250

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MIN.

His position, though it seem dubious, was plain enough.He wished to lead a moderately royal party, and givestability to the monarchy. He desired to oppose thejacobins and disorganisers ; but his views did not meetthe sanguine and senseless hopes and vrishes of thecourt — which aimed at nothing less than a return tothe ancien regime. He stood therefore companionless—seizing at times on and thundering from the tribune— making his power felt whenever he was roused, butwalking in darkness, uncertain of the means which yethe grappled at, whereby to confirm his greatness.

In the assembly he continued to extend his influenceby means of his enthusiasm, and his power of express-ing it. Various methods had been made use of to get ridof the constituent assembly, and elect another — underthe pretence that, the work of forming a constitutionbeing accomplished, their task was at an end, and thatthe continuation of their power was illegal and a usurp,ation over the throne. In the midst of the cries whichthese words called forth, Mirabeau rose. “ We areasked,” he said “when the deputies of the people, be-came a national convention ? I reply, on that day when,finding the entrance to their chamber surrounded bysoldiers, they hastened to assemble in the first placethey could find, and swore to perish rather than to betrayor abandon the rights of the nation. Our powers on thatday changed their nature. Whatever these powers maybe which we have exerted, our efforts and our labourshave legitimated them, and the adhesion of the wholenation has sanctified them. Do you remember theheroic words of the great man of antiquity, who hadneglected the legal forms in saving his country ? Sum-moned by a factious tribune to swear whether he hadobserved the laws, he replied, ‘ I swear that I have savedmy country ! ’ Gentlemen, I swear that you have savedFrance 1 ” At this grand oath, the whole assembly,carried away by a sudden impulse, closed the discussionand dismissed the question.

The same power gave him the victory, when he was