political discussion. The _Notables_ were called upon to come and
advise the King; and the points were laid before them, in which
his Majesty, (infallible till now) acknowledged his ignorance or
his doubts. But who were the Notables? Were they more knowing
than the King, or less in need of instruction? The nation thought
otherwise; nay, the court thought otherwise; for in some of the
royal proclamations on this occasion, men of letters were invited
to assist with their counsels, and to give what information their
reading and experience should suggest as to the best method of
convoking the States General, and of conducting their deliberations.
When a Minister thus solicits advice from all the world how to
govern, he most assuredly declares his own incapacity, and tells
the people that now they must govern themselves. This however was
done, and the Minister, Neckar the Philosopher and Philanthropist
of Geneva, set the example, by sending in _his_ opinion, to be laid
on the council-table with the rest. On this signal, counsel poured
in from every garret, and the press groaned with advice in every
shape. Ponderous volumes were written for the Bishop or the Duke;
a handsome 8vo for the _Notable_ Officer of eighteen; pamphlets
and single sheets for the loungers in the _Palais Royal_. The
fermentation was astonishing; but it was no more than should have
been expected from the most cultivated, the most ingenious, and
the least bashful nation on earth. All wrote, and all read. Not
contented with bringing forth all the fruits which the illumination
of these bright days of reason had raised in such abundance in the
conservatories of the _Philalethes_, and which had been gathered
from the writings of Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Raynal, &c.
the patriotic counsellors of the Notables had ransacked all the
writings of former ages. They discovered THAT FRANCE HAD ALWAYS
BEEN FREE! One would have thought, that they had travelled with
Sir John Mandeville in that country where even the speeches of
former times had been frozen, and were now thawing apace under
the beams of the sun of Reason. For many of these essays were as
incongruous and mal a-propos as the broken sentences recorded by
Mr. Addison in the Spectator. A gentleman who was in Paris at
this time, a person of great judgment, and well informed in every
thing respecting the constitution and present condition of his
country, assured me that this invitation, followed by the memorial
of Mr. Neckar, operated like an electrical shock. In the course
of four or five days, the appearance of Paris was completely
changed. Every where one saw crowds staring at papers pasted on
the walls--breaking into little parties--walking up and down the
streets in eager conversation--adjourning to coffee-houses--and the
conversation in all companies turned to politics alone; and in all
these conversations a new vocabulary, where every second word was
Morality, Philanthropy, Toleration, Freedom, and Equalisation of
property. Even at this early period persons were listened to without
censure, or even surprise, who said that it was nonsense to think of
reforming their government, and that it must be completely changed.
In short, in the course of a month, a spirit of licentiousness and
a rage for innovation had completely pervaded the minds of the
Parisians. The most conspicuous proof of this was the unexpected
fate of the Parliament. It met earlier than usual, and to give
greater eclat to its patriotic efforts, and completely to secure the
gratitude of the people, it issued an arret on the present state
of the nation, containing a number of resolutions on the different
leading points of national liberty. A few months ago these would
have been joyfully received as the Magna Charta of Freedom, and
really contained all that a wise people should desire; but because
the Parliament had sometime before given it as their opinion as
the constitutional counsel of the Crown, that the States should be
convoked on the principles of their last meeting in 1614, which
preserved the distinctions of rank, all their past services were
forgotten--all their hard struggle with the former administration,
and their unconquerable courage and perseverance, which ended only
with their downfal, all were forgotten; and those distinguished
members whose zeal and sufferings ranked them with the most
renowned heroes and martyrs of patriotism, were now regarded as the
contemptible tools of Aristocracy. The Parliament now set, in a
fiery troubled sky--to rise no more.
Of all the barristers in the Parliament of Paris, the most
conspicuous for the display of the enchanting doctrines of Liberty
and Equality was Mr. Duval, son of an Avocat in the same court,
and ennobled about this time under the name of Despresmenil. He
was member of a Lodge of the _Amis Reunis_ at Paris, called the
_Contract Social_, and of the Lodge of _Chevaliers Bienfaisants_
at Lyons. His reputation as a barrister had been prodigiously
increased about this time by his management of a cause, where the
descendant of the unfortunate General Lally, after having obtained
the restoration of the family honours, was striving to get back some
of the estates. Mr. Lally Tollendahl had even trained himself to the
profession, and pleaded his own cause with astonishing abilities.
