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Appendix to “On the State of France in 1815” - Sir James Mackintosh, Vindiciae Gallicae and Other Writings on the French Revolution [1791]

Edition used:

Vindiciae Gallicae and Other Writings on the French Revolution, edited and with an Introduction by Donald Winch (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2006).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Appendix to “On the State of France in 1815”

We have no time to say much at present on the remaining division of this great subject. Wise administration, in the situation of Louis XVIII, was so extremely arduous a task, that the consideration of his misfortunes is not necessary to repress all propensity to severe censure. The restoration of the French Monarchy was impossible. Its elements were destroyed. No proprietary nobility, no opulent church, no judiciary bodies, no army. Twenty-five years had destroyed and produced more than several centuries usually do. A Bourbon Prince was placed at the head of revolutionized France. It was not merely a loose stone in the edifice, it was a case of repulsion between the Government and all the Elements of the Society.

It is difficult to determine whether any prudence could have averted the catastrophe. In justice it ought to be allowed, that more civil liberty was enjoyed during these ten months, than during any period of French history. There were no arbitrary imprisonments; not above one or two feeble attempts to exile obnoxious men to their country houses. Once, or perhaps twice, during the Revolution, there had been more political liberty, more freedom of the press, more real debate in the Legislative assemblies. But, in those tumultuous times there was no tranquillity, no security of person and property.

The King and the Court could not indeed love liberty; few Courts do; and they had much more excuse than most others for hating it. It was obvious that his policy consisted in connecting himself with the purest part of the Revolutionists, in seeing only in the Revolution the abuses which it had destroyed, in keeping out of sight those claims which conveyed too obvious a condemnation of it, in conquering his most natural and justifiable repugnance to individuals, when the display of such a repugnance produced or confirmed the alienation of numerous classes and powerful interests, and, lastly, the hardest but most necessary part of the whole, in the suppression of gratitude, and the delay of justice itself, to those whose suffering and fidelity deserved his affection, but who inspired the majority of Frenchmen with angry recollections and dangerous fears. It is needless to say that so arduous a scheme of policy, which would have required a considerable time for a fair experiment, and which, in the hands of an unmilitary Prince, was likely enough, after all, to fail, was scarcely tried by this respectable and unfortunate Monarch. The silly attack made by his ministers on the press, rendered the Government odious, without preventing the publication, or limiting the perusal of one libel. It answered no purpose, but that of giving some undeserved credit for its suppression to Buonaparte, who has other means of controuling the press than those which are supplied by laws and tribunals. Macdonald, who spoke against it with most rigour and spirit in the House of Peers, was one of the last Marshals who quitted the King (if he has quitted him); and Constant, who wrote against it with such extraordinary talent and eloquence, was the last French writer of celebrity who threw himself into the breach, and defied the vengeance of the Conqueror.

The policy of some of the restored Governments in other countries of Europe, was extremely injurious to the Bourbon administration. Spain, governed by a Bourbon Prince, threw discredit, or rather disgrace, upon all ancient Governments. The conduct of Ferdinand at Valencay was notorious in France. It was well known that he had importuned Napoleon for a Princess of the Imperial Family, and that he wrote constant letters of congratulation to Joseph on his victories over the Spanish armies, whom Ferdinand called the rebel subjects of Joseph. It was known, that, besides all those imbecilities of superstition which disgraced his return, besides the re-establishment of the Inquisition, besides the exile, on various grounds or pretexts, of several thousand families, he had thrown into prison more than five thousand persons, for no other crime than that of administering or seconding a Government which all Europe had recognized, which had resisted all the offers of Buonaparte, and under whom resistance was made to which he owed his Crown. Many cases of oppression were familiarly known in France, which are hitherto little spoken of in this country. Among them, that of M. Antillon deserves to be mentioned. That gentleman, a pre-eminent Professor in an University, had distinguished himself both in the Cortes, of which he was a Member, and by his writings, especially by several excellent works against the Slave Trade, of which he was the most determined enemy. The first care of King Ferdinand was to imprison such mischievous men. Early in June, he issued a warrant for the apprehension of M. Antillon, whom the officer appointed to execute the warrant found labouring under a severe and dangerous malady at his house in Arragon. Upon the representation of the physicians, the officer hesitated to remove the prisoner, and applied for farther instructions to the Captain General of Arragon. The Captain General suspended the execution of the order till his Majesty’s pleasure could be ascertained. The Ministers immediately intimated to the Viceroy the Royal dissatisfaction at the delay. They commanded M. Antillon to be instantly conducted to Madrid. The order was executed; and M. Antillon died on the road, shortly after he had begun the journey! Such is the narrative which we have received from persons who appear to us worthy of faith. If it be entirely false, it may easily be confuted. If it be exaggerated, it may with equal ease be reduced within the limits of the exact truth. Until it be confuted, we offer it as a specimen of the administration of the Spanish Monarchy.

