into a lethargy. All its springs relax ; its elasticity perishes ; to great ideas succeeds mere verbal subtilty ; till at last, as the son of the great Racine has expressed it, " wit becomes common because genius becomes rare." Again, the words he addresses to his hearers in con- elusion, are assuredly not the cant language of a disciple of the " Encyclopedic:" " I shall not give to the pupils of this Academy the lights and the genius which I possess not ; but they will be constantly taught that, without morality, there is no talent — no philosophy ; that they will MALLET DU PAN. seek in vain for their own esteem, in learning, without integrity of heart." Meanwhile, Voltaire, who had not forgotten his protege, wrote him the following letter, prudently intended to keep alive the favourable disposition of the Landgrave, and to moderate, at least as mueh as to encourage, the zeal of the professor, whose dangerous candour he knew. " My dear and amiable Professor, who will never profess anything but truth and a noble contempt of impostures and impostors, how happy are you in being with a just, good, and enlightened Prince, who tramples under foot infamous superstition, and identifies religion with virtue ; who is neither Papist nor Calvinist, but a man, and who confers happiness on those who are subject to him ! Were I younger, I would leave my snows for his, my sad climate for his sad climate, which he softens and makes agreeable by his uprightness and his goodness. A fair career lies before you. You can, by giving lessons in history in a new 7 spirit, destroying the absurd lies which disfigure all histories, attract to Cassel a great number of strangers who will learn simultaneously the French language and truth. I had a friend named M. Audra, a Doctor of the Sorbonne, who despised the Sorbonne prodigiously, and who had gone to do at Toulouse what you are doing at Cassel. An amazing crowd came to hear him. Rascals trembled and combined against him. The priests managed to deprive him of the situation which the town-council had bestowed upon him. He died of grief. You will meet with a very contrary fate. By what fatality is it that the finest climates of the earth — Langucdoc, Provence, Italy, Spain — are given up to the most loathsome superstitions, 22 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF whilst reason reigns in the North ? But let us remember that it is the Northern nations who conquered the world : let us hope they may enlighten it ... . Madame Denis and all at Ferney send all manner of compliments. I forward you the ninth volume of the " Questions," which is raising much clamour among the Genevesc saints. — All good wishes to you."* Voltaire was not so confident as he said ; and it was half with pleasure, half with alarm, that, after reading Mallet's address, he wrote to d'Alembert, copying, according to his wont, one of the most vehement invectives against fanatics : " That, my dear d'Alembert, is what was delivered at Cassel on the 8th of April, in presence of the Landgrave, six princes of the empire, and a very numerous assembly, by a professor of history whom I bestowed on the Land- grave. I hope the same will not happen to him as to the Abbe Audra."f The fact is, that the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, who called Voltaire the Nestor of literature ; who, like his model Frederick, gave himself out as a royal disciple of philosophy, who wrote " Des pensees diverses sur les princes," for which Voltaire complimented him with extravagant homage, was playing a part, and Voltaire knew 7 it well. J He feared that the grave Genevese, with his austere maxims, would at least be in bad odour. As for Mallet, he was not long in discovering that in the States of the Landgrave philosopher, * " Correspondance de Voltaire," v. xi, Letter 27. t Letter from Voltaire to d'Alembert, July 1st, 1772. t This same Landgrave of Hesse subsequently made a lucrative speculation, by luring his troops to the English Government in the War of Independence of the United States. MALLET DU PAN. 23 his philosophy and courageous intentions would have to he their own reward. In the following year, disgusted with his situation, he returned to Geneva. Voltaire appeared far from dissatisfied with him for this independent act, and he continued to see him frequently at Ferney ; so that, next to his niece and his secretary, no one witnessed more closely the last years of the aged Voltaire. The testimony of so acute and independent an observer, esteemed by the philosopher — although he had already begun to display but little sympathy and confidence in the philosophizing sect — deserves to be collected as it shortly will be in these Memoirs. 24 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER II. 1773—1783. Historical and political studies — Linguet — Mallet undertakes his defence, and contributes to his " Annales politiques et litteraires" — Letter from Voltaire to Mallet du Pan — Linguet at the Bastille — Mallet edits the continuation of the "Annales" — Character of the work — Acts of the American insurgents — Critical condition of Great Britain — The Abbe Raynal — Mallet attacked in reference to Voltaire — His reply — Anecdotes — Letter from Vagneres. On his return from Germany, Mallet had in the first instance retired to Switzerland, and had married there a young person from Aubonne, a small town in the pays de Vaud, distant some leagues from Geneva. In the calm of his retirement and of his modest household — for he had but little fortune — he soon resumed his labours with ardour ; and, restored to his favourite reading and meditations, he advanced in the study of history with a spirit of reflection and a freedom of judgment which exerted eventually a beneficial and powerful influence over his principles. At first, however, young as he was, and still heated with his first campaign, he pushed too far his mistrust of systems, and, without perceiving it, was nearly falling into a scepticism far from congenial to the natural soundness of his reason. MALLET DU PAN. 25 " I am convinced," he wrote at this time, " that we must leave definitions and metaphysical essays in order to return to experimental polities. It is from the sparks of historic truth that the torch of legislation must derive its light." The urgent task of these " experimental politics" invoked by him was that of " healing the plagues sprung from aristocratic germs," of at length relieving the mass of the people from the constantly increasing burden which the inequality of imposts laid on it alone, to the exclusion of the privileged classes. In other words, Mallet earnestly desired, for the happiness of nations, the establishment of civil equality. In this condition of his political opinions, his interest was attracted to a man whose sense and talent deserved a better reputation than has survived him. This was Linguet, whom his colleagues, the advocates of the parlia- ment of Paris, had just struck off the rolls of their order, to punish him, and at the same time relieve themselves from the sallies of his sarcastic humour. The real crime of this remarkable man, the true cause of his ill repute, was his character of perpetual contradictor of the favourite ideas of his age and country. He assailed the economists and encyclopaedists, the "Esprit des lois," now definitively in fashion ; he praised the East at the expense of the West — a great audacity ; in fine, he attempted no less than the vindication of despotism and slavery. All the talent, the fertility of ideas which he poured forth to maintain these various contests, was unable to obtain indulgence from public opinion for the daring innovator ; and when, in contradiction for once to his own ideas, he took it into his head to adopt the most extreme revolutionary opinions, 26 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENXE OF it was too late. This self-negation was a final blunder, the shame of which the scaffold and a courageous death could not efface. But at that time — in 1775 — who could have foreseen such a conclusion ? The angry prejudice of the persecutors of Linguet excited Mallet du Pan ; and, without entering into the indiscretions which might have formed a motive or a pretext for these vexations, without personal knowledge of the famous advocate, he boldly came forward, if not to defend the man, at least to dispute the soundness of those theories which it had been his crime to attack. He took up, from this point of view, the examination of the " Theorie des lois civiles," the most curious of Linguet's works. In this book, which sparkles with wit, and in which are found mingled in profusion just views and extreme paradoxes, the audacious author maintains that there is no security or happiness for nations but under the invincibly paternal and protecting administration of a despot — that is, of a monarch enjoying his power by the same right as his subjects do their property, that of the simple fact. According to him, under any other system, civil equality is broken. The spirit of this book was simply, under the paradoxical form of a panegyric of despotism, an earnest protest against the civil organization of France. For the economic evils which bowed down his country, Linguet saw no specific but the annihilation of that mass of worm-eaten constructions and legislative anachronisms which composed the civil code of the French nation. As the example of the East would infallibly be brought forward against him as a triumphant objection, Linguet resolutely met the objection halfway, MALLET DU PAN. 27 and did not hesitate to eulogize the wisdom and liberty of oriental nations at the expense of that northern superiority so loudly vaunted by the philosophers. He even went so far as to uphold the legitimacy and utility of slavery, an institution coeval with society. " No solid confederation could have taken place without the enslavement of in- dividuals (which Linguct distinguishes from political slavery). It is as impossible to establish a lasting alliance among men, if there are no serfs ready to work for others, as it is to form without horses a corps of cavalry. Every society stands in need of robust, docile, and indefatigable animals, to bear all its burden, and it is this function that slavery imposes on the unfortunate men it brands."* Mallet, carried on in his turn by the indignation which rilled him at the thought of the true iniquities of which most of the systems of the West and North give an example, ventured to demand of the adversaries of Linguet, who violently accused him of denying property as the basis of society, whether property, such as it actually existed, was not after all an usurper which maintained itself by monopolizing for its preservation all the forces of the law, and by unremittingly extending its encroachments ; whether freedom was not the privilege of the man pos- sessed of property ; finally, whether the so-called protective inventions of economists and politicians might not be in fact lumbering machines adapted solely to double the burden of the majority. Mallet was only twenty-five years of age when he ventured on this sally ; for his " Doutes sur l'eloquence et : ' : " Theoric cles lois civile?," v. n, p. 257. 28 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF les systemes politiques,"* is no more: a sally often lively and ingenious, often also obscure, against the accusers of Linguet and their reasonings borrowed from Montesquieu. At a more mature period, he would have mistrusted his own generosity, and the influence of his client's innocence. He would have known too that a solid, useful, and adequately intelligible work is not to be produced by retorting on arguments with doubts founded on approximations. He himself was the first to remark that in politics approxi- mations are terrible. If in its entirety this work, lacking method and pre- cise purpose, is, in fact, according to the observation of Beranger, that of a young man who enters with sharp eyes on a land of which he is yet ignorant, individual thoughts are not undeserving of attention. It contains original remarks on eloquence, the economists, and party spirit. But the interest of this work, as of Linguet's theory, is that of presenting in the eighteenth century, on a stage where history no longer seeks them, prophets and promoters of that legislative revolution which the close of the century was to witness in conjunction with the French revolution. So far as these Memoirs are concerned, the " Doutes " would serve, in case of need, to prove that Mallet du Pan, if he was the ardent advocate of royalty against the revolu- tion, was not so because he was born, as has been said, without sympathy for the nations. He will be seen, in the rest of his career, when more clear-sighted, continuing no less constantly faithful to the generous principles of justice and humanity to which his enterprising defence of * " Doutes sur l'eloquunce et ks systemes politiques." Londres; (Geneve), 177.3. MALLET DU PAN. 29 Linguet had given vent. Throughout his life, Mallet du Pan evinced a leaning towards the people which resisted even the horrors of the revolution. The " Doutes" exercised direct consequences on the destiny of the young philosopher, by bringing him into relation with Linguet. The latter, after his expulsion from the order of advocates, had opened a new tribune. Some circumstances lead to the belief that the " Journal de poli- tique et de litterature," founded by Linguet in 1774, received articles from the young; writer : so that Mallet du Pan would have fought his first battle as a journalist under the auspices of the redoubtable advocate. A different god- father might assuredly have been desired for him ; for Linguet with his caustic humour, his attractive character, and his passion for scandal, was then introducing into Journalism the same species of insulting eloquence and personal satire of which he had set a deplorable example at the bar, to the great damage of his talent and reputation. On his arrival in Geneva, Linguet, already struck off the rolls of his order, on account of the opprobrium lavished by him on Gerbier and many of his colleagues, had just wit- nessed the suppression, by M. de Miromenil, the keeper of the seals, of the " Journal de politique et de litterature," which he had edited since 1774. In this miscellany, Linguet had assailed every power in Paris — ministers, parliaments, philosophers, d'Alembert and his sect. None had been suffered to escape either his daringly aggressive criticism, or that satirical contempt which his pen could inflict on his adversaries under the most piquant forms. Certainly there was much to be said of the society of the dav, of the conduct and maxims of men in office, and more 30 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF especially of the increasing despotism over the men of letters who are subjected to the party of the " Encyclopedic." Linguet's offence was doubtless often that of being too much in the right ; but he combined with it, that of loving scandal even better than truth, and of preferring in all cases the satisfaction of inflicting a wound to that of refuting an error. Mallet also, too much allured by the originality of this really rare spirit, so boldly in rebellion against the leaders of opinion, saw only the courage of the combatant, and the conformity of their antipathies ; for he had been too intimate with the titular sovereign of the philosophers to esteem greatly the despotic ministers who swayed his intimidated old age. Linguet resolved to establish his batteries out of France. He came to Geneva, and made his appearance at Ferney. There Mallet du Pan saw him for the first time ; and what he observed of the man did not seem to have dissipated his admiration of him. In reference to his visit to Voltaire, much was said of the alarm with which the intractable Linguet inspired the great man. After the three days he passed at Ferney, Voltaire was reported to have said, that Linguet weighed on his shoulders like a faggot of thorns, and that he had not had the courage to shake it off, so greatly did he fear, in casting it away, to be torn by them.* Other cutting words were attributed to him, which depicted energetically his horror of the man, more hateful in his eyes than Aretin : he called him " the first writer for sup- plying the charnel-house, beyond dispute." That Voltaire should have had no great love for the adversary of his Paris * " Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Linguet," par AI. Ganlii/, Avocat a Lyon. Lyon, 1809. MALLET DU PAN. 31 friends ; that ho thought himself bound to echo all the fury which the name of Linguet excited in them ; that he even stood in dread of him for his own sake — this is probable; but Mallet always maintained that he had never heard from his lips anything but the frequent expression of a sincere interest in the misfortunes of Linguet, and of his esteem for his talents. This testimony would at least prove that Voltaire did not attempt to restrain Mallet, when, some time afterwards (in 1777), the latter started on a journey to London and thence to Brussels, where Linguet had decided on publishing his " Annales politiques, civiles, et litteraires, du 18eme siecle." The intention of the young Gcnevese writer was to come to an understanding with the editor, as to publishing a second edition of the journal on the continent. At London, he received from Ferney a letter in which Voltaire spoke kindly of Linguet and of his undertaking, hinting, under the form of praise, some excellent advice of which the journalist would have done better to avail himself. " You are going," he wrote to Mallet, " to a country almost barbarized by the violence of tactions : it is one of my great regrets that the eloquent man you will see there is unfortunate : he will require time to speak the language with ease : to how much embarrassment will this great weekly political work expose him ! It is so delicate a matter to attempt to recal a nation to its true interests, when it has deprived itself of all means of regeneration ! I question whether Xenophon would have dared to try it with the young Cyrus. But what gives me the greatest hopes is, that M. Linguet has the necessary qualities for accomplishing every enterprise, — courage and eloquence. I wish him success common- 32 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF surate with his deserts. You know that, according to La Fontaine, " Tout faiseur de journal doit tribut au malin." It would be well he should never feel himself in need of this resource : — indeed, he is too much above it. I shall see neither of you again ; my great age and continual sickness dig my grave," — &c. # The " Annales politiqucs" were published successively at London and at Brussels, to which Linguet, coldly received by the English, had retired. Mallet was busily engaged on the Swiss edition ; but this was not the only part he took in the publication of the journal. Opinions were much occupied at the time with political economy ; indeed, the sect of economists seemed called, in the person of Turgot, to reform the administration of the kingdom according; to its favourite theories. Linguet confided the treatment of the question to his fellow-labourer, who was more at home in this matter than himself. Mallet treated it in a sense opposite to the economists, but with a vigour which was noticed, although the honour was not attributed to him, Linguet alone being in the breach, and ostensibly sole editor of his journal. " It must be confessed," savs a biographer of Linguet, in revealing this co-operation, " that the numbers of the ' Annales' where political economy is discussed, are written in a sustained and uniformly correct style. There arc not many passages in these voluminous ' Annales,' to be compared with them."f To my thinking, * "Annales politique!?," v. vn, p. 38.5. t " Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages de Linguet," par M. Garduz, Avocat a I-v n. Lvon, 1809. MALLET DU PAN. 3,3 the biographer's remark is less applicable to these first " Aimales" than to their sequels, of which we shall speak anon. Weary of transporting himself and the least peaceful of newspaper-offices from England to Switzerland, from Switzerland to Holland received at first with politeness and a certain apparent warmth, but soon bowed off, Linguet, unable to bear it longer, disregarded his expul- sion, and boldly made his appearance in Paris. Hardly had he arrived, when an order, the motives of which have never been exactly known, consigned him to the Bastille. It was in the autumn of 1779; and Mallet du Pan, on publishing the last number of the year, announced that the journal, although deprived of its editor, would continue to appear ; that it was passing temporarily into other hands, to return to those of the author so soon as the royal justice and clemency should restore him to liberty. Undis- mayed by a task rendered singularly difficult and perilous by the audaciously personal tone to which Linguet had accustomed his readers, Mallet commenced, in the month of April, a new series of " Annales pour faire suite a celles de M. Linguet," that is to say, he continued, as regularly as he was able, to publish, twice a month, sixty pages of a journal which offered, with more extension and conscien- tiousness than his predecessor, an explanatory view of the political events of the two worlds ;* general and * Mallet requested, for matters of English politics, (and various circumstances warrant us in thinking he obtained) the communi- cations of a young lawyer destined to realize a great reputation — Samuel Komilly. At any rate, his assistance was asked by a common friend, and a correspondence took place between the English lawyer VOL. I. D 34 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF comprehensive reflections on interesting points of political economy ; of legislation — in one word, on what we should at the present day call moral science. Literary news had also its place. The task was heavy, and sometimes difficult to accomplish : laborious and ardent, the new editor honorably sustained his undertaking. He had already published thirty-six numbers in two years, and was consequently fully justified in regarding the " An- nates" as his own, when, at the commencement of 1783, Linguet, who had just issued from the Bastille, and re- sumed his journal at London, treated him outrageously in one of those characteristic articles of his, in which he was wont to bring himself and others personally on the scene. Irritated against his former colleague, who had refused to send him some articles on recent political events in Geneva, he thought fit afterwards to denounce him as a surreptitious imitator.* Mallet replied with firmness and dignity, declaring that he relinquished the livery in which and the Geneveso journalist of sufficient familiarity to induce Mallet, some years later, to recommend warmly to his London friend another future celebrity — M. du Friche des Genettes — who was about to con- tinue at London his medical studies which were already advanced. The "Memoirs" of Itomilly, and the " Souvenirs" of Dumont, bear witness to the continuance of these friendly relations between llomilly and Mallet ; and, when the latter took refuge in England in 1708, he was very cordially received by Itomilly. * " To deprive of all pretext those among them who availed themselves of my name to rob me, and called themselves my repre- sentatives, my subordinates, that they might gain credit for the fraud, I declare that I no longer sanction any secondary edition. I am responsible for none but that of London, published under my own eye." — Annates, v. ix, 1783, p. 47. MALLET DU PAN. 35 he had appeared for upwards of two years, and that he restored his title of " Annales civiles, politiques, et litte- raires," to the "Journal Helvetique," from which Linguct had borrowed it ; in conclusion, that he purposed to con- tinue, under a different name, a work which had never for a moment been copied from that of Linguet, and which he had the right to claim as his own original work. Dating from the month of March, 1783, his paper appeared under the title of " Memoires historiques, politiques et litteraires, sur l'etat present de l'Europe," with this motto : " Nee temere, nee timide." Before narrating the circumstances that put an end to this publication, it is necessary to state what was its spirit, and what was the debut of the future editor of the political portions of the " Mercure dc France." The prevailing character in all parts of this miscellany — its reports, its opinions on political events, on civil or judi- cial institutions, on public morals — is an independence of judgment which one might be tempted at times to mistake for a taste for contradiction, did not its unvarying prin- ciples show us at the bottom of this apparently undisci- plined criticism, a moral unity irreconcilable with the suggestion of a spirit of paradox. Impartiality is some- times a pretence, or, even more easy, a comfortable indif- ference ; nothing is more unlike Mallet's, who, always firm, but bitter and vehement, was not indignant by halves and praised with warmth. But he was, of all men, the one least satisfied with appearance. As with the majority of thoroughly balanced minds, irreflectiveness, or inconsistency offended him even to irritation, and he grew more warm against folly than D 2 36 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the matter warranted. Hence a want of proportion, which sometimes deludes the reader, by introducing the writer's chief thought where he has only yielded to a secondary impression. The independence, as well as the soundness of his judgment, is not the less strong. Some passages of the " Annales" will serve to afford an idea of the manner in which the author observed and studied contemporary events. At present, for instance, when the insurrection of Northern America is no longer a matter for conjecture, and when, judging it by its successful result and its illus- trious chief, we look upon it as a grand event gloriously accomplished ; it is singularly enticing to trace its progress, and see it judged of during each of its acts in the jour- nal of a strict republican. Thus, when a decree of the Congress rigorously interdicts the Americans from all commerce, all correspondence, or relation with English subjects, and prohibits them from transporting any goods or effects to the possessions of the English King, Mallet does not hesitate : " There is no impartial or judicious man," he says, " in whom this decree must not inspire the bitterest reflections, no one to whom it can appear other than an outrage against property, against even the true advantage of the United States. The most despotic sovereigns would not dare thus to harness men to the yoke by menacing their property, They would not dare to say to a subject : ' lie my slave, or I ruin you ;' and it is in a country, which is in open rebellion, by a Government all whose manifestoes, all whose apologies, have appealed to the most extreme prin- ciples of the social contract ; which has no title to power but that code of nature which it laughs to scorn at this MALLET DU PAN. 37 moment ; it is the avengers of the human race, the guar- dians of a philosophic legislation, who hang on their sup- porters chains more dreadful than those from which they have escaped ! . . . " This was not the policy, these were not the maxims, of the Swiss and the Batavians, whose imitators the insur- gents profess themselves. Let a decree similar to that in question he sought in the annals of their liberty. The Prince of Orange did not hang the Dutch captain, who, caught in transporting munitions to the Spaniards, said to that great man : ' If there was a profitable trade with hell, I'd risk burning my sails there.' " # The following is a picture of England in 1782, at the moment of her greatest danger, weakened within by par- liamentary strife, and making head without against four hostile armies. The whole passage is remarkable, although subsequent events did not realize in all points the con- clusions of the journalist. The following are extracts : " Misfortunes, resources, recurring perils, a power shaken but still terrible in the midst of its calamities, a stubborn courage, and the aspect of every public virtue in the heart of political corruption — such is the picture which England continues to present. All efforts possible to an empire — money, men, vessels, intrigues — ever} thing is employed in order to fall with glory, or to triumph while involving herself in ruin. History offers no precedent of a nation of ten millions of souls attacked in the four quarters of the globe by a formidable league, and resolved to make; head in all; without allowing defeats, expendi- ture, the want of men. the burden of subsidies and of * " Annales politiques," v. i, p. 2'2-i, 226. 38 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF loans, to shake the firmness of its councils. Is this as- tounding spectacle the effect of the obstinacy of pride, or of a magnanimity encouraged by the recollection of suc- cesses and by self-esteem? Overwhelmed with taxes, indebted two hundred millions sterling, torn by party- spirit, enervated by wealth, corrupted by the thirst of gold, forced to transport the flower of her forces to a distance of two thousand leagues, how is it that England is not crushed by the efforts of her enemies ? How, menaced — like Venice by all political prophets — with inevitable ruin, has she within these four years lost none but secondary settlements ? I do not speak of the colonies : they ceased to belong to her as soon as France lent them her aid. " It is because the true nerves of her power retain all their strength. Her marine is complete, her commerce preserved, the illusion of her credit still in force, but, above all, her enemies are wanting in concert. Instead of wasting itself in objectless movements, or in chance adven- tures, the Channel fleet has been throughout the summer actively watching for the return of the riches of commerce. These bear witness how little war has diminished them, and attest the opulence of the nation amid the dispersion of the public treasure. In two months' space, we have seen five merchant fleets pour into the ports of England the tributes of the whole universe, and insult, by their return, four powers, whose forces have failed to close; the Thames against them. " From the Baltic, from Hudson's Bay, from Jamaica, from the Windward islands and the East Indies, immense and rich cargoes came to minister to the necessities of the State, while sustaining the fortune of individuals. MALLET DU PAN. 39 " This care in protecting the returns of her merchant marine by the aid of a fleet ever ready for the purpose, makes no noise in the papers. It occasions no firing of cannon or chanting of Te Deums ; but it preserves indi- viduals from the evils of war. So long as this circulation shall last, England will retain life and movement. So long as the capital of her merchant marine shall be circu- lating at the two ends of the world, an exchange for their treasures, so long as a maritime and commercial power shall lose neither her convoys, nor her war-ships, she will impose on the imagination by the energy of her efforts."* If anything show's how superior to prepossessions was the judgment of Mallet, it is his articles on the marriage of priests, which had been proposed by some economist declaimers as the salvation of the human race threatened with depopulation. He controverts these absurd exaggera- tions, by statistics and some very simple reflections, which show that, with the exception of Rome and Naples, where a considerable surplus existed of the religious of all orders, the ecclesiastics and monks form in Europe but a very small fraction of the bachelors of all kinds. " The reform of the religious orders is not," according to him, "the secret of Cadmus. Its influence would be imperceptible. The clergy receives bachelors produced by the disorganization of society ; but it does not make them."f In some extensive reflections on the imperial edict of Joseph II., establishing the toleration of Protestants in his States, Mallet lays down with firmness the true principles of toleration, "principles equally remote from the religious * " Ar.nalcs politiques," v. in, p. 71, 72. + Ibid., v, ii, P . 326. 40 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF anarchy called toleration by the irreligious, and from the despotism of superstition." In general, the "Annales" are distinguished by the novel and sound manner in which questions of political economy and legislation are treated. In this class of writing, an article on divorce, and one on the administration of criminal justice in Tuscany, in addition to the passage just quoted, would even now be read with interest. Mallet seized this opportunity to advocate with earnestness the necessity of legislative reforms ; but he himself recommends modera- tion, and soundly rates the declaimers and indiscreet reformers who were then, as now, more occupied with their own part in the task than with the task itself. In referring to M. Necker's " Compte rendu," he had praised the exact and extensive views of the Director-General of Finances : " Visionaries," said he, " manufacture systems by overturning political economy in order to repair its defects — true talent corrects methodically." Elsewhere, while doing justice to the brilliant imagination, the strong and judicious ideas of Servan, who had just published some observations on criminal law, Mallet expresses regret that the desire of being eloquent sometimes overcomes the courageous magistrate's sound philosophy— and he adds : " If anything diminishes the effect of these reflections on men of sense and governments, it is their frequent exagge- ration. By dint of blaming all received opinions, you soon acquire false and monstrous ones of your own. From the prejudice of applauding whatever is current, you pass to that of seeing in it nothing but absurdity. You traverse the two extremes without stopping in the middle. Such is the character of what is calico! the philosophy of MALLET DU PAN. 41 the moment, and above all of that of the most celebrated writers. In politics, in religion, in public economy, in morals, in the arts themselves, as well as in style, one is thought superstitious, timid, and silly, if one does not become forced, excessive, and a destroyer of all existing institutions. It is with declaimers as with professional wits, who would think themselves boors if they were not constantly studying to raise a laugh. " This impetuous character always indicates a want of reflection. It has filled all the speculative sciences with incomplete ideas and frivolous common-places ; it has passed into almost all the writings published against our criminal laws. A dozen examples might be cited from a theory of these matters, published by M. Brissot de Warville, puffed in all the papers, and in many respects deserving censure as much as applause." This is a page to be preserved by whoever would write the philosophic history of the eighteenth century. Those which the reader is about to peruse merit preservation no less ; they are truly prophetic reflections which conclude a searching and vet favourable notice of the famous work of the Abbe Raynal. The critic has just quoted and discussed the Abbe's historical assertions and vehement attacks on religion and government ; and he proceeds : " We venture to tell the estimable author of this work, that it is not imagination that can penetrate into the abstractions of political right. One cannot bring forth an universal legislation at the blasting of horns, as Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho ; noisy periods, oratorical movements, and eloquent generalities, are not all that is requisite. Some moderation, some reflection, is needed too ; 42 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF and one then ends by mistrusting all those trenchant prin- ciples, all those platonic dreams, all those extreme asser- tions, the delirious ravings of honest souls utterly useless for the relief of nations. " What effect can M. Raynal have counted on from so many sallies against religion, against priests, against governments ? Did one think as he does, one would deplore this fanaticism of truth ; this is the very brain-fever of reason — the convulsions of philosophy. " The author meets, in his tour round the world, not a single absurd opinion, not a single superstition, not a single religion, without recapitulating the history of Christianity, without pouring forth the bitterest scorn upon its dogmas, its rites, upon the priesthood, the intolerance, the crimes of fanaticism, the uselcssness of all those deified impostures of which tyranny avails itself to brutalize the mind and enslave men. " There is not one of these assertions but has been disproved with even wearisome repetition. A throng of preachers, before M. Raynal's time, exhausted this dan- gerous and disgusting controversy. What can be gained by recording such thoughts anions: the reminiscences of foreign travel ? What connection is there between the immortality of the soul and the cultivation of indigo ; between Revelation and the settling day of our privateers ; between Jesus Christ and Cortes ; between Constantino and the Brahmins ? " Besides, to what end are these tirades ? Does M. Raynal hope to expel the clergy, to induct; the most liberal governments to equalize all sects, and accept all opinions'? Has lie weighed the influence of religious MALLET DU PAN. 43 principles on politics, on morals, on feeling, on duty, on the happiness and misery of a people ? " Be their opinions what they may, let the philosophers view the character of the age, and answer whether this he a time to diminish the incentives to virtue ? Wherewith shall we supply their place ? With the laws ? your ten volumes protest against their tyranny and absurdity : with forms of government ? they are all corrupt : with educa- tion '? this is perverted by the evil influence of our manners ; it is a poor resource soon counteracted by the world's maxims, and destroyed by youthful passion : with interest *? you yourselves tell us of the crimes to which it has led. What remains to us ? Truth, to bear rule in the council, the professorship, and the conscience. I ask you then, as Festus did of St. Paul: "What is Truth?" Until the unanimous voice of all sages and of all the universe refutes me, leave their Paradise to the unhappy, and their remorse to the wicked. " These reflections are equally valid against all M. Raynal's maxims regarding the grounds and the abuses of authority. His is a code of anarchy and confusion. Every republican has a right to tell him that he will not find one friend of social liberty short-sighted enough to subscribe to it. Not one admits his position, that a political authority instituted a thousand years ago, can be abrogated to-morrow ; that nations tempted to a change of govern- ment are in the same situation as at the first moment of their civilization, and that rebellion is justified by the mere recourse to rebellion. " Does M. Raynal mistake the empires and nations of Europe for so main hordes of Calmucks, or tribes of 44 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Cherokees? Let him restore to us our forests, our primitive independence, our tomahawks ; let him deliver us from our vices, our riches, our passions — all the social encumbrances which stifle us ; then, indeed, lordship and servitude will exist no longer; then the laws will be respected — because none are laid down. " Till such time, hide your standards of revolt : ere long they would be stained with the blood of your proselytes. Believe that the most intolerable oppression, the most galling despotism, is that of all over all. To raise the people against tyranny is the duty of a citizen, but respect the rights of legitimate authority while you rouse subjects from the torpor of blind obedience. Let them bear many evils before provoking civil war, which unites in itself all evils. Forget not, that for one enslaved people w 7 ho has pur- chased liberty with the price of its blood, twenty by their re- sistance have but obtained fresh masters and heavier chains. " What avail then these frantic propositions ? ' Until a King is dragged to Tyburn with no more pomp than the meanest criminal, the people will have no conception of liberty. The law is nothing, unless it be a sword sus- pended over all heads without distinction, and levelling all which elevate themselves above the horizontal plane in which it circles, fyc.' Does this logograph of our Author provide subjects with armies whereby to make their executioners respected ? Be it that they are slaves ; but are not you guilty, who work the dagger in a closed wound until the sufferer writhes in torture; ; who take from him the sedative of illusion ; who show to him a Prince, the father of his people, as the most exeerable of despots ; saying to subjects : Your master cherishes you, you revere MALLET DU PAN. 45 him — so much the worse ; you are in the most ahject of conditions. You call yourselves free ; nay, hut you will not he so until the puhlic scaffold reeks with the hlood of your sovereigns. This book was published without refu- tation in the very town where ' Emile' was burned, and its author condemned to be arrested. " What remorse would not M. Raynal incur, were his fanaticism to infect the cottage of a labourer, or the work- shop of an artizan ? If read by the lower orders, what could these subversive maxims breed in them, but impo- tent sorrow, and the fury of despair ? " Happily, the people do not read ; but the government is aroused, and becomes provoked by these repeated insults. It repays the outrages offered it ; the holiest maxims lose their influence ; Truth itself falls into discredit ; the yoke is made heavier ; abuses arc defended as the most sacred rights; all innovation is staved off; the most useful insti- tutions are forbidden or put down, for fear of giving rise to too large an extension of liberty. When a nation runs into excess, it provokes excess in the government also, whose eyes, opening to the abuse, close against the light. " No one will suspect us of having in these remarks pro- nounced a vindication of despotism and superstition. The spirit of servile intolerance justifies everything, enshrines everything, adores everything ; the anarchists blame all, attack all, destroy all. An arbitration must be introduced between folly and licence."* * Continuation of the " Annales Politique?," v. i, p. 251 — 258. It is well known that these incendiary diatribes, introduced into the " History of the two Indies," are the work of Diderot. " These spurious passages," Mallet du Pan observes elsewhere, " are easily 46 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF The " Annales " offer, here and there, literary criticisms of some worth. The chronicler of criticism in the eighteenth century, should notice among other valuable passages, a slashing criticism of Condorcet's Commentary on the " Pensees de Pascal," in which Mallet disposes of the discovery of the philosophers as to the infidelity of Pascal, who was said to play at toss-up with the immortality of the soul ; an article on Voltaire, viewed as a historian, occasioned by Mably's work on the Art of Writing History ; a clever sketch of Rousseau, as he appears in his " Confes- sions," then about to come out ; finally, an instructive summary of the state of literature in 1783, in which Mallet advocates without blind prepossession, but with thought and talent, the dramatic school of Shakspeare. But among these attacks on the literature of the eighteenth century, none is more worthy of notice than Mallet's gallant defence of Voltaire against the charges levelled at him by ill-regulated zeal, and against the silence of his friends. He maintains, that the renowned chief of the philosophers was not an Atheist ; and wishing to prove this by his personal recollections of Voltaire, he was led to throw a curious light on the last days of the celebrated author. It is well known that after the death of Voltaire, three claimants, Clement, Palissot, and Beaumarchais, disputed the distinction of publishing his works ; a fact which gave distinguishable by the virulence of their style. I saw the agreement and the amount paid into the hands of M. P — , an ex-commissioner of taxes, who struck the bargain between Itaynal and Diderot. The latter received from his colleague ten thousand livres (of Tours) for those bombastic interpolations, which serve as a prelude to the revo- lutionary code." — Mercure britannique, No. 14. MALLET DU PAN. 47 promise of a most complete edition. At this announce- ment, an outcry was raised ; successively there appeared an episcopal edict, and a denunciation to the parliament of the subscription for the works of Voltaire, bearing this motto : " Ululate et clamate." The newspapers had com- menced hostilities, and continued them for some time. The author of the " Annales " took no part in them. He received a spirited letter demanding the reason of his silence — why he did not unite his voice to the cry of public indignation. " You owe it," he was assured, " you owe it to the public, to society, to the interest of families and of consciences, to the spirit of your own work, and to the confidence which you must wish to inspire, to devote an article in your paper to this important object," Mallet replied that he should persist in not howling, and concisely stated his reasons. The following passages are quoted from his answers : " I do not consider that history ouijht to be a record of crime, or that the business of an annalist is to put on a level Voltaire and Desrues. Reverence for the essential truths of religion should not, to my thinking, make us represent their impugners as wretches worthy only of the stake. We must confute them with force and enlighten them with moderation ; such is the spirit of the Gospel. Every wise writer must undoubtedly protest against the over- throw 7 of religious principle, which is closely connected with social order : let him combat systems whose influence, were they adopted, would fill the world withhold bad men, while they robbed virtue of its incentives and its consolations : let him strengthen all the bonds that unite man to his Creator ; let him humble himself with all mankind before 48 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the supreme rule of that God of vengeance, who watches over the universe : let him defend his altars, his faith, and his appointed means, whenever their ministration is not dishonoured by fanaticism or superstition. He owes this to his country, to reason, to the religion of the State, which is as inviolable for him as the civil laws, for none else is the defender of morality and the monarchical institution ; but his duty ends where the right of authority commences ; he is not a magistrate to condemn and to brand, and to pre- pare a scaffold for licence and error. " These principles, from which no private interest will induce me to recede, once laid down, it is unnecessary to seek motives for my reserve, in my respect for philosophy or for the manes of its chief. " More than this, I deplore as much as yourself the aberrations of this fine genius. I mourn over the melancholy productions of his decrepitude, over the kind of rage that animated him against the clergy and the Scriptures, over that monotonous jesting on the most momentous subjects by which he abused his rare wit ; over the audacious reminiscences with which he wearied the public in his latter days. One cannot hide from oneself the terrible influence which his many diatribes exerted upon the mind of young people, upon the maxims of the age, upon numbers of undisciplined authors who sheltered themselves under the example of Voltaire only to abuse it, and compelled even him to warn them of their excess." This frankness in a man, who for eight successive years was connected with the recluse of Ferney, who received from him obligations and guidance, who knew him intimately enough to appreciate him, whose esteem for his MALLET DU PAN. 49 talents and tor his person is only the more unchangeable because founded neither on prejudice nor on agreement of opinions : this frankness, Sir, emboldens me to complain of the rashness of the assertions contained in several writings now before me. " I except the edict of Monseigneur the Bishop of Amiens. The prospectus announced in the advertise- ments of Picardy, with as little reserve as if they advertised a catechism, might justly arouse his zeal. In guarding his flock beforehand against the approach of the enemy, he fulfilled his duty. Had he used exagge- ration no one could have blamed him ; moreover, this Prelate's edict is far less violent than the anonymous denunciation, and less absurd than the petty crackers of the periodicals. Let not similar mercy be shown to this ridiculous artillery. Indeed, the eloquence of these apostles bears too much resemblance to the declamation of a capuchin. A satire against La Brinvilliers would not have been worse done. For my own part, I confess, I would rather be the author of the line " ' Si Dieu n'cxistait pas, il faudrait l'inventer,' than an anonymous accuser, stigmatizing before that God, and before men, the author of this line as an atheist. "Never did Voltaire in private life belie his publicly expressed opinions. Whether ill or well, gay or serious, with Christians, atheists, deists, or indifferentists, he always professed the same respect for natural religion. f was one day present, when at table he gave a striking lesson to a devotee of infidelity, who wished to overturn that salutary barrier against crime, the fear of remorse and, vol. i. )•: 50 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of the Sovereign Arbiter of the universe. The old man, having made his domestics quit the apartment, said to the audacious wit : I beg your pardon, Sir, but I wish my servants to believe in conscience and in the Divinity. The well-known writer, who will recognise himself when he reads this, blushed and was silent.* " Another anecdote will enforce his opinion in a perfectly authentic manner, and under remarkable circumstances. " Three months after the publication of the ' Systeme de la Nature,' he received an enthusiastic letter from the heir-apparent to a German State. The Prince did not conceal the fatal influence which the book had excited over him ; he appeared an ardent proselyte to its doc- trines. Voltaire, in offering his opinion, refuted these doubts, and concluded his reply with these words : ' In one word, your Highness, I consider the book perni- cious to peoples and to Kings. Nothing but a detest- able- mania can attack so holy a religion as that which teaches us to adore God and to act uprightly.' This letter I have read, and I do not speak of it on hearsay. f * Elsewhere, Mallet relates this well-known anecdote with a slight difference : " I saw him (Voltaire) one evening at supper give a forcible lesson to d'Alembcrt and Condorcct, by sending all the servants from the apartment in the middle of the meal, and then saying to the two Academicians : ' Now, gentlemen, continue your witticisms against God : but as I do not wisli to be murdered and robbed to-night by my servants, they had better not hear you!' f Mallet had become convinced, in his frequent intercourse with A'oltaire, that the latter, towards the end of his life, was the satellite, not the master, of the encyclopaedists. " From the date of his * CEdipe' to that of his ' Irene,' he always held that courage was of no use. lie acted even on a very singular policy : more jealous of MALLET DU PAN. 51 " The rancour of Voltaire against revealed religion was nothing less than a disease. It was the fever of ;i mind corrupted in its youth by the licentiousness of the regency, by Temple intimacies, and his familiarity with Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke, and the Duke of Dorset, in England ; and ex- cited by the persecutions and troubles of the Cevennes, by the contemptible disputes concerning grace, by that spirit of His literary throne than any conqueror, he imitated that king who, in the hope of reigning in peace, promised the succession to every- body. Not an insect crawls in the literary world whom he has not, in his turn, pointed out as his successor in some one of those comical diplomas which issued in such strange multiplicity from his cabinet. Such cajoleries would be unintelligible were we not perfectly aware that he had two doctrines — one for the public, the other for the initiated ; and that the Voltaire of private friends was far different from the courtier of the encyclopaedists. He shrank as much as any one from their doctrine and their character ; but he regarded them as the base of the pedestal on which he had mounted ; and in order to subject all the subordinate trumpets of the orchestra, lie took the greatest pains to keep terms with its leader. Never has there been among men of letters a stranger compact than that which united M. de Voltaire and M. d'Alembert. By a tacit understanding between them, the poet was in a chronic ccstacy at the literary talents of the geometer, and the geometer at the profound philosophy of the poet. Xo sooner did an antagonist couch his lance at the weak point of the cuirass of one, than the other interposed to shield him. Rhyme and compass, thus once united by this artifice, became a sceptre stretched forth from Kamschatka to the Pyrenees ; but the old man in his seclusion knew well, in spite of the score of crowns piled upon his head, the advantage possessed over himself by lbs active colleague, who domineered in two Parisian Academies, and guided a world of fashionable gossip, l\c. To him, therefore, he paid re- doubled attention in his latter days : he dedicated tragedies to him, and he addressed to him an epistle, which i.-, however, the mo~t insipid and prosaic of all the misplaced witticisms of his old age." E 2 52 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF intolerance and fanaticism which possessed the end of Louis XIV's reign, and dimmed its glory. Those sanguinary or ridiculous quarrels, affixed an indelible stamp on the youthful mind of Voltaire. From the Bastille, he thundered forth in " la Henriade" his horror at this oppression of men's consciences. Go back, as M. Palissot strikingly observes, to the time when the fearful truths of the second canto were enounced in sublime verse, and by the courage of the poet, measure the influence of that miserable epoch upon his genius. " The persecutions which assailed him served but to strengthen this influence. His abode in Germany, the murder of Calas, and the execution of the Chevalier de La Barre put the finishing stroke to his intolerance of all restraint. His obstinate infidelity was not fostered by interest, or vanity in forming a sect ; or that desire of excusing his vices which lias been too absurdly imputed to him : a laborious old man, passing twelve hours of the day in his study, was assuredly no conscience-stricken liber- tine. Mere hatred against a doctrine deformed by his own notions, and which he thought calculated to imbrue the world with blood, and prejudice strengthened by his per- sonal feelings — such were the sole springs of his mania."* This testimony borne to Voltaire's views concerning natural religion, brought upon its author, as he himself informs us, numberless objections and reproaches ; but at the same time a grateful letter from poor Vagniere, who for twenty years had written at the dictation of Voltaire : " The lessons which I received from my old master," the devoted secretary says to Mallet, "induce me to write * "Annales politiqucs," v. i, p. 292 — 307. MALLET DU PAN. 53 to you, that I may express my gratitude for the maimer in which you have defended and done justice to a man who entertained for you all the esteem which you deserve. I, more than any other, can hear witness to the truth of what you assert regarding him and his opinions, and I do so most heartily, and with the greatest satisfaction, begging you to avail yourself of my testimony should you think fit. I could have wished that my capaeity for defending him myself had been answerable to the strength of the grati- tude which I shall all my life preserve for the friendship and the confidence with which he honoured me. You are, without knowing it, the interpreter of my feelings, and even of M. de Voltaire's. You knew him long enough to be able, like myself, to bear witness to his true sentiments. The pain and regret which his lamented end, and the circumstances which accompanied it, left in my heart, fill my days with bitterness, after having nearly killed me with grief. Unfortunately for me, that great man's mantle has not fallen on me, like Elijah's on Elisha. My only merit is that of feeling the sincerest admiration of him ; no one takes more interest than myself in the glory of M. dc Vol- taire. Your answer comforted me after the accusations that had been preferred against my old master, though I cannot always concur in the severity of your judgment upon him. " I have the honour, &c." 4 The letter of the grateful Yag-niere only served to excite redoubled attacks on Mallet. A threatening letter was even addressed to him from Versailles, but he was unable to decipher the signature, which had been pur- posely rendered illegible : * " Annulet politique?," v. u, p. 25b. 54 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " You take the most extraordinary steps, Sir, to push your journal," it was said : " all my friends, and among them men of enlightened mind, regret to find in you a free- thinker, whose principles cannot be ascertained. In an- nouncing yourself as the successor of M. Linguet, you were expected to declare yourself, like him, the enemy of the philosophic sect, to respect relic/ion, and to adopt its defence whenever an opportunity occurred — to tread in the steps of that celebrated journalist in all respects. And now you place yourself in complete opposition to his tendencies by becoming the panegyrist of Voltaire — an author truly dangerous to society and morals In your reply to the Abbe de L , your friends were shocked to tind you perfectly devoted to that too famous infidel." After some arguments intended to show that Voltaire's law of nature bears a strong resemblance to the theorv of Hobbes and Spinosa, the correspondent concluded thus : " Believe me, I can be useful to you — 1 can also injure you : either employ your talents in eulogizing the virtuous, in advocating respect for governments, in spreading useful knowlegde, in protecting religion, in upholding its ministers, or abandon a literary undertaking which can only be fatal to you, &c."* Mallet, thus fiercely attacked, replied in the first instance that he had written his reflections on Voltaire, " because, having been intimate with Voltaire for eight successive years, and that at the very time when he was inundating Europe with his indecent gibes, he had never once detected him in a single: sally, a single doubt as to the existence of a beneficent God derivable from the law "I nature." i litii MALLET DU PAN. " But in fact," he observes with truth, addressing his correspondent, " I did not pronounce a panegyric on Vol- taire. You seem to consider that a repugnance at seeing a man burned alive amounts to a praise of the victim ; and the stake, according to you and the denouncer of the pro- spectus, is the safe medium between the adoption and the censure of a writer's errors. Allow me to dissent from such a touching exposition of law, and to see in Voltaire the abuse of wit and of talent, without looking upon him as an accomplice of Voisin, and worthy of dying at the stake. This distinction forms the gist of half my article. It is not an apology of the recluse of Ferney, but a vindication of the rights of decency, justice, morality, and public honesty, against the virulence of jaundiced minds. It is fanaticism I attacked, not impiety I defended ; and no sensible reader saw the matter in a different light. " How long has it been a crime tor criticism to examine closely the true opinions of illustrious men ? What offence is committed by discrediting the imputed atheism of Vol- taire, as of hundreds of philosophers accused and absolved of that odious imputation ? What kind of disservice, I would fain know, am I doing to Christianity? Let me, in my turn, offer you a piece of advice. You and your rabid journalists, and all the antagonists of the philosophers, have shown bad policy. If, instead of confounding them all indis- criminately in your denunciations, you had ably contrasted the members of their own sect, you would have over- whelmed them reciprocally. J. J. Rousseau offered you the opportunity: you had not the sense to profit by it. On the appearance of that " Systeme de la Nature.'' the work of a man melancholv-mad — fit for a madhouse— Yoltaiiv 56 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF offered you his best aid to crush its partizans. You gained him new proselytes by attacking the system and its refuter simultaneously. " You pretend to be unacquainted with my principles. They are these : you may communicate my confession to your 'enlightened' friends. My principles are those of a Gencvese citizen, brought up in the Calvinistic faith — that of his fathers and his sovereign — of one who has learned by the excellent education received in that country, and by the example of a virtuous and enlightened clergy, to wor- ship the hand of God in his works, and in the boon of revelation ; to be religious without superstition, and tolerant without impiety. If this creed does not suit you, 1 regret it, but I shall not alter it to gain your goodwill, and avert the effect of your threats. These doctrines, the morality to which they lead, the character they form, the spirit of liberty which, when guided by prudence, is the spirit of reason, will be patent in these " Annales" as long as I retain strength to hold a pen. I shall continue to be truth- ful without harshness, and just without bowing before any human obligations. All that you preach, I do. There is not a number of this journal which has not anticipated your instructions. You are like an officer who should strike with his cane a soldier covered with wounds, to incite him to encounter the enemy."* The reader will doubtless appreciate the soundness of these reflections, and the courage; of a writer who, amid that strife of extreme and irreconcilable opinions which then agitated France, addressed to his relentless antago- nists words so true, so rational, and we may well say, " Annales politique*," v. n, p. 442 — 445. MALLET DU PAN. 57 so eloquent. They appear to us to convey a high idea of the character of their author. It were to be desired that Voltaire had been always estimated with the same mode- ration ; we should not have seen impatience dictate even to men of ability those eternally renewed apologies, which are far more wearisome than would have been the extreme of latitudinarianism. To attempt to persuade Frenchmen that Voltaire's genius is nothing but wickedness from first to last, infallibly revolts their common sense as well as their national pride ; it is enlisting their sense of honour on the enemy's side. oS MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER III. 1781 — 1782. Fresh disturbances at Geneva — The " Idees soumises par un media- teur sans consequence" — The Genevese Revolution of 1782; its analogy to the French Revolution — Geneva invested by the troops of Berne, France and Savoy — Excitement of the people — Mallet sent on a mission to M. de la Marmora — The city opens its gates — Account of these events in the " Memoires politiques" — Brissot at Geneva. Storms always attended the career of our politician. The " Annales" were composed amid the dissensions of Geneva, and Mallet- left an article a score of times at short intervals to mount guard on the ramparts of the city en- vironed by the troops of three States. Since the appearance of his " Compte rendu," ten years had elapsed; during which, in absence, or immersed in his studies, he had not taken an active part in any of the domestic disputes of the Republic, resigning to other pens the task of enlight- ening the universe — for vanity had combined with partv- spirit to turn the heads of the Genevese past remedv. Besides, the position of his old protegees — the natives — had changed considerably. Oppressed, when he had coura- geously undertaken their defence in 1 770 against the hour- MALLET DU PAN. 59 (jeoisie in league with the aristocracy, they were at present courted and petted by the two parties, now in open rupture. The tactics of their new chiefs — acting under the advice, as it was reported, of Voltaire — consisted in making their influence so strongly felt in the affairs of the Republic, that the aid of the natives, becoming indispensable, should have to be bought by one party or the other, and re- warded by equality not only of civil rights, but of those political privileges for which they had hitherto hoped against hope. Whether this manoeuvre was contemplated or not by the natives, Mallet had gained too much political experience to sacrifice to a portion of the population the security of the whole Republic. This appeared to him most seriously threatened by the fanatical strife of the parties whom he perceived resolved, the one to extricate itself from the inferiority to which forced concessions had reduced it, the other still further to fetter its rulers by a code of laws which would make them altogether dependent on itself. These two elements of aristocracy and of democracy, whose perilous association had long been the mainspring of the political constitution of Geneva, less likely than ever to coalesce, were evidently bent on dissolution : each of the two powers, while still speaking of equilibrium, sought to absorb, or at least to govern, the other. However, justice, no less than truth, compels the admission that the more exacting and imperious of the two parties was not that of the Senate. That body cannot be condemned for aiming to preserve itself from the dismissals which, under the very inappropriate name of re-election, the citizens had assumed the right of inflicting upon it, without stint ; 60 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF much less can the attempt be imputed to a spirit of selfish ambition. In 1777, Voltaire had written to Florian : " The democratic power of Geneva has just dismissed three Syndics at one stroke. The fact excites no attention : no civil war will ensue ; no one troubles himself, except about risking his fifty louis in M. Nccker's lottery." Voltaire's opinion was not long borne out by facts : these grievances were not forgotten. Rancour was fer- menting ; and the representatives, suiting the measure of their mistrust to the diminished control over their power, urged their new legislative projects with the more impa- tience in proportion as they perceived the growing irrita- tion of their victims. What complicated the situation and rendered it exceedingly perilous, was the certainty that France and the Swiss cantons, as guardians of the Consti- tution ever since 1738, would be involved in the dispute as arbitrators. What attitude would the Government of Louis XVI. assume ? What would be hazarded by the tolerably bold policy of M. de Vcrgennes ? In that quarter all was to be feared. It was well known that the minister did not consider the political discussions of the Genevese matter of no moment ; that he styled them " catechisms of revolt," and that he would not allow Geneva to degenerate into a turbulent and dangerous democracy. Mallet, deeply impressed with a sense of the perils into which the Republic was plunging headlong, tried to cut short party discussions by proposing to realize that famous " equilibrium," the theme of so many empty disputations, in some other form than that of tortuous laws, and the lamentable power of dismissal conferred upon the people. Breaking the silence which, since his first appearance as MALLET DU PAN. () 1 an author he had maintained concerning public affairs, he published towards the close of the year 1780, a Treatise entitled : " Idecs soumises a l'examen de tous les concili- ateurs par un mediateur sans consequence," and he boldly proposed to introduce the principle of removability into the offices of state, as the only means, according to his views, of guaranteeing the maintenance of the Constitution against the encroachments of power and the indiscretion of democratic zeal ; a means sanctioned by the successful ex- perience of more than one modern commonwealth, and which would have possessed the advantage of introducing no fundamental change into the functions of the orders of the government — in a word, of adding no new principle to the Genevesc Constitution. This was of great importance in Mallet's opinion. He thought, like Bacon, that every- thing is so closely knit in a political system, that the slightest novelty will never agree with the tissue so well as a part already worn. " Every transposition of power is inappreciable in its effects," he said, " let us be content to regulate it by mild institutions." He commenced by showing that removability had in its favour the prosperous experience of the wisest modern Re- publics, and the sanction of historians and philosophers, of Livy and Tacitus among the ancients, of Montesquieu and especially M. d'Argenson among modern writers.* But he was fully aware that the example of two Republics, and the authority of the whole body of philosophers would not satisfy this nation of political argumentalists: — " Our subtle and controversial politicians yield only to argument ; let us * This magistrate's "Consideration.- sur le gouvernement de France" stood hisrh in Mallet's- esteem. 62 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF then see about arguing." In fact, Mallet discusses the question with superior ability. Fifty years later, a jurist whose judgment is of weight said of the " Idees d'un me- diateur sans consequence :" " The Treatise of Mallet du Pan will be always read with interest. It is distinguished from the crowd of our political pamphlets by the soundness of its reflection, and the force of its arguments. The ad- vantages of removability are presented with the greatest effect, chiefly in reference to our special circumstances."* The good sense and moderation of tone in this pam- phlet strikingly arrest attention ; the author, more a moralist even than a legislator, enlarges on the true state of opinion, habits of mind and character, of the small nation which, prosperous and without enemies, is thus hot on the question of its form of government. He aims at giving the Genevese a correct idea of their position. To those who might object to removability on the ground of the difficulty of finding every four years a sufficient number of competent magistrates, he addresses this witty and sensible advice : " Let us diminish the range of our glass. We have not two continents to govern. The whole ques- tion is of the government of a city, and of a third-rate city. Geneva, a political maggot on the map of the world, has no occasion before it can be set going, for the legs of a stag, or the eyes of an eagle. What most surprises strangers is the frequency and seriousness of disputation in * Bellot, " Rapport presente an conseil representatif de Geneve, sur l'amovibilite du conseil executif, le 20 Juillet, 1831." The representative council at that time numbered among its member- such men as Sismondi and Rossi. MALLET DU PAN. (33 a city for which a police government would he sufficient. Integrity and good sense — these are the primary require- ments for the magistrate of a small commonwealth. Ac- quaintance with its laws and its modes of conduct, and a little experience are all the learning he needs." The " I decs " were warmly welcomed by all the superior minds and honest men in Geneva, who were not possessed with a passion for the triumph of their opinions, or, to speak more precisely, their antipathies. But since the time when the diversity of opinion had degenerated into a state of permanent faction — the selfishness of cabal, pride, and obstinacy — systematic hatreds not yet extinguished, and inextinguishable, had replaced patriotism and the sense of duty.* Argument continued ad infinitum relative to the guarantees demanded by one party, and refused by the other ; and which afforded a fine field for wrangling, as nothing * It will not be irrelevant to the history of political ideas in the eighteenth century to note here that, even prior to this period, another attempt at liberal, but not democratic, reform had similarly miscarried. In 17G7, a formal proposition for the adoption of the representative svstem was rejected by Claviere and the leaders of the bourgeoisie, who were stubbornly attached to the dogma of popular sovereignty. • (This abortive attempt of the aristocracy is narrated, with some curious details, in the unpublished journal of a magistrate of the Republic, M. Philibert Cramer, already quoted. Thus, in the middle of the eighteenth century, there already existed a certain political temper, aroused much less by Rousseau than by men's passions, and which rejected the liberty of the representative system as insufficient; — a significant proof that it was not so much the English ideal of constitutional government — as is often said at the present day — which excited men's minds and led to the errors of the French Revolution, as the democratic and revolutionary spirit itself. 64 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF specific was stipulated.* The collection of Genevese pamphlets of this period, and on this subject, is a formidable one. Mallet du Pan used to confess that he had never been clever enough to understand a syllabic of the innu- merable definitions, distinctions, subtleties, and argumenta- tions, of the Genevese on these questions. " It is," said he, " the quintessence of obscurity, and the ne plus ultra of metaphysics ; I defy the most experienced controversialists to have ever reached this pitch of dialectics. I venture to believe it above common sense." The Genevese, however, finding themselves an object of attention, and deeming themselves under an obligation to do credit to the author of the " Contrat social," disputed incessantly, interrupting themselves only to take up arms. Sometimes they were content with giving full play to political lampoons ; this was the peace-footing ; but soon recommenced a deluge of printed declamations of " half a hundred mouthers, proud of appearing in the eyes of Europe interminable bores." In the meantime, irritation was at its height, and the French court, to which the aristocratic party had impru- dently applied in preference to the other protecting powers, only increased the excitement by the dictatorial tone of its decisions : that which the Senate was fully justified in requiring, the suspension of those humiliating arrangements * The history of Geneva in the eighteenth century is contained in these three lines of Voltaire, on the disputes of the Genevese : " Chacun ecrit, chacun fait un projet, On represente, et puis on represente ; A penser creux tout bourgeois se tourmente." MALLET DU PAN. f>5 which only fear and surprise had over induced it to con- cede , the minister and his satellites insisted upon. Less than this would have sufficed to exasperate the republican susceptibility of the representatives. Remonstrances were addressed to the Senate by the Procureur-General of Roveray ; the French Court, considering itself insulted, demanded the dismissal of that magistrate. Then dissen- sion sprang up ; an appeal was made to arms ; the repre- sentatives, victors without striking a blow over a handful of negatives or aristocrats, for some days kept prisoners the Senate and its party, whom envoys from the cantons, con- fiding in the guarantee, extricated not without difficulty. These arbiters endeavoured, but in vain, to pacify the Republic. Political disputes to be assuaged, conflicting claims to be conciliated, furious passions to be restrained, excited declaimers and few citizens — this was what the Swiss plenipotentiaries found at Geneva, and what they left there at their departure. The contagion of discord had infected them also, as was plainly evidenced in the endless con- ferences that soon after commenced at Soleure, in the hope of pacifying the Republic. " For six months the suit was carried on," says Mallet, " to ascertain whether the King of France and two Swiss cantons had a right to propose con- ditions of peace. It would have been simpler and wiser to arrange them for oneself ; but men were not yet tired of disputing." Already, moreover, the principal representatives were no longer masters of their own movements ; the natives, whom they had now gained over by means of large promises, urged them to fulfil their engagements, and compelled them in 1782 to join them in taking up arms. In one VOL. I. l 66 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE night during which two battles raged at the city-gates,* a revolution was effected, commenced by the people and the native community, and completed by the weakness or the will of the bourgeois, who, instead of counteracting the dangers consequent on this recourse to arms, decided on restraining excesses by sharing in, and then lamenting over them. Mallet du Pan narrates in a masterly and energetic style, the revolution which he had foreseen and vainly endeavoured to avert. We will let him speak for himself. " While a portion of the magistracy, arrested overnight, is ignominiously led from one prison to another in open day amid the acclamations of the populace, and sentenced to be confined in a private gaol, the remnant of the Senate arc assembled to hear the sentence of the senators, and to conform to it. They are ordered to abolish themselves: the dismayed old men remain silent and refuse their suffrages ; the strong party are none the less decided on the dissolution of the council : the only law is the will of the armed party ; it becomes the government, and within three- days the operation is demanded, obtained and consum- mated. All the rights of this government perish along with itself. All forms are effaced in blood. The power of election is transferred to a fresh committee : the electors constitute themselves magistrates. " Violence upholds the work of violence. Eleven delegates are invested for two months with an extraor- dinary power, which has ruined almost all republics. This * An old lady, mother of one of the principal nobility, was killed at her window by a musket-shot. MALLET DU PAN. 67 tribunal is named a Committee of security : it is a dicta- torship like that of Rome, and proud of the comparison, every citizen expects from it a similar result. Forestalling, therefore, all measures which might be taken by the powers allied to the Republic, they convert all the constitu- tionalists into so many prisoners of state. The gates of this city, full of wordy freedom, become to them those of a prison. Their persons, their families, their moveable pro- perty, are all placed under legal restriction. The twelve hostages, captives since the 8th April, serve as a safeguard and a pledge of impunity. During eighty-four days this system is pursued with a coolness and a quiet perseverance, no less astonishing than all the rest." At this point of his narrative, Mallet depicts a characte- ristic which he perhaps believed peculiar to the dissensions of Geneva, but which since their time will not be found wanting in any of those revolutions of which it was the principal type in the eighteenth century. In reading what follows, in recognizing an anticipatory sketch of the French revolution in the characteristics which Mallet assigns to the revolution of Geneva in 1782, one may understand by what links the history of one of the smallest European cities is connected with that of the principal event of modern times. The revolutions of Geneva are like a foretaste of the revolution of 1789 ; a sort of rehearsal of the principal action, in a corner of the map at the entrance of France. " But far more horrible excesses, vengeance more dread- ful, a spirit incomparably more sanguinary, accompanied these changes. What Geneva had no precedent for, was a bravado of virtue united to criminal passions, des- f 2 63 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF potism exercised over opinion by exacting a recognition of the propriety and justice of acts of monstrosity ; the vaunting these as sacred duties ; boasting their wisdom while lamenting their folly ; invoking humanity though with blood-stained hands; writing phrases about 'country' while tearing its vitals, and citing the laws of nations while outraging the liberty of individuals. " A scandalous oblivion of all decency, of all public mo- rality, all respect for conscience, God, truth — a horrifying symptom of incurable perversity, was at Geneva a maxim of State, and the best stock in trade of an author. The hypocrisy of vice is common enough, that of crime happily very rare : it is seldom met with amid the excesses of civil war, where energy is the great requisite. These produce tigers, but without endowing them with the qualities of apes ; otherwise, they would become a scourge from which there would be no escape, and for which there would be no remedy. When an assassin murders you, he does not preface his crime by florid harangues on the safety of the highway; his truculent bearing warns you to stand on your guard ; but how defend your- self from a man who vaunts his justice while threatening your life 1 , and depriving you of your liberty ? What is to become of a State when it contains tempters to whom good and evil are utterly indifferent, who reassure the conscience by transforming a contempt of law and of the rights of civil society into meritorious acts; and when fanatics infected with these doctrines, by conviction above all scruple, and rendered fit to undertake any crime by dint of sophistries and illusions? " 1 will not do the Genevese the injustice of attributing to all of them this atrocious Machiavelism : — far from it ; but to this had the majority prostituted its credulity ; and MALLET DU PAN. 69 many an honest citizen who, in the silence of his own home, would have felt his heart beat, and his mind recoil with horror from the sight of events now of every day occurrence, resumed his boldness and his frenzy on drink- ing in the poison commended to him in a pamphlet. " The honourable practice of appealing to men through the press had ceased to produce in Geneva anything but insolence or gross paradoxes. The schoolboy, scarcely emancipated from the swaddling-clothes of ignorance, set to work to plagiarize axioms from Raynal, Rousseau, Montesquieu — mouthed generalities and philosophic jargon, turning them inside out, talking nonsense with an arro- gance, an impudence, a mendacity, which yet rouses my indignation. " This reflected falsehood, this mental gangrene which could only be cured by cauterizing, the sources of mise- ries to a people on whom heaven had bestowed an ample share of good-feeling, candour, and patriotism, makes me in my own despite, assume a tone of anger ; but capable as I am of pardoning the most violent outrages I might receive, I would never forgive the cold-blooded impostor who should attempt to add strength to the arm that struck me by his phrases and his metaphors." Meanwhile, the tempest brooded over the revolutionary city : it vvas easy to conjecture that the neighbouring States would no longer hesitate to re-establish in the Republic a system consonant with their own interests. Different reasons made it equally important to Berne, to France, and to Savoy, that a period should be put to this anarchs . 