THE

PREFAC E.

HE portion of history now presented to the Public, occupies confiderably more than double the space allotted to that head in our former volumes. It comprizes the transactions of much more than a fingle year; and the period to which it relates, is the most critical and interesting in the prefent century, perhaps in the whole fucceffion of centuries from the reign of Charlemagne. With the events, here narrated, began a new era in the fyftem of Europe. The long established balance of power, fhaken by repeated wars, and settled again by renewed treaties, has been overturned both in the North and South; the received law of nations has been antiquated; and not only forms of government, but the first principles of politics, and morals, have undergone a revolution,

On fuch a fubject, we thought it our duty to fpare no pains in the compilation of documents, and the investigation of facts, which could, in the leaft refpect, tend to elucidate an epoch, likely to engage the particular atten

tion of future hiftorians, and to influence the happiness or mifery of diftant generations. In the prosecution of our enquiries, recourse has been always had to immediate and original authorities, wherever fuch could be procured; where that was not poffible, we have never failed to confult the best and most authenticated accounts, occafionally referring, in notes, to the various fources from whence our information was derived. Between one and two hundred publications of different defcriptions (fome among them confifting of feveral volumes) will be found to be exprefsly quoted; and many might still have been added to the lift, if it had been thought proper to name more than one or two of the principal, which concurred in the same testimony. We have also profited not a little from the private communications of perfons, upon whose veracity we can depend, and who have been actively engaged in the fcenes here defcribed, in Poland, in France, at Home, and in the campaigns of the Eaft.

In the developement of the northern politics, which finally led to the total destruction of the old balance of power in that quarter, by the annihilation of Poland, as an independent state, much care has been bestowed; and, it is hoped, not altogether in vain. A fuller,

as well as more impartial history of the revolution in that unhappy country, and of all the counfels and intrigues connected with it, has been attempted, than has yet appeared in any work, foreign or domeftic, which has come to our knowledge. The narrative is taken up from the early rudiments of that measure in 1789, and continued down to the firft fubmiffion of Warfaw to the Ruffian armies in the autumn of 1792. It has been our endeavour, according to the best of our judgment, to preferve the degree of detail due to tranfactions of fo much moment, yet upon the prominent features of which there exifts no effential difference of opinion among mankind.

The French history, contained in this volume, commences from the time when, by the expulfion of Necker and his colleagues, the original leaders of the revolution got the whole power of the ftate into their own hands; and it reaches down to the actual subverfion of the monarchy in Auguft 1792, by an open attack on the palace, the imprifonment of the king, his provifional deposition, and the calling of a convention to ratify, by fome appearance of the general will, that anomalous democracy which was then in effect established by force. It is a period of fomething

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fomething less than two years. Yet in that fhort space, two factions, which had fucceffively rifen to popularity, after being compelled to feek their own fafety by uniting to fupport that throne, which they had themselves rendered infecure, were crushed together un›der its ruins; and the faction, which feemed moft triumphant in its fall, was already undermined. This period is alfo marked by the breaking out of a war which has involved the greater part of Europe, and broken in pieces, the system of the South.

The feveral fects of revolutionifts in France, up to the end of 1792, have, each in its turn, had their admirers and advocates in this, as in every other neighbouring nation; and many, who have long fince been difgufted by the crimes that have followed, are still as lavish as ever in their praise of the principles, with which the revolution fet out. Many too, who at this moment fee with alarm and indignation the ambition and injuftice of our enemies, yet affert them to have taken arms originally in the just defence of their own liberty, and impute all their crimes and calamities to the war into which they are reprefented to have been forced. Some, though comparatively few, have uniformly adhered to every thing, which has been done by all the different demagogues and tyrants

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of that oppreffed country. Others (and we believe them to be by far the greatest number) have, for a long time, as univerfally disapproved alike the principles and conduct of the French revolution. On all fides the paffions are kindled by the nature and importance of the queftions. which are agitated, inflame the contention, and tinge every furrounding object with the colour of their own light.

In fuch circumstances, the task of the contemporary hiftorian, always delicate, is clogged with new difficulties. There is no evidence on which he can implicitly rely. There are no readers, who can coolly estimate what he writes. He should keep a check on the bias of his own opinions: for opinions he must have to be indifferent, in fuch a juncture of civil fociety, would be a crime. In all the more difputed paffages of the tranfactions, which he has to relate (fuch as are all thofe of the period comprehended in the prefent volume) we fee but one way, which he can fafely and honeftly pursue, though at the risk of rendering his compofition cumbersome, difjointed, and fpiritlefs. He muft embody, as it were, the evidence in the ftory itself, by inferting ample extracts from the speeches and declarations of the principal actors on each fide; he must trace their proceedings ftep by step, and almost day by day, fcrupulously regarding

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