Historical Epochs of the French Revolution / With The Judgment And Execution Of Louis XVI., King Of France / And A List Of The Members Of The National Convention, Who Voted For And Against His Death

SIR,
WITH the design of serving an amiable and worthy man, I have availed myself of your Royal Highness's permission to dedicate to you the translation of a work, which, as a faithful narrative of events, wants no additional comment to make it interesting. A detail of facts, in which your Royal Highness, in behalf of your country, has been so honourably engaged, may not prove unwelcome in aid of recollection; and a detail of facts, built on the experimental horrors of popular power, and which, proceeding from the wildness of theory to the madness 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

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.