The immediate causes of the Revolution were now in full operation.  Mirabeau, attempting to practise his own doctrine of the freedom of the Press, turned journalist and brought out a gazette.  The famous National Assembly opened on May 5, 1789.  He then entered on a career of immense political energy, beginning by issuing a stirring and eloquent “Address to the French People.”  This was especially a reply to a reactionary protest on the part of the clergy.

Soon there were disturbances everywhere.  The Bastille was stormed by the furious Parisians and demolished.  Just at this time Mirabeau lost his father, and the event overwhelmed him with grief.  He refused to stand for election as mayor of Paris.  But he brought about a constitutional organisation of the municipality, and delivered a splendid series of orations on various abuses, such as plural voting, iniquitous monopolies, etc.  Yet he proved his studious moderation by strenuously declaiming against the famous “Declaration of the Rights of Man,” pronouncing it inopportune and perilous.  His heroic harangues provoked disorder in his audience dangerous to himself.  But his courage was dauntless, for even when the king and his chief minister abandoned the royal prerogative, Mirabeau defended it.

Throughout the terrible events of 1789 Mirabeau was consistent as a loyalist and as a patriot.  But disappointment awaited his generous illusions, for the vacillation of the king rendered the outlook hopeless.

At the end of January, 1791, he was appointed president of the National Assembly, which, during the stormy period of its existence during twenty-one months, had already had forty-two presidents.

He exercised his functions with consummate skill, but the end of his wonderful life was at hand.  He had been in weak health from the very first sittings of the Assembly, his condition causing constant anxiety to his intimate friends and his admirers.  He was depressed by sad presentiments, and was in constant apprehension of assassination, for it was well-known that there were plots against his life.  After a brilliant oration, the great tribune went home exhausted, and, indeed, dying.

One of his last experiences was a pathetic interview with Talleyrand, with whom he had often crossed swords in debate.  His weakness dated from February, 1788, when he was attacked with violent internal pains, and was bled to such an extent by a surgeon that he never recovered his wonderful natural vitality.  After much suffering, endured with the most heroic fortitude, he passed away as if in sleep, with a sweet smile on his features.  France mourned the loss of the greatest orator that had ever graced her tribune.  His funeral was celebrated at St. Genevieve with splendid ceremonial.  The verdict of those best qualified to judge was that Mirabeau was the most remarkable man of the eighteenth century, and that his premature death, soon after the outbreak of the Revolution, led to the overthrow of a monarchy which he alone could have saved.