70 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ' The discussions which to Geneva and to the eyes of Parisian philosophers might appear no more than a skirmish of wit and about liberty, seemed to rulers in whom reflection was a duty, a school of bare-faced revolt. It was but too obvious that these three sovereignties, with- out troubling themselves to calm down this riotous republic would at least aim at re-establishing there the disturbed political equilibrium, heedless of the evil their arrangements might create, so long as they were effected. The justifica- tion of such acts as these is not set down in the pamphlets of Geneva, or in the theories of metaphysical politicians ; but it is stamped on every page of history. Woe to that man who seeks another rule for the government of states !" Ere long the Genevese beheld approaching their city an army of ten thousand men ; the soldiers of Savoy, under the command of General de la Marmora ; the Swiss led by the patrician Lentulus ; the French having at their head M. de Jaucourt, surrounded by a throng of brilliant volunteers, who quitted Versailles to take part in this pageant, by which they were to gain the credit of a cam- paign. If the Governments and the Genevese exiles had hoped that the first glimpse of an armed force would allay the disturbance and unclose the city gates, they were deceived. That first moment was not devoted to fear : the intoxication was too complete to pass off in a moment. The approach of the three powers only stirred up national pride and heightened fanaticism. Preparations were made to repeat the defence of the Saguntines, whose language had already been adopted. MALLET DU PAN. /I " Call up before you the dreadful picture of a nation of artizans, impoverished by idleness, supported by fanati- cism ; gay amidst the most imminent danger, heedless of the fate of themselves and of their families ; all day long occupied in admiring the cannons and the works, or in the uninterrupted practice of military exercises ; mistaking a warlike mania for heroism, lulled in a military intoxication, rushing with enthusiasm upon their own ruin. Every one was a soldier, an artilleryman, a statesman, or a com- mander. And this pitiable game was carried on for two whole months ! and it was to result in the admission into Geneva of ten thousand foreign soldiers without a blow being struck !" Meanwhile, the despatches of the plenipotentiaries pro- ducing no effect, the troops assembled on the frontier abandon their cantonments and approach Geneva. Fa- naticism increases ; and the sole reply made to the conciliatory and temperate representations of the plenipo- tentiaries is the proroguing of the Committee of Security, accompanied by an expression of thanks, conjuring them, " in the name of the Supreme Being, to continue steadfast in a cause which forms the glory of virtuous citizens.*' Notwithstanding this, the political chiefs who had hitherto remained cool, now began to tremble at their own situa- tion, for their fate, far more than those of the hostages, was at stake on the issue of impending events ; and they thought of M. de la Marmora to extricate themselves and the Republic from this perilous crisis. The character and manners of this nobleman, esteemed by all parties, and full of a true interest for Geneva, overcame the proud obstinacy cf the commissaries: they empowered Mallet du Fan with 72 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF certain representatives, to visit the head-quarters of the Savoyard General, and endeavour to mitigate a catastrophe whose approach filled them with alarm. Before setting off, Mallet had a long interview with Flournois, the one among the representative commissaries, in the soundness of whose views he most confided. The willing deputies returned reassured bv the favourable language °f the General, but convinced that the re-establishment of order must be consented to with a good grace, or that it would be enforced. Unhappily it was a hopeless undertaking to preach common sense to the more ardent commissaries, to a people intoxicated with pride, who expected to treat as a king with a king, and who were moreover persuaded that no cannon would be fired against those walls which their opponents desired to save, and that the combined army would recoil before the peril of twelve prisoners. " After this vain attempt, defensive measures be- came at once more active and more terrible. In a moment the cathedral-church, and two houses which enclosed the level summit of the hill on which Geneva is situated, are turned into magazines of combustibles. Seven thousand pounds of powder are deposited in that abode where prayers are offered up to the God of peace ; where the laws, liberty, and the magistracy, year by year are consecrated bv the hands of the Republic. The two houses, seized without the consent of their absent owners, are similarly converted into two stores of ammunition; they are in no way isolated ; it is enough to keep them in sirrht. Here then is almost an entire town devoted to destruction if chance or circumstance bring on the con- summation. Let us cast a veil over this picture, and MALLET DU PAN. 73 kneel down before the Divinity ; let us thank Heaven that no desperate hand sprang the mine."* At length the summonses are brought from the three Generals, demanding entry into the town, engaging in no way to interfere with the liberty of the Republic, intimating only an order to the authors and abettors of the late appeal to arms, to leave Geneva within twenty-four hours, and at a distance of twenty leagues to await the sentence of the Republic regarding them. Mallet seems to consider that these one and twenty abettors were but ill selected. Several, he asserts, were notoriously unconnected with the riot, or had refused their vote to the revolutionary measures. Be this as it may, the summons was treated with the same contempt as all that preceded it. " While the syndics alone and unsolicited, beg the Generals to grant some delay, the burgesses, unanimous in their vote for resistance, caused the tocsin to be sounded, and the drums beaten, and soon all are under arms. By night the confusion had attained its height : women, children, old men, cripples — all were armed, all prepared themselves to destroy on the morrow their lives and their country. Vainly had the clergy 1 ixed among the people to assuage their desperation ! This was no mock resistance ; and so the three Generals judged, for they allowed of a fresh delay, indispensable to them for the execution of works which till then they had deemed unnecessary." "A storm alone endangered them. The very night which fol- lowed this transport of powder, it thundered unceasingly during two hours, and one peal was just over the town. The transport was conducted with the most culpahle negligence, and during excessively hot weather." 74 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF At length the blockade of the town was completed on one side by the lake, and on the other by a trench exca- vated at the foot of that house of pleasure of Aristippus, where Voltaire had celebrated the eternal goddess : " L'ame des granda travaux, l'objet des nobles vceux, La liberte ! . . ." " And now there was no longer a middle course : the city must be saved, or by its fall involve all in its ruin. Most of the chiefs, supported by a certain number of the wiser citi- zens, who, discontented with what had been done hitherto, had reserved the strength of their opposition for the last moment, were on the side of prudence ; all the rest on that of desperation. How could the latter be disarmed, deceived, their confidence betrayed yet not be lost, and this tragedy of republican fanaticism conducted to a peaceable termination ? All delusions had vanished at the opening of the trench : no one any longer deceived himself as to the certainty of the danger. " Notwithstanding, at five o'clock on the evening of Monday, a hundred deputies resort to the Town-Hall, to bury there either the Republic, or the revolution of April. What a session ! They opened it by reading a memorial, stating, on the authority of the engineer of the works, the impracticability of holding out for more than a few hours- This truth is enlarged upon with as much energy and supported by as many proofs as if no one had ever dreamed of a defence. Not a doubt is cast on the necessity of sub- mitting to three powers leagued against them. It is the strongest protest against the conduct heretofore pursued. " This apartment, whose carefully closed doors shut in MALLET DU PAN. 75 the destiny of the Republic, resounds with the most vehement reproaches, the most obstinate debates, and with furious personalities ; and in the midst of this discord, they proceed to the vote. Whether it was the result of a change of mind (in which I shall never believe) or of an error of management in counting the suffrages, a majority of sixteen votes preserved a town whose existence was purchased at the cost of painful humiliations. " Still, however, it was necessary to conceal from the people this determination to preserve their life ; to unde- ceive them regarding a concession of which the disgrace exasperated them, and to shelter the captives from their hardly-restrained fury. In that very hall, several of the deputies broke their swords — it seemed as if their indig- nation would possess all hearts. And to crown all, it was in the darkness of midnight that safety must be maintained until the dawn. " The council of safety had abdicated its authority. There no longer existed a government, a magistracy, or a civil or military police ; in a word, there were no restraints legal or otherwise. Alarmed at the prospect of misfor- tunes yet to come, the ancient guardians of the confidence and power of the nation made all haste to abandon it to its fate.* * "From this charge we must exempt MM. Yernes, Soret and Chappuis, three persons whose absence was required by the powers, and who had left over night, as had also M. Flournois, a member of the Council of the Two-hundred, and of the Committee of Safety. This last-named personage remained alone in the town till the evening of the following day, not choosing to share the flight of his associates, hut firmly awaiting the event. His well-known courage, of which this last act gave fresh evidence, preclude.- all suspicion 76 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " Meanwhile the announcement of a defection had spread in all quarters, causing equal rage and surprise. The most violent hastened through the town collecting the disbanded troops, caused the drum to be beaten, and went to the dwelling of the hostages, which happily had been vacated. But the springs were relaxed, the artillery unfit for use ; there no longer existed chiefs, or union, or resources for holding out. Some broke their weapons or threw them into the river ; others discharged them against the walls, and against that fatal Church whence their ruin might spring forth in an instant, and into which they were not allowed to penetrate. In their escape, the chiefs risked falling victims to a fanaticism of which they had foreseen the desperation. " These rapid volleys were followed by utter discourage- ment ; the crowd left the town to avoid contact with the new 7 masters about to enter it. " A few moments afterwards, Count de la Marmora, at the head of his army, ignorant whether the musket shots which he heard, and the cannon of the battery would not be turned against himself, entered the town by the gate of Savoy, without beat of drum, without pomp, like the paci- ficator of a mourning city. He himself traversed on foot various quarters of the town to reassure them. In the afternoon, the French and Swiss generals made their entry, which had been delayed by the breaking of a bridge, and that weakness had prompted his vote for submission. Among the representatives there was not a stronger-headed, or more judicious man. Perhaps lie only was in a condition to lead a party, because he set more store by the policy taught by facts, than by tbat found in book.-. MALLET DU PAN. 77 this city of the arts beheld its streets occupied by ten thousand fusiliers. Their admirable discipline preserved the conquered party from all outrage. " From this moment Geneva became no longer recog- nizable. During some days nothing was visible but soldiers lounging on the pavement deserted by its native inhabitants, and an assemblage of foreigners met together to enjoy the spectacle of our misery. " After this faithful account," says Mallet, at the end of this summary, which he penned on the morrow of the events recorded, " it will be evident to all unbiassed judgments, that if this gulf, replete with every species of danger, was closed by an act of cowardice, the blame of such an act does not rest with the people. The courage they displayed does not merit applause, but cannot justly be questioned. And even had they shown timidity, what nation would have done otherwise in such a case ? Let us pity men so blinded by fanaticism as to think themselves dishonoured by a wise action. Let us pity them for having listened so late to the voice of necessitv ! Let us lament over the national reputation ; over so much punc- tilio and ceremony, which ended by consigning the country unconditionally to three armies. When the Phoceans refused to submit to the yoke, they did not put their trust in unavailing weapons ; an old man enlightened their enthu- siasm, and they retreated to Marseilles there to establish an asylum for liberty. " It is a misfortune to the whole human race, when this idol of every noble heart is outraged by the hands of her very worshippers. The spirit of servitude takes occasion from their faults to blaspheme this divinity. Each abuse of her 78 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF power makes one slave in some corner of the world, and weariness of anarchy hreeds disgust at freedom. Such excesses are therefore an offence against all nations, because they afford a pretext for arbitrary power. " Republican factions end sooner or later in tyranny. Thus, when such enthusiasts as Price and Raynal, called by simpletons defenders of the nations, but whom I call their corrupters, come to stir up the dregs of the states and set them in a ferment ; when they foment discontent and disquiet, legitimizing revolt by asserting the inalienable right to revolt, let us oppose them, not with words, but with experience. Let us disprove their incendiary sophistries on the grave of all those nations whom political zeal has involved in calamity. With the history of Geneva before our eyes , we shall see that liberty is invariably ruined by its endeavours after extension. A score of happy nations have received chains while seeking for a government free from abuses, and not one has found it." It is with these reflections, and while casting an uneasy and sorrowful gaze upon his country, that Mallet du Pan concludes a narrative whose every page gives evidence of a profound mind and a truly republican spirit. Alas ! how many prophetic traits are contained in this striking sketch of the eiTors of democratic pride, and how many themes for the meditation of petty states ! There was need of great courage to pen such a narrative the day after the event. No sooner did it appear in the " Annales politiques," than it occasioned vehement com- plaints from the ultras of both parties. A foreigner became the spokesman of the resentment of the vanquished — no other than Brissot himself. MALLET DU PAN. 79 Brissot dc Warville, in the prosecution of one of his sentimental and political tours, happened to be at Lyons. At the first outcry of revolution in 1782, he hastened to Geneva, to rouse if necessary the spirit of the Genevese, in whom he was anxious to witness a transcript of the heroism of the citizens of Saguntum, and to admire by anticipation the glory of the republican government, which his ardent imagination already saw established in France. " On beholding," says he, " this brave people destined to death or slavery, tears came into my eyes ; I could not restrain my indignation, and scarcely had forty-eight hours elapsed since my arrival in Geneva, when I found myself composing an address to its intrepid inhabitants, exhorting them to a vigorous defence. . . I sent my pamphlet to d'lvernois, but when it was at the very point of publication, that catastrophe happened which led to the capitulation of Geneva."* It was not long before he became the familiar com- panion of the principal representatives, and the bosom friend of Claviere ; but Brissot was austerely republican and sublime in his writings only, and the frivolity of his disposition could not greatly engage the confidence of his new friends. As to Mallet, he would not even risk an acquaintance with one whose character offered no attraction. " Mallet du Pan had been invited by Vernes to sup with us ; but from suspicion or indifference he never came."f The heroical catastrophe not taking place at once, Brissot quitted Geneva ; but after the event, under pretence of * '• Mi'moircs de Brissot," v. n, p. 1*27. f Ibid, v. n, p. 1:3-2. 80 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF raising his voice in favour of his friends, he thought proper to aid the republican cause by a record of Genevese affairs, coloured after his own fashion, and under the title of the " Philadelphien a Geneve," he published a counter narrative to that of Mallet. Those letters of the pretended American are neither more nor less than a violent diatribe against the bold and veracious historian, a diatribe in which the spirit of contradiction vies with the feigned sensibility and declamatory shamelessncss of the revolutionary bel esprit. Mallet, indignant, and strong in conscious integrity, had no difficulty in triumphantly refuting, in a reply full of feeling and vigour, the false allegations of his critic. He began by explaining his object in undertaking the narrative so odiously distorted : " An unfavourable impression had been the universal result of this tame surrender. After threatening announce- ments, these very inglorious philosophers — these drawing- room Saguntines — these weak-nerved women — these long- winded heroes, at Paris, at London, in Switzerland, awaited in the arms of their mistresses the ruin of Geneva : they had hoped to have it to prate of in their boudoirs and at their petits soupers. Indignant at the disappointment of their expectations, these would-be republicans called scorn of their exhortations cowardice. I proved, by an authentic narrative, that the people had been brave to the last, and that their leaders had acted ri^h* in ceasing to be so. In clearing them from this apparent stain, and these dis- honouring prejudices spread throughout Europe, I con- finned the sv. >..); thy to which they are in all respects entitled." ' The Philadelphia!!," having hinted that the author of MALLET DU PAN. 81 the summary was stimulated by private resentment against some of the proscribed representatives, Mallet exclaims : " How do you know it ? Do not invoke these exiles as accomplices in your imposture. I defy you to point out one among those with whom I have had personal dissension, and who injured me, and whom I might have injured, towards whom I ever neglected those acts of civility which are due even to such as differ from us in opinion — civili- ties unheard of at Geneva, but always practised by me." He concludes with an apostrophe which passes judg- ment by anticipation on revolutionary philosophy. " Philosopher as you call yourself, you end your tirade by accusing me of hating and attacking philosophers. I would not be guilty of such injustice against a Locke, a d'Aguesseau, a Montesquieu, a Voltaire, (when they lay no claim to the title of theologians) ; against a Thomas, a Buf- fon, a J. J. Rousseau. . . Allow me to treat with less ceremony a scribbling herd of headlong reformers, over- turners of thrones, tribunals and altars ; men who ren- der that truth odious, which to be productive of good should be lovingly recommended ; who carry excess into everything — intoxicated semi-politicians, born to precipi- tate the ruin of philosophy, of morals, of due subordina- tion, and of liberty." The fact is, that by writing his letters of a " Philadel- phian," Brissot had officiously played a part which no one had assigned to him, and for which perhaps nobody, with the exception of Claviere, thanked him. In his " Memoires" lie dolefully charges his Genevese friends with ingrati- tude. " The vanquished would hardly acknowledge them- selves indebted to me for the work I published in their vol. I. G 82 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF favour, and which I have already alluded to under the title of the ' Philadelphien a Geneve.' I had neither materials, nor recompense. Virchaux printed the work, circulated it, appropriated it — and all I got for my trouble was a violent satire hy Mallet du Pan." Elsewhere, Brissot says that Mallet atacked him without provocation : we know now how far we may depend on the veracity of Brissot's re- peated assertions of innocence which meet us at every turn in his " Memoires." He adds this calumny : "To push off his ' Annales,' Mallet was fain to flatter the prime minister, and successfully paid his court, by slandering me as well as his persecuted countrymen. I fortified myself against insult as well as against ingratitude ; I had attained my aim, which was to be useful in accelerating the triumph of liberty." MAT-LET DU PAN. 83 CHAPTER IV. 1784—1789. Mallet du Pan quits Geneva and goes to Paris — The " Mercure de France"' — M. Panckoucke intrusts to Mallet the political part of the "Mercure" — Revolution in Holland, and contention hetween Mallet and the Minister for Foreign Affairs — Miraheau : " Analyse des papiers anglais" — News from England — Trial of Warren Hastings — Rage of Miraheau and Brissot. The "Annales," as well as the " Memoires," of Mallet du Pan have been forgotten ; the six volumes of literary and political criticism fused into the collection of Linguet's journals, have shared the same fate. Scandal flourishes but for a season, the fame that is built on it perishes with its downfall. Linguet, who preferred such evanescent success to more solid honour, which might have been the reward of a better use of his superior intellect, hastened his ruin by filling his pages witli his wearisome self-display ; the person of the hero was not interesting, nor his pen powerful enough to keep alive the remembrance of his quarrels and grievances. Though an occasional glance at the " Journal de Paris" and the first numbers of the " Annales" may- prove satisfactory to those who arc curious to recall the doings of the already distant eighteenth century, G 2 84 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF yet the superficiality of these works may account for the oblivion into which they have fallen. Such parts, however, as were contributed by Mallet du Pan are worthy of being exempted from the fate which a similarity of title in his journal bas caused him to share. I cannot point out any contemporary summary in which a better considered noti- fication of the events of those years of the eighteenth century, with their true political and moral bearing, can be found. Notwithstanding his unbending opposition to the current of fashionable ideas, Mallet met with serious and attentive readers of his periodical publication. A translation w r as published at Florence ; and two counterfeits appeared, one in Switzerland, the other in the Netherlands. His plain speaking opposed a barrier to the entrance of his writings into France, yet they circulated there, and procured for their author the reputation of a distinguished journalist, and before long, led to proposals which influenced the future prospects of Mallet du Pan. The Editor of the " Encyclopedic," M. Panckoucke, who had for several years (1778) edited the " Mercure de France," formed the idea of uniting to this compen- dium the political journal which he published every week under the twofold title of " Journal de Bruxelles" and " Journal historiquc et politique de Gei.eve." At the same time he cast his eyes on Mallet for the management of the latter paper, which till then had been edited by M. de Fontanelle. Mallet, still sore from the rancour and attacks of various kinds which his summary of the events of the preceding year had drawn down upon him, was sick of Gcnevese politics. Moreover, his republican feel- MALLET DU PAN. 85 ings were harassed by the unhappy state of his country, occupied by foreign troops, a prey to luxury and fetes, in which it was sought to stifle the memory of hatred and dissension. " The face of the country has undergone too great a change," he writes to Sir Samuel Romilly, " for us to become inured to the alteration." He responded to the honourable appeal addressed to his talents and his eminence as a journalist. In the summer of 1783, he suspended the publication of the " Memoires politique, " and went to Paris with his family at the age of thirty-five. Extensive reading, a habit of meditating on politics, a sin- gular and profound acquaintance with the situation of the European States ; ten years passed in the midst of the pas- sions and contest of parties, had hurried forward the matu- rity of his intellect ; indeed, he was one of those grave and strong-minded men whose age one never thinks of enquiring. No sooner was the " Mercurc" in his hands than Panckoucke applauded his own discernment, and an agreement, entered into in March, 1784, secured to him the cooperation of Mallet du Pan, on conditions sufficiently indicative of the value attached to his services. * A word as to the " Mercure." The "Mercure de France" as regarded its two parts, one literary, the other political, although assigned to * According to this contract, dated the 4th of March, 17S4, Panckoucke, proprietor by virtue of ministerial acts of the " Jour- naux de Geneve et de Bruxelles," commissions .Mallet da Pan to compose and supervise the " Journal historique et politique de Geneve," which was published every Saturday, and empowered him, according to custom, to form from it the "Journal politique," entitled " de Bruxelles," in union with the "Mercure,'" and ai 86 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Panckoucke, remained under the control of the Govern- ment, who audited the accompts, and even gave pensions apportioned to the profits of the journal. The literary portion, into which since 1778 the "Journal de Littera- ture" had been incorporated, numbered among its editors, Marmontel, Suard, La Harpe, Imbert, Lacretelle, Garat, Naigeon, Saint-Ange, Champfort, &c. It was more especially what at the present day would be called a literary review, edited with talent and judgment, and receiving successively from its enterprising manager the addition of the "Journal des Dames" and the "Journal dcs Spectacles." The real " Mercure " itself may be tracked through the midst of theatrical news, and adver- tisements of every description, a profusion of verses, cha- rades, enigmas, logographs, received from the provinces, and revertin": to them as material for their favourite amuse- ments. As to the political " Mercure" it was condemned to be merely a gazette, and indeed a gazette out of favour till the assembling of the Estates General. The task of the editor was to epitomize the political events of each week : regarding those of the interior, lie was to limit himself to a succinct relation of official facts, without comment. On the subject of foreign affairs he was more at liberty,* except when the minister had some knotty intrigue to conceal, or some claim to be ratified by public pearing on Saturday. In return, he engages to pay him seven thousand two hundred livres a-year. The editor had, moreover, twelve hundred livres for the articles he furnished to the literary department. * Still, the privilege of first announcing important news belonged to the " Gazette de France." MALLET DU PAN. 87 opinion. In such a case the task became a most deli- cate one for a man, like Mallet du Pan, incapable of changing his opinion according to order. It was thus that the troubles in Holland, tampered with a long while by M. de Vergennes, gave rise to positive dissension between our editor and the minister, in whose department he laboured as a subordinate. This minister was M. de Montmorin, who after the death of M. de Vergennes carried on the policy pursued by the latter in fostering the discord in Holland. It is well known, that in 1786 an insurrection broke out in the Netherlands, and that the Prince of Orange, the Here- ditary Stadtholder, being deposed from his post of com- mander-in-chief, was forced to fly. This was the work of the democratic faction and the French Government, who took an active part in favour of the democrats, in hopes of contracting a close alliance with Holland, and so dic- tating its policy. No pains were spared to effect this object. The Emperor demanded an indemnity, which France paid : they signed a treaty of alliance, securing its rights to the neutral party ; they even went farther than this. As a set-off against the influence of England and Prussia, which was employed to re-establish the au- thority of the Stadtholder, they devised no better expedient than to excite the revolutionary zeal of the patriots. The French Ambassador, the Duke of La Vauguyon, encou- raged the chiefs of the popular party, in the most im- prudent manner.* Mallet foresaw 7 the result of this rash and unprincipled policy ; he suspected what eventually * ''Notice sur M. lc Comte de Saint-Priest," by M. de Barante. Paris, Ainvot. 184S 88 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF became evident, that by not allowing the exhausted pre- rogatives of the Stadtholdcrate to die away of themselves, everything needful was being done for their complete re-establishment. He considered that by means of vio- lence, of arbitrary cassations, of intemperate deliberations, of contempt for all laws and all rights, they would but induce the rulers and the majority of the States General to espouse the cause of the Stadtholder ; and that both parties, driven to extremity, and openly attacked, would not vainly invoke aid from the King of Prussia ; that a little sense on the part of the pretended patriots would disarm that monarch even of his own despite ; while, as actually happened, hostile attempts must compel him to interfere, without enabling the French Government, though every way urged on to a troublesome war, to dream of drawing the sword. For these reasons, the Editor of the " Mercure poli- tique" carefully abstained from applauding these demo- cratic acts of violence, which provoked Prussian interference in so imprudent a manner. He had taken care; to make known that he took no part in the publication of such extracts from gazettes of the Low Countries as were inserted in his newspaper; "articles,'" he added, "loaded with palpable falsehoods which it was not his ofKee to point out." His censor struck out this last sentence, and in the same way suppressed half his article on the; year 1786. Not liking that the Stadtholder should bo Prince of Orange, he three times substituted the word of Nassau for Orange, while Mallet steadily refused to share in these official lies, or to act as echo to the gazettes despatched bv M Mr IvaMieval from 1 he Hague, whither he had been MALLET DU PAN. 89 sent. " It would indeed be a wonder," Mallet replied to the minister, " if there were only one correct view of the interest of France, and if M. de Rayneval had hit on it." At last it gave umbrage at Versailles that the Editor of the " Mercure" should be so unwilling to oblige (allow himself to be made a tool of). He was threatened with being deprived of the editorship of the journal, and perhaps with something worse. In this critical situa- tion, he addressed to M. de Montmorin the following letter : " History, my Lord, must have convinced you, like myself, that as the liberty of a commonwealth resides in its laws, all attempts to reform these by force of arms, must plunge the state into anarchy. The right which one faction or body of citizens claims to-day of overturning by force the established order of things, to-morrow may be usurped with equal justice by another faction or body of citizens. No state has ever yet survived this species of corruption ; and I foresee that it will ruin Holland also. If, under pretext of a hazardous endeavour after perfec- tion, or of customs abolished centuries ago, the people might trifle with Governments established and maintained without tyranny ; might, at the point of the bayonet, overturn or set up rule ; might arbitrarily dismiss irre- proachable magistrates ; substitute might for right, and dispute with the sovereign even that legitimate au- thority confided to him by themselves, all social order, all security, all stability would disappear. Is it then pru- dent or reasonable to represent these deeds of a riotous democracy as the expression of a lawful and really general choice ? Political conjunctures may sometimes justify ;) 90 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ruler in closing his eyes for the moment to these truths, but such conjunctures pass by : only the rights of legiti- mate sovereigns and of nations, mutually limited by the bond of law, remain sacred and inalienable." What was M. de Montmorin's conduct on reading this bold letter ? Mallet informs us that M. de Montmorin was not offended either by his resistance, or by his remarks, then considered as the height of daring. " Another mi- nister," says he, " would probably have sent me in answer a lettre de cachet" This dispute over between the journalist and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. de Montmorin gave Mallet a fresh proof of his equity and esteem for him ; and the grateful journalist remembered this, when, some years later, (in 1791,) Louis XVI. was forced to sacrifice his minister and his friend to the unpopularity that waits on power. " Soon after the revolution, or rather the counter-revolu- tion in Holland," says Mallet, " some vagabond French- men who received pay in that country for pamphlets directed against the Prince and Princess of Orange, driven thence by fear and the Prussian hussars, returned upon the hands of Government ; they united with Mirabeau to deprive me of the ' Mercure,' and possess themselves of it. They wearied the foreign department with horrible false- hoods against me ; they — especially Mirabeau — represented me as an outrageous Anglo-maniac, a traitor to the Government, in writing contrary to its views. The interest of the ministers demanded that they should wrest the pen from my hands, to place it in those of Mirabeau and his associates. These manoeuvres miscarried before the jus- tice of the minister: he was nut influenced by the preju- MALLET DU PAN. 91 dices suggested to him, and respected my property. I am gratified at being able to express publicly my obligation to him at a time when he is no longer in office."* This allusion to Mirabeau was grounded on more than mere suspicion. Mirabeau, seeing that the direction of the " Mercure" was evidently escaping him, obtained from the minister authority to publish a paper, in which, under the somewhat inappropriate title of " Analyse des papiers Anglais," he enlarged on the politics of the whole of Eu- rope, in spite of the remonstrances of Panckoucke, who pro- tested against this infringement of his privilege. In his " Analyse," Mirabeau, who attributed to Mallet the failure of the Dutch revolution, lost no opportunity of attacking him, and broadly accused him of betraying the Government " whose wages he received. "f M. de Montmorin let Mirabeau have his way. Never- theless, his clerks and the censors interfered with the editorship of Mallet, and mangled his productions outra- geously ; although they complained of the " Mercure" none the less, as soon as the moment came, unexpectedly to them, when, the patriots demanding the despatch of an army, it was proved to the ministers that they were not in a condition to form a camp of thirty thousand men at Givet, and impede the entry of the Prussians into Holland, nor to arrest the revolution which followed to the benefit o* the Stadtholder. I find among Mallet's manuscripts, the following con- versation which he held on this subject with a chief clerk "■ : " Mercure de France," 1791, No. 49. f See the "Analyse des papiers anglais," 1788, Nos. 30, 31, 38, (\e. 92 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of the foreign office : it is not wanting in vigour or insight into the French diplomacy of this period. The Clerk. Our policy is sometimes secret — it is never deceptive. We had no desire of destroying the Stadt- holder, but we could not allow him to be the common- wealth. Mallet. On that supposition, would you have had it in your power to restrain the party which you had supplied with arms ; which had expelled him from the Hague ; which had suspended him from his functions ? The Clerk. We should have managed that. Mallet. It was much to expect. The Clerk. It was not the Court of England nor Prussia which brought on the revolution. Mallet. To whom then is it to be attributed ? The Clerk. To Madame Dankelman, Maid of Honour to the Princess of Orange, who excited the King of Prussia ■ — -a thorough crackbrain. Mallet. But then she must have kept him in excite- ment three months together, during which his army was marching, encamping ; his despatches being addressed in succession to the Dutch States; his vengeance threatened? The Clerk. I tell you, it was Madame; Dankelman who did the job ; there arc things we know, and you cannot. It was she and the Duke of Brunswick. The King of Prussia's friends, Mollendorf and others, regretted the undertaking. Mallet. That appears extraordinary to me. The Clerk. We were on very good terms, when, all at once, he took this into his head. You ran counter to us in appearing to take the part of the Stadtholder ; for, MALLET DU PAN. 93 seeing that, in a recognized organ of the Government, they fancied at Berlin that we had no real intention of backing the patriots. Thus you played against us. Mallet. I should not have believed in such great effects from such slight causes. The Clerk. No, indeed ; but it is as I say. But, in fact, it was Marshal de Segur who spoiled the affair, by telling the King that a camp of twenty-four thousand men at Givet would cost eight millions. Had these been only twelve thousand, the Prussians would never have dared enter Holland. Mallet. That economy was unlucky. The Clerk. But Rayneval was right in telling you that England had no share in the revolution. Pitt did not dare tell the Parliament so, and, if he had said it, the opposition would have given him the lie. Mallet. Yet the King of England borrowed on his own account £250,000 sterling, which he sent to the Prince of Orange : the nation took arms to prevent you from obstructing the revolution organized bv the Prus- sians. The Clerk. Yes ; but they did not produce the revo- lution. Besides, you must not rely on Rayneval's expres- sions : he does not know the value of words, and can't write. He writes that the English had no more share in it than the " Great Mogul," as when he wrote to M. de Goertz : " The Princess of Orange knows that that is the law and the prophets." Mallet. I understand. The Clerk He managed his negociation at the Hague badly. The King had nominated me to it ; he chose to 94 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF go. I would have passed by way of Nimeguen and seen the Stadtholder first of all. One ought to know States before interfering with them ; hear both sides ; put no one in alarm," &c. The " Mercure " had not frustrated the policy of Ver- sailles ; but Versailles had made the mistake of under- taking, without the power of sustaining it, a difficult part, as imprudent as its moral bearing was questionable. It is not the business of governments to foment revolutions, and, when they engage in the task, events are sure to make them repent it sooner or later. " Versailles is in consternation," wrote Mallet in his private memoranda, " at the revolution in Holland, which comes upon them altogether unforeseen by the clerks or their chiefs. M. dc Maillebois, who is here, has been summoned to a cabinet council ; at which be begged the ministers to re-peruse his correspondence of the last six months, and see whether he had not forewarned them, and concluded by telling them that all was over, and there was nothing more to be attempted. The detestable advices they received from Holland, and their illusion as to the strength of the cabal, lulled them into this security, and made them fancy that, with violence, illegality, and adven- turers, things would manage themselves. These adven- turers, sent down thither, paid by this court, paid in Holland, found the trade a good one; and, in order to prolong their commission, were incessantly exaggerating the resources, the numbers, the triumph, of the faction, and recommending violent measures. Such were the men whose advice prevailed over that of sound-thinking per- sons ; such was the upshot of sixty millions lavished MALLET DU PAN. 95 hence — as much on the side of Holland — and of six years labour, intrigues, and manoeuvres. " What an outpouring here of idiotic folly concerning the Dutch revolution. The King of Prussia is a brigand ; he pillages Holland, bombards Amsterdam ; the Stadtholder will be supreme, liberty annihilated, &c. Assail this non- sense, and the gazettes of Amsterdam and Leyden are quoted against you. It is impossible to reason with any one on this matter, or to see it in a more distorted light. It all comes to this ; we don't like the revolution — there- fore it is unjust, atrocious : the Prince of Orange is no friend to us ; therefore he is in the wrong." Thus Mallet, for having seen too truly, found him- self exposed on the one hand to the ill-humour of the Government, and on the other to the fierce tirades of the Dutch patriots and their French friends, who treated him as an enemy of liberty and of republics, whilst the " Journal de Paris " accused him of having spoken of monarchical states with the most sovereign contempt. These vexations, these attacks on both sides, may fur- nish some idea of the obstacles which the journalist encoun- tered in his labours ; they show also what conscientiousness he brought to his task. Mallet wrote his weekly political article not like an hack-writer, but like an historian ; he collected all the documents which an extensive corre- spondence could procure, and whose value and conclusions it was the more necessary to estimate and scrutinize ; a delicate task, in which he did not relax a single day, thus offering an example of that probity which is the virtue and should be the honour of journalists. 96 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Notwithstanding the brevity of his narratives, Mallet possessed the ever rare talent of philosophically throwing light on facts, and showing their course and connexion, in remarks as summary as the text, but which roused reflec- tion. It is especially in the articles on English affairs that the political sagacity of Mallet du Pan may be appreciated. As a series, they may be truly said to constitute annals of Gnat Britain, not only exact, but animated, dramatic, and philosophic, in a high degree, at one of the most singular periods of its history. " A spectacle," he says, " truly astonishing, and worthy the attention of observers, is offered by the efforts of all kinds made by Great Britain to strengthen the levers of its power, and establish those of its prosperity." The proceedings of Parliament which attested this energy, appeared to him deserving of the attention of all thinking minds ; and it must be admitted that he summoned his French readers to the most salu- tary study that could have been proposed to them in those times of political regeneration. The parliamentary history of Great Britain presents in the interval between the years 1786 and 1788 a famous episode, the commencement of the proceedings against Warren Hastings. The " Mercure " is undoubtedly the most authentic and the most curious, or rather the only one that can be consulted upon this affair, the first stages of which it recounts with the most lively interest. Of the same nature as the recall of Dupleix, the prose- cution and execution of Lally, this protracted and rancorous persecution of the ex- Governor- General of Bengal was, independently of intrigue and personal interest, instigated, MALLET DU PAN. 97 and as it were necessitated by that species of secret jealousy of authority and ministers, which in the eighteenth century universally dominated over opinion. Unable as yet to attack the monarchs of Europe, they exercised their despotism upon those absolutely powerful officers, who governed for them in the remote colonics. In England the influence was more direct : the House of Commons could not look without distrust upon their acquisition in India, of the position of actual sovereigns, who dispensed the immense treasures and greater authority which they always believed, and sometimes averred to be disposed to disown their prerogative. Moreover, ambition as well as parliamentary eloquence found it advantageous to arraign these powerful governors before its tribunal. It was, therefore, impossible for them — necessarily invested with a vast power — established in their position specially for the purpose of extending the possessions of the mother country — to execute their mission without ever infringing justice, humanity, and a legality, which indeed was not established. Sometimes, subject to the most terrible alternatives, fre- quently compelled to conquer in order to preserve — to prevent at any cost the defections, the dangerous alliances of other Asiatic sovereigns, they took the aggressive initi- ative, the consequences of which were not entirely undi r their control, nor in themselves altogether irreprehensible. These acts, frequently arbitrary, and violent, and whose necessity was not always evident, were enormously exagge- rated by the unscrupulous reports of the envious and ill-disposed ; and the imagination of the factious embellished at its will this ground-work of accusation with frightful crimes, and all the transgressions of despotism. vol. i. H 98 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Such is the history of Warren Hastings. It was after having heen appointed Governor-General of India by the Company, and supported fourteen years by the voice of the Parliament, even at the time of that terrible crisis which appeared to menace England with final ruin — it was when by dint of intelligence, and with the resources of the Company alone, without receiving a single guinea from the metropolis, that he had succeeded in defending the English possessions in India against the confederate powers of India and France ; it was even at the moment in which Great Britain consoled herself for the loss of America by rejoicing in the certain possession of India, the most brilliant jewel in her crown — it was now that this gifted* administrator was, in his turn, denounced by his fellow citizens as a monster worthy of every species of punish- ment, and of utter abhorrence. Concocted even in the Council of Bengal itself, in which the Governor had envious rivals, and one mortal enemy, this blow impended for four years before it fell upon him. Burke, excited by the accounts and private communications of Francis, seized with his usual impetuosity upon the * It is worthy of recollection that we owe to Hastings our know- ledge of the first fragment puhlished of the " Mahabarat." The " Mercure" of February, 17SG, observes: "Mr. Hastings and the East India Company have rendered an eminent service to history and philosophy, by giving to the public, under their authority, a work entitled, ' The Bhagavat-Goeta.' This curious literary monument of the literature, mythology, and morals of the ancient Hindoos, is itself an extract from the ' Mahabarat,' a poem of considerable length, which is said to have been written more than four thousand years ago, and which the Brahmins of the present day regard as the treasury of all the mysteries of their religion." MALLET DU PAN. 99 brilliant career which was opened to him : he determined to be the Cicero of this Verres, and without waiting for the complaints from India, he entered Parliament as the vindi- cator of this second Sicily. He was heard at every Ses- sion, supported by the other chiefs of his faction, and all the enemies the Governor of India had made, accusing the latter in general terms of having embezzled the public money, of oppression, of disobedience to the orders of the Company, and to those 1 of Parliament. The opposite party replied by representing Hastings as the greatest man England had ever possessed. The opinion of the Government oscillated between this admiration and these alleged out- rages ; while the man, who was their object, rested tranquilly in the midst of the empire which he governed, with a sus- tained ascendancy viewing the successive arrival of each monsoon of contradictory despatches — overwhelmed with reproaches in one, and lauded in another. At last, when called upon by the public voice, he went to England per- sonally to confront his adversaries and to insist upon his trial. Burke, compelled to relinquish his generalities, resolved upon demanding the regular prosecution of Warren Hastings. From among the methods of prosecution which in accordance with the constitution were available, he chose the most rigorous, that of impeachment, a decree of accusation laid before the House of Lords on the demand of the Commons. It was, therefore, necessary to ob- tain from the Commons a decree of impeachment. On the 17th of February, 1786, Burke made his motion on the ground of the investigations of a Committee of Inquiry formed some time since, and this demand became ii 2 100 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the subject of a long and violent discusssion — the first stage of this famous trial. The ministry and Mr. Pitt gave their support to the opposition ; Mr. Pitt toned down the violence of the speeches of his eloquent adversaries, Fox, Burke and Sheridan, but finally voted with them in favour of the impeachment : Lord North, who had lost America, attached himself to the most violent persecutors of the man who had preserved India, while the demagogue Wilkes rose with Admiral Hood to brand this persecution with infamy. Mallet, du Pan, an attentive and studious observer of what passed in England, did not fail to communicate to his readers the curiosity and interest which this affair inspired in him- self. From the commencement, to his clear-sighted judg- ment, the weakness of the proofs of the accusation was evidently perceptible through the eloquence of the accusers. He was especially struck with the inconsistency of pro- secuting as criminal those faults which were profitable to the State, without demanding that the State should relinquish the advantages so acquired. But he was truly indignant when he saw that in France, as in England, public opinion became excited upon partial and incomplete 1 state- ments, and that they condemned the accused without appeal before having heard his defence;. Under whatever form oppression presented itself to him, Mallet was always ready to ally himself with an ill-treated minority. In vain Mr. Fox, for whom he possessed an avowed partiality, because he considered him to be a true statesman, had spoken for three hours " with much eloquence and animosity, much exaggeration and plausibility of argument ;" in vain MALLET DU PAN. 101 Sheridan, in a speech of five hours, which did not allow the attention of the audience to wander for an instant, " had produced the wonderful effects of popular eloquence in the ancient Republics ;" # nothing was sufficient to deceive him as to the foundation of the trial, and when the impeach- ment was decided upon, he wrote : " This event gives rise to a reflection. Among the numerous accusations of which Mr. Hastings has been the object, there is not one which attributes to him peculation, spoliation, or unjust acquisition of wealth. Clerks have returned from India more opulent than he has, and although undoubtedly guilty of the most horrible exactions, no one has dreamt of involving them in a prosecution. We have seen Lord Clive, Rumbold and others, accused of crimes, malversations and pillages, the most clearly proved — even held in detestation throughout India — cited before the House of Commons and acquitted. It is, therefore, very strange that their tardy severity should be exerted now upon a man upon whom they can cast no other reproach than that of having too well served the State by measures politic, although perhaps unjust and violent, but which had not in any respect the personal interest of the defendant as their object " Mr. Hastings may undoubtedly appear reprehensible in the eyes of strangers, even to individuals among the well-informed ; but it is very extraordinary that a nation usurping a part of India, should take upon itself to intermix the rules of morality with those of an administration essen- tially of force, injustice and violence, and which, in order to be consistent, it ought for ever to renounce. " * " Mercure," 1787, No. 2. 102 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF The Constitution and custom of England have sur- rounded with great solemnity the exercise of this re- markable prerogative of the Parliament, which subjects the accused of the highest rank to a public examination of their conduct, and to punishment, if they are guilty. Upon the day fixed for the ceremony of opening the prose- cution, the Commons adjourned to the great Hall at Westminster, preceded by the managers of the accusations, Mr. Burke at their head. The peers, having afterwards entered in procession, the late Governor of Bengal, clothed in dark blue cloth, came forward accompanied by his counsel, and the sergeant-at-arms delivered him into the custody of the usher of the black rod, after which the accused knelt down for an instant before the bar. Hastings had had only three days to reply in writing to the two hundred and eighty folio pages of the impeach- ment, preferred by the Commissioners of the Commons deputed to conduct the trial, Messrs. Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Grev, Colonel North, &c, and he was obliged to divide this task among his friends, who laboured with him night and day. In the violence with which the principal mana- gers were animated, for the vanity of the three illustrious orators of the Opposition was enlisted in the debate, they raised with reference to the rights of the accused, as such. distinctions little in conformity with the liberal principles of which they should have been the principal supporters. When, ultimately, they entered upon the accusation, their animosity wars equal to the talent they displayed. Nothing ever exceeded the virulence, the passion, and the impetuosity of these speeches, delivered in the presence and at a few paces from (lie defendant, a man of low MALLET DU PAN. 103 stature, with grey hair and a venerahle aspect, sustaining with a calm and untroubled aspect the intense curiosity of an immense assembly, which included all the illustrious personages in England.* All this pompous show and violence of opinion, designed to ruin a man prostrate before the scat of justice, inspired in Mallet a resolution as generous as it was ill-calculated to maintain his popularity. Mr. Hastings was informed by a common friend, that if he could communicate to M. Mallet du Pan, notes and explanatory statements which would tend to enlighten men's opinion, and to lead just and moderate men to form more sound ideas upon the accusa- tions which were brought against him, the author of the " Mcrcure" would be happy to make them public. The ex-Governor was profoundly sensible of this interest, which he had not expected from a stranger, and which certainly was of importance in the isolated position of the defendant, when opinion, carried away, or intimidated by the eloquence of the great orators of the Opposition, had finally abandoned the accused, and the few solitary friends who gave him their support. He therefore transmitted to Mallet such documents as were adapted to enlighten the French public who were furiously opposed to him, and the journalist made use of them in the commentaries witli which he accompanied either his analysis, or the text itself of the speeches of Fox and Sheridan. As long as they restricted themselves to the generalities of political morals, and did not go beyond sketching in * On the days when Sheridan delivered his harangue? upon the conduct of Hastings towards the begums, or princesses of Oudc ticket^ of admission were sold for as much as thirty guineas. 104 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF their masterly style the crimes by which, according to their account, the administration of Hastings had horrified India, the orators were constantly at the level of their great renown ; but when it at last became necessary to support the effects of eloquence by positive proofs, the fall was truly strange, and it became astonishing to see in such an investigation of a thirty years' administration, by the Governor- General of a great empire, that, instead of treating great political questions, examining financial administration, decrees issued and alliances formed, the managers consumed the time of the Court by inquiries sometimes puerile, upon the genuineness of a copy, or in a subtile cross-examination. The trial had lasted four months ; still they had only treated of the first two of the twenty charges of the accusation, and the witnesses for the defence had not yet been called ; it was demanded on all sides when this trial would be concluded. Mallet, for his part, replied : " No one can say with certainty ; we merely repeat what we said two years ago, which cannot now escape any observer of penetration, that the enemies of Mr. Hastings defer his defence and his sentence, by the inexhaustible resources which ;i case of that kind presents. It would have been decided already, if they had proceeded with a sincere intention of hastening the day of pronouncing judgment ; but the addresses of five hours on a single clause, preceded by others, two sittings long, all upon the same clause, and a brief of a thousand pages folio* upon the first charge, promise to carry the denouement of this scene into the * "Analyse da- papiers anglais," 17S8, No. 30. MALLET DU PAN. 105 next century. In awaiting its issue, the accused remains exposed to the most grievous defamation ; his torment is prolonged from week to week, from month to month, from year to year ; and scarcely is the poison-cup ex- hausted, which they pour upon his bleeding wounds, when they reunite their forces to replenish it, devoting their victim to receive in the interval and in silence, all the stabs of prejudice, of malignity, of mercenary impudence and public levity." The generous part which Mallet's conscience imposed upon him excited violent rage ; Claviere and Brissot wrote a pamphlet against him on this occasion, full of invectives ; and Mirabeau himself, not content with giving play to all the whimsicality of his romantic invention, at the expense of Hastings, did not hesitate to insinuate that an individual so rich as the ex-Governor of Bengal, and known to have bought more than one writer, might also have bought the editor of the " Mercure."* * This insinuation was probably made by Brissot, and not by Mirabeau. The following passage in Brissot's " Memoirs" coun- tenances this supposition to a certain extent. " Mirabeau con- templated the publication of a paper under the title of ' Analyse des papiers anglais.' This was a cloak under which he circulated daring truths among the public ; but unfortunately he knew neither the English language nor the state of England. I offered of my own accord to assist him in this respect, and he accepted with his usual courtesy. Daring in attack, he had violent disputes with Mallet du Pan on the trial of Hastings, and the position of the English in the East Indies ; and my studies on this subject were of service to him. I also wrote several letters against Mallet, which have been published under the name of Mirabeau. I must do justice to our adversary : he was well acquainted with history, familiar with 106 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF We shall dispense with entering into any refutation of similar eonjeetures ; but it may be profitable to show that Mallet du Pan was not even the dupe of a generous illusion. Hastings did not correspond in any respect to the idea which had been formed of him upon the evidence of his accusers. See what a friend had communicated to Mallet with reference to him : " Hastings never forgets a favour or an injury. Gene- rous, a warm friend, a vindictive enemy, burning with zeal for the glory of his country, violent in his feelings, modest, simple and even timid at home and in society, but power- ful and intrepid in his cabinet ; confident of his innocence, full of a sense of the services which he has rendered, braving all considerations and infusing into his defence that fearless impetuosity which appals his persecutors, he has said pub- licly that his condemnation would be the last service he should render to his country in proving to it that a minister (Mr. Pitt), is capable of sacrificing the interests of the State, its best servants, and the wishes of the King, to a desire to coneiliate the Opposition, and to carry his motions through Parliament. The interest of life is nothing to Mr. Hastings, that of the State and its honour absorbs him entirely. It is not only his acquittal which he seeks for — he goes much farther ; and lit. 1 will not consider full justice is done to him until the two Houses pass a vote of thanks to him, until the East India Company accord to him the customary pension, and the Court a peerage." the subjects on which he wrote ; whereas Mirabcau was totally defi- cient in study, although some of his works arc overloaded with the notes of a scholar." — Mnnoircs dc Brissol, v. n, p. 385. MALLET DU l'AN. 107 If it had been proved that Mr. Hastings was guilty of the acts of inhumanity and of violence which were imputed to him, and that he had been carried away by motives of cupidity, ambition, or personal resentment, not only would he not have been reinstalled, as he was in 1795, in the position of Privy Councillor, and received at Court,* but especially he would not have commanded up to his death, in a country such as England, the esteem and attach- ment of men remarkable for their political probity, their virtue, and the independence of their character. A person who had conversed upon this trial more than once with Lord Teignmouth, appointed Governor of India after the administration of Mr. Hastings, has told us that this man, religious, humane and universally esteemed, had taken advantage of his authority to collect upon the spot positive evidence of the deeds attributed to the Governor of Bengal. * " An illustrious historian, Mr. Macaulay, in his ' Essay' upon Hastings, states that in 1813 the ex- Governor General of Bengal was summoned once more to the har of the House of Commons ; hut on this occasion to he heard in evidence relative to the East India Company, the renewal of whose Charter was under deliberation. He reappeared on that same spot where lie had seen Burke deposit on the table of the House the heads of accusation. " Since that time, twenty seven years had elapsed ; public feeling- had undergone a complete change ; the nation had now forgotten his faults, and only remembered his services. The reappearance, too, of a man who had been among the most distinguished of a generation that had passed away, who now belonged to history, and who seemed to have risen from the dead, could not but produce a solemn and pathetic effect. The Commons received him witli acclamations ordered a chair to be set for him. and when he retired, rose and uncovered." 108 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF He had had among others frequent interviews with the Begum of Oude, and his decisive opinion upon the character and conduct of Warren Hastings differed so much in all respects from that of the parliamentary com- mission, that it w T as calculated to modify unavoidably that of any reasonable and impartial man. Moreover, the per- sonal fortune of the accused was very far from being equal to the ideas given of it by the charges made against him of peculation ; and the fact is, that no complaint ever came from India or from the Company, and every vessel which arrived from Calcutta, bore on the contrary, evidence in his exculpation. Such a combination of evidence is not to be bought with all the money in the world. A meritorious work on Hindostan, published in 1839, observes: "To this day the Hindoos pronounce the name of their former Governor with enthusiasm and blessings ; they sing verses in his praise. Had the fate of Warren Hastings per- mitted him to end his days in India, the multitude would have made pious pilgrimages yearly to his tomb, in the superstitious belief that his spirit still hovered above the country which preserved so grateful a recollection of his services."* This famous affair evidently arose from the suggestions of jealousy and spite,f and was prosecuted by party-spirit and the stimulus of vanity. If the conduct of Pitt, who abandoned Hastings to the Opposition, is quoted as con- * " Sketches of Hindostan," by Miss Robarts. t Burke is thought to have never forgiven Hastings for not nominating one of his near relations to an important office which he had solicited in his behalf. MALLET DU FAN. 109 elusive against him, we may cite, not the saying, more familiar than authentic, attributed to Lord Chancellor Thurlow,* but another very energetic speech from no less a man than Lord Mansfield, who filled for thirty-two years the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, with the most unimpeachable reputation for sagacity, talents and virtue. Talking one day with Sir John Macpherson about Pitt, he condemned the latter for having abandoned Hastings, an action, as he said, unworthy of a great minister. " But, perhaps," observed Macpherson, " a feeling of justice demanded it of him." " Justice ! Sir John !" rejoined the venerable judge : " I have forty years administered justice between man and man. As for political justice, justice between minister and minister, it is a profanation of the term, a blood-stained phantom. "f When in 1795, after eight years' debate, the trial re- sutled in the acquittal of Hastings, Mallet du Pan, then at Berne, addressed the following letter to him ; which alone would prove, were it requisite, that the share of the " Mercure " and its editor in this important matter was perfectly disinterested : * "Doubtless you hate me," said Pitt to the Chancellor, "for having seconded the Opposition in its impeachment of Mr. Hast- ings." " I do not prostitute," replied Thurlow, " so noble a pas- sion as hatred, to condemn an act which deserves nothing but contempt." t This same Lord Mansfield said to Pitt: "Supposing that Mr. Hastings did rob the Indians, as you allege, of two millions ; you admit that he remitted the money to the Company, and em- ployed it in the service of the State. If you condemn him, you, the Government, are bound to restore the two millions sterling by which you profited." 110 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF "Berne, July 29, 1795. " Sir, " I once had the honour, when in Paris, of enrolling myself among your defenders, and of serving with my poor abilities the cause in which you have just triumphed. Allow me to offer you my congratulations, and to repeat to you the joy with which I beheld you issue from that unprecedented struggle, with a success which your accusers were able to retard, but not to prevent. All Europe applauds the verdict which has restored you to the position you should never have lost. " The justice of men can never be a compensation for the cruelty of the proceedings, for your sufferings, the inroads they have made on your health, for so many trials borne by you with the dignity and fortitude which belong to your character. You are as great on the banks of the Thames, as you were on the banks of the Ganges. May your countrymen appreciate the worth of such a citizen, and atone for the efforts by which enmity and party spirit have paralysed for eight years talents, which have been the glory and the prosperity of England."* * The following year, Mallet du Pan's son was received in London by Warren Hastings in a manner which amply testified how grateful a recollection he preserved of his late defender, and how much respect he entertained for his character. " Mr. Hastings has paid me a visit," wrote M. Mallet to his father, "which no one else has done ; and, as I could not dine with him, and he had to leave next day for the country, he begged me to pass the following day with him previous to his departure. I accepted, and he ex- pressed to me how much gratitude he felt for what you had done in his cause, and the desire he had to serve me. He told me that lie had few, if any, acquaintances calculated to be useful to me, as he had made it a rule during his trial to owe his vindication to nothing MALLET DU PAN. 1 1 1 hut the justice of his cause. ' Nevertheless,' said he, ' I might perhaps do something indirectly, and whatever I can do I will. Write to me if you have occasion in any respect, for protection, money, &c. I shall return to town in three weeks, and my first concern will he to see you.' I had been told he was very undemon- strative : I found him kind to me beyond expression. M. Malouct told me that he never promised anything, never gave any hopes ; but that he was more active in obliging than anv one else." I 1 2 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER V. 1784—1789. Articles of Mallet In the literary department of the " Mercure" — Montesquieu on Republics — Grotius and the law of nations — Ideas upon political economy — Learning and manners at the close of the eighteenth century — Life of Mallet in Paris — Panckoucke's household — Buffon — Anecdotes. Integrity has great privileges. Notwithstanding profound differences upon many important points of domestic and foreign politics, notwithstanding the enemies which Mallet du Pan had made among the courtiers and politicians of different parties, frequently amazed by the holdness of the truths of which he never restrained the expression, Mallet was retained on the " Mercure." He was rigorously supervised, however, and the three censors for that purpose, most lavishly exercised the pruning-knife. Nay, " cancels" were not wanting in the " Mercure," and it was not an unfrequent occurrence that, on tin; point of going to press, the editor, finding the matter of his number reduced to a sheet or two by the censorial talons, found himself under the necessity of supplying these gaps at ;i moment's notice. Upon the whole, Mallet's was an un- grateful task, and would have been insupportable to a spirit MALLET DU PAN. 1 13 so free and so reflective, if he had not been able to give unbounded range to his thoughts in the literary portion of the journal. The greater part of the works — which suc- ceeded each other with a prolusion upon the great subject of political philosophy — wen 1 submitted to his analysis : he devoted to them articles always studied conscientiously and written in a vigorous and animated style, which sufficiently distinguished them from the more elegant and ornate con- tributions of his collaborateurs. These articles are the productions of no ordinary thinker; many are very curious to read, even at the present time. In perusing these articles, one is in the first instance struck by the tone of opposition which characterizes them, and from which the reader might be induced to attribute the constant vivacity of the author to a para- doxical turn of mind. It was because, a republican by birth, and always ready to expose the vices of despotic governments ; severe in his strictures on corruption and frivolity wherever he meets with them, Mallet was not a less severe critic of tin 1 theories of reformers, in which character he unsparingly censured the folly of those philo- sophers who pretended to regenerate society by means of their declamations. It will be easy to imagine what scornful impatience would be felt by a man of his experience' and enlightenment, to whom political affairs had become familiarized by a long study of history and social institutions, on seeing the recklessness with which the most weighty questions concerning the science of go- vernment were decided, and especially the levity with which the would-be pupils of Rousseau began talking about re- publicanism. Let us hear with what disdain he spoke of VOL. I t 114 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF certain detractors of Montesquieu, in reference to his views of republican states : " I do not know," he says, " whether that great genius was in error or not in his opinions upon monarchy and despotism : with that I have no concern, and little interest ; but, the child of a republic, and having at a very early age been compelled by unfortunate circumstances to study republican forms of government, I have always been amazed by the astonishing sagacity with which Montes- quieu has spoken of them. There is no free state which is wanting in a feeling of veneration for the name of this great writer, so impudently attacked for some years past in his own country by that host of vain and frivolous talkers, who judge the government of a nation as they would of an opera."* In an examination of a book by M. Valaze upon the penal law, a work of which he speaks with great esteem, he commences with this reproach, addressed to the incon- siderateness of the modern jurists. " The greater part of the writers who, during some years, have treated of these matters, appear scarcely to have perceived their difficulty. By substituting meta- physics for experience, and eloquence for discussion, it is very easy to govern the world by means of generalities. But when we observe the legal libraries, the works upon the laws, the commentaries, the controversies, the defini- tions, the customs, the researches, and the different codes with which the world is encumbered, we ought to be very cautious in determining those fixed rules from whence * " Mcrcure de France," 178f>. Article upon the "Travels in Italy," by Lalande. MALLET DU PAN. ] 1 5 result the duties and the rights of the whole human race. * Mallet, hoth in character and from the natural tendency of his mind, belonged (as we have already had occasion to observe) with regard to legislation as well as politics, to the school of observation and moral sense. His principles were those of justice, his views formed from experience. His distrust of schemes and his preference for the apprecia- tion of facts are well displayed in a page upon Grotius and his successors, the constructors of the theories of the law of nations. " Whether war be or be not founded on a basis of right, it exists none the less. Sovereigns would scarcely think of composing their manifestoes in accordance with the obscure metaphysics of philosophers : custom and treaties — these are the only authorities consulted. From thence has resulted a code, which, although it may be artificial, contrary to natural law, to reason and religion, has nevertheless received from long usage the force of law. Nothing is therefore more futile than argumenta- tion upon these subjects : the law of nations is nothing more than a system of facts and usages. Grotius and his successors have employed an immense amount of erudition upon a full exposition of them; they have applied them to an infinity of possible cases. In this respect and up to this point their labours were useful ; but they wished to intro- duce the law of nature into the midst of this monument, to make justice its architect and its divinity, to transform custom into right, to build doctrines on sand, and to pro- scribe to us as so many eternal rules, the accidental habits. * " Mercure de France," 1784. No. 12. I 2 1 1 6 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF forms, methods, admitted or despised, according to the vicissitudes of civil society. Hence these systems, as un- intelligible as cruel; these maxims of Kings represented as the maxims of nature ; the customs of the Canaanitcs and the Teutons as the course of Providence : and this jumble of science and nonsense, which, supporting the principles of the Greeks by those of the Hebrews, the verses of Homer by passages from the Bible, has made Grotius and many others the systematic enemies of the human race. " Instead of bewildering ourselves by entering into a refutation of such a medley of distinctions, divisions, pre- cepts and arguments, it is preferable to establish firmly for ourselves the morals of nations. Perhaps a simple history of the law of nations would be more instructive than the arbitrary jurisprudence of this author."