New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-04-18
MADAME ROLAND.
A FEMININE ENIGMA.


Miss Blind, being what she would be proud to
call radical in politics and religion. and having
large share Of that bigory which 100 often ac-
companies extreme opinions has written the life OF
the famous female revoutionst with vehemence
often bordering upon the hysterical and never sur
6centy restrained by the consciousness OF hisori-
sal truth. The sketch of the revolutionary move
ment accordingly, and especially of the rise, rur-
poses and tragical fate of the Girondists, which
necessarily forms the skeleton framework OF her
book while II shows constructive ability. studlous
research. and animation OF manner, must
be accepted with reservations; while her
estimate of the character of Madame Roland
lacks both precision and philosoph'cai
thOrOughnesa 1t Is not enough TO say
Of such parsonage that she one CT the noblest
Of women one Of those immortas who hand on the
sacred tradition Of heroes and martyrs. She was,
In fact an enigma. Her courage and devotion as
prestess of the creed of repubicanism and political
equality put many Of her male colleagues to shame,
and she met her fate with stole camness which
heroes might have enyied. According to Miss Blind.
abe led her party to martyrdom rather than make
truce with murder. But this is an extravagant
oyer-statement There was always something
Of the savage and brutal IN her politics;
she was one of the first to propose the de-
capltatiou Of the King and Queen; and although
In lcentious time she distinguished her
self by decorous behavior her private life ex-
hibted none of those endearine virtues which
"kindle the moral energies" of mankind. She
was the daughter of a small shopkeeper in Paris.
Her education seems to have been irregular. and
the taste for reading, which she manifested very
early, was INDUCED IN a singular medley of re-
lgious and philosophical works the Lives OF the
Saints" and other orthodox books iostlng the
writings of Diderot, DAembert. Raynal and Rous-
seau, the last of whom became her special oracle.
The Nouveie Heloise and the /" Contrat Social !"
she read with the utmost avidity. From Catholi
cism she passed through Jansenism. scep-
ticism. atheism. and deism to some
thing resembling the modern agnosticsm
probably like so many Others in the Revolutionary
era she was content to abolish the thought of God
and religion altogether, without being at the
trouble to invent any theory of the universe to
take the place of what she had thrown away.
This course of emancipation was run by the time
she was twenty. Out Of regard to her mothers
feelings, however. she continued to conform to
that good woman's religious practices during
the latteTs lifetime. Those who know how much
Is included IN the ordinary religious practices"
Of Catholics confession the sacrament, etc..
will understand what a system of lying and hypoc-
risy this iilial Difference involved.
NJ. Roland, whom she married when she was
twenty Six was more than twenty years her senior.
grave reserved. studlous, able, and Dedantic; and
she did not love him. In later years when he be-
came famous a Republican journalist, Minister
of State and a leader Of the Girondists, she was
looked upon as his guide and his insplrat on. She
at least equal partner with him III al poitl
cal matters she wrote copiously in his newspaper.
and there is no doubt that she supplied to the part
neTShip fiery energy. an elan. perhaps a courage,
in which the nominal head of the firm was de-
I-l. 49,,
her influence she would have been glad to have him.
ln the memoirs" written during Unemployment,
she declares that she always regarded her husband
as one of the most estlmabe of men. d" but often
felt that the ascendancy of q domiDecring temper,
united 10 that of twenty years more OF age, made
one Of those superiorltes too much.' She COM
plains also that devotion to the happiness of her
husband tau ght her to realize that something was
wanting to her own. This however. was written
after she had fallen in love with another The
picture which Miss Blind presents of the early mar
ricd life Of the Hollands at small place
in the Beaujolais. where Madame Roland
played Lady Bountiful the neghborhood.
presided q well-ordered household, and APP
pears from her joyous letters to have reveiled III
country scenes and pursuits Is the only bright spot
in the biography; and it suggests the doubt
whether the heroines later "reminiscences may not
have been affected great deal by her later expert
enceS. 10 Miss Bllnd however, THIS lOyl1c episode
is only an impairment interruption. up TO this
point Of Marion Roland's life," she SAYS 1--WE can
not avoid the conviction of great moral force
frittered away on iliputlan tasks the preparing of
dainty dishes for her husbands delicate digest on
the mending of house-nen, the setting q
child its lessOns-excellent tasks all, but
which affect one with something OF the
IudicIous disprOportion Of making of the fires
of Etna to fry ones eggs by! 1t seems, indeed. a
curious irony of destiny that this great woman
should have spent many of her best years on things
for which so much less ability was required while
so many small people IN high places were bunglmg
over the welfare of m lions. Bat such at pres
ent,v she adds sarcasticaly. the satisfactory
rangements of society,""
At the first out break of the revolutionary agta-
ton Madame Roland threw herself into the move
ment with all her force Her pen idle
her personal influence was exerted in every drec-
ton: her modest parlOr, when she went up to
Paris with her husband. became little political
salon. rlvallIng in some measure the GATHERINGS of
the Constituencies at Madame de Staels.
Later when the GiIonde appeared distinct
political party. she was its anmatng genius and
in the most exact sense the author of some of Its
important measures. not always the wisest. From
the first she aspred toward Republic and unlike
her husband she distrusted and detested the King.
AS early AS the summer Of 1889, two years before
the Kings futile flight from Paris, she wrote from
her country home: "You busy yourself about
municipality and you suffer heads TO escape which
are about to conjure up new horrors. You are
nothing but children your enthusiasm Is
meptary blaze; and if the National Assembly do
not bring Two ilustTious heads to for
mai trial. OF if generous DEGREES do
not strike them off, you will all to the devil to-
petber" Miss Blind flnches at nothing; she APP
plauds even tins early call for blood, though it is
PLAIN that in her heart she does not like it. Impair
tiaI readers of history will recognize in it that
dreadful spirit Of cruelty and hatred that fatal
proneness toward primitive barbarism, winch
mai .s the stndv of French revolutionary heroes