Speeches of M. de Mirabeau, the elder, pronounced in the National assembly of France, to which is prefixed, a sketch of his life and character. Translated from the French edition of M. Méjan
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- James White
- author
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- Speeches of M. de Mirabeau, the elder, pronounced in the National assembly of France, to which is prefixed, a sketch of his life and character. Translated from the French edition of M. Méjan translation has paratext
Summary (extracted citations)
p. i: 'The Speeches of M. de Mirabeau, here presented to the public, and which are an extract from a voluminous collection, may be considered as having gained, rather than lost, by translation; since they are now adopted into a language which, for ages, hath been the language of liberty. Few literary operations are more delightful than that of naturalizing a noble piece of eloquence, and displaying, in their full lustre, the strength and beauty of the original'. p. vi: 'I hope that none of my readers will suspect me of wishing to insinuate that revolution is requisite in this country. Some things there are, at least in our ecclesiastical oeconomy, which, doubtless, might be put in a condition more confident with reason, with sound policy, with humanity, with religion - but we require no revolution'. p. ix: 'For my part, I have taken one liberty with M. de Mirabeau, which is, that, where he seemed to be deficient in dignity of expression, I have endeavoured to to help him to that mode of speech which he himself would, in all likelihood, have wishes to use, had he been speaking in our language (...). Wherever this liberty hath been taken, I have been careful to give, in the margin, the expressions made use of in the original'.
Notes
White thinks highly of Mirabeau's talent as an orator, likening him to Cicero and Demosthenes, and further to Grattan, Flood and Chatham. He assures the reader that, despite his admiration, he does not support the cause of revolution in Britain, although he is in favour of reform. He comments on language issues concerning his translation, claiming that it has rendered Mirabeau's thoughts better that the original French, English being the language of liberty. The epigraph is a citation of Mirabeau in defense of the constitution and the liberty of the people against the privileged orders.