* In political economy Mallet opposed the too hasty theo- rists with the same distrust and the same careful examina- tion of facts and arguments. It was with the discussion of economical problems that he had entered upon his public career : Quesnay and his disciples ; the chimeras periodi- cally put forth in their journal the " Ephemerides," had exercised his talent for the analysis of such subjects, and, it must be admitted, had also left in his mind a ground-work of exaggerated prepossession against the political econo- mists and even against Turgot, whom he called, not their disciple, but their dupe. However that may be, he dis- played in connexion with these subjects a very great knowledge of facts and very decisive views ; he also treated of them with great sagacity. With the exception of M. Xecker, then; were at that time but few persons in * " Mercure do France," 178G, No. ,33. MALLET DU PAN. 117 France possessing a more precise acquaintance with econo- mical science, its aims and its scopes, or a more thorough mastery of its language. Although he placed Parmentier hefore all other political economists in the world, and desig- nated the grave calculations of the time upon the balance of power as " rules of proportion constructed with imaginary figures," he did not on that account deny the utility of researches upon the wealth of nations. He had studied the works of Adam Smith in the original, for which he pro- fessed a high admiration ; only he considered that men should not dogmatize in a science, the first principles of which were still matter of discussion, and in all cases sus- ceptible of an application eminently variable. " The better works upon political economy," says lie, "such as those of Adam Smith in England, of MM. de Forbonnais and Necker in France, are less general treatises, than books specially adapted to the countries in which they have been written. Our modern teachers consider this circumspection very puerile and unworthy of genius, an opinion at which we must not be surprised from such nations as are accustomed to rule tin.' entire globe from Spitsbergen to the Cape." In another place, he says : " The rural, not the political economist, whose business in France is the culture of potatoes ; the peasant of Zurich, who doubles the produce of his meadows, have done more for society than a thousand treatises upon luxury, by which the authors have not prevented the sale of a yard of Lice, and which put forth a host of hypotheses upon wealth, which have not made the poor a penny richer." " It would be absurd to regard as idle all the philo- 118 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF sophic researches into matters as important. We possess several works extremely systematic, yet without the pre- judices of the systematizing spirit, in which the history of facts confirms the exposition of principles ; in which, by comparing customs with their effects, the causes of good and evil are unfolded, so as to arrive at results which are thus prevented from becoming vague. As a work possessing these characteristics, we must name that of Mr. Adam Smith upon the ' Wealth of Nations.' " It is not possible to avoid the belief that, in conse- quence of this distrust of theories, Mallet would have been capable of aiding in the diffusion throughout France of the rational and practical study of political economy. He was occupied in doing so, but this part of his works was seized with the rest during the Revolution ; and there is no other evidence remaining of his knowledge and his ability in these matters, than some articles from the Journal. The moral critic of the " Annales," is also recognized sometimes in the " Mercure," and never otherwise than advantageously.* This remark is noticeable in reference to a violent attack on Rousseau in a book by M. Rigoley de Juvigny, on the decay of letters and morals, from the times of the Greeks and Romans to our own. " It is impossible to justify the violence with which M * In the article " Mallet du Pan," in the biographical dictionaries, are the titles of different works which are nothing more than some of the articles furnished by Mallet either to the literary department of the "Mercure," or to the "Journal encyclopcdique." Such, for example, is the " Tombeau de Pile de Jenings," a kind of romantic talc, which commences with an interesting sketch of the Convent ot St. Mernanl MALLET DU PAN. 1 19 dc Juvigny has traduced J. J. Rousseau. . . . How is it pos- sible that he could have allowed himself to accuse of hypo- crisy and a pretended belief in the Divinity, a writer who has demonstrated the principles of natural law with more energy and sincerity than those of any other age ; who never hinted a doubt on this subject ; who professed the fundamental dogmas with enthusiasm, and who separated himself from certain pretended philosophers solely from his aversion to the pernicious systems which have made such ravages among us ? I have always found it difficult to comprehend the obtuseness of those impetuous and irrational spirits, who, while seeing Rousseau in all cases defend the primary truths of religion, morals, domestic duties and public and private virtues, have not foiled to class him with those sophists who root up the foundations of all moral obligation, and to attach themselves to these latter with an obstinacy more furious than that which they manifest towards avowed atheists." It is further necessary to quote a parallel sketch of the philosophy and manners of France at the close of the eighteenth century, not only because it is spirited, but because it clearly indicates the tendency of Mallet's opinions upon the age. " If early in the part of this century the bent of men's mind and genius was inclined towards pursuits of another kind, it is wrong to say that there was no longer either learning or genius. " Impartiality required of M. de Juvigny that he should have made this observation, and that he should have balanced our advantages and disadvantages. This would have added force to his arguments as he approached our own day ; he would have compared more happily the dreadful 120 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF nullity with which we are charged, with the splendour of the last century and the talents of the last reign ; he would have shown how the usurpations of the philosophic spirit over literature had deadened imagination ; how, hy dint of seeking for the why and the wherefore of the beautiful, we have had whole libraries of metaphysical arguments and no more dramatic art, no more poetry, no more productive literature. Passing afterwards to the actual state of the human mind, he should have endeavoured to learn whether enlightenment did in fact result from the multitude of authors who called themselves enlightened ; whether the systematizing spirit, seeking refuge from science in specula- tive philosophy, had not rendered problematical more important truths than it had discovered ; whether anything else resulted from this than an exaggeration in doctrines which had ceased to be any longer useful — than an anarchy of opinions, a universal scepticism — which proves to us at the same time an excessive credulity and prejudice united with the most positive knowledge ; whether the same en- lightenment was not worse than ignorance ; whether the actual boldness of ideas had not its cause in the want of reflection more than in the profitable independence of mind ; lastly, whether the mutually antagonistic opinions of some thousands of writers constituted philosophy and truth. ''Instead of deploring with a zeal sometimes declama- tory the depravity of our age, and characterizing it by our fashions or other details of little importance, M. de Juvigm should have examined what had been the influence of our enlightenment upon our morals — a great and noble subj; ct upon which he touches without investigating it. He should have remembered that the essential point was. MALLET DU PAN. 121 not to preach virtue, but to practise it ; and that if it was true, as Helvctius and others have concluded, that without a profound knowledge of philosophy it was not possible for a man to be good, it would follow that Caesar must have been a better citizen than Cincinnatus, and Nero, so well educated by the wise Seneca, a model of wisdom and humanity in comparison with Henry IV. ' On this supposition,' says J. J. Rousseau, ' there can be no true probity except among philosophers : — they act prudently, beyond question, in complimenting each other on the fact.' After this, the author should have inquired how it is that we have so much immorality with a deluge of moralists ; so many chatterers who think only of them- selves, and who grow enthusiastic about the love of our neighbours ; so much selfishness in actions and humanity in the journals ; so much clamorous love of liberty with so many vices which exclude the sentiment of it ; finally, how so many depraved men absolve themselves from being honest because they talk of honour ! The description of this moral hypocrisy, a thousand times more detestable than that of religion, to which it has succeeded, merited especial attention. It would have been curious to examine how the inconsistency of some modern doctrines has produced this contradiction between manners and opinions." The life which Mallet du Pan led during the five years which intervened between his arrival at Paris and the commencement of the revolution, was, like his opinion-, and turn of mind, sufficiently foreign to the general current of habits and manners of Parisian society. Not having any relations at Paris, his family lived in great 122 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF retirement,* and in the bosom of his family, he was entirely devoted to his task of journalist, which he contemplated from * An exception must be made with regard to Panckoucke in this respect, whose house was more than hospitable to Mallet and his family, from the time of their arrival in Paris. The relations between author and bookseller are not always of the most easy description : those between the editor and the publisher of the " Mercure" were constantly based on confidence, mutual esteem, and intimacy. Their two families were in close friendship. That of Panckoucke offered to the children of the laborious journalist resources at once rare and precious. Some features of the portrait of this remarkable man and his home, as traced by Suard, deserve reproduction in this place. " M. Panckoucke was a native of Lille, in Flanders, where his father had a large book-trade. He was destined by the course of his studies, and his mathematical talents, for a professorship ; but, at his father's death, he resolved on following his business for the support of his mother and family. He aimed at making his trade sub- servient to new and large objects. He repaired to Paris, where he settled, with two of his sisters, in the chief literary quarter, then also the handsomest, near the Comedie Francaise and the Procope Cafe. With him, and through his exertions, commenced a very remark- able amelioration in the position of literary men, kept so long in poverty by the humiliating wages they received from publishers, and by the very honourable, but insignificant remuneration of men in power. Panckoucke regarded whatever excessive profit he might derive from their exertions, as not pertaining to his personal fortune. His honourable conduct made him the equal and the friend of the men of genius for whom his presses worked. His carriage was often to be met on the road to Rousseau's house at Montmorency, Button's at Montbard, or Voltaire's at Ferney ; and, as the works of these immortal writers had become matters of state, his carriage took him from their abodes to the King's ministers at Versailles, who received him as a functionary possessing, like themselves, a portfolio of his own. A position of such unique consideration raised no jealousy among his fellows, because it became reflected on them- selves ; because, in circumstances of difficulty, he always set the MALLET DU PAN. 123 so enlarged a point of view. In his capacity as a man of letters, and the principal writer of a publication becoming everyday more important and respected, he naturally occupied a conspicuous position, and his presence was received with attention in the distinguished society of the saloons where? politics gradually supplanted literature ; but he rarely availed himself of this opportunity. This society, so select and so attractive, ill accorded with his tastes and habits. He was frequently heard to say that : " Paris commenced by astonishing, it afterwards amused, then it fatigued." His favourite relaxations were walking (which was his frequent practice), the soirees in his family, and the Opera BufFa, to which he frequently took his children, as he was a great amateur of Italian music. Brought up with simplicity, and under the influence of strictly moral sentiments, he did not look with a favourable eye upon the excessive luxury and the dissipated life of the upper example of sacrifice, and his example, as soon as given, was followed by all. " His houses at Paris and Boulogne brought together, like those of Helvetius and Baron d'Holbach, the elite of men of letters, artists, and scientific men. lie not only printed the works of others, but some of his own also. Amid all the minute cares of a business of several millions, he found time to write, and felt the need of doing so. " In the saloons of his wife, in the studies of his children, doors leaving pianos visible, easels supporting drawings — all displayed the feeling for the Arts which reigned in his house." The social and universal overthrow which succeeded these days of prosperity, and changed the aspect of this picture, never caused the slightest change in the friendly relations of the Panekoucke family, and that of Mallet du Pan. 124 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF classes in Paris ; and he was perhaps too strongly inclined to treatwith contempt the philosophic pretensions of the fashion- able world. He had accustomed himself to great liberty of opinion and speech, and he was singularly deficient in that easy and graceful complaisance necessary to ensure a welcome at the table of the Maecenases of the time. These undoubtedly paid court to men of letters ; but it was under the tacit understanding that they should repay them with deference and compliment. The contract was strictly fulfilled on both sides ; but Mallet du Pan possessed neither dexterity nor inclination for this exchange. It was true that the clever despotism of the school of d'Alembcrt no longer controlled all opinion and confidence ; Marmontcl and Suard were men of rational and moderate views ; but the star of the " Encyclopedic " was still high above the horizon ; and a young Genevese, who ventured to question those oracles, could not expect to meet with any very favourable reception. Further, Mallet was of an essentially meditative turn of mind. Even in his family he was not very communicative ; in society also, unless the conversation turned upon some one of the great subjects which constantly occupied his thoughts, he rarely took an active part in general conver- sation ; and when he did do so, the somewhat passionate vivacity of his sentiments supplied him with language energetic and picturesque, but not always suited to the refinements of Parisian society. In other respects, plain and in nowise dogmatic, still less pedantic, as Brissot asserted, although he never saw him, he preferred and sought with more pleasure tete-a-tete conversation. So little mixed up in the brilliant gaiety of Paris, it will MALLET DU PAN. 125 readily bo understood why he was scarcely alluded to in the memoirs touching upon the society of the period : however, he was on intimate terms with several of the illustrious men of that day ; among others with Buffon, of whom he speaks thus in his notes : " M. de Buffon lives in a strictly philosophic manner ; he is just without being generous, an.! his whole conduct is regulated by reason. He is fond of order, and introduces it into whatever he does." This illustrious writer was fond of talking: with Mallet, and willingly told him anecdotes. Many of them are interesting, and we extract from the diary of our author those which appeared to us little or not at all known. " The publication of the ' Histoire naturelle ' was com- menced in the same year as the 'Esprit des Lois:' both works were condemned by the Sorbonne, which sent a deputation to the two authors to induce them to retract their errors. ' The deputies,' said Buffon, ' spoke very politely with me, and I retracted ; Montesquieu, more quick of temper, refused.' The Abbe Tamponnet, and the Abbe Jaquet attacked him, among other things, on the ground that, not believing in the existence of matter, he could not consequently believe in the resurrection. ' I believe it as much as you do,' said he to Tamponnet. ' Yes, indeed, my friend, we shall revive, revive together. If it only depends on me, we are agreed.' " Buffon told me that when Voltaire last visited Paris, M. de Maurepas and M. de Richelieu took him to the Museum of Natural History. It was proposed that the author of the ' Dictionnaire philosophique' should see with his own eyes some petrified fossils. Some had been 126 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF arranged on a table ; but Voltaire always avoided going near it. " J. J. Rousseau went to see Buffon at Montbard ; but he would never, in spite of all entreaties, dine, sup, or sleep at the chateau, saying that he had come to see Buffon, and not to look for his dinner. " The philosophers did not much approve of Buffon : d'Alembert less than the others. It was he who said (a-propos of the motto of the ' Histoire naturelle' : ' Na- turam amplectimur omnem'). We may well say in this case : ' Grasp all — lose all.' It is well known that the encyclopedist would not admit any praise of the beautiful style of M. de Buffon. ' Oh ! fine style !' said he, ' mere phrases ! a great merit truly. I should not find it hard to write phrases about lions.' Buffon on his part gave the encyclopedists as good as they brought. He continually exclaimed against the philosophical style, against the dry analysis of matters of feeling, against that which he called a metaphysical mania. Condillac had written against him; but when he went to him to request his vote for the Academy, Buffon received him cheerfully, promised his vote, and, embracing him, said : " You made a statue speak, and I the man himself. I embrace you because you still have some warmth in you ; but, my dear Abbe, your statue has none.' At the death of Condillac, he introduced M. de Tressan into the Academy : Tressan delivered his address, in which, according to custom, he eulogized Condillac. He took it to Buffon, who replied, ' My dear friend, the icy coldness of the dreamer Condillac lay like a maleficent hoar-frost on the flowers of your eloquence.' His great principle in style is always to refer to man by a word, an MALLET DU PAN. 127 expression, inanimate object or the themes of philoso- phy." In society, Mallet was but indifferently received on account of his politics. Joined to the independence and the firmness of his character, the very soundness of his prin- ciples and his knowledge tended as a natural consequence to isolate him in a position never in unison with any parties or views. On the one side, he was shocked at the levity of the people, at the corruption of the higher classes, the arrogant tone of the Court, and the arbitrary measures of the Government ; on the other, he could not avoid experiencing a strong surprise and presentiment full of apprehension, at seeing subjects of which, by experience, he knew both the tendency and the danger discussed in fashionable saloons by the frequenters of the cafes, and even in places of public resort.* The manner in which they were discussed, and the opinions which generally prevailed even among the upper classes, formed such a contrast with the political regime which was in power ; the state and the demoralization of society were so little in accordance with the religious and social institu- tions of the old French monarchy, that, born and educated as he had been in republican sentiments, vividly sensible of the benefits of liberty, he was frequently led to combat that indiscreet spirit of innovation, which would be fatal to France, if they ever happened to come into actual practice, and which were only despicable while they re- mained as ideas. We shall see hereafter what he thought * "I heard Marat," he somewhere say?, "reading and com- menting on the ' Contra t social,' in 17S8, in places of public result, amid the plaudits of an enthusiastic audience." 128 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of the chances of safety left to the monarchy, the means of reconciling its existence and its security, by emancipating itself from its dangerous despotism, and establishing liberty. But it must be observed, that up to the time when the assembly of the States-General came to be talked of, he dreaded a feeble dissolution, a vital deteriora- tion of the State, rather than a violent revolution. What he daily saw of the fickleness of Parliament, of the levity, and even pusillanimity of the people, made him shrug his shoulders : — he had no faith in any effort of the nation to give itself a free constitution. Unable either to write or talk with freedom upon all he thought and foresaw, Mallet commenced in 1785 to collect for his own satisfaction what he called his " Historical Observations upon Paris." This is a kind of private diary, in which he noted down his reflections upon the events and men of the day, the political facts, the especial circumstances brought under his notice — in short, all the features of that epoch of tumult, excitement, and puerility, which are certainly piquant, even in them- selves, but terrible though instructive, when we peruse their annals at the present time. The general contempt into which the government of the monarchy had fallen, its ignorance of the disregard and outrages which were inflicted upon it by anonymous enemies, a succession of ministers coming into contact on all sides with an aggressive literature, the parliaments with private rights ; the Court arrogant with individuals, feeble in action, wavering, irresolute in all measures of im- portance, prodigal of favours and pensions to men of letters who laboured to demolish the old edifice; hard by, MALLET DU PAN. 129 the people apparently as gay and thoughtless as in the most palmy times of the monarchy ; Gluck and Piccini, Cagliostro and Beaumarchais, successively absorbing the public interest — such times, and such circumstances, furnished perpetual subjects of observation to a man of sense and gifted as Mallet was, with great political dis- cernment ; with abundance of leisure and a calmer tempera- ment, a less strong and painful interest in affairs, he might have written memoirs of the highest value. His unpre- tending notes, dispersed through his diary, possess never- theless sufficient historical importance to relieve us of all hesitation in introducing at least a few fragments to the reader. vol. 130 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER VI. 1785—1787. Private Journal of Mallet du Pan — Historical and moral observations concerning Paris from 1785 to 17S9. At this period men of letters no longer constituted a class but a disorganized and rapacious rabble, among which, those only who held the highest positions possessed reputation and competence ; the remainder were in very reduced cir- cumstances, and continually menaced by destitution. In vain the more active of them emigrated to Holland and to England to take advantage of the literary mania which the example of France, always leading other countries in its wake, had spread far and wide:* in Paris this unfortunate race only continued to increase in numbers and in misery. This starving population of would-be authors may well be reckoned as one among those causes which indirectly con- tributed to the general demoralization of character during the latter half of the last century ; the necessity of living. * An idea may be formed, in reading Jirissot's Memoirs, of the singular mode of existence which the.-e literary adventurers led. always ready, like Figaro, who is a perfect type of the class, to nib their pen and ask upon what subject they were to write. MALLET DU PAN. 131 and the difficulty of living honourably, joined to a mediocrity, or absolute want of ability, drove the enormous number of scribblers to the lowest extremes of debase- ment. The republic of letters was at that period a deplorable one, a melancholy prelude of that which was about to succeed it. " Academies, museums, literary societies," writes Mallet in his Diary, " arc pernicious institutions which multiply the number of authors and increase the mania for writing;. This madness is now at its height, and they encourage it. Paris is full of young; people who mistake some degree of readiness for talent : clerks, lawyers, and soldiers, who are ambitious of becoming authors, starve, beg even — and write pamphlets. One of them enlisted a few days since, and if he cannot pay his service-money in a month, he must remain a common soldier. The majority of the ministers, unable to perceive that this condition of affairs was dangerous to the State, or believing that it could be allayed by servility, urged the literary profession to this state of degradation by paying the pamphleteers in their employ, and by holding out the allurement of extraordinary rewards to the time-serving spirit of writers of note. By these pretended encourage- ments, which were not always justified by their object, it was supposed possible to trammel the new sovereign of opinion, the restless demon of philosophism. It is true that the avidity with which too many literary men accepted these bribes was well calculated to keep up the illusions of the government. There was a large distribution of new pensions, when M. de Calonne undertook to restore, bv dint of profusion, the k 2 132 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF exhausted fortunes of France. Here is the opinion which was entertained of this attempt in Mallet's circle. " A certain number of literary men have accepted the badge of servitude, in other words, the new pensions due to the liberality of M. de Calonne : those upon whom these favours have been bestowed are for the most part flatterers, spies, intrigues, and proteges. How scandalous and extravagant ! The men of letters in Paris are, generally speaking, delighted with these marks of attention. Three hundred of them have applied for pensions, and among others even Mercier." In return for this artfully contrived liberality, men in office received the adulation which was showered upon them by the future eulogists of the revolution. " The poet Le Brun (Pindar Lc Brun, author of the ode to the ship " Le Vcngeur "), has just published a dialogue in verse between an opponent of the Court and a citizen, in which the former is of course plentifully abused. It is an emphatic panegyric of the Assembly of Notables, of the King, of M. de Calonne, and of M. de Vergennes. It contains among others these sweet lines : " Le hibou peut-il voir de son regard timide Ce que l'aigle et Calonne out vu d'un ceil rapide ? " It concludes thus : " Digne sang de Henri, puis-je te mt'eonnaitre ? Que dis-je ! II vit encore, et Sully va renaitre. " Three months ago this modest Le Brun received a pension of two thousand livres from the Comptroller- General. He has not proved ungrateful." MALLET DU PAN. 133 The censors allowed still more shameful flatteries to pass unheeded, even in the Government gazettes, and Louis XVI, was himself obliged to reprimand them, which shows how ill supported were the intentions and honesty of the poor King. " Bastide, in the prospectus of his " Journal des Varietes historiques," for the benefit of the captives in Algeria, has lauded the munificence of his subscriber, the Comptroller- General, M. de Calonne, and called him the virtuous minister. The " Gazette de France " copied this adver- tisement; and the word virtuous, after having been allowed to pass by the fifteen censors, was erased by the King. M. de Calonne, who had seen it in the proof, took great pains to learn the reason for its being struck out." The astonishment of the censors at a scruple of this kind, which was of very unfrequent occurrence in their experience, may readily be imagined. In fact, the literary police, at all times liable to blunders, were uninfluenced by any fixed principles of action. Since the contending ministerial parties had begun to avail themselves of pamphlets as weapons of defence and attack, the censors were in continual dread of committing some blunder. Tims, for example, it happened that the Parliament were compelled to acquit one M. Lemaitre, because he declared that the printing presses found at his house were the remains of those with which the Chancellor made him print his correspondence, and M. de Maurepas his libel upon M. Necker. They were upon safe ground only in the case of matters of philosophical offences. In 1785, even amid the depravity of manners, and the gene- ral licentiousness of opinion, they gravely inflicted upon Suard a fine of six hundred livres, as a punishment 134 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tor having inserted in the " Journal de Paris" an account of the death of Barthe, in which he was represented to have died philosophically — that is, without either extreme unction or confession. It would he committing an injustice not to acknowledge that there was in France, during the latter years of the century, since the accession of Louis XVI, a sincere and ardent desire to ameliorate the condition of the people, and to reform the innumerable abuses which in the course of time had perverted all the institutions of the country, and that many were honestly engaged in this laudable endeavour. Without speaking of the King, who was anxious to bring about these kind of reforms, but was not very capable of insisting upon any one of them ; nor of Turgot, whose too systematic views had led him astray from the promising course which was open to him ; nor of Necker, who achieved more in this direction than any or all the others, although his labour has received no recognition among the thousands of statues which the people of Paris have raised to the memory of their benefactors around the Hotel de Ville ; — there were some who visited the hospitals and prisons, and made known their dreadful condition and insufficiency, others who sought to increase the supply of food for the people, otherwise than by giving free scope to the exporta- tion of grain. But that element of success which was most wanting in all these attempts, was a strong unanimity of opinion. There was, in reality, no curiosity or interest evinced in Paris for anything except the occurrences, great and small, of the Court and town, the perpetual change of liir ininistrv, the attitudinizing of parliament and the new political pamphlets ; for these were the only things which MALLET DU l'AN. i3o at all responded to the universal feeling. Notwithstanding the " Encyclopedic," and wisdom dealt out to the human race in the immense number of works of all kinds, the public mind was still ignorant and narrow, and there was abundant evidence that men's opinions, having reached a great degree of power, yet unable to guide itself from the want of any leading principles, would sacrifice its indepen- dence and its influence to the gratification of the blind pas- sions of the multitude, and to the objects of its leaders. The Court on its part contributed with an almost incredible reck- lessness to the disorganization of those ideas and customs which ought to constitute the foundation of all govern- ments, and of which royalty was then more than ever in need. The diary of Mallet du Pan contains numerous remarks upon the administration of the kingdom, upon the tendency of its politics, and the public spirit of that time, remarks which arc worthy of being consulted by historians who would appreciate their truthfulness and the severity of thought natural to the observer. " The people of Paris and the political writers take no notice of the provinces ; to judge from their writings and conversation, the government would not appear to extend beyond the barriers of Paris. " The Abbe Maury has well observed, in his panegyric of St. Vincent de Paul, that public spirit is so rare in France, that it is religion alone which has established any useful institutions there. St. Vincent founded tliirtv- rive houses of charity. Not a single writer of the time of Loins XIV, has even mentioned him : nor had Vol- taire. 136 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " This is the age of great financial speculations by Joint-stock Companies. These, however unjust may be their projects, are supported by the nobility and the ladies of the court, to whom they furnish interest while dependent on their credit. We should soon see the aristocracy clerks at the barriere, if that would be likely to bring them in twenty thousand livres. " The court has prohibited the publication of the petition of M. Seguier against the pamphlet of M. Dupaty, with reference to the case of the three men condemned to the rack. After having allowed this pamphlet, so defamatory to the tribunal, to be sold in all the public places, they have prohibited the refutation put forth by the tribunal itself. Such things as this could not occur anywhere but in France, where governmental power is mixed up with, and interferes with everything, and that by means of intrigues and private motives of which the public are never but imperfectly informed. " Thus it is that the pleading of Linguet against the Due d'Aiguillon has been tolerated. He spoke on the 26th of August for an hour and a quarter, and the hearing was adjourned until the 2nd of this month. On that day he resumed his address. Such a scene as then presented itself was never before witnessed in the court. Although the hearing was at seven o'clock, the crowd was far greater than at tin; trial of the Cardinal. The large hall, the bar, the passages, the ante-room, the grand saloon, corridors, the large staircase, and the court were all filled. Several persons were seriously injured, sonic were suffocated, and many fainted; a young student of the College (if Louis le Grand was killed. It was a terrible MALLET DU PAN. 137 sight to see persons coming out of the large room during the course of the pleading, half-dead, drenched with perspi- ration, without shoes or hats, as if in the disorder of a battle. There is never any assemblage of people in Paris without some accident. There were, nevertheless, forty guards. They allowed every one to enter ; waiters from the cafes, butchers, pickpockets, clerks, under-clerks, and even fish- women. Such was the audience, whose enthusiasm was excited by the epigrams of M. Linguet. Upon leaving the court, he was cheered on as far as his carriage. The speech he delivered was not a pleading but an historical and satirical romance of his life during the last ten years, He defamed the Duke, M. de Maupeou, the advocates, M. de Lolne, the Duke's counsel, who had not uttered a single word. This flood of satire and invective was permitted by the Court throughout his address, and applauded by the delighted audience. Nothing could be more scandalous than this tumultuous sitting." December 1787. — " Opinions and political systems at Versailles change from day to day. There is neither precedent nor principle : the same views never last for three days together. It is the vacillation of utter weakness and incapacity." December 1787. — " The French government has suc- cessively destroyed and established every form of go- vernment in other countries. Democracy, which it says is always fatal, it destroyed at Geneva to substitute aristocracy ; it destroys the aristocracy of Sweden to es- tablish a monarch, and the aristocracy in America to establish democracy." December 1787. — " The edict in favour of the Pro- 138 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF testants goes on slowly, and meets with much opposition. It is singular to observe general opinion divided upon this measure ; to hear all the old fears and nonsense revived, and the subject discussed as if the world were just created. It is a proof that enlightenment has made but very slight and limited progress. The Abbe Beauregard has written a lampoon upon the subject, worthy of de Caveyrac, at the desire of the wife of Marshal de Noailles, and she sells and distributes it. The monks in their convents have exhibited the holy sacrament to supplicate God to turn the King from the fatal intention of tolerating the Protestants. M. de Malcsherbes has written a large work in their favour, as if there were not enough books upon the subject." January 1788. — " The majority of the Parisians are opposed to the Edict of Toleration. On all sides one hears on this subject opinions dating from the time of the League. There is even such extreme timidity in men's minds and in the Government, that it is considered a very great indulgence to have granted the Calvinists the legality of their baptisms and marriages." The collection from whence these extracts are taken, contains a considerable number of particulars relating to Louis XV, Louis XVI, his court and ministers : the greater part of these are already known. The following have a particular incerest. " Last month I saw the King while hunting in the forest of Verrieres. The rain compelled him and his attendants to dismount : he took shelter under the trees where I stood with some friends. He did not speak to anv one ilurincn>c 1 1'nn i- T'.onr (i fl'mio MALLET DU PAN. 151 May, 1788. — "Upon the 8th, the day of the lit tie justice, at Versailles, the Court was again taken possession of by the guards ; and so it is to-day. M. d'Agoult, on arriving at the Place Dauphine before the guards, was in- sulted by the clerks : this disturbance was quickly sup- pressed. The Pont-Neuf was crowded with lawyers, who were waiting in expectation of the return of the Parliament : not the least commotion perceptible. "This constable's function of 'Archer,' exercised by Baron d'Agoult, did not meet with approbation in good society, where the officers of the French guards are looked upon with jealousy. It is reported that two of them have sent in their resignation. A third presented himself at the house of a lady of high birth ; she con- gratulated herself upon seeing him, since this visit assured her that he also had sent in his resignation ; he denied it, (and with truth). The lady pointed to the door, and said to him : ' Sir, none but honourable men are received here.' During the night, between the 5th and 6th, a young officer, leaning against the bench of the Court in the grand hall, was playing the wag, and grinning at the King's retinue. M. Herault de Sechelles rises, and addresses him in the most insulting terms. " The following placard has been attached to the walls of the Court in the midst of the guards : " ' Palais a loucr. Parlement a vendre, Ministres a pendre, Couronnc a dormer.' " The stock-brokers, capitalists, financiers, men of letters. philosophers and political economists applaud the revolu- 152 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tion. Every one else appears discontented. The partisans of these measures say that the Parliament have acted unwisely, that their administration was full of abuses ; that it is imperative that there should be uniformity in a monarchy ; that the Parliament have opposed the territorial subsidy from personal motives, that they might not be liable to it ; that they are sulky, the King ought to be master, &c. The opposite party reply, that it is necessary in the present instance to consider, not the actual abuses of the adminis- tration of justice, which would admit of correction, but the overthrow of the only frail barrier which was left against the will of the ministry ; that the Parliaments received formally from the estates of Blois, in 1628, the right of registering and authenticating, in the absence of the estates ; that, through party spirit, as contradictors and overlookers of the officers of the sovereign, they denounced daily abuses of authority, lettrcs de cachet, extortion of taxes by decree of the council, favouritism towards the council ; &c, that in short this Plenary Court, being only an Aulic Council, there would no longer be any intermediate body in the monarchy , that the aristocracy, being without courage to resist, and the nation a nonentity, the ministers, should the Par- liaments be annihilated, would reduce the monarchy to the most absolute despotism. " The mode in which this policy is effected, is as much censured as the system itself. To hold a lit de just ice for the' purpose of forcing the registration of a law which had not, according to custom, been previously submitted to the Parliament, and upon which there had been no discussion ! (the lit a de justice are the last resort of supreme authorih : this one preceded resistance, and evert MALLET DU PAN. 153 communication) : bayonets suppressing in a single day institutions centuries old throughout the realm ! Sappers compelling the registration of decrees ! The whole magis- tracy of France forced in one day to subscribe its own suppression, and leave ministers absolute lords over their will ! " There is no unity of opinion upon the means of ensuring the success of the operation, nothing but a delusive hope of dividing, bribing, and gaining over the High Court, le Chatelet, &c. In all these proceedings we see men adopting philosophic ideas upon the authority of books, but who are destitute of the ideas of statesmen. In looking at this measure from another point of view, it will be found contrary to public morality. The vice of it con- sists in the fact that its successful execution has been made to depend upon the perjury of all the magistrates of the kingdom. Their principles are placed in antagonism with the course which they have to pursue — by a violation of their oaths and their duties. Either men flatter themselves they will be able to bend them like rushes — and then what magistrates ! what a revelation to the public in such a sway exercised over them ! Or else it is proposed to crush them if they resist, and then what despotism ! " Louis XVI., at the height of his power, at absolutely internal peace, possessing vigorous and respected ministers, would scarcely have conceived the idea of a similar revolu- tion. Richelieu would not have presumed to attempt it ; and it is effected in the midst of admitted distress, at a time of inquietude and trouble, and general complaint, after a squandering of the finances — after the admitted errors 154 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF and inconsistencies which have emboldened even the Parlia- ment itself. " However, the influence of this measure is scarcely per- ceived in Paris, except among the people of the Court. They talk highly of it, and hardly trouble themselves at all about the state of the provinces ; very few men reflect upon the means employed and the natural consequences. In all that is said upon this subject there is not a single idea which is just, comprehensive, and politic." August, 1788. — "I learn that propositions have been made to M. Necker by the Marechal de Castries, and that M. Necker has declined accepting them. Upon this refusal, or from some other circumstances, there was talk of sending M. Necker to the Bastille. Baron de Breteuil has refused to sign and execute the leltre de cachet, and this is one of the principal reasons of his resignation, which he has demanded and obtained. He had also been reproached with awkwardness by the Court, for having let the second deputies from Bretagne enter Paris, whom he ought to have kept at Saint-Denis. This imputation of " awkward- ness," shocked him. He retires with a kind of applause from the public, although the stain of his conduct in the affairs of the Cardinal cannot be effaced. He is harsh and haughty; his abilities mediocre. lie has shown some zeal for the embellishment of Paris, and he did service to the Academies, which has procured him the gratitude and flattery of men of letters. " Had M. Necker been recalled, he would have remained in subjection to the prime minister, and would have been in the position of a Gcnevese banker, commissioned to MALLET DU PAN. 155 get money for the Court on his credit. As soon as funds had been obtained, he would have been sent about his business. " The deficit this year being at least two hundred millions, in consequence of the expenditure of the parlia- mentary revolution, loans and taxes having become imprac- ticable, it was expected for some weeks that the minister would endeavour to relieve his embarrassment bv laving his hands on the government securities. And in fact, upon the 19th, the decision of the council of the 16th was issued, ordering a partial payment in bills of the royal treasury. The alarm has been universal. The public funds have fallen enormously ; numbers of persons have curtailed their equipages, and dismissed some of their servants. Even the theatres experience the effects of this crisis. At the Comedic Italienne seventy-five livres were taken on the 20th, and at the French theatre, eighty-eight livres on the 22nd. " The Archbishop of Sens is overwhelmed with maledictions. His fall before sixteen days elapse is predicted. " The capitalists, men of business, bankers, fund- holders, were in ecstacy when the magistrates were removed by force of arms, when parliaments were suppressed by the soldiery, and the forms of legality were overthrown. They hoped that the King would make quick work with the nation, and compel it to raise taxi's. These people are punished for their nonsense, and they find to-day that the same arbitrary authority which could violate the liberty of the people, the constitution, and the law, could equally attack Tib/ public funds and property/' 156 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF August 24th, 1788. — " To-day the impending disgrace of the prime minister Jias been announced. There ;ire three cabals against him ; one on the part of Castries and Necker ; the second by the partizans of Breteuil, of which Rulhierc is the contriver ; the third, which is the prin- cipal and most decisive, by the Count d'Artois, the Count de Vaudreuil, the Polignacs, &c. It is reported that the Abbe Vermont, the Queen's reader, is in much discredit at Court. This Abbe owes his success to M. de Sens, who recommended him to Madame de Grammont and to M. de Choiseul, as reader to her Majesty. He is cool, and circum- spect, is possessed of little comprehensiveness of mind, but great tact and dexterity in trifling matters, together with a knowledge of the Court. His judgments of men are correct or incorrect, but when his opinion is once formed, he gets them cashiered. Without being at all averse to M. Necker, he considers him unfit to have the manage- ment of the French finances." August 25th. — " The Archbishop of Sens was dis- missed on the 25th, the feast of St. Louis. It is the Count de Vaudreuil and the Polignacs who have persuaded the Count d'Artois to this, and he has persuaded the Queen. The King's aunts supported the project by per- suading the King. The same persons have effected the rccal of M. Necker — that was their only resource. Distress was at its height. Four hundred thousand livrcs was the whole amount in the treasury — all the other chests empty : money transactions have been effected at the rate of twenty to twenty-five per cent ; authority is in universal discredit, the Government moneyless, in conflict with the whole kingdom. The reduction in fund payments has powerfully MALLET DU PAN. 157 affected the Princes and the nohles concerned. This personal motive has decided what should have been the work of reason alone." August 26th. — " M. Necker has been summoned to Versailles, received, feted, and complimented by the Queen, the King, and M. d'Artois. This almost burlesque revul- sion serves as a thermometer of the distress. In a kingdom of twenty-four million inhabitants, it has been necessary to have recourse to a foreigner, who is a Protes- tant, a republican, who was dismissed seven years since, who was banished last year, who is personally odious to the Sovereign, and whose principles and character are entirely opposed to those of the Court. M. Necker once nomi- nated, Paris, especially the Palais Royal, the fund-holders, &c, gave vent to their delight. On the morrow, the effigy of M. Sens was burned in the Place Daupliine, and similar illuminations took place in the Palais Royal and various other spots." September 2nd, 1788. — " Since M. Necker's return, nothing has been done, and murmurs have been renewed. The satirists, in their jeremiads, the quidnuncs, and simpletons of every kind are astounded that AI. Necker should not have restored the national finances within three davs after coming into office. This succession of changes srives strange notions of the council. It resembles a government of children. The immediate and plenary recal of the Parliament is expected. The funds, which rose on the return of M. Necker, have again fallen." September 22nd. — " Public confidence is, generally speaking, still partial, and all leave matters to the States General. That is the cant word ; it is in everybody's 158 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF mouth, without any attempt being made to ascertain what that could and would effect ; but the levity, the ennui, and the enthusiasm of the people delight to trust to this chance." September 25th. — " Yesterday and the day before, notices were distributed throughout the town, warning all honest citizens not to leave their houses, seeing that the people intended to take vengeance on the watch, and thrash it. These threats, the doings of some clerks, have not been repeated. It is said, that some patrols of the watch have been beaten. This corps, abused by the mob in the preceding days of tumult, had its blood up, and gave some thrusts with the bayonet in dispersing the unruly." September 26th. — "The popular follies arc still con- tinued, and increased precautions are taken. The Parlia- ment issued a proclamation on the day of their return, against processions, petards, fusees, &c. This proclamation has been set at nought, as well as the King's prohibition ; for it must always be remembered that in France, neither the law, nor the power which emanates from it is respected, save in so far as either makes itself feared. No one obeys when he thinks that he can avoid doing so with impunity. These rioters consist of ragamuffins and shoe-blacks, the greater number of whom are from fourteen to sixteen years of age, probably hounded on. None of them offered any resistance, nor were they armed. They were about to burn an effigy of the Queen in the Place Dauphine, which is the reason why such strict regulations were enforced and so many precautions taken. As the Government, always acting inconsistently, had in the first instance sent a number of guards, posted up threatening placards, after- MALLET DU PAN. 159 wards permitted processions and fireworks, and then replaced the guards ; these vacillations have encouraged the mob. The ministry did not know what they were doing. The rioters threw a bundle of fireworks upon the pile of arms of sentries at the palace : they were observed and thrashed. They also intercepted on the Quai des Orfevres a warrant sent to the Marechal de Biron, and demanded money of the passers-by — to purchase fusees, as they said. They threatened to burn the house of M. Dubois, the captain of the watch : the watch surrounded them, and a great number were killed and wounded by the bavonet : the same thing;: occurred with the French guards in the Rue de Saint Dominique, where they threatened the hotel of Lamoignon. Upon the following days, there were several skirmishes, among others, upon Sunday the 28th, in the Rue de la Harpe, where a patrol of the French guards were ordered to fire, and killed several persons. The horse-police entered the town some days ago, and have charged the rabble, sword in hand, upon the Pont- Neuf, and dispersed them : some were wounded. At night the rioting, fireworks, and uproar, are continued in various quarters." October 1st. — " This civil war, as some of the news- paper writers term it, is nothing more than a mutiny of rogues and boys, who are paid by some secret agents to make this disturbance. A number of them have been arrested, and all is over. The people, the minor bour- geoisie, have not taken the slightest part in these move- ments. The Parliament has issued a fresh proclamation against the processions and fireworks. It was time that this sort of thing should be stopped; for Paris was without 160 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF police, the guards afraid to punish, the town infested with beggars. Thieves stopped passengers in the streets, and demanded money of them ; and there were both robberies and assassinations. " There is a perfect inundation of pamphlets, abusive, meaningless attacks against the new minister. The comedy of " La Cour pleniere," is greatly in favour. It is attributed to Rulhiere, and to the Marquis de Crequy."* November, 1788. — " New assembly of Notables to decide all the questions relating to the convocation of the States General." * It is by Gorsas. (Subsequent note of Mallet du Pan). M. Saint-AIarc-Girardin attributes the "Cour pleniere" to an ex- magistrate. "The author is said to be M. Duveyrier, who died First -President of the Imperial Court of Montpellier. I do not think that he has written any other pieces." — Essai de Utterature et de morale, v. i. p. 147. .MALLET D\: PAN. I 6 I CHAPTER VII. 1789—1792. Articles upon the English Constitution published in the " Mercure de France" before the meeting of the States General — Opinions of Mallet du Pan upon the first acts of the Constituent Assembly — Position and character of the " Mercure" after the suppression of the censorship. The Revolution now drew near, or rather it had already taken place ; for when an absolute monarchy confesses its incapacity, it forfeits the tenure of its existence: even before having given place to another form of government, the old monarchy no longer possessed any influence in France. The convocation of the States General, so long refused and at last consented to in despair, had, as has been already observed,* a significance far other than that of a mere financial expedient. The French nation, in a state of com- motion throughout its whole extent, was not about to charge their representatives with the sole care of reor- ganizing the dilapidated fortunes of the state, when the royal power itself had only just delivered up these prero- gatives to their mercy. In 1788, Mallet du Pan, in * Mignet's "Tableau de la Revolution Francaise." VOL. 1. M 162 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF one of the notes of his diary, had noted down the expression of his astonishment at what was going on around him : " It must be remarked," writes ho, " that few nations have been in a more favourable situation for giving themselves a free constitution, than the French. The Court has tried every measure, the nation not one. Assembly of notables, publicity of the finances, agreement to give up the subsidies to the States General, &c. — all has been done by the Court through political fatherhood, embar- rassment, or ignorance." Thus, when more serious men come to consider the question thoroughly, how will it be possible for the Government any lo ngerto evade it? It is perhaps one of the misfortunes of the French Revolution, that it had been so long effected in men's minds, before the moment when it suddenly appeared triumphant and almost intoxicated with success. It has therefore come to pass, that the ideas and wishes of moderate politicians find themselves obsolete on the very day of their appearance. There was but one point in the history of the Constituent Assembly for men who would have been able to save France at the same time from monarchical despotism and popular tyranny. It was with the efforts of these pre-eminently wise and enlightened minds, that the political career of Mallet du Pan was connected. It was also to his honour that, during his laborious life, he should," in the midst of the dangers and discouragements of that perilous time, have carried on arguments with men of eloquence, while supporting with his pen those principles of which they were the defenders in the Constituent Assembly. It was evident that the Genevese journalist was indig- MALLET DU PAN. 163 nant at the misdeeds and weaknesses of the Court. He had demanded from France and from its King, the estab- lisment of a government which would place the nation, as well as its head, in such a position that they should neces- sarily respect each other, and unite their efforts and their interests in the government of the country. Far from entering into the chimeras of the " Contrat Social," he trusted to the inherent merits of representative govern- ment so detested by Rousseau ; but his good sense enabled him to perceive the difficulties and inconveniences of close imitation in political government, and therefore he did not so much desire to see the English constitution adopted in France, as the general principles upon which it was founded. The provinces sent to the States General many men who shared these opinions ; but it was already too late. The lessons afforded by the constitution and history of England had failed, equally with the precepts of Montes- quieu, to counteract, in the mind of the French people, the intoxicating effects of those democratic notions promul- gated with so much authority by J. J. Rousseau, and to which the revolution in North America had given such formidable support. The work of De Lolme upon the English constitution, published in 1770, and very soon spread throughout Europe, was in high esteem in England, while in France it was scarcely read. It was not until about 1788 that it began to attract any attention, and then probably had found more opponents than partizans. Such at least was the opinion of Mallet, who, on the eve of the opening of the States General, published in the " Mercure" those remarkable articles upon the work of De Lolme, which are M 2 164 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF in themselves a substantial and suggestive exposition of that English constitution, which would naturally be an object of interest. His intention was not so much to extol the British constitution, as to contrast it with those demo- cratic prejudices and immature theories of which he had perceived the danger and probably foresaw 7 and dreaded the triumph. " The reader of this book," says he, in speaking of De Lolme's work, " requires a preliminary knowledge of the system of mixed governments, and, above all, a mind free from prejudices: there is one which, during the last ten years, has been authorized by an infinity of declamatory writings, namely, that liberty consists in democracy alone, — that a people is enslaved, or about to become so, in all cases where it ceases to exercise of itself the functions of sovereignty, where it does not appear as the centre, the administrator, the supreme judge, the constant reformer of all functions ; in all cases where, after having created and sanctioned the fundamental laws, it imposes, by a wise equilibrium, limits on its own despotism, and ensures the stability of its institutions. To demonstrate the folly of this prejudice by experience, by argument, by the actual example of England, is the principal object of this work, which is honoured with the approbation of that free and enlightened nation the government of which it expounds." Since the time that Mallet had made it his object, in editing the " Annales," to present the current history of the century, of its manners and opinions, he had not ceased, as we have seen, to follow attentively the course of politieal opinions ; no work upon subjects of social philosophy escaped his meditative perusal, nor any symptom of the MALLET DU PAN. 1 65 state of the public mind ; and it was on this account that, although intensely interested in the imminent reform of the political government of France upon the eve of the opening of those States General, the object of universal hope, he was almost the only member of the press who dreamt of throwing out the anchor of safety, and who did not allow himself to be carried away by general enthusiasm and improvidence. He guards by anticipation against dangers which the enthusiasm of the times refuses to dread or even to credit, and which unhappily were too near at hand. Thus certain chapters of De Lolme are recommended by him as furnishing the refutation of a doctrine contained in various modern books, " the authors of which," he ob- serves, " hating permanence in any institution, incite the people to create in order to destroy afterwards ; to reform its government annually ; to respect its own caprices and transitory opinions far more than the laws ; and to think itself lost as soon as it shall cease to live amid the ruins of its own authority." " J. J. Rousseau," continues Mallet, " has laid it down in the ' Contrat Social,' with trenchant brevity, that the English people becomes enslaved at the moment of electing members of Parliament. The arguments by which M. de Lolme refutes this strange assertion will be irre- sistibly conclusive to all who have, like him, seen the multitude act : always without adequate information, without perseverance ; incapable of deliberate resolution, and disqualified for resisting by itself the more united and clear-sighted combination of the ambitious concerned in the administration. If the people wishes to defend itself suc- cessfully against them, it must adopt their uniform, their 166 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF serried phalanx, their arms, their tactics, the evolutions of which cannot be the principle of a great aggregation of men. 'It would be wiser,' says M. de Lolme, ' to pass laws by the throw of the dice than by the votes of a mob.* This will explain how it is that the word liberty has been and continues to be so much abused, by applying it to the exercise of the national rights by the voice of the nation as a body. The latter is in possession of power only in order to resign it to another, either voluntarily or passively ; its blind favour elevates to a position of unli- mited power those men who ultimately betray, after having affected to defend it; and who, from being the principal adversaries of usurpation, become usurpers them- selves." " The annals of republics present to our view a multi- tude of useless troubles, of civil wars without effect, of popular convulsions afterwards tranquillized by measures which served only further to dismember the state. There is no doubt that Machiavelli had these facts in his mind when he said : ' U popolo sempre perde nelle rivolte.' But England always presents the opposite result ; that is to say, revolutions by which all classes of the people have really and equally profited." Mallet wrote thus at the approach of the convocation of the States General ; but before this event took place, the * This observation deserves attention, as coming from an author who in the penultimate disturbances at Geneva, in 17GS, was one of the most highly respected and enlightened of the popular party. However, the conduct of that party, at the period in question, was far from justifying this too sweeping denunciation of the multitude. ■ — Note by Mallet (In Pan. MALLET DU PAN. 167 fickleness of the French mind, changing every instant the subjects of its agitations and its desires, had led the jour- nalist to doubt whether anything serious would come of it. His private diary gives us the expression of these alter- natives of doubt, fear and distrust. In November, 1788, he says : " The violent, bizarre and anarchical writings still con- tinue. Their authors want, in the space of a few months, to attain perfection in government ; to transform an absolute monarchy into a republic, and to set a great example to free states. No two opinions, no two ideas, no two plans, are in accordance in this multitude of pamphlets. They assemble together without order, and in defiance of orders, in the different provinces ; every one's brain is heated with arguing and talking nonsense, deciding and disputing. Instead of making evident to the different classes of the country their common interests, they make it their study to expose conflicting interests — to exasperate them against each other — to effect a schism between the people and the two other classes. They have succeeded. The excessive abuse of power had led to the actual crisis, the host of demands and agitations have rendered it fruitless. It is quite possible that, after all this ado and this discord, the deputies will enter the States General wearied out with eternal debating." In January, 1789, this reflection occurs: " Public discussion has changed its aspect. It no longer troubles itself except secondarily with the King, with despotism, or with the constitution : it has become a war between the third estate and the two other classes, against whom the Court has stirred up the towns. The Parlia- 168 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF merit was an idol six months back ; now every one detests and insults it : Epremesnil, the avenger of the nation, the Brutus of France, on whom they had lavished their enthu- siasm, is vilified everywhere. This is what in France is called the noble empire of opinion. " The clergy and the aristocracy, by offering resistance to the Crown, have exempted themselves from taxation ; the people should have done so as well. In our time, they desire to load these two orders with chains, instead of striking them off all." At length, on the 5th of May, 1789, the States General were opened at Versailles. The diary of Mallet, broken off at this period, does not unfortunately offer any trace of the impressions which he experienced, nor of the opinions which he entertained of the first acts of the Revolution ; and (the " Mercure" still subject to the censor) he continued to give statements of events in few words and without comment. Nevertheless, his subsequent opinions upon the initiatory proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, admit of the conjecture that the energy of the third estate reconciled him in the first instance to the national character of which he had given up all hope, from seeing it possess so little solidity and coherence. The French seriously wishing to give themselves a constitution ! Mallet could not view with indifference an impulse long the object of his wishes. " No one," he declares in one place, " no one has desired the success of this noble enterprise with a more disinterested ardour. What opponent would presume to regard with a malevolent eye the spectacle of a great nation, the monarch of which himself proclaims constitu- MALLET DU PAN. 169 tional principles, while its various representatives, actuated by an unanimous desire, bring to bear upon the general interests of the empire precepts almost uniform ; of a nation, which, while advancing towards freedom with dignity and circumspection, should wisely make its rights conform to those of the authorities to which it confided their exercise ; should make its liberty consist in the harmony of the different powers, and remove abuses without undermining public justice and order."* * It remains to ascertain what that constitution would be, and if the journalist was not in this respect without * Some years afterwards, Mallet made the following remarks upon the subject of the first steps of the Revolution : " The errors of the Court have been as numerous as those of the nobilitv. Instead of leaving undecided the question of the orders, instead of leaving them to themselves, the King ought, on the first day of their division, to have presented himself before the Assembly, and declared to all that he would postpone its opening until such time as they should be in accordance ; that he had not convoked them for mere disputation ; and that he undertook to secure their co-operation by a treaty, and establish that treaty by amicable conference, before their passions and projects were developed. On the contrary, they were left to themselves, the nobility to their pride and prejudice, the Tiers to the factious who wished for trouble and discord. The truly revolting manner in which the deputies were repulsed, wholly without warning, before the sitting of the 23rd of June, when they attended the session, was another enormous fault. It is not generally known that, when assembled at the Jeu de Paume, all the leaders having left, the Abbe Sieves attempted to profit by this excitement by proposing that the Assembly should immediately transfer itself to Paris, there constitute itself, and legislate in the name of the nation. This idea met with approbation. The Abbe Sieves, surrounded by his adherents, was about to move the resolution, when Mounier, in order to parry the blow, proposed the oath of unison pending the passing of the 170 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF uneasiness, he was not without hope. But the taking of the Bastille — or rather the occurrences of the 14th of July, which caused so much enthusiasm, even in those circles of society where they ought to have spread dismay — put an end to his hopes. This prison, so fatal to the French monarchy, was so much the type of despotism, that our republican , who participated with all men of letters in a detestation of it, could not view its fall with regret. But the way in which the people had conducted them- selves at that attack, the indecision and weakness of the authorities, and, finally, the horrors of the victor}' — in short, the general attitude of the people — all this filled him with a profound grief; and while on all sides in the saloons into which the enthusiasm had penetrated, this memorable day was eulogised, Mallet openly predicted that it would prove to be the precursor of the greatest calamities. But no more attention was paid to him than to that Cassandra, whose part he was perpetually destined to play. Although Mallet seldom imparted his political anxieties to his family, his children have preserved a strong recollec- tion of the profound melancholy which the scenes at the Bastille cast over him. The Revolution, by doing away with the censorship, and giving free scope to the press, restored to Mallet his liberty of opinion, and the " Mcrcure," being emanci- pated, presented from the month of August, 1789, the constitution. It was therefore a compulsory measure on his part, and under the circumstances, indispensable." — The latter particulars seem to have been disclosed by Mounier at the time when Mallet was in frequent communication with the ex- President of the Con- stituent Assembly, who like himself had retired to Berne. MALLET DU PAN. 171 singular contrast of a journal violently revolutionary in one section, and energetically conservative in the other. M. de Chateaubriand has remarked in his " Memoires" this fact, as being one among the thousand contradictions which Paris presented at that time. " Mallet du Pan," says he, " was in the political portion of the ' Mercure,' in opposition to La Harpe and Champfort in the literary part of the same journal." Moreover, the political interest of the " Mercure" preponderated so much over its literary interest, that ere long the political journal absorbed that moiety of the space which had hitherto been reserved to the other. At the same time, and in spite of the in- creasing restriction of private means, the number of its subscribers augmented considerably. They rose in 1790 to eleven thousand, and increased to thirteen thousand ; perhaps we should triple this amount to arrive at a just appreciation of their high estimation of the paper at that time. If other proofs are required to show the immense authority of the " Mercure" at the time of the Revolution, it will suffice to adduce the testimony of Mirabeau himself, who, upon one occasion, alluded to it in the Assembly as the most able and the most widely circulated of the journals * * " Memoires de Mirabeau," published by M. Lucas de Mon- tigny, vol. vu, p. 549. Mallet had said in the " Mercure" (Xo. 2, January 9th, 1790) : " For a long time the National Assembly has been split into three sections, that called the enragf's, that denomi- nated the aristocrats ; thirdly, the moderates, who have never changed since their origin, being equally distant from aristocracy and anarchy, from despotism and democracy. The party called aristocratic, has already in a great measure amalgamated with these last. The first of these three sections, which we may now consider reduced to two. having instituted a club and some private assemblies in the Jacobin 1 7*2 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF This success was merited not solely from the accuracy and exactness of the news and reports which were presided over without intermission by the inflexible conscientiousness of the editor. The tried independence of Mallet, an inde- pendence of character and not of calculation, insured to his opinions a consideration which none of his colleagues at all approached. With decisive opinions and principles, which united him to the moderate constitutionalists and even to the royalists, as much as they separated him from the revolutionary and republican parties in the As- sembly, he never curtailed the remarks or the reproaches which the levity or unskilfulness of the monarchists appeared to him to merit ; and we shall see that the royalists never resorted to him except to avert a worse evil. His probity and his courage in the breach awed them in spite of them- selves ; his austere virtue and political sagacity irritated them club-house of Hue Saint- Honore, the two others followed this ex- ample, in order to lay down their plan of proceeding also." These somewhat obscure phrases import that many aristocrats of the As- sembly had united with the moderates to form a club after the fashion of the enrages. It is difficult to put any other meaning upon the words ; but Mirabeau was pleased to discover in them an impertinence, and an affirmation that the aristocrats and the mode- rates had approved of the opinions which originated with the sect of the enrages. He therefore prepared a denunciation of the " Mer- cure," to serve as a salutary warning to other journals. " A stop," said he, "must be put to this insolence, without interfering with the freedom of the press," and he suggested " that the author of the political department of the ' Mercure' and the proprietor of that journal, be summoned to the bar, and censured by the President." Hut, pacified or better advised, Mirabeau relinquished his proposed denunciation, which saw the light for the first time in the work of M. Lucas dc Montignv. MALLET DU PAN. 1 73 and made him feared. Abroad His popularity was great, as well as in the provinces, where his journal was looked for with an eager impatience ; for the " Mercure," almost alone of the whole press, dared to publish the complaints sent from the departments, and the statement of the excesses of which they were the theatre. The sole authentic organ of the opinions of the moderate party, in its pages were to be found the speeches of Mounier, Malouet and their friends, to which the intolerant majority of the galleries would not listen ; it was in the " Mercure" also that it was possible to appreciate the impressions which foreigners, especially the English, entertained upon the French Revo- lution. We have not, under the pretext of following Mallet through these events, an inopportune intention of recom- mencing the history of the Revolution ; but the object of these Memoirs would be almost sacrificed if the principal occasions were not pointed out in which Mallet du Pan signalized his courage and superiority as an historian and a journalist ; if some of those opinions were not recalled which are most worthy of notice, and those traits indicated which gave to his journal its importance and its originality. No historian, whatever his candour or his power of representing events, woidd be able to picture to us the French Revolution with so much truthfulness and eloquence as the simple parliamentary chronicle of the different assemblies which succeeded each other, after the day of the Jeu de Paume. An historical manner, summaries and broad delineations, may suffice to give an interest to the picture of the Revolution, and to systematize its results ; but to comprehend the character and coherency of the 174 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF acts brought forth during that long delirium of politics, intoxicated with phrases and with daring innovations, it is necessary to have played an active part in these wordy storms, in these terrible conflicts of opinions, of passions and of interests. It is then that Providence is recognised through these events. We have evidence which shows the play of all the human faculties engaged in this violent struggle ; there is no more mystery — the true secret of the victories and the defeats is obtained ; and if poetry loses much by this broad daylight thrown upon it, reason profits and gathers instruction which encourages it for the future against the necessity of crimes and catastrophes. It is in the contemporary accounts — even although exposed to the risk of involuntary or intentional misrepre- sentations — that the parliamentary history of the Revolution should be traced ; only it is necessary to guard against highly coloured accounts, which are worse than the rude bluntness of excitement. Garat, who reported the sittings of the National Assembly in the " Journal de Paris," was greatly admired. The following passage will show with what a politic colouring, naively praised by himself, his patriotism invested the eloquence of the constituents ; it is also remarkable in other respects : " You know, Sir, (Garat is addressing this effusion to Condorcet in 1792), that at that very time the sittings of the National Assembly, from whence all the measures pro- ceeded, and from whence all was to have been proclaimed and re-echoed, were far less deliberations than actions and incidents. It is now no longer objectionable to say so : those tumultuous sittings were less combats of opinion than combats of passions; cries rather than debates were MALLET DU PAN. 1 75 heard there ; they appeared more likely to terminate in personal violence than in decrees. Often, when about to write my report on leaving those sittings, which were pro- tracted so far into the night, and losing in the darkness and silence of the streets of Versailles or Paris the agita- tions in which I had partaken, I have felt that if anything was able to arrest and drive back the Revolution, it was a picture of those sittings traced by a mind and by a pen known to be free. Ah ! Sir, how I have longed to do it, and how culpable I should have been if I had ! I was convinced that all was lost, both our liberty and the better hopes of the human race, if the National Assembly ceased for one moment to be in the eyes of the nation an object worthy of its respect, of its love and of its hopes. All my endeavours were therefore directed to present the truth, but without rendering it terrible ; of that w T hich had been nothing more than a tumult, I made a picture ; I sought and seized in these convulsions of the sanctuary of law those traits which had a character and an interest for the imagination. I prepared the mind to assist at a kind of dramatic performance rather than at a sitting of legis- lators ; I described the actors before introducing them on tin 1 stage ; I represented all their sentiments, but not always with the same expressions ; of their exclamations I made sallies ; of their furious gesticulations, attitudes ; and when I was unable to inspire esteem I strove to cause emotion." Mallet du Pan understood his functions as a reporter of the sittings in a different manner ; it will suffice to hear him : " Contemporaries and posterity ought undoubtedly to 176 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF judge an assembly by their acts, and not by their dis- courses ; they would in that case follow the example of history and law which restrict themselves to pronouncing upon the actions of men. However, it is incumbent upon us in the annals of the age, to record, together with the resolutions, the motives which have determined them, and the struggle of opinions in the midst of which they have floated. " The character of an assembly is not determined by three or four speeches alone, although these leading speeches enlist a great number of suffrages ; it is by the general friction of many opinions differently discussed that the observer appreciates the nature of the deliberation. To become acquainted with the spirit of it, it must be presented in all its aspects, and a vicious argument holds its place in the representation as well as an instructive truth. " The facts alone, related with accuracy, arranged with order, divested of the amplification inseparable from verbal eloquence — this is what history must one day consult, what the public expect, and what we owe them. " True in other respects to the plan which we proposed to ourselves at the commencement, we shall never lose sight of the precept of Tacitus : ' Pnecipuum munus an- nalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, utque pravis dietis, fac- tisque ex posteritate et infamia metus sit.' ' So long as Mallet was able to hold the pen himself, he never for a single instant swerved from this programme, conceived rather in the spirit of an historian than of a journalist ; it was only when summing up opinions, that he was more and more compelled to classify them, and to MALLET DU PAN. 1 7 7 characterize them by hasty notes. A fortunate necessity, by which his reports gained in interest and value. Between 1789 and 1792, in the two earliest assemblies, it is known how many men passed from popularity to scorn or hatred, from the Capitol to the Tarpeian rock — to adopt the words of Mirabeau descriptive of that fearful rapidity which at the time whirled round the wheel ot lortune. It is known what sudden light then fell all at once upon the chiefs of parties at the moment of their fall ; what a return they then made towards those principles which they had repulsed with impatience in order to strengthen their advantages and establish their victory. Mallet, a witness of these sudden revulsions, and after having had too much firmness to pass with an equal abruptness from censure to eulogy ; intrigue being at the same time so much mixed up in the measures of parties — Mallet was fully justified in his distrust of the motives which restrained as well as those which urged on the various factions of the Assem- bly. In these days such austerity appears too severe : its sincerity has been sufficiently proved, but his resentment of the first injury then carried him away to make futile attempts to obtain a tardy reparation, and indignation closed his heart against a generous pardon. This difficulty of pardoning is a fault in politics as in morals; it is also an injustice. All minds are not prepared to receive persuasion at the same time; for the tardy, the delay is a misfortune, but if both finally arrive at the same goal, the period of the arrival must not be taken into account. There is no legitimate contempt but for those who, setting out on the right course, voluntarily turn their backs upon the object before them, and for those who are determined never to reach it. VOL. I \ 178 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF We shall afterwards have proofs that the severity of Mallet du Pan was not the effect of intolerance or of obstinacy ; and it must indeed be admitted that in a similar case the indulgence granted to an individual should not be afforded in the same degree to a journalist, whose duty it was to direct public opinion. As for the considerations which suggested to Mallet the probable course of events and the progress of the Revolu- tion, he generally stated them in lengthy articles, collections of which deserve an important place in the library of all political men, since they contain precise views and reflec- tions applicable to the government of nations. After this preliminary exposition of the manner in which the editor of the " Mercure " represented in his journal the opinions of the most enlightened and respectable portion of the French nation, it is time to follow Mallet through the various phases of that tumultuous career. MALLET DU PAN. 1 79 CHAPTER VII J. 1789—1790. Opinions of Mallet in the " Mercure de France" from 1789 to 1792 — Declaration of the rights of man — Scenes at Versailles (October 5th and 6th) — Flight of Moimier ; retirement of Lally-Tollendal — Mallet du Fan threatened — His relations with Malouet become more intimate — Injustice of the majority — Declamations on the right — Civic oath — Provisional law on the liberty of the press. When the Constituent Assembly, broaching questions which hitherto had occupied none hut philosophers, asked whether the constitution ought not to be preceded by a declaration of generic rights, Mallet du Pan made known his opinions upon the subject in a short essay, the ener- getic brevity of which will admit of its being almost quoted at length : " The rights of man insure to him the free exercise of his faculties, physical and moral ; whence results in reality an inequality of rights proportional to those of iris faculties. The superiority of power, of intelligence, and dexterity, give rise to the dominion of one man over another, and so long as the human species remains in that primitive state, n 2 180 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF it remains subject to differences which Nature herself has made between individuals. Thus the bushes bow beneath the oak, and the herrings are devoured by the whales. Take this example of the rights of nature. "Society substitutes a conventional right ; it levels inequalities by the establishment of political equality : this could never be anything but ideal without laws which determine its application and insure its maintenance. These laws alone are the rights of the social man and those of the community of which he is a member. If he arrogated others, such a pretension would become general — society would be dissolved. " The rights of the individual are therefore inseparable from those of the citizen, since it is only by this latter right that he is removed from the natural superiority of physical and moral powers. Positive laws determine his condition, his prerogatives, and their limits: there cannot now remain to him, under penalty of entering into opposition with his fellow-men, any other rights than those which have been sanctioned by general society. Conse- quently to declare the rights of man is to declare the laws a futility ; for truth itself does not bind the citizen, except in so far as it is related to an actual institution : the noblest maxims will never have in the social system the force of a police regulation. "When, in 1688, the English drew up their famous bill of rights, they were perfectly well acquainted with the rights of man in general ; for ten years in succession they had developed them under the reign of Charles I. A hundred parliamentary speeches, a hundred writings ap- pealed to these metaphysical principles; they were all MALLET DU PAN. 181 contained in the famous work of" Marchmont Needham, published in 1656.