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ROLAND

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 464 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROLAND [ROLAND DE LA PLATIEREI, See also:

JEAN See also:MARIE (1734-1793), See also:French statesman, was See also:born at Thizy on the 18th of See also:February 1734. He received a See also:good See also:education, and See also:early formed the studious habits which remained with him through See also:life. Proposing to seek his See also:fortune abroad, he went on See also:foot to See also:Nantes, but was there prostrated by an illness so severe that all thoughts of See also:emigration were perforce abandoned. For some years he was employed as a clerk; thereafter he joined a relative who was inspector of manufactures at See also:Amiens, and he himself speedily See also:rose to the position of inspector. To these two employments may be ascribed those qualities of assiduity and accuracy, and that familiarity with the See also:commerce of the See also:country, which distinguished his public career. In 1781 he married Manon Jeanne Phlipon (1754-1793), and the name of MADAME ROLAND is famous in See also:history. She was the daughter of Gratien Phlipon, a See also:Paris engraver, who was ambitious, speculative and nearly always poor. From her early years she showed See also:great aptitude for study, an, ardent and enthusiastic spirit, and unquestionable See also:talent. She was to a considerable extent self-taught; and her love of See also:reading made her acquainted first with See also:Plutarch—a See also:passion for which author she continued to cherish throughout her life—thereafter with See also:Bossuet, See also:Massillon, and authors of a like See also:stamp, and finally with See also:Montesquieu, See also:Voltaire and See also:Rousseau. These studies marked stages of her development, and as her mind matured she abandoned the See also:idea of a See also:convent which for a See also:year or two she had entertained, and added to the See also:enthusiasm for a See also:republic which she had imbibed from her earlier studies not a little of the cynicism and the daring which the later authors inspired. She almost equalled her See also:husband in knowledge, and infinitely excelled him in talent and in tact. Through and with him she exercised a singularly powerful See also:influence over the destinies of See also:France from the outbreak of the Revolution till her See also:death.

For four years after their See also:

marriage Roland lived at Amiens, he being still an inspector of manufactures; but his knowledge of commercial affairs enabled him to contribute articles to the Encyclopedie Nouvelle, in which, as in all his See also:literary See also:work, he was assisted by his wife. On their removal to See also:Lyons the influence of both became wider and more powerful. Their fervent See also:political aspirations could not be concealed, and from the be-ginning of the Revolution they threw in their See also:lot with the party of advance. The Courrier de See also:Lyon contained articles the success of which reached even to the See also:capital and attracted the See also:attention of the Parisian See also:press. They were from the See also:pen of Madame Roland and were signed by her husband. A See also:correspondence sprang up with See also:Brissot and other See also:friends of the Revolution at headquarters. In Lyons their views were publicly known; Roland was elected a member of the See also:municipality, and when the depression of See also:trade in the See also:south demanded See also:representation in Paris he was deputed by the See also:council of Lyons to ask the Constituent See also:Assembly that the municipal See also:debt of Lyons, which had been contracted for the benefit of the See also:state, should be regarded as See also:national debt. Accompanied by his wife, he appeared in the capital in February 1791, He remained there until See also:September, frequenting the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, and entertaining deputies of the most advanced opinions, especially those who later became the leading See also:Girondists. Madame Roland took an active See also:part in the political discussions in these reunions. In September 1791, Roland's See also:mission being executed, they returned to Lyons. Meanwhile the inspectorships of manufactures had been abolished; he was thus See also:free; and they could no longer remain absent from the centre of affairs. In See also:December they again reached Paris.

Roland became a member of the Jacobin See also:

Club. They had made many and influential friends in advance, and Madame Roland's See also:salon soon became the See also:rendezvous of Brissot, Petion, See also:Robespierre and other leaders of the popular See also:movement, above all of See also:Buzot, whom she loved with platonic enthusiasm. In See also:person Madame Roland was attractive though not beautiful; her ideas were clear and far-reaching, her manner See also:calm, and her See also:power of observation extremely acute. It was almost inevitable that she should find herself in the centre of political aspirations and presiding over a See also:company of the most talented men of progress. The rupture had not yet been made evident between the Girondist party and that See also:section still more extreme, that of the See also:Mountain. For a See also:time the whole See also:left See also:united in forcing the resignation of the ministers. When the crisis came the Girondists were ready, and on the 23rd of See also:March 1792 Roland found himself appointed See also:minister of the interior. As a minister of the See also:crown Roland exhibited a See also:bourgeois brusqueness of manner and a remarkable See also:combination of political See also:prejudice with administrative ability. While his wife's influencecould not increase the latter, it was successfully exerted to foment and embitter the former. He was ex officio excluded from the Legislative Assembly, and his declarations of policy were thus in See also:writing—that is, in the See also:form in which she could most readily exert her power. A great occasion was invented. The decrees against the emigrants and the non-juring See also:clergy still remained under the See also:veto of the See also:king.

