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MIRABEAU, VICTOR RIQUETI, MARQUIS DE ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 570 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MIRABEAU, See also:VICTOR RIQUETI, See also:MARQUIS DE (1715-1789) , See also:French author and See also:political economist, See also:father of the See also:great Mirabeau, was See also:born at Pertuis, near the old See also:chateau de Mirabeau, on the 4th of See also:October 1715. He was brought up very sternly by his father, and in 1728 joined the See also:army. He took keenly to campaigning, but never See also:rose above the See also:rank of See also:captain, owing to his being unable to get leave at See also:court to buy a See also:regiment. In 1737 he came into the See also:family See also:property on his father's See also:death, and spent some pleasant years till 1743 in See also:literary companionship with duc Clapiers, marquis de See also:Vauvenargues and the poet Lefranc de See also:Pompignan, which might have continued had he not deter-See also:mined to marry—not for See also:money, but for landed estates. The See also:lady whose property he fancied was See also:Marie See also:Genevieve, daughter of a M. de Vassan, a brigadier in the army, and widow of the marquis de Saulveboef, whom he married without previously seeing her on the 21st of See also:April 1743. While in See also:garrison at See also:Bordeaux Mirabeau had made the acquaintance of See also:Montesquieu, and after retiring from the army he wrote his first See also:work, his Testament Politique (1747), which demanded for the prosperity of See also:France a return of the French noblesse to their old position in the See also:middle ages. This work was followed in 175o by a See also:book on the Utilitedes etats provenciaux, which was attributed to Montesquieu himself. In 1756 Mirabeau made his first See also:appearance as a political economist by the publication of his Ami See also:des hommes cu traite de la See also:population. This work has been often attributed to the See also:influence, and in See also:part even to the See also:pen, of See also:Quesnay, the founder of the economical school of the physiocrats, but was really written before the marquis had made the acquaintance of the physician of Madame de See also:Pompadour. In 176o he published his Theorie de l'impot, in which he attacked with all the vehemence of his son the farmers-See also:general of the taxes, who got him imprisoned for eight days at See also:Vincennes, and then exiled to his See also:country See also:estate at See also:Bignon. At Bignon the school of the physiocrats was really established, and the marquis in 1765 bought the See also:Journal de l'See also:agriculture, du See also:commerce, et des finances, which became the See also:organ of the school. He was recognized as a See also:leader of political thinkers by See also:Prince See also:Leopold of See also:Tuscany, afterwards See also:emperor, and by Gustavus III. of See also:Sweden, who in 1772 sent him the See also:grand See also:cross of the See also:order of See also:Vasa.

But his See also:

marriage had not been happy; he had separated from his wife in 1762, and had, he believed, secured her safely in the provinces by a lettre de cachet, when in 1772 she suddenly appeared in See also:Paris, and commenced proceedings for a separation. One of his own daughters had encouraged his wife to take this step. He was determined to keep the See also:case quiet, if possible, for the See also:sake of Mme de Pailly, a Swiss lady whom he had loved since 1756. But his wife would not let him See also:rest; her plea was rejected in 1777, but she renewed her suit, and, though the great Mirabeau had pleaded his father's case, was successful in 1781. This trial quite See also:broke the See also:health of the marquis, as well as his See also:fortune; he sold his estate at Bignon, and hired a See also:house at See also:Argenteuil, where he lived quietly till his death on the 11th of See also:July 1789. The marquis's younger See also:brother, See also:JEAN See also:ANTOINE RIQUETI, " the bailli " (d. 1794), served with distinction in the See also:navy, but his brusque See also:manners made success at court impossible. In 1763 he became general of the galleys of See also:Malta. In 1767 he returned to France and took See also:charge of the chateau de Mirabeau, helping the marquis in his disastrous lawsuits. See See also:Louis de Lomenie's See also:Les Mirabeau (2 vols., 1879). Also See also:Henri Ripert, Le Marquis de Mirabeau, ses theories politiques et economiques, [these pour le doctorat] Paris (1901); Oncken, Der dltere Mirabeau and See also:die pekonomische Gesellschaft in See also:Bern (Berne, 1886) ; De Lavergne, Les Economistes frangais du 18"" siecle.

End of Article: MIRABEAU, VICTOR RIQUETI, MARQUIS DE (1715-1789)

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