The Pope and the King of Sardinia seemed to be ambitious of rivalling Ferdinand in puerile superstition, if their limited means forbade them to aspire to rivalship in political oppression. They exerted every effort to give a colour to the opinion, that the restored governments were the enemies of civilization and of reason, and that the great Destroyer was necessary to pave the way for wise institutions, even at the expense of tyranny for a time. Spain was represented at Paris as a mirror, in which all nations might see the destiny prepared for them by restored Princes, and the yoke which would be imposed on them if the Sovereigns were not restrained by fear of their people. These impressions were not effaced even by the policy which induced Louis XVIII to suffer the Journal of Paris to discuss the administration of his Cousin in Spain, as freely as those of London.

THE ARMY! We have not time to develop all that is suggested by this terrible word. And it is unnecessary. The word conveys more than any commentary could unfold.

Many readers will say, that this word alone might have been substituted for the whole of what we have written. Short and dogmatical explanations of great events are at once agreeable to the pride of intellect, and very suitable to the narrow capacity and indolent minds of ordinary men. To explain a revolution by a maxim, has an imposing appearance of decisive character and practical good sense. But great revolutions are always produced by the action of some causes, and by the absence of others, without the full consideration of which it is impossible to form a true judgment of their origin. In the case before us, we must consider as well what might have prevented, as what actually produced the catastrophe. The spirit of a soldiery inured to victory, and indignant at defeat—the discontent of officers whose victories were gained over the allies of the government whom they now served—the ambition of generals whose companions had obtained principalities and kingdoms—the disrespect of a conquering army for an unwarlike sovereign—the military habits spread over the whole population of France—did certainly constitute a source of danger to the restored monarch, against which no wisdom could advise, or even conceive a perfect security. But, to retard, is, in such cases, to gain a chance of preventing. Every delay had at least a tendency to unsoldier the army. Time was the Ally of Tranquillity. Two years of quiet might have given the people of France a superiority over the Soldiery, and thus might have ensured Europe against military barbarism. It is true, that the frame of society produced by the Revolution, which we have attempted to describe, contributed to render perhaps the larger, certainly the more active part of the civil population, not cordially affected to the authority of the Bourbons. Even in this very difficult case much had been accomplished to appease the alarms, and (what was harder) to soothe the wounded pride of that numerous body who derived new wealth or consequence from the Revolution. But the wisest policy of this sort required a long time, and an undisturbed operation. The moderate administration of Louis might have accomplished, in a great degree, the work of conciliation. But it was indispensable that it should have been secure against violent interruption for a reasonable period, and that it should not have been brought in to a state of continual odium and suspicion by the contemptible ambition of others in their projects of foreign policy. It was essential that the French people would not be goaded into daily rage at the treaty which confined them within their own ancient limits, by the spectacle of the great military powers bartering republics, confiscating monarchies, adding provinces and kingdoms to their vast dominions. Notwithstanding the natural sources of internal danger, if even some of these unfavourable causes had been absent, the life of Napoleon Buonaparte (supposing him to have been as vigilantly watched as it would have been just and easy to watch him) might have proved a security to the Throne of the Bourbons, by preventing any other military chief from offering himself to the army till they had subsided into a part of the people, and imbibed sentiments compatible with the peace and order of civil life.