But Despresmenil had near connections with the family which was in
possession of the estates, and opposed him with equal powers, and
more address. He was on the side which was most agreeable to his
favourite topics of declamation, and his pleadings attracted much
notice both in Paris and in some of the provincial Parliaments.
I mention these things with some interest, because this was the
beginning of that marked rivalship between Lally Tollendahl and
Despresmenil, which made such a figure in the Journals of the
National Assembly. It ended fatally for both. Lally Tollendahl was
obliged to quit the Assembly, when he saw it determined on the
destruction of the monarchy and of all civil order, and at last to
emigrate from his country with the loss of all his property, and
to subsist on the kindness of England. Despresmenil attained his
meridian of popularity by his discovery of the secret plan of the
Court to establish the _Cour pleniere_, and ever after this took the
lead in all the strong measures of the Parliament of Paris, which
was now overstepping all bounds of moderation or propriety, in hopes
of preserving its influence after it had rendered itself impotent
by an unguarded stroke. Despresmenil was the first martyr of that
Liberty and Equality which it was now boldly preaching, having
voluntarily surrendered himself a prisoner to the officer sent to
demand him from the Parliament. He was also a martyr to any thing
that remained of the very shadow of liberty after the Revolution,
being guillotined by Robespierre.
I have already mentioned the intrigues of Count Mirabeau at the
Court of Berlin, and his seditious preface and notes on the
anonymous letters on the Rights of the Prussian States. He also,
while at Berlin, published an _Essai sur la Secte des Illumines_,
one of the strangest and most impudent performances that ever
appeared. He there describes a sect existing in Germany, called the
_Illuminated_, and says, that they are the most absurd and gross
fanatics imaginable, waging war with every appearance of Reason, and
maintaining the most ridiculous superstitions. He gives some account
of these, and of their rituals, ceremonies, &c. as if he had seen
them all. His sect is a confused mixture of Christian superstitions,
Rosycrucian nonsense, and every thing that can raise contempt and
hatred. But no such Society ever existed, and Mirabeau confided in
his own powers of deception, in order to screen from observation
those who were known to be Illuminati, and to hinder the rulers from
attending to their real machinations, by means of this Ignis fatuus
of his own brain. He knew perfectly that the Illuminati were of a
stamp diametrically opposite; for he was illuminated by Mauvillon
long before. He gained his point in some measure, for Nicholai and
others of the junto immediately adopted the whim, and called them
_Obscurantem_, and joined with Mirabeau in placing on the list of
_Obscurantem_ several persons whom they wished to make ridiculous.
Mirabeau was not more discontented with the Court of Berlin for
the small regard it had testified for his eminent talents, than he
was with his own Court, or rather with the minister Calonne, who
had sent him thither. Calonne had been greatly dissatisfied with
his conduct at Berlin, where his self-conceit, and his private
projects, had made him act in a way almost contrary to the purposes
of his mission. Mirabeau was therefore in a rage at the minister,
and published a pamphlet, in which his celebrated memorial on the
state of the nation, and the means of relieving it, was treated with
the utmost severity of reproach; and in this contest his mind was
wrought up to that violent pitch of opposition which he ever after
maintained. To be noticed, and to lead, were his sole objects--and
he found, that taking the side of the discontented was the best
field for his eloquence and restless ambition.--Yet there was no
man that was more devoted to the principles of a court than count
Mirabeau, provided he had a share in the administration; and he
would have obtained it, if any thing moderate would have satisfied
him--but he thought nothing worthy of him but a place of active
trust, and a high department. For such offices all knew him to
be totally unfit. He wanted knowledge of great things, and was
learned only in the bustling detail of intrigue, and at any time
would sacrifice every thing to have an opportunity of exercising
his brilliant eloquence, and indulging his passion for satire and
reproach.--The greatest obstacle to his advancement was the abject
worthlessness of his character. What we usually call profligacy,
viz. debauchery, gaming, impiety, and every kind of sensuality, were
not enough--he was destitute of decency in his vices--tricks which
would disgrace a thief-catcher, were never boggled at in order to
supply his expences. For instance,--His father and mother had a
process of separation--Mirabeau had just been liberated from prison
for a gross misdemeanour, and was in want of money--He went to his
father, sided with him in invectives against his mother, and, for
100 guineas, wrote his father's memorial for the court.--He then
went to his mother, and by a similar conduct got the same sum from
her--and both memorials were presented. Drinking was the only vice
in which he did not indulge--his exhausted constitution did not
permit it. His brother, the Viscount, on the contrary, was apt to
exceed in jollity. One day the Count said to him, "How can you,
Brother, so expose yourself?"--"What!" says the Viscount, "how
insatiable you are--Nature has given you every vice, and having
left me only this one, you grudge it me."--When the elections were
making for the States-General, he offered himself a candidate in
his own order at Aix--But he was so abhorred by the Noblesse, that
they not only rejected him but even drove him from their meetings.
