Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-17

r. NJ @-4sAa3ksaK- he was rich. In
TE11srSNz%swE-- 1854 there was
T5CyrCSSrgC born to him a
t-K2zz- daugh ter, who
presently opened on the wonderful world
two large lustrous dark eyes, into the
depths of which sages and poets and states
men shall by and by gaze with admiration
and heart throb of delight.
Gratien called his child Manon Jeanne,
but the lassie. as she grew, liked not the
name Manon but rather Marie, which she
made it instead. So she is Marie Jeanne
Philipon, and shall be Marie Jeanne Roland
for centuries to come. The little daugh-
ter, willowy and tall for her age, takes to
books as the fedgeling to the air. The
world even in her childhood opens upon
her wondering sight. Out of the pages
of the old classic authors the past arises
like panorama. When she is but seven
years of age she makes an analysis of
Plutarch with which she astonishes the
friends of her father. Surely this child
has in her the inspiration of the gods.
From her early girlhood Marie Jeanne
devoted herself to the study of great men
and great events. The heroes, the philoso-
piers, the poets of the ancient world were
her delight. Afterward, with the opening
of her genius. she left the men of antiquity
for those of her own age and country. Her
favorite authors were Bossuet, Massillon,
Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. The
last named was the saint of her early wom-
anhood. All the humanities of the Gospel
according to Jean Jacques pervaded her
intelligence and heart. Meanwhile Jean
Marie Roland de la Platiere, of Vile
franche, near Lyons, distinguished in law,
cEii1fr11 in orr ri CT nd
principles of commerce, inspector general
of Amiens and afterward of Lyons, came
up to Paris, saw the beautiful Marie Jeanne,
won her heart, and in 1871 took her in mar
riage. He was twenty-five years the elder,
but happiness came with the event, and
Marie Jeanne added reverence to love.
After the marriage Roland and his wife
lived at Amiens He was a man of letters,
and contributed many articles to The En-
cyclopedie Methodique, that moderate and
somewhat reactionary work which the
careful people prepared as an antidote to
the audacious Encyclopedia Francaise.
Meanwhile the young and beautiful ma
dame also took the pen, and her writings in
the Lyons Courier attracted the attention
and praise of the greatest men of France.
1t was the beginning of an idolatry which
ended only with the AK stroke in the Place
de la Revolution.
Cut of the nature of the case the Rolands
could not long remain away from Paris.
BY the time of the gathering of the states
general, in 1889, Roland had risen to in
fuence in his section of the kingdom, and
Madame, by her correspondence with Bris-
sot, Potion and others, had begun to diff
fuse her thought in minds not clearer, not
more inspired, not more daring, but simply
stronger than her own. 1t was in 1891 that
she and her husband reappeared in the
capital, where they were received with
much joy by the moderate republicans, who
had now taken the name of Girondists or
Brissotins.
History is no more able than other sci
ences to give reason why. We may not
well explain lDhy the statesmen of the de-
partment of the Gironde, having Bordeaux
for its principal city and wine for it's lead
ing gift, should have become the cham
pions of that moderate and rational re-
publicanism alike hateful to the royalists
and the democracy of the Mountain. These
men would fain establish over France Re
public of the Virtues. They would pro-
duce an ideal state on the foundations of
liberty and justice. They would create
new institutions for the French nation,
humanity for their highest symphony.
Such men were ergniaud-afterward
president of the onvention-Gensonne
Guadet, Brissot, Condorcet, Ducos, Louvet,
Potion, Valaze and Barbaroux-men of in
spiration, genius and enthusiasm, versed
in history, patriots, republicans, advocates
of reason and right, but too ideal for the
age and its condition. The revolution was
on. and the humane voices of the Giron-
dins, pleading for the supremacy of virtue,
the abatement of violence the reign of or
der and the New Testament according to
Rousseau could not be heard in the storm.
The Gironde soon found it's divinity in
Marie Jeanne Roland. The statesmen
who followed Brissot and Potion gathered
into her salon at Paris and enveloped her,
almost smothered her, with admiration
and enthusiasm. They made her queen by
a sort of apotheosis of love and alteration.
1t was soon discovered that no man of
them all had so luminous brain, so pellu
cid a fountain of thought as did the beauti-
fui woman who flashed the light and heat
of her intelligence into every question and
every heart.
The salon of Nine. Roland became the
headquarters of the party of the Gironde,
as that party was the center and directive
force of the early revolution. 1t was un-
der the influence of this remarkable woman
that the plans of the party were debated
and fixed. She herself contributed by her
genius and learning to the best part of all
that was done in the stormy ard critical
year 1893, insomuch that one looking at
the great transformation of society might
well say of the event, as Virgil said of the
crisis in Africa, Dux foemina facti "a
woman leader of the deedD
1t was in the nature of the case that the
Gironde must break, first with the Mon
archy, and afterward with the Mountain.
That moderate and lofty ideality which
constituted the essence of Girondinism
could not.long co-exist in peace with royal
ism on the one side and naked sansculot-
tism on the other. Meanwhile, however,
the scholarly and businesslike Roland rose
in the government to the place of minister
of the interior While holding this office
the influence and work of Madame were
seen in every act The tendency of the
minister was clearly liberalizing and revo-
lutionary. With tsee movemdSt of events,
growing ever more rapid, a crisis was soon
reached in which the Girondin policy must
clash with the throne, and with Louis as its
occupant.
A decree had been passed by the conven