As things stand at present, the prospects of the world are sufficiently gloomy; and the course of safety and honour by no means very plain before us. Two things, however, seem clear in the midst of the darkness; one, that a crusade in behalf of the Bourbons and the old monarchy is as palpably hopeless as it is manifestly unjust; and the other, that that course of policy is the wisest and most auspicious, which tends most to reclaim the population of France from its military habits and to withhold it from those scenes of adventure in which its military spirit has been formed.

Chronology of James Mackintosh’s Life

1765:Born at Aldowrie on the banks of Loch Ness, the child of a minor landowning family, his father being a professional soldier.
1775:Begins school in Fortrose.
1780–84:Studies at King’s College Aberdeen under William Ogilvie.
1784:Moves to Edinburgh University to take up medical studies with William Cullen and becomes a member of the Speculative Society and other debating clubs. Forms lifelong friendships with Benjamin Constant and the circle of students surrounding Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy, who founded the Edinburgh Review in 1803.
1787:Graduates with a thesis on muscular motion and moves to London to begin a medical career.
1788: Publishes anonymously Arguments Concerning the Constitutional Right of Parliament to Appoint a Regency in support of Fox’s position during the Regency crisis.
1789:Marries Catherine Stuart and visits the Low Countries, partly to improve his knowledge of French in Brussels. Writes on French subjects for the Oracle and joins the Society for Constitutional Information.
1790:Takes part in the Westminster election on behalf of John Horne Tooke.
1791:Visits Birmingham with Samuel Parr to view the effects of the Birmingham “church and king” riots on Joseph Priestley’s house and laboratory. Attends celebrations of the storming of the Bastille. Publishes three editions of Vindiciae Gallicae.
1792: Appointed honorary secretary to the Association of the Friends of the People, and publishes A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt. Makes another visit to France and hears of the early scenes of violence before departure for London.
1795:Called to the Bar. Reviews Burke’s Two Letters on Peace with the Regicide Directory of France sympathetically in the Monthly Review, while remaining opposed to war with France.
1796:Sends letter to Burke recanting support for the French Revolution. Entertained by Burke at the end of the year.
1797:Death of first wife.
1798:Marries Catherine Allen.
1799:Publishes A Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations; Introductory to a Course of Lectures on that Science, and gives lectures at Lincoln’s Inn. Applies, via George Canning, for the support of Pitt and Henry Dundas to his claims for a judicial post in India.
1800:Repeats lectures at Lincoln’s Inn.
1802:Visits Paris during Peace of Amiens and attends a reception given by Napoleon.
1803:Defends Jean Peltier, a French émigré royalist and publisher, in the course of which he attacks the autocracy of the Napoleonic regime. Joins Loyal North Britons’ militia formed to repel a threatened French invasion. Receives knighthood.
1804:Accepts appointment as recorder of Bombay from Addington. Founds Literary Society of Bombay and delivers opening address.
1812:Returns to England. Offered, but rejects, a Tory seat in Parliament.
1813:Elected as a Whig member of Parliament for Nairn.
1814:Visits France during the interval between Napoleon’s first abdication and his return from exile on Elba. Renews acquaintance with Constant and Mme. de Stael.
1815: Publishes “On the State of France in 1815” in the Edinburgh Review during Napoleon’s Hundred Days.
1816: Reviews part 1 of Dugald Stewart’s Dissertation Exhibiting the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical and Political Philosophy in the Edinburgh Review.
1818:Elected as member of Parliament for Knaresborough and is appointed as professor of law and general politics at Haileybury College, one of his colleagues being T. R. Malthus. Criticizes universal suffrage in the Edinburgh Review.
1819: Speech against foreign establishments bill in Parliament.
1820: Reluctantly turns down offer of the Edinburgh Chair of Moral Philosophy in succession to Thomas Brown in favor of retaining his political position in London. Outlines Whig case for variegated representation in the Edinburgh Review in opposition to the Benthamite case for uniform and universal manhood suffrage.
1821:Reviews Simonde de Sismondi’s History of France and part 2 of Stewart’s Dissertation in the Edinburgh Review.
1822:Carries motion in House of Commons on reform of criminal law.
1823:Defeats Sir Walter Scott in election to rectorship of Glasgow University.
1830:Begins publication of his three-volume History of England from the Earliest Times to the Final Establishment of the Reformation and A General View of the Progress of Ethical Philosophy During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries for the Encyclopedia Britannica, part of which extends the attack on Benthamite utilitarianism.
1832:Death of Sir James Mackintosh.
1834:Posthumous publication of an unfinished History of the Revolution in England in 1688.
1835:Publication of James Mill’s Fragment on Mackintosh, a hypercritical response to Mackintosh’s attack on the Benthamites.
1836: Publication by his son, Robert, of Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh.
1846:Publication by his son of The Miscellaneous Works of Sir James Mackintosh.