This affront settled his measures, and he determined on their ruin.
He went to the Commons, disclaimed his being a gentleman, sat up a
little shop in the market place of Aix, and sold trifles--and now,
fully resolved what line he should pursue, he courted the Commons,
by joining in all their excesses against the Noblesse, and was at
last returned a member of the Assembly.
From this account of Mirabeau we can easily foretel the use he would
make of the Illumination which he had received in Germany. Its grand
truths and just morality seem to have had the same effects on his
mind as on that of Weishaupt or Bahrdt.
In the year 1768, Mirabeau, in conjunction with the duke de Lauzun
and the Abbe Perigord, afterwards Bishop of Autun (the man so puffed
in the National Assemblies as the brightest pattern of humanity)
reformed a Lodge of Philalethes in Paris, which met in the Jacobin
College or Convent. It was one of the _Amis Reunis_, which had now
rid itself of all the insignificant mysticism of the sect. This was
now become troublesome, and took up the time which would be much
better employed by the _Chevaliers du Soliel_, and other still more
refined champions of reason and universal citizenship. Mirabeau had
imparted to it some of that Illumination which had beamed upon him
when he was in Berlin. In 1788, he and the Abbe were wardens of
the lodge. They found that they had not acquired all the dexterity
of management that he understood was practised by his Brethren in
Germany, for keeping up their connection, and conducting their
correspondence. A letter was therefore sent from this Lodge, signed
by these two gentlemen, to the Brethren in Germany, requesting their
assistance and instruction. In the course of this year, and during
the sitting of the Notables, A DEPUTATION WAS SENT from the German
Illuminati to catch this glorious opportunity of carrying their
plan into full execution with the greatest eclat.
Nothing can more convincingly demonstrate the early intentions
of a party, and this a great party, in France to overturn the
constitution completely, and plant a democracy or oligarchy on
its ruins. The Illuminati had no other object.--They accounted
all Princes usurpers and tyrants, and all privileged orders their
abettors. They intended to establish a government of Morality, as
they called it, (_Sittenregiment_) where talents and character (to
be estimated by their own scale, and by themselves) should alone
lead to preferment. They meant to abolish the laws which protected
property accumulated by long continued and successful industry, and
to prevent for the future any such accumulation. They intended to
establish universal Liberty and Equality, the imprescriptible Rights
of Man, (at least they pretended all this to those who were neither
Magi or Regentes.) And, as necessary preparations for all this, they
intended to root out all religion and ordinary morality, and even
to break the bonds of domestic life, by destroying the veneration
for marriage-vows, and by taking the education of children out of
the hands of the parents. _This was all that the Illuminati could
teach_, and THIS WAS PRECISELY WHAT FRANCE HAS DONE.
I cannot proceed in the narration without defiling the page with
the detested name of _Orleans_, stained with every thing that can
degrade or disgrace human nature. He only wanted Illumination, to
shew him in a system all the opinions, dispositions, and principles
which filled his own wicked heart. This contemptible being was
illuminated by Mirabeau, and has shown himself the most zealous
disciple of the Order. In his oath of allegiance he declares,
"That the interests and the object of the Order shall be rated by
him above all other relations, and that he will serve it with his
honour, his fortune, and his blood."--He has kept his word, and has
sacrificed them all--And he has been treated in the true spirit of
the Order--used as a mere tool, cheated and ruined.--For I must now
add, that the French borrowed from the Illuminati a maxim, unheard
of in any other association of banditti, viz. that of cheating
each other. As the managers had the sole possession of the higher
mysteries, and led the rest by principles which they held to be
false, and which they employed only for the purpose of securing the
co-operation of the inferior Brethren, so Mirabeau, Sieyes, Pethion,
and others, led the Duke of Orleans at first by his wicked ambition,
and the expectation of obtaining that crown which they intended to
break in pieces, that they might get the use of his immense fortune,
and of his influence on the thousands of his depending sycophants,
who ate his bread and pandered to his gross appetites. Although we
very soon find him acting as an _Illuminatus_, we cannot suppose
him so lost to common sense as to contribute his fortune, and risk
his life, merely in order that the one should be afterwards taken
from him by law, and the other put on a level with that of his groom
or his pimp. He surely hoped to obtain the crown of his indolent
relation. And indeed Mirabeau said to Bergasse, that "when the
project was mentioned to the Duke of Orleans, he received it with
all possible graciousness," (_avec toute la grace imaginable_.)
