The next day he published a discourse which he had intended to deliver, but from which he had been dissuaded.
It will be remembered that Beaumarchais had been consulted by the ministers in regard to the principles on which the new parliament should be recalled, and that they had not dared to carry out the justice and the liberality of his ideas. Although as we have seen, Beaumarchais utilized the ministers pretty much as he desired, he did so without in the least compromising his own freedom.
In this daring address he combated the existing abuses of the present parliament, as he before had done those of the Parliament Maupeou.
“He contributed,” says Loménie, “without being conscious of it, to prepare the ruin of the parliament which applauded him. He combated their abuses and caused to enter into the minds of the masses the necessity for judicial reform.”
M. de Loménie says elsewhere: “Beaumarchais at this moment, reinstated in his rights as a citizen, enjoying the brilliant success of his Barbier de Séville, already invested with the intimate confidence of the government in the American question; well received at court, popular in the city; directing the dramatic authors in their struggle for literary liberty, might be considered as a man who had at last conquered evil fortune; nevertheless, he was not yet disengaged from the fetters of his past. His first suit with the Comte de la Blache, which had been the origin of his trials and of his celebrity, existed still in the midst of his triumphs, and held in check his fortunes and his honor.”
This man, confidant of the ministry in the affairs of the United States, the popular author of the Barbier de Séville, was under the blow of an iniquitous sentence which declared him indirectly a forger, and placed his goods at the discretion of an enemy.
In 1775, the first judgment had been revoked and the affair sent before the parliament which met at Aix in the south of France.
The zeal which we have seen Beaumarchais display in carrying rapidly to a successful termination the matter of his rehabilitation was now turned toward the retarding of the judgment in the other case.
The Comte de la Blache, on the other hand, vexed at seeing the rapidly rising fortunes of his adversary, endeavored by every means in his power to hasten the decision. Overwhelmed with the multiplicity of his undertakings, Beaumarchais appealed to M. de Vergennes, urging that the case be allowed to stand in statu quo for the present. In a letter from the minister, dated June 2, 1776, the following passage occurs:
“I saw yesterday, in relation to your affair at Aix, M. le Guard of the Seals, who immediately gave orders to write to M. de la Tour, the first president of the tribunal, to the effect that all ultimate procedure should be suspended.... You know, Monsieur, the sincerity of my interest for all that concerns you.