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3. A Republican Antidote: Catherine Macaulay-Graham
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Prophet_101-150.indd 132 3/2/12 10:29 PM FROM 1789 TO THE TRIAL OF LOUIS XVI will tell him that they saw my face only at the first Paris assemblies, hardly the antechamber of the king's bedroom at Versailles!58 For Clermont-Tonnerre the debate ended with the postscript just quoted, which Brissot immediately interpreted as a sign of defeat : "To those who are not deceived by fine words, it must be clear that he has demonstrated his inability to answer me."69 After ironically thanking his royalist opponent for helping to advertise the merits of the Long Parliament, Brissot concluded with words that forewarned of things to come: England, free during the Long Parliament, lost most ofits liberty on the restoration of Charles II: it recovered a portion of it by driving outJames II in 1688, then lost it gradually through corruption and the parliamentary majority's coalition with the king under the current , very unconstitutional, monarchy.... . . .Frenchmen can be no more than slaves under an ancien-regime king, only half emancipated under a king of the 1790 regime, and . .. they will be entirely free only when they no longer have any king at all.70 3 .... A REPUBLICAN ANTIDOTE: CATHERINE MACAULAY-GRAHAM If the debate between Clermont-Tonnerre and Brissot gives proof of the continuing importance of Hume's Stuarts in France at this time, it also makes clear the fact that the History of his republican 68. Ibid., III. 391- 92. 69. Le PatrioteFrant;ais, 21 October 1790, p. 3· 70. Ibid., p. 4- Brissot on another occasion (see LePatrioteFrant;ais, 11 February 1790) also complained about Lally-Tollendal's use of Hume's authority in his arguments against Abbe Sieyes's theory on the powers of a convention (see supra, p. 110). There seems little doubt that Brissot consciously based some of his own political action on the precedents established by the Long Parliament. See, for example, his speech urging sterner measures against the emigres, 20 October 1791; also his various statements of 1792 on war policy for the Republic. Prophet_101-150.indd 133 3/2/12 10:29 PM A REPUBLICAN ANTIDOTE rival, Catherine Macaulay-Graham, had begun to play an equally important role in countering its conservative effect. Five years before the Revolution Brissot had already expressed the hope that Mrs. Macaulay's work would one day be translated into French,71 and in his Memoires he speaks of having discussed at that time the feasibility of such a project with Mirabeau.72 In fact, although there are some few doubts still remaining in the matter, it seems clear that Mirabeau undertook the initial responsibility for the translation, the first five volumes ofwhich were published in the years 1791 and 1792 after his death.7~ 71. Supra, p. 65. 72. Memoires de Brissot, Paris, 1877, pp. 327-28. 73· Catherine Macaulay-Graham, Histoire d'Angleterre depuis l'avenement de Jacques I, jusqu'a la revolution. Traduite enfran{:ais, et augmentee d 'un discours preliminaire , contenant un pr&is de toute l'histoire d 'Angleterre, jusqu'a l'avenement deJacques I: et enrichie de notes. Par Mirabeau. Brissot states in his Memoires, but somewhat unreliably, I think, that Mirabeau knew no English and that others did the work under Mirabeau's supervision . (See preceding reference.) Marie-Joseph Chenier also expressed doubts that Mirabeau translated the first two volumes (the last three were publicly avowed by Guiraudet) , since he found the style quite bad: "... the language in no way reveals the man of talent: perhaps Mirabeau translated this part of the work too hastily, or, more likely, perhaps he did not translate it at all and it is the result of an all too common practice whereby mediocre writers or greedy booksellers speculate fraudulently on a famous name." (Tableau historique de l'etat et des progres de la litteraturefran{:aise depuis I789, 3eme edition, Paris, 1818, pp. 186-87.) An undated letter by Mirabeau, probably written in 1784, indicates that he considered the history an important one and that he highly approved, for example, of Catherine Macaulay's portrait ofJames II; it implies, nevertheless, thatJ.-B. Durival and Guiraudet were to do the actual work of translation whereas Mirabeau would lend his "plebeian aristocrat" name to ensure success in the undertaking which is also described as "an affair of money." (See Mirabeau sletters during his residence in England, London, 1832, II. 230.) On the other hand, it seems equally clear that Mirabeau was not such a...