During the contests between the Court and the Parliament of Paris,
he courted popularity with an indecency and folly that nothing
can explain but a mad and fiery ambition which blinded his eyes
to all consequences. This is put out of doubt by his behaviour
at Versailles on the dreadful 5th and 6th of October, 1789. The
depositions at the Chatelet prove in the most incontestible manner,
that during the horrors of those two days he was repeatedly seen,
and that whenever he was recognized by the crowd, he was huzzaed
with _Vive Orleans, Vive notre Roi Orleans, &c._--He then withdrew,
and was seen in other places. While all about the unfortunate Royal
Family were in the utmost concern for their fate, he was in gay
humour, chatting on indifferent subjects. His last appearance in the
evening of the 5th was about nine o'clock, conversing in a corner
with men disguised in mean dress, and some in women's clothes;
among whom were Mirabeau, Barnave, Duport, and other deputies of
the Republican party--and these men were seen immediately after,
concealed among the lines of the regiment de Flandre, the corruption
of which they had that day compleated. He was seen again next
morning, conversing with the same persons in women's dress. And when
the insulted Sovereign was dragged in triumph to Paris, Orleans was
again seen skulking in a balcony behind his children, to view the
procession of devils and furies; anxiously hoping all the while that
some disturbance would arise in which the King might perish.--I
should have added that he was seen in the morning at the top of the
stairs, pointing the way with his hand to the mob, where they should
go, while he went by another road to the King. In short, he went
about trembling like a coward, waiting for the explosion which might
render it safe for him to shew himself. Mirabeau said of him, "The
fellow carries a loaded pistol in his bosom, but will never dare
to pull the trigger." He was saved, notwithstanding his own folly,
by being joined in the accusation with Mirabeau, who could not
rescue himself without striving also for Orleans, whom he despised,
while he made use of his fortune.--In short, Orleans was but half
illuminated at this time, and hoped to be King or Regent.
Yet he was deeply versed in the preparatory lessons of Illuminatism,
and well convinced of its fundamental truths. He was well assured
of the great influence of the women in society, and he employed
this influence like a true disciple of Weishaupt.--Above three
hundred nymphs from the purlieus of the Palais Royal were provided
with ecus and Louis d'ors, by his grand procureur the Abbe Sieyes,
and were sent to meet and to illuminate the two battalions of
the Regiment de Flandre, who were coming to Versailles for the
protection of the Royal Family. The privates of one of these
regiments came and informed their officers of this attempt made on
their loyalty--45,000l. livres were given them at St. Denys, to make
them disband themselves--and the poor lads were at first dazzled
by the name of a sum that was not familiar to them--but when some
thinking head among them told them that it only amounted to two
Louis d'ors a piece, they disclosed the bribery. They were then
offered 90,000, but never saw it. (Depositions at, the Chatelet
No. 317.) Mademoiselle Therouane, the _favorita_ of the day, at
the Palais Royal, was the most active person of the armed mob from
Paris, dressed _en Amazonne_, with all the elegance of the opera,
and turned many young heads that day which were afterwards taken
off by the guillotine. The Duke of Orleans acknowledged, before his
death, that he had expended above 50,000l. sterling in corrupting
the _Gardes Francoises_. The armed mob which came from Paris to
Versailles on the 5th of October, importuning the King for bread,
had their pockets filled with crown pieces--and Orleans was seen
on that day by two gentlemen, with a bag of money so heavy that it
was fastened to his clothes with a strap, to hinder it from being
oppressive, and to keep it in such a position that it should be
accessible in an instant. (See the Depositions at the Chatelet, No.
177.)
