BOOKS.

THE MIRABEAU FAMILY.*

[FIRST NOTICE.)

IN these two volumes, we have the first instalment of the work upon which the distinguished author of Beaumarchais and his Times had been engaged for several years at the moment of his death. The subject was one admirably suited to his particular talents, and also one certain to bespeak a general interest. There is that kind of weird association inseparable from the name of Mirabeau which cannot fail to make its bare mention startle the ear of the public. This general title to interest will be greatly enhanced by the announcement that M. de Lomenie's publication is distilled out of a vast amount of previously quite unknown material,—out of almost countless piles of letters, extending over generations, so that it presents,—in all the fresh- ness of original record and with all the fullness of actual life, the striking series of strange and remarkable individuals who made up the eccentric body of beings called the Mirabean family. With the artistic power of delineation already evinced in his former writings, M. de Lomenie has understood how to group with picturesque effect the rich materials at his disposal. These volumes constitute a gallery, in which we are brought face to face with a range of speaking likenesses,—figures evoked again to life out of the distant past, and standing before us in the realities of their peculiar existences. Nor is the interest a merely biographical one, deriving point from the singularities and quaintnesses of the individuals represented. Into these volumes M. de Lomenie has contrived to throw much historical illustration of capital value. Even after the labours of De Tocqueville and of Taine in elucidation of the France under the Ancien _Regime, itwill be found that in the pages of M. de Lomenie there is matter which, in its graphic expression and telling exemplification, sheds a most instructive and in many instances afresh light on the economical conditions of a society the study of which can never be too much pursued, by whoever takes interest in the great problems involved in the political heavings of the French mind. It was the good-fortune of M. de Lomenie to become intimate with M. Lucas de Montigny, adopted son of the great * Les Mirabeaux. Par Louis de Lomenie, de l'Aeadimie Francaise. 2 cola. Paris : E. Demo. 1579. Mirabeau, and compiler of the so-called " Memoires of Mira- beau." From him M. de Lomenie inherited all the papers in

his possession relating to his adopted father and his family, and these papers are to be counted by thousands. A prevailing impression is abroad that the Riquettis could trace themselves back to Ghibelline patricians, who in the thirteenth century were banished from Florence. The evidence for this allegation has always been a statement in a family memoir ascribed to the Revolutionary tribune's father,—the so-called Ami des Hownes. This memoir is inserted in the Montigny collection. M. de Lomenie has now brought to light curious and eminently characteristic facts as to the value of this composition. The old Marquis de Mira- beau undoubtedly did write a genealogical account of his race. The manuscript was communicated to his son, shortly after the latter's liberation from Vincennes, and was by him transcribed. On comparing the original and the copy, it turns out that the son, with characteristic want of principle, took the liberty to interpolate audacious modifications, dictated by that absolute indifference to truth which appertains to the con- summate adventurer. What, moreover, eminently illustrates the natural bias of the Mirabeau who afterwards played so remarkable a part in revolutionary history, is the circumstance that the alterations surreptitiously made by the future dema- gogue in the family record are all in a sense to heighten the nobility of his ancestry.

It is not easy, in this gallery of oddities, to concentrate one's gaze on individual figures. The Mirabean race was so extraordi- narily prolific in eccentric characters, as to render quite con- fusing the number of figures that bespeak attention. There are, however, three individuals in the series who, with decided family likenesses, but also with marked differences, stand forth in striking relief,—Mirabean's grandmother, his uncle, the Bail, and his father, I' Anti des Hammes. The lady, by birth a Castellane, was in youth " one of the greatest beauties of the day." She was, be- sides, a person of unusual determination and energy. With remark- able vigour of character and a force of will that little brooked opposition, she assiduously asserted the rights of her authority on becoming a widow in the administration of her manorial pre- rogatives. She bore herself on all occasions as the strong-willed ehd telaine, with a temper that was quick and vehement, but also with a warm, motherly affection which the sons responded to in equal degree :—" This mother deserving of reverence, full of strength in soul and in head, reared by noble gentlemen, ex- presses herself with an energy that makes the demi-men of the present day tremble ; but her severity never holds out against the heart's love to love what should be loved,—the heart always brings her to herself; that is, I hold, the bottom of her character." So wrote the Bailli of this lady when she was seventy-five. Her last years were clouded by a mental eclipse, rendered doubly painful through unseemly paroxysms of fury.

During this protracted suffering, it was the special care of her son the Marquis—punctiliously proud of what was incumbent on decorum—that no menials should witness these exhibitions of unbecoming aberration. For years he tended his mother himself, in conjunction with his sister, in the lonely family chtitean ; and truly touching are the words in which he com- municates to the absent Bailli the sadness of the closing scenes that had to be endured.

The same family affection marked the relations between the two brothers. They remained throughout life bound together by the warmest love, and the unspotted candour of this intimate connection is in glaring contrast to the trouble and turmoil and conflict which make up the remainder of the Mirabeau annals. A more absolutely unselfish character than that of the Bailli never existed ; while, on the other hand, never was there an elder brother who more warmly cared to promote his cadet's interest than the eccentric and decidedly self - opinionated Marquis, the head of the house :— " This absolute and constant intimacy between two men equally proud, and even imperious, whose characters, ideas, and tastes dif- fered on most points, finds its reason in a sentiment but little in ex- istence at present, and which deserves to be analysed. We refer to the family feeling, in its fullest force, especially strong in the cadet. The right of what is due to the eldest, accepted by him not merely with resignation, but with a kind of mental fanaticism, made of him a type of abnegation and devotion rare even then, but which, at the present day, could certainly be found nowhere."

