swore to combat the enemies of the With the exception of Malouet, republick, of whatever party ; and, in Mounier, Ségur, Alexandre, La a report against the refractory priests, Rochefoucault, and cardinal Maury, accused them of corrupting the pub- but few of the distinguished royalists lick mind. He was afterwards dis. have enlisted themselves in the sermissed by the directory, and inclu- vice of the new dynasty. Ségur, ded among the déportés ; but had pro- who at various times, acted as a foceeded no further than the island of reign minister under the ancien rée Oleron, when the revolution of the gime, is now a counsellor of state, and 18th Brumaire took place. He re. grand master of ceremonies at the turned, and was immediately admit. imperial court. Mounier died in ted to the favour of the new govern- 1806, at Paris, after having become ment, of which he is now a zealous a senator and prefect of one of the supporter.

departments. Prince Ferdinand de The polished courtesy and peculiar Rohan, formerly archbishop of Camsoftness of manner by which Cochon bray, is now almoner of the empresse is distinguished in private life, are Cardinal Maury retired from the strikingly contrasted with the intem- first tumults of the revolution to perance of his political career. He was Rome, where he obtained his cardi. originally an advocate, and unites con- nal's hat. In 1805, he addressed a siderable literary attainments to an letter to the emperour Napoleon, uncommon share of sagacity and in- signifying his wish to return to dustry. The government have as. France, and to recognise the new sociated with him at Antwerp, in the government. In the month of June capacity of maritime prefect, Ma- of that year, he was presented to the louet who sustained so courageously monarch at Genoa, and much gratiand ably, the falling fortunes of the fied by his reception. He was soon monarchy, and who emigrated to this after appointed almoner to prince Jecountry in the year 1792. The lat. rome, and obtained a bishoprick. ter enjoyed much of the confidence He is now resident in Paris, professof Louis XVI; and when the intend- ing himself to be warmly devoted to ed trial of that monarch was known in the interests of the reigning family. London, wrote to the executive In the month of May, he was recouncil, to request that he might be ceived as a member of the Institute, permitted to undertake his defence and delivered, on that occasion, an before the convention ;-a trait of elaborate discourse. No occurrence loyalty which deserves to be record of the kind ever excited more curioed. On his return to France, after sity in the capital, or drew a more the affair of the 18th Brumaire, he numerous auditory. His reputation was at first arrested by the police, as the first orator of the Côté droit, but soon obtained his release ; and in and the formidable rival of Mirabeau; 1803 was chosen by the government the unshaken courage and persevering to fill his present station.

energy with which he once defended expected that these men, by the at- the throne of the Bourbons, and his tractions of their society, and the recent defection from their cause, on mildness of their administration, which he was expected to touch, gave would have been able to conciliate an extraordinary interest to his first the inhabitants of Antwerp; but such publick exhibition. His hearers, was the general antipathy to the however, retired fatigued and disFrench dominion, that even in 1807, gusted, with a dull and prolix ha

. they had not succeeded in establish- rangue, remarkable only for the ful. ing a social intercourse with more some adulation which it offered to the than two or three of the princi- imperial family. Those who recolpal personages of the department. lected him preaching before the king,

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It was

VOL. II.

any details.

his benefactor, or asserting, in the of establishing a democracy in France; national assembly, the rights of his but it is certain that, after his deorder, with such force of argument, sertion to the court, he had formed and so captivating an elocution, had the plan of dissolving a legislature, the mortification to find, that his man- which he soon found wholly untractaner was stripped of all the charms ble.* His death frustrated the exewith which it was once invested ; cution of this scheme-perhaps the and that, with the dignity of his only one which could have saved the character, he had lost the fire of bis monarchy. The address with which genius, and the lustre of his elo he contrived to promote his own quence.

views, by appearing to second those The name of Mirabeau is so often of his old confederates, the energy conjoined with that of Maury, that and splendour of his declamation, are we are naturally led to turn to the ar- all calculated to inspire the highest ticle which treats of the former. The. idea of his powers, and to awaken accounts of this extraordinary man a lively regret, that an intelligence are already so voluminous, that it almost stupendous should have been would be superfluous to indulge in conjoined with a depravity of morals

