On the question of the veto Mirabeau declared for the king's absolute veto and against the compromise of the suspensive veto.
On the question of procedure he got his friend Romilly to draw up a detailed account of the rules and customs of the English House of Commons, in the vain hope that the Assembly might adopt them. On the subject of peace and war he supported the king's authority, and with some success. Mirabeau almost alone of the Assembly held that the soldier ceased to be a citizen when he became a soldier; he must recognize that a soldier's first duty is obedience. Lastly in finance he attacked Necker's "caisse d'escompte," which was to have the whole control of the taxes, as absorbing the Assembly's power of the purse ; and he heartily approved of the system of assignats, but with the reservation that they should not be issued to the extent of more than one half the value of the lands to be sold.
Of Mirabeau's attitude with regard to foreigp affairs something must be said. He held that the French people should conduct their Revolution as they would, and that no foreign nation had any right to interfere with them while they kept themselves strictly to their own affairs. But he knew that foreign monarchs were being prayed by the French emigres to interfere on behalf of the French monarchy. To avoid any pretext for such inter ference was his guiding idea in foreign policy. He had been elected a member of the comite diplomatique of the Assembly in July 1790, and became its reporter at once. As matters became more strained, he entered into daily communication with the foreign minister, Montmorin, advised him on every point, and, while dictating his policy, defended it in the Assembly. How great a work he did is best proved by the confusion which ensued in this department after his death. For indeed in the beginning of 1791 his death was near. The excesses of his youth had weakened his strong constitution, and his parliamentary labours completed the work. Some time before the end he sent all his papers over to Sir Gilbert Elliot, who kept them under seal until claimed by Mirabeau's executors. Every care that science could afford was given by his friend and physician, Cabanis. The people kept the street in which he lay quiet, but medical care, the loving solicitude of friends and the respect of all the people could not save his life. When he could speak no more he wrote with a feeble hand the one word "dormir," and on April 2, 1791, he died.
No man ever so thoroughly used other men's work, and yet made it all seem his own. "Je prends mon bien oii je le trouve" is as true of him as of Moliere. His first literary work, except the bombastic but eloquent Essai sur le despotisme (Neufchatel, 1775), was a translation of Robert Watson's Philip II., done in Holland with the help of Durival; his Considerations sur l'ordre de Cincinnatus (London, 1788) was based on a pamphlet by Aedanus Burke (1743-1802), of South Carolina, who opposed the aristocratic tendencies of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the notes to it were by Target ; his financial writings were suggested by the Genevese exile, Claviere. During the Revolution he re ceived yet more help; men were proud to labour for him, and did not murmur because he absorbed all the credit and fame. Etienne Dumont, Claviere, Antoine Adrien Lamourette and Etienne Salomon Reybaz were but a few of the most distinguished of his collaborators. Dumont prepared famous addresses which Mirabeau used to make the Assembly pass by sudden bursts of eloquent declamation; Claviere worked out his figures, and wrote his financial discourses; Lamourette wrote the speeches on the civil constitution of the clergy; Reybaz not only wrote for him his famous speeches on the assignats, the organization of the national guard and others, which Mirabeau read word for word at the tribune, but even the posthumous speech on succession to the estates of intestates, which Talleyrand read in the Assembly as the last work of his dead friend. He took other men's labour as
his due, and impressed their words, of which he had suggested the underlying ideas, with the stamp of his own individuality; his collaborators were glad to help forward the Revolution through its greatest thinker and orator. As an orator his eloquence has been likened to that of both Bossuet and Vergniaud, but it had neither the polish of the old 17th century bishop nor the flashes of genius of the young Girondin. It was rather parliamentary oratory in which he excelled, and his true compeers are rather Burke and Fox than any French speakers. Personally he had that which is the truest mark of nobility of mind, a power of attracting love and winning faithful friends. (H. M. ST. X.) AUTHORITIES.-The best edition of Mirabeau's works is that pub lished by Blanchard in 1819-22, in ten volumes, of which the first two contain his Oeuvres oratoires; from this collection, however, many of his less important works and the De la monarchie prussienne are omitted. For details of his life consult Memoires biographiques, lit teraires et politiques de Mirabeau, ecrits par lui-meme, par son pere, son oracle et son fils adoptif, which was issued by his adopted son, Lucas de Montigny (8 vols., 1834-35) ; Correspondance entre Mirabeau et le comte de la Marck, ed. A. de Bacourt (2 vols., 1851), some additional letters appeared in the German edition (3 vols., Leipzig, 1851-52). Other published correspondence is Lettres de Mirabeau a Chamfort (1796) ; Lettres du comte de Mirabeau a Jacques Mauvillon (Bruns wick, 1792) ; Lettres originales de Mirabeau, &rites du donjon de Vin, cennes, 1777-1780, published by L. P. Manuel (4 vols., 1792) ; and, on the same subject, Paul Cottin, Sophie de Monnier et Mirabeau d'apres leur correspondance inedite (1903) ; Lettres a Julie, edited by D. Meunier and G. Selois (Paris, 1903) ; Lettres inedites (1806), edited by J. F. Vitry. The Histoire secrete forms the basis of H. Welschinger's La Mission secrete de Mirabeau a Berlin (Paris, igoo). The most use ful modern books are Louis and Charles de Lomenie, Les Mirabeau (5 vols., 1878 and 2889) ; Alfred Stern, Das Leben Mirabeaus (2 vols., 1889) ; E. Rousse, Mirabeau (1891) in the Grands Ecrivains Francais; A. Mezieres, La Vie de Mirabeau (1892) ; L. Barthou, Mirabeau (1919) ; Meunier, Autour de Mirabeau (1926). On his eloquence and the share his collaborators had in his speeches see F. A. Aulard, Ora teurs de l'assemblie constituante (1882). For his death see the curious brochure of his physician, Cabanis, Journal de la maladie et de la mart de Mirabeau (Paris, 1791, ed. H. Duchenne, Paris, 1890). English works include P. F. Willert, Mirabeau (1898) in the "Foreign States man" series; C. F. Warwick, Mirabeau and the French Revolution (1905) ; W. R. H. Trowbridge, Mirabeau, the demi-god (1907) ; H. E. von Hoist, The French Revolution Tested by Mirabeau's Career (Chi cago, 1894) ; and F. Fling, Mirabeau and the French Revolution (Lon don and New York, 2908).