MIRABEAU'S SECRET MISSION TO BERLIN' One of the most sensational and damaging books ever pub- lished for the sins of a feeble and foolish government and the delec- tation of a scandal-loving public was Mirabeau's Secret History of the Court of Berlin. The unanimous outcry that greeted its appear- ance is not difficult to understand. Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of the illustrious Frederick, was at the time the guest of the French court, and here was a semi-official agent of that court informing the world that the Prince was narrow, vain, incapable and ridiculous ; the peril of a war with the most military power of Europe had but recently been avoided, and here were thrown to the public quasi-diplo- matic reports to the French government showing up the ruler of the Prussian monarchy as a " king of weaklings," as a feeble-minded, self-opinionated, boorish monarch, whom profligacy and conceit alone swayed. In these able, trenchant and witty pages, the sur- roundings of the Prussian court 'were unmercifully painted in lurid and scandalous colors, as they had originally been depicted in the dispatches sent from Berlin by Mirabeau for the information and amusement of the advisers of Louis XVI., perhaps for that of the King himself The fate of the book was clearly written and easy to forecast. Versailles made hurried apologies to Potsdam, the author bowed before the storm and brazenly denied all paternity, and the hangman, on an order of the Parliament of Paris, consigned it in due form to the flames ; all of which matters in no way prevented the reading of the book by all who could procure a copy. Between the publication of the original edition by Malassis at Alen^on in 1789 and of the latest one, now under review, various reprints have appeared, of which Mr. Welschinger, the present editor, purports to give a complete list ; his attention maybe directed to at least two which he has failed to notice : one by Blasdon (Pater- noster Row, 1789), the other by P. Byrne (Dublin), of the same date. The present edition does great credit to the indefatigable French historian, and it must be said at the earliest possible moment that Mr. Welschinger appears at his best when treating a subject that ' La Mission Secrete de Mirabeau d Berlin, 1 786-1 787 ; d'apr^s les documents orig- inaux des Archives des Affaires Etrangfires, avec introduction at notes par Henri Wel- schinger. Paris : Plon, Nourrit et Cie. 1900. (235)