The disorders of his scarcely to be paralleled. The me. private life, and the extraordinary chanism of his oratory is said, by all inflictions to which they exposed those who knew him, to have corhim, enter not into our present sub. responded to the force and brilliancy ject. It is sufficient to say, that, of his expression. His works, some being rejected at the first election for of which are detestably licentious; the states-general by the noblesse of display a profound knowledge of huProvence, he hired a shop, and in- man nature, and deep research ; but scribed on his sign : “ Mirabeau, , draper.” He succeeded as a candidate * We find the opinions which Mr. Burke for the third estate, and, at the court

has expressed in his letter on the French of Versailles, passed under the de

Revolution, concerning the composition

of this assembly, confirmed in these vosignation of the plebeian count. He

lumes, by a very remarkable testimony. soon signalized himself in the tribune They mention a farmer of the name of by the powers of his invective, and Gerard, who was introduced as a member the sagacity with which he analyzed of the states general, for the purpose of every question of publick interest conciliating the people of his district, by

making one of themselves a representaagitated in the assembly. His first

tive of the nation. He was wholly withconnexion was with the duke of Or.

out education, and in manners and dress leans, whom he abandoned, after

a mere peasant ; but with much honesty making a liberal use of his purse and good sense to compensate for his exHis frequent overtures to the king teriour. In writing to his constituents, satisfactorily prove, that he sought

he expressed himself in this way : " What can

I do in the midst of popularity only to acquire a more ar

a crowd of pettyfogging lawyers and atbitrary dominion over the court. It

torneys, who believe they know every was not until near the end of the ses

thing, and look upon themselves as the sion, after a fiery and turbulent op- most important branch of the legislature, position, wbich is too well known to

although they have not an inch of ground require any description, and when

under the sun, and can only gain by the he had obtained an unrivalled ascen

total subversion of the existing order of

things ?” One of the orators of the 25dency over the popular party, that his sembly terminated a long speech, by askservices were accepted by the court, ing Gerard what he thought of the assemhis debts paid, and a pension allowed bly. “I think,” said Gerard, rising in

, him. It does not appear. that he at

his place, and looking very gravely around any time contemplated the possibility him, “I think there are a great many

scoundrels among us.”

are written in a loose, luxuriant style, before the revolution. He was a capand in much too declamatory a tone. tain of engineers at the commenceHe died at the early age of forty-two, ment of the troubles; and, in 1791, declaring “ that he carried the mo- was deputed to the legislature by the narchy away with him.” It was a department of the Pas de Calais. An favourite phrase of his, in allusion to ardent imagination, heated by a conthe versatility of the mob, “that the stant meditation, or deep study of the distance was but small from the capi- popular institutions of antiquity, led tol to the Tarpeian rock."

him to embrace the popular cause Mirabeau had a younger brother, with eagerness, and to concur zeathe viscompte, of a character nearly hously in most of the intemperate as depraved as his own, and gifted opinions and measures of the time. with uncommon powers of wit and He voted for the accusation of the ridicule, which he wielded to the princes; for the fabrication of 30,000 great annoyance of the popular par- pikes to arm the sans-culottes; and, ty. His brother said of him, that, in finally, for the death of the king. any other family, the viscompte would He was sent, by the convention, on bave been considered as a profligate; various missions to the armies; and but that, in theirs, he was a prodigy signalized himself as much by perof virtue. During the tumults, to sonal intrepidity, as by the energy which the question of confiscating of his republicanism. In the month the property of the clergy gave rise, of March : 793, accompanying the in the constituent assembly, the army of the north, he cashiered geyounger brother apologized for the neral Gratien on the field of battle, vehemence of his manner, by stating, for having retreated before the ene" that, in that assembly, he found my; and put himself at the head of the logick of the lungs as necessary the troops. On his return to the as any other species of dialecticks convention, he became a member of When the elder Mirabeau reproached the committee of publick safety ; him with indulging in habits of in- and, under the influence of Robeszoxication, his reply was: “ What spierre, was but too active an auxilican you complain of? Of all the ary in the unprecedented atrocities vices of any importance, you have which characterized the reign of terleft me no distinctive one but that." rour. His conduct during that period He emigrated, and died at Fribourg gave rise to the picture which Mr. in 1792, after serving with distinc- Burke has drawn of him, in his first tion, under the orders of the prince letter on the regicide peace. Carnot, of Condé.

