Queen's Pawn
Marie-Antoinette et Barnave, Correspondence secrete (Juillet, 1791-Janvier, 1792). Edited by Alma Soderhjelm. (Paris: A. Colin. 30 francs.) Tars interesting book marks the end of a long controversy over material of great importance for the history of the French Revolution. Barnave is remembered by most people as one of the more romantic figures of the first stages of the Revolu- tion, and as one of the three men sent to bring the King and Queen back to Paris after the flight to Varennes. The humilia- tion of the Queen during the hours of this journey made a lasting impression on Barnave's mind, though the effect upon his political views has often been exaggerated. The history of the Queen's intrigue with the Feuillant party is less dramatic, and does not give Marie-Antoinette a reputation for honest dealing, however muck one may be inclined to forgive a woman in her position. The controversy over this correspondence is so very curio/is that it is worth recounting in outline. In 1912-1913 a M. Heidenstam, a Swedish gentleman of literary tastes, published a collection of letters fotmd.in the archives of the castle of Liifstad in Ostrogothia. A considerable part of this " find " consisted of the secret correspondence of Marie- Antoinette and Barnave. Within a short time after this publication Herr Glagau, Professor at the University of Greifswald, made a violent attack upon M. HeidQnstam, and accused him of forging the letters. M. Heidenstam then asked two Swedish experts to look at the original documents. . They reported after a close scrutiny of the handwriting that the ,letters were genuine. Herr Glagau, who had not seen the originals, persisted in his attack, and denied the competence of the Swedish experts, on the grounds that they,did not know enough about the period and had not sufficient material for a comparative judgement. Here the matter, rested until after the War, when the controveisy was_cantinued in a somewhat unfruitful manner; none of the disputants had before them the originals which M.. Heidenstam claimed to have copied.
Mlle. Soderhjelm, Professor at the Swedish University of okbo, has now been given access to these originals by Countess Nordenfalk, of Lofstad. ' Furthermore, Countess Nonlenfalk has allowed the letters to be taken to Paris for submission to French experts and collation with other letters of the Queen and of Barnave. The report of these experts is entirely favourable. The reputation of M. Heidenstam, who died some time ago, is entirely cleared of the charge of forgery. If he had been a better editor the trouble might never have arisen; • but he went out of his way to intercalate clumsy paraphrases in his copies, and to. add careless and inaccurate footnotes. In M. Lefebvre's charming phrase, he allowed himself to faire la toilette du texte." The story has a moral lesson alike for professors and for dilettanti.
Mlle. Siiderhjelm's notes are excellent, and enable the general reader tufollove the tortuous courie of the intrigne.:- The letters show the sound sense, and unsound optimism, of Barnave and his friends, and the fecklessness of the Court, where the King was ahvays asking for 'written advice; and never taking -deci- sions. At one tithe he was studying, in his pathetic, muddled way, no less than twenty " prOjets." One is struck with the advice continually repeated to the Queen that she should try to make herself popular by am-kering in public as though nothing had happened. One sinister phrase in the letters- " /a reine a mat jugi la rem/it/ion "=applies- to the moderates as well as to the Court: There is an Odd suggestion that the royal family should take care to patronize artists and literary men : " leur esprit eat" necesSairernent monarchique." The appeal to Louis XVI that he should act like Henri IV Was a forlorn hope. Yet for all the temptation to fit the French Revolution into a general political scheme and, to regard its tremendous course as something ineluctable, one cannot help thinking that if only Louis XVI had been able to change him- Self into a charmer of men like Henri IV, if only the Queen had inherited something of her mother's political qualities, a whole century of French and European history might have been, different. The Queen's advisers said ,t0 her : "On a le peupk francois avec des ruhans, avec des propos, avec des souris ; on le perd egalement par lee petiles choses." Were these advisers entirely wrong ? If they were not entirely wrong, their words apply to other nations, other rulers, and
other times.
• E. L. WOODWARD.
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