* However, the Parliament contented itself with declaring the laws whose violations it repaired, and the new laws which it enacted. " The Americans have followed another course ; but it is in their charters, and not in their parliamentary declara- tions, that the present generation or the following will find the principles of their liberty and the means of defend- ing it." Some days afterwards, Mallet added to this succinct theory other remarks deduced from common sense : they presented a singular contrast to the metaphysics which were then lavished at the tribune and in hundreds of writings : " The Evangelist has given the most simple, the most brief, and the most complete declaration of the rights of man, where he says : ' Do unto others as you would be done unto.' All natural politics rest on this support, and there is nothing more fertile than this maxim, which defines the limits of the rights of man and of his duties. " It strikes all ages and all minds: a porter fathoms its meaning and application as well as a metaphysician. Everv law of liberty rests upon it, or is imperfect in departing from it. " The law alone disciplines nature, and seconds it by subordinating to it all the aristocracies of birth, power, riches, authority, and by perfectly equalizing the political distribution of good and evil. The constitution is the * "This singular book is entitled : ' The excellence of free state, or the right constitution of a commonwealth.' Kou.-;eau's ' Contrat Social' seems hut a tame ami timid extract from this hook, which was nevertheless quite unknown to my celebrated countryman.'' 182 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF key-stone of this edifice of factitious equality and liberty. It must act as a guarantee to it ; but this great work of the perfected human mind has no precedent whatever in the primitive condition of mankind. " These ideas, which are simply opinions, and which we take it on ourselves to spread because they are in nowise dangerous, may serve as an introduction to the important debates which again occupied the National Assembly last week." One of the mistakes of opinion during the French Revolution was, the setting up Rousseau as an authority, and his " Contrat Social" as a political gospel. Mallet had to point out, over and over again, how greatly and variously, on the contrary, the philosopher's doctrines were departed from. " ' The English nation,' says Rousseau, ' thinks itself free ; it is much mistaken. It is so only during the election of members of Parliament. As soon as they are elected, it is enslaved — it is nothing. The absurd notion of representatives is modern ; it comes to us from the iniquitous feudal government !' It is then because the English Government is representative that Rousseau deemed the English slaves ; and thus every nation under the representative system would be in slavery like them. The authority of Rousseau, therefore, is inadmissible, in an assembly of delegates of the people. This celebrated author persisted to the close of his life in his aversion to representative government, writing: 'I see no alternative between the sternest democracy and the most absolute Mobbism.' Meanwhile, the Assembiv, hurried on in the universal MALLET DU PAN. 183 excitement, was beginning to abandon the discussion of fundamental principles, and soon recurred to them only at long intervals. The famous night of the 4th of August, which was the triumph of that enthusiastic sensibility, the favourite virtue of the eighteenth century ; that night when the nobility besieged the tribune, to sacrifice all its privileges with religious emulation, when, amid the " annates" and the special dues of the provinces, " a nobleman demanded, like Catullus, to offer his sparrow," in sacrificing his dove- cotes to the rural population — that memorable sitting not only imparted a rapid impetus to the Revolution, but it carried away that basis of deliberation and legislative calm- ness always slight enough in France, and struck a heavy blow at the respect for rights and the forms of legality. From this moment, the feverish impatience of the par- ties agglomerated in Paris rose against every obstacle; and intolerance of opinion was let loose with all the fanaticism of which it is susceptible, against those who strove to urge on the legislature the experience of history and the lessons of great political minds. A crowd of pamphleteers stimu- lated this impatience, heaping insult and even at this early period threats, on their more calm, or well-informed fellows. Mallet strenuously denounced this new despotism. In the month of September, being accused in Brissot's paper, of being a " bloodsucker," he wrote : " At a time when all abuses are struck down, it is necessary to denounce one which, above all others, threatens personal liberty and security. For some time past, a class of writers has been urging all its opinions as axioms, its decisions as oracles, its statements as legal documents. It* one adopts other ideas — nav, if one suggests a doubt, or 184 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF proposes a modification, sonic furious organ of despotism denounces, rends, calumniates whatever resists it : the slightest contradiction of its doctrine becomes an attack on the primary rights of man. Escaped from the censo- rial knife, wo fall victims to the butchery of intolerance. Opinions are distorted ; motives attributed on suspicion ; those who cannot be confuted are held up to odium ; and perhaps at present there is not a single truly free and inde- pendent mind not groaning under this species of oppres- sion. The liberty of the press will be a preservative against it ; but, to render that liberty efficacious, we must wait for the empire of liberty of opinion, from which we are yet far distant." The effects of this fanaticism of the papers soon declared themselves ; and Mallet wrote, after the dreadful scenes at Versailles : " Opinion at the present day dictates its decrees with the sword and rope in its hands. ' Believe or die,' is the sentence pronounced by excited spirits : they pronounce it in the name of liberty — but where would this liberty exist without the support of law ? How answer for its thoughts and publications? Vainly, amid so many rocks, would be the attempt to take moderation for a guide : that has become a crime. Vainly would the public interest and virtue be sincerely aimed at : so many corrupt pens profane those sacred names, that you must either profane them likewise, or drift along between contempt and persecution. Let us, nevertheless, overcome the profound terror which fills the independent and truthful man while mingling his powerful voice with the thunders of the storm, and prose- cute the owrw helming task imposed upon us." MALLET DU PAN. 18o Overwhelming was indeed the word. At the time when the National Assembly was debating the question of the royal sanction, Mallet's head was among the proscribed. Four maniacs came to intimate to him at his house, pro- ducing their pistols, that his life would answer for what he might dare to write in favour of Mounier's opinion on the veto. He defended it eight days afterwards.* Fresh sentences of proscription, fresh threatening visits, followed the appalling "th and 6th October, 17S9, when he alone dared to trace a faithful picture of what had occurred at Versailles. f But this new crime of the Revolution affected * " Mercure de France," November, 1790, No. 39. f In the same memorandum previously quoted, are details ob- tained from Mounier relative to the days of Versailles : " During the debates on the veto, AI. de la Fayette wrote to Mounier that he would be responsible for whatever blood might flow ; he wrote in like manner to the ministers daily threatened in fabricated reports. Duport, Alexandre Lameth, Barnave, and some others, persuaded M. Necker of his danger, and proposed to him the suspensive veto. He adopted it, recanted it under the victorious assaults of Mounier, promised to support in council the absolute sanction, and did the precise contrary. " On the 5th of October, during the sitting, Mirabeau exhorted the President to adjourn the House, as forty thousand men were advancing from Paris. lie insisted strongly. The President replied to him : ' No ; I will not adjourn it. I will await this host, and, before we adjourn, it shall kill us at our posts — all of us, ob- serve, M. le Comte.' — ' Prettily said, M. le President,' rejoined Mirabeau. " When the King gave in his unconditional acceptation, he went to his bureau, wrote it with his own hand, and handed it over in tears. The council continued sitting, and could resolve on nothing but submission. Mounier and others proposed the removal, first oi the Queen, who declined it, then of the royal family. The body- 186 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF him far more sensibly than his own danger, by depriving him of two of his chief props, two men in whose opinions he shared, Mounier and Lally-Tollendal, now placed at the sruards and some eight or nine hundred noblemen assembled in the gallery were to escort the party, which would have taken horse, the Queen mounted behind one of the body-guards, another guard carry- ing the dauphin. The King would have withdrawn and convoked the Assembly at Rouen ; the President was resolved, as well as a great number of the deputies, to follow the royal family. A mani- festo would have been published relative to the violent attempt of twenty thousand men coming from Paris to force the will and palace of the King ; all previous concessions would have been ratified, M. de Saint Priest got the project accepted, and set off with his wife. At two leagues' distance, a courier apprised him that the King had not stirred, and would wait for M. de la Favette. " Mounier had previously urged M. Xecker to repair with all the ministers to the Assembly, denounce the advance of M. de la Fayette, declare it an illegal act which justified repression by force, call upon the Assembly to prohibit him from advancing, and to declare him a traitor to the State, and guilty of treason against the nation if he persisted. The Assembly could not have declined to do this. Al. Necker did not venture to make the attempt. " M. de la Fayette expected to be stopped and massacred, with his followers, at Sevres. He was sad and uneasy. ' We shall die horribly and ignominiously,' he said ; ' of what use is this mob 1 Can we count upon it V He halted at break of day, ate a chicken, made a civilian mount guard, with a soldier by him to keep his courage up, and sent his aide-de-camp to Sevres. He was relieved from his anxiety when the latter came to tell him that the bridge was free, and he resumed his assurance. " lie had told Mounier that nothing was demanded of the King except the dismissal of the regiment of Flanders, and one word in favour of the cockade. Tie did his best to reassure him, perse- cuting him directly and indirectly to adjourn the sitting and seek repose. Mounier was on his legs without eating from nine o'clock to three in the morning, and began to spit blood. [M. de MALLET DU PAN. 187 head of the proscribed, and pointed out for a new popular massacre. Mounier, it is well known, had great difficulty m escaping the assassins who were on the search for him. He was compelled to take refuge in that province of Dauphine which had deputed him to the States General to lay the foundation of the true principles of liberty. " His courageous conduct," says Mallet, " his character, his writings, will hand him down to posterity as one of the most distinguished men of our unhappy epoch. After risking his life in Dauphine, in the defence of the people and liberty ; after displaying, in the National Assembly, talents and enlarged views set off by a gentle and pure morality, he has been forced to make his escape from the knife of the assassin. " His crime is that of believing that royal authority, wisely regulated, is the strongest support of liberty, and that the legislative body should be divided into two houses."* When the inveteracy of calumny again broke out against Mounier, after his withdrawal to Geneva, where the fanati- cism of the Dauphinese had constrained him to seek an asylum, Mallet eloquently branded these assaults on indi- vidual liberty : " Some scribblers of the capital have printed that "M. dc Gouvernet acted very well, and overwhelmed with re- proaches and scorn the infamous national guard of Versailles." The notes from which these details arc extracted were regarded as highly authentic hy Mallet ; lie made use of them, among other occasions, fur an explanation of the oath of the Jeu de Paume, as has been seen at p. 169. * "' Mercure de France." October. 178.9, Xo. 17. 188 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF M. Mounier is giving a course of lectures on public rights at Geneva. He does indeed give one, and a most memor- able one, to all public men, by his presence in a foreign land ; a signal example of popular ingratitude, and the fate reserved for whatever citizen would serve the people without sharing in its excesses, without misleading it by cowardly submission, and without being tyrannized over by its blindness. When M. Mounier, seconded by the aspira- tions and the efforts of many of his countrymen, now equally persecuted, equally calumniated with himself, pro- cured the representation of Dauphine, brought together its three orders, traced a plan of action for the whole king- dom, and laid down the indispensable bases of liberty, he could scarcely have expected that, a year later, tor having refused to violate the principles adopted by his province, he would be forced to quit it, in order to spare it a new crime." Soon afterwards, Lally-Tollendal also gave in his resig- nation, and retired to Switzerland. Thus did the vanguard of the upholders of constitutional monarchy disperse before the determined attack of the genius of democratic revolu- tion ; martyrs to reason, whose names were at the head of the too long list of the ingratitude of public opinion to those men of the French Revolution, whose only title to the recollection of posterity is the wisdom of their counsels, the moderation of their actions, and their disinterested aims. They had spared no efforts in advocating, in the Constituent Assembly, the idea of a constitution which would at once save the monarchy and found the rational liberty of the nation. In default of the right, which refused with indig- nation this road to salvation, the support of Mirabeau, who returned ton late to those views, would, at this moment, MALLET DU PAN. 189 have sufficed to decide the victory in their favour. It would have been the salvation of France and the victory of those liberal reforms which Europe needed, and which the Revolution stifled, and will long keep stifled, by the into- lerable daring of its tyranny and the frightful injustice of its maxims. It will not be out of place to contrast here the political ideas of this party, Mounier, Lally, Malouet, and of that which was victorious among the fanatics of the Constituent Assembly. We will give Mallet du Pan's own words : " In advocating the union of the three estates in a primary assembly, this party aimed at defending them against the attacks of the communes, by a conditional union, a positive and obligatory treaty. Such was the literal meaning of the Dauphine manifestoes, drawn up by the three orders in common ; sacred, consequently, in the eyes of all the deputies of the province, and placing the limitation of sacrifices under the safeguard of the most solemn convention. " In restoring to the communes the measure of autho- rity, strength and independence, which would have ba- lanccd them against the royal power and the first two • statis of the monarchy, this third party had no idea of their swamping the public sovereignty and smoothing a path to democracy by destroying pre-cxistent institutions root and branch. It aimed at reforming the clergy without degrading it, at diminishing its opulence without despoiling it, at extending the blessings of tolerance without stripping the religion of twenty-two millions of Frenchmen of the rights of a national creed. " : It would have considered itself guilty of usurpation and 190 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tyranny, had it laid a finger on individual property under the pretext of public need : it never so much as conceived that philosophic policy which supplies want of skill by a daring injustice, and which ruins whole classes of citizens to save the public weal. " Considering the National Assembly as a constituent deputation, subordinate to its commission and to the free consent of the sovereign, it recognized its right to organize, in concert with the King, the institution of the fundamental powers of the State, and consequently disavowed its com- petence to administer any of such powers. " Desiring a revolution according to reason and justice, not by the intervention of a furious multitude and the crimes of anarchy, it did not suspect that this would be conjured up without occasion, to obtain a pretext for investing the constituent body with the totality of public powers, legislation, governmental administration, command, organization of the army, police, superintendence of the finances in detail, and judicial power. " They opposed two barriers to the acts of this unex- ampled sovereignty — the right of ratification by the people, and the right of ratification by the King. " According to the system of this party, and in con- formity with the immutable basis of every monarchy that would combine the liberty with the wisdom of laws, and the stability of institutions with public tranquillity, the legislative functions were divided, and the executive power strictly concentrated in the person of the monarch. " The hereditary succession to the crown and its inviola- bility in the reigning family were declared, without any assumption of the right of founding them. Not only the MALLET DU PAN. 191 power of the supreme chief, independent and sole executive, was recognized in the sovereign, but also the attributes and the functions of royalty. Consequently, he formally continued an integral portion of the legislative power, in virtue of the necessity of his sanction, and the indepen- dence of his absolute negative. Sole representative of the national sovereignty, his pre-eminence over all the other powers was consecrated by forms which insured to him the prestige and the succour of opinion. Supreme admi- nistrator of justice, he was not excluded from all partici- pation in the choice of magistrates and the prosecution of national crimes. Supreme chief of the executive, his subordinate functionaries were not independent of his legal orders, remaining subject exclusively to nomination by the people and the sole judgment of the legislative body. His authority over the forces of the State was not neutralized by an army absolutely independent, under the title of National Guard, he himself being deprived of the power of even disbanding a regiment in the army of the line. The responsibility of his ministers was to be determined so as to protect law and freedom without enervating the action of government, without so subordinating these agents to the legislature that they should become the slaves of a few demagogues, to bruise with their chains both the King and the nation. " In suppressing the representation according to orders, the higher classes of society were indemnified in those distinctions which offend neither liberty, property, nor political equality. It was thought preferable thus to regulate and limit the already existing influence of rank, in order to guard against the disturbances which accompany 192 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF their inevitable re-establishment, to preserve the State from the unavoidable and immediate clashing of monarch and people, to interest these intermediate classes in public liberty and the maintenance of the constitution — to temper, in fine, the insolent and base aristocracy of riches without birth, without merit, without honourable emulation, with- out national feeling. " As a great empire cannot, without the gravest objec- tions, exist unprovided with great tribunals, supreme courts of justice were contemplated, where the magistrate would maintain the dignity necessary to the importance of his functions. Juries were added in criminal cases — but true juries, always peers of the suitors ; and if a net income of twenty pounds sterling in land is exacted in English jury- men, thirty would have been required in a country where the national character and the novelty of the institution called for a higher security. " Fur the all-powerful consideration that France is an agricultural country, and that the owners of land alone possess a sovereign interest in the maintenance of law and order, bear the chief burden of public expenditure, and are exclusively endowed with the character of independence essential to the delegates of the nation, to them alon was confided the function of representing it, and the power of constituting its assembled delegates a House of Commons. " The fuel of demagogism, the plague, of the abuse of eloquence in an assembly, the insensate excitement of debate, the tyranny of a majority, and the inevitable usurp- ation of a single assembly, the exclusive representative of the pretended general will, were counteracted by estab- MALLET DU PAN. I !M lishing a regulating bodv, a higher house reserved for the elective deputies of the clergy and the nobility, and for citizens of whatever rank, eminent for great services, or large property, called by the King to this senatorial magis- tracy. . . . " For two months, August and September, 1789, the party whose doctrine we have just analysed, counterbalanced the attempts of the democrats and supported the first two orders under their sacrifices. The majority of the com- mittee on the constitution and two ministers (the Archbishop of Bordeaux and M. de Saint Priest) had caught at this last relic of the wreck ; but a portion of the clergy and the nobility almost unanimously rejected it. A plan so moderate, so well adapted to diminish the disasters of the Revolution, and to ward off universal disor- ganization, suited still less the professors of anarchy, the republicans and conspirators. The crimes advisedly com- mitted in the month of October, and the arrival of the Assembly at Paris, consummated the overthrow of this party, far more odious to the revolutionists, and more dreaded, than the first two orders. " Without a head, without a plan of action, wanting entirely in concert of opinion, its powers of adhesion could not resist the treason of a portion of the ministry, the weakness of the Court, the incensed feelings of the two ruined orders, the intrigues of the factious, the invasion by the multitude of the Assembly's deliberations. When pikes and daggers had become the arbiters of our laws, M. Mounier, de Lally, the venerable Bishop of Langrcs, and manv others, whose integrity equalled their sagacity, remembered the fine lines of Addison : VOL. I. () 194 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " ' When impious men bear sway The post of honour is a private station.' "* After this retirement of two of its leaders, the rest of the party merged into the right side, although preserving its own opinions. Malouet remained conspicuous, almost alone : well nigh isolated amid the various fractions of the Assembly, he naturally sympathised with the writer of the " Mcrcurc," who had already, during the debates on the royal sanction, expressed his opinion at length, and par- taken by reaction, with the late superintendent of marine, the indignation and threats he had brought on himself. " I recognize myself nowhere but in your paper," the latter had written to him. A friendship, never afterwards interrupted, was then formed between these kindred and superior spirits. The duties which each had imposed on himself were becoming meanwhile more arduous and dangerous day by day. Neither of them resisted. While Malouet in the Assembly, amid tumult which generally drowned his voice, answered denunciation with denunciation, the intole- rance of parties with an appeal to the rights of freedom, Mallet unremittingly denounced the crimes, the nefarious projects, the false maxims of the revolutionists, as well as the weakness of the men called to oppose the growing anarchy. He pointed out to the latter the inconsistency of their acts in this same month of October : " The Assembly of the representatives of the people has also published a reassuring address to the municipalities of the realm, and intends to circulate a similar exhortation * "Mercurc," October, 17.91, No. 40. MALLET DU PAN. 195 to the people of Paris. Hitherto but little effect has fol- lowed these admonitions, where maxims of extreme danger, in these incendiary times, are indiscriminately mixed up with useful truths. When, for example, the people are reminded in every paragraph that they are absolutely sovereign, it is absurd to dissuade them by unmeaning phrases, from exercising their sovereignty at their own good pleasure. These are but drops of water east into the mouth of a volcano. " What would be much better worth impressing on the people — could we entertain the slightest hope of being heard — is, that the altar of freedom rests on two bases, justice and virtue."* Every day and every sitting of the Assembly summoned the editor of the " Mcrcure" to uphold his principles in reference and opposition to the acts of all parties. If, on the one side, he had to comment on the fatal and violent insinuations of the Lameths and Barnarve, the errors of Mirabeau, their opponent, and the maxims of M. Robes- pierre, the profound enemy of all, it was necessary also to repress the sometimes inopportune sallies of Maury and Montlosier, and occasionally the indiscretions of Cazales. It was necessary also to denounce the infamous libels of the friends of the left, and censure the declamations of the partizans of the right. About this time Mullet set forth candidly the state of matters. To the impetuous enemies of the Revolution, he said : ''' The principles of the Revolution have become law. They were 1 imperatively demanded by the abuses of all kinds raider which France has groaned ever since the * "Mcrcure de France," October, 17S9, No. 43. o 2 19G MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF reign of Louis XIV. The King, the National Assembly, the ministers, have ratified a new order of government. A very large number of good citizens, who, while ap- plauding the re-establishment of public liberty, censure the gratuitous violence by which it has been accompanied ; who deplore the prolongation of an anarchy which there is nothing to necessitate, and lament that the royal authority should be powerless to accelerate its termination ; who, disapproving some of the principles on which the consti- tution has been founded, would themselves found it on principles equally liberal, while further limiting their appli- cation ; ensuring to the laws that conservative energy which results from the interest of all the powers, so as to main- tain them inviolable ; these citizens, we say, would revolt against the old despotism so soon as it won back to itself dangerous proselytes. In conformity with these principles, which we have ourselves professed, and which we shall unchangeably profess, every reflective mind will condemn those aggressive writings dictated by passion, when the National Assembly is outraged by clamours, as so many others outrage it by their servile adulation."* On the occasion of the civic oath, he again insists on the necessity and duty of rendering obedience to the constitu- tion, — an obedience which, to his thinking, did not at all exclude the right of examination and disapproval. Wise citizens submit — so far as obedience is concerned — to the decrees of the national power: slaves alone submit to these their conscience and their judgment. lie, therefore, ex- horted his friends to take the civic oath. This impartiality had no effect on the factious, who * " Mercure de France," January, 17!J0, No. ]. MALLET DU PAN. 197 detested nothing so mueh as moderation, and already entertained contempt and almost hatred for the contis- tution : Mallet was none the less assailed, as before, with calumny, insult and threats. A Barnave, a Lameth, joined this concert of maniacs. He then considered that, being brought personally in question, he had a right to speak of and for himself: " In order to love liberty sincerely," says he, " it is requisite to have enjoyed it : to recognize it amid the arti- fices of ambition and the illusions of system-mongering, it is requisite to have known its excesses as well as its bless- ings : to define its limits, it is necessary to have been taught by experience the dangers into which states plunge, which are so imprudent as to force those sacred barriers which law, justice, wisdom, interpose between the power of the people and its obedience ; between the maintenance of legitimate authority and the hatred of all authority ; between the virtues of the citizen and that hypocritical subservience to the people which may inveigle the reason and esteem of a whole nation. " Born in a republic, having had before my eyes for twenty years the spectacle of all the passions which harass freedom — of political fanaticism, party-spirit, the abuse of terms, and public calamity, the sole result of these storms, — I have at least learned to mistrust sweeping- opinions, systematizing experiments, violence, injustice, the perverse or perverted judgments born amid even necessary revolutions, as noxious insects arc hatched in the summer sun. It is not at fort}' years of age, that a rational repub- lican, who has dragged twenty of them through political 198 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tempests, will render himself the accompliee of the passions of any one whatever."* At the end of the month of January, 1790, the Abbe Sieyes proposed to the National Assembly a law on the press, which had long been wanted. The " Mercure," after having observed that this law, of all laws the most difficult to render efficient even in quiet times, was pro- posed at a moment when laws most easily enforced were powerless, or a dead letter, presented in his turn reflections on the subject, first finding fault with the law of Sieyes as being merely provisional : " It is remarked," says he, " that a provisional law and an ineffectual one, are unfortunately synonymous, especially at an epoch when all authority is shaken. A provisional law is indicative of the irresolution of the legislator ; it marks a distrust of his own wisdom, of the inviolability of his decision, of the obedience he exacts. The public, par- ticularly its dangerous portions, soon dive into his senti- ments ; the administrators of the law share in them, cri- minals take advantage of them, and consider themselves tolerably secure of impunity. In my opinion also, the liberty of the press and the punishment of its abuse, rest on unchangeable principles, which it is dangerous to com- pound with, and the application of which must be unalter- ably fixed by the legislator, leaving it to the police to relax their severity, under circumstances of too threatening a nature. . . " So penetrating and reflective a mind as that of M. l'Abbe Sieves." adds Mallet, " would not be ignorant of *"' " Mercure dc France," January, 1790, No. 5. MALLET DU PAN. 199 the true principles of the liberty of the press ; so universal is the sway of enlightened reason, that his maxims prove identical with those of Blackstone, Hume, De Lolmc, and of all the writers whose opinions command the respect of Europe."* But the experimentalist doubted the efficacy of the proposed plans ; and after having established the theory and practice which prevailed in England in regard to the liberty of the press, Mallet, concludes by the following reflection, which, though it may appear common-place, is decisive as to the political question : " The best safeguard of the liberty of the press, the most efficient barrier against its abuse, is the morality of authors; not morality in word or print, but in action; a religious respect for truth, honour, habitual purity, and that salutary terror which should impress every upright man on the point of inditing an accusation, or announcing a system. There is no middle course : in the hands of the unconscientious, a free press becomes the opprobrium and the scourge of society ; when used only as the instrument of virtuous talent, it proves its consolatory and tutelar}' angel."f On all important questions, our journalist never swerved from advocating the justice and propriety of the principal reforms ; thus, when alluding to the session in which Thouret presented the project of law of the constitu- tional committee on judiciary institutions, he abandoned Cazales : "M. Thouret," says he, "renewed all the complaints ' : " .Mercurc de France/' January, 1 7 DO, No. 5, I Ibid. 200 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF so well known, and formerly so forcibly urged by various writers, against the usurpations of the sovereign courts and the intolerable abuses of the administration of justice. These notorious defects, proved by long and fatal expe- rience, could leave no doubt in the mind of any impartial man as to the need of thorough reform ; but M. Thouret could see safety in nothing less than regeneration. " The impression of the picture presented by him could not be weakened by the opinion of M. de Cazales, who, throwing himself into the other extreme, described parliaments as they described themselves in their remon- strances. This was not the most acute logic ; for even truth to be persuasive needs the aid of art, and more. especially must guard against exaggeration."* ■■'■ " Mcrcure du France," April, 1790, No. 14. MALLET DU PAN. 201 CHAPTER IX. 1790. Mallet du Pan's journey to Geneva — Return to Paris — Selfishness of the Constituent Assembly — Denunciation of a libel against M. de la Fayette — Article, in the " Mercure," on the year 1789 — Duel between Cazales and Barnave — Opinion on M. Necker — The Editor of the "Mercure" summoned by a deputation of citizens to write in favour of the Revolution — His declaration — He raises his voice in favour of the shamefully ill-treated Catholic clergy — Mirabeau ; his death — Particulars extracted from the notes of Mallet du Pan on the connection between Mirabeau and the Court. In the spring of 1790, Mallet du Pan took his son to Geneva. His reception in his native country, which he had not seen for eight years, was a sufficient recom- pense for the solicitude with which, in the midst of the affairs of France, he iiad, even in his journal, promoted the interests of Geneva, more than once in danger from the members of the National Assembly. It had been loudly hinted in the revolutionary papers, that that republic might probably in its turn undergo the fate of Avignon, and be united to France by a similar procedure. hi the tribune, Volncy had described the Genevese people as weighed down by oppressive tyranny ; Mirabeau, too, 202 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF though less violent, had, with his usual inconsiderateness, pronounced sentence on the laws of Geneva; and the eloquence of these two orators had induced the rejection of a gift of nine hundred thousand livres, prudently offered hy several individuals of Geneva, varying in their political opinions, and proprietors of funds in the muni- cipality of Paris. The reason alleged for the refusal of the money was", that it was offered hy two hundred tyran- nical aristocrats. Things were much worse in the journals. An incen- diary libel exhorting the Genevese people to rise, to mount the cockade, and to make the lunterne the beacon of liberty, was soon afterwards sent from Paris, and circulated at Geneva. " Such are the means," said Mallet, in denouncing these machinations, " such are the means of regeneration, of persuasion, and of patriotism devised for the establishment of the inalienable rights of man in Geneva. The libel," he adds, " was received by all classes with the most profound contempt." From that moment Mallet considered it as a duty, in the performance of which he never failed, to be on the watch against the manoeuvres of the journalists, and to confute the lies they aimed at his country. His fellow-citizens must have been flattered by the display of independence and dignity, in the honour bestowed on the Genevese name by a journalist of such rare merit, even had they not fully appreciated the con- stancy of his affection. During this visit to his country, which lasted nearly two months, Mallet wrote not a word in the " Mercure." We rind nothing of his in its sheets from the 8th of April to the end of May. This is to be regretted ; for during th<; MALLET DU PAN. 203 interval, the Assembly held some memorable sittings, par- ticularly that in which Mirabeau and Barnavc discussed the important question as to the part to be taken by the King, in the decision between peace and war. On his return, he found the arduousness of his dutio further aggravated and complicated by party-intrigues ; it was necessary to be in the secret of the intentions of the Court in order to gain influence in the Constituent As- sembly ; and these intentions changed with the counsellors of the moment. Mallet must have been often placed in a painful dilemma, situated as he was between his contempt for petty manoeuvres and his sympathy with the position of the King, whose danger he fully appreciated. The strict- ness of his principles came at such times to his aid, and the credit of his opinion and his journal increased. We shall continue to extract from the " Mercure " the pas- sages best adapted to exhibit the character of events — the features, now too much softened down, of a period, which, to our misfortune, we have accustomed ourselves to see only in a poetic and imposing light. The historian must not forget, what can never be too forcibly remembered, the imprudent injustice of the National Assembly, which, placed between royalty and its enemies, constantly sacrificed the former to the latter ; giving them every possible encouragement until the time when, itself death-struck, it loudly demanded its own dis- solution, and voted that non-reeligibility which has been ascribed to heroic self-denial ; but which was, in reality, nothing more than a necessity reluctantly submitted to, This selfishness of the Assembly, as well as the violence of the elub> and the demagogical papers which laboured in 204 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF concert to destroy liberty, was perseveringly exposed by the " Mercure." On the 9th June, the commune of Paris having denounced to the procureur du roi an atrocious libel, entitled " Vie de M. Lafayette," the " Mercure " made these significant observations : " While approving the zeal shown in this case, it is to be regretted that it has not yet extended to the infamous and scandalously calumnious productions directed against the Queen and others, and which are offered to passengers in the Palais-Royal, and under the very walls of the National Assembly. These abominations were continued with impunity for many months ; and, as though the libels did not appease curiosity, care is taken to accompany them with prints worthy of the flames.* It is dreadful to see writings, where the people are exhorted to murder by name, daily sold, hawked about, circulated by the post ; where the butchery of M. de Saint Priest, M. de Bouille, M. de Gillier, &c, is urged ; where the King and his family are treated with an indignity which obliterates, we will not say the character of Frenchmen, but all trace of civilized society."! According to his practice, Mallet had announced a history of the year just elapsed ; and he was beginning, indeed, to compose that part of it which related to the foreign policy of Europe. The whole of this opening is an * "These prints are distinguished by an excess of stupidity and ferocity. Nothing can be more foreign from the French character, or from the humour which gives piquancy to the English caricatures. Those which are displayed on our quays recall the Vandals, and are not even (it to paper a pot-house." (April, 1790, No. 15.) t " Mercure de France," June, 1790, No. '25. MALLET DU PAN. 205 excellent fragment of history. But, on arriving at France, the writer stopped, asserting that it was too late to retract; the origin and the first steps of the French Revolution. " This summary," he says, in a memorable passage, " was to have appeared in the month of January last ; its production was delayed in the hope that • at length the revolution of France would pause, and that one might be able to explain its causes, events and character, without compromising the claims of reason, justice and truth. But the constitution is not completed ; it is being decided amid ever-increasing excitement, which does not allow of our distinguishing the disturbances which may be caused by new institutions from such as belong to a transitory licentiousness. But we still hover between anarchy and freedom. The nation is independent; but the empire of the law still totters under the influence of partial desires, terror and force. " The declaration of rights and the impunity of the most scandalous writings, seemed to have secured to even- citizen the privilege of printing his opinions freely, of examining the nascent laws while rigidly conforming to them in his conduct, and of taking part in that public censorship important at all times to the maintenance of liberty, and so necessary in the dawn of a legislation whose extent the human mind can scarcely calculate. But in this respect, as in so many others, we remain under a rule absolutely arbitrary. No law has determined the liberty of the press, nor the responsibility of authors, nor established the special tribunals to which the prosecution of their excesses is to be confined; nor the nature of the offence, nor that of the penalty. According to the kind of men, of 206 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF eircumstances, of opinions, everything is settled — or nothing. One preaches periodically murder and robbery, whose suc- cess he prepares by calumny — he receives a civic crown : the other states a doubt, a proven fact, a principle in opposition to those which he thinks opposed to the public advantage, and men cry him down as a rebel. The sphere of offences of the press enlarged from the moment when its independence was proclaimed ; the abuse of reasoning, and in some cases reason itself, has been transformed into ' treason against the nation ;' so that the scaffold might be made the penalty of an offence which tyrants have seldom dared to visit with capital punishment. And who denounces, who prosecutes, who judges ? Whoever chooses to usurp the function ! individuals, municipalities, districts, committees, clubs, political associations. How escape this circle of spies, informers, self-constituted delegates, who persecute the human mind and public reason ? " Even if this unconstitutional police produce not dis- couragement, what is the consequence of a firm resolution to obey conscience and defend liberty ? Fruitless suffering, persecutions incalculably severe, and, in short, an abortive struggle of the press in which reason and sound criticism are silenced by terror and prudence. " It must not be expected that, under circumstances so distressing, I should put forth such a narrative as [ had conceived and arranged ; I must confine myself to the discharge of an onerous debt, instead of satisfying my own desires and those of my readers. Let them look around, on their city, on their homes, on the entire surface of the empire, and they will forgive my substituting a few faint touches for a finisher! picture of the events of ;i year MALLET DU FAN. 207 in which the memorable spectacle of a great nation nobly aspiring after liberty with consentaneous will, on the call of their King, was thrown into the shade by innumerable crimes, misfortunes and sorrows."* Mallet's most implacable persecutor was Brissot, an enemy whose attacks he usually passed over in silence, though occasionally he burst forth : " Not one word of reply shall I condescend to make to the atrocious insults heaped upon me by Brissot in that daily paper of his which sweats blood. I leave him to his remorse if he is susceptible of it ; but who will believe that in the midst of his invectives he dares to threaten me with the Committee of Research ?f Ah ! what watch- * " Mercure de France," July, 1790, No. 28. f Brissot, in his " Patriote Francais," of the 6th of August, had said : " They have already given an account of this affair (of d'Hosier and Petit-Jean) in a journal which forms the delight of the agonising aristocracy, and whose author has no partiality for the Committee of Research, douhtless for the selfsame reason that thieves and their ahettors object to the light. I have only reckoned up in this somewhat faithless article of the ' Mercure,' eighteen lies in twenty-four lines. ' Ab uno disce omnes.' This is the man who dispenses certificates of probity and patriotism to MM. Mounier and Lally-Tollendal ; the man who acts the Don Quixote in all conspi- racies .... The man, moreover, who had the rascality to stain what is most holy, to ridicule the fraternal banquet of the 10th of July, celebrated in London by the friends of the Revolution ; that banquet- pledge of the future union of the two nations ; the man who cast scorn on Dr. Price, a philanthropist grown old in the exercise ot virtue, in combats for liberty." The next day Bi^sot returned to the charge. " .... I have fully weighed the term rascality, and am readv to justify its application in any court. 1 have a greater hatred of calumny than any one ; above all, 1 hate to hate, but &c, &c." — "Patriote Francais," of the 7th of August. 208 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF fulness is necessary in official situations, when we see that men elevated to them, most violent declaimcrs beforehand against the abuse of authority, become capable of en- forcing the most dreadful excesses ! Well, my last word to this menacing inquisitor is, that I have ever been and shall ever be prepared to have my actions, my writings, my words and my thoughts arraigned in any court of justice ; nor do I even decline that identical one which he compro- mises by his accusations, and which, I doubt not, is far from approving the extravagances of this calumnious news- monger . . . ."* It is known that a duel took place between Barnarve and Cazales ; the latter was dangerously wounded : that wound saved his life. " M. de Cazales is out of danger," says the " Mercurc ;" " he had been wounded in the head by the second thrust of his adversary ; fortunately his hat, and his attitude prevented the blow from being mortal. During his illness he received numerous and most touching proofs of esteem and affection, and was also the object of the most fierce attacks. We have heard it regretted that his accident was not fatal ; and some even dared to repeat approvingly a speech uttered amidst crowds in public places, that, if M. Cazales had killed M. Barnarve, he would have been massacred himself. A false report of his death was received by these cannibals with undisguised joy. After twenty years experience we are ready to repeat, what we have ever maintained, that no noble sentiment, no moral principle, no natural affection, can withstand the withering and venomous effects of political fanaticism; a passion * "Mercure dc France," August, 1790, No. 1)3. MALLET DU PAN. 209 which converts the grosser and less humane portion of mankind into tigers, while it perverts generous nations by inuring them to ferocious desires least compatible with their character. Such at the present day is the spirit of justice inculcated in the lower classes : whoever differs in opinion from their flatterers is declared worthy of death ; and whoever remarks it will be, like ourselves, denounced in sanguinary libels, where the people every day may read new sentences of proscription, such as, a vile slave, a partizan of tyranny, an outrageous aristocrat. Liberty in France at this moment, revolves within this circle."* Tt was well said by Mirabcau, on an occasion when it was proposed to send an address to the army, exhorting them to remember the obligations imposed on them by their oath : " It is time to make a declaration of duties." The " Mercure" noted that this remarkable avowal de- serves to be borne in mind : " Then it is confessed that the declaration of the rights of man was liable to abuse, as had been foretold by so many men of penetration at Versailles. Then it is true that a declaration of duties is necessary, though indig- nantly rejected at Versailles, in despite of the prophetic eloquence of M. Redon ! What crimes and disasters might not have been spared to the nation by M. Mirabeau, if he had made the above avowal a year ago."f Mirabeau having insisted more strongly than any other man on the danger of too frequent and too comprehensive popular elections, the "Mercure" again remarks, while congratulating the author on this change of opinion : * " Mercuie do France," August, 1790. 1 Ibid., August, 1 79'), Xo. 35. VOL. I. I' 210 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " The elections are no longer composed of sages, incor- ruptible patriots, and unprejudiced philosophers : M. de Mirabeau informs us, for the first time, that popular assemblies are the stronghold of faction, cabal, intrigue, and corruption."* At the beginning of September, 1790, in consequence of the popular cry which, at tbe very doors of the Assembly, demanded the dismissal of ministers who had betrayed their country, Necker secretly quitted a ministry which he had rejoined amid the acclamations of Paris and of France. The reflections which this catastrophe of so much political glory suggested to Mallet, are worthy of insertion at full length : "The causes of M. Necker's precipitate departure, the indifference with which the public viewed it, his arrest on the road, the letter from the President of the Assembly to the ex-minister, are facts full of meaning that deserve to be recorded in the history of our day. They will be a lesson to public men ; and would be to the nations also, if these ever listened to any except from their flatterers. " Not fifteen months ago, M. Necker was the object of fanatical idolatry : his name headed the revolution : a sedi- tion at Versailles punished the King for having withdrawn from him his confidence : the chiefs of the communes, adroitly identifying their interest with his, overwhelmed him with condolences on his misfortune, with congratula- tions on his return. The day of his departure in the fol- lowing month, was a day of mourning and very nearly of blood. His bust, carried in triumph through the capital as the palladium of liberty, set all heads on fire; the * " Mercure de France," September, 1790, No. 38. MALLET DU PAN. 21 1 theatres were closed, and, in this public calamity, the Assembly and the people vied with each other in advising the Kins: to recal his minister. " He returned : he showed himself at that H6tel-de- Ville, where the monarch had preceded him some days before. Louis XVI. had been told that his people had made conquest of him ; M. Necker appeared as the con- queror both of people and court. Frenzied acclamations marked his triumphal entry ; he was intoxicated with adulatory harangues ; the pompous compliments of the National Assembly followed those of the capital ; the momentary exaltation was delightful — but the downfall fol- lowed next day. If M. Necker had hoped to save France by ruling its legislators, he was promptly undeceived. On the first trial of his power, he met with rebuffs ; his name and his opposition to the court were no longer needed ; his courtiers became his masters. In vain did he timidly address them ; his advances were not responded to ; his ascendancy declined from day to day ; the deference paid him in matters of finance could not compensate for the discredit attached to his opinions. He lavished them in vain, and, by a remarkable fatality, his political councils were unsuccessful, except in the memorable discussion on the absolute veto, against which he declared, yet not till he had been convinced by M. Mounier. They worked on his weakness and fears to bring him to a decision. " The same feeling of dread soon carried him into the vortex of the torrent ; he swam with the waves, instead of stemming them ; he saw the monarchy strike on the rocks, without having the power to work at the helm. He withdrew his confidence from the last defenders of r 2 212 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF royal authority, in the vain hope of subduing its enemies, who took advantage of his illusion. They flattered rather than enlightened him ; ineffectually did he struggle against the despotic rule which was rising on the ruins of the Government ; he was not even allowed a share in it : his remonstrances, his communications, listened to at first with transport, and acceded to with acclamations, now inspired impatience, and at last murmurs. In vain did he address the Assembly in a tone of submission and flattery, entitling it a galaxy of light, a senate of sages ; he met with no response from policy, ambition, or hatred. Complaints at last were made of the continual interference of the Minister of Finance, in the administration of his own department ; his office was changed to that of Public Treasurer, at the very moment when he was reproached for not devising general measures. Attacks of a more private nature weighed on his sensitive mind ; and the very man whose return had been hailed by illuminations all over France, and whose head was bowed down a year ago under the weight of civic crowns, was reduced to carry on a contest of pamphlets with M. Camus and a herd of contemptible journalists. "It cannot be disputed that M. Necker ought not to have been content to remain so long the spectator of his own degradation. The commotion of Thursday the 2nd, made him resolve to retire. It is certain, that at eight o'clock in the evening, M. de la Fayette despatched an aide-de-camp to warn him of impending danger, and exhort him to quit his house. Accompanied by the aide- de-camp, he went to his country seat at St. Ouen, whence he sent in his resignation to the National Assembly. MALLET DU PAN. 213 Some curiosity having been excited in the village by his nocturnal and unlooked-for arrival, he judged it prudent to absent himself; and after wandering till break of day in the valley of Montmorency, he returned to Paris in the morning. Nothing was wanting as the climax of his singular destiny, but the insult offered him at A.rcis-sur- Aube. We shall pass over the general report, that he was indebted for this affront to the ardent zeal of a person well known : so infamous a manoeuvre cannot be credited without positive proof. " What party spirit, hatred and libels can never de- prive him of, is the merit due to pure integrity, in the midst of corruption, disinterestedness in an age of venality, indefatigable zeal in the labours of his office, constant attention to the miseries of the people, and a spirit of order and moderation in the administration of the finances, without w 7 hich the risk is increased of ruining a declining state, or of overthrowing it by violent measures. " Sagacious men, who are still members of the National Assembly, advised M. Necker, immediately after his re- turn, to present a general account of the expenditure, and of the requisite funds, to secure the consent of the house to his views, or to resign. He set off in another track, and preferred risking innovations and embarrass- ments, which could but lead to the defeat of his object. " It is worthy of note, that this Minister, whose writ- ings were a perpetual homage to opinion, should have been the chosen victim of its vicissitude's. The reason was, that M. Necker always confounded the opinion of Paris, of prejudice, and of the moment, with that which 214 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF time and wisdom profess and consecrate. He thought himself irremovably fixed on his sandy pyramid ; he strikingly justified those who express contempt for the renown of a day. People erred in adoring him in 1789 ; they also erred in maligning him in 1790. " It is easy to conceive that citizens, ruined, burned out, persecuted, proscribed for fifteen months past ; that the advocates of deliberations, by the orders, severally, or of the declaration of the 23rd of June ; that even the opponents of both these systems, who intrenched liberty behind the negative power of the Crown, should have withdrawn their esteem and confidence from M. Necker ; but that the disciples of the principles which he carried out triumphantly, and of the truths which have been rendered odious by unjust and cruel perversion — that those on whom M. Necker lavished deference, to whom he sacrificed everything, his own views not excepted ; whose projects he furthered by condescension, whose exaggera- tions he flattered, whose interests he scrupulously con- sulted, should have consigned him to public detestation ; that the people whom his personal credit and his care saved from starvation ; that the people, prostrate before him, when he opposed the Crown, should, when the Crown had no more to relinquish, have demanded his head — this is a phenomenon which must inspire a horror of public favour, and afford consolation for the loss of popularity. " May M. Necker forget the weakness which rendered him too anxious concerning these ; the downfall of his glory, the French monarchy destroyed under his adminis- tration, and the ill-considered promise he rashly made in MALLET DU PAN. 215 December, 1789, in an address worthy of eternal record, when he assured a virtuous prince who confided to him the interests of the throne, that under the shelter of his policy, the people would be more obedient, and the monarch more happy. " # Advantage was taken of these observations on M. Necker, to attack another point of their author's character. The accusation and the defence are recorded in the following passage inserted in the " Mercure :" " I believe myself to have maintained in this article the moderation suitable to a man whose conscience and whose pen will never be influenced by considerations of hatred or of favour. I still believe it ; and assuredly abuse only adds to the steadfastness of my opinion. While 1 ex- pressed it cautiously amidst the clash of furious passions and mortifying indifference in regard to M. Necker ; in his own country, imbecile disciples of Brissot, Marat, and Desmoulins, were propagating a report that I was paid bv the aristocrats to vilify M. Necker ; that I was taking: my revenge for not having been consulted by that minister ; that I was insincere on the subject of the veto, with a score of similar turpitudes. I shall not condescend to answer so much baseness, and indeed only mention this to comfort those who might imagine that only in Paris do we find this vile species of calumniators, at once too stupid to discuss opinions, and sufficiently base to ascribe them, in those who have the frankness to avow any, to disgraceful motives. "f In other respects, Mallet gave 1 proof of his impartiality * "Mercure tie France," September, 1790, No. 38. I Ibid., October, 1790, No. 44. 216 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF by defending M. Necker and the other ministers from the contradictory allegations brought against them in the Assembly (sittings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th October), at once by the loft and the right. Cazales accused them of having betrayed the royal authority, and occasioned all the misfortunes of the monarchy ; while on the opposite side of the Assembly they were reproached with not having ruled in accordance with the spirit of the Revolution. The speech of Cazales, expressed with eloquent brilliancy, but little generosity, the long-cherished resentment of his party against the policy of the Necker administration. Mallet du Pan judged that the more M. de Cazales' loyalty, the beauties of his speech, the vividness of his ideas, and the justice of many of his motives merited esteem, the more essential it became to weigh his words impartially : " On reading the withering epithets and contemptuous expressions employed by this orator, we can scarcely recognise that moderation which presides even over the National Assembly, when personal comments are made : a moderation which M de Cazales habitually exemplifies. On other lips one would imagine this bitter and caustic language to emanate from the head of a party, or from a personal enemy ; and undoubtedly the orator has here yielded to a zeal whose motives I honour, but whose ex- pressions I consider exaggerated and impolitic. " There is no greater injustice, to my thinking, than the charge levelled at M. Necker of having preferred his own ambition and security, to the duty of guiding the Assembly to the administration of Finance. It is impossible to guide one who will not be guided ; — to guide one who at the first step tutors his teacher; to guide the governor who razes MALLET DU PAN. 217 all his fortifications, burns his magazines, and opens his gates ; to turn afterwards upon the engineer with the accu- sation of having ill defended the fortress. It is impossible to re-organize the finances in the midst of universal anarchy, annihilation of rule, impunity of disorder, and the fanati- cism which, to gratify the people, dries up the sources of public revenue : to re-organize finances without credit, without taxes, without public power, without confidence. At the opening of the States General, M. Necker stated the deficit and the means to supply it. Was it he who conceived new systems, increased the burden, and propped it by a paper currency ? Do not let us give the lie to facts, but leave the blame to those who incurred it. To accuse M. Necker of the ruin of our finance, is to accuse him of the loss of the battle of Ramillies."* Here occurs an episode characteristic of the journalist's life at this period. It is easy to believe that after the threatening visits, of which an account has already been given, revolutionary fury gave no quarter to the author of the " Mercure." The clubs, Brissot's gazette, and others, heaped upon him calumnies and accusations : " I only opposed," Mallet could declare with all sincerity, " I only opposed to this harassing warfare my present and past life. I laid it open to the scrutiny of malice and rage. I continued with the firmness which befits an honest man, to express principles which were not implanted in me by the revolution, and which have taught me to recognize the grave of liberty, of public order, and of the State, in exaggerated enthusiasm and blundering inexperience. " It is easy to believe that this course of conduct, to * " Mercure cle France," October, 17D0, No. 38. 218 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF which I owe the esteem of all to whom honour, self-respect, and love of freedom, are not unknown, disarmed not one of the passions whose workings my calling condemns me to record week by week." During the latter months of 1790, he was the object of fresh hostilities, of which he himself gives an account illus- trative of the blindness of the times : " On Monday the 15 th, I was informed that, in certain public places, I had become an object of those motions by which individuals, arrogating to themselves the verdict of the nation, dispose of the lives of citizens. Several journals on the next day, held me up to the mob, as a preacher of counter-revolution, an aristocrat who stirred up the people against the taxes, an underling of despotism wanting in respect to certain deputies. To complete these writings, dictated by want, jealousy and fanaticism, and suited to carry us back to the morrow of St. Bartholomew, it was only wanting that they should be written in my blood. Their success was soon evident : towards noon I was warned that a mob collected in the neighbourhood, were threatening to treat my house like that of M. de Castries. Happily, sanctiores erant aures populi quam corda sacer- dotum, and the craving teachers of the multitude failed to work them up to the required pitch. " Next day the disturbance continued, and on Thursday morning a deputation desiring to speak with me was announced. Fourteen or fifteen strangers, of whom half remained in the court-yard, composed this embassy. One of them, addressing me, informed me that they were deputed by the patriotic societies of the Palais-Royal, to give me notice} to change my principles, and to discontinue MALLET DU PAN. 219 my attacks on the constitution ; otherwise the most violent extremities would be resorted to against me. He added that they had prevented the Palais-Royal from descending upon my abode, and that their notice was meant in kind- ness. ' I recognize,' I replied to this deputy and his col- leagues, ' no authority except that of the law and the tribunals. Let me be arraigned before them ; I am pre- pared to answer for my actions and my writings. It is strange that in a country where freedom of the press has been proclaimed, and where it is atrociously abused, any man should outrage it by such proceedings.' ' But, Sir,' was the reply, ' you attack the decrees, the National Assembly, the patriots, the champions of liberty.' ' The law alone,' I answered, ' is your judge and mine. It is an offence against the constitution to interfere with the liberty of thought and writing.' ' The public will is the constitu- tion,' rejoined the first speaker ; ' the will of the strongest party is the law. You are under the rule of the strongest party, and must submit to it. We make known to you the choice of the people — and that is law.' "In fact, I cannot doubt the terrible truth that we were living under the law of might ; but I vainly endeavoured to make them feel that liberty and compulsion are incom- patible. Five or six were speaking at once, and contra- dicting each other. One of them, having reproached me with filling the " Mercure" with false facts, I invited him to prove his position by bringing forward these facts : he quoted M. de Castries' affair ; and I had some difficulty in convincing him that as the last " Mercure " was issued before this event, it was impossible I should have men- tioned it at all. One of the deputies agreed in this obser- 220 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF vation ; which proves how greatly they had been imposed upon. Others, reverting to general grievances, accused me of favouring the ancient system, and of speaking incessantly of the executive power. ' The ancient system,' I answered, ' neither has had nor ever will have a more inveterate enemy than myself, who have suffered more than any other from its oppression. Bring forward one line of the " Mercure " expressive of a desire for its renewal. As to the royal authority — yes, certainly, I will defend it even until violence stops my mouth, as the firmest rampart of your freedom, and as the pledge of the preservation of the monarchy.' ' Oh !' they replied with one accord, ' we should be very sorry to be without a King : we love the King, and will defend his authority ; but you are forbidden to act against the prevalent opinion, and against the liberty decreed by the National Assembly." " ' — Gentlemen,' I resumed, ' I did not come to France to learn liberty of you. I was born in its native element ; for twenty years I lived amid its storms ; it is not within the last twenty-four hours that I have studied its laws. Is there a single scrap of evidence, to indicate the true road ? Wait for experience, and till then respect liberty of opinion. I do not give out mine as infallible ; but no one on this point has more right than myself. Is it in the midst of anarchy that you expect to judge of the results of theories which run counter to the authority of all ages and of all philosophers ? Some day, perhaps, you will thank me for having tried to save you from the errors into which others are dragging you, and for having defended those principles which I consider alone consonant with the interests and the libertv of the nation." MALLET DU PAN. 221 " Again they answered me, that I must not oppose the will of the people, disobey the decrees and provoke the nation. ' At any rate,' added one of the party, ' we have executed our office ; and your only plan, unless you are willing to brave the justice of the people, is to alter your opinion.' ' It is in your power,' I replied, ' to use violence against me which I have no means to oppose ; to burn my house, and to drag me to the scaffold ; but never will you compel me to be an apostate. I cannot resist main force ; if this takes the pen from my hand, I shall relinquish it without regret.' " I heard one voice deplore my infatuation : another speaker urged me, in a friendly manner, to subscribe to the dominant opinions, and to write in favour of them : he even did me the honour to say that they would come and thank me. ' On the contrary,' I answered while thank- ing him, ' I should so earn your contempt, and you cannot deem so ill of me as to believe me capable of such baseness. Moreover, I repeat that, being as I am destitute of all per- sonal interest in these political debates, and having propa- gated my opinions only in the manner authorized by the law and the good of all, if main force deprives me of that liberty which the law gave but cannot secure to me, I shall depart to seek some refuge when 1 it is safe from violence.' " Thus terminated our quarter of an hour's interview: I relate it from my own recollections, and those of some per- sons present. It would be unjust to omit stating that this odious mission could not have been executed more consi- derately ; that not one of the deputies failed in civility towards me ; that several among them even showed signs of interest in my behalf; that the only one who gave his 222 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF name, M. Fournier, took pains to reassure my wife and children, who witnessed this scene ; and if I have anything to complain of, it is that these very well-dressed deputies did not substitute for vague talk with a hundred interrup- tions, a conversation more to the point ; for then, with the 4 Mercure' in my hand, I should have shown them the monstrous character of the calumnies by which their judg- ment had been misled. " On the same day, M. Panckoucke, proprietor of the journals which I edit, received the same summons, deli- vered with the same forms ; although repeatedly and in public, he justly disclaimed all personal responsibility regarding the opinions expressed by the editors."* Such facts sufficiently demonstrate the annihilation of public order, and the inability of the civil laws to ensure the safety of individuals. " How must we reply," observes Mallet, " to those who, following this example, are warranted in saying : What do I care for the rights of man which you have inscribed on parchment, if the right of force lords it over them with impunity ? What care I for rights which are respected by those who are alike powerless to violate, or to defend them ? " The free communication of thought and opinion ranks among the most important rights of man. Every citizen, therefore, may speak, write, publish freely, being responsible in the cases determined by law for his use of this liberty. Either this decree is an egregious deception, or no man can lawfully deprive me of the exercise of this liberty. If every individual society, laving claim to the * "Mercure de France," November, 1790, No. 4£. MALLET DU PAN. 223 power of the people and of public authority, is free to overrule the law, to set up the will of the nation against the sacred privileges of citizens, to anathematize them and execute its own sentence, society is at an end, innocence has lost its refuge, and the constitution becomes nothing more than the absence of all ^government. Here I appeal to the candour of even those who do not hesitate to intrench on that liberty in others which they demand for themselves. What, then, was that ancient system whose tyranny they have prostrated, unless it was the right of the stronger ? What are we the better if lettres de cachet, instead of issuing from the minister's office, are in the power of the clubs, scribblers, and the Palais-Royal?"