But such was the contempt into which his gross profligacy, his
cowardice, and his niggardly disposition, had brought him with
all parties, that, if he had not been quite blinded by his wicked
ambition, and by his implacable resentment of some bitter taunts
he had gotten from the King and Queen, he must have seen very
early that he was to be sacrificed as soon as he had served the
purposes of the faction. At present, his assistance was of the
utmost consequence. His immense fortune, much above three millions
sterling, was almost exhausted during the three first years of
the Revolution. But (what was of more consequence) he had almost
unbounded authority among the Free Masons.
In this country we have no conception of the authority of a National
Grand Master. When Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, by great exertions
among the jarring sects in Germany, had got himself elected
Grand Master of the _Strict Observanz_, it gave serious alarm to
the Emperor, and to all the Princes of Germany, and contributed
greatly to their connivance at the attempts of the _Illuminati_
to discredit that party. In the great cities of Germany, the
inhabitants paid more respect to the Grand Master of the Masons than
to their respective Princes. The authority of the D. of Orleans
in France was still greater, in consequence of his employing his
fortune to support it. About eight years before the Revolution he
had (not without much intrigue and many bribes and promises) been
elected Grand Master of France, having under his directions all
the _Improved_ Lodges. The whole Association was called the _Grand
Orient de la France_, and in 1785 contained 266 of these Lodges;
(see _Freymaurerische Zeitung, Neuwied_ 1787.) Thus he had the
management of all those Secret Societies; and the licentious and
irreligious sentiments which were currently preached there, were
sure of his hearty concurrence. The same intrigue which procured him
the supreme chair, must have filled the Lodges with his dependents
and emissaries, and these men could not better earn their pay, than
by doing their utmost to propagate infidelity, immorality, and
impurity of manners.
But something more was wanted: Disrespect for the higher Orders of
the State, and disloyalty to the Sovereign.--It is not so easy to
conceive how these sentiments, and particularly the latter, could
meet with toleration, and even encouragement, in a nation noted for
its professions of veneration for its Monarch, and for the pride of
its Noblesse. Yet I am certain that such doctrines were habitually
preached in the Lodges of _Philalethes_, and _Amis Reunis de la
Verite_. That they should be very current in Lodges of low-born
Literati, and other Brethren in inferior stations, is natural, and
I have already said enough on this head. But the French Lodges
contained many gentlemen in easy, and affluent circumstances. I do
not expect such confidence in my assertions, that even in these the
same opinions were very prevalent. I was therefore much pleased with
a piece of information which I got while these sheets were printing
off, which corroborates my assertions.
This is a performance called _La voile retiree, ou le Secret de la
Revolution explique par la Franc Maconnerie_. It was written by a
Mr. Lefranc, President of the Seminary of the _Eudists_ at Caen in
Normandy, and a second edition was published at Paris in 1792. The
author was butchered in the massacre of September. He says, that on
the death of a friend, who had been a very zealous Mason, and many
years Master of a respectable Lodge, he found among his papers a
collection of Masonic writings, containing the rituals, catechisms,
and symbols of every kind, belonging to a long train of degrees of
Free Masonry, together with many discourses delivered in different
Lodges, and minutes of their proceedings. The perusal filled him
with astonishment and anxiety. For he found that doctrines were
taught, and maxims of conduct were inculcated, which were subversive
of religion and of all good order in the state; and which not only
countenanced disloyalty and sedition, but even invited to it. He
thought them so dangerous to the state, that he sent an account of
them to she Archbishop of Paris long before the Revolution, and
always hoped that that Reverend Prelate would represent the matter
to his Majesty's Ministers, and that they would put an end to the
meetings of this dangerous Society, or would at least restrain them
from such excesses. But he was disappointed, and therefore thought
it his duty to lay them before the public[19].
[19] Had the good man been spared but a few months, his surprise at
this neglect would have ceased. For, on the 19th of November 1793,
the Archbishop of Paris came to the Bar of the Assembly, accompanied
by his Vicar and eleven other Clergymen, who there renounced their
Christianity and their clerical vows; acknowledging that they
had played the villain for many years against their consciences,
teaching what they knew to be a lie, and were now resolved to be
honest men. The Vicar indeed had behaved like a true _Illuminatus_
some time before, by running off with another man's wife and his
strong box.--None of them, however, seem to have attained the higher
mysteries, for they were all guillotined not long after.