by the peculiar bent of his genius, In the number of those who have

soon acquired an unlimited influence stood foremost in the revolutionary in the military department; and, ranks, there is, perhaps, no indivi. during his administration, it could dual, whose character or history is never be said, that the errours of the more interesting than that of Carnot. cabinet rendered abortive the operaHe is the only one of the whole list tions of the field. He was intrusted of republicans, who has adhered to with all the plans deposited in the their former principles, and in whose bureaux since the reign of Louis character and manners the new order XIV. and, by his own memoirs and of things appears to have wrought no instructions, issued in the name of change. He enteredat an early age, the committee of publick safety, coninto the corps of engineers, and owed tributed materially to the astonishing his advancement to the favour of the success of the French arms. He prince of Condé. Some mathemati- claimed the merit of the victory of cal essays and light verses acquired Maubeuge, gained by Jourdan, at Kim a certain degree of repntation which he assisted as commissary of the convention; and he has, at all Buonaparte to the imperial dignity; times, been ambitious of this species and persisted in refusing to sign the of glory. In May 1794, he was elect- registers. In 1807, he appeared to ed president of the convention; and, be wholly engrossed by his avocawhen a deputation from the jacobins tions, as a member of the first class appeared at the bar, to state, in a of the institute. Various works on formal manner, that they actually the higher branches of the mathe. believed in the existence of a God, maticks attest his eminence in that Carnot told them, that this step alone science. In manners, in countenance, was sufficient to refute all the calum- and in the deep workings of the soul, nies vomited forth against their so- no one of his contemporaries apciety. He, on one occasion, de proaches so nearly to the republican nounced Turreau, now ambassadour models of antiquity, as there is none to the United States of America, more profoundly versed in all the and Carrier, for their barbarities in branches of republican history. These La Vendée. And when Barrere and studies, perhaps, have nourished a Collot were arraigned by the conven- fierce spirit, and a severity of temper, tion, undertook their defence with which have justly subjected him to the utmost warmth. He was, him- the imputation of cruelty ; but he is self, exposed to frequent attacks, par- free from the reproach of peculation, ticularly in May 1795, when Legen- which attaches to so many of his col. dre called for his arrest; but Bourdon leagues. Those who contemplate him, de l'Oise saved him, by exclaiming: under his present circumstances, and “ This is the man who organized recollect the genius of the man, and victory in the French armies ?" He the sphere in which he has once was afterwards raised to the director. moved, are reminded of the picture ship, and, for some time, exerted a which the Roman historians draw of considerable ascendency over his col- Marius, sitting on the ruins of Carleagues; but was at last overpowered thage. The skill and intrepidity which

; by their intrigues, and compelled to he, and many others, without a mitake refuge in Germany, where he litary education, exhibited, when de. published a vindication of his con- puted to the armies, is a trait too reduct. And it is rather remarkable markable to be passed over: There that he should, although at that time is, moreover, something to admire under the protection of a monarch, in the lofty confidence which the have terminated it, by declaring him- commissaries of the convention, like self“ still the irreconcilable enemy of those of Rome, so often manifested kings." This Memoir Justificatif ac- in the fortunes of the republick, alcelerated the downfall of the directo- though accompanied by the fastidious ry, whose vices and crimes he has insolence of profligate power. They denounced with great force and acri- spoke and fought with equal energy. mony of invective. He returned to When general Montesquieu hesitaFrance after the dissolution of their ted to take possession of Geneva, in power, and was appointed minister consequence of the remonstrances of of war in April 1800. He, however, the Swiss cantons, Dubois Crancé, soon relinquished this office, and lived the delegate to his army, is said to for some time in retirement. In have exclaimed: “ A quoi bon tant de 1802, he consented to act as a mem- façons :" “ I would beat down Geneber of the tribunate ; and in this ca. va into her own lake by a shower of pacity, resisted, on several occasions, bombs, and invite the magnificent the favourite measures of the govern- cantons to fish her up again.” In ment. He stood alone in his vote the life of St. Just, who, at the age against the consulate for life ; stre- of twenty-six, perished on the scafnuously opposed the accession of fold with Robespierre, and whose en