* The man whom the scribblers pointed out to popular fury as a foe to the Revolution, had a full right to turn on those who, professing to be its friends, were too oblivious of their past conduct. This Mallet did in the following dignified defence : " I will reply," he says in the same article, " I will reply once for all to the calumnies which obtained for me the domiciliary visit of last week. " I will reply to them in a word, by offering my life and my works to the strictest scrutiny. " I am accused of being an enemy to the Revolution, a mysterious and sacramental name, which, like that of Huguenot in the sixteenth century, now serves as a signal to assassins. If by Revolution, that memorable change worthy the admiration of ages is understood, in conse- quence of which an absolute monarchy, cankered with abuses, already dissolved before its downfall, was to give * " Mercure de France," November, 1790, No. 48. 224 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF place to a legal and orderly government, of which the King, in his paternal abnegation, had himself laid the foundations, no one has conceived or expressed more im- passioned and disinterested desires for the success of so noble an enterprise. " But, if the so-called love for the Revolution, is no more than an outcry of enmity and violence ; if it consists in drawing down, every three months, some catastrophe, and then applauding it ; in setting no limits to an anarchy favourable only to the factious, and allowing no choice in the means of acquiring liberty ; if it consists in ignoring all principles, and gradually undermining the constitution ; in interfering with public order, safety, and individual freedom, under the pretext of civic zeal ; in giving rise to a fearful warfare between weak and strong ; in persecuting on mere suspicion ; in renewing insurrections for a doubt ; and in erecting the sovereignty of the people into an unbounded despotism, multiplied by as many times as there are sections in the empire ; — if this, I say, is what we are to acknowledge as the most admirable system of human government, — let us have things as they were. " Shall I add, that one of my crimes is attacking those whom reporters and newsmongers denominate the champions of freedom ? Certainly, it is not on the word of a few journalists that history and posterity will award titles. It is not in the heat of battle, nor in the darkness of tempest, that one can distinguish crests. Certain friends of the people arc, in my eyes, the executioners of their rights : no law can force me to submit my opinion on this matter to any other person. Time will decide between opposite views; and till then J will not bestow MALLET DU PAN. 225 the prostituted name of champion of freedom on any one who fails to respect and defend the liberty of all. " As to my political principles, they are my concern, and mine only : anterior to the Revolution, the Revolution has given them an additional hold upon my mind. I have avowed them often enough, and with sufficient energy, to remove suspicion from every honest reader; but as a renewed profession of them is required, I declare, that, as a zealous admirer of the principles of the British Constitution, I persist in regarding those as the onlv ones adapted to any extensive State in which the monarchy is to be preserved ; the only ones which combine the rights of freedom with those of authority, and popular influence with legal subordination; and which, by a well-ordered balance of powers, restrain all from excess, by opposing the interest of each to mutual usurpation, and the interest of all to attempts that violate the constitution. " Without this proportion, countenanced by experience ; without the division of the legislation, and the rigorously concentrated unity of executive power, I cannot imagine a representative government as anything but a stage for unruly factions, of which the end is to bring back speedily either the most stormy democracy, if the people take into their own hands the direct exercise of their authority, or an oppressive aristocracy, if it succeeds in seducing or lulling them to sleep. " Thus, since I have attained the faculty of reason, a twenty years' abode in the midst of popular troubles having also ripened my judgment, mixed governments have appeared to me the only ones suited to human vol i. a 226 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF nature ; the only ones which allow of just and enduring laws; the only ones, more especially, capable of com- bination with the moral degeneracy at which the people of modern times have arrived. "Must I repeat it? Such was the invincible opinion of a man whose maxims others dare to distort and borrow — of J. J. Rousseau, who, by the definition he gave of the essential conditions of democracy, has banished it for ever from the midst of us. " Even were my doctrine erroneous, I should not dream of disclaiming it at a moment when no one tolerates dis- cussion, and when all my arguments have only been answered by insolent calumnies ; but certainly this fanatical proscription, which aims at subjugating reason to ideas of a twelvemonth's growth, whereas reason limits itself to defending the fruit of centuries and experience, is a marvellous fact to record in the history of the human mind. That is a very confident vanity which impera- tively rejects the authority of time, the deductions of ages, and the example of nations, by an order to conform to novelties formed on no model, and whose result is hidden in the future. " Let men, careless of the reputation of others, because they are so of their own, adopt and repeat the most atrocious accusations ; let such men even repeat, after these malicious scribblers, whom, for the last time, I lower myself so far as to quote, that my opinions are bought ; let them assert that the ministers and the so-called aristocrats have ensured my voice with hard cash ; I will reply to them, with the son of Mithridates, MALLET DU PAN. 227 "'.... lis ne vous croiront pas ;'* And this is why they won't believe you. I lived six years under the old Government ; and if I did not lose my establishment, if I was not buried in Bastilles, I owe it to the bearing I maintained before the authorities, and to my offers of resignation a hundred times repeated. One of the ministers is still in office : his testimony will not be open to suspicion. The censors who environed me, and who had been tripled for my especial behoof, can speak to the amount of favour I enjoyed. Deter- mined to lose all rather than sacrifice my independence, I had frequently declared, to various ministers, that they might suppress everything I wrote, but that they would never force from me a word of praise, nor one line, against my own conscience. " Thus, whilst in verse and prose, so many impassioned writers grew sublime, for a consideration, over the acts of the members of the Government ; whilst they celebrated the vilest courtiers, I was looked upon as a notable detractor of royalty — an unmanageable republican. Favours were showered on these generous men of letters. Well ! now- a-days all these obscure valets of the opinion and power of the moment are heroes of liberty, the friends of the people, the anti-ministerial declaimers. As for me, I am the slave and pensioner of the Court. " Assuredly, my name has not been found down upon either the ' red-books,' or the registers of bounties and pensions. I have not shared even in those granted as * Mallet is in error here. It is in the mouth of Burrlms, when repelling- the accusations and threats of Agrippina, that Racine placed this noble answer. Q 2 228 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF acquittances on the enormous dues paid by political papers. 1 congratulate myself that it is so ; not through a ridiculous disinterestedness, but because, having a right to such favours, I cannot reproach myself with a single letter, a single step, a single visit, a single solicitation, which could tend to call it to mind. I asked for nothing, received nothing : and would to God the Revolution had only enlisted men equally free from obligation ! It would not have made so many ingrates. " I have often, doubtless, adopted the defence of minis- ters, and still oftener that of the constitutional authority, which they were commissioned to uphold. I take pride in having raised my voice against the atrocity of the combined defamation and accusations levelled against the Chancellor and Messieurs de St. Priest and de la Tour du Pin. In doing so, I rendered homage to truth, far more precious than the ministers. The riches I acquired in this contest, consisted in the share I drew down on myself of the disfavour to which they were exposed. There is nothing but cowardice in attacking public men without power, unable to do good or harm, and w T hose support is not worth that of a street demagogue : the courage lies in daring to defend them. " I shall be pardoned for the length of this personal digression ; I conclude it by applying to my opinions these lines of Voltaire : "'.... Itenoncer aux dieux que Ton croit dans son occur, Cost lc crime d'un lache, et non pas une erreur ; Cost quitter a la fois, sous un masque hypocrite, Et le dieu que Ton sert et le dieu que Ton quitte, C'est mentir au ciel meme, a, l'univers, a soi.' " MALLET DU PAN. 229 Shortly after this occasion, Mallet had an opportunity of proving that he was perfectly insensible to intimidation. Many persons, perhaps, did not expect that a Pro- testant and a Genevese would raise an eloquent voice in behalf of the Catholic clergy ; yet no one at this time branded with more energy the odious ill-treatment lavished on ecclesiastics : " No sitting of the National Assembly has been reported by the journalists with more unfaithfulness, suppression of truth and collusion, than that of the 4th, when the clergy was called upon to take the new civic oath. These scribblers have similarly deceived the public as to the number of ecclesiastics who subscribed to that obligation. " We speak not a word save on authenticated informa- tion. In that horrible tumult, many persons were knocked down and injured. Atrocious placards had been posted up in several churches, among others at St. Paul's, where, as also at St. Roche and St. Germain 1'AuxeiTois, the same scandal was repeated. " Posterity will easily understand the expropriation of the clergy, the reduction of its revenues, the abolition of its privileges, the changes effected in its discipline. Opinions will be divided, fifty years hence as at the present day, on the necessity of this reform ; but what will be contemplated only with a shudder of indignation is the pitiless inveteracy which persecutes the members of this unfortunate order ; they excite the compassion even of the impious. Strangers learn with horror the threats with which they have been overwhelmed these twenty months. Is it conceivable that our effeminate character should be so cruel ? — that, at the moment when 230 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF jugglers smear their boards with the words of virtue, tolerance, humanity, liberty ; men are not satisfied with the ruin of the clergy, its abasements, the deprivation of its honours, its credit ; but heap on it, day by day, ignominy and outrage, while profiting by its spoils ; that wretches dare constantly to speak of assassinating, at the first mur- mur of complaint, those whose property the nation has just confiscated? " Those who excite daily the public fury against ecclesi- astics, are the very writers who, when under the yoke, most loudly cried for tolerance. According to them, the clergy is not only to submit to any sacrifice- — they forbid it even to murmur. If the smallest perquisite of their own is disputed, their fortune menaced by decree the least in the world, they rave of tyranny, and the lights of property. Among these vultures, who, not content with devouring their prey, delight in tearing it with their talons, are recognized with horror the old vampires of the nation, usurers, and the whole train of stock-jobbers. " Hear the echoes to which the scribblers daily minister in their imprecations against the priests. They defend the cause of primitive Christianity ; they ivould restore religion to its purity ; they barn to secure religious liberty to the human race. Joining thus hypocrisy to inhumanity, they despotically impose laws on the conscience of the ecclesias- tics, and give them their choice either of murderous outrage, or of stifling their scruples. And it is at an epoch when religious principles have given place to the blindest scepti- cism, when some maniac who has taken his creed from the ' Systeme de la Nature,' menaces with the lanterne the bish<»p who will ict sacrifif i his own opinions to him, that MALLET DU PAN. 231 it is attempted, on penalty of defamation and perils, to compel an oath which the legislature has left optional. One phenomenon was wanting to our age — that of atheism, a persecutor. We shall owe the honour of it to the teaehers who charge themselves at present with the educa- tion of the universe."* Miraheau, as may have been noticed, inspired a mistrust in Mallet, which rendered him but little susceptible to the sometimes forced energy and warmth of his eloquence. He was far, however, from denying the oratorieal powers and the genius of this great actor in the Revolution. On the death of Miraheau, we find the following passage- in the "Mercure:" " Desiring neither to interrupt the storm of homage, nor to minister to the cravings of hatred or injustice, I resign these first moments to the rhetoricians. It is well to leave free course to passion, apotheoses, funeral orations and diatribes. Respect for truth should always be subordinated to the duties of decorum. When feelings are more calm, and when I shall have thought over my own, I will state the opinion which M. de Miraheau leaves me of him- self, without wishing to gain over that of any one else.f * " Mercure de France," January 12, 1791, No. 1. t The moment for doing this did not come at once. It was but a few months prior to his death, in 1S00, in the " Mercure Britan- nique," that Mallet took occasion to characterize the share of Mira- heau in the Revolution. This judgment is dispassionate, indeed, and remarkably moderate. In particular, he vindicates Miraheau, against the opinion of M. de Molleville, from all participation in the attacks on Versailles (3th and Oth of October). "The presumptions then formed against him were founded on tli detestable reputation of the accused, and his not less odious exj res- 232 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " The man whose memory excites thus, and in opposite senses, the conflict of opinions, can have heen no common man. M. de Mirabeau carries with him the regrets, not only of his adherents, but also of a section of the minority, which built hopes and projects on the secret views of this party leader." These last lines are to be remarked. Mallet knew some- what of the negotiations of the Court with Mirabeau, but he expected little result from them, and did not, like his friend Malouet, believe that Mirabeau had arrived at the moment, when, without compromising his popularity, he could render it useful to the common weal.* In fact, is not the power attributed to Mirabeau of re- possessing himself of the Revolution, because he had let sions in the Assembly, on that same 5th of October, even more than on the depositions, so inconclusive, discordant and conjectural, con- tained in the worthless farrago collected by Le Chatelet. " Now that time has quieted the first heat excited by this pro- ceeding, it must be allowed that no judge would venture to issue a warrant for the arrest of an accused person on evidence so frivolous. " We have long sought to fathom the mystery of this fearful event. We have compared accounts of all kinds, and collected authorities in sufficiency. These investigations have convinced us, that Mirabeau participated neither in the conception nor in the execution of this crime, whose uncongenial incentives have never been known other- wise than imperfectly. " But, like several others of the factions in the Assembly, to whom every great disturbance was a delight, a benefit and a means, Mirabeau was glad to see the King, the royal family and the govern- ment, enveloped in a storm which placed them at the mercy of the demagogues of the moment." — Mercure Britannifjuc, No. 33. ' See, in the "Mercure" of April, 17U1, No. 15, a remarkable opinion of Mirabeau, by Malouet. MALLET DU PAN. 233 it loose — of recommencing the work because he had been the chief workman, an opinion so generally entertained at the present day — one of those hypotheses in which history delights to take shelter from the contradiction she is too often compelled to give to the conjectures of reason ? All Mirabeau's deficiency in claims to respect, in reliable character — all that compromising past which clung to him — were nothing, opposed to his wonderful power of working on the feelings, as long as that power acted in accordance with the revolutionary passions and interests so tumultuouslv excited- The movement which carried public attention far away from the past, scarcely allowed it time to contemplate the present. But, should the movement slacken, or stop, the prestige ceases, reality reappears, and the hero, as though deprived of his enchantment, will vanish, an object of indifference to the multitude. Aladdin has lost his lamp. Mirabeau, like a superior mind and a good citizen, decided for royalty in distress against the unpopularity which threatened him, and which indeed reached him at times. How could he have long continued to resist, when he scarcely maintained his ground without gaining a step on his enemies, that is, on all the enemies of royalty ? And God knows whether they were formidable. Brissot declares, that had Mirabeau lived, he would have stifled the Revo- lution. The assertion is natural enough from the demagogue who had to justify his hatred ; and this opinion proves more- over, how much it was the interest of the revolutionists to destroy him, and with what zeal they would have dune so. What mar., even were he greater than Mirabeau, could have made head against this virulence, this determined and unscru- pulous hostility V Mirabeau died opportunely for the per- 234 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF manence of his name and the poetic gratification of future generations. A few days more would have only served to give him time to descend into the ranks, obscure indeed, of the martyrs of reason and moderation, and to die vanquished. Perhaps at this day, we should not talk more of him than of the virtuous Bailly : the great Mirabeau would be to us merely a brilliant orator of the Constituent Assembly, an illustrious victim of revolutionary ingratitude. On what terms did he enter into alliance with the Court ? Was his political conscience in unison with the compact ? Questions solved for us at the present day in a sense just to this celebrated man, who, on this occasion set a price on his services, but did not sell his opinions. As for Mallet, it was not till at an after period that he noted down in his private diary some details on these combinations, derived from M. de Montmorin and from Malouct : " Mirabeau, devoted to the King's interest for a year before his death, had at his command all the money he asked for. ' He was not interested,' says M. de Mont- morin ; ' I used to give him all he asked for : this has amounted to twelve thousand francs per month.' The King had secured to him in bills signed by the royal hand, two million five hundred thousand livres, to be paid the moment his plan of counter-revolution was executed. Six months ago M. de Montmorin was still in possession of these ten bills for two hundred and fifty thousand livres each. " This plan of a counter-revolution was drawn up ;it M. do Montmorin's house, in a memorial that still exists, in which the National Assembly is spoken of with horror MALLET DU PAN. 235 and with the deepest contempt. Mirabeau proposed insti- tuting : first, a system of corruption in the tribunals, the sections, the clubs ; second, a system of publications ; third, inspectors of the registers, to be sent into the departments under pretext of verifying the rolls of taxes, but really to distribute these publications, and so gain over the members of the directories ; fourth, to incite the King's departments to send in addresses demanding the dissolution of the Assembly, and the formation of a new legislative bod)' ; fifth, M. de Bouille and his army were to support these addresses. He forwarded this plan to M. de Bouille, who still retains it." This is probably only a sketch of the great memorial, which Mirabeau sent the Queen three months before his death. The sketch is undoubtedly somewhat audacious, yet it appears to us uncontradicted by any point in the detailed analysis drawn up by M. Lucas-Montigny of this important work ; of which Mirabeau said that with it he had fathomed the depths of the abyss* As to the price * Now, at length, history will gain possession of all the docu- ments belonging to the long, unprofitable negociation carried on between Mirabeau and the Court, through the intervention of Count de la March. What M. Sainte-Beuve has already made known, in his fine political portrait of Mirabeau (" Constitutionnel," May 5th, 18.51), concerning the letters and notes about to be published by M. de Bacourt, is of the most interesting nature, and exalts con- siderably the estimate of Mirabeau's intentions and political genius. These notes will doubtless show that the Court erred in accepting so late, and following so imperfectly, the counsels of the chief of the Revolution : by bringing him forward as a statesman, these will materially prejudice M. de La Fayette's historical renown, a> M. Saintc-Bcuve so well remark.-, but we venture to predict that 236 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF paid for Mirabeau's services, the amount is unimportant, the fact being but too certain. However unwilling we may feel to pass in review these sad proofs of the relaxa- tion of morals and degradation of character at the close of the eighteenth century , justice and truth alike compel us to remember that among the heads of the Constituent As- sembly, others beside Mirabeau proved themselves open to bribery. If M. de Montmorin, if such men as Malouet, did not impose on Mallet du Pan, who in his notes merely repeats their testimony, we must believe that the minister actually saw some of those whom Mirabeau had indicated, as attached by anticipation to the project for a restoration ; that he offered, and that they accepted pledges of a pecuniary nature. Other deputies also had not delicacy sufficient to resist the temptation presented to them by opportunities of profit, which the immense powers assigned to the truly executive committees of the Assembly but too frequently placed within reach of their members. We shall not bring forward the notes in which various indi- viduals are accused, by name, of venality ; we naturally hesitate to reproduce proper names, and can suffi- ciently explain ourselves by quotations from the collection they will still more strongly exhibit the truly culpable imprudence of our orator's excesses and outbursts in the tribune. " One delights in one's own thunders when they awaken so many echoes," observes his last appreciator, with picturesque truthfulness. This more than witty remark is both apt and weighty ; yet we must still admit that the royal party could not accept as pledges of friendship those thunderbolts by which they were scathed ; and which inflicted fresh wounds, while they awaited the promised cure of old ones. At any rate, it is certain that Mirabeau was not exempt from the principal fault of the Court — like it, he wasted a great deal of time. MALLET DU PAN. 237 in which Mallet mentions in general terms those deplorable bargains which, impotent to save the monarchy, only de- graded yet lower the morality of those concerned. October, 1791. — " The civil list has been exhausted in purchasing rogues, by odiously employed means. The monarchical club, likewise, has cost an enormous price. All these sums were destined to purchase Court partizans among the mob, the sections, and the national guard, but they who cost the most, are the deputies of the left. " M. Malouet calling one day at the house of M. Mont- morin, saw Duq issue from it, and reproached the minister for consorting with such a man. ' I despise him and his colleagues as cordially as you can,' replied M. dc M : ' they are base men ; and among all the de- puties whom I receive, you are the only one not bribed by the King.' " 238 MEMOTRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER X. (1791.) Flight from Varennes — Domiciliary visit to Mallet du Pan — On the origin of factions — The King visits the Assembly to sanction the Constitutional Act — Opinion of the " Mercure" on the Con- stituent Assembly. After the death of Mirabeau, events seemed hurried forward by a fresh impetus. The departure of the King's aunts for Italy, and the ohstaelcs thrown in their way, the threatening order laid upon the King not to leave the Tuileries, and the increasing emigration, all added to the importance and the danger of Mallet's courageous frank- ness. To avoid too copious quotations from the " Mer- cure," I reluctantly omit many reflections suggested to him by these incidents, and pass on to the moment when fortune veering about against the masters of the Assembly, surrounded them in their turn with the honourable perils of unpopularity. I will speak of the King's flight. These Memoirs will cast no new light on this well-known event ; concerning which, Mallet's journal only contains extracts from the narrative of an officer, which Mallet himself sub- sequently pronounced inaccurate, and from the manuscript MALLET DU PAN. 239 account written by the Marquis de Bouille, and since published. The article in the "Mercure," on the journey from Varennes was not written by Mallet, for the following reason : on the day of the King's departure, Mallet was returning home with his wife ; when, at some two hundred paces from the house he inhabited in the Rue Taranne, he learned that his domicile was in the occupation of a military detachment headed by a commissary of the section. " On such a day as that of the 21st June," says Mallet, who will best tell his own story. " in the midst of that exces- sive excitement which reigned throughout Paris, it was only prudent to abandon my house to its self-constituted masters. They cross-questioned my servants in hopes of obtaining from them the locality of our temporary abode ; and several among them announced an intention of con- ducting us to the Abbey of Saint-Germain, a second Bastille, which has shut in more innocent persons within the last two years, than the former confined prisoners during the reign of Louis XVI. " The envoys of the section examined my papers, my books and my letters ; transcribed some of these last, carried away both originals and copies, and secur- ing the rest under seal, left them in the guardianship of two fusiliers. I must confess, that never was arbitrary seizure effected with greater order and forbearance. " Next day I wrote to the president of the section, to find out the reason of this invasion, and also to provoke the strictest inquiry. A written report prepared at my house, during my absence, although no person was present to represent me, had been forwarder! by the section along 240 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF with my letters to the Municipal Board of Inquiry. This latter ordered an account of the affair to be drawn up ; the decision was accelerated by the good offices of M. Cahier de Gerville, substitute of the procurator syndic of the com- mune. On the report of this magistrate, I was authorized to require the removal of the seal ; but my letters were retained at the National Assembly's Board of Inquiry; finally, by the end of the fortnight, my house was evacuated and I returned home."* Meanwhile the newspapers published accounts of the flight, or as some said, the death of the author of the " Mcrcure," put to death by the patriots in the RueTaranne. One solitary journalist, M. Parisot, editor of the " Fcuille du jour," dared to stand up in his favour; and called atten- tion to the contrast between the persecution undergone by Mallet, and the impunity, or rather protection, accorded to the most infamous libellers. In reality, Mallet did not leave Paris for a single instant. " I offered no complaint ; for the illegal proceedings of the section of the Luxembourg were amply atoned, for as far I was concerned, by the conjecture and excitement to which they had given rise ; besides, a man taxed with aristocracy by people who call every one who powders his hair an aristocrat, does not defend his cause at Paris against a section."* But he was oppressed by other anxieties than those occasioned by this affair ; and on the first opportunity gave energetic expression to his feelings : :t The paltry fact of my ejectment was," he says, " the * "Mercure," September, 171)1, No. 3G. f Ibid. MALLET DU PAN. 241 slightest of my cares, at the moment of the King's misfor- tunes ; of a prince who can he accused of only a single weakness, that of having believed men to be as virtuous as himself, and having thus put faith in public integrity ; a prince, the solitary individual, perhaps, in his kingdom who ingenuously desired the union of liberty with the monarchy; who had done more for the people's rights than all the sovereigns and demagogues put together of ancient and modern times ; who, voluntarily abating his hereditary and unhappily limitless power, in deference to opinion and the desires of the enlightened, had a right to expect exemption from treatment such as Nero never underwent. I was not born under his rule ; I would shed my blood to main- rain that Republican Government which gave its tone to my childhood, my inclinations, my intellect and my cha- racter ; but I claim with every generous citizen of a free state, the privilege of lamenting the fate of a King who can neither reward nor punish me."* By the time that Mallet regained the liberty to write, he had resolved to write no more ; and this resolution would have been adhered to, had the King, as might then well be feared, and as voices, already terrible, demanded, been dethroned, and a republic established. The recon- cilement of the captive king with the Legislative Assembly, overcame this justifiable repugnance. After two months of silence, during which the " Mercure" was ably con- ducted by Peuchet, Mallet resumed his burdensome em- ployment, but not without giving ample vent to all that weighed upon his heart. In the first place he addressed himself to the supporters of the " Mercure," who had "Mercure/ 1 September, 1791, No. 36. VOL 1 k 242 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF shown great dissatisfaction at his inactivity ; for in revo- lutionary periods it is characteristic of what are called good sort of people, to exact rigidly from others sacrifices and proofs of courage; : — this species of heroism quiets their own consciences. " While renewing the assurance of my gratitude, ti those who have accompanied their complaints by touching marks of interest and attachment, I must express m\ surprise at the singular notions entertained by certain persons. They appear to consider an author in such con- junctures as the present, in the light of a servant whom they have engaged to defend their opinions, and who must mount the breach while they sleep or amuse them- selves. They find it convenient that some one should undertake, at the risk of his life, liberty, and possessions, to serve them up weekly a few pages to satisfy their passions, and be digested with their chocolate: and they regard it as a duty, a debt, that he should sacrifice him- self to their indifference and absurd fancies. These gen- tlemen have captiously endeavoured to convince me, that I had no right to relaxation, that my intrepidity must supply the lack of their's, and that backed by the approach of counter-revolutionists, it was easy to devote myself to tin; public good. These certainly are delightful counsels and delightful securities. I reply to these egotists that the limit of my courage is assigned by reason or by feeling ; never by the bullying of hot-headed men, who without casting one coin or one drop of blood into the scale of danger, are as Eumenides to hurl in others, but men of straw to extricate them." Among the sources of discouragement which had MALLET DU PAN. 243 almost induced Mullet to relinquish his occupation as ;i political writer, some deserve special notice. " ' An inundation of worthless literature, says the ob- servant Montaigne, ' indicates a dissolute age.' We present a melancholy illustration of this truth. If the excesses of the revolution have encountered no check, if violence has become its sole motive power, if our wist; citizens have lost all influence, if fear has paralyzed all courage, even mental ; if most of the events have but dis- played a conflict between perversity and cowardice, if throughout many catastrophes we have met with so few of those generous sentiments, those great deeds, which have shone forth during the most horrible revolutions — we must unquestionably acknowledge, as among the funda- mental causes of this state of things, the impression stamped upon our manners by our inundation of worth- less literature and relaxed habits. Everyone has sought safety in pamphlets. The oppressors have used them as a magazine of tyranny ; the oppressed have relinquished to printers the task of avenging them. Having discharged a volley of abuse at the National Assembly, and of impotent threats at its chiefs, it is believed that the claims of one's country are satisfied. The readers of these diatribes, com- forted, almost triumphant, and finding victory in even- page, have rested confidently on the prodigious effect of these pamphlets, forgotten a week after their appearance. In the midst of all our disorders and msifortunes, they have only regarded the revolution as a skirmish of discus- sions, eloquence, and invectives. When we accustom ourselves to judge and feel by proxy, we become incapable of the smallest personal efforts. What we gain in R 2 244 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF pleasure, we lose in energy of character. The soul's activity, a sacred fire which, unlike that of the intellect, never decays, becomes weakened in the midst of so many disputes. Yet men are designed to aet, rather than to read, in times of social disorder. Wherever you recognise a contrary course, you will also discern symptoms of degeneracy : men immersed in the sea of printed fooleries are no longer capahle of self-guidance : from them look neither for greatness nor for energy : these courtly rushes will bow down beneath the impetuous winds, and arise no more "# During the latter days of 1791, the " Mercure politique" maintained the elevated position to which Mallet had raised it. Some articles on the Origin of Factions specially deserve notice. At the moment when the Assembly was about to cede their stage to other actors, Mallet thought it might be advantageous to enumerate the vent-holes of that conflagration, with which party spirit had undermined France. He commenced by stating the essential differeneo which separates legislators from founders of faction. He demonstrated by the concurrent testimony of history, what arc those causes which produce the plague of political sects ; and sorrowfully observed, while casting a rapid glance on the state of France, that all these causes appeared united in that unhappy country, to perpetuate its disturbance and laceration. Proceeding from these general considerations to their particular application, he undertook to enumerate and characterize the various parties to which were abandoned the National Assembly and France under its rule. This is a masterly picture and * "Mercure," September, 1791, No. SG. MALLET l)T PAN. 245 will be of essential service to future generations : sketched less hurriedly, with more correctness of style, and a more delicate pencil, this would rank among the valuable passages of modern history. Such as it is, it possesses considerable merit ; but the extent and unbroken thread of the treatise preventing us from quoting from it, we can only refer our readers to the papers themselves.* At length the Assembly approached the consummation of their labours. The King came forward solemnly to sanction his acceptance of the constitutional act, and swear fidelity to the law and the nation. The " Mcrcure" gave the following concise account of the proceedings, a recital rich with the simple eloquence of facts : " They had recommenced working at the organization of forest regulations, when an usher announced, ' The King.' The Assembly rose — the majority of the right had disappeared. " His Majesty entered without his blue ribbon, placed himself on the left of the President, and said : " ' Gentlemen, I come hither to sanction solemnly my acceptance of the constitutional act. For this reason I swear fidelity to the nation and the law, and to emplov all the power delegated to me in maintaining the Consti- tution decreed by the National Constituent Assembly, and in executing the laws. May the re-establishment of pence and union date from this great and memorable epoch, and may this become the pledge of happiness to the people, and prosperity to the empire.' " At the moment when the King pronounced the * These articles on the Origin ot Faction are to be tound in the " Mcrcure" for August, September and October, ;>e. '2'J'J, 4'J, 1_> 246 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OP words, ' I swear fidelity to the nation,' the Assembly resumed their seats, and Louis XVI., for the first time in his life — the King of France, for the first time since the foundation of the monarchy — stood to swear fidelity to his seated subjects ; but these, having possession of the sove- reignty, beheld in the King merely their highest salaried functionary, legally liable to dethronement. Having uttered the words : ' National Constituent Assembly,' the King, becoming aware, that he alone was standing, traversed the chamber with a look in which benevolence was even more visible than surprise. His Majesty sat down and continued his discourse. " Everywhere resounded cries of, ' Long live the King !' The chancellor presented the Constitution to him for sig- nature ; the Assembly stood up ; the King signed ; the Assembly reseated itself ; and M. Thouret, the president, having only risen for the first words: 'Abuses of long standing,' — and then sitting down with fraternal and civic familiarity, read his discourse to the Kino;."* On the breaking up of the Constituent Assembly, with the declaration that their mission was accomplished, Mallet summed up the (pinions he had at various times pronounced on the legislators and their work. Accus- tomed as we are to think of them with that respect and admiration which is due to their early proceedings, though the majority of their acts compromised them too soon, we shall find Mallet's conclusions extremely severe, vet scarcely he able to contest their truth. " Only by denying positive and authenticated facts, the Constituent Assembly hides from itself that its dogmas k ' .1 , i \\ ml , i- ll, |7!M. N'ii :C MALLET 1)1 PAN. 247 and operations annihilate all religious principle; leave our morals in the lowest state of abasement; every vice at full liberty ; the right of possession attacked and sapped at its very foundation ; our military and naval forces in a worse condition than when the rule of the Assembly commenced ; that it has shaken, if not annihilated, all military organi- zation ; that it has left our finance ruined — our national debt considerably augmented, the annual deficit increased by one-half, according to the most favourable calcu- lations — the imposts in arrear suspended, their prin- ciple attacked by the daring of an absolutely new system, of which the immediate consequence has been to accustom the people to believe themselves freed from taxes. It cannot hide from itself that our influence and standing in Europe are lowered, that our trade is less flourishing, our manufactures are less productive, our population is less numerous ; that the amount of labour has decreased in proportion with the national wealth ; that it has caused the circulating medium to disappear, and dissipated an enormous fund of public capital ; finally, that our interna) police, notwithstanding its numerous overseers, is more oppressive and less effective than it was before the Revo- lution. " We will add, what cannot be disputed, that the number of the abject poor has in all states readied a frightful height ; that misery and despair cover, as with the awfulness of death, the songs of triumph, the illu- minations, the Te Deum.s, and the addresses of congratu- lation, i do not speak of the clergy and the nobility, their profession and their birth being crimes in the eyes of the dominant partv. Their misfortunes are doubtless 248 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF legitimate punishments ; and four or five hundred indi- viduals, having eonstituted themselves inviolable, have a right to dispose of their fate, as the judge disposes of the fate of malefactors; but I ask to be shown, with the exception of the stock-jobbers, a single class of French- men whose fortune has not declined, whose resourees and comforts are not painfully abridged ? " To appreciate the conduct of our chief legislators, we must dismiss the sophistries with whieh they con- stantly faseinate the vulgar, by contrasting the present condition of France with the disastrous results of the most horrible despotism. That is a false assumption, to which deceivers and dupes always take care to recur. An immense number of citizens has no more taste for the new system than tor the old ; and it is not on the reformation of the first that those reproaches fall, with which they overwhelm the second. To conquer their disapproval, it must be proved, that, without the doings of tin; Assembly, without the public and private calumnies they have caused, France would never have obtained liberty, protection of property, and of personal security, which is the first condition of good government ; peace, which is its sign ; political equality, abundance, strength, order, universal respect. It must be proved, besides, that the Assembly hud not the option of other institutions — that no middle course was possible, and that it proclaimed the only suitable government, because no other offered such certain advantages or a future more evidently satis- factory. * " Mcrcurc :• throw ernmeni into flu dumreons of rhc 252 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF To these first threats, the publication of which was decreed by the Assembly, others rapidly succeed. The members talk of drawing the circle of Popilius round the petty Princes of Germany, of forcing them to disperse the emigrants forthwith ; should they refuse, of praying the King to summon them to do so and declare war within the fortnight. Isnard supports the motion, declares that the great powers will remain neutral, and that " the nations will embrace before the face of tyrants dethroned, earth vindicated, and heaven well-pleased." Finally, M. dc Vaublanc, at the head of a deputation, intimated to the King the line of conduct demanded of him : " The nation expects of you energetic declarations ; prescribe an early date beyond which no dilatory answer will be accepted. Let your declaration be supported by the movements of the forces confided to you." Mallet remarked on this occasion : " The exaggerations, the bloodthirsty invectives addressed from the tribunes of the Jacobins and of the National Assembly to all the powers, the violent resolutions to which we have been led, had been indignantly repelled by the moderate party, the ministerial, the constitutional, when their fiery adversaries proposed to them, six weeks previ- ously, to declare war, and proclaim liberty to all the nations. Such has been," he observed, " the influence of the Jacobins, or such the weakness of their opponents, that the former have dragged the latter in their train. Both parties Castle of Chillon, and that their feet were bathed by the sea-water. Brissot indeed, had represented the Duke of Alva, as hunting to death Maurice, who, at the period alluded to, had not completed his seventh vear. MALLET DU PAN. 253 then engaged in a struggle for popularity, and in a rivalry of headlong revolutions." Elsewhere, Mallet aeeounts as follows for the unanimity of desires in parties who were mutually odious : " The Jacobin Committee, the Constitutional Com- mittee, His Majesty's Council, royalists of various denomi- nations, all agree in desiring war. Perhaps necessity gives rise to this murderous appeal, to which men's passions return a prompt answer. Some see no means of main- taining the actual state of things ; others are impatient to see it overturned ; a third party long for any sort of result ; national impetuosity drives numbers towards a catastrophe, of which few men indeed foresee the nature, and fewer still the means. All parties are full of confidence : on the one side no doubt is felt of subduing France by approaching the frontiers ; on the other is a conviction that to announce an intention of passing them will suffice to annihilate all resistance." As to Mallet, he expresses himself with energy : " I withdraw from the ranks of all, whosoever they be, who invoke war : it is impossible for a true friend of this monarchy to think of its approach without terror. It can- not but be lamented that before reaching this dreadful extre- mity, no means were sought to avert it ; that during the three last years of fearful discord, the destiny of the state, of its laws, of liberty, of public order, of factions which acknowledge no other alternative but that of mutual destruction, should have been given over to main force. It cannot but be deplored that not one conciliatory word was audible above the roar of hatred; that they agreed in 254 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF conceding nothing — in marching on from destruction to destruction without a thought for the future. This mo- rality will assuredly displease those who have banished morality from policy, or in whom the word harmony stirs up rage, and even that bevy of irresolute minds and hollow hearts who, while assuming the hypocritical insignia of moderation, have never uttered one moderate sentence or performed one moderate action."* Mallet was not satisfied with merely writing these articles for the " Mercure." In concert with Malouet, he had imparted to the King, through M. de Montmorin, before this minister's withdrawal, a course which was looked upon as too daring. His notes, in November 1791, contain the following : " M. de Montmorin was the strong- man of the ministry, at the moment of his resignation. Malouet and I had persuaded him to propose a course of action to the King, and to avail himself legally of circum- stances. In particular, to go to the National Assembly, and tell them that the foreign powers (whose despatches he would have produced), considering him not a free agent, it was necessary to prove his freedom ; that he required, therefore, to go to Fontainebleau or Compiegne, accom- panied by his own guards, to choose a new ministry, which had not in any way co-operated in framing or passing the constitution. Either the National Assembly would have refused, and thus established the restraint of the King ; or it would have accepted, and the King would have delivered himself from the traitors in his council, and composed one vigorous, and consisting of * "Mercure," December, 1791, No. 51. MALLET DU PAN. 255 attached royalists. M. de Montmorin insisted thrice over: he kneeled to the Queen. All was vain : the fear of con- sequences and of an insurrection prevailed." In the month of January, Mallet renewed his prophetic declarations : " I have said, and shall continue to repeat, what early experience will re-echo still more forcibly, that war will complete the dissolution of the monarchy, and will make it change masters. The emigrants, the occasion of the war, will he lost for ever if it is unfavourable to them, without any accession of strength to the new constitu- tion through their defeat. It is not, I venture to pre- dict, for the preservation of the throne, for any class of friends to monarchical government in France, that our armies will triumph. Should they be repulsed, the monarchy — the laws — true liberty, will again be at the mercy of might. The exasperated conquerors will not stickle for conciliation ; and, if we be favoured with a constitution, it will, perhaps, be moulded of the cannon which has served to overthrow to-day's. " Perhaps the sovereigns might be over-confident in hoping to resolve the crisis by the sole force of their armies. If they do not call opinion to their aid, if they do not oppose to the rights of man, which will be employed to rouse their subjects to revolt, a popular charter, show- ing the interests of all in the preservation of public order and legitimate government, the exees>es of the French Revolution will subvert Europe from end to end. " The uneasiness excited by the aggregations at Coblcntz, that point of support for every expression of discontent, that beam of hope offered to all who have injuries to 256 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF avenge, who eomplain of oppression, who see usurpers in all the actual masters of the realm, has douhtless supplied powerful motives for the resolutions of the National Assembly : but, to pluck out this thorn, does it not resign itself to a mortal amputation ? How is it that the interest of the people and the constitution has induced it to prefer, among all the means of preserving the emigrants, the very one which will evidently unite crowned heads in their cause ? Its decrees have already produced what two years of efforts, movements, solicitations from without, awful events from within, had not effected. They have changed demonstrations of interest towards the refugees into the necessity of defending them ; they have united what should have been kept apart, the cause of these refugees, and that of the Germanic Empire and Europe ; they have created motives where only pre- texts existed ; and, by dictating the law to the German princes, in matters affecting their own territories, they will have been induced to defend their independence, unless, indeed, fear should paralyze them ; which is not without some likelihood." The concluding words will have shown that Mallet du Pan did not deceive himself. To his historic and philo- sophical appreciation, the revolution, such as it displayed itself, was not a great venture long pending, still less the arousing of the human race, and the sublime conquest of its rights. It was henceforward in his eyes the spirit of revolution burning to measure its strength against subject Europe, in order to conquer it. " A doctrine is arising, which makes liberty consist in * " Mcrcurc," January, 1792, No. 1. MALLET DU PAN. 257 force exercised by the majority or the most violent ; and which sees universal equality in the restoration of all those rights which nature bestowed on man at the day of creation. This doctrine is no theorist's dream : for three years a great empire has been experiencing its application. The restless spirit of all countries — men of every class ruined in honour and fortune — the covetous spendthrifts, who, having squandered their patrimony, cannot tolerate those who retain theirs ; the fanatical innovators who preach reason, dagger in hand ; the raving fools who admire them ; the indigent, the non-proprietary, the immense horde of envious, malig- nant men of no account, to whom disorder opens the door to riches and to public offices ; all the ingrates whom a day of revolution acquits of obligation to their benefactors — in fine, the mob of beings without vice, and without virtue, indifferent to good and evil, passive instruments of the perversity which overawes them : such are the pro- moters and the auxiliaries of this system. " In no part of the world, perhaps, did more fruitful causes of success exist for the authors of a social crash. Parcelled out into a multitude of different governments, Europe offers but few of the bases of a combined resist- ance ; and the first great continental nation which changes the face of society has only severed limbs to dread. The political interests of all the remainder of the earth arc less complicated than those we display : an intricate system of complex treaties, multiplied relations, innumerable se- condary considerations, manoeuvres, suspicions, safeguards, compose our public law. By the multitude of conven- tions which restrain sovereigns, we may calculate the sources of discord ever ready to agitate them : we no VOL. i. s 258 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF longer repose after great eonqucsts, for these are no longer possible ; but we sleep armed cap-a-pie in the bosom of peace, and every one keeps anxious watch over the arsenal of public compacts. We carry on warfare by means of the most incompatible alliances, of which the object changes momentarily with circumstances. A state of moderate size carries on more diplomatic affairs than the Empire of China ; the connexions of each sovereign extend now-a- days from one end of Europe to the other. The necessity of a political balance, which arises from a desire to main- tain the independence of weak states, and prevent the aggrandisement of the more powerful, calls for unfailing vigilance and unceasing movement in the cabinets. " The jarring of so many wheels renders apparent the difficulty of making the machine work in unity, and of impelling towards an uniform object the activity divided among so many distinct interests. In consequence of the political character assumed by Europe for the last century, and the nature of those conventions on which it is based, it has become difficult to act for the general good upon a score of sovereigns possessed with a mutual dread, and whom their ministers have accustomed these hundred years to establish their safety on indifference to the danger of all those states, which they suspect may be in a position to injure them some day. " Let us then cease to be surprised at the alarms which influence, at the public or secret broils which have ab- sorbed, three parts of Europe, ever since France under- took, most probably without effect, to give a fearful lesson to nations and to governments."* * " Mercure," January, 17L/2, No. 2. MALLET DU PAN. 259 The diplomatic history of the Northern states for the preceding two years, more than justified these conclusions of Mallet. Until the middle of '91, their attention and their forces had been engrossed by the Russian and Turkish wars, and by those other contests which England and Prussia were suspected of having encouraged, in order to oppose some barrier to Russian encroachments in the North and the Levant. But suddenly, by a sort of simultaneous inspiration, all wills united ; and in August a general peace, accelerated probably by the state of things in France, took place. Nevertheless, Leopold II. gave no sign in his actions of any interest in the situation of his brother-in-law, although Louis XVI. and the daughter of the Caesars were (in the words of our author) for the second time, led back to the capital with the pom]) of savages who have captured their enemy. Perhaps he deemed his interference dangerous, at a crisis which the delirium of a moment might render desperate. All he did was from Padua ; to invite all powers unitedly to interpose between the French monarch and the new arbiters of the destiny of kings; a merely threatening and consequently ineffectual proceeding, which sufficiently demonstrated, according to Mallet's remark at the time, how little was understood of the character of a tumultuous democracy, to whom a distant danger always appears chimerical. In reality, this proceeding, equally insig- nificant and pretentious, left Louis XVI. under the necessity, either of assenting to the conditions imposed upon him in the interior, or of braving the consequences of resistance. lie signed everything that was offered s 2 260 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF to him. Then it was that at Pilnitz, where the Emperor and the King of Prussia had met by appointment, men appeared to remember the sufferings of the unfortunate monarch. " Outwardly acceding to the urgent applications made by the brothers of Louis XVI., the Emperor and the King of Prussia had signed at Pilnitz an unmeaning convention, rendered superfluous by the last acts of the King of France. They had not assembled at Pilnitz for this ; they had gone there to conclude an alliance proposed between the Houses of Austria and Brandenburg ; and, satisfied with a demonstration of interest which the emigrants hastened to publish as a decisive manifestation, the two sovereigns at once returned to their former neutrality : not one of their soldiers stirred ; the con- stitution received by the King of France, on quitting prison and under pain of dethronement, paralyzed this treaty of Pilnitz, which politicians place under the head of august and solemn farces. " # But the hour of diplomatic farces was past ; of this the outcries raised by the Jacobins in the Assembly apprised the foreign powers ; the provoking acts of the legislative body, and that fanatical impetuosity which carried away the French and found vent in the most insulting menaces, decided the courts of Vienna and Berlin on adopting effectual measures whereby to avenge these provocations, and vindicate the dignity of the powers. Meanwhile, spectators of these schemes, the emigrants and the princes stood silent in the sight of that country which they had quitted and were preparing to re-enter. Mallet viewed * " Mercure," February, 1792, No. 5. MALLET DU PAN. 261 this silence as the result of an ill-assumed dignity ; and openly avowed his opinion in words which excited indignation beyond the frontiers : " The emigrant princes and their council have hitherto maintained a profound silence concerning all the accusa- tions, counter-statements and decrees, of which they are the object. We must know the motives of this reserve if we are to approve of it : for it casts a slur on the emigrants ; it lowers them even in the eyes of their countrymen, who judge them on the score of imputations which are not yet disproved. Contempt for one's enemies is a sorry counsellor. Reputation abandons those who affect to disregard it, under the idea that every one will acquit them, while they take no pains to confute their accusers. Thus Henry IV. published manifestoes every month. With what spirit, with what open and patriotic energy did this hero and his cousins, Louis and Henry de Conde, depict their grievances to the nation ! They did more — they made their own wants one with those of their people ; and it was by the zeal with which they burned for the interests of the nation, that they succeeded in re-attaching it to their own cause " # While events hastened onwards, and the hour of sound- ing the tocsin drew nigh, a project for consummating the humiliation of royal authority and annihilating it, was steadily drawn out in the Legislative Assembly. Within, the minority, timid or inattentive, offered scarcely any op- position to the current of events ; without, they acted, or dreamed of acting, in those committees in which the moderate party, the remnants of the oppressed Fcuillantins, * "Mercurc," January, 1792, No. 1. 262 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF overcome by the Jacobins, conceived a thousand plans for saving the King and themselves with him, all of the same mind, whatever their plans ; in the same way the court looked for safety in intrigue rather than in the King's acts. Mallet never took part in any of those permanent or temporary committees which became so frequent after the return from Varennes, when the chiefs of the majority, suddenly opening their eyes to the necessity for resistance, undertook in their turn to set bounds to the Revolution and secure their own conquests and ascendancy by secret alliances with their ancient adversaries of the minority ; in virtue of which, the latter, more connected than themselves with the court, were to furnish them with means, either direct or indirect, of superintending the King's interests. The intentions and negotiations of most of these converts, were, we must confess, little heeded by the editor of the " Mercurc." The court sent him no invitation to its coun- cils ; he was never seen at the castle. Only once, in the November of 1791, did the Queen send him by her physician some information to be inserted in the " Mer- cure." Of this communication, thus given in the notes already referred to, the reader may form his own judg- ment : "M. Vicq-d'Azyr has been directed by the Queen to inform me, for my guidance and in confidence, " lstly. That she and the King made use of every imaginable effort, before the King's escape, to prevail on the Emperor to assist them ; "2ndly. That it was not M. de Breteuil, but M. (K Mercy, who advised and conducted the escape; 3rdl\ That the certainty of the Empcroj - h; MALLET DU PAN. 2G3 abandoned them, has alone induced them to aeecpt and adopt their present plan of conduct ; " 4thly. That she is overwhelmed with the calumnies propagated against her by the aristocrats of Coblcntz and Worms ; that it is false that she has sought to alienate the Emperor from these, and equally untrue that she or the King ever held a conference with Andre, Barnavc, Lameth, Thouret, &c. &c. "5thly. That it is absurd to accuse the princes of jea- lousy, since the character of the King renders it impos- sible that they should not exercise the greatest influence over him in every affair. " Of these various pieces of information, some were trans- ferred to the " Mcrcure," where Mallet made use of them to confirm the inductions of his political articles, others are recorded from time to time in his private notes. In these memoranda we find the following details, dated in the earlier months of 1792: " The ministry was split into two parties ; the one, arranged and governed by Lameth, Duport, Baumetz and Barnavc, comprehended de Lessart and the keeper of the seals, to whom Bertrand joined himself, though not strictly belonging to them. It was the plan of the leaders to cause the existing Assembly to be dismissed, to excite the departments to petition against it, to recall the consti- tuents, and to amend the constitution by an elective upper chamber, and by other means. From this party issued a host of posters, pamphlets, and placards, against the Jaco- bins. De Lessart was most lavish of mone\ : they bad secured Suleau, Desmoulins, and ;i hundred more scrib- 264 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF biers, coffee-house politicians, &c. Lameth, a consum- mate dealer in intrigues of this class, had endeavoured to resume the thread of his former operations, and to renew the activity of the ruffians he had previously em- ployed. " The second ministerial plan and party had for its chiefs Narbonne, La Fayette, and Madame de Stael. To them is attributed a project to transport the King to Fon- tainebleau, and the nto place him at the head of the army, which they confidently hoped to renovate and bring back to a state of discipline. They had already begun the work ; and La Fayette had had tolerable success at Metz. They intended to allow the King to select for his body- guard the regiments on which most dependence could bo placed. " The other party, when informed of this plan, thwarted it. Hatred between de Lessart, Bertrand, and Narbonne. The latter requests his discharge — a concerted plan to pro- cure the dismissal of the other two, particularly of the more stubborn Bertrand." These manoeuvres, set on foot by persons who were perpetually boasting of their devotion to the National Assembly, were in the eyes of Mallet acts of inexcusable perfidy : he speaks of them in his notes with a severity, perhaps too unqualified. In his judgments of political personages, he often failed to allow them due credit for their good intentions ; his friends made this a subject of reproach to him, and he himself was ever ready to seize the least opportunity of modifying or recalling unfavourable opinions too strongly expressed. lie had judged harshly MALLET DU PAN. 265 of M. de Narbonne. " A public man," said he one day in speaking of him, " should show no spirit but in behalf of his cause." Soon after he saw reason to alter his view. He says : " This minister has been too severely censured : we should make allowances for him ; and while we cannot approve of those exaggerated expressions by means of which he hoped to overcome mistrust, we ought to do justice to his activity, to his good intentions, to his plans for restoring order to the army, and replacing it under the influence of its legitimate chiefs." In March, Mallet writes : " Madame de Stael had caused to be conveyed to the King and Queen a proposal to remove them in her carriage, at the departure of the ambassador ; the Queen in the disguise of a housekeeper, the King in that of a steward, in a black wig, and the Dauphin dressed as a girl. No other person was to be allowed to accompany them. The Queen warmly signified her assent to the Chevalier de Coigny." The plan of the converts, Dupont, Lameth, La Fayette (who, at length, with Narbonne, had joined them), was to transport the King to Fontainebleau, to give him a few regiments, to let the commotions at Paris take their course, and to assign the excited state of the capital as the motive for selecting a more distant retreat. He was to be con- ducted to the army, prepared to receive him by La Fayette and Toulongeon, who answered for Luckner : the As- sembly was to be dismissed, and the King alone to select and name a new one, composed of men of property, dis- 266 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tinguished by their experience, or talents, who would simply have formed a Council of Notables, and would have sanc- tioned a plan of government addressed to them by Louis." April 1792.—" On the 18th of March, 1792, I read a paper vouched for by good authorities, in which it is affirmed that the plan of the chiefs of the Jacobins is not precisely a republic, but a change of dynasty, as they are of opinion that the King will remain attached to the nobility, and care little for the constitution. They have accordingly offered the crown to the Duke of Brunswick. As an opening, they had engaged the late ministry, Narbonne, de Lessart, &c, to propose for the Duke's acceptance the command in chief of the national army. The ministers fell into the snare, and, with very different views, wrote to the Duke, who refused. It seems as if this Prince's recent visit to Potsdam, where he conferred with the King of Prussia, coincided with his refusal of this offer. The leaders have not, on this account, desisted from their pro- ject ; the embassy of Messrs. d'Autun and Chauvelin to London is probably connected with it, as well as M. dc Custine's sojourn at Brunswick, whence he has proceeded to Berlin. (We cannot, however, assert that these three negotiators are aware of the secret object of their mission.) By inducing England and the Duke to adopt this plan, and by the offer of still further advantages, it is hoped to detach Prussia from the House of Austria. The means contrived to dethrone the King, are to cause the National Assembly to declare that he has lost the confidence of the nation. MM. Condorcet, Brissot, and others, are merely the instruments — the agents of the enterprise; the author MALLET DU PAN. 267 and head of it being the Abbe Sieyes. His fundamental doctrine is, that, in order to establish the revolution, it is indispensably necessary to change both the religion and the dynasty. He manages everything without the semblance of doing so : his pride will not brook a superior : he has abolished the aristocracy because he docs not belong to the class : possessing nothing, his aim is to destroy everything. He is particularly clever in securing his object without seeming to aim at it ; in preparing others for ulterior views which had never entered into their heads ; in being sparing of his words in public, and in acting busily in secret. What would seem to afford some pretence for his absurd project is, that, since the nomination of the new ministry", the King has been not the less open to abuse in pamphlets and newspapers, and the butt of the speakers in the Jacobin club. We may instance the discourse of M. Guadet, one of Brissot's set, in which he undisguis- cdly asserts that the King had to choose between reigning at Coblentz or over a free people. See also the speech of M. Le Clcrc d'Ozo to the Jacobins. " Yet there does not less exist a party of true repub- licans, with M. Robespierre at their head, who do not fol- low the lead of MM. Condorcet and Brissot. The Abbe Sieyes said last week, in the hearing of one of my friends, that the Queen ought to be sent back as soon as possible, but with the greatest delicacy. " It cannot be doubted that the illusory hope of securing the support of the Princess and the Duke of Brunswick, will probably drive the party of Sieyes, Brissot, &c, to war. In such a crisis, means will easilv be found to make the 268 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF King a party concerned, and to turn against him the decree above mentioned."* Be that as it may, dating from the month of March, the power of the Jacobins was manifest, and already so formidable, that they could only be attacked covertly, as Mallet observes, and with anonymous weapons, suitable for nothing but the wrangling of idle wenches. "We have among the royalists anonymous writers of tremend- ous courage, who get rid of all the revolutionists in one paragraph ; all their talk is of hanging, exterminating, subjugating. They are so wonderfully valorous, that when safely ensconced at Coblentz or Tournai, they make indiscriminate slaughter of Jacobins, constitutionalists, and the partisans of monarchy." " They call partisans of monarchy," continues Mallet, in a curious note, " all those who, horror-struck by the horrors of the Revolution, by the atrocious acts of injustice conse- quent on it, by the madness of the anarchists, earnestly desire a King, nobles, clergy and regular government ; in union with the recognition of the just claims of the people, liberty, public rights, authority within the limits requisite for the security of him who is to command, as well as of those whose part it is to obey. They do me the honour to style me chief of the impious and sacri- legious sect — that sect whose desire it is to shield us from fresh revolutions, by making it the interest of all classes of the state to further the maintenance of the monarchy. * Compare these uotes with the " Memoires tires des papiers d'un homme d'fitat :" the exact conformity of the facts mentioned, proves the veracity of both sources. MALLET DU PAN. 269 The admirers of absolute sway sentence to the parlia- mentry gallows as soon as they succeed in re-establish- ing that tribunal, all the favourers of the system of two chambers. This last instance of folly is all that was wanting to prove to foreigners the profound wisdom of our counsels. One of those brave scribblers, who deems it prudent at the safe distance of sixty miles from the frontiers to preserve his incognito, and who taxes with cowardice all who during three years have borne the brunt of the strife at Paris, has just gone through the ceremony of my trial. The sentence he pronounced on my delin- quency at Coblentz, has been reprinted at Paris under the taking title of, ' Incredible policy of the Monarchists, or Letter to M. Mallet du Pan, chief or coryphee of the Sect, gfc' " At Paris the agitators always got the upper hand ; par- ticularly in coffee-houses and theatres, the Jacobins struck their adversaries to the ground by a wave of the tri- coloured flag. Still the intrepid " Mercurc " refused to bow submission, or to lower his tone. His pen trembling with indignation, he gave his readers a picture of Paris and the departments. On the 10th of March, 1792, wc find him drawing this bold sketch : " Paris is infested with banditti, and no repressive means are employed against them ; everybody finds fault with the police ; the city authorities dispute with those of the department ; ministers do nothing but pay compli- ments to the Assembly, and keep aloof from the galleys ; denunciations abound ; infamous addresses are voted to the King, printed and circulated ; omens of an impend- ing subversion of the state are easily discernible ; none 270 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF sleep peacefully except the disturbers of the public peace. All the activity of the Committee of Vigilance and of the officers of the police is expended on domiciliary visits, instituted on the reports of wretches wholly unworthy of credit. No citizen can feel sure that he will sleep in his bed: arbitrary warrants are issued to enforc a search in most respectable houses, under pretence that arms or forged bank-notes are retained; and to crown all, this horrible spirit of inquisition is enforced with unmitigated severity. " Misrule is still more striking in many of the depart- ments. In one place they exhume the dead, if the deceased has been attended by a non-juring priest. In another, an administrative body, in defiance of the law privately charter, in a town assigned to them in common, all the non-conforming ecclesiastics. The insurrection in Picardy is still unrepressed, where five thousand armed brigands or agitators are seen overrunning the department of l'Eure, laying taxes on grain, perpetrating numberless acts of violence, and threatening to besiege Evreux. At Etampes, we see M. Simoncau, the mayor, shot and pierced to death in the midst of the National Guard ; at Montlhery, a farmer chopped to pieces. Dunkirk dreads a renewal of the acts of pillage of the past month ; in the department of the Haute-Garonne, barns are broken into, houses burned, fines levied on householders, in whose dwellings (more especially in Toulouse and its neighbourhood) the clubs have made free to billet strangers ; everybody looks forward to a general pillage ; the levying of the taxes becomes more and more difficult; landlords dare not demand their rents; should they make the attempt, their baliffs are MALLET DU PAN. 2? I nurdered; woods belonging to private parties are not only laid waste, but in many places the municipal authori- ties appropriate them by regular form of law. " The day has arrived when proprietors of every class must at last feel that their turn is come to fall under the axe of anarchy. They will have to expiate the sin of which many of them w T cre guilty when they sought to justify the first acts of rapine, giving to robbers the noble designation of patriots ; they will be doomed to expiate the apathy with which they viewed the dissolution of Government, the arming of a whole nation, the destruction of all authority by the insane creation of a multitude of insub- ordinate powers, and the fatal blow aimed against the police in their protective functions. Let them not deceive themselves : things continuing as they are, their ancestral heritages must become the prey of superior force. There no longer exists any law, or government, or authority capable of contesting their patrimony with a daring body of armed beggars, who have set up their standard and prepare for an universal sack."* These pictures enraged the revolutionists, who, not yet victims of the Revolution, were proud to push on its car, which they imagined themselves to guide. Truth, con- cerning France, was in their eyes positive calumny ; their enthusiasm stood them in stead of justice and logic, as ere long became evident. At the very time that the Assembly pardoned Jourdan Coupe-Tete and the assassins of Avignon ;f in those same days when Vergniaud, * "Mercure," March, 1792, No. 10. t According to Brissot's theory, this pardon was a mere act of justice ; because the assassins represented almost the whole of society 272 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Thurot, &c, affirmed that in a period of revolution, justice must keep silence, the Assembly aimed another decree at all the emigrants without distinction ; punishing with the loss of all their property, those whom discontent, anarchy, or other motives, had induced to quit the kingdom, although scarcely half of them had taken part in the counter-revolutionary meeting of Coblentz : " And yet," said Mallet du Pan to these virtuous and humane logicians, " these families, now scattered abroad in so many countries, left the kingdom on the faith of solemn laws, which forbid tyrants to impose restraints on the liberty of going and returning, of travelling and sojourning beyond the French confines." The legislative body, suddenly and without warning, substituted its own will in the place of these inviolable laws, and by a retrospective action punished a lawful absence. This was not all. To the despairing cries of the yet surviving inhabitants of unhappy St. Domingo, who had es- caped massacre and conflagration, the Assembly responded by applying to the colonies its principles of revolu- tionary justice. Barnave had successfully carried through the Constituent Assembly a decree securing to the colonial parliaments, provided the King gave his sanction to the arrangement, all laws relating to the political position of negroes and men of colour. This decree was set aside in utter contempt of that fundamental principle of the consti- tution, that no man is bound by a law to which he has not assented either in person, or by his representatives ; in their violent punishment of certain individuals (the unhappy persons murdered at Avignon) who offered criminal opposition to the general will, suddenly and tumultously expressed. MALLET DU PAN. 273 and the Assembly, while arrogating to itself the right of arbitrarily deranging the condition of others, proclaimed equality of political rights in the colonies. This was to decree the ruin of the colonists. A minority of barely two hundred voices had opposed the amnesty granted to the ruffians of Avignon. A far inferior number refused its vote to the decree concerning the colonies. " And now," asked the ' Mercure,' will the King sanction these decrees ? Will the sacrifice made during these three years by His Majesty of his prerogatives, which are most essential to liberty, to public safety, to the exercise of mo- narchical government — will it extend to the ratification of resolutions which will involve in mourning, misery, and despair, millions of citizens living under the safe-guard of constitutional laws ? Will then the sovereign's conscience always be subjected by conjunctures ?"