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• Introduction
• Note On the Texts Used In This Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Vindiciae Gallicae
• Advertisement to the Third Edition
• Introduction
• Section I: The General Expediency and Necessity of a Revolution In France.
• Section II: Of the Composition and Character of the National Assembly.
• Section III: Popular Excesses Which Attended the Revolution.
• Section IV: New Constitution of France. *
• Section V: English Admirers Vindicated.
• Section VI: Speculations On the Probable Consequences of the French Revolution In Europe.
• A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt
• A Discourse On the Law of Nature and Nations <341>
• Appendix to the “discourse”: Extracts From the Lectures
• On the State of France In 1815. <184><185>
• Appendix to “on the State of France In 1815”
• Dramatis Personae

NOTE ON THE TEXTS USED IN THIS EDITION

The first edition of Vindiciae Gallicae appeared in April 1791, followed by a second in July correcting misprints that had arisen as a result of haste. A third edition appeared in August, containing an additional concluding section on the probable consequences of the French Revolution for European governments. The copy text employed here is that of the third edition, with the original pagination indicated by angle brackets. A fourth edition appeared in 1792; it varies only in its pagination. Since then the edition that has mostly been cited is that contained in Robert J. Mackintosh (ed.), The Miscellaneous Works of Sir James Mackintosh (3 vols., London, 1846, 3:2–166). This edition is marred by the numerous deletions and changes of wording and sense introduced by the editor, Mackintosh’s son, presumably in an attempt to burnish his father’s reputation.

All of Mackintosh’s references to Burke’s Reflections have been converted to refer to the Liberty Fund edition, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, volume 2 of Select Works of Edmund Burke (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1999).

The Letter to Pitt is based on the original pamphlet published in 1792.

The copy text of A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations is taken from the Miscellaneous Works (1:341–87). Additional material, chiefly footnotes, has been supplied from the third edition published in 1800. To this have been added extracts from the lectures printed in the son’s edition of the Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh (2 vols., London, 1836, 1:111–22).

Finally, the copy text used here for Mackintosh’s article for the Edinburgh Review on “The State of France in 1815,” is taken from Miscellaneous Works (1:185–202). The ending of the article omitted by the son has been added in an appendix and has been taken from the original article (no. 48, February 1815, pp. 505–37).

An asterisk, dagger, or double dagger indicates Mackintosh’s original notes. Editorial notes identifying sources and giving translations are numbered. Editorial intrusions into the author’s notes are made between square brackets.