Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1853-01-29
The youth of NIirabeau.

Ihe memoirs OF this remarkable person, put
lished at Paris, furnish some anecdotes of hi
infancy and childhood, which show that tn
character of the child was as extraordinary q
that Of the man.
His head was so large, that it appeared mon
strous; and the first words his father heart
when his infant was brought to him, were
don't be frightened" E
At the age OF three years, the boy had tn
small pox, which disfgured bis face, and render
ed with his coarse features and SINISTER 'ookin!
eyes, excessively ugly. Bnt his WIT even ther
redeemed his deformity. His father writing Il
afriend, says-"My son grows fast, his prattIe
increases, and his face grows uglier every day
he is of the ugliest and the wittiest. His moth
er had been talking to him of his future wife
. he replied that no hoped SHE would not judge
i'd. hin, by his face.
"What should she Judge you by them" said
his mother. ''The inside will help the outside"
was his reply. There is another anecdote,
which shows one of those sudden bursts Of no.
bleness, which threw a spIendor on, and in
some measure redeemed his career. He one
day gained a prize-it was a hat; he turned to-
wards a boy present, who had only a zap; and,
putting the hat on his head, said, "Here take Il:
hare not too heads!"
His father appears always to have hated or
dreaded him. TO this unnatural and wicked
feeling. much of the evil of young Mirabeau's
character may undoubtedly be ascrlbed. In
one of his letters his father thus describes him:
He has a mind all athwart, fantastic, un-
manageable, and tending to vice, even before
he knows what it is" In another, "Ihe imp
has a naughty heart under the jacket of a child,
a strange instinct of pride, noble nevertheless,
an embryo ambition that would swallow the
whole world, before it is twelve years old"
His father was terribly severe in his govern
ment of this wild hayward boy; but he could
not crush The strong spirit. He perverted it,
without doubt. 1t is sad to read of the cruel
restrictions and sufferings inflicted by the
naughty, tyrannical parent on his child, who,
whatever were the faults of his disposition, did
not deserve punishment for his natural tenden-
cies to evil. Nay, the presumption is, that, by
a kind gentle mode of treatment, his generous
qualities might have been made predominant,
and his mighty genius might have been secur~
ed on the side of virtue. But his fathers cruel
and memorable policy vas always to crush and
destroy this genius. He placed him under the
most severe teachers, and even refused to allow
the boy to bear the name of Mirabeau, lest, as
he told him he should disgrace it. Beford Nj
rabeau was sixteen, his father formed the plan
of banishing him from Europe; but finally he
himself with placing him in the ar
my, under the orders of a most severe and saw |
age commander. Here he fell into some ex-
cesses, when his father procured a lettre de ca !.
Chef, and had him confined in the castle of The
Isle of Rhe. Such barbarity could not now be
practised in France; but under the old French I
the authority Of the parent was nearly ,
as absolute as under the Roman laws. p.
After Mirabeau was released from prison, he l
visited his uncle (his father would not permit
MS APPROACH to himself) and he thus describes c
him; Il was delighted. to see him, (Mirabeau,) q
found him ugly, but not with a bad phvsiog- !,
,omy, and behind the marks of the small pox, u
thought saw an expression graceful, noble P
md intellectual. Ii he is not worse than Nero, b
IL will be better than Marcus Aurelius: for
lever do | think | have encountered so much
alent and superiority: my poor head turned :,
With it." t
His Uncle introduced him to the abbot CAS- Il
agmy. Mirabeau told the abbot that he had il
cen misunderstood from infancy, and that his =,
'st Colonel had gained upon him by gentleness y
nd reason, and had made him see in good con. II
uct a new order Of things. His Uncle told
I'M that without wishing to rule over him he
'ould give him a memorandum containing rel
ections for his future conduct. He replied 6
orer mel may all aoho rule ouer me be a
uch; why hare they not always been such!?" d
At another time he said to the abbot. "Alas, =
my father would deign to know me! know l,
e thinks | have a bad heart, but let him put it Il
, the proof" Il
One cannot read these memoirs of Mirabeau, II
'lthout being convinced that much of the evil il
, the character of this extraordinary man was ),
,duced by the cruel and unnatural conduct of 81
is own father. Cruelty to children has been tt
ne great cause of the wickedness of men. IL