* The answer to these questions was but too evident : the suspensive veto had in fact been just annulled by the selection of that ministry which the Jacobins had imposed upon the King : " The recent change of ministry has necessarily rendered obsolete the suspensive veto, by surrounding the throne with agents of that faction which dictates the law. That which was foreseen by a few rational minds has come to pass. After having tried every gradation from monarchists to republicans ; at length, step by step, the King has con- signed himself to the Jacobins — a portion of their council has become his. His Majesty's note to the Assembly, on the occasion of this renewal of the ministry, and the atrocious * "Mercure," March, 1792, No. 13. VOL. I. T 274 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF comments made on it by the watch-dogs of democracy, sufficiently attest the violence done to the monarch's freedom of choice. Moreover, the fact is corroborated by the list of those men to whom the King has confided the guardianship of his interests and the reigns of government. Sundry popular exploits and extravagances constitute the sole title of the upstarts who displace M. de Lessart, a man endowed with practical experience ; M. Duport du Tertre, over zealous for the constitution, but a man of integrity, incapable of betraying his duty as a minister ; a servant of the King, and a citizen, except through weakness; M. Cahier, more fanatical than even the chancellor, wholly possessed with every popular prejudice of the day ; a blind enthusiast, but instinctively just ; having habitually been so throughout his life up to the days when revolution inflicted a momentary blemish on the morality of the most honest. This late cabinet is replaced by MM. de Grave, La Coste, and Dumouriez, whom we mentioned last week ; subsequently by M. Roland de la Platiere and M. Claviere. " M. Roland, a connection of Brissot, was one of the leading agitators at Lyons, whose inhabitants accuse him as the author of their broils. In his character of inspector of industrial art, he composed the dictionary of manufactures for the Enclyclopsedia. He possesses neither administra- tive talent, nor experience in state business ; but is hot- headed, and imbued with the most exaggerated principles of the times. " I must be excused offering any remarks on M. Claviere, inappropriately reported to be a Genevese. Born in France of a French father, a stranger for many years to MALLET DU PAN. 275 the country which had adopted both him and his, he was only connected with it by a participation in those agitations which carried it to the verge of the precipice. He is an indefatigable writer ; and has inundated France with pamphlets, all indicating talent, acuteness, subtilty, du- plicity, the obstinacy of self-love, and a presumption which sickens even fools. He has shown the Constituent Assembly a specimen of his modesty. He may be forgiven his zeal for mobocracy, as he has lived in the midst of republican dissensions ; but such is the calibre of his judgment, that he will not hesitate to try upon an empire of twenty-five millions of souls a form of government to which, at Geneva, he could not bring even the popular party to conform."* All Mallet's energy and good sense were unavailing : his post became daily less useful, and more dangerous. He keenly felt the disproportion between the force of the revolutionary current, directed by men resolved to carry their point at all costs, and the resistance of a journal, which could only plead reason and justice, at a time when reason excited no influences, save those of anger and impatience, and justice had given way to the samniinarv exigencies of democratic state-craft. " Sheets of paper are no weapons against a storm," would he frequently say. Moreover, worse situated than any of his confraternity, he had against him the fury of the Jacobins, the resentment of converts of all periods, and the ill-will of the emigrants, irritated bv his clear- sighted mistrust, and declared horror of civil war. After threats so often repeated, he could not hope longer to escape the * " Mercure," March, 1792. T 2 276 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF fate denounced against him by the patriots in their journals, and in the street-cries.* From the moment the Republican party in the Legislative Assembly declared war against the House of Austria, Mallet du Pan clearly saw that he could no longer continue to edit the " Mercure de France," nor even remain in the kingdom, without daily risk of life and liberty. * The daughter of Mallet du Pan, accounting for the strength of her opinions by the lively recollection she retained of this period, writes thus to a friend : "Can you conceive what was my childhood, passed amid the early horrors of the revolution ? Can you conceive the terrors of those silent evenings when, seated on a little chair beside my mother, every knock at the door sent a thrill through me, because it might announce my father, the expectation of whose return was daily accompanied with the dread of seeing him brought back murdered ? Neither my mother nor myself uttered a word ; but, child as I was, I divined and shared all her feelings. Then that frightful scene at the Opera, where I heard those good people vocifer- ating against the aristocrats, and shouting, 'Mallet du Pan, a la lanterne !' A sign from my courageous mother checked me ; but I suddenly lost all consciousness of the place, and of what was passing around me, and my whispered inquiries excited so much alarm as to render it necessary to remove me from the box. A friend who was with us took me out to breathe the fresh air, while my mother remained motionless. From that day I date many of the complaints from which I have since suffered so severely. And then those dreadful days of the 5th and 6th October, 1 7S9, — that ominous rolling of the drum — those National Guards whom I shall never cease to execrate — those torrents of rain, and my poor father's consterna- tion, which the event, alas ! but too fully justified. Then those heads borne aloft on pikes ! and later, the flight of the King, during which we saw no resource but to fly from our house, to separate from each other, to conceal ourselves, some in one place, some in another. And those cries of "The King arrested at Varennes !" I still hear those cries ; they still trouble me from the bottom of my soul. MALLET DU PAN 277 From the month of April, this fear was exchanged into certainty by the increased denunciations levelled at him in the Assembly, the Jacobin Club, and the public papers. Several members of the Legislative Assembly warned him that his impending arrest, his removal, and his trial at Orleans, were resolved upon by the Republican Committee, and that all the efforts of the right side would not suffice to save him. But, indomitable to the end, he chose once again to declare the truth to the whole world — to the Revolution — alike to friends and foes, beginning with those malcontents, who, on the authority of common- places, always hoped to see the end of public misery without their interfering in the matter. " Because a remedy was looked for in the very excess of evil, it has been judged superfluous to oppose it ; people have settled down in their quiescence ; they have laid out a commodious plan of expectation and inaction ; above aU, they have avoided with the utmost care all connexion with the general movement to slacken its impetuosity. In unconscious obedience to the will of its persecutors, the crowd has preferred hurrying past the frontiers : many of the emigrants had an indisputable right to seek their safety elsewhere ; but this measure, which the fearfulness of anarchy imposed on women, aged men, and marked men threatened by popular fury, the love of imitation or a narrow policy soon rendered a general fashionable expedient. Foreign countries received shoals of terrified fugitives, who, once beyond the boundary, regained their former confidence; every morning brought them an impending counter-revolu- tion: they have borne everything — exile, privations, fatigue, ruin, buoyed up by the hope that on the earliest opportunity 278 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF foreign powers would set themselves to repossess them of their hearths and titles, or that the people, at length un- deceived, would hasten to restore them. " These illusions were kept up hy maxims current in pamphlets and in conversation : disorder results in order, was heard on every side; anarchy will reproduce despotism; Frenchmen w r ill never forego a king ; they love kings — no nation was ever more attached to their kings : demo- cracy dies out of itself; it is not suitahle for France, and therefore can never be established there — and a thousand other platitudes, pardonable in men who have never come in contact with a popular government ; verified it may be in the lapse of half a century, but false when quoted as promising a speedy termination to the republican fever of the French. " Disorder never resulted in anything but disorder ; it is an effect which becomes a cause — and an all-powerful cause when in the hands of a faction without any counter- poise. It is prolonged because its prolongation is necessary to its originators, and through their skill in enlisting the mul- titude in its favour, it promotes their purpose, which is to enervate and degrade legitimate authority, that they may transfer to other quarters its power of action. Violence paves the way for further violence ; laws are enacted only in order to ensure the success of illegal acts ; and contempt for these very laws is enjoined by their enactors, the moment they prove an obstacle; in the way of their undertakings. " This anarchy, which may be called systematic, is also compelled by necessity; for the springs which produce and prolong it are essentially destructive of all the means of order and repression. A popular faction, subject to its own MALLET DU PAN. 279 instruments, and enslaved by the multitude it appears to rule, would in vain endeavour to moderate its impetuosity ; the reins of government would soon pass into the hands of other leaders, and step by step the necessity for disorder would place at the head of the people, men whose mean- ness or wickedness would never fail to ensure them impunity. " The French Revolution has already passed through most of these periods. Each new disorder is founded on that which preceded it, and unavoidably serves as a basis to others : anarchy assumes the character of a power that overrules all legal authorities, and takes advantage of legis- lation itself to extend its ravages. " To all these means of duration, anarchy unites the un- perceived influence of an artifice which likewise serves to foster a lawless democracy. The power with which it endows its agents, the tyranny which it exercises through its satellites, are a voluntary deposit from the multitude, who fear nothing from an authority which they feel free to recal at any moment. Anarchy applauds those oppres- sors whom it will denounce so soon as tyranny endangers its well-being; each individual of the community comparing himself with those to whom is confided popular rule, an discovering in them his equals, ceases to fear them — con- siders the crimes of their despotism as his own birthright, and enjoys the reflection that he in his turn may dispose of lives and persons. It is said that there was one citizen of Paris, who, beholding M. de Lessart accused and cast into prison with no more ceremony than is employed in handing over the protest of a bill of exchange, felt some misgivings that such summary justice might reach him as well as a 280 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF minister ! No, on the contrary, all recognised an act of their own authority in that of their representatives ; and their vanity was secretly flattered by the idea that to them also appertained, as truly as to M. Brissot, the power of immuring an administrator in a dungeon. " In short then, let no man deceive himself. Of all forms of government, the democracy, to a debased nation, is that which most certainly generalises the passions by fomenting them. It fascinatest he vanity, and exalts the ambition of the most vulgar minds — opens a thousand doors to cupidity, to the participation of power : it developes in brutes as in the man of intelligence, in garrets as in drawing-rooms, that love of domination which constitutes the true instinct uf man — for he loves independence only as a means of authority, and once delivered from tyranny his first desire is to exercise it. " Until our time, republican dissentions having been almost exclusively confined to the class of proprietors, the circle of popular ambition did not reach the classes who by their pursuits, their poverty and their ignorance, are naturally shut out from the administration ; but now it is upon these very classes, excited by the combination of an immense number of perverse men connected with the people, that has devolved the formation, the empire, the government of the new political system. From the chateau of Versailles and the anti-chamber of the courtiers, the supreme authority has passed without any counter- balancing power into the hands of the proletaires and their flatterers. " A profusion of appointments, elections of functionaries, continual vacancn s haw excited the thirst for command, and MALLET DU PAN. 281 extended the self-conceit and influenced the hopes of the most incapable men ; an absurd and wild presumption has delivered, the foolish and the ignorant from the sentiment of their nothingness ; they have supposed themselves capable of anything, because the law accorded the exercise of public functions to capacity alone. Each has been able to picture to himself a prospective of ambition : the soldier has no longer any care but to displace the officer ; the officer to become a general ; clerks to supplant the administrator in chief; the lawyer of yesterday to invest himself in the ermine, the cure to become a bishop ; and the most frivolous scribbler to sit upon the legislative bench. The places and appointments rendered vacant by the promotion of so many parvenus, have in their time offered a wide career to the inferior classes. The lowest office has presented a dignity, the most scanty- remuneration a fortune, to individuals who in a well regulated democracy would never have presumed to aspire either to office or emolument. " Thus, step by step a general disorganization has been effected ; thus France has been converted into a card-table, upon which with babbling, audacity, and a frenzied brain, the ambitious of the lowest capacity have thrown their dice. " Let us now estimate the impulse which the national character will lend to this immense lottery of fortune, of advancement without merit, of success without talent, of endless offices distributed by the people as a whole to the people individually. Let us examine the incalculable activity of such a mechanism working in the midst of a nation, where tin mania < f making a figure dominates over all 282 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF other passions ; where the love of disputation, of wrangling and of sophistry has destroyed all rational intercourse ; where the shopkeeper round the corner is more proud of his epaulette than the great Conde was of his baton; where gravity, reflection, reserve, and that moderation of spirit which can alone assuage the delirium of a bad democracy, are found only among the small number of the silent and retired. " It is, therefore, from an utter want of observation and judgment that so many inattentive or sanguine men, coming out of their box at the Opera or mounting the step of the carriage which is to conduct them to Coblentz, have for these three years adjourned the end of the storm to the quarter. It is absurd to suppose that a great monarchy of fourteen centuries can be destroyed in eight days, and recover itself again by the progress of anarchy or inconstancy of the multitude. " But, indeed, the seeds of disorder do not lie so near the surface. Those who have planted them, know the human heart and the spirit of the age better than their adversaries. While the discontented reposed on the illusion of the monarchical sentiment, of the re-action of opinion, of the experience of excesses, the lessons of misfortune, the Jacobins, but little alarmed at these chimeras, extended their conquests from day to day. " They alone have formed a faction during any length of time, the other parties either dragged on an inert existence or formed mere cabals. Whoever seceded from them to dispute their authority, ended after some ephemeral advantages by falling back again into their orbit or by being ruined. Thus, they deprived MM. de La Fayette, MALLET DU PAN. 283 Barnave, Duport, Lameth, and a hundred others less important of their popularity ; thus, after some weeks of strife they subdued the Assembly. Replacing the defec- tions by new recruits, if public opinion appeared to with- draw its favours from them, they opposed bold laws to it. If they arc trammeled by the constitution instead of following it, they explain away the difficulty by availing themselves of popular prejudices. Always active, always enterprizing, they successively avail themselves of threats, promises, and punishments, always calculating upon their pusillanimity, giving over to the mob and to shame who- ever dares to doubt, leading minds with a heap of words : ever in extremes in order to stir up the public lukewarm- ness, they alone displayed consistency, an unvarying plan, an uniform system. " The establishment of the clubs subjected the whole of France to them. It was necessary to choose between the dominion of these and that of the constitution. The Jaco- bins have not hesitated ; the constitution has been sacri- ficed : twelve hundred associations, corresponding with one common centre, have renewed the ascendancy of the Jesuits ; they have placed themselves above the law, and have made laws to legitimate their infractions. " What resistance has been offered to this confedera- tion ? Was it weakened by the daily increase of a host of grumblers ? Far otherwise. While it tightened the bonds of union, and became consolidated by success, its adver- saries were scattered hither and thither, without compass, without leaders, without plan, without vigour or principle of harmony. Little intimidated by this discordant crowd, 284 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the Jacobins marched impetuously towards their object, repeating with Narcissus : " ' J'ai cent fois, dans le cours de ma gloire passe*, Tente" leur patience, et ne l'ai pas lassee.' All surprise ceases, when we see the large landed proprie- tors, the aristocracy, the majority of those who, from their position, their ancient descent, their fortune and their con- nections, still retained some influence, fly across the fron- tiers, and abandon the kingdom to the faction which was overthrowing it ; when it was seen that the King, deprived of all power, was reduced to the constant extremity of succumbing or of perishing ; when it was seen that per- nicious counsels induced the fugitives to place their reliance exclusively upon the assistance of foreigners ; to solicit this aid with a clamour as futile as imprudent ; to con- sume time, efforts, and money, in the vain expectation of its being granted ; to assure themselves of it with a confi- dence always deceived,* and to remain powerless by these demonstrations, to furnish the Jacobins with fresh pre- texts, and new instruments of domination. " All surprise ceases on recalling to mind that system, as deplorable as it was erroneous, by which they congratu- lated themselves on the increase of the disorders and the * " It has been calculated that if the troops, Austrian, Russian, Sardinian, Swedish, Russian, Swiss, Imperial, Dutch, which were to have marched in the 'Journal General' of the Abbe de Fontenay, had arrived at their destination, France would have been attacked at that moment by nine millions one hundred and four thousand anti- revolutionary soldiers." MALLET DU PAN. 285 victories of the republicans, as being a preparation for a more rapid reaction. " All surprise ceases on looking back to those disgrace- ful dissensions which divided those who had lost all, and those who had all to lose, when, invested on every side by an enemy, master of the breaches made in monarchical go- vernment, in property, public and social order, general security, and in the principles which protected all interests, it is seen that the different proprietary classes of society diverted themselves with their reciprocal disasters ; when having been a witness to their hatred, their debates, and their conflicts of political opinions. While France hurried on towards its dissolution, while the Republic established itself, the disconeted disputed about the best possible form of government — whether there should be two chambers or three — about the administration of government under Charlemagne and under Philippe le Bel — on what it was necessary to relinquish or retain of the innovations of the three last months. "As if the owners of a house in flames, instead of flying to the pumps and uniting their forces, were to dis- pute about the design for the reconstruction of the edifice ! When it was not possible to defend that which was de- stroyed, they should not have wasted their efforts in attempting to collect all the fragments of the wreck, nor have preferred remaining in the street, because they were not lodged exactly as they were before the catastrophe. " A thousand questions, idle, insolvable, or unimportant, afforded daily food for animosity. It is impossible to censure sufficiently some of the emigres, and those culpable writers who foment this discord, who foster all the germs 286 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of schism among the adversaries of the republicans, among the sincere friends of the King and the monarchy. What senseless advisers then persuaded the royalist refugees that it was possible to save Fance from total disorganization by their own power and their own opinions ? When you, the weaker party — when all your measures arc ineffective or uncertain ; when you are imperiously pressed by a de- cidedly preponderating faction — can there be conduct more miserable than that of the intolerance of party, of repulsing, outraging, and threatening with your vengeance those who offer their support without adopting all your opinions than that of declaring an unrelenting war against whoever does not adapt himself to the strict line of your opinions — and to reserve our moderation for your enemies.* "How! without distinction of character or motives, shall whoever may have erred during the course of the revolution, whoever has been undeceived by experience, while retain- ing such political opinions as he believes to be conformable to reason and to public interest — shall such a man be reprobated because he will not sacrifice the noble love of moderate liberty to the party which his co-operation would assist in raising on its ruins ? " If this really is so, it is necessary to draw a veil over France; for — I say it openly — I do not perceive any prospect of salvation, except in the coalition of opponents uniting * " In the distribution of power mapped out by some sanguine fugitives, and the publication of which we owe to the writers, M. de La Fayette is found side by side with Jourdan, M. de Casales on the same level with M. de Talleyrand, M. Malouet beneath M. Robespierre. It has been printed, repeated, and written over and over again, that I am more hurtful than Gorsas, Carra, or Brissot." MALLET DU PAN. 287 themselves to demand the cessation of anarchy, the sup- pression of its actual causes, and the restoration of general order. I say that all those who have this aim should postpone their enmities, their political disputes, and their preten- sions ; that they should, above all, remember this truth, that they are unworthy of defending anything laudable, who do not know how to make a sacrifice ; and that when in sight of the gulf upon which we are thrown, it is the height of madness to enter pertinaciously into the defence of those questions which divide us, instead of strengthening ourselves on those points on which all are agreed.*" It was by these counsels, and by preparing to follow them himself, that, towards the close of the month of April, 1792, Mallet du Pan took leave of the readers of the " Mercure," after eight years of assiduous labour. But, in laying down the pen of the journalist, which he was not to resume, until approaching the close of his career, he did not enter into the repose of private life — he did no more than change his task and his devotion. It is to an account of the new efforts of this martyr to rational politics, and to modern liberty, that the remaining portion of this work will be devoted. * "Mercure de France," April 7, 1792, No. 14. 288 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF CHAPTER XII. 1792. Louis XVI. entrusts to Mallet du Pan a political mission to the Emperor and the King of Prussia — Nature of the instructions given by the King to his agent — Departure of Mallet for Geneva, and thence for Frankfort — Coblentz — M. de Montlosier, and the Chevalier de Panat — The Princes are dissatisfied with the mission of Mallet — Occurrences of the 20th June — Letters of Malouet and the Abbe de Pradt — Conferences at Frankfort — Note from Louis XVI. — Opposition of the Russian minister, M. de RomanzoiF — Tardy success of Mallet with the ministers of Russia and Austria — The manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick — Error of Bertrand de Moleville in his "Memoirs." So soon as Mallet du Pan had determined upon quitting at once the " Mercure " and the kingdom, M. de Montmorin, M. Bertrand de Moleville, as well as Louis XVI., were apprized of the fact by Malouet, who, while approving of his friend's decision, had imagined that he could render him serviceable to the King, and to the public cause. In the first instance, an outcry was raised against his departure, which would leave the field open to all the poisoners of opinion, but the necessity was very soon recognized, ;ind Louis XVI. made known to Mallet MALLET DU FAN. 289 that he relied upon his attachment for the execution of a mission as delicate as it was important : " In an opening conference," Mallet relates, in an un- published note, " M. de Bertrand informed me that His Majesty, having again spoken to him of my departure, he approved of it, and was desirous that I should proceed to Berlin and Vienna, and, lastly, to Coblentz to represent to the Princes, his brothers, to the Emperor, and to the King of Prussia, the situation of the kingdom, as well as the intentions of the King with respect to the war, and its consequences. " Upon an observation which I made to M. de Bertrand, that the future Emperor would arrive at Frankfort in June, to receive there the imperial crown, and that the King of Prussia would join that monarch on his way to the army ; the journey to Vienna and Berlin was considered super- fluous, and that to Frankfort preferable in all respects. " His Majesty, having adopted this alteration, com- missioned M. de Bertrand to request me to draw the sketch of a manifesto for publication by the powers, in the spirit, and with reference to the great object, of recon- ciling that which ensured the safety of the King, the moral and political state of the kingdom, and the true interests of the monarchy. I submitted to His Majesty some general heads of this composition ; he had the good- ness to praise it, to suggest some others in the margin with his own hand, and to entrust to me the preparation of a final draft, which was preserved by M. de Bertrand, like other daily notes from the King, in a St. Augustin in the King's library. VOL. I V 290 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " This last draft, having hccn inspected by the King 1 , and having received his approbation, he added a summary of general instructions, containing the fundamental points of my commission, which was revised by M. de Mont- morin, and of which I took a copy." What were these instructions — what were the considera- tions which, adopted or suggested by the King, had served as their basis ? The instructions are known : since M. Bertrand de Moleville published them in his Memoirs, the various historians of the revolution have reproduced the text, and pronounced their respective judgments upon them, but always with that attention which this important document merited. The question w r as, whether Louis XVI. invited the foreign armies into France ; what in his soul and conscience, he expected from their Assembly; and, lastly, what were his sincere intentions with regard to the political constitution of the country ? The articles of instructions do not settle all these questions clearly. The memorial written by Mallet and corrected by the King, is more explicit ; that memorial has never been published in France * any more than the other documents emanating from the aasociation. These; documents deserve to be made known, for they appertain to history ; they prove that Mallet du Pan in accepting the mission which was entrusted * Professor Smythe, of Cambridge, gave this document ten years ago, in his course of lectures (Lectures on Modern History — French Revolution). This memoir had been communicated to him by his friend M . Mallet, son of our author, who settled in England »ince the death of his father, and who during forty years filled the post of Secretary to the Audit Office. MALLET DU TAN. 291 to him, was not the simple bearer of a message from the King, but that he went to Frankfort to express desires conformable with his own principles, and his firmly established desires. That independent man would not have been chosen as the negociatior of measures, contrary to his own opinions, who was known to have exerted all his energies against the royalists, who invoked war as a final settlement. Louis XVI. had, in fact, tried by every means to ward off this disaster from his unfortunate kingdom ; it was not he who armed the foreign powers, it was the Assembly itself that declared war against the Emperor. At the end of April, the revolutionary troops suddenly crossed the frontiers, and entered the Low Countries, where they had just received a sufficiently severe check at Mons and Toumai ; everything foretold that the allies would have an easy victorv. In this state of affairs the King, in addressing himself to the allied sovereigns, could not but interpose, and in fact he did interpose, between their armies and his own kingdom. He entreated them to distinguish between the nation and the factions who oppressed their King, in contempt of the constitution itself. Assuredly, his idea was not, that having become free in his own person, and arbitrator between the allied powers and his former sub- jects, the revolution should be respected with all its con- quests over royalty ; that would have been to perpetuate the anarchy from which it was just and necessary to deliver France. The natural effect of the invasion for which the foreign powers prepared themselves, as well as the desire of the King and the force of circumstances could have u 2 29 2 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF decided it, was a counter-revolution. A counter-revolution ! unfortunate and formidable term, which sufficed to ensure the condemnation of the King in the eyes of fanaticism and revolutionary folly ; a term which signified to them nothing less than the overthrow of the existing revolution, a design still more legitimate than that of Mirabeau, who a year before was desirous of overthrowing the work of the Constituent Assembly. Undoubtedly, for one part of the royalist emigres, a counter-revolution was but a return to the ancient regime ; as for d'Epremesnil and his parliamen- tary party, it was the institution of the legislative and political power of the ancient parliaments ; but for the King, who reserved to himself the initiative, and from dignity as much as from decorum had not spoken in his instructions of a counter-revolution, it was precisely a counter-constitution, as Alex. Lameth had called the counter-revolutionary plan proposed to the King by Mira- beau. Such was the sincere idea of the Prince, and it is proved by the selection of Mallet du Pan by the King himself, at the instigation of Malouet. Niether Malouet nor his friend, made any secret of their profound conviction of the necessity of giving to France a constitutional government. " There can be no stability in an absolute government which succeeds an actual revolution," wrote Malouet to Mallet du Pan. As for the latter, his language with respect to this point never altered, and we shall sec; directly what declarations he considered himself authorized to propose to the foreign kings and to the foreign princes. Jn this, to speak the truth, consist the interest and the novelty of the facts which we are about to add to those MALLET DU PAN. 293 which arc to be found in the " Memoires tires dcs papicrs d'un hommc d'Etat," in which may be read a faithful, but brief account of the mission of Mallet du Pan.* The first part of the instructions given by the King to his envoy refers to the Princes and emigre's, and is couched in these terms : " The King joins his entreaties to his exhortarions, to induce the Princes and the French emigre's not to deprive the war by any coalition hostile and offensive on their part, of the character of a war made by one power against another. " He expressly recommends them to entrust to him, and to the intermediate courts, the discussion of the pre- servation of their interests, when the time shall arrive for considering them. " He desires that they should appear merely as partners, not as arbitrators in the difference ; that arbitration should be reserved to His Majesty, when liberty as well as the royal power shall be restored to him. " Any other conduct will produce a civil war in the interior, will endanger the life of the King and his family, may overthrow the throne ; will be the destruction of the royalists, will rally round the Jacobins all the revolutionary parties which are now detached from them, and which arc separating themselves every day ; will reanimate an excite- ment which promises to subside, and render more obstinate a resistance which will bend before the first decisive success, when the fate of the revolution does not appear to be * The account of Bertram! dc Moleville is at least incorrect, as will soon be seen. 294 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF entrusted to those against whom it has been directed, and who have been its victims." Afterwards come the suggestions which the envoy of Louis XVI was charged to address to the courts of Vienna and Berlin. " To represent the utility of a manifesto on the part of the courts of Vienna and Berlin, which might be com- mon to them and the other powers which have formed the concert ; the importance of constructing that manifesto in such a way, as to separate the Jacobins and the functions of all classes from the rest of the nation ; to secure all who are susceptible of recovering from their delusion all those who, without desiring the actual constitution, fear the return of great abuses, all those whom the violence of passions, the contagion of example, and the first intoxication of the revolution have engaged in that criminal act, but who, not having to reproach themselves with anything more than errors of excitement or of weakness, would be disarmed the moment that a prospect presented itself to them of an honourable and safe issue. " To insist upon the advantage of introducing into the manifesto, the fundamental truth, that it is not intended to touch the integrity of the kingdom, and that the fear of a dismemberment is an unworthy artifice, by which the usurpers seek to convey a false impression of the true and only aim of the powers ; that war is made against an anti- social faction, and not against the French nation ; that the defence of legitimate government against the fearful anarchy which threatens the tranquillity of Europe, insulting to all sovereigns, preparing the most horrible calamities for all classes MALLET DU PAN. 295 without distinction, tearing asunder the ties of society, of laws, rights, duties and customs, under the shelter of which repose peace, true liberty, and public safety within and without. " Neither to impose nor propose any system of govern- ment ; but to declare that they have taken arms for the re-establishment of the monarchy and the legitimate royal authority, such as His Majesty himself might think fit to prescribe. " To declare again and emphatically to the National Assembly, to the administrative bodies, to the ministers, municipalities and individuals, that they will be considered responsible in their persons and property for all outrages committed against the person of the King, against that of the Queen, and of their family, and against the lives and property of all citizens whatever. " That in entering the kingdom, the powers should show that they are ready to conclude terms of peace ; but that they cannot and will not treat with any but the King. That, in consequence, they require that he should have the most perfect liberty, and be replaced in any position he may choose where he might consider that he should be most assured of its exercise, and that afterwards a general plan of restoration should be determined on, under the auspices of the powers, by a definitive negotiation between them and His Majesty — a negotiation in which the grievances of the Princes and emigres should be recognized at least, if they should not prefer entrusting their interests to His Majesty. - ' With these instructions thus extended and minute, there still remained a difficult v, caused bv the exigency of affairs 296 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF and the care which was imperative for the personal safety of the King. " Credentials were indispensable to me/' says Mallet, continuing his account, " the more so as Germany had been inundated with secret agents, or pretended emissaries, professing to be ministers of the will of the King, the Queen, and the French Princes in turn. This multitude of commissioners, their indiscretion, and their mutual opposition had justly tended to make any such advances discredited. But I could not without the most glaring imprudence carry with me a written authority from His Majesty, through the hundred leagues of country to be traversed before leaving France. The post was no longer safe ; transmission by hand would have rendered commu- nications indispensable which it was important to avoid. M. de Montmorin thought of making the authority of His Majesty come from M. le Comte de Merci-Argenteau, from whom I should receive it at Brussels ; but the cor- respondence with that ambassador having become preca- rious since the commencement of hostilities, it was decided by the confidential advisers of the King, that M. le Chevalier de Bertrand, brother of the minister, should join me at Cologne, on his way to England ; that he should bring to me there ulterior instructions and the credentials which would ensure mv recognition bv the two sovereigns at Frankfort, by their ministers, and the Princes, brothers of His Majesty. " I was ordered to keep my mission an inviolable secret, and not to disclose it to any one unless necessity demanded it, except the two monarchs, the Princes, His Majesty's MALLET DU PAN. 297 brothers, to the Marechal de Castries, and to M. de Bouille. I was, moreover, directed to consult M. de Castries, already instructed of the intentions of His Majesty, who placed a well-founded confidence in him. In honouring me with his own, His Majesty deigned to declare to me that he expected from my zeal a success of which he fully appreciated the importance — that I seemed to him more capable than anyone else of fulfilling that hope — and that he considered me especially qualified to demonstrate the wisdom and necessity of his plans, as well as the character of the conjunctures which called for their execution. " It was, in fact, a very delicate negotiation, to present such important interests in their true light, and to advocate a system of combined direction between the King and the two belligerent powers ; a system upon which depended the fate of their Majesties, of France, and even of Europe itself. After having made known the insufficiency of my capabilities of surmounting the opposition which I foresaw, and the obstacles with which this course was encompassed bv the lapse of time, by the crossing of so many previous envovs who had wearied the courts with their contradictions, and by the decisions which might have been already come to bv the cabinets, I no longer dreamt of anything but of overcoming the immense weight of these difficulties. In a conversation of several hours which I had with M. de Montmorin at his house, the evening before my departure, and in the presence of M. Malouet, I begged that minister to communicate to me what he knew of the dispositions of the allied powers. He answered my questions with candour and precision ; he showed me despatches and 298 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF official reports which justified his opinions ; he did not conceal from me any of the embarrassments which I should have to encounter, whether in the previous views which the cabinets had manifested, or in those which had been suggested to them, or in the line of conduct which was observed at Coblentz. The fears and arguments of M. dc Montmorin were like so many prophecies; the result proved their justice. — The fundamental object to which we directed our attention, and which was that of the private views and instructions of His Majesty, was the especial importance of making the war retain the character of a foreign war of one power against another, in order to dispel any idea of a collusion between the King and the two courts, and to bring the termination to the form of an arbitration between His Majesty and the foreign powers on the one side, and on the other between His Majesty and the nation. This last conference with M. de Mont- morin took place on the same day that that minister and M. de Bertrand entered a criminal information before the judge of the peace La Riviere, against Carra and his calumnious denunciations of an Austrian committee sitting in the Tuileries. " I carried away with me from the house of the minister a presentiment of the fate which threatened him, and deep anxiety for the future. "On the 21st of May, 1792, I left Paris. At this time the police regulations as to passports were very troublesome ; nevertheless, I arrived at Geneva on the following Sunday. The impossibility of leaving the kingdom by the German frontier without increasing my personal risk had deter- mined my route : 1 appeared less suspicious by returning MALLET DU PAN. 299 to my own country, whence the transit to Frankfort was easy." Mallet du Pan, having arrived at Geneva on the 22nd of May, hastened to write to the Mare'chal de Castries, to inform him of his mission, and to prepare the way for his ulterior proceedings ; for the Chevalier Bertrand de Moleville having been taken ill on the eve of his departure for England, had not been able to convey to Cologne and Frankfort the documents which were to have accredited Mallet to the French Princes and the foreign sovereigns. LETTER OF MALLET DU PAN TO THE MARECHAL DE CASTRIES. " Sir, " Having arrived here the day before yesterday, I pre- pare to leave it in the early part of the following week, to present myself with all convenient speed to you, in order to consult you upon the execution of a mission of importance and secresy, relative to which I have received instructions from His Majesty. He has desired that I should do myself the honour of conferring with you upon it ; thus merely forestalling my own wishes and intentions. Prudential con- siderations, which were demanded by the actual situation of the kingdom, and the horrible tyranny under which it groans, have separated me from a person who will pro- bably arrive at Cologne before me, and who is charged to present you with my credentials. I was personally too much watched and menaced, to run the risk of travelling through a hundred leagues of France, with any documents of importance. " I desire, Sir. far more than 1 dare hope, to fulfil etfica- 300 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ciously the enlightened views of His Majesty. Your advice and your assistance will, perhaps, compensate for my deficiencies. I am not the first to pursue the same course : many have miscarried, or heen but imperfectly successful ; but none will have carried into this affair a zeal more free from any spirit of party, of system, or of interest. No one is more convinced of the justness of His Majesty's opinions, who having agents in all the departments, who daily receiving the most reliable and multifarious informa- tion, knows with certainty the disposition of the public, and what is to be feared or hoped, according to the nature of the forms, or the means by which the exterior force is seconded. The safety of the monarchy, of the King, of his family, of property, life — the stability of future order which ought to succeed to the actual overthrow, the necessity of mitigating the crisis, and of weakening resistance — all con- cur in soliciting the attention and the acquiescence of true royalists to the views of His Majesty. " He fears, with reason, that the foreign war will induce a civil war in the interior, or rather a jacquerie. This is the object of his most anxious solicitude. He is ardently desirous that, in order to prevent the incalculable horrors, the possibility of which is too thoughtlessly rejected, the emigres should not take any active and offensive part in the hostilities ; but should consult the interests of the King and the state, of their property, of all those royalists remaining in the kingdom, before obeying the impulses of honour and of a too legitimate resentment ; finally, that ufter having disarmed crime by victory, and dissolved a frantic league of usurpers, upstarts from nothing, by re- ducing them to incapacity of resistance it might be possible MALLET DU PAN. 301 bv this salutary change to open the way to a treaty of peace, in which the foreign powers and His Majesty would be arbitrators of the fate of our laws, and of that of the nation. " These, Sir, are essentially the intentions and the desires of His Majesty. You will have been long ac- quainted with them : I here do no more than recal them to your mind. The present emergencies do not permit wisdom to neglect the most serious examination of them. If I may presume to quote my own experience, and what I believe I know of the situation of affairs and individuals, I shall not be embarrassed, except in the choice of the proofs which give grounds for His Majesty's representa- tions. All would go well at the present, and in the future, if the plan which he recommends be adopted — all will be involved in peril, uncertainty, and difficulty, if it be dis- carded. " It is to you, Sir, alone that I make this preliminary communication. It will probably be transmitted to you before my arrival by my companion in travel, who having crossed the channel, will proceed from England to Ostend, and thence to the town where you reside. " Receive, etc., etc." At last Mallet du Pan was able to commence his journey. He arrived at Frankfort on the 1 2th of June. The Diet had not yet assembled, and the ceremony of the convocation would not take place until the middle of the following month. Neither the Emperor nor the King of Prussia being expected before that time, Mallet considered it his duty to execute that part of his instructions which con- 302 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF cerned Coblcntz. The Marechal de Castries had entered into eommunication with him from Cologne, where he resided, and had led him to hope that the intentions of the King would not meet with any obstacles on the part of the Princes. He appointed a meeting. Mallet's instructions imposed upon him the strictest secresy, and ordered him not to compro- mise his mission by appearing in places where he would be too much noticed ; for conjecture, interpreting the motives of his journey, would not fail to send its comments to the capital, thus exposing the King to fresh suspicions, and closing the gates of Paris upon him. Therefore, on approaching the head quarters of the emigres, his only object was to ensure the receipt by Monsieur and the Comte d'Artois, of the communications which were destined for them. He wrote a respectful letter to the Princes in addressing the memoir to them. The part of this latter document, relating to the Princes and the emigre's, contained very delicate observations upon the conduct which the King expected from their attachment, and an urgent recommendation not to add the flame of civil to that of foreign war. A representation was made to them, of the dangers and the misfortunes which would be incurred by their overt participation in the invasion of the allied powers. " His Majesty," thus runs the memoir, " never enter- tained a doubt of the unanimous resolution, on their part, to confide to him the care of the interests compromised, or that the Princes considered themselves as injured parties in a difference, the arbitration of which should be exercised b\ His Majesty, when the fate of war should have restored the liberty necessary to the exercise of the royal power. MALLET DU PAN. 303 Undoubtedly the Princes and the nobles were actuated by a too justifiable resentment, to avenge three years of outrage and to attack those cruel usurpers ; undoubtedly it was a moment in which civil war would not have been other, on the part of the oppressed, than an exercise of the right to repulse force by force. The public and individual calami- ties would, perhaps, have been less protracted without being less terrible. But the foreign war, to the declaration of which Providence had inspired the factious, is now destined to effect, with less peril, misfortune and uncer- tainty, that which could only be hoped for from civil war. " Let us preserve France from the united infliction of these two calamities. They would extend, in the most terrible manner, over three hundred thousand families dis- persed throughout a frantic people ; they would endanger the life of the King, and those of the Queen and the royal family ; would overthrow the throne ; give up property to pillage ; be the destruction of the royalists and of those priests who, remaining within the kingdom, maintain a threatened existence ; they would reanimate an excitement nearlv extinguished ; they would rally round the Jacobins the less furious revolutionists, and would render more obsti- nate a resistance which will now bend before the first decisive success, when an intermediate body is seen between the armed emigrants and that portion of the nation which is to be subdued. " The human heart does not change. We dread those who have been cruelly outraged: there is no hope of pardon from those towards whom no mercy has been shown. The people are incapable of elevation to the senti- ment of a uvnerositv which they do not feel. 304 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " Consequently, the different factions which have thrown the kingdom into disorder, dread to encounter, in the Princes and the emigres, enemies from whom they can expect no consideration. They look upon them only as surrounded by chains, executioners, punishments, and instruments of oppression. " This prejudice has been incessantly fomented by the revolutionary libelers, by the declaimers at the tribune, by the efforts of the assemblies and the clubs, and, it must be said, by the levity of language of several young and ardent persons, the impolitic and always threatening viru- lence of some royalist writers, who talked only of the gallows ; and finally, the silence and forbearance which the Princes have considered due to their dignity, in the midst of renewed imputations and the proscriptions of the Assembly, have exasperated and rooted this prejudice. It is easy to perceive from this, what will be the consequences in case the emigres, united in a body, should direct offensive ope- rations against the frontiers of the kingdom " Fury, resistance, thirst for blood, would be excited against them ; all other points would be left undefended ; France would be abandoned to foreigners, in order to close it against the emigre's : if they did not murder the pri- soners, there is no kind of violence of which they would not become the victims. The first news of an engagement between the royalists and the troops of the Assembly, would be the pretext for fresh crimes and the signal for butchery, in all places where the clubs dominate over the administrative authorities." We shall see how this language was received at Coblcntz. It was at Frankfort, in the midst of the fetes of the MALLET DU PAN. 305 coronation, that Mallet had to await the explanations of their Highnesses. But they made known to him through M. de Castries, that, notwithstanding the importance of secrecy, they were desirous of seeing him without delay, and invited him to proceed to Coblentz under the name of M. Fournier, linen-draper. This first appointment was prevented by some mistake, and afterwards renewed : Mallet, therefore, made several journeys from Frankfort to Coblentz. " The Princes, without openly showing it, were ill satis- fied with the part assigned to them by their brother ; still more discontented with the engagements entered into by the King in the proposals of the manifesto which Mallet submitted to them, but allowed their feeling to be seen as little as possible by the agent whose hand and tendencies they recognized in the instructions. He was not long in discovering that the emigres were divided into three parties ; the partizans of Calonne, the anti-Calonnists, and the monarchists : the former, to whom was attached the Prince of Conde, wished for the unfettered restoration of the old regime. He also learnt, through the Marechal dc Castries, that the Courts of Vienna, Berlin and Petersburg!}, would hear no more of Calonne, whose advice no longer prevailed in the council ; and that he had M. de Vaudreuil on his side, and all the others against him — MM. de Castries, Jaucourt, Bouillc, de Broglie, &c. Nevertheless, his influence over the Comtc d'Artois was such, that his advice might be rejected without its being superseded by others. It ap- peared evident to him, therefore, that the great obstacle to an advance towards a settlement, was the opposition between the views entertained at Coblentz and at the vol. J. x 306 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Tuileries, each having their emissaries at the courts, who mutually opposed each other. The Marechal did not tell him all ; it was through Montlosier and the Chevalier de Panat, both his most devoted friends, that Mallet knew what to think of the disposition of the parties at Coblentz. Montlosier recom- mended him to adopt a dignified severity. " They respect," said he, " without liking you much, and you may be certain of making a great impression upon them. I pity you sincerely for all the trouble you have had. Continue, however, to prosecute this ungrateful task, and I do not doubt you will arrive at a favourable termination ; we shall be indebted to you for it, and our gratitude will be your principal reward." He requested Mallet to see the Duke of Brunswick, and conciliate him ; " For," said he, " it cannot be doubted, that if your mission is not received favourably, the Princes will very effectually avail them- selves of the services of that General to injure your cause with the King of Prussia and the Emperor." " The inconsistencies of the Cabinet at Coblentz do not surprise me, my dear friend," writes the Chevalier, in his turn ; " but I am grieved that you should have made a fruitless journey, and lost the time which you owe to far greater interests. Yesterday, I dined with the Comte de Vaudreuil ; he approached me with as much curiosity as interest After some few words, we had the following conversation : — ' What do you think of M. de Bertram!?' ' I think that he has energy and talent.' 'And his opinions?' 'lie is a true royalist.' ' But the King?' ' Malouet has taken possession of him, and we fear his influence.' ' Malouet lives retired, and is not connected MALLET DU PAN 1 . 307 with any party ; he thinks of leaving Paris.' ' We have recently received from the King a communication which grieves us,' added the Comte de Vaudrcuil ; c I did not evince my desire to become acquainted with it, but it appeared to me that the object of your mission was not regarded favourably.' The Comte de Vaudrcuil turned the conversation to the ' Mercure ;' and from that to you the transition was very easy. He spoke to me of you with a tone of esteem ; told me that you were at Frank- fort, and that he was far from attributing to you the opinions proscribed by the pure royalists He assured me that the Duke of Brunswick had said to the Prince, that the emigres would be splendidly employed, and that lie sets this price on his services He talked much of the Baron de Breteuil, whom the foreign Courts did not much esteem, although he had the confidence of the Cabinet at the Tuileries ; and he concluded by saving to me, that M. de Castries, the mediator between the two parties, and less odious than the Baron de Breteuil, would certainly be placed at the head of the Ministry. I relate to you this conversation, because M. de Vaudrcuil, being the friend of Calonne, and having the entire con- fidence of the Comte d'Artois, it might determine your opinions as to the hopes and fears of the Cabinet at Coblentz It is known that we supped together at Bonn, at the house of Cazales ! It has been inter- preted, and made matter of scandal, like everything else; but all that is of no consequence." M. de Montlosier, who sometimes reappears in these Memoirs, became thenceforward one of the most striking characters of the r'm iqre's . He shared with Cazales the 308 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF contempt of the Court of Coblentz. " They and Fou- cault," says Mallet du Pan, in his notes, " are left in the most profound neglect ; the former has been refused a place as major of artillery. Cazales is reckoned hare- brained, and has given offence by his frankness. Mont- losier, a professed monarchist, attacked right and left on occasion ; and his last book had alienated the Comtc d'Artois. When Mallet found him at Coblentz, he was busily occupied with his work, and from time to time left the camp of the emigres, to run over the libraries of the country, and search for the documents of which he had need ; sometimes at Mayence, sometimes on the Rhine, sometimes in the woods with his companions in misery and exile : he swore against Calonne and the revo- lutionists ; read, admired, and related the whole to Mallet, in the letters which will shortly be given. In the midst of these events, and while the Assembly at Frankfort, looked for with impatience, was still further delayed, the Revolution made alarming progress at Paris. The letters received by Mallet from the Abbe de Pradt and Malouet, which were full of terrible accounts, disturbed the sentiment of hope which he had for an instant entertained. A letter, from an unknown hand, reached Mallet towards the middle of June, apprizing him that the royal family were threatened with immediate danger. " Since your absence," wrote this unknown correspondent, " affairs have taken a turn which renders honest people apprehensive as to the fate of the royal family : they know not to what results the events and the great excitement of popular fanaticism may lead : external arrangements assume no definite character, and the certainty of impunity induces MALLET DU PAN. 309 the factious to venture anything, because they can carry out everything. Consider what I have told you as true and positive." It was Malouet, who, as the intermediate correspondent between his friend and the King or his counsellors, conveyed this information to Mallet. The occurrences of the 20th of June, the invasion of the Tuileries by sixtv thousand sans-culottes ; the crowning: of the King with the bonnet rouge by the populace ; all the characters of that horrible scene only too well justified these presentiments. The day after this took place, the Abbe de Pradt, who called Mallet du Pan his master, and was one of his most assiduous correspond- ents, wrote to him thus : LETTER FROM THE ABBE DE PRADT TO MALLET DU PAN. " Paris, June 21st, 1792. " We have passed a day, my dear friend, still more horrible than that of October 5th, and which neither tears nor blood will ever be able to expiate or to lament suffi- ciently. Paris has filled the measure of its crimes. Your council at Coblentz should at last learn what kind of war and control it is that we require and you — give up all idea of your chambers, your assemblies, your tribunes, your arrangements. The sword, morblcu ! the sword. "The e'mute had been announced for several days. The appearance of the two vetos furnished the pretext. The evening before, one hundred and fifty deputies and as many Jacobins had dined at a great banquet in the Champs- Elvsees, and distributed wine and food. All was eneou- 310 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF raged by the Assembly to such a point, that they thought of sending Dumas to the Abbayc, who had asserted that the nation had debased itself by the outrages which it had permitted to be offered to its chief. All was so arranged that the people said, now was the time to make an end of it ; but we received no injury, no violence, and the most frigid calmness was contrasted with the most shameful licence : at last a man was thrown from the windows of the palace, for having attempted to steal a watch." Malouet, an eye-witness of the scenes of the 20th, wrote some days afterwards : LETTER OF MALOUET TO MALLET DU PAN. "June, 1792. " You will have read in all the papers the atrocious scenes of which we have been witnesses ; the courage, the calmness of the King, and the devotion of some faithful servants, have saved his life and that of the Queen, but could not prevent the more sanguinary outrages, repeated during three hours. . . . Since that time the notices of the republicans have been atrocious, and their party is suffi- ciently strong for them to find enough support everywhere — in all the assemblies, in the National Guard itself, which contains a number of Jacobins, the Fcuillants, the Con- stitutionalists, the discontented of all classes, are on the defensive : the spirit of the Assembly is always the s;ime. Potion defies all those whom he threatens, and holds the department in cheek, which does not yet denounce him nominally. The scene of Monday the 25th inst., was as MALLET DU PAN. 3 1 1 audacious on the part of the factious as was possible : they even came to the bar of the Assembly, and said 'You seek the authors of the proceedings on the 20th : we are they ; here we are,' and they received the honours of the House. Meanwhile everything is ready to defend the Tuileries, a little better than on the 20th ; I have been there, and seen the Dauphin in the uniform of the National Guard: he was insulted. ' It is to deceive you,' said an officer of the ba- tallion of the Croix Rouge, ' that they have put our dress on that boy.' The cannons which were in the court-yard of the Tuileries, were also surmounted with the bonnet rouge. You will see by this what is the spirit of a great part of the citizens besides the sans-culottes. The members of the Right in the Assembly are treated as in the former — like scoundrels, traitors, aristocrats. They cannot speak without being hissed. Jaucourt narrowly escaped being assassinated. " What is to be inferred from all this ? Not only that there is still such a revolutionary spirit among the factious, but in the mass of the people as well, that those who are not Republicans prefer to join the latter, rather than all others whom they think slightly attached to the constitution. What further must be inferred ? That those men who excite themselves to madness by enterprises which are de- nounced as contrary to their anarchical liberty, will not be amenable to any other restriction than that of a permanent force. Now I ask you where is this to be found — where it can be — how long it will last ? " Remember that in speaking thus, it is to you and not to the belligerent powers that I speak : it is to your better judgment that I answer." 312 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Some days afterwards, Malouet continues his information to Mallet du Pan regarding the King's actual position. June 29th. — " The state of public affairs continues threatening : the Jacobins and the Republican section, which are the same thing, behave with a continually increasing audacity. The appearance of M. de La Fayette at the bar of the Assembly took place yesterday in the midst of mur- murs and applause. He came to defend his letter, and to demand in the name of his army the punishment of the partakers in the outrages of the 20th, and the dissolution of the Jacobins. Guadet and his party attacked him, and accused him of having quitted the army : they had to put it to the vote to know whether they should summon the minister to declare that he had given the General leave of absence. A majority of a hundred rejected the motion of Guadet, but nothing was decided as to the petition, and the Jacobins met that night as usual ; the sections were also assembled, and the Petions always dominate there. It was the same with the addresses approving and disapproving of the transaction of the 20th : abuse of the King and Queen overbalances the disapprovals. " A French guard of the section of the ' Minimes ' said, that he pledged himself to kill the King if he did not support the decrees : the President wished to make him withdraw, he was opposed by the faction, and was himself obliged to withdraw. The arrangements for bringing a large number of federates here on the 14th of July, were executed in spite of the refusal of a sanction. " The Assembly wish to go from here and to take away the King. There is no doubt that they intrigue every- where to brine: about the nomination of a National MALLET DU PAN. 313 Convention : they rely upon the south provinces. If M. de La Fayette, after having taken the decisive step, were to do no more, they would still have gained ground. I can see the people are persuaded that England will support the Republican party. The minister Moms* said to me yesterday : ' If it is not true, it is at least likely.' It seems that M. de La Fayette is ready to march with his army upon Paris. The King is calm, resigned to all ; he wrote on the 19th to his confessor : ' Come to me Sir ; I never had so much need of your consolations : I have done with men — it is towards Heaven that my thoughts are turned. Great misfortunes are announced for to-morrow : I shall have courage.' The journals of Brissot and Condorcet are more ferocious than ever. Adieu, my friend." In a letter of the 7th July, Malouet recapitulates the previous acts of the King, and affirms that they emanated from his individual will. " It was the King's conscience, his opinion, his in- dividual will, which made him resist the decree of trans- portation levelled against the clergy and the camp of twenty thousand men : it was this resistance which occasioned the change of ministry, and it was this change which set the Jacobins in motion : such are the causes and their effects. Now, an unequivocal constitutional opposition has declared itself against the Republicans ; twenty departments and a far larger number of munici- palities support La Fayette's demands, and the epoch of the federation will confront the two parties. Jacobin and anti-Jacobin National Guards arrive from every quarter, * Governor Morris, minister of the United States at Paris, 314 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF In this general agitation, the King appears calm. It was designed to drag him to the federation : he announced that he would attend it. What will be the issue of this fearful crisis, alas ! I know not ; but it appears to me proved, that the policy of the Jacobins is to crush all intermediate parties, and to show themselves as the only national power, to the end that they alone may treat with the foreign potentates. Farewell : you are very happy in being at Frankfort ; stay there as long as you can." Malouet, though subject to benevolent delusions, could not for an instant be duped by that revolutionary sensibility which, in full National Assembly, at the afTecting voice of Lamourette, hurried the Jacobins and the Feuillants into each other's arms. " Despite all the emotions it has excited, the scene of reconciliation between the Feuillants and the Jacobins is a paltry mockery, which has left just where they were all the intrigues and enmities. An equal dose of fear in all the parties concerned, gave rise to this farce ; and from to-day all resume their true character. The department is insulted and denounced for having interdicted Petion : the Jacobins and their satellites cry out in the streets and the Assembly, that they will have Petion or death. The King's deportment towards the Assembly, though applauded at the moment, could not shield him afterwards from the usual outrages : matters continue very much as before." While Malouet wrote to Frankfort in these terms of alarm, his friend had achieved his mission. The Emperor had been elected on July 2nd and crowned on the 13th, the dav of the anniversary of the French Revolution. MALLET DU PAN. 315 Mallet, a witness of the ceremony, had not waited for this moment to execute the King's orders. Informed by letters which reached him, his impatience approached to agony ; but the difficulties of diplomacy, the minutiae of decorum, did not allow him to escape from any one of those delays so dear at the time to cabinet politicians. The most serious opposition he experienced proceeded from the Comte de Romanzoff, who endeavoured to estrange him from the allied sovereigns and their ministers. Having perceived that, at Frankfort, he seemed to be listened to only out of regard to the Marechal de Castries, the King, at his entreaty, sent him a letter in his own hand which triumphed over all mistrust,* and assured to the negociator the credit of which he had need, in order to be listened to. At last he was officially presented to the Emperor, the King of Prussia, and the Duke of Bruns- wick, as being charged to communicate to them the in- tentions and the views of the King. The King of Prussia asked a great many questions about the state of France and the royal family. But the principal affair was treated of only by the ministers of the two Powers ; M. de Cobentzel for Austria, and M. de Haugwitz for Prussia. General Heymann, newly-appointed attache to M. de Bouille, an officer in the Prussian service, and frequently employed in diplomatic affairs, took part in these interviews. After various preliminary interviews, in which an exposition of * This letter, the fac-similt of which may he found in the " Histoire de la Revolution," by M. Bertrand de Moleville (t. vm, p. 452) was thus couched : "The person who presents this letter knows my intentions : what he savs may be relied upon." The original is in the possession of M. Louis Mallet, Mallet du Pan's son. 316 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the objects of the mission was presented, together with the memoir explanatory of the instructions, the conferences took place on the 15th and 18th of July. The papers of Mallet du Pan present us with a brief account of these conferences, and, although written in haste and in the form of memoranda, we shall not venture to substitute for them a more developed narrative : " Conferences, on the 15th, with Heymann; the evening with the Comte de Haugwitz, who, having twice read my memorial, sent it off the next day by a courier to Anspach and the King of Prussia, with a letter. " Conference, the 16th, at the house of M. de Cobentzel, with that minister, MM. de Haugwitz and Heymann. Great questioning, and explanations required as to my credentials. I presented the King's letter ; Heymann certified it. I gave an account of the first steps I had taken. Every confi- dence was placed in me, when the conformity of my views with those previously manifested by the King to the two Courts was seen. Interrogation as to Coblentz and the intentions of the King, with regard to the emigres: I ex- plained them. Details as to the interior, as to the balance of opinions in the kingdom. M. de Cobentzel spoke prin- cipally. He evinced a great indisposition towards Coblentz. He asked me where were their arms, their magazines, their artillery: he did not know for what or how they were to employ them. M. de Haugwitz announced that the plan of Berlin was in accordance, in all respects, with that which I proposed ; it would form the emigrants into an army, to be transferred to the King on his restoration to liberty. " The\ asked me if the great majority of the kingdom MALLET DU PAN. 317 were decidedly opposed to the old form of government : I answered in the affirmative. " M. de Cobentzel complained that the Emperor, having offered to take into his pay the regiments of Saxe-Ber- chiny, Royal-Allemand, and other corps of the line, com- manded by French officers, he had been refused. " Attain asked what I thought of the views of the Princes. — Answered, that I had no doubt that the Princes and the majority of their advisers were not animated by laudable intentions ; but that it was not so with all. — On being asked to give my views of M. de Calonne, of whom unfavourable mention was made, I confirmed that opinion. " ' The intentions of the King,' said M. de Cobentzel, ' are very different from those of the Princes, who want to do everything, create a regent, and act independently.' 1 answered, that such a course would be attended with the inconveniences and misfortunes which I had exposed. — The answer I received was : ' The confederate powers view the matter in the same way as you.' " They declared to me that they intended to conform in everything to the intentions and desires of the King, and requested me to provide them with a note or summary of these for the next day ; promising that, where they accord with those of the powers, they will be scrupulously carried out. " They assured me positively that no views of ambition, personal interest or dismemberment entered into the objects of the war. As a proof of this, they assure me that instead of imposing a government, they will allow the King to be absolutely his own master and to arrange that with his subjects. 