131 - ROLAND Manon Phlipon, Madame (1754–1793).

ROLAND Manon Phlipon, Madame (1754–1793). Autograph letter signed “P.,” Lyon, July 3, 1790, to François-Xavier LANTHENAS; 5½ pages, in-4. Description: A very beautiful and lengthy letter from the early days of the Revolution. In it, she informs Desissarts of Lanthenas’s decision to forgo the Federation’s spectacle [July 14, 1790], and states that he will either join them in Villefranche or continue on his way. She urges Lanthenas to join them in the countryside, where they will be better able to discuss his plans, and she speaks to him about the small community they could form: “It seems to me that Dss. takes pleasure only in settling in the countryside among a select group of neighbors—such as people who have voluntarily come together for shared pursuits and a common purpose, and who contribute to the common good and to general education through their example and their work. The idea of manufacturing and commerce does not appeal to him either, and I am hardly in a position to inspire a taste for it in him”... She could well see them married and settled not far from them; their three households could form “a sufficient society. But, poor Emiles, you have not yet each found your Sophie, and that is not such an easy match to make!”... She doesn’t know how to weave the other characters into the picture, starting with Pigott, but “we’ll work out your path, and even if we’re just building castles in the air, at least we’ll have been concerned with your happiness with a sentiment that is no stranger to it”... Then she speaks of political matters. “ What you told us about Blt doesn’t surprise me; he has completely switched sides; he wants to please, he wants to get something, he can no longer be impartial and frank. I even believe, at this moment, that he is the instrument of a scheme of which he is unaware. He went with extreme confidence and was very pleased with himself for having secured, 1) a loan—that is, permission to borrow two million; 2) an advance of five hundred thousand livres from the tax collector"... She mentions the loan’s repayment deadline, the need to raise taxes on the city, and points out that the lender is an accountant, and that the municipal official whom B. is taking as his guide is suspected of having a conflict of interest with this accountant: “Some fraud is undoubtedly being plotted, or some scheme just as nefarious as the one in which B. had previously participated—a purchase of wheat that will put, and is already putting, the city at a loss”... She recounts her husband’s objections and concludes: “It is evident that here, as in the public treasury, there has been appalling waste; that people are reluctant to lift the veil; and that they are fiddling the books to hide the truth, to make it untraceable”... Her husband, moreover, has publicly voiced two other criticisms: “My men didn’t dare say a word; we had to swallow it all; but if they could swallow us too, they’d do it without batting an eye.” In truth, I do reproach our friend for artistic flaws and a certain something that’s too angular, but I sometimes imagine that I would be even firmer and more insistent. As you say, our venture has a terrible stumbling block in its path; I have no idea what will become of it”...