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dowments resembled those of Car. Barthelemi is also a member of the not, there are striking instances of senate, and by far the most respectathe same spirit. While with the ar- ble of that body. During the great my of the north, and at the battle of shocks of the revolution, he was abFleurus, he exhibited the accomplish- sent on foreign missions, and conments of an able general, united to ducted himself with uniform modethe desperate courage of a soldier, ration and distinguished ability. He and the lofty enthusiasm of an impe- negotiated several important treaties tuous proconsul. The associates of abroad; and, on his return to Paris, Carnot in the directorial power, are

was forced into the directorship, ra. still alive. Rewbell,* who voted for ther by the lustre of his character, the death of the king, and who ac- than by any love for the situation. quired so much celebrity by his rapa. That character threw him among cious exactions, although in disgrace the number of the deportés, when with the government, is left to enjoy Barras and his party acquired a prethe fruits of them in the vicinity of ponderance. His escape from CayParis. La Réveilliere Lepeaux, the

enne must be familiar to most of our high priest of the sect of Theophi- readers, by the work of Ramel. His lanthropists, and of whom it was sar- early studies were pursued under the castically observed, by one of his col- direction of his uncle, the celebrated leagues, " that his predominant pas- author of the Travels of Anacharsis, sion was the fear of being hung," is who combined with so copious a valiving, unmolested, in the midst of riety of knowledge, and such exquibotanical pursuits. Barras resides in site taste, so much private virtue and a state of honourable exile, in the social talent, as to render him the south of France. Roger Ducos, who, delight of his friends, and the ornain 1794, presided at the meetings of ment of his age. With an intellect the jacobin society, and passed from and a heart formed upon this amiathe station of director to that of ble model, the nephew has a similar third consul in 1799, fell soon after exteriour; a tall and well proportioninto the ranks of the senate, where ed frame; a physiognomy of the he now glitters as one of the great true antique, with a mingled expres. dignitaries of the legion of honour. sion of simplicity, of goodness, and Sieyés, supports the same honours, of greatness, which seems to reflect with a large estate, bestowed by the the true character of a noble and ele. consuls as a national recompense. vated mind.

We find mentioned in these voThis man was charged with “ les lumes an abbé Fenelon, a grand negrands mouvements pécuniaires, in the phew of the celebrated archbishop of technical phraseology of the banditti. A relation of Rewbell, of the name of Rapinat,

Cambray, from whose name virtue was sent into Switzerland by the directo appears inseparable. In the decline ry, pour travailler la Suisse”-to pillage of life, the abbé is said to have conand distract that country. It is rather a

ceived the design of improving the singular coincidence, that his two princi- condition, and correcting the vices pal coadjutors in this honourable mission, of an unfortunate class of children, were called Forfait and Grugeon. His known in Paris under the appellation spoliations becarie so intolerable at length, of Petits Savoyards. He laboured so that the French government was compelled to recall him. On his return, the fol. assiduously for the accomplishment lowing quatrain was published, in allusion of his benevolent purpose, that he acto his name.

quired the surname of their bishop. “ Question d Etymologie. He was seen constantly surrounded “ Un bon Suisse que l'on ruine, “ Voudrait bien que l'on decidâti

by a little group, who appeared to “Si Rapinat vient de rapinę,

Jisten to him with respect and admi. * ! Où rapine de Rapinat.”

ration; and who, in a short time,

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