318 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " I left at the end of three hours. Heymann remained : he was instructed to express to me their entire satisfaction, and that they placed full and entire confidence in me ; that I was the only one who had talked reasonably, and thev invited me not to maintain silence in any respect as to Coblcntz. M. de Heymann informed me of this the same evening, and invited me to a conference on the next day. " Third conference, the 1 7th, at the house of M. de Haugwitz. I delivered a summary : it was completely approved of, and considered conformable with the views of the confederate powers. " Questions as to the force of the nobility, as to the number of them who had emigrated, and of those who remained in the kingdom. They expressed to me the impropriety of establishing them as a political body ; they were to be reinstated in their property and titles, but not in their feudal power. " M. de Cobentzel took pencil notes of my principal observations and questions, during the first and second conference. " Fresh official and positive declaration of the complete disinterestedness of the allied courts. " They said to me, that there would be no peace in France and the neighbouring countries so lone: as it was given up to anarchy, since this necessitates cordons, expenses, extraordinary precautionary measures. " General conversation upon different details relative to the King and the country. I was asked for the particulars: of the affair of the 20th of June : 1 gave them. M. de Haugwitz shed tears. They take minutes to lay before the two Sovereigns. MALLET DU PAN. 319 " Fresh assurances of satisfaction and confidence. Requests not to take my departure until after the confer- ence at Mayencc. Carried my precis and project for a declaration to the Princes to M. de Haugwitz on the 18th ; the Emperor leaves on the morning of the 19th." Mallet du Pan requested that Prussia and Austria should without delay, and before their armies entered the French territories, issue a manifesto of which he drew up a pro- gramme in accordance with his instructions. That decla- ration should in the first place convince the French people, that the revolutionary leaders had deceived them by assuring them that neither the Germanic body, nor those of the north or south would espouse the present quarrel — that, on the contrary, the allied powers were resolved not to sheathe the sword until the King was at liberty and his authority legitimately re-established. The manisfesto should with the same object declare energetically to the National Assembly, to the capital, to the administrative bodv, &c, that they would render themselves personally liable and responsible in person and property for the slight- est injury to their Majesties, their family, and all citizens. But in order to impress fear with confidence, they should at the same time declare, that they had taken up arms against the faction, not against the King and the nation ; that they undertook the defence of the legitimate govern- ment of the people against a ferocious anarchy, which menaced the tranquillity of all Europe, prepared the most horrible calamities, and reversed all the ties of men and society. Thus, factions would be deprived of their great argument, that this is a tear of king* against nations. In order to strengthen the confidence made hv this distinc 320 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tion between the factious and the rest of the nation, care must be taken not to propose any form of government, and to declare that they took up arms only to re-establish the monarchy, the liberty of the monarch and the restoration of his authority. " This measure," remarked Mallet du Pan, " would soften the majority of the revolutionists, wearied out or wavering, who, without wishing for the actual constitu- tion, feared the return of great abuses, of vengeance, and oppression, and who knew that his Majesty would be their most certain protector against danger, and from whom submission might be expected, the moment the possibility of it was offered to them without disgrace or personal danger." Mallet then insisted, in the name of the King, upon the imperative necessity of hastening the publication of the manifesto. " All those who surround his Majesty," said he, " all who judge rationally of the movements at Paris, are unanimous in their desire for the acceleration of this important measure;" and he supported the urgency of his appeal with reasons derived from the informations which his correspondents had communicated to him. " The war," said he, " is at this moment forgotten at Paris, and in tin; provinces it troubles no one, intimidates no one, any more than the battles of the English in Hin- dostan. In vain do the gazettes announce the march of the foreign troops — a hundred popular libels reassure the Parisians each day. The absolute silence of the allied powers since the hostile declaration of the Assembly, the defensive war in Brabant, unimportant reverses, affronts that make no impression, the necessarily slow formation MALLET DU PAN. 321 of the armies, the ruin, the distress, and the dissension in which they see the emigres remain — all has concurred to prolong, to increase the stupefaction ; the perceptions of the most timid are bounded by the idea that, before daring to engage in warfare, the allies will propose to them an accommodation which they deride in the same way that they despise the danger incurred by their frontiers. "It is to these various sources of security, that the progress of the authority of the Jacobins must be attri- buted, as well as their last enterprizes and the terrible outrage of the 20th June. Time has been afforded them to concoct fresh catastrophes, which the least delay will enable them to put into execution. "It should not be mistaken that, if that frightful event of the 20th June, a scene unheard of even among the armies of the Revolution, in which their Majesties were submitted to outrage, exposed to perils, which horrify the imagination of that day of sorrow and opprobrium, has not been terminated by two regicides, it must be ascribed to one circumstance alone. Their Majesties were saved only by one of those popular impressions, which the skill of the demagogues could not prevent. They were incapable of influencing that infamous populace against the ascendancy of the royal majesty, the presence of its sovereigns, the involuntary fear which enchained their regicidal arms at the voice of those august personages, whose heroic rirm- ness disarmed those sanguinary and debased beings. " Since that time the same perils continue suspended over the heads of their Majesties ; and it is only by dint of artifices and precarious means that they still defend their lives. From one day to another, France and the whole oi' VOL. I. V 322 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Europe may be plunged into mourning. Their Majesties count the moments until the publication of your manifesto : their life is a hideous agony." On the 10th of July, (eight days before the close of the conferences), the Princes received from the agent of the King, their brother, another draft of the manifesto, in which, as Frenchmen and the chief citizens of the state, they represented to their country the state of demoralization, of misery and anarchy into which it had fallen. After having completed this picture, drawn with an energetic eloquence, the French Princes continued, in the name of their com- panions in exile, addressing to the French nation the noble conclusion : " And yet the factious accuse the French emigres of arming themselves against their own country ! Against their country ! Rather against the sanguinary associations, against the societies of brigands which have subdued unfortunate France ! She is in the possession of a few scoundrels supported by a corrupted populace, who have assumed the name of the people. She would become the; prey of those exclusively who rend and ruin her to con- summate her overthrow by the complete establishment of a Republican government. " This power is founded on that of might : such is the liberty they have bestowed on the nation ! After having themselves exercised this terrible right through three tra- gical years, they have endowed all Frenchmen with it ; and when once the social bond is broken, undoubtedly every citizen regains bis independence, and would be autho- rized in reclaiming at the sword's point, those rights of which he was violently deprived. MALLET DU PAN. 323 " But leaving these theories to brigands, who reciprocally protect each other in Paris, the expatriated French who have not opposed even their outrages, their natural and legitimate defence, do not now take up arms for the purpose of securing their personal interest. " In uniting themselves to call for a termination to the series of calamities under which the kingdom is bowed down, they do not separate themselves from that large part of the nation at present unconnected with the illusions of anarchy. They unite themselves with all good French- men, to deliver the King and the people from a league of usurpers. They demand from the factious the restitution of the monarch and the monarchy, the liberty of the head of the state, and laics protecting the rights of all. They demand a termination of the disorder into which all branches of the public administration have been plunged ; the security of the Princes, squandered by mismanagement and corruption ; a permanent and regular order which will close the abyss in which the factious have swallowed up three thousand millions of capital ; the re-establishment of the security of the public creditor, credit having been destroyed, and the nation's resources delivered over to peculators, and the most scandalous prodigality. " As the first citizens of the state, they will afford to all others an example of submission to the desires of his Majesty. To the crown, restored to its authority, they will confidently entrust the care of their interests. Those of the state are too dear and too sacred for them not to concur with the voice of the King re-established in his legitimate authority, with all which wisdom prescribes to v 2 324 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF him for restoring existence to the monarchy and tran- quillity to the people. " In these sentiments, which long-continued outrage has been unable to weaken, the French Princes and emigres do not deign to repel those base calumnies, by which it has been attempted to alarm the people as to their disposition towards the kingdom. " How could the French people have doubted ? Have we ever dreamt of confounding the nation with the seducers who have drawn it into error ? Are we ignorant to whose hands we owe the injuries which we pardon, in consideration of the intoxication of a people carried away by the fascina- tions of artifice and perversity ? " The factious have recompensed our first sacrifices by ingratitude and oppression. We offered the hand of help to all those who were not accessory to the enormities of the revolution, to all those who, renouncing their hatred and those fatal opinions, unite with us in consoling his Majesty for his long sufferings, and to render him the homage of their obedience and fidelity." That such language should have been adopted by the Princes was what Mallet undoubtedly never expected: they who hitherto had obstinately refused to enter into any explanation with the French people, persuaded that the dignity of silence was the sole protest which was be- coming to their dignity and their rights ; how had they sacrificed their repugnance at the time when, full of hope and illusions, they already saw the revolution subdued and chastised by the avenging armies of the northern powers ? The restoration which was meditated in the councils of MALLET DU PAN. 325 Coblentz was not that announced in the manifesto in the name of the King. From that quarter, the agent of Louis XVI, did not look for any aid, except from the amicable views of the allied powers ;* and it was upon this that he relied for giving to the invasion that character which the situation of the King demanded, and to the emigres the only position which became them, if they were desirous of not subjecting their country to the calamity of a civil war. Everything agreed in convincing him that his reliance had not been misplaced. The views of the Memoir were fallen in with, and applauded, and a salutary distrust of Coblentz was manifested, from whence might proceed oppo- sitions or suggestions equally dangerous. Confirmed in his hopes by the confidence and the esteem which the ministers testified for him, Mallet considered his mission terminated, and therefore, he purposed, in accordance with his instructions, to return to Geneva, as the troops col- lected on the frontiers were preparing to pass it, with the Duke of Brunswick at their head, preceded by the promised manifesto. On the 19th of July, the Emperor left Frankfort to join the King of Prussia, at Mayence, that he might come to an understanding with him in a final conference, which took place on the 21st. Two days afterwards, Mallet took his departure, and on the 25th appeared the famous manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick. That manifesto was not what Mallet had a right to * During the stay of the Princes at Mayence and Frankfort, Mallet wrote to them several times, requesting an audience. All his letters were unanswered. 3'26 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF expect after the implied premises which had been made to him ; it certainly contained some few of the points which he had suggested, but it was difficult to do more than its writers had done to strip it of the only character which would give it any force. The manifesto proposed, according to the King's views, would have dexterously inspired at once a salutary fear and confidence. After having drawn a circle round the factious, he did not fear frankly to retain the political interest, and the legitimate desires of the nation ; in short, though very energetic, the tone was not haughty, the national pride was carefully worked upon ; and perhaps that combination of vigour, freedom, and political reason would at least have struck the sensibility and the imagination of the French people by its novelty. On the contrary, what effect could be produced by the; cold, constrained, and yet offensive language of the celebrated declaration which bore the signature of the Duke of Brunswick ? How was it that the conferences should have terminated in such a meagre result? It was because the meanness of the Court of Coblentz, supported by the Pussian minis- ter, had been beforehand with the envoy of Louis XVI, whose ascendancy they feared. While M. de Romanzoff, as we have already said, discredited Mallet du Fan with the allied sovereigns and their ministers, and endeavoured to discourage him by the assurance that he would not be granted a conference, that no measures would be taken without the Princes, and that his mission was futile, the manifesto was printed. The Marquis de Limon, at first a partizan of the revolution, and at this time an extreme rovalist, put forward by M. <\c Calonne, MALLET DU PAN. 327 offered to the ministers to undertake the preparation of a manifesto. The offer was accepted, and the emigre com- menced his labours. His draft was, in the first instance, submitted to the Emperor himself, who approved of it, and afterwards showed it to the King of Prussia, during their interview at Mayence. The King gave his support to it ; but the Duke of Brunswick, without daring to confess that the proposed draft was unsatisfactory to him, requested to introduce alterations with the consent of the ministers and their Majeties. In a conference with the Comte de Lascy, M. de Cobentzel, Barun Spielmann, and Comte Schulenbourg and the Councillor Rengner on the part of the King of Prussia, the mitigated views of the Duke of Brunswick were adopted ; the most severe passages were softened down, without, however, removing altogether that which appeared to him to be impolitic in that solemn declaration.* The original constructor strongly disapproved of the alterations, and declared that the mani- festo so mutilated would make no impression. f lt To be- lieve some persons then in the Duke of Brunswick's suite," say the ' Memoires d'un homme d'etat,' " it was not till after signing that the phrase was introduced by which the Duke threatened, in case of violence to the King of France, to take an exemplary and ever-memorable * " Memoires tires des papiers d'un homme d'etat," t. i. p. 406 and 4C9. t " At a later period," it is said in the " Memoires d'un homme d'etat," M. de Limon demanded satisfaction lor his lahours. But the King of Prussia, being no longer of his opinion, sent him word that it was the business of those who had given him orders for the preparation of the manifesto to reward him. 328 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF vengeance on Paris, by giving over the capital to military execution and utter subversion. The Duke, taking the copy then presented to him with this interpolation, is reputed to have torn it with indignation, although he did not dare disavow it." Such are the true facts connected with the origin of the too famous manifesto : the account in the " Memoires d'un homme d'etat," drawn from original sources, leaves no doubt on this point of history. It considerably mo- difies the accounts given from recollection by Bertrand de Moleville, in his " Memoires ;" a curious but very trifling work, which the emigrant minister composed in London, during a time of necessity, for a publisher, who paid him seven hundred pounds for it. M. de Mole- ville stated that the Duke of Brunswick, after having adopted the manifesto proposed by Mallet du Pan, sub- jected it at the last moment to essential alterations. As soon as Mallet was apprized that M. de Moleville was preparing his " Memoires," he charged his son, who was in London, to request the author not to publish anything respecting the mission with which he was honoured by- Louis XVI., before communicating with him. M. de Bertrand read his account to Mallet's son, and promised to wait for the remarks of his father. The latter wrote immediately to M. de Moleville to correct his errors, espe- cially that which referred to the Duke of Brunswick, and to demand its suppression. On the arrival of this letter, the " Memoires " had been already distributed through- out the town ; the author had proceeded in his course, without making any delay. The Duke of Brunswick was extremely indignant at the utterly false allegation respect- MALLET DU PAN. 329 ing himself, and he demanded of Mallet du Pan its correc- tion, for the use of the German editor, who was about to publish a translation of the " Memoires." The following is the letter, which was addressed to Mallet du Pan by his friend, the Chevalier de Gallatin : LETTER OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. " Sir, " The ' Memoires of M. Bertrand de Moleville,' written in English, are about to be translated into German. 1 have met with a passage in them which concerns myself, in reference to which it is necessary that the public should be undeceived. I here subjoin the passage in question, translated into French ; and I entreat you to communicate with M. Mallet du Pan, that he may say in a few lines, signed with his name, and couched in a manner that I may have it inserted as a note in the German trans- lation, that which at the first glance he will see to be untrue, respecting a conference between him and myself, as well as the discussions in which I am said to have assisted in the construction of a manifesto, which he had given, and which I have never seen, being ignorant even of its existence until this moment. Pardon me for the trouble which I cause you ; but I may be allowed to endeavour to avoid being handed down to posterity as a thoughtless crackbrain. " I have the honour to be, &c. " Charles, Duke of Brunswick." This declaration is explicit ; that of Mallet is not less 330 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF so. In replying to the Prince, he commences by relating to him his fruitless efforts with M. de Moleville. " Your Serene Highness," he continues, " will do me the justice to helieve, that, in speaking of circumstances so serious to the Minister of the King of France, I was incapable of dictating falsehoods like those published by M. de Bertrand, and of compromising such a name as yours, Sir, by allegations so impertinent. Unfortunately, your Serene Highness was not one of the council of the coalition, and it was with that council alone that I transacted any business. M . de Bertrand has made use of his reminiscences without examination, and has related the public rumours which overran Europe, instead of copying my despatches. " His conduct in this publication is not less surprising than reprehensible ; but the surprise of your Serene High- ness will be diminished, on learning that the Minister of Louis XVI. had no other intention in view in publishing his strange disclosures and revelations of all kinds, than an interested speculation. He has compiled these volumes without reflection and without selection, confusing without judgment the true and the false, and he has written the ' Memoires' not for history, but for the publisher, to whom he has dearly sold his rhapsody. " I am ashamed, Sire, to occupy you with such miserable details; but, in laying them before you, I am anxious to justify myself from any collusion with M. de Bertrand, and the assertions which he attributes to me. The pro- found respect which I owe to your Serene Highness and to truth, fills me with chagrin on reading that statement ; MALLET DU PAN. 331 and I cannot forbear to toll what I did to enlighten the author, before his romance saw the light."* Moreover, it was too late for a manifesto to produce the effect which had been anticipated. The energetic prosecu- tion of the military invasion, prompt successes, a rapid * Mallet writes in the following terms to the German translator of the " Memoires of M. Bertrand de Moleville :" " I have received, Monsieur, a portion of the Memoirs puhlished in English, by M. Bertrand de Moleville, at London, in which the late minister of Louis XVI, gives an account of a commission with which this unfor- tunate monarch honoured me, in the middle of 1792. " Since you are about to endow Germany with this work, I owe it to historical truth, to my own honour, to the character and august rank of H. S. H. the reigning Duke of Brunswick — I will even add, to the intentions of M. Bertrand de Moleville — to undeceive the public regarding a grave error which escaped that minister. "In speaking of the conferences accorded me by certain ministers of H. M., the Emperor and King, and of H. M., the King of Prussia, he gives it to be understood that H. S. H., the Duke of Brunswick was present at these conferences ; that I consulted him as to the nature of the manifesto demanded by his most Christian Majesty, and that this Prince, after having adojted it, altered it considerably, at the opening of the campaign. •' Not one of these assertions is accurate. II. S. II., the Duke of Brunswick was with the army, and the conferences of which M. Bertrand speaks, took place at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. His Serene Highness was invariably absent. The views that I was appointed to set forth on the subject of the manifesto, were to be judged of, adopted, or rejected by the councils of the two belligerent Courts, and bv them alone ; consequently, it was to them alone that I addressed myself. If the Duke of Brunswick was acquainted with them, it was not through any communication or consultation on my part ; it is then evident that he could not alter what was unknown to him ; far less had he approved or adopted it previously. " Have the goodness, Sir, to oppose my testimony and my formal 332 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF march, could alone effect that crisis of public opinion of which there was need. Such as it was, the threatening document which the Duke of Brunswick consented to sign did not make any impression on the already wearied imagi- nation of the Parisian public. It has been said that the effect of the manifesto was that of adding fuel to fire, and that it stirred up public opinion. The revolutionary leaders dexterously availed themselves of this indiscreet declaration to excite the clubs, and the people through the clubs, and for them it was just what they desired, a pretext for the last coups, which were already preconcerted. But letters of that time testify that the first impression was nothing ; that scarcely any notice was taken of this proclamation, which had been prejudged, and which fell so far short of expectation. On the 4 th of August, after the publication of the mani- festo in the royalist journals of Paris, a man of great pene- tration wrote to Mallet : " The declaration of the Duke of Brunswick makes no sensation : it is laughed at, It is not known except to the journalists, and those who read the papers. It may even be said, that if it is not followed up by proceedings corres- ponding to its promises, it will only tend to aggravate the evil, to exasperate hatred, and give fresh force to the dominant party. " I have talked over it with men in office. They shrugged disavowal to the credit which Mr. Bertrand's error may acquire. He is informed of it ; he will himself rectify it in a fresh edition. No man has exceeded this minister in activity, zeal, and devotion in the service of Louis XVI. ; but the disorders of the times, and the space which divides us, probably prevented his consulting me and avoiding the mistake into which he has fallen." MALLET DU PAN. 333 their shoulders : no one officially recognizes the declaration, and the threats which it contains do not disturb the progress of intrigues of constitutional or Jacobinical proceedings, any more than a passage in the ' Mercure,' or the ' Gazette de Paris.' Security is great without, however, the means of its defence being neglected. I do not know on what this may depend. Perhaps the intentions of the Courts are thought to be only denunciatory ? Perhaps the interven- tion of England is relied upon ? Perhaps — and indeed that is most probable — they reckon on the very considerable forces which the revolution commands, and which becomes more fully organized every day in a military point of view." A short time afterwards, he received a letter from another correspondent, who confirmed these remarks : " The declaration has not produced any kind of sensa- tion : the people do not know of it, and another class of the public, looking for a manifesto in regular form, doubted its authenticity at first : on learning afterwards that it was authentic, the impression was effaced by the real danger of the King at Paris. On the other hand, as onlv twentv thousand men appear ; as the Austrians desert ; as they have decreed a pension of one hundred livres to every foreign soldier who shall enter France, and as the people come from all the departments, no one dreads the coalition, nor its troops." However this may be, the campaign was commenced, and the operations of the commander-in-chief fully cor- responded to the hesitation which had so long presided over the preparations made by the allied powers.* * " The misfortune of the Duke of Brunswick consisted in his listening too much to the emigrants. lie shared their illusions ; and 334 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF The unfortunate Louis XVI, as was foreseen, fell the first victim to the false measures of the coalition. The I Oth of August realized all the alarms which had instigated the mission of Mallet du Pan, and rendered its results useless. Mallet heard of these occurrences at Geneva, where he was disconsolately awaiting the courier, who had not arrived. That letter of M. Bertrand de Moleville did not reach him until a month after his departure, and he never received the order which Louis XVI. had sent for him to return immediately to Frankfort. His reflections were bitter ; and yet if that melancholy event of the 1 Oth of August, and the unexpected resistance he encountered, surprised him to the extent of intimidating and disconcerting him. The following anecdote will prove this. At the cannonade of Valmy, on the 20th September, the Duke of Brunswick perceived the French cavalry on foot, and their unbridled horses still eating hay. He turned to his companions, and said : ' See, gentlemen, what troops we have to deal with — waiting coolly for us to be upon them before they mount and charge us.' This notion made him slacken his operations. Well! it has since been ascertained, and Dumouriez confirmed the fact at Brussels, that this same cavalry had formally and obstinately resisted him on the order to mount, and that it had determined on yielding to the Prussians. "The Baron de Salis assures me that, when it was heard at Treves, at the moment of raising the camp, that Sierck had been taken and some shots fired on the allies, from the windows, the Duke was disconcerted, and spoke to him with the greatest uneasiness of these shots. M. de Salis told him that it would be enough to punish the shooters and raze the houses ; but he would not seldom meet with incidents of the kind, and that an example would set all right. The Duke, astonished, could not recover from his surprise, hesitated to make an example, and was in utter perplexity, lie had fancied he should reach L'aris without firing a shot."- — Mullet du Pans Memoranda. MALLET DU FAN. 335 the situation of the King, had not entirely absorhed his thoughts, he would have been able to breathe his native air with some satisfaction, in recalling to mind the words of approval which the King had expressed to him,* and the esteem shown him at Frankfort. That, moreover, was his only recompense : " As it was neither just nor seemly," says Bertrand de Moleville in his " Memoires," " that Mallet de Pan should make so expensive a journey at his own cost, the King authorised me to give him a sum of two thousand crowns, which he had the honesty to consider too much, and which he only accepted on condition of rendering an accurate account, and of returning the excess when his mission ended."! In the meanwhile, the letters of the Abbe de Pradt repre- sented to him the state of Paris and the situation of the King, in colours which still further increased his anxiety. Montlosier, equally ardent as the Abbe, wrote from his quarters letters in a less melancholy style, and in his lively original manner. LETTERS FROM M. DE MONTLOSIER TO MALLET DU PAN. "August, Treves, 17!J2. " I write to you, my dear friend, as best I may, in the thick of a wood in which we have encamped eight days. We are in the open air, without hay or oats for our horses, without tents or any kind of provision for ourselves. It is not a camp of soldiers or of gentlemen that you would see * "He is quite satisfied with you," wrote Malouct to him, "quite satisfied." I Bertrand de Moleville, " Memoirs partieuliers >ur la revolution francai se."— Paris, 1823, t. i, p. 394. 336 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF here, but a horde of Tartars or Bedouins about to rob caravans in the desert. Such, on my honour, is what we resemble. It is amusing to see how we cut down the trees of the forest. Unfortunately, we had not sufficient hatchets at first ; but after a short time we procured some, and fires are kept up day and night. The view is superb ; but we have no shelter and are destitute of everything, even the commonest utensils — neither plates, dishes, kettles, forks or glasses — nothing, in short, and nothing can be bought even ; for the Prussians keep everything, monopo- lize everything, and the work-people of Treves have no time to attend to us. From time to time they send us some- thing, then promise us ; which, by making us remit the care which we should otherwise have taken to get pro- visions, reduces us to extreme penury. I told you what I feared, from the communications of one of the first engineers : what he had predicted is but too fully realized. Our approaching departure was announced day after day : it will not take place till Friday, perhaps later. The Prussians threaten at the present time Thionville and Longwy, which they have summoned to surrender. It is confidently stated, that Luckner has announced to the town of Metz that it has no means of defence. The zealous here are impatient at seeing the Prussians beforehand with them. But what disquiets me most, and entirely absorbs my atten- tion, is the situation of the King. Never has it been so critical, and, unfortunately, I have lost the channel of my ordinary intelligence since I rejoined my comrades. At Treves I had the news every day, for there is a reading- room there, as well as at Frankfort. Here there is nothing but rain to wet you through, cold and hunger for me and MALLET Di; PAN. 337 my horses. All our infantry left yesterday to take pos- session of the camp which the Prussians have quitted. Probably they will be in the same distress there as we are : but, at least, they will have tents : we have nothing but the leaves of the trees. On the whole, our situation here, midway in a wood, these horses, these fires, this rivulet, this meadow in the valley, all this living picture is exceedingly poetical ; but, in truth, it is neither military nor agreeable, and those among us who have seen war are the most scan- dalized. For all that, we are in good spirits, and there are scarcely any sick among us. " All these details are nothing ; the grand crisis ap- proaches, and perhaps at this moment the last hour of this sad tragedy has arrived. We are in great anxiety as to the situation of the King — we are — that is to say myself ; for on the whole, levity, indifference, and improvi- dence, are here the general characteristics. If we could come to any settlement, we would take good care to avoid another revolution, which, in truth, is as difficult to get rid of as to endure. ... I am exerting myself to send you an account of the towns in my province, and of all the reasonable men on whom the government may rely at the moment of a counter-revolution. I will make an accu- rate enumeration of all the towns, great and small ; for I confess I have an idea for the consideration of which 1 think every other should be postponed : it is, that the Jacobins have organized the nation admirably. They have displayed marvellous art, to which history will have to devote its attention. Well ! order must be organized in the same manner as they have organized anarchy : the viper must be caught, and then crushed in the wounded VOL. I. 7, 338 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF part. Adieu, my dear friend : I will send you my statistics when they are ready. My remembrances to all of yours. " P.S. — We have just heard of the last events in Paris. We are in the greatest possible consternation. It seems that the King still lives ! May God protect him : if we lose him, all is lost ! The Princes have received an express from the King of Prussia, whom they went to join. They came back yesterday. We set off to-morrow." " Luxembourg. " Longwy, as you know, was taken three days ago. Calonne sets off. Breteuil, as they say, has seen the King, and is to be minister. It is the general report. The King of Prussia will neither see Calonne nor treat with him. Monsieur suddenly left the Comte d'Artois in order to join the King of Prussia. He passed rapidly, in the first instance, by Longwy : the people cried, ' Vive le roi ! vivent les princes.' But, at his return, they went on before him and rang the bells — even the municipality and a constitutionalist priest, to whom he listened coldly. Amid the acclamations of all classes of people, Monsieur, turning towards the Austrian and Prussian generals w T ho surrounded him, said : ' See, gentlemen, what the French people is when left to itself.' The French officers who passed after- wards, as well there as in the French villages, were excel- lently received. Some persons closed their shops or made off ; but, in general, great goodwill was displayed. Adieu, my dear friend ; I have not been able to put the finishing stroke to that you wot of. I am told that M. Malouet and M. de Bertrand arc alive and safe: that gives mo great MALLET DU FAN. 339 pleasure. Marshal de Castries, with whom I dined yes- terday, is in good health. All ahout him are much dis- satisfied with the manifesto. The Marshal excuses it somewhat : the speeches of Monsieur reconcile him to it. Adieu once more, my dear friend. Receive my best wishes." Were not the defence of the Tuileries known at the present day in its minutest details, we might subjoin to these letters the circumstantial accounts which Mallet re- ceived from two Swiss officers, who were in command at the most exposed posts. From these various sources of information, Mallet du Pan gathered the materials of his " Lettre sur les evenements de Paris au 10 aout," which is not in his best style. No comments can be otherwise than infinitely below the simple narrative of such a day ; the most vehement indignation can only appear cold and power- less beside the facts. This narrative had been asked of him by the government of Berne. The honoured leader of the Bernese councils, de Steiguer, had written to him on the subject, as follows : LETTER FROM M. DE STEIGUER TO MALLET DU PAN. " Sir, " I am not vet cool enough to speak to you of the atro- cious scenes of the 10th August and the following days. They must fill with indignation every honest heart, but they will produce a yet stronger feeling in Switzerland. " An authentic and well-digested account of what hap- pened in reference to the Swiss guards, would, in these circumstances, be indescribably interesting to us and to all z 2 340 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Switzerland. False and calumnious statements, already circulated plentifully among the public, and unworthy fellow-countrymen, seem to second these with their pens and their ministry. We must oppose truth to them, Sir, and exhibit it in a manner which will be felt, and produce an effect on the people. " No one, Sir, in all possible respects, is better calculated to do this than yourself; and I am instructed, in the name; of our secret council, urgently to request you to undertake this work, which must be presented to all Europe. You, Sir, have surer means than any one else for procuring the information necessary for such a work. The more wretches seek to disguise truth, the more imperative is it to make it known. " M. du Bergier is about to depart. I have only time to assure you that nothing can exceed the sentiments of high esteem, &c. " Steiguer, avoyer." MALLET DU PAN. 341 CHAPTER XIII. 1792—1793. Return to Geneva — General Montesquiou invades Savoy — Prepara- tion for defence — The allied cantons send troops — Claviere — Generous conduct of Montesquiou — Mallet du Pan retires to Lausanne — Baron d'Erlach — Letter of Count Joseph de Maistre to Mallet du Pan — Death of Louis XVI — Memoir addressed by Mallet du Pan to the Kings of Prussia and Sardinia. On arriving at Geneva after his mission to Frankfort, Mallet du Pan found his family there, Mme. Mallet having been able to leave Paris with her children, leaving the furniture, the plate, and the valuable library, manu- scripts, and correspondence of her husband in charge of a friend. The first moments of this meeting were wholly given to their joy in meeting. Mallet, moreover, was then full of confidence in the near success of the allied powers ; but the storm was already brewing over this retreat, and it was not long in breaking forth. The 10th of August, which threw so many Swiss families into mourning, was its precursor. In the month of September, the French army, under the command of General Montesquiou, suddenly invaded Savoy, 342 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF in despite of all treaties, and his advanced guards extended as far as the gates of Geneva, then full of the French and the Savoyard emigres, who fled before the invasion. The government of the little Republic feared a sudden blow : it was not overlooked that a numerous party watched a favourable opportunity, and were on the look-out for one. He resolved to protect the city against surprise. Orders were given to strangers to leave Geneva. The greater number fled into the pays de Vaud by the lake. Their precipitate departure took place in the midst of a scene of terror, of grief, and confusion. At the same time; the Council sent to Berne and to Zurich, to appeal to the Treaties of Confederation, and to beg for troops. The Government of Berne, uneasy about the pays de Vaud, which, on the approach of the troops of the Re- public, had allowed its joy to transpire, sent the battalions of its mountaineers to watch the frontiers of France and the Vaudois malcontents: a thousand men of these troops received the order to march upon Geneva, and five hundred Zurichers took the same direction. The Council which governed for the Convention, Brissot at its head, and the minister Claviere, an old Genevese, only waited this appeal to the Swiss Cantons, to have a pretext of occupation and conquest. Montesquiou was urged by them to attack Geneva, and to seize it in the name of liberty and equality: the possession of that town appeared to them absolutely necessary to strengthen the Savoyard revolution. While the French General received orders, sometimes contra- dictory, sometimes influenced by the intrigues of Claviere, with the army of the Alps encamped at the distance of a league from Geneva, he prepared for the attack of the town. MALLET DL 1 PAN. 343 and brought forward his heavy artillery. In Geneva pre- paration was made for resistance. The town, as a witness of these scenes related to us, presented a spectacle full of novelty and interest. All the able-bodied population was armed ; those who were incor- porated in the militia wore their uniform constantly ; every day a strong guard was ordered out ; and all who had no duty, or were not retained by indispensable business, worked at the ramparts. " In the midst of these preparations the Swiss confe- derates arrived. As the Genevese territory was separated from the French village of Versoix, the Swiss embarked at Nyon, where the fleet of the Republic, consisting of several large boats armed with carronades, had gone to meet them. When this convoy entered the port with streamers and flags flying, and anchored before Molard, a shout of acclamation rent the air. The inhabitants crowded down to the borders of the lake to welcome the con- federates, embracing them and conducting them to their barracks, singing patriotic airs. I remember seeing tears in many eyes. The old Swiss spirit seemed to revive, and to defy aggression ; and although an attentive observer might have discerned symptoms of weakness and irreso- lution among the councils of the Swiss, the contagion of patriotic and warlike sentiments left at that moment no room for reflection. Very different thoughts possessed the mind of the base and vindictive man who influenced the French councils. Without respect for the independ- ence of that land which he had called his country, and without pity for tears he was about to cause to be 344 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF shed there, Claviere had sent an order to Montcsquiou to shew no mercy to Geneva. Fortunately, the soul of Montcsquiou was of a very dif- ferent nature. Moreover, himself a cultivator of literature, his sympathies were all on the side of the little state which had heen the hirth-place of Rousseau, Bonnet, and Saussure. When the commissioners, sent to him by the council, pre- sented themselves at his quarters, he openly expressed to them his aversion from the spirit which guided Cla- viere and his associates at Paris : relying with a gener- ous policy upon the faithful observation of treaties, he recognised the neutrality of the Swiss, including the Re- public of Geneva, and negociated with them and the con- federates a treaty, in virtue of which the army of the Alps was to return, and the troops of the cantons to quit the town within a certain time. It remained, to obtain from the Convention a ratification of this treaty, which could not fail to irritate to the highest pitch of resent- ment both Claviere and Brissot, so fatally thwarted by the moderation of the general. After delays which re- tarded the departure of the Swiss, the treaty was ratified ; but the ruin of Montcsquiou was decided ; commissioners were sent from Paris to arrest him, and the conqueror of Savoy, anticipating by a quarter of an hour the orders of the council, had scarcely time to mount his horse, and accom- panied by only one aide-de-camp, to enter Geneva in dis- guise, whence he set out the same evening by boat to take refuge in the Swiss territory. The army of the Alps having quitted its encampment in the Plan-les-Ouates, the alarm of the Genevese subsided, MALLET DU PAN. 345 and peace appeared to be established. The confederates returned to the cantons. They left their allies in a situa- tion of greater inquietude than might have been expected, after this effort of concord and united resistance. The love of country and independence still dominated at that time ; but it was very soon about to give place to the revolutionary enthusiasm. The French revolution was at its height, the propagation of its principles the order of the day ; and the contagion, extended with rapidity throughout the whole French territory, was soon to take the place of fear and hope. Hosts of timid people, at all time numerous, commenced to turn their anxions regards towards the revolutionary party to solicit its protection. " I have admired," wrote Mounicr to Mallet du Pan, " the zeal, the unity, and the firmness of your fellow citizens. I will, however, say to you privately, that I fancy I have ob- served a shadow on the picture. I know very well that the weakness of your republic compelled it to con- descend to justify itself ; but I am not equally con- vinced that it was necessary continually to pronounce the words ' French Republic,' to say that it surely would not, even in its cradle, commit an injustice, and crush the country of him it regards as its founder." Mallet was not desirous of remaining at Geneva a single day after the departure of the Swiss troops, persuaded — and his clear-sightedness did not deceive him — that the intriguing spirit of the patriots having now a clear field, would recommence to exert all its efforts until that unfortunate city, distracted within, and isolated without, would offer a bloodv tribute to the revolution, and urged 346 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF by its fury, would fall into the sympathizing arms of the French Republic. Complying with the urgent requests of a zealous friend, Baron d'Erlach de Spietz, bailli of Lausanne, Mallet proceeded with his family to the capital of the pays de Vaud. Those fine possessions of Berne, although greatly agitated were still restrained by their baillis, some of whom resisted the invasion of the revolutionary spirit and agents with more firmness than the Senate of Berne, which was divided and irresolute. None of these governors showed more firmness than the bailli d'Erlach, an old officer in the Swiss guards, a man of intelligence and resolution, inflexible as to the military honour of his country. During this stay at Lausanne, Mallet formed new con- nections with the Swiss or the emigres who came from France and Savoy. Among the latter we may mention the young Marquis de Sallcs and the Comte Joseph de Maistre, several years the junior of our author. The acquaintance between de Maistre and Mallet had been made before they met. In the month of February 1793, Mallet re- ceived the following letter : " Truaz in Faucignv. " Sir, " Whoever has read your writings esteems you, and without any other introduction than that sentiment which is common to all your readers, I venture to ask a favour of you. In four or five days, I shall leave a packet addressed to you, as M. Jacques Binet, jeweller, Rues-Basses, Geneva. I entreat that you will be so obliging as to take it in. A MALLET DU PAN. 347 letter which will accompany it will tell the rest. I request of you, Sir, as you will see, a very simple thing and which cannot conceal any snare — any intrigue in the modern fashion. The packet, too large for the post, is not however sufficient to fill a pocket : in receiving and in opening it, you do not pledge yourself to anything. As I have not any actual right to ask a favour of you, a refusal on your part will appear quite natural and will not reflect on your courtesy. " Accept, Sir, the assurances of the high esteem and respectful consideration with which I am your very humble and obedient servant, " Maistre, " Late senator in the senate of Savoy." The packet was a manuscript accompanied by the fol- lowing letter : LETTER FROM THE COMTE DE MAISTRE TO MALLET DU PAX. "February 28, 1793. " Sir, " So far as I am acquainted with you by reading your journal, it appears to me that you love to do justice. That is the part which you have played to the last extremity, and certainly when you quitted your tribunal, it was high time. I filled, Sir, although in a slightly different manner, the same function as yourself. Now — since the sovereign people of Savoy has stripped me of my scarlet without appeal, I am like Dandin — 1 wish to go on judging. I wish, in order to pass the time, and for the love of the good 348 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF public, to apply a few stripes of the lash to ' the sorry hide,' of the stupid tyrants who have given us over to execrable tyrants. " You, Sir, know the misfortunes of Savoy : it is unne- cessary to relate to you how all the secretaries of the parishes and a few dozen peasants, freely elected by force of arms, and meeting one fine morning in the great nave of a cathedral, all at once found themselves kings, and deposed their king. You are but too well acquainted with the public right — it is useless to speak to you of it ; but that which perhaps you do not know is the frightful pillage which they have dared to exercise, in the first instance against the nobility in general, and afterwards against the military body, who are not able to escape as we do. I suppress all details on this subject : the accompanying manuscript will put you in possession of the whole facts. These military, as you may well imagine, have held firm in spite of the confiscation ; but that confiscation was not the less a dreadful misfortune. The sequestrations have com- menced, and already some Morisson or other, a member of the legislature, has made a report upon the subject to the amiable Convention which makes one's hair stand on end : he proves that our military men are guilty of treason against the nation, and that every man who serves a tyrant in place of enjoying the blessings of liberty, ought at least to lose his property. And all this, Sir, is proved by the eternal laws of justice. ' Unde nefas tantum ?' " In order to prevent this misfortune, some attempts have been made — among others an extremely awkward address to the National Assembly — in which such things are said agninst the nobles, that the gentlemen who signed MALLET DU PAN. 349 it deserve to be smothered in the mud. The leisure which my new sovereign affords me, had permitted me to take up my pen and attempt something in that line. The address to the Convention is in itself only a secondary object : it is an outline and nothing more ; for I do not see that there is anything to expect from these people. Our object is to make known with dignity and tact our way of thinking, and especially to frighten the intermediate commission, which will undoubtedly be our best protection with the Convention : perhaps I may have succeeded. But, however anxious I may be, I can do nothing without assistance ; and it has struck me, Sir, that you would lend me a helping-hand. You once were the fortune of your publisher ; I now invite you to become the accomplice of an honest man. And this is what I take the liberty of asking you : First, do you think this little work worthy of printing ? I might inform you that the author has never been in France ; but you would say, like him of old, ' I see it !' so don't let us speak of that. Second, would you do me the honour to get it printed for me '? I am assured nothing is easier at Lausanne. Third, could you in such a case promise me secresy — that is, may I be certain, not only that I shall not be named, but also that the manu- script, after printing, will return to your hands, and wiil not leave them till happier times shall permit us to com- municate more freely? I have kept befitting terms with the French Convention. But, as to the Allobrogic Con- vention, 1 have treated it unmercifully, so that I cannot show myself just now without being compromised. You cannot think. Sir. how much it cost me to address that French Convention. Even - moment 1 feared to defile 350 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF myself by speaking to it, and I lost sight of it as often as practicable, as you will perceive in reading. Since the great crime, all my philosophy abandons me : when I think of that unhappy France, its guilty capital, its unnatural legis- lators, its bloodthirsty folly, I dream of nothing but stakes, racks, and gibbets. What an age, Sir ! And what will become of us ? Has monarchy received an irreparable blow, or shall we be forced to throw ourselves into the arms of despotism, to obtain from it a little of that repose, which Newton called ' rem prorsus substantialem ?' Per- haps, after long and terrible convulsions, men will say with another Englishman, crossing their arms : " ' For forms of government let fools contest : That which is hest administered, is hest.' Much profit, truly, in convulsing Europe, cutting off so many heads, burning so many castles, murdering an excel- lent king ! But I perceive that I am prating. Excuse me, Sir, for this long letter, and the liberty I have taken. 1 scarcely know, indeed, from what impulse I have addressed you without having the honour of your acquaintance. If every one of those whom you have impressed with esteem, should take it into their heads to write you even a single letter, you could not stand it ; and, for my part, once more, Sir, pardon my indiscretion. A senator would not have committed himself in such a manner ; but 1 beg of you some indulgence for " Citizen Maistre." The work thus entrusted to Mallet du Pan was the MALLET DU PAN. 351 " Addrcsse de quelques parents des militaires savoisiens, k la Convention Nationale," the first production of Joseph de Maistre, very worthy of his intellect and his pen, which Mallet hastened to have printed at Lausanne, adding to it a few lines as a preface, in which the Comte says himself, " it was easy to recognize the healthy warmth and vigorous style of a great defender of good principles."* " It must not be thought," said Mallet, " that this work is limited in its application to the particular question of which it treats. This address is nothing more than a framework, in which the author developes truths the most important, not only for Savoy, but for all Europe, whether afflicted or menaced by those calamities which have fallen upon the duchy since it has been stocked with citizen soldiers, extreme clubbists, political jugglers, polite janis- saries, who force submission to the liberty of dying from hunger, and the necessity of no longer believing in God " This work presents just notions as to the past and present situation of Savoy, and sensible reflections on that abuse of language, by the aid of which the revolutionists at the present day, put civil society to the torture and endeavour to renovate the human race." Something more than the conformity of their anti- revolutionary opinions induced de Maistre to select Mallet as the god-father of his first work. The fearless articles in the " Mercure," with their vehement and passionate * See the recent and valuable publication of the " Lettres et opuscules inedits " of the Comte de Maistre, preceded by a biographical notice by his son, the Comte Rodolphe de Maistre, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, Vaton. 352 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF elevation of style, which gave them such marked promi- nence, formed from the beginning a school of writers in and out of the provinces, a school of writers who, either from taste or the force of example, adopted the vigorous manner and thundering sallies of their leader. The " Adresse" bore manifest traces of this influence ; but the genius of de Maistre soon emancipated itself from that imitation, partly of choice, partly involuntary, by which every writer begins his career. The Savoyard gentleman and the Gcnevese republican, while frequently meeting at Lausanne, and afterwards maintaining by correspondence their affectionate relations, urged on their views and their efforts, each individually in his own direction. Agreeing in the vivacity of their sentiments with regard to the French Revolution, their political creeds were somewhat different, or rather, their ideas in these matters followed different directions ; certainly, they did not think in the same manner of the revolution. M. de Maistre, sounding with a religious and angry curiosity the abyss of revolu- tionary folly and madness, sought its divine reason, and he saw at the conclusion of this great expiation, society restored to its ancient basis in an ameliorated condition, the monarchy and the church regenerated by this terrible trial. Mallet, like de Maistre, observed the scene like an honest man indignant at injustice, and like a philosopher exasperated by the mania of argumentation. But in him the historian and the politician were, above all, awake to the present peril of society, and to the chances and means of safety which might yet remain. Meanwhile, Mallet du Pan thought of seeking some tranquil place i>t' residence for himself and his family. I If MALLET DU PAN. 353 had already turned his eyes to England ; the Abb£ Gordon, the superior of the Irish college at Paris, now returned to his country, spoke to him of some young men whose edu- cation he proposed to entrust to him ; the Chevalier de Panat on his part strenuously urged him to follow his example, and go to London. " I learn from the public papers," wrote the Chevalier to him, " that the constitution of Geneva has just been abolished, and that the suppres- sion of the distinctions of natives, bourgeois, and citizens, has reduced you to the French level. I foresee all the storms and misfortunes which are preparing, and perhaps you will again be obliged to quit that asylum : I presume you will go to London. I shall set out in a month at latest for that capital : I shall be delighted to meet you there, and with you that small number of wise men who were unable to save us. " My mind overwhelmed with so many misfortunes, and almost ready to bend under them, will find consolation and fresh courage in your society .... You are ac- quainted with my tender attachment ; my heart has need of those sentiments which you have inspired in it." Some time afterwards, in January 1793, after the death of the King, the Chevalier de Panat wrote to him : •' You arc expected in London ; I shall set out for that capital in a few days. I dare not take a route occupied by the patriots. The French have inspired in the conquered provinces, a horror which cannot be depicted. The terrible catastrophe has taken place, which you had so truly announced and endeavoured to prevent. But everything concurred to ruin that unfortunate monarch : the madness of the Jacobins, the cowardice and incapacitv of the con- VOL. I. A A 354 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF stitutionalists, the imprudence and dissension of the aristocracy — all have led him to the scaffold by different routes ! The defence of de Seze appeared to us the work of a lawyer ; we should have been more satisfied with that of Necker, in some of the views of which, there was sensi- bility and depth. The testament of Louis XVI. has produced a most astonishing sensation here. Who would not be affected, even to tears, on reading those expressions in which his mind and his heart are so well depicted. That testament appears to me to contain the secret of the revolution; for it was not by such virtues and such a profound resignation that its course could be arrested. Malouet writes also ; his work appears to me to be extremely feeble ; still, we find in it the proprieties, reason, universal morality. The sight of such horrors could not cure him of all that jargon. " Adieu ! you know my tender attachment. Come to London — that is the only theatre suitable fur your talents, and I may venture to say that they are necessary to Europe at the present crisis. The hope of meeting you there is a pleasing anticipation. "The Chevalier de Panat." But circumstances occurred to prevent this project of a refuge, like so manv others which Mallet du Pan was deterred from encouraging. The death of Louis XVI , which opened the fatal year of 1793, at length gave to the French revolution that character of open menace which the European powers had been too slow in recognizing.* It was not only from the * It must be recollected that, by the decree of the Convention on the 19th November, 1792, it formally declared that it would render aid and fraternity to all peoples who wished to recover their liberty. MALLET DU PAN. 355 tribunal, but from the revolutionary scaffold that a defiance was offered to all sovereigns, an appeal to the people of all nations to overthrow all royal power, and to constitute themselves absolute masters of society. The revolution was no longer political, but social ; it was no longer French — it aimed at being universal. Society and civi- lization were at stake, and no longer the mere monarchy of France. So Mallet understood it ; and henceforth, while giving his chief interest to the source of the evil, the focus of this contagious anarchy, he surveyed events in their relations to the common interests of society, rather than to the rights and hopes of the French Princes, and such was from that time the character of the efforts, which, exhausting his powers, brought him to the grave after four years of continual strife. The endeavour to induce cabinets to forget their old chess-playing, their jealousies, their manoeuvres of equili- brium, in order to unite together, and without ulterior views to direct against France a war of principles, was undoubtedly attempting more than appertained to a simple political philosopher ; but the idea was grand, and an in- vincible impulse of conscience constrained him to under- take it, in spite of the opposition of his reason and his interests. At the close of January he had com- pleted his plan. His design was to act upon the foreign cabinets so as to obtain more confidence, and to re- main unconnected with Monsieur, now regent, the other princes and the emigres in general. The inveterate habits of the old politicy brought to light snares and projects of future aggrandizement, where there should have been nothing but close alliance in a common cause. \ a 2 356 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF It was necessary to humour mistrust, if he was desirous of obtaining confidence for himself. Mallet resolved accord- ingly to act severally on the Princes and on the belligerent powers, though in the same spirit and with identical views. Of his own accord, or in obedience to express solicita- tions, he commenced by drawing up a memoir to the Kings of Prussia and Sardinia, which was sent to those Princes in April, 1793. In this Memoir, Mallet speaks as usual with boldness and animation, fortified as he was by assiduous observation and the information he had taken great trouble to pro- cure. * In the first place, he directed his attention to describing the true nature of the war which the revolu- tionists had declared against the Allied Powers ; the cha- racter and means of this war, and the shades of the dominant faction. This rapid, but complete sketch is drawn to the life : the resemblance is indisputable. The inductions which were thrown out by this political coun- cillor without title or portfolio, are worth the trouble of quoting — at least, the principal of them. After having shown the first parties to the revolution as pursued, mur- dered, or compromised by the Jacobins, he comes to the latter, already divided into Girondists and Maratists : the portraiture is vigorous. " The Jacobins, closely allied a year ago in order to dethrone the King, overthrow the constitution of 1791 and establish the Republic, separated as soon as they had * We have now in our possession numerous documents concerning finance and military affairs, which he procured from authentic sources. MALLET DU PAN. 357 effected the object ; to their former concert has succeeded a furious discord, of which the Convention is the theatre, and of which the massacre or the expulsion of one party or the other will be the next stage. " On the 10th of August the predominating influence, the government offices, the direction of committees, be- longed to that cabal which has received the name of Bris- sotists, Girondists, and of which Brissot, the minister Roland, the deputies of the department of the Gironde, Petion, &c, are the principal leaders. " At the head of the opposite party are Robespierre, Marat, Danton, and the majority of the deputies at Paris. They are supported by the municipality of that capital by the sections, by the Commandant-general Santerre, by the creatures of the Duke of Orleans and by the club of the Jacobins. " In the National Convention they have taken the name of the ' Montague,' because they occupy the most elevated benches of the left. Long inferior in numbers to their rivals, they have at length become equal to them, and even obtain an advantage over them by the aid of a kind of third party, which is called the Independants. In the greater part of the violent resolutions these latter generally vote with the Maratists — they concurred in the murder of the King with as much ferocity as the latter. " The doctrine and the aim of the Brissotists consist in the establishment and organization of a Republic, pure and simple, in such a way as slightly to limit the extreme democracy by the representative government ; to diminish the influence of Paris ; to constitute the executive power on such a basis as will afford to the laws more libert\ of 358 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF action; to oppose the departments to the capital; to restrain the incendiary violence of the eluhs, and to terminate the revolution in the interior by the cessation of massacres, and the convulsions of anarchy. The majority voted that the judgment of the King should be referred to the people, not from any sentiment of justice, of humanity, or of com- passion for that unfortunate Prince, but solely from motives of policy, in order to save the Convention from the odium of a regicide so execrable, and to avoid its effects both at home and abroad. " The doctrine and the aim of the Maratists, consist in maintaining the continual exercise of the sovereignty of the populace, in arming insurrections against the laws, and the overthrow of authority by force, as soon as it appears to become a curb ; the endeavour to make popular assemblies dominate over the Convention, to transfer power and office to the most licentious immoderate agitators, to make a vigorous application of the rights of man — that is to say, to assure to the people, under the name of liberty, a per- manent licence and impunity — and to consecrate equality by agrarian laws, referring to landed property and official appointments. Such is the system which has very justly been called the Sans-culotterie, and of which they expected to realize the complete working while their terrified anta- gonists wished to modify it by some limitations. "Notwithstanding this difference in their designs, these two factions resemble each other in possessing an equal degree of perversity. It would be a delusion to imagine that there is more probity or scrupulousness among the Brissotists. More dexterous, less ferocious, less impatient than their adversaries, the\ surpass them in subfiltv. Cun- MALLET DU PAN. 359 ning in preparing the circumstances for crime, they leave it to their rivals to execute more crimes than the circum- stances demand. The circumspection of their manoeuvres is more refined and more precise. Thus, after having absolved and rewarded the executioners, who filled the glaciere of Avignon with corpses ; after having plotted the conspiracy of the 20th of June, and that of the 10th of August, they justified the carnage of that day and the fol- lowing, but they blamed that of the month of September, as useless for the consummation of their crimes, and as suited to terrify Europe, which they aspire to draw under the tender bonds of their fraternity. " A league of men who carry almost to fanatacism their contempt for all religion and obedience ; who vaunt their atheism in the midst of the legislative body ; who have proscribed the word " honour;" constituted murder, robbery, and poison,* a duty ; strangers to all shame, to all moral sentiment existing but rapine ; consumed by pride, and thinking themselves invincible from four years of triumph ; such a league, which respects no right and knows no duly, will not, during its existence, allow any state to remain in tranquillity, any throne to be secure, any war to end with- out meditating another. " The duration of the stru that, as the French Revolution owed its origin to a victory, and was consolidated by further victories, it was by a course of victories that its internal enemies should have sought to arrest its progress ; and, in consequence, their duty was to stir up a civil war — a civil war, the only resource left to 414 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the French, which, however, could alone he kindled by well balancing the passions and interests concerned. It is a great error to suppose that it was dependent on the double representation of the Third Estate, on the union of classes, or on any other similar combination. " One fact is indisputable ; that, from the moment the King consented to place himself in the hands of the States- General, he could not withdraw, without, as it were, entering into a treaty with the nation, by which he would neces- sarily be abridged of a portion of his power. His council was perfectly aware of this dilemma, and this probably gave rise to the Royal declaration of the 23d of June, 1789. It would, doubtless, have been desirable that this document should have been more carefully elaborated ; but, the step once taken, it should have been boldly supported by the fullest display of power ; and I am of opinion that, if a high- toned and strenuous resistance had then been offered, it would have been attended with complete success. " The timid attempts that took place afterwards could not accomplish their object. The nobility and clergy seemed to rally round the King as their prop ; the factious party was convinced that Royalty was yet a stronghold : they did their best to seize it, dismantled as it was ; such was the aim kept in view by the revolutionists, on the 6th of October. The King, once mure in the power of the fac- tious, himself became a tool of the revolution, and, virtually defeating all efforts made to save him, civil war became less and less attainable. " I cannot say whether the federation of July, 1790, or the partial federation which preceded this, or the decree affecting religion, might have proved adequate incentives; MALLET DU PAN. 415 I cannot determine whether the journey to Montmedy, had it been as fortunate as was anticipated, would have secured a favourable result ; I cannot even decide whether, suppos- ing the King to have had sufficient courage to hazard com- prehensive measures, he would have been firm enough to carry them out with that resolution and persistence, which are so requisite to insure success. This unhappy Prince placed continually, in these revolutionary times, between the dangers of rashness, which were great, and the dangers of prudence, greater still, could never make up his mind to any course of action not in accordance with the virtues of meekness, good nature, and easy compliance. Courageous in hazarding his own life, timid as a child when that of his subjects or his friends was at stake, he was possessed of that heroism of resignation which is allied to the heroism of goodness. Remembering, however, what fatal results were entailed on him by this goodness, let us confess that we have no right to reproach him for it. " In regard to the nobles, I know not whether in union with the King, they might not have effected something ; but I am quite certain that without him they could do nothing. There have been persons who, dazzled by the splendour of aris- tocratic prowess in times passed, would have reminded them of the doings of the nobility of Rome and of the feudal ages ; but they forgot in making the comparison, that at Rome where the ancient institution of patrons and clients pre- vailed, when a man of rank rose in opposition to any given law or any innovation, he necessarily imparted a great impulse, because together with himself he set in motion an immense bodv of clients and friends. During the feudal government, too, when a prince of the blood, or even a 416 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF private gentleman raised his standard against the incur- sions of injustice, he appeared in the battle-field with all his feudal retainers, who never abandoned him. On the contrary, during the revolution, as all feudal power and influence were completely at an end, it is evident that a prince of the blood, a general, a noble, had nothing to depend upon but his own individual self in any species of confederation ; and that as, on the other hand, the people had been endowed by the Assembly with the spoils of the aristocracy, they were induced to regard gentlemen only in the light of enemies, and were much more inclined to oppose than to favour their attempts. " The constitutionalists who might have derived great advantage from the circumstance of the revision, and been so benefited by the victory over the Jacobin club in the Champ de Mars, had to repent of their timid circumspec- tion, when they witnessed the almost total dissolution of their party : having failed to defend the King on the 20th of June, they shared in his proscription on the 10th of August. " The emigrants, on the other hand, who ought to have directed their efforts to the south, where they possessed strongholds and partisans, preferred taking their way towards the north, where they had neither. They might have leagued with the constitutionalists, who still had at their disposal all the posts of the army, of the depart- ments, of the districts, and of the national guards, and who might have yielded up one of the fortresses. A sen- timent of delicacy, doubtless very laudable', opposed a course of policy which would have been much more to the purpose ; and the most inviting opening for a civil war was lost. The impulse that was afterwards given to MALLET DT T PAN. 417 emigration ; the exaggerated principles that the exiles were led to profess ; the ridiculous vanity which separated the nobles and the middle classes, and prevented the con- federation of provinces ; that malevolent spirit which pre- vailed on them to repress tardy remorse and repentance ; the appalling instances of injustice which were the natural result — all concurred to deprive the emigrants of that support and success which they looked for in the interior, and would have done so, even had not the inadequacy of the means at their command put in a proportionally stronger light the astounding presumption of their pretensions. " It remains for me to speak of the foreign powers ; here matters change their aspect entirely. Tacitus says, that when minds were once turned at Rome towards civil war, people cared no longer for foreign wars : conversis ad civile helium animis, externa sine cura habebantnr. When minds are turned towards foreign war, all the germs of civil dissension disappear. Foreign war and civil war are, therefore, naturally antagonistic. The powers ought to have counted on this; they ought to have foreseen that, so soon as they showed themselves, an extraor- dinary display of strength would take place, of which no sign yet existed. Their want of foresight on this point, as well as on some other points of the revolution, has been very disastrous. For example : as soon as the National Assembly had created four hundred millions of currency in assignats on the so-called national lands, and this first issue had been followed almost immediately by a second of eight hundred millions, it would have seemed that the success of such an experiment must begin to alarm Europe. This alarm should have augmented when VO!.. I. K K 418 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF three or four millions of National Guards were seen to be raised and completely organized, although their institution had seemed to appertain to a moment of terror, and to be naturally transitory like it. But if the concurrence of these two measures, carried out with a success utterly unexpected, was somewhat terrifying, the decree of the Constituent Assembly, ordering the levying of one hun- dred and fifty thousand men on a frontier bristling with fortresses, close to a rich country, open on all sides, de- fended with scarcely fifty thousand soldiers, and ready for revolution, should have redoubled the anxiety, and pre- scribed imperiously and with all possible haste, adequate measures of defence. Yet cabinets, accustomed to watch with uneasiness the departure of a frigate or the move- ments of some battalions, saw no ground of fear in all these events. Amid the chaos and difficulties which con- vulsed France, they probably could not believe in the possibility of war ; yet war was determined by this very chaos and these difficulties. For those who above all things dreaded civil war, stood in need of foreign war to prevent it : they needed terror above all. " In fact, it has never been sufficiently understood that terror is a necessary agent in every revolution. It is the terror experienced by the factious which cements their union ; it is the terror they spread which cements their power. Thus is a revolution brought about : thus did the leaders of the French revolution succeed in consoli- dating it, by constantly employing the means of terror which were in their hands. Tims, when all the tales of brigands, conspiracies, plots to blow up Paris, all invented with ;i view of exaggerating distrust everywhere, and MALLET DU PAN. 419 pushing all measures to extremity, had been exhausted ; when the constitution was completed, and the emigration of aristocrats from the realm had done away with all pretext for suspecting conspiracies, or dreading the as- semblage of the disaffected, it is evident that divisions would have sprung up, and thenceforward that the bond of union which had kept together the various parties of the revolution would have begun to fail. " The declaration of war against the foreign powers w T as therefore, manifestly, a revolutionary measure. Its object was to concentrate all power in the hands of the legislative body, to strip the King of his authority, and bring on the Republic. It might, indeed, have been foreseen that peace could be of no long duration with a people which openly professed regicide doctrines, and whose revolutionary prin- ciples undisguisedly aspired to the conquest of all Europe : measures should consequently have been taken forthwith to resist, or rather to destroy it. The success of the first day of Mons, the advantages that should have followed it, if sustained by an offensive army of a hundred thousand men marching immediately on France, must excite regret for the opposite course that has been pursued." Mallet shows, in continuation, that war once declared, there were but two courses open to the allied powers ; either to enter France by the first breach, and thence march direct on Paris ; or to make sure of the frontiers in the first instance by taking the fortresses. The writer dis- cusses the merit of these two plans, adopted successively by the Duke of Brunswick in the first campaign, and by the Prince of Coburg in the second. He shows by what faults of execution both plan.-, failed. Regarding the latter h h 2 420 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF campaign, he reproaches the Coalition with the following errors : " The temporizing plan of the Prince of Coburg adopted this year, was less daring ; with its drawbacks, it possessed also advantages. The drawback consisted in its allowing the hostile levies to form and become inured to war ; the advantage was that of leaving in the interior of the state a degree of repose well adapted to the formation of factions and the excitation of the various parties. The advantage of this plan was then, that it fostered the development of internal dissensions, and the utmost should have been made of that advantage. Now, what was done to second the departmental movement of Calvados and the Gironde, annihilated almost as soon as begun ; the movement of La Vendee, so long abandoned to all the hazards of unaided war ; the revolt of the city of Lyons, and that of Marseilles, which might have exercised so great an influence in favour of the counter-revolution ? Some persons affirm, that had thirty thousand men passed the Alps, they might have reached Geneva, and made sure of it, and thence penetrated as far as Lyons. I can offer no opinion on this point ; but I do know that, after employing an army and considerable time in retaking Mayence, which might have been protected by the simplest foresight, there was small profit in relieving the army which was shut up in it, so as to give the Convention the means of crushing La Vendee. I know too, that in taking Valenciennes, the powers did not even reflect that by releasing the garrison there, they gave the Convention a terrible opportunity of stifling the important resistance of Lvons ; vet, with a little consideration, it would have been MALLET DU PAN. 421 evident that the getting rid apparently of two armies by sending them against our own best and surest allies, was a bad calculation of advantages. We may be quite sure that the submission of Lyons, Calvados, Marseilles, and Bor- deaux, were events more disastrous for the powers in the course of the year, than would have been the loss of Valen- ciennes, Maycnce, and all Belgium " Regarding Toulon, more prudence was displayed ; I will even add that, in some political respeets, the conduct of the allies was laudable ; but, considered as counter- revolutionary, I cannot but find it still defective. The French and English generals talked a great deal and talked exceedingly well, but possibly what they ought to have done was to make the inhabitants of Toulon speak. All Europe would rejoice to see the efforts and activity of a small population armed against its tyrants, and availing itself of the armed assistance of great powers only as a means in some sort accessory and precarious. Such is the population which the powers should inccssantlv point out and appeal to : instead of that they point to themselves, and leave the other to be forgotten. La Vendee performed prodigies ; but we may be sure it would have done nothing if a foreign general, making proclamations in its name, had from the beginning taken into his own hands the administration and chief direction of its affairs. 1 venture to predict that such conduct will stifle all sort of emulation in the towns of the south. I dare say they will submit to it ; but we may be sure that they will not supply anv impulsive and energetic action in a movement which will not be their own. " Thus," say* Mallet, -: to lvturn to our present situation. 422 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the powers adopted last year the plan of vigour, without taking the political and military precautions which could have conferred success upon them. This year they have adopted the plan of prudence, without profiting by the advantages arising from it. Last year, they miscalculated the strong point of the French Revolution ; this year, they have miscalculated its weak point. The errors of last year were perhaps errors of ordinary policy ; the errors of this year have been errors of counter-revolutionary policy. In this state of things, (let us not disguise the fact), the French Revolution has reached the culminating point of its power ; next year, all that the powers will be able to do by redoubling their efforts will be to fight it on equal terms. And then let them beware, especially of their own lassitude. I do not question that their league is perfectly in unison ; but I know by how many interests, how many fragile threads, this league is held together ; and that the example of the sincerity, constancy, and durability of such an association would be, perhaps, as marvellous a fact in history as that of the French Revolution." The better to establish the necessity of employing extra- ordinary means against the French Revolution, Mallet proceeds to compare the forces of the revolution with those of the powers — that is to say, the finances, the armies, and the internal vigour of government in the former, with the same resources in the latter. Accordine; to him, the pecuniary means of France are unequalled, since she possesses in paper a mine she works incessantly; and Mullet affirms, on demonstration, that he sees no pre- sent hope whatever of the depreciation of the paper-cur- rene\ This was op< -o rupture with the favourite Lobh\ MALLET DU TAN. 423 of the English Cabinet. Pitt had persuaded himself that the Republic, soon exhausted in its resources, could not hold out against two campaigns. As to the military forces, Mallet declares with equal frankness that he cannot perceive any advantage on the side of the allied powers. " Their armies possess more sang-froid, more method ; the French have more ardour and daring. We should note that in the course of this war, they have fallen into very few mistakes ; I do not sec that they have neglected any good position, missed any favourable chance of attack ; and, when it is known that Dumouriez's army was on the point of beating the Austrians at Nerwinde, when the two positive advantages of Dunkirk and Maubeuge are remem- bered, together with the details of numberless bloody and ob- stinate conflicts which they have always been the first to seek and engage in, we are warranted in not partaking the general contempt of the effects of these musters. Finally, when we reflect that these armies, often vanquished, but sometimes also victorious, have become in some sort indestructible by the ease of immediately recruiting and supplying them — while it is only with the greatest difficulty that the allied armies can repair their losses — we recal to mind the reasoning of Fabius : ' Hannibal,' he said, ' kills five hun- dred Romans; but if he loses two hundred, whom he must replace from Carthage — a little time longer, and he will be destroyed.' Fabius reasoned well." The disturbances in the interior of France, far from enfeebling the government, are, according to Mallet, a further element of its strength ;- — •M.