dness of practice, has swept away every vestige of
civil polity, and would soon leave neither law nor religion in the
world, cannot, either in point of instruction or warning, be
unreasonably laid before my fellow-citizens at large.

Under the sanction, therefore, Sir, of your illustrious name, I
willingly commit to them this memorial. And if an innocent victim
of oppression should thus derive a small, though painful,
subsistence from a plain and publick (sic) recital of his country's
crimes, I shall be abundantly repaid for the little share I may have
had in bringing it into notice; and by the opportunity it affords me
of subscribing myself

Your ever grateful and devoted humble servant,

FRANCIS RANDOLPH.

BATH, July 22, 1796

******

PREFACE

THE following sheets contain a journal of principal events of the
French Revolution. The best authorities have been resorted to, and
the facts are related without any comment. The reader will find a
faithful outline of an interesting and momentous period of history,
and will see how naturally each error produced its corresponding
misfortune.

Various causes contributed to effect a revolution in the minds of
Frenchmen, and led the way to a revolution in the state. The
arbitrary nature of the government had been long submitted to, and
perhaps would have continued so much longer, if France had not taken
part in the American war.

The perfidious policy of VERGENNES, who, with a view of humbling the
pride of England, assisted the subject in arms against his Sovereign,
soon imported into his own nation the seeds of liberty, which it had
helped to cultivate in a country of rebellion; and the crown of
France, as I once heard it emphatically observed, was lost in the
plains of America. The soldier returned to Europe with new doctrines
instead of new discipline, and the army in general soon grew
dissatisfied with the Monarch, on account of unusual, and, as they
thought, ignominious rigours which were introduced into it from the
military school of Germany. The King also, from a necessity of
retrenchment, had induced his ministers to adopt some mistaken
measures of economy respecting the troops, and thus increased the
odium which pride had fostered, and by diminishing the splendour of
the crown, stripped it of its security and protection.

To this was added the wanton profusion of the Court in other
expenses, and the external parade and brilliancy, which, i