United States or Mali ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Diderot, Helvetius, Mirabeau himself had gone there to naturalise their writings in this land of publicity. The mask of concealment which these writers assumed in Amsterdam deceived no one, but it effected their security. All the crimes of thought were there inviolable; it was at the same time the asylum and the arsenal of new ideas.
"I will speak with his majesty about it," she said, with a sigh, "but only under circumstances of extreme urgency can I submit to this, I tell you in advance." But the case was of extreme urgency, and when Marie Antoinette had seen it to be so, she kept her word and conformed to it, and commissioned Count de la Marck to tell his friend Mirabeau that the queen would grant him an audience.
Petion, having denounced the banquets of the guards, was summoned by a royalist deputy to explain his denunciation, and make known the guilty parties. "Let it be expressly declared," exclaimed Mirabeau, "that whosoever is not king is a subject and responsible, and I will speedily furnish proofs." These words, which pointed to the queen, compelled the Right to be silent.
Mirabeau desires to offer his Services to the Queen. Riots in Paris. Murder of François. The Assembly pass a Vote prohibiting any Member from taking Office. The Emigration. Death of the Emperor Joseph II. Investigation into the Riots of October. The Queen refuses to give Evidence. Violent Proceedings in the Assembly. Execution of the Marquis de Favras.
Moreover, it is said that he was lazy and fond of leisure, and that it was only when he was roused by powerful passions or a great occasion that his extraordinary powers bore all before him in an irresistible torrent, as did the eloquence of Mirabeau in the National Convention.
Had he conciliated Mirabeau, who led the Assembly, then even the throne might have been saved. But he detested and mistrusted the mighty tribune of the people, the aristocratic demagogue, who, in spite of his political rancor and incendiary tracts, was the only great statesman of the day.
I had now to wait patiently till a new opportunity should occur. The Comte de Mirabeau, before the departure of the king, had moved, and carried the resolution, that "the Assembly was inseparable from his majesty's person." It was expected, therefore, that the National Assembly would immediately transfer its sittings to Paris. This took place on the 19th.
Now Richelieu was just the man he needed, just such a man as the times required, a man raised up to do important work, like Cromwell in England, like Bismarck in Prussia, like Cavour in Italy: doubtless a great hypocrite, yet sincere in the conviction that a strong government was the great necessity of his country; a great scoundrel, yet a patriotic and wise statesman, who loved his country with the ardor of a Mirabeau, while nobody loved him.
Death of Francis, Emperor of Germany; of Louis XV.; of Voltaire; of Cardinal de Rohan, at Ettenheim; of Princess Sophie, daughter of the queen; of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI., June 4th, 1789; of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria; of Count de Mirabeau; of Leopold, Emperor of Austria. Debt, the queen finds herself in. Declaration of Pilnitz. Defeat of De Grasse by Admiral Rodney.
La Marck had represented to the queen the immense value of the aid of such a man; and the queen had replied, decisively, that she hoped they would never fall so low as to need help from Mirabeau. He defended the king's answer on the ground he had held before, that the Declaration ought to follow the Constitution, and ought not to precede it.
Word Of The Day