His excessive love of pleasure would have tended to render him completely dissipated, and of course left him ignorant, had he not employed the long intervals of confinement and retirement that his debaucheries and his want of money obliged him to, in studies which, with better health and more riches, he would have neglected. Had he been an early favourite at court, and been placed in those high and lucrative situations that his birth and talents gave him a claim to, he might have been satisfied to have remained a mere courtier, and supporter of that oppressive and arbitrary system, against which he inveighed so violently and which he attacked with such energy. His tedious imprisonments and the hardships he suffered sometimes in consequence of his own irregularities, and sometimes from the tyranny of others, inspired him with sympathy for the oppressed, hatred against letters de cachet; an unconquerable aversion to tyranny, and a fervent desire of establishing freedom in his native country. As Mirabeau was a man of violent passions, he was on some occasions carried by his resentment to oppose the measures of the ministers which he approved; and on other occasions there is reason to believe that he accepted of considerable sums from the court to support measures in the national assembly, which independent of that circumstance, he would have sup ported as agreeable to his own political principles. This conduct was, no doubt, highly unbecoming, and gave some ground for the idea which many entertain that he was as corrupt in politics as profligate in private life. It does not appear, however, that he ever lent his aid to any public measure inconsistent with his own ideas of liberty, and his avowed love of a monarchical form of Government limited by law.* Mirabeau has been represented in the blackest and most disgusting colours; but these accounts are to be received with caution and reserve; for as few men have ever united in their character so many of those qualities which are apt to create enmity, so few men ever had so many enemies. As an active agent in bringing on the revolution, he was hated by all the friends of the old system of government. As a friend to monarchy, he was disliked by those who *It is recorded of the famous Marshal Turrenne, that when he commanded the French army in Germany, deputies from a certain town came to his camp, and offered him an hundred thousand crowns, on condition that he would not march his army through their territory.— .-"As your town is not on the route which I intend to take," said he, "I cannot in conscience accept the money you offer." Mirabeau in the same situation would certainly not have acted in the disinterested and dignified manner that Mar shal Turenne did; nor will his general character bear a comparison with that of the marshal; yet it is a question if Mirabeau would, in obedience to the orders of Louis XIV. have ravaged and ruined the Palatinate. wished to have a republican form of government in France. As an avowed free-thinker, he shocked the pious, and was traduced by the hypocritical. As a man of wit, he was dreaded and detested by the dull; and as his talents for conducting a popular assembly were unequalled, he was an object of envy to all who aspired to be leaders in the revolution. The excesses in which Mirabeau had indulged, overcame the force of a vigorous constitution, and brought him to his grave at the age of fortytwo. His death was an irreparable loss to the royal family; for there is reason to think, that had he lived, those who have since figured as principals in the revolution, would have acted very subordinate parts. His superior talents, would have given such energy to the first movements of the new constitution, as would have precluded the attempts of the republicans against it on the one hand, and those of the abettors of the old government on the other. The friends of limited monarchy would have united. Mirabeau himself, imagined, that he could have preserved the constitution; but he foresaw its destruction in his death; and a little before he expired, he predicted that the French monarchy would not survive him long. SENSIBLE REASONER. A TRAVELLER expressed his surprise to an inhabitant of Lisbon that they should have ventured to raise their houses to such an height in a town so lately overthrown by an earthquake. "It is because it has been so lately overthrown," he replied, "that we venture, for as other capitals in Europe deserve an earthquake as much as Lisbon, it is reasonable to believe that they will all over be overthrown in their turn, according to their deserts; and of course, it will be a long time before it comes round to Lisbon again." CA BO DOM MINA DL END OF THE FIRST. VOL. J. CUNDEE, PRINTER, |