^f people canii'd e- Cfi, that .1 Liowrmnenl should 424 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF exist amid so much violence and crime ; but this is because they have not sufficiently consulted the history of nations. Let us not be deceived. " Acts of atrocity are the transitory, but inevitable, course of a nation which has displaced all the old powers, all the old institutions, and which is in need of violence in order to overcome the resistance it meets with, and of terror to anticipate the resistance it dreads. Thus, all France being, so to speak, in a state of siege, and front- ing a multitude of intestine divisions which menace her, what matters it to the chiefs who guide her that they are barbarous, provided they are prudent ? Now, it is a grand and terrible prudential measure to have dared to place themselves above all forms, and to have employed in regard to their whole territory the measures practised in a ship in peril, or a besieged town. And, besides, who could rise up against these excesses? They scarcely ever affect the Sans-culottea : generally, indeed, they aim to profit them ; and, as regards other classes of society, if we reflect that, from the first member of the Committee of Public Safety to the last member of the Convention, from the first member of the department to the last justice of the peace, from the general of the army to the last subaltern, all existing power has emanated from the revolution, and is consequently framed to protect it — we shall no longer be surprised at this unanimous concert between men bound together by want and crime. How should there be any to rise up against excesses or atrocities which have become necessary for their own preservation? They shed human blood in self-defence, as man has accustomed himself from of old ,:i shed the 1>1< < 1 of animals for his subsisten t MALLET DU PAN. 425 Mallet proceeds to dispose of the question as to what reliance might be placed on opinion in France : — " I must say that this ground of hope has no reality ; for opinion, in times of revolution, always sides with him who has the upper hand. It is a vast spectacle, the majority of whose features are shrouded in shadow. At the first event unfavourable to the ruling party, the salient features arc overclouded, and those which are in shadow begin to assume colour : but, if new successes efface this reverse, the features which had assumed colour vanish, and those which had been clouded re-appear with augmented brilliancy. Besides, as I have said elsewhere, in matters of revolution it is not enough to have an opinion ; one must also have a will strong in this opinion, and in the courage of its purpose. Now, when the difficulty or the impossibility of success is evident on all sides, and when a system of terrorism overawes every will and crushes all courage, what reliance is to be placed on opinion ?"* * One of Mallet's occasional correspondents, a faithful observer and a man of good sense, described thus, some time after the fall of Robespierre, this paralysis of opinion, this insensibility of the Parisian mob in view of the daily scenes of the reign of terror. " Under Robespierre every one thought himself happy in not being in prison. The people calculated the number of prisoners, or of the inhabitants of the city, who, according to the system of depopulation, were likely to perish ; and every one hoped he would not be himself included among these, whether by means of some unexpected revolution, or because his turn would come later; and I can assure you, without exaggeration, that in this manner the Com- mittee of Public Safety might have rid itself of all the men in easy circumstances in France, one after the other, without the least opposi- 426 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF " Finally, war was itself an advantage to France. It is by means of war they have had time and a pretext to create and organize a vast internal force ; by means of war that they now dispose arbitrarily of the persons, the life, the property of citizens ; and now that they have tion. Nero and Caligula had not yet made such an experiment on the human race ; how then was it possible to try it on a nation full of amour-propre and possessed of daring and courage ? And how is it no son was found to avenge his father, either at Paris or at Lyons, while swords were drawn for a wench or a hasty word 1 " People were so accustomed to see twenties and forties taken to the scaffold, that they had ceased to pay attention to it — they merely asked the names. I did not trace in the countenance of the Parisians that sorrow, that consternation, which every feeling heart should have experienced at the sight of such horrible butchery : the populace thought and said generally that it was necessary to kill the aristo- crats, and they would be quiet afterwards. The first person I saw pass on the tumbril was Charlotte Corday ; and the first man I saw guillotined was the Duke of Orleans ; and I confess a savage feeling came over me. He was cool and indifferent, and the people were not sparing in hisses. I treated myself similarly to Brissot, Danton, and Robespierre. A spirit of curiosity took me also to the palace to see the exit of poor Linguet ; he was perfectly tranquil, without any symptom of regret or dejection. The unfortunate Marshal de Mouchy, liis wife, Victor de Broglie, M. de St. Priest's brother, and others of less note, were there at the same time." The same cor- respondent, in concluding, makes an expressive observation : " I am forced to break off. I am going to dine with Thomas (a nom de guerre), in the house where dined of old a Rayneval, a Jurien, a Mirabeau, a Rabaut, a Garat ; where dined subsequently a Guadet, a Gensonne, a Roland, a Barme, a Prieur de la Marne, and now a Tallien, a Freron, a Carletti. You see, citizen, that our morality accommodates itself to everything, and 1 believe that is its bane." MALLET DU PAN. 427 found the means of getting a hundred thousand men into marehing order, the same means will serve for three hundred thousand, or even a million. Now that they have found the means of ensuring suhsistence by force, the same means last for ever, and arc applicable on all occasions. Urgent necessity, real or pretended, becomes the first law of action : a military dictatorship arises from the sole force of circumstances, and that which is the greatest of cala- mities leads by little and little to a government. " I do not express these ideas on the effects of the interposition of a foreign war in a revolution, for the first time to-day. 1 had warned the royalists of them in 1791. " At this moment things have reached such a point, that the continuation of the war is absolutely unavoidable : the foreign powers and the French Revolution having once joined in battle, it is a death-struggle. One of the two must perish ; the name of peace can be pro- nounced only on the ruins of one or the other." This terrible assertion was a capital point to enlarge upon. It was necessary to demonstrate its importance, to prove by anticipation that any general or partial peace would be a delusion. " Let there be no mistake in the matter. Such a peace, like any peace in general, could never, whatever might be its articles, be more than a suspension of arms — a truce of some months' duration. France, freed from the influence of the germs of dissension which devour her, would very soon be delivered from that dangerous posi- tion by the factious men who rule her. ' The tyrants are vanquished,' they would say. 'but they are not sub- 428 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF jugatcd.' Here these men are, and all the extraordi- nary forces of the war would remain with them unim- paired. They would demean themselves towards the sovereigns of Europe as they demeaned themselves towards their own, after having got him to disband his troops. The slightest movements of the powers would have their commentary in the Place de Greve, and be judged by fraternal societies. They would see conspiracies in all quarters, as they saw them in France : the insolence of their ambassadors and emissaries would carry the tri- colour and disorder everywhere : they would take up their abode at the courts of the sovereigns in the name of the French Republic, to keep watch on them even in their own homes, and become familiar with the slightest details of their private life. They would interfere in all political differences of nations, and above all, in their internal jars : they would declare themselves, like the Romans, universal pacificators and arbitrators ; they would make allies of all their enemies' enemies, in order to destroy one by the other. All the factious, all the rebels, all the malcontents of all countries, would find a stanch supporter in the French Government. They would be Protestant at Rome and in Spain, Catholic in Ireland, Presbyterian in London. Here, they would declare, there, foment war : everywhere they would use the elements of revolution round about them to extend and generalize it ; and all, without wishing or knowing it to be so, would concur in hastening the consummation. An universal blind- ness would enlist in the service of the revolution all rancours, all ambitions, and all parties. There are those who reject it to-day on conviction, who would soon em- MALLET DU TAN. 429 brace it as an instrument of their hatred or their projects. At London, for instance, I am willing to believe that Mr. Fox does not favour the French Revolution, any more than Mirabeau and the Constitutionalists at Paris favoured the Republic ; than the insurgents of Brabant favoured the destruction of their religion and their states ; than the bankers, traders, and artists of France favoured the loss of their property. It is thus that a revolution is founded upon the follies and passions of men ; thus it has taken root in France. In the same manner it would, step by step, gain ground in other countries, even those which, defended by their seas or rigorous climates, be- lieve themselves to-day in a sort of roadstead out of the reach of these hurricanes. Such would be the effect of every sort of peace or of agreement made to-day with France which allowed its revolution to be in force." Arriving at length to the means of making an effective war upon the revolution, Mallet insists at first upon the true principles of conduct applicable to the circumstances, a species of direction the importance of which has been too much misunderstood. At first, and before all, the French people must be undeceived respecting the conviction under which they labour, that it is a war of liberty against tyranny, of the rights of men against the aristocracy : the cause of the sovereigns must at no price be allowed to be separated from that of the people : that he had already recommended at Frankfort. 2nd. The allied powers must surround themselves with men accustomed to revolutionary movements, the unusual operations of a revolution, such as was seen in 430 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF France, being to politics what elephants and gunpowder have been to armies, which defeat the experience of the wise. " In ordinary times," Mallet says, " the most in- telligent men are the most moderate ; in times of crisis the most ardent men are the wisest." 3rd. A counter-revolution being nothing else but a revolution against a revolution, the means of the counter- revolution are essentially those of the revolution itself: it is only by managing the elements of the anarchy and of the Republic to be dealt with, that it is possible to attain the desired object. 4th. It is very important to the allied powers to excite interior movements, but on the condition of pro- fiting by them, not of seizing upon them, which would immediately annihilate their effect. This essential point is treated with force. Following up these principles, Mallet proposes to lead the nations themselves to a voluntary alliance against the revolution, which must at the same time fill them with indignation and fear. This act of fraternity and of mutual protection was to commence in Brabant, to extend gradually, and to be the occasion of the formation of an immense army of national defence, designed principally for the protection of the frontiers ; this treaty was to be signed at solemn festivals, suited to move the imagination ; the sovereigns were to appear there personally. Accord- ing as the armies advanced into the French territory, they were to organize there on the same plan, armies of defence, in such a manner that they might be formidably supported in their rear, and thus be able to adopt the rapid move- ments which the circumstances of the war mijrht demand. MALLET DU PAN. 431 Such are the chief measures recommended by the author of the pamphlet : " With the whole of these measures," says he, in con- clusion, " the author of this pamphlet dares to assert, that the war will change its aspect before six months ; that an immense treasury of resources in public opinion, in enthusiasm, in money, in men, in contributions of every kind, in success of every species, will result from it, and that the war will be, by these means, undoubtedly termi- nated in the next campaign." However, it was not a treatise on strategy which the writer intended to compose in this pamphlet. He does not make plans of a campaign like the Abbe de Pradt, he knows only where precious weapons are to be found which are not employed, and he discovers and recommends the use of them. The value of his counsel cannot be judged of, because the execution of them was then scarcelv sketched. Only it may be remarked, that in their princi- ple they have a manifest analogy with the plans of national defence which were adopted in 1813, by Prussia, under the influence of Stein ; they also call to mind the corps of volunteers, which were armed by England, when Bona- parte at Boulogne threatened Great Britain with an inva- sion ; but the moment had perhaps not yet come, when nations would voluntarily lend themselves to this great movement. Be it as it may. this idea with which Mallet had occupied himself for a long time, shared with so many of his ideas the fate of prematurity. At any rate, the arguments and the facts by which Mallet attacked every idea of peace with the Convention, and showed the ncces- 432 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF sity of a common defence against the systematic encroach- ments of the French Revolution, made a due impression on Mr. Pitt, and on the Count Mcrcy-Argenteau, who was much consulted hy the Emperor. Without exaggerating the importance of the advice of a simple literary man, it must he permitted us to compare the vigorous truth exhi- bited in this pamphlet, as in the preceding ones addressed to the Ministers of Great Britain and of Austria, with the hetter understanding entered into at the commencement of 1794, between these two great states, with the resolution then adopted hy the Emperor, to open a new campaign with more energy ; finally, with those remarkable sittings of the English Parliament,* where Pitt justified the war party against the eloquence of Sheridan, of Fox, and of the Marquis of Lansdowne, who censured with acrimony the conduct of the cabinet, and demanded peace with France. In his speeches in both houses, Pitt more than once made use of the arguments and reflections, and even of the turn of ideas which recal to mind the pamphlet of Mallet du Pan. In these long debates, in which the cause of the revolution was discussed, attacked or defended with the most fierce vehemence, the speakers continually supported themselves with quotations and authorities borrowed from French politicians. If Brissot was the oracle whom the opposition continually invoked with astonishing simplicity, in order to justify its sympathetic illusions in favour of the * This pamphlet of Mallet du Pan was delivered to Lord Elgin on the 20th of November, 1 7,93, and followed by a second one the 1st of February, 1794. The session of the English Parliament was opened the 21st of January, 1 794. MALLET nil PAN. 433 French Republic, it was very natural that Mr. Pitt, on his part, should have drawn safe weapons from docu- ments,* where an honest man, an observer gifted with sagacity, showed the true state, not the romance of revo- lutionary France. * Be it as it may, the minister coincides with the author of the pamphlet, in opposing to the party of peace the following considera- tion : " If even," said he, in concluding a remarkahle speech, "if even you should hurry to send an amhassador to treat with the Con- vention, you would be obliged not only to recognize the unity and indivisibility of the French Republic, but moreover to recognize it in the sense of your enemies, namely, as being founded upon liberty and equality : you would be obliged to subscribe to their whole code, and by this act sanction the deposition of your sovereign, and the annihi- lation of your legislature. It would be of no use to say that they would not insist on an avowal of that extent ; whatever may have been the extravagance of their speeches, they have always surpassed it by their actions. We have no hope of moderation ; whatever may be the dominant part}', the more violent men have always had the advantage. The distinctive mark of their character is a spirit of military enterprise, not in order to satisfy their ambition, but to spread everywhere desolation and terror. ... In this state of things what have we better to do than to resist them till the time when Pro- vidence, blessing our efforts, will have assured to us the independ- ence of our country, with which the general interest of Europe is bound up." VOL. 1 1' F CONFIRMATORY DOCUMENTS APPENDIX Page 269. " A Paris, le haut, du pave restait toujours aux agitateurs ; partout, clans les cafes, dans les theatres, les Jacobins faisaient tomber leurs adversaires devant le drapeau trocolore." Towards the termination of his editorship of the " Mer- cure," in the beginning of February, 1792, Mallet du Pan depleted the political features of the amusements of Paris, in an interesting article which the course of our narrative obliged us to defer to this appendix. " During the last week, from February loth to 29th, the theatres have become the arena of party demonstrations : this inconsiderate contest has placed theatres, actors, and spectators under the rod of the Jacobins. The Queen, imprudently advised, was recently present at the Comedie Italienne; a couplet was seized on as an allusion — some common-place; the people were excited; shouts of ' Vive la Heine ' filled the house. Some Jacobins present were offended at this : a disorder commenced, but was repressed MALLET DU PAN. 435 in time. Since that day, every theatre has become a scene 01 vociferation, and conflicts afterwards. Certainly, nothing is more estimable than the sentiments manifested towards the King and his august family : the situation of this monarch, embittered by trouble, could not inspire too ardent wishes for his safety and happiness; but when these effusions of feeling are given way to in public, people should be certain of the power to defend the liberty of doing so, which would otherwise be compromised, an occasion being offered for disturbances, and pretexts furnished to their adversaries to exercise violence and openly insult the objects of respect of all good citizens. " It is no longer allowable to cry ' Vive le Roi !' still less to laugh at a Jacobin poet. On Saturday, an opera called TAuteur d'un Moment' was played at the Vaudeville Theatre, in which the author ridiculed MM. Chenier and Palissot, but without going beyond the limits of allowable satire, and certainly, without equalling the licence of the two writers against whom the piece was directed. All Paris remembers that M. Palissot, enriched by patrons and pensions, formerly brought J. J. Rousseau upon the scene crawling on all fours and eating lettuces ; the auxiliary of the government, of the parliament, of the clergy, he did not scruple to sacrifice to public derision, to denounce to the vengeance of the laws, the encyclopedists, when they were in danger. That which most powerfully excited the fancy of M. Palissot, was the spirit of independence of the philo- sophers, their protests against tyranny, their manner of governing kings ; in each of his forgotten pieces he re- sumes his bloody whip, and consoles himself with the hatred of his colleagues by reading over the warrants for his f f 2 436 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF pensions. Well, after sixty years M. Palissot has opened his eyes — the worshipper of kings has broken his idol. " M. Chenier, his disciple, had given proofs of his patriotism in ' Charles IX :' he has supported them in a declamation, in three acts, which he calls ' Caius Gracchus,' a tragedy, which is nothing more than a book of Vertot badly read, badly commented, and tediously dialogued : it may well be imagined that all the wordy common-places against the aristocracy, the tirades upon the people, the invectives against the senate, and all the farrago of a col- lege republican are included in this piece. " These two writers, genus irritabile vatum, have not been able to stomach ' l'Auteur d'un Moment,' which was received and applauded with transport, commanding crowded audiences made up of the detractors of the rulers of our kings. The royalists abuse their advantage by repeating the smartest passages. Finally, on Saturday, hisses, which had been manifested during the previous representations, were mixed with the applause without succeeding in abating it. The Jacobins had recourse to other means. One of them got up, and, mounting a seat, addressed his adversaries and the actors, and wounded a national guard who attempted to stop him : for a moment he bewildered every one around him by his audacity, but was soon attacked and knocked down. Blows fell right and left ; the Jacobins were turned out, and two of the rioters, it is said, were taken into custody by the police. The piece was concluded, but, before the theatre was closed, the Jacobins assembled their party in the street. The entrances to the theatre were closed, and the National Guard prevented this furious mob from entering. When MALLET DU PAN. 437 the audience came out, they found themlseves in the midst of a crowd of citizens who had employed their time in col- lecting together into heaps the mud and snow, and who compelled every one to cry, ' Vive la nation !' One worthy man, an old gendarme, replied with spirit, ' I will not cry " Vive la nation," because it is immortal ; but I will cry " Vive le Roi," because we have need to protect him : if any one dares to touch me, he will have to fight.' He was not molested. The most elegant women were obliged to wade through the heaps of mud to reach their carriages : one of the King's pages, English by birth and of the Catholic family of Swinburne, was thrown down, dragged through the mud, and dangerously wounded in the head. The King's uniform probably excited the rage of the perpetrators of this act. Thus concluded the evening's amusement. " When it is remembered that similar scenes go on at thirty places of amusement in Paris, a strange idea will be formed of our civilization. " The next day the Jacobins returned in greater numbers to the same theatre, to consummate their triumph ; and, in spite of the remonstrances of the commissaire of the section in favour of law and liberty, they compelled the actors to burn, in their presence, the play withdrawn the previous evening. They have resumed the same ascendancy at all the theatres ; constituting themselves despotic arbitrators of thought, expressions, and allusions — it is no longer allowable to manifest an opinion contrary to theirs. " To crown this noble achievement of proscribing a play, contrary to the rights of the author, of liberty, of the public, although it did not offend the laws, morals, or public authorities, the Minister of the Interior has interfered in the 438 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF quarrel. He has written a fine letter to the department, in which he places the cry of ' Vive le Roi' among the number of treasonable crimes against the nation. ' They arc con- spirators,' says he, 'who presume to express impious desires by wishing a happiness to the King, independent of the nation.' "Thus, having destroyed, as an invention of despotism, the police of the theatres, after having freed the theatre of all restraint, in conformity with the rights of man, and those of the revolution, it is to be put in fetters. The new regime is, in its turn, about to proscribe every half line which savours of political heresy, and differs from the maxims of M. Chcnier. Now they talk of the danger of opinion, and we have to go over the same ground again. II. Page 290. Au sujet de la mission politique do Mallet du Pun aupres de l'em- pereur et du roi de Prusse : " Le memoire, redige par Mallet, et corrigc par le roi, est plus, explicate." The expression is not sufficiently exact. The memorial which Mallet du Pan presented at Frankfort to the Emperor and the King of Prussia on the part of Louis XVI . was drawn up from the groundwork decided upon by the King, afterwards put into form by Mallet, and then en- larged with notes by the King's own hand; so that, in the absence of that copy which was placed in a S: MALLET DU TAN. 439 Augustin, in the library of the Minister, the memorial is the most authentie expression of the royal intentions. In our account of the mission of Mallet to Frankfort, we only gave an extract from this document : we here re- produce it entire : MEMORIAL PRESENTED BY MALLET DU PAN TO THE ALLIED SOVEREIGNS ON THE PART OF LOUIS XVI. "July, 1792. "Two inseparable objects present themselves in the conduct and aim of the impending counter-revolution : first, the means of effecting it ; afterwards, those of main- taining it. Without their mutual connexion, the means of success may counteract its stability, and the victories gained would only pave the way for fresh dangers, and fresh disturbances. " The means of success lie in combination and in foreign forces ; but the present consideration of the matter must not be limited, solely, to the first resistance which would he offered by the armies of the revolution. " We must guard against the consequences of their defeat, of their dispersion at the moment when they fall back into the interior ; the support which these undis- ciplined masses promise to afford to the leaders of the factious, who will endeavour to reunite them in the southern provinces ; the transition from presumption to ferocity, the habits of sudden violence which the people have been led to contract in each moment of crisis ; the grief which one day of frensy or of the rule of the dema- gogues might spread o\er the royal family, and over all 440 MEMOIR? AND CORRESPONDENCE OF those whose sentiments are known to be aristocratic, or are only suspected to be so. It is, moreover, necessary to prevent a reunion of the divided revolutionists, without destroying the motives of rallying, and to reduce the re- sistance to the least possible time. The attempt should even be made to render those revolutionists their adversa- ries, who have been roused by the anarchy, by reflection, personal disappointments, and the tyranny of the Jacobins ; and to conciliate them as auxiliaries for internal security. " In order to effect this, it appears necessary to employ measures calculated at once to inspire terror and con- fidence, or, in other words, to take away from some the hope of avoiding the consequences of the war which they have provoked ; to preserve to others the trust that their consequences will be less fatal to them, than the oppression under which they groan, or than a constitution which can- not even protect them against the power of the clubs. I. " The importance of this separation of interests, upon which now depends the safeguard of the interior, and upon which will depend the facility of restoring the whole king- dom to obedience, will be but imperfectly comprehended if a just idea is not formed of the' different parties who agitate the capital and dispute authority there. " It is at this moment almost entirely under the hands of the Jacobins, who form a majority in the National Assembly, occupy important places, and possess tin; muni- cipality. 'I'lic ministry has only just escaped them. Al once the\ have armed the mob against the Kint>' : ll is MALLET DU PAN. 441 morally impossible that the present couneil of His Majesty could support itself for a month. " The Jacobins arc divided into two sections which tend to obtain nearly the same end by different means, and which, frequently embroiled by personal dissensions of am- bition or distrust, are always ready to combine, whenever it is required, to strike a fresh blow at the royal prerogative, or to execute outrages against the superior classes. " The section actually predominating is presided over by the Abbe Sieyes, who, together with Brissot, Condorcet, Potion, Gensonne, Yergniaud, Guadet and Manuel go- verns it. This cabal formed the last ministry. Besides its own adherents, its decisions are very frequently sup- ported by the majority of the two hundred and fifty imposters, intriguers, or cowards who are classed in the National Assembly under the nickname of Independents. " The project of this cabal is not the nominal republic, but the republic in fact, by the reduction of the civil list by five millions, by the retrenchment of the greater part of the King's power, by an alteration of the dynasty, of which the new chief should be a kind of honorary Presi- dent of the Republic, to whom they would give an execu- tive council nominated by the Assembly, that is to say, by their committee. " The second league which separates the Jacobins is composed of the more coarse agitators, the restless repub- licans, those; wretches who, unable to support any govern- ment, desire an eternity of anarchy. No other principles can be found among them than a vigorous application of the rights of man. By the aid of this charter, they aspire to change laws and public officers every half year, to spread 442 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF levelling principles over all regular authority, legal pre- eminence, and property. They will have no King ; the only regime which they are ambitious of, is a democracy of the debating mob. " Robespierre, Danton, Chabot, Merlin, Bazire, Thuri- not, and a hundred others of this stamp, supported by the club of the Cordeliers and the fraternal societies, conduct this disorderly faction, which maintains a very numerous party in the club of the Jacobins, disposes of the greater part of the popular libellers, the men of pikes, and the scum of the capital. " Jealousy and a difference of opinion on the subject of the war, wrought discord between these two cabals : it might easily be seen that they were about to separate. A hatred of monarchical government, and the necessity of keeping ahead of the Feuillants, did not hinder their tendency to combine. " Both make use of the same means — with this difference, that the former proceed less openly, observe some decency, and conduct their crimes with less impetuosity. They have the advantage over the others of refinement, talent, and a plan, the principal lines of which were drawn by the Abbe Sieyes. The vilest agents, professional agitators, brigands, fanatics, and scoundrels of all kinds — such are their common instruments ; they do not leave thcin inac- tive for a day. " The Duke of Orleans is connected with the latter of these two confederacies, the only one from whose complete overthrow he has anything to hope. " It is less easy to classify the constitutionalists, or Feuillants. They form a heterogeneous complication oi opposite views, various inconsistencies, dislikes without MALLET I)U PAN. 443 analogy, contradictory plans or metaphysical enthusiasm and disappointed ambition, which they endeavour to satisfy. " In the absence of power and real force, the most prominent of these parties have had recourse to intrigue. They have manoeuvred at the Tuileries, in the Assembly, in the departments, and sought to seize upon the govern- ment and the legislative body by means of the King's money. Their principal object was to crush the Jaco- bins, to drive out by the departments and by the people, the actual members of the Assembly, and to substitute in their stead a new Assembly, in which the King was to summon a party of the constitutionalists, and then to modify the constitution by enforcing the royal prerogative, and by instituting a second chamber, whose members were to be elected by the people, under certain conditions. " Tiiis enterprise, which several persons, intimate with their Majesties, have believed easy of execution, by looking upon it as a roadstead of momentary safety, has soon be- come known and defeated. " The sole effect of these intrigues has been to injure M. de Lessart at Orleans, to create new danger for the King, to furnish the Jacobins with means of attack, and to kindle an implacable hatred between them and the Feuillants. " The two Lameths, Bcaumetz, Barnavc, Duport, d'Andre, directed this project. They endeavoured to draw to the Feuillants all those who wished for the con- stitution without a King, or rather, all those who wished for a constitution without becoming Jacobins. " M.M. de La Fayette, de Narbonne, and another set of contrivers followed similar views, but by means principalis drawn from the army. Consequently, M. de 444 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF Narbonne supports the war in the council. These mea- sures, quite in the spirit of the genius of their authors, and conducted with extreme rashness, have not had more success than the former ones. " Under these two orders of leaders, the whole body of the Feuillants range themselves in the Assembly, in the capital, and the provinces, but without founding a real party ; for they are not distinguished by doctrines, a plan in common, a system of means, or calculated re- sources. The inclination which has always led a party of these Constitutionalists to adopt the least perilous mea- sures, has prescribed to them an offensive, but impotent war against the aristocrats, and a defensive war against the powerful Jacobins. " A considerable number has hoisted this standard from policy, in order to escape from the fury which pursues those who disapprove too openly of the constitu- tion. Many government officers, new judges, bourgeois proprietors in town and country, and about a hundred members of the Legislative Assembly, are included in the first category, which contains, in general, the honest people of the party ; and those in point of fact are conscious of the impossibility of supporting the new regime. " After them came the idolators of the constitution ; a set of maniacs, whom a factitious enthusiasm of political dilettantism attaches to this superstition. They have per- suaded themselves that without the Jacobins the constitution would work, and it has not yet been practicable to make them perceive that the constitution alone bred and brought up the Jacobins, and that, were those of the Rue Saint-llo- norc destroyed, it would send forth relays within six months. MALLET DU PAN. 445 " A third class of Constitutionalists arc swayed by interest and vanity ; those for whom the existing govern- ment has procured posts or other advantages, by interest ; those on whom it has conferred distinction, by vanity. A considerable portion of the unsalaried National Guard are influenced by one or other of these two motives. " For the most part, a spirit of discontent is discernible in these three divisions ; a complete uncertainty as to the duration of the constitution, a hias at once instinctive and rational in favour of monarchs, and even a greater hatred against the Jacobins than against the aristocrats. " Heading these, as we have before said, arc the more lawless spirits, who with an ambition to become chiefs, have never been able to attain distinction from the moment they abandoned those unworthy means by which they aided in effecting and maintaining the Revo- lution. " It is questionable whether ten of these dethroned demagogues could be found of identical views and motives. " Some have a horror of crime, and sincerely desire to save the King and the monarchy. " Others only aspire to rule, to exalt their faction above that of the Jacobins, and to possess themselves of the chief authority. " A third would acquiesce in a counter-revolution which left them considerable influence, or would at any rate for- bear re-consigning them to abasement and obscurity. " Besides these, there exist men in whom a detestable conduct during two years and a half, now inspires — if not remorse, at least fear ; who, without justifying their own crimes, dread their chastisement ; who are exasperated at 446 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF the triumph of those classes towards whom they exercised no consideration, and whose every passion would be mortified by a counter-revolution, though their positive opinions might not perhaps be much jarred. " These Constitutionalists, whether honest or otherwise, comprise a great majority in every order of those citizens, who chose and adopted the Revolution, but who were in- fected with unsettled opinions, incompatible ideas, the folly of lamenting effects, while swearing to maintain their cause, and an utter want of character, union, or boldness. And thus, made up of political romancers, theoretic writers, speechi- fiers, intriguers, Machiavellian spirits, without views and without nerve, this constitutional party has never possessed more than an artificial and evanescent existence. " We shall not here dilate on that particular section, which, before the Versailles outrage interposed between the first two orders, and the framers of the existing con- stitution — that is to say, on the partisans of a legislative body in two divisions, of which one was to be a chamber of peers, on the formation of which, the followers of this representative system never expressed any definite idea. Although steadfast in their opinions, usually equally ill- understood, and ill-judged, but now modified by the sad experience in which they were deficient ; they agree as to the necessity of re-establishing the royal authority in such strength and dignity as are compatible with such a degree of public liberty as the government of a great empire can sustain. They are unanimous in demanding the restoration of the clergy, the national religion, the nobility, and the higher courts. No sort of opposition is to be feared from them ; for there is not a MALLET DU PAN. 447 man among them who would not prefer even an absolute monarchy to the present monstrous laws, and to the rule of those who have instituted them. II. " The political map just sketched must help to indicate beforehand the different effects which will be produced on men's minds by the approach, growth, and existence of the counter-revolution, according to the forms and means by which it will be brought about. " Evidently it must affect, in different ways, these dis- united sections, whose passions, principles, and interests, consonant on certain points, are discordant on all the rest. " Sound policy, therefore, dictates that those interests which tally with the fundamental object of the counter- revolution be conciliated ; an opposite course would unite the entire mass of revolutionists in the wish for and plan of a prolonged opposition. " Every course which tends to disarm resistance and facilitate submission, must be adopted : now, the true means of cpnoralizing the former and retarding the latter, would be to furnish all parties alike with equal motives for persevering in rebellion. "These considerations cannot apply to the head or to one portion of the Jacobins. They can be subjugated by terror only : their maxims, their plans, their examples, preclude the possibility of trusting them. Their interest is vested in crime — their sole resource is crime. Forbear- ance would seem to them a symptom of timidity, and make' 448 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF them the bolder. Force must, therefore, assume towards them its most menacing aspect. The manifesto will regard these corporations, which excite horror and scandal in three quarters of the nation, as excommunicated societies to whom no hope of escape for themselves, or toleration of their doctrines, must be allowed. Life is all that can be held out to those among them whom fanaticism or error have not incited to crime, and who are willing to abandon the colours of their unworthy chiefs. " They alone provoked the war — they must bear its punishment. " But this great truth, which cannot be announced in too denunciatory a form, must leave an opening for the far more numerous residue of comparatively moderate revolu- tionists. It would be unjust and dangerous to confound them with the frantic men of faction who sway the realm ; for, in that case, through necessity or weakness, they would throw themselves into the party of the latter, and would probably render themselves, were it only through inertia, the accomplices of their opposition and of their ulterior enterprises. " Towards this majority, prudence counsels the simul- taneous employment of terror and of confidence. " Of terror : for this alone can destroy the illusions with which many of them persist in blinding themselves. Inspire some courage into the weak souls whom fear of the Jacobins or mere habit would restore to the dominant faction, if they did not see it on the eve of overthrow ; make a deep impression on minds undecided or seduced by error, by showing them that the last day of delusions is come ; coun- terbalance iu others the false point of honour which still MALLET DU PAN. 449 urges them to the defence of the constitution ; and, above all, take from the chiefs of the Feuillants the hope on which they have founded all their views these six months — that of qualifying themselves to make terms with arms in their hands, and to conclude by a capitulation. " Confidence will sustain the effect of terror ; it will lead it to the desired result of reducing resistance to that of the Jacobins alone, and of counterbalancing, during the final crisis, their influence in the interior, which might other- wise bring forth new catastrophes. " This confidence is nothing more than security for the future. It will spring from the assurance that there is no desire to confound deluded men with the factious, to whom nothing is sacred ; aberrations of mind with per- versity ; erroneous opinions with a system of crimes, im- morality and anarchy. " Not only will the making of this distinction flatter the self-esteem of the constitutionalists ; it will appear to them, in addition, a proof of equity : it will show them their security ; and they cannot be supposed so mad as to share the resistance' of the Jacobins, when they have not the same dangers to dread. " It will spring from the care taken to destroy the apprehensions spread abroad of meditated vengeance, im- placable resentment, oppression that will include errors equally with crimes. " It will spring, in conclusion and especially, from the opinion that the King alone will be the arbiter of the fate of the different parties, and the pacificator of the kingdom ; that to him alone is reserved the fate of the laws, as well as of persons ; in a word, that neither will be delivered VOL. I. G G 450 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF over to the good pleasure of the emigrants and to them exclusively, nor to the foreign powers. The tyranny of the Jacobins has forced the Feuillants and the greater part of the ashamed or half- converted revolutionists, at length to consider the royal authority as their ark of refuge. If they were to triumph over their adversaries to-morrow, beyond doubt they would immediately strengthen the power of the King. The majority would have rallied round his Majesty these three months, had their courage equalled their good will, and had not the Jacobins, with their indefatigable activity, held the daggers of their bravos and the torches of their incendiaries over any or every one who dared avow his attachment to the monarch." III. " The preceding terms depend on the belligerent parties and on the French Princes and emigrants. They are the desire of the King, the counsel dictated to him by positive information and the interest of all. His Majesty attaches the highest importance to ensuring the mature conside- ration of his statements. He goes so far as to join prayers to entreaties, to obtain for them the grave atten- tion he solicits. " He solicits that attention in the full independence of his reflection and his will. No foreign impulse has either prepared or produced his recommendations in this respect ; they result from the accurate knowledge his Majesty pos- sesses of the public feeling, through the daily accounts faithfully given to him of the capital and the departments ; MALLET DT PAN. 451 so that no one in the kingdom, or out of it, commands so much certain information to establish what it is to be feared or hoped from the interior, according to the nature of the forms or measures by which the external force will be developed. All will become easy in the present and the future if the views of the King are acted upon ; all will] be complicated — perhaps with dangers, uncertainty and difficulties — if they are departed from. " Force must re-establish the monarchy ; but it is for opinion to consolidate it. The roots of stability must be planted in men's hearts ; the means of compulsory sub- mission, and the efforts of all who would prevent fresh convulsions, must aim at implanting moral submission. " In this paper I shall only consider the motives of per- suasion which concern the expatriated royalists. His Ma- jesty counts on their acquiescence in his enlightened inten- tions, from the attachment and disinterestedness of the princes of his blood, as well as from the feelings of the brave nobility, who has sacrificed all to the desire of saving the monarchy, and of the citizens of all ranks who have shared its sufferings and its exile. " The King desires that their participation in the present war may not, by too offensive and prominent a concurrence on their part, deprive it of the character of a foreign war, between hostile powers. " His Majesty, however, has never questioned that an unanimous resolution prevails, of confiding to him the care of the interests concerned, nor does he imagine that the Princes would consider themselves aggrieved in a dispute, the arbitration of which will be exercised by his Majesty, G G 2 452 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF when the fate of war shall have restored the requisite liberty to the exercise of the royal power. " Doubtless, the Princes and the nobility would have but too good grounds for avenging three years of insult and oppression, and for themselves attacking usurpers so cri- minal. Doubtless, there was a moment when civil war would have been, on the part of the oppressed, only an exercise of the right of repelling force by force. Public and private calamities would, perhaps, have lasted less long without being sharper. " But the foreign war which Providence inspired the factious to declare, is destined now to effect with fewer perils, uncertainties and anxieties, what might have been hoped from civil war. " Let us avert from France the accumulation of both these plagues. They would extend, in the most dreadful manner, over three hundred thousand families, dispersed amid a frantic people ; would endanger the life of the King, of the Queen, and the Royal Family ; would lead to the overthrow of the throne, the giving up of property to pil- lage, the murder of the royalists, and of the priests who remain in the kingdom and are already menaced ; would ally to the Jacobins the less outrageous revolutionists : would reanimate an excitement which tends to die out, and exasperate a resistance which will quail before the first decisive successes, when mediators shall be seen between the armed emigrants and that part of the nation which is to be reduced. " The human heart does not alter. All is to be feared from those who have been poignantly offended ; no pardon MALLET DU PAN. 453 is hoped from those towards whom no pity has been shown. The people is incapable of rising to a generosity of which it does not itself possess the feeling. " The different factions which have convulsed the king- dom dread, consequently, to find in the Princes and the emigrants, enemies from whom they can expect no for- bearance. They picture them as environed by chains, executioners, punishments, instruments of oppression. " This execrable prejudice has been unceasingly fomented by the revolutionary libellers, by the speechmakers in the tribune, by the efforts of the two assemblies and of the clubs : and, to say the truth, the inconsiderate expressions of some young and hot-headed persons, the imprudent and ever-threatening virulence of some royalist writers who talk of nothing but gibbets, and the long-suffering silence which the Princes thought due to their dignity, amid the ever-renewed imputations and the proscriptions of the As- sembly, have envenomed and imparted a deep root to this apprehension. " It is easy to foresee its consequences, in case the emi- grants, in bands, should act effectively and separately from the foreign armies, or direct offensive operations against the frontiers of the realm. " The rage, the resistance, the thirst of blood of their antagonists would be levelled at them. Other points would be left unprotected ; France would be abandoned to the foreigners, in order to close it against the emigrants. Pri- soners, if not butchered, would become the victims of all sorts of violence. The equanimity of the brave soldiers who will march under the banners of the Princes, would be utterly vain against men who respect neither the laws of 454 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF war nor those of honour. Lot not the fear of reprisals be urged. Did that prevent the murder of the Tyrolese? Has popular ferocity or that of a licentious soldiery, despising all restraint, ever been subordinated to the cal- culation of foresight ? " The first intelligence of an action between the royal- ists exclusively and that of the troops of the National As- sembly, would be the pretext for new crimes and the signal for a butchery in all the places where the clubs sway the administrative authorities. " By bringing the foreign armies on the kingdom, the Jacobins have weakened the opinion that the inva- sion resulted from the efforts of the emigrants. Con- trary to their intention, that extravagant step has secured a degree; of safety to the royalists of the interior. The inha- bitants of the departments no longer threaten with massacre and death the adherents of those whom their party went to attack on the frontier. The premature approach of the royalists from without, and their independent junction to open for themselves, unassisted by the foreign troops, a passage into the kingdom, would revive this popular incli- nation in full force. " We must not exaggerate the effects of fear. Undoubt- edly, if the people are alarmed, they are less likely to resort to outrage; ; but it is neither so expeditious nor so easy as is imagined, to inspire a salutary dread in chiefs whose igno- rance and presumption are attested by every thing they do ; who are themselves dupes of the illusions they have created ; who, numbering up their citizens, believe them- selves invincible, and who calculate the chances of war, as they did those of legislation, by the multiplication MALLET DU PAN. 455 tabic. Unquestionably, reflection and reason would unde- ceive them ; but were they rational and reflective, would their conduct during these six months have displayed one continuous series of furious excesses ? " It will be equally difficult to impress the people with an efficacious fear. Generally speaking, the multitude are insensible of all dangers, except those of whose existence they have palpable evidence. The Parisians, in particular, are of this character : their ignorance and inconceivable credulity place them at the mercy of the grossest decep- tions : they are beset daily by writings, fables, public speakers, presidents of cliques, pot-house and work-shop readers, all in league to impress upon them their victories, their conquests, the distress of their enemies, the im- mensity of their power, the talent of their chiefs, the enthusiasm which French liberty excites in all nations and all armies. Only those who have witnessed these rendezvous of instruction, which serve to irritate popular prejudices — only those who have examined the various ranks, beginning at what are called the respectable citizens of Paris and ending at the mob, can fully appreciate the success of the demagogues in this undertaking, as in every other. " These reflections, founded on continuous observation, will perhaps induce his Majesty's august brothers, their council and the royalists, to subordinate their impatient courage to prudence, and, once armed, to act with the precautions at the time, and on the system which may obviate the misfortunes inseparable from any other course. " The same reasons make it evident that, if the Princes- publish a declaration before proceeding to action, this 456 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF manifesto should tally with that of the powers, and should not extend beyond general assurances, avoiding all that might give scope for unfair construction from the factious : it should display the Princes as liberators of the people as much as of the King; it should promise peace, security, legitimate liberty ; — all should be excluded from it which would show a bias in favour of this or that form of government ; it should only declare that the King's restoration to freedom, and the re-establishment of that limited monarchy which his Majesty contemplated, are aimed at. " His most Christian Majesty, full of confidence in the generous sentiments and wisdom of the Courts of Vienna and Berlin, is happy to anticipate that they will take into equal consideration his own situation, that of the French monarchy, and the means which may terminate the pre- sent war, without exposing the interior of the kingdom to fresh disasters. " He desires — he begs — that the preparatory manifesto be drawn up on grounds analogous to those whose import- ance has just been demonstrated, and that its publication be hastened to avert impending calamities. " He is convinced that the good effects which may be expected from such fears as are to be excited, will arise from the factious acquiring a certainty that in declaring war against his Apostolic Majesty, they virtually declare it against all Europe, and that the manifesto of the Courts of Vienna and Berlin express sentiments and intentions common to the several powers who have formed the alliance. The people invariably calculate their dangers by the number of their enemies : the chiefs will lose the re- MALLET DU PAN. 457 source of deceiving them, as has been the case hitherto, by an assurance that neither the Germanic body, nor the northern potentates, nor those of the south will take part in the pending quarrel : so threatening an union will dispel the mist of delusions, and prove only the more efficacious because neither the Assembly nor the people arc prepared for it. " With the same object, it appears imperative that the manifesto leave no hopes of the laying down of arms, until the King be set free, and his legitimate authority re-established. All that could indicate any possibility of escaping the chances of war by means of dilatory negocia- tions, or imperfect accommodations, would but retard submission and expose the King to fresh dangers, for renewed acts of violence, to which he would probably be compelled to submit, would be employed to compel him to restrain the activity of the belligerent powers. "Another — and indeed the principal — means of striking terror, is an energetic protest addressed to the National Assembly, the capital, the administrative bodies, the muni- cipalities, and all individuals, to the effect that they indi- vidually will be held responsible in person and property for the smallest hurt done to the persons of their Majes- ties, their families, or any citizen whatsoever. This declaration must be more particularly directed against the city of Paris. " Terror will be rendered effectual by confidence in the assurance that war is declared against the fictions, not against the King and the nation : that it is declared in defence of legitimate government and of the whole people 458 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF themselves against a feroeious anarchy which menaces the peace of all Europe, prepares the most horrible calamities, and destroys the social bond. " Thus, factions will be deprived of an argument from which they have drawn, and will still seek to draw, the utmost advantage ; namely, that this is a war of kings against nations. " The confidence, thus founded on disunion between the factious, now masters of the kingdom, and the remainder of the nation, would be increased by care not to propose or prescribe any form of government, and by declaring that arms are resorted to for the re-establishment of the monarchy, the liberty of the monarch, and the res- toration of peace. " This measure will reassure the greater portion of those disappointed or vacillating republicans, who, though dis- satisfied with the existing constitution, dread the renewal of great abuses, vengeance and oppression, and who know that his most Christian Majesty will be their best guardian from these dangers, and from whom submission may be expected, when a way is offered them without ignominy, a monarchy without tyranny, and laws that will protect both persons and property. " The wisdom of their imperial and royal Majesties will doubtless have forestalled these remarks : the destiny of the King, the Queen, the Royal Family, the throne, all the proprietors, and the entire kingdom, may hang upon them. " But the prompt appearance of the manifesto occu- pies at this moment the first place in his most Christian MALLET DU PAN. 459 Majesty's mind. He invokes it with redoubled urgency : all who surround him, all who judge rationally of the movements in Paris, unite in this prayer. "At this moment, war is forgotten in Paris and in the provinces ; it is no more thought of or feared than the English war in Hindostan. Vainly do the newspapers announce the march of foreign troops : a hundred popular libels daily reassure the Parisians. The absolute silence of the powers, ever since the hostile declaration of the As- sembly, the defensive war of Brabant, unimportant re- verses, unfclt affronts, the necessarily slow formation of armies, the ruin, the distress, the state of dispersion in which the French emigrants remain — all have concurred to increase the hallucination. The apprehensions of the most timid do not go beyond the notion that, before daring to engage in war, their adversaries will propose terms which they would laugh at, as they do at the danger their fron- tiers seem exposed to. " To these various causes of security, arc due the pro- gress of the authority of the Jacobins, their last enter- prises, and the horrible outrage of the 20th of June. They have been allowed time to mature the concoction of new catastrophes ; the slightest delay will give them time to execute them. " We must not deceive ourselves. If that dreadful day of the 20th of June — that scene unprecedented even among the crimes of the revolution, where their Majesties were given over to outrage, exposed to dangers which make the imagination shudder — if that day of sorrow and shame did not close with a double regicide, this is due to but a single circumstance. Their Majesties were saved 460 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF solely by one of those popular impressions which the pre- cautions of demagogues cannot obviate. They had no power to keep the populace on their guard against the as- cendancy of royal majesty, the presence of their sovereigns, the involuntary terror which paralyzed their regicide arms, on hearing the voice of the august persons w T hose heroic firmness disarmed those monsters. " In the alternative of consummating their crime by resuscitating the rage of the mob, or of reserving their tools for new atrocities, policy dictated to the chiefs the prudence of not unmasking themselves too plainly, of not taking upon themselves the exclusive responsibility of the last crime, and of not depriving themselves of the resource of transferring it to the aberration of the people. " Since this time, the same perils continue impending over their Majesties : their existence is preserved only by dint of artifice and precarious expedients. Any day, France and Europe may have to assume mourning. Their Majesties count the moments until the publication of the manifesto. Their life is a prolonged agony. " In the course of this month the factious assemble at Paris a new federation, their satellites. If external arrange- ments do not counterbalance the daring of their plots — if that courage 1 which the King is resolved on displaying in case of a fatal extremity, is not seconded by the declaration of the powers and the promptitude of severe measures, we must turn our faces to the wall and submit to Providence. " The assassination of their Majesties would be the signal for a general massacre. The links which still sustain society in France; are dwindled to a thread ; ;i fearful des- truction overhangs the devoted country, and within five MALLET DU PAN. 461 weeks it may be reduced to a worse state than St. Domingo. " What remedy would then be applicable to such a mea- sure of calamity? The nature of the war, its aim, its effects, would be totally changed ; but only to have dis- played this picture executed with the honesty of strict truth, is enough to make us confide entirely in the humanity and wisdom of the courts of Vienna and Berlin. " Presented to the King of Prussia on the 14th July, 1792, and on the following day to his imperial and royal Majesty, as well as to Count de Cobcntzel, Vice-Chancellor of State, and Baron de Spielman, referendary in Chancery." III. Page 371. "Dumouriez lui fit parvenir par son aide-de-camp le colonel Thouvenot, des projets de contre-revolution." The Colonel's letter is as follows. In the original, the sin-nature alone is in his handwriting. LETTER FROM COLONEL THOUVENOT TO MALLET DU PAN. "Len/.e, June 12, 1793. " Sir, " On my return to Brussels I found General Dumouriez about to start for England. I lis love to his country is un- altered, and the means of saving it continue to absorb his thoughts. He is deeply affected at rinding no sound views, so far as he has seen and heard, among the various parties of emigrants — none of whom listen to anything but projects 462 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF of vengeance, and arc further and further from the proba- bility of returning to their country and giving it a govern- ment. The most absolute despotism, the impossible recur- rence to the state of things prior to 1788, the same form of the social body, are the least absurd bases of their in- coherent projects. The death of so many Frenchmen, the dismemberment of France, its destruction as a preponde- rating power in Europe, the frightful fate impending over their relatives, who are yet in that unhappy country, the impossibility of their atrocious plans — nothing strikes them: their misfortunes have served rather even to sour their character instead of maturing it. Yet the horror they entertain of the atrocities perpetrated in France by the party diametrically opposed to them, ought surely to divest them of all idea of committing the like. " General Dumouriez has not yet any settled plan of action. It was necessary for him, first of all, to know the temper of the emigrants and their resources, the projects of the foreign powers, the actual and probable course of their execution, and the state of their respective finances, the effects of his departure from the army, his proclamations, and of the equally foolish and barbarous conduct of the National Convention. In the facts he has just learned on these various points, he has been unable to found any hope of rescue for France, — to which object he means, neverthe- less, to devote all his talents, resolved never to abandon it until he perceive his inability to contribute to it further. " The Convention is said to be divided into two factions. The Maratists arc installed at Paris ; the Girondists at Versailles. You will feel all the consequences of this divi- sion, and how much we must regret that it is out of our MALLET DU PAN. 403 power to offer, at this very moment, on the French terri- tory, a rational rallying point to that party in France which desires and needs a government. This party is very strong: it is the body, still rohust and healthy, of the serpent whose head devours, and whose tail crushes us. " I shall leave in a fortnight for London. There I shall find General Dumouriez, who, encased in writing:, does not nevertheless overlook the means of action. His plan will be based : " 1st. On an alliance with the foreign powers. " 2nd. Essentially on the feelings of the French result- ing from the revolution. " 3rd. On the actual state of France considered in its external and internal relations. " 4th. On the concurrence of all the royalists, whatever may be their secondary opinions relative to the monarchical form of governmen t. " 5th. On the deliverance of the prisoners from the Temple. " 6th. On a general amnesty, to be scrupulously observed by all parties — the sole exception from which shall consist in the imprisonment of the great criminals and the chiefs of all the sanguinary parties, preliminary to their trial, so soon as government shall be able to uphold the course of justice. " 7th. On requiring that all the chiefs employed in so noble a cause should swear to inflict punishment on all the perpetrators of private vengeance, of arbitrary acts, and on such as should fail in observing the conditions of the amnesty. " The present disorder and confusion of the revolutionary authorities render prompt measures, great activity and 464 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF determination obligatory, in order to insure success in the cause we are anxious to promote. " Should you approve of my ideas — should you induce those who are to co-operate in restoring social order in France, to approve of them — let us act in concert, and in- terpose our mediation to reunite two parties, apparently opposed to each other, but capable of entering into a desirable arrangement, when they become convinced that reason and common sense command the step. " I remain with true esteem, &c. " Colonel Thouvenot." IV. It is owing to an obliging correspondent that we an; able to insert two curious letters written at this period — between 1793 and 1794 — by the Duke of Orleans (Louis- Philippe), and General Montesquieu. At this time the Prince, destitute of resources, having taken refuge in Switzerland, was occupied in recovering considerable sums of money vested in England before the revolution. The difficulty of such an enterprise, at such a time, may be easily conceived. Montesquiou, the Prince's devoted friend, commended his interests to the Chevalier dTvernois, whose name has more than once occurred in these Memoirs. He could not have placed them in better hands. D'lvernois was born at Geneva in 1 7 o 7 ; he had in early youth attached himself to the representative party, with all the warmth of an ardent and enthusiastic tempera- MALLET DU PAN. 465 ment, and his prudence and experience had been fostered into precocious maturity in the hot-bed of political strife. When, in 1792, General Montesquiou invaded Savoy and the surrounding country, d'lvernois, by the weight of his personal influence, far more than by the powers with which he was invested, induced him to spare Geneva ; and when, to punish this act of generosity, the Convention passed a degree of accusation against Montesquiou, d'lvernois had the happiness to save his life. Informed by a singular accident of the arrival of a courier, bringing from Paris a warrant of arrest, at that period the certain prelude of death, he instantly sent warning to the General, then encamped on the left bank of the Rhone, and took measures for his escape ; while the messenger, detained by his orders on the right bank, was wasting his time in parleying to obtain the opening of the town gates, which gave access to the only bridge the river afforded. Soon afterwards, the name of d'lvernois resounded in the first citations of the revolutionary tribunal, established at Geneva, where the bloody scenes of Paris were enacted over again. Fortunate enough to escape the ruffians who condemned him, and who in their savage fury had him executed in effigy, he passed over into England, where his talents soon placed him in a distinguished position. But the memory of his political conduct still lived in his native country ; and on the day when Geneva was united to the French Republic, d'lvernois, as the reader already knows, shared with Mallet du Pan and Du Roveray in the hitherto unexampled honour of seeing, in the first article of the treaty, a clause in which the rancour of the Directory declared him for ever unworthy of the rights of ;i French citizen. In VOL. I. II II 466 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF London he commenced, and during fifteen years sustained, by means of valuable publications, a brilliant resistance to Napoleon's government. He was connected with most of the influential men of this period ; and we shall now see how he was requested, by Montesquiou, to direct the steps taken to forward the Prince's interests. The General's letter is interesting, both as expressing generous sentiments, and as revealing a circumstance hitherto unknown in the relations of the Duke of Orleans with his father. The Duke's letter proves that this Prince, at the age of twenty, already possessed that ease in managing affairs, and that penetration in comprehending them, which after- wards so remarkably distinguished King Louis Philippe the First. LETTER FROM GENERAL MONTESQUIOU TO F. D'lVERNOIS. "November 15, 1793. " I must consult you, my dear friend, on a matter in- teresting in itself, and which, in its results, may possibly prove both useful and important to us. " You know that the Duke of Orleans has just been condemned to death, by those whose accomplice he was thought to be. I despised him too much to regret him ; but this event closely touches a young man whose ac- quaintance I have made by accident, and for whom I entertain a sincere regard. This young man is his eldest son. His virtues are as numerous as the vices of his father, whose vote for the King's death had produced a coldness between them. The youth, then, hearing that a MALLET DU PAN. 4 07 decree of accusation had been passed against him, even before the defection of Dumouriez, under whom he served, wisely determined on a retreat. He came to Switzerland, where Mme. de Sillery, unfortunately, for him, arrived at the same time. The horror inspired by the name of his father, and the contempt universally felt for Mme. de Sillery, subjected the Duke of Chartres to many mortifi- cations. Finding himself an object almost of persecution, he called upon me, and if I may be allowed such an expres- sion, threw himself into my arms. For some time he inhabited my house, preserving a strict incognito ; and at length, by the intervention of friends, I have succeeded in securing for him an asylum, where he lives unknown to all but myself. He had not a farthing ; but I have lent him money, and indeed have felt much pleasure in doing him all the service in my power, for I never knew a more interesting young man. Now the Duke of Orleans is dead, and all his property confiscated. So far nothing can be done at present ; but all his fortune was not in France. For the last ten years he had continuallv invested money in England, and it is thought that he possessed there a very considerable sum. Besides this, it is quite certain that all his diamonds were sent thither for safety. In short, 1 have reason to believe that what he secured here, amounts to at least ten or twelve millions. There can be no doubt that his eldest son, the only one of his sons now at liberty — the other two being in a French prison — has a right to claim this inheritance. But he knows neither its nature, its value, nor its depositaries. Circumstances do not admit of his proceeding to England himself. Could I go thither without inconvenience, I should have no hesi- 468 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF tation in rendering him so important a benefit. But my position no more allows of it than his does. I have thought that you might find me the man he wants. You will, of course, understand, that a service of such value would be most liberally recompensed. We need a person well acquainted with London, and enjoying access to the ministry, a person who understands business, and possesses the art of baffling rogues. Though I know Du Roveray only by reputation, I thought he might perhaps undertake this matter ; but we should wish you to appoint a secondary agent, who might call upon me, take the information I could give him, receive powers of attorney, and then start for London, where he would place himself under the guid- ance of M. Du Roveray. Yet more is needful : he must have money enough to accomplish the journey at his own expense ; for we have none ; but we soon shall possess plenty, and he will be well paid. " You will see that this is a pressing matter. I entreat you to consider it seriously, to reply without delay, and to strain every nerve to help me in this business, in one way or another, for I shall prefer your suggestions to my own. You would feel no less interest than myself, if, like me, you knew the person I am endeavouring to serve. I should, myself, have been very glad to perform the journey, but Germany alarms me, and I doubt whether I should be openly received in London. Without dwelling on this plan, which appears impracticable, I pass to the other, which seems easy ; and I count on the advantage of your opinion. I shall await your answer with the greatest impatience. " Adieu, my dear friend. For the last year you have MALLET DU PAN. 4(39 been my stronghold. I deserve that you should continue so, for no one can love you more affectionately than I do." LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF ORLEANS (LOUIS PHILIPPE) TO THE SAME. " Coire, 27th January, 1784, " Emboldened by a common friend, I venture, Sir, to take advantage of your sojourn in England, and ask of you services to which I have no personal claim. " I know that our friend has written to you on the subject, that you have expressed interest in my misfortunes, and have thought them a sufficient call upon you for the sacrifice of some portion of your time. Deeply as I feel your kindness, the only return I can make for it is, entire confidence ; and I shall think myself most happy if you will accept this testimony of my gratitude. " I say nothing here of my manifold calamities — they are but too well known. They have reduced me, at twenty years of age, to the necessity of regarding myself as the father of a sister of sixteen, also an exile, and of two young brothers, now lying in prison under the hand of the executioners of all our family. The immense for- tune we ought to have inherited in France, is all con- fiscated ; and no resource is left us save the funds trans- ferred by my father to foreign lands. I understood from himself that he possessed considerable sums in England ; but he never furnished me with any details regarding the nature of his investments there, or the persons to whom he had entrusted the management of his property. The 470 MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF only fact I know with certainty is, that he deposited in the hands of Mr. Boyd a large portion of his diamonds, a list of which has heen sent you, and which my father assured me were wholly at his disposal or mine. Mr. Boyd will assuredly never dispute this deposit, the proofs of which are in my possession ; but he may, perhaps, think he has a right to use it, to liquidate some debts due to him from my father. But I am not of this opinion : first, because a man of delicacy will always look upon a deposit as sacred ; secondly, because Mr. Boyd has already urged his claims at Paris, and has even, in preference to other creditors, obtained payment of consi- derable sums on the property which has been sold ; thirdly, because no man ought to pay himself; and what- ever may be the nature of these demands, there are certain public forms to which they, like all others, should be subjected. " I have forwarded to you the name of the lawyer my father employed in London, and those of the persons I know to be, or have been, well acquainted with his affairs there. One of his English possessions cannot have disappeared ; the valuable furniture of a house he rented, No. 3, Chapel Street, near Park Lane ; the porter was a person named Papy. If, as I think, my father had funds in the bank, there must be means of ascertaining the fact. These, Sir, are the principal matters for which I desire the aid of your information and your exertions. " Accordingly, as you kindly allow it, I beg you to accept my most express authorization to make in my name all the necessary inquiries of all depositaries of goods or property belonging to my father, the late Duke MALLET DU PAN. 471 of Orleans, especially of Mr. Boyd, banker, with respect to the diamonds my father placed in his hands ; and I engage immediately to transmit to you the most ample powers possihle, according to the terms and forms required by the laws of England. " This last sentence conveys what I have also addressed to you on a separate sheet of paper, for any general use you may wish to make of it ; and the power is left blank, as you desire. " Should the day ever come for me to prove to you my ardent gratitude, sincere esteem, and warm affection, that day, Sir, will be the happiest of my life. " Louis Philippe d'Orleans." END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. T.O X HON : Printed hv SHiul/.r and Co., 13, Poland Street. DC 1U6 M25 A 15 v.l THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY in mil urn urn inn urn in" n A A 000160 542 7 :.-.'--