A See also:

letter was penned by Madame Roland and addressed by her husband to See also:Louis. It remained unanswered. Thereupon, in full council and in the king's presence, Roland read his letter aloud. It contained many and terrible truths as to the royal refusal to See also:sanction the decrees and as to the king's position in the state; but it was inconsistent with a minister's position, disrespectful if not insolent in See also:tone. Roland's dismissal followed. Then he completed the See also:plan: he read the letter to the Assembly; it was ordered to be printed, became the manifesto of disaffection, and was circulated everywhere. In the demand for the See also:rein-statement of the dismissed ministers were found the means of humiliation, and the prelude to the dethronement, of the king. After the insurrection of the loth of See also:August, Roland was recalled to power, one cf his colleagues being See also:Danton. But now he was dismayed by the progress of the Revolution. He was above all a provincial, and was soon in opposition to the party of the Mountain, which aimed at supremacy not only in Paris but in the See also:government as well. His hostility to the insurrectional See also:commune of Paris, which led him to propose transferring the government to See also:Blois, and his attacks upon Robespierre and his friends rendered him very unpopular. His neglect to See also:seal the See also:iron See also:chest discovered in the Tuileries, which contained the proofs of Louis XVI.'s relations with the enemies of France, led to the See also:accusation that he had destroyed a part of these documents.

Finally, in the trial of the king he demanded, with the Girondists, that the See also:

sentence should be pronounced by a See also:vote of the whole See also:people, and not simply by the See also:Convention. He resigned See also:office on the 23rd of See also:January 1793, two days after the king's See also:execution. Although now extremely unpopular, the Rolands remained in Paris, suffering abuse and calumny, especially from See also:Marat. Once Madame Roland appeared personally in the Assembly to repel the falsehoods of an accuser, and her ease and dignity evoked enthusiasm and compelled acquittal. But violence succeeded violence, and early on the See also:morning of the 1st of See also:June she was arrested and thrown into the See also:prison of the Abbaye. Roland himself escaped secretly to shelter in See also:Rouen. Released for an See also:hour from the Abbaye, she was again arrested and thrown among the horrors of Sainte-Pelagie. Finally, she was transferred to the Conciergerie. In prison she won the affections of the See also:guards, and was allowed the See also:privilege of writing materials and the occasional visits of devoted friends. She there wrote her Appel a l'impartiale posterite, those See also:memoirs which display a See also:strange See also:alternation between self-laudation and patriotism, between the trivial and the See also:sublime. On the 8th of See also:November 1793 she was conveyed to the See also:guillotine. Before yielding her See also:head to the See also:block, she bowed before the See also:clay statue of See also:Liberty erected in the See also:Place de la Revolution, uttering her famous See also:apostrophe—" 0 Liberty! what crimes are committed in thy name!

" When Roland heard of his wife's condemnation, he wandered some See also:

miles from his See also:refuge in Rouen; maddened by despair and grief, he wrote a few words expressive of his horror at those massacres which could only be inspired by the enemies of France, protesting that " from the moment when I learned that they had murdered my wife I would no longer remain in a See also:world stained with enemies." He affixed the See also:paper to his See also:breast, and unsheathing a See also:sword-stick See also:fell upon the weapon, which pierced his See also:heart, on the loth of November 1793. Madame Roland's Memoires, first printed in 182o, have been edited among others by P. Faugere (Paris, 1864), by C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1864), by J. See also:Claretie (Paris, 1884), and by C. Perroud (Paris, 1905). Some of her Lettres inedites have been published by C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1867), and a See also:critical edition of her Lettres by C. Perroud (Paris, 1900-2). See also C.

A. Dauban, Etude sur Madame Roland et son temps (Paris, 1864) ; V. Lamy, Deux femmes celebres, Madame Roland et See also:

Charlotte See also:Corday (Paris, 1884) ; C. Bader, Madame Roland, d'apres See also:des lettres et des manuscrits inedits (Paris, 1892); A. J. See also:Lambert, Le mariage de Madame Roland, trois annees de correspondance amoureuse (Paris, 1896) ; See also:Austin See also:Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (See also:London, 189o) ; and articles by C. Perroud in the See also:review La Revolution franaise (1896-99).

End of Article: ROLAND

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