ally in the same monotonous strain: she always made it turn on two points, first, her own person and works, and second, her enemies, whom she constantly slandered. Her details led him to believe that she procured her information from servants. She used to declaim furiously against Mesdames Cottin and De Staël, whom she hated equally-she would then revert to her manuscripts, her paintings, her embroidery, and above all, her harp. From this track she would not stir-try to speak on politics, the fine arts, literature, she brought it back to herself-always herself. Her eight volumes of Memoirs, he designates as a romance, in which you can recognize neither facts nor personsshe places you in a different world from that in which she actually lived. She represents herself as driving her adorers to despair; many fled from her society; others went mad-some even died! And yet, says he, "I recollect having seen them all, not, in general, very sad, but rather gay, and none were killed by the severity of her virtue." In truth, he adds, Madame La Comtesse,

"Les gens que vous tuez se portent assez bien."

At the capture of the Bastile he says she was enthusiastic"the sovereign people in arms appeared to her admirableshe even exclaimed vive la roi! vive la nation, and she embraced with a modest fervour the young Elie, the handsome Hullin, and the ferocious Maillard; all which, with many, other facts, has escaped her memory."

Of Madame de Staël he speaks in terms of high praise and warm friendship. He says she was an universal favourite for other qualities than beauty. The exalted speculations of genius possessed very powerful attractions for her, but notwithstanding, she could descend to the earth when it was necessary to think about the fashions, which were in her eyes an important concern; and she spoke on it with as much gravity and interest as other women. He heard her, in one instance, discuss the shape to be given to a turban with a warmth and eloquence that confounded him: the milliner, at whose shop they were, confident in her experience and skill, and careful for her reputation, could not yield to the wishes of the baroness-nevertheless, the latter wished to convince her, and for that purpose borrowed from her genius one of those empassioned movements which were so familiar to her; she became so eloquent and so persuasive, that the overpowered milliner exclaimed, "Ah! madam, you compel me to yield to you, but it is not the less true that in doing so, I make a sacrifice of good taste."

Madame de Staël appeared proud of this triumph, which she related several times during the day with a marked tone of satisfaction, and with that vivacity which she infused into all her recitals.

He has a great deal to say of her genius, but as all the world are of one opinion on that subject, we shall not follow him. He justly remarks that she had too much to do, in other words, she was too meddlesome to be happy-she invented subjects of uneasiness as others do pleasures; she wished to govern not only her family and friends, but the state, and it is well known her pretentions on this point embroiled her with Napoleon. Her enthusiasm for her father was a weakness that may be forgiven, especially as at one period all France, except the court, were equally enthusiastic; but her praises, however extravagant, were received by the vain Neckar without surprise, as he was convinced they were his just dues. "France," said he one day in a moment of exultation after his second call to the ministry, "will, I hope, owe to me her happiness, but I do not foresee what reward she is preparing for me."-"Honours and dignities," said Madame de Staël, with heat, "for incense is the only thing which can be presented to the Gods."

Let us cast a glance, by the aid of our author, into the character of this god of her idolatry. Neckar was detested by the court and forced into the cabinet by popular opinion. He had all the littlenesses of a person of mediocrity who aims at elevation-he was seriously distressed by what he should have laughed at, and more than once, as one of his friends relates, the husband, wife and daughter wept in retirement from vexation at the impertinent malice with which they were assailed by the society of the queen, but without her knowledge. This misplaced malevolence and these bickerings, which nothing can excuse, increased the hatred which Neckar on the other hand bore to the noblesse: for it is remarkable (says our peer) that all parvenues hold in detestation the caste into which they try to slip at the very time they speak of it with contempt. It was not to a banker like himself, or a merchant, that he had ehosen to marry his daughter; but a man of quality; and so do all others similarly situated. Necker wished to avenge himself and he cruelly succeeded, first by convincing Louis of the necessity of convoking the States-General, and next in procuring the decision, in spite of the majority of the second assembly of notables, composed of the same members as the first, that the tiers-etat should have a double representation.* His faithlessness to the king, his master, is further proved, if our * Vol. i. p. 333

author's statement of a conversation Neckar had with his friend M. d'Outremont, be correct. "At length," said he, "the States-General are convoked, though not without difficulty. I was obliged to fight for them against the whole palace. You are connected with many of the deputies, tell them all that I have done for them. I think I have a right to their gratitude-say, above all, to the tiers, that they keep firm in their resolve to deliberate in common-they will carry their point if they know how to profit by the alarm of the court; for they are dying of fright there at the idea of having the accounts investigated, which, without doubt, the tiers will demand, and which must be presented to them."

When he was the second time made comptroller-general, he was blinded by his excessive vanity-he looked forward to be the guide of the assembly and the tutor of the king-he had no idea of meeting with any persons among the tiers comparable to himself in talents, or who would dare to raise their voices against his opinions:

"I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my mouth,

Let no dog bark!”

He said one day on this subject to the same friend, "Je vais être furieusement occupé pendant la tenue des etats: les deputés ne comptant que sur moi, et j'aurai douze cents educations financieres a faire, saus parler de la cour qu'il me faudra conduire par la main." "It was," says our author, "under similar delusions that he reached the moment of his second disgrace, and that he returned to the ministry a third time; but at this last period he did not retain them long. The unanimous resistance they opposed to him destroyed, in a few days, his castles in the air, and he could no longer congratulate himself on the docility of those whom he had been pleased to regard as his pupils."