To such an extent was this sentiment pushed by the Bailli, that he declined to enjoy his portion of the family fortune, preferring to let it fructify, as he thought, in the hands of the elder brother ; while, up to his fiftieth year, he was content to lead the life of a frugal sailor, on an annuity of two thousand livres. This humble condition, however, by no means contented the fraternal ambition of the Marquis, who never ceased to exert himself in pushing his brother by every means in his power. In 1753, the Bailli, who never understood how to play the courtier according to Versailles fashion, did at last obtain the governorship of Guadeloupe,—a post in which money was ordinarily made, but where austere principles only brought him into irreconcilable conflict with corrupt officials, and into vehement denunciation of prevailing abuses. The Bailli hap- pened to be already a determined advocate of slave emancipa- tion :—

"Conceive, dear Brother," he writes once, "that in a portion of my domain I found the custom established not to punish the murder of Blacks, and, at first, not a day passed without European gallows-birds,. or their offspring, killing some of these unfortunate creatures, from jealousy of some infamous negro woman What would we say of a country where it is an admitted fact that every sworn case is a lost one ? Also roguery and bad-faith have had it so much their way,

that the fairest of the Windward Isles is the most wretched Here is the principle for my severity. I am determined to do what is right. To God first I owe account of my administration, and neither human respect, nor the desire to make fortune, ought to arrest me."

That a rigid moralist of this stamp made enemies in influen- tial quarters was inevitable, so the Bailli found himself shelved

before long, and notwithstanding his proved efficiency as a seaman, he saw his efforts fruitless to get active employment in

the service of his King.

The Bailli, however, had a brother not Only ready to help- with money, though himself embarrassed, but who was always ardent in ambitious counsel. Amongst the great dignitaries of the Maltese Order was the General of the Galleys. Why should' not the Bailli obtain the post ? It is true, much expense at- tended the outfit. Also, there appeared ground for apprehend- ing the probability of some recourse to intrigue being needful, Which the stubborn old Bailli absolutely declined to stoop to. The same stern purity which had been exhibited at Guadeloupe' he proclaimed at Malta,—and that was a purity, according to the Bailli, hardly less in harmony with the ways of the-

knightly monks, than it had been with the ways of the slave- owners. In this, as in all the capital occurrences of life, he de- ferred, however, to the wish of the head of his house, as if it were a duty to obey. Viewing it in the light of an obligation to acquiesce in his senior's orders, we see the Bailli accommo- date himself to the unceasing admonitions of the Marquis, and lay himself out as a competitor for the high office, which, when at last conferred, he filled in a manner and with a state that produced a deep impression in Malta. The chapters descriptive of this portion of the Bailli's life are- amongst the liveliest in the book. What is specially char- acteristic of the individual in this episode is the singular modesty and simplicity of the man. The vehement, bustling, and fanciful Marquis is the prompter of all the Bailli does, and so far are personal diffidence and unselfish regard for family in- terests pushed by the latter, that he actually scruples to draw his- little patrimony which had been left lying with the elder brother, for the preliminary expenses of his office. In presence of the kindly simplicity of this sturdy and guileless seaman, who is de- voted to his profession, and knows outside of it no other affection but that to the head of his house, one is reminded often of Uncle Toby, especially when one contemplates him by the side of the• explosive and restless Marquis. That, however, is a figure which demands a sketch by itself. There are too many pointer in the nature of this odd individual, and there is too great a. variety in the incidents of his strange, eccentric, and quarrelsome doings, to admit of their being touched upon even lightly in the fag-end of this notice.

There is one feature, however, in the Bailli that must not pass, unobserved,—his strong and simple aristocratic feeling. He had the sentiments of a Baron,—of a Noble, penetrated with the sense of independence and of public duty. The atmosphere of the Court, and the influences attaching to the ascendancy of mere wealth and of legal subtleties, were to him objects of detestation.. In these he saw the elements that were working the decay of France, through a process of demoralisation and effeminacy.. This view is over and over again expressed, with a terseness often.

grotesque, in the letters, "I hear every day," he exclaims, in 1745, " those referred to as great princes and great ministers who have the most contributed to the total ruin of the Monarchy. I am convinced nothing can any longer hinder its downfall, though such are the resources of France, if only one had the thorough

will, this crash might yet be long postponed." And of the Grand Monarque himself he had the boldness to say the following:— "This Prince, wholly occupied with himself, a thing sufficiently in- dicative of a small mind, led by men of the pen, by women, and by hypocrites, after himself exhausting his realm, has furthermore shown how much his rule had worn him out, for he left it loaded with debt, without credit or resources, after the introduction of a form of government that renders recovery almost impossible, since it has destroyed nobility and soldiery, the only prop of Kings, to make the pen and extortion masters in the kingdom. . . . . . He enervated the heart of his subjects by introducing frightful luxury, he over- threw all the orders of the State, he ruined morals by his bad ex- ample, he committed every kind of injustice ; but all this is nothing, he has had the cupola of the Invalides gilt, and he is deified by the French people."

That a man of this rough outspokenness should not have found favour in the palace where a Pompadour ruled will not be surprising.