One of the most striking characters at the commencement of the revolution was Mirabeau-that extraordinary being, about whom so much has been said, and will continue to be said; whose genius illuminated all he touched, and whose memory is still fresh in our recollection. In spite of his vices he would, in all probability, had he lived, have saved his country from the guilt of the innocent blood which has so deeply stained her history; but he was, as is now ascertained, and as was suspected and charged at the time, basely cut off, just when his talents and popularity had been devoted to the salvation of the monarchy, and the establishment of a liberal constitution for his VOL. V. NO. 11.

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country. Our author dwells upon him with great delight, and we have followed him with pleasure-though he is silent on his ugliness, which Mirabeau, himself, in a letter to a lady, once described, as that of a tyger that had had the small-pox. We have room for a few extracts only.

"There was nothing in Mirabeau like what you meet with in ordinary men: his was a soul by itself, as potent for evil as for good, incapable of doing either by halves: he was a libertine; could he be otherwise? It was fire that circulated in his veins. He had no idea of the value of money; his spirit was that which inspired the great men of Sparta, or of Rome, and his physical habits were those of the most effeminate sybarite; he took delight in the refinements of dress; he loved perfumes, and he could not go afoot; a carriage was indispensable to him: in a word, under the garb of a courtier, he concealed the superiority of a great statesman. He sought glory though it was only a sound. He wrote with great ability, but his eloquence had a much higher reach-it drew after it-it overturned all obstacles. Yet by a contrast which is more common than is supposed, he was not the same man in the world that he was at the tribune; here he was vehement, fiery, bitter, irascible; there he became soft, desirous of pleasing, polite, yielding; and this difference was so striking that even his intinate friends were always astonished at it."—Vol. i. p. 359.

As a member of the tiers-etat, although of the ancient noblesse, he governed all, and from the very first day obtained an ascendancy over the assembly, that Neckar with all his boasted talents could not overcome nor even equal. Attempts were made to gain him over, one of the first of which is detailed by our author. Mirabeau declined the overtures, though very goodnaturedly, saying to the proposer:-" Ecoutez-moi un instant, mon cher monsieur; on dit que j'ai de l'esprit, on le croit; je me sens du genie, et je veux le prouver. J'ai eu une jeunesse fougueuse, il faut que je la repare, et la glorie peut donner la consideration." On the other's still insisting, he laughingly added, "Je ne suis pas à vendre, et si je voulais me mettre a l'enchere, ce moment ne serait pas bon; on ne me connait pas encore, et par conséquent on ne me mettrait pas à un bien haut prix; mais que deux mois d'etat-generaux aient passé sur ma têtes et alors je serai appreciè à ma juste valeur."

When the three orders met together in royal session on the 23d of June, and the king addressed them, concluding with "I command you, gentlemen, to separate immediately, and to return to-morrow each to the hall appropriated to his order, there to take your seats: and I order the grand-master of ceremonies to prepare your rooms accordingly;" the clergy and noblesse immediately adjourned, but the tiers-etat remained compact and immoveable. The Marquis de Dreux Brézé, grand

master of ceremonies, a man of moderate birth and more moderate understanding, advanced towards Bailly, the president, with a burlesque kind of dignity, and said to him, "you have heard the orders of the king?" "Yes, Sir," replied Bailly, "and I am going to take them into consideration with the national assembly." This answer was not satisfactory: De Brézé exhibited some discontent, when the impetuous Mirabeau, violating the rules of order, addressed him in a voice of thunder“Yes, Sir, we have heard the intentions which have been suggested to the king: but you have here neither voice nor place, nor right to speak: you are not authorized to remind us of his address. Slave, go and tell your master that we are here by the will of the people, and that we will not depart except at the point of the bayonet."

"The words," says the author, "must have been heard to conceive the effect they produced. I think I still see the grand-master of ceremonies pale, confounded, cast down, sweating great drops; neither knowing whether to sit, stand or walk: he remained during one or two minutes as if enchanted, and he finally staggered out like a drunken man followed by his escort as mute as himself. Never had the ear of a courtier heard such words, for this violent reply, which contained the very spirit of revolution, was very far removed from the hitherto humble forms of parliamentary resistance."-(431.)

When the patient Louis heard of this, he merely remarked, "well, if the gentlemen wo'nt leave the hall let them stay there."

In spite of Mirabeau's violent republicanism, and apparent honesty, he was subsequently purchased by the court. The details are given by our author, and his account of the interview between Mirabeau and the king and queen, with their conversation, is extremely interesting. We wish we had room for it. Mirabeau had demanded this interview as a sine qua non; for he required stipulations on their part, and he wanted to test their sincerity by personal observation. Although they were prejudiced, and indeed deeply exasperated against him, they were compelled to use him, and therefore granted his request. His manners and eloquence fascinated both, and when he took his leave, the queen said to her husband—“ voila un vrai gentilhomme, il en a les manières, puisse-t-il en avoir la loyauté! au reste, je suis tres satisfaite de lui."—" Il nous a dit de fort bonnes choses," answered Louis XVI. "et je regrette beaucoup qu'il ne m'ait pas eté connu plu tot."*

Vol. ii. p. 86.