Selective Chronology of Events Relating to the French Revolution and Parliamentary Reform in Britain

1787
22 February:Meeting of the Assembly of Notables. The Assembly was called to discuss Calonne’s reforms for dealing with the French state’s financial crisis. However, the Assembly proved hostile to Calonne’s ideas.
8 April:Following the hostile reception by the Assembly of Notables to the proposed tax reforms, Calonne was dismissed.
1 May:Appointment of Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, as head of the Royal Council of Finances. Brienne went on to propose a modified version of Calonne’s reforms.
25 May:Assembly of Notables refused to ratify Brienne’s reform program and consequently was dispersed.
14 August:Parlement of Paris exiled to Troyes.
1788
4 May:Lettres de cachet issued against Goislard de Montsabert and Duval d’Eprémesnil.
8 May:Attempted French royal coup against the parlements.
8 August:Louis XVI agrees to the summoning of the Estates General.
25 September:Paris parlement reconvened.
4 November:Celebrations of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 organized by London Revolution Society, coinciding with the illness of George III and the Regency crisis.
6 November:Meeting of second Assembly of Notables in France.
1789
24 January:Letters patent issued setting out electoral procedure for forthcoming Estates General.
January:Abbé Sieyès’s Qu’est-ce que le tiers état? published in France.
5 May:Opening meeting of French Estates General.
May:Bill to remove the civil disabilities imposed on English dissenters by the Test and Corporation Acts narrowly defeated.
17 June:Third Estate of France adopted the title National Assembly and declared their intention to rule on behalf of the nation.
20 June:The serment du jeu de paume (Tennis Court Oath); owing to the closure of its normal meeting place, the National Assembly met in the royal tennis court where they swore not to disband until a constitution had been firmly established.
23 June:National Assembly rejected Louis XVI’s order that the three estates meet separately and reiterated its earlier decrees.
9 July:National Assembly adopted the title “National Constituent Assembly.”
11 July:Dismissal of Necker.
14 July:Storming of the Bastille.
4 August:National Assembly abolished many privileges of the nobility and the church.
26 August:Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen.
10 September:National Assembly voted for a unicameral legislature in the forthcoming constitution.
11 September:National Assembly voted to give the king a suspensive veto over legislation.
5–6 October:People of Paris marched to Versailles and forced Louis XVI to return to the capital. Soon after, the National Assembly voted to move to Paris.
2 November:Nationalization of church property.
3 November:Suspension of parlements.
4 November:Richard Price gave his sermon on “Love of Our Country” at the annual meeting of the London Revolution Society, after which an address was sent to French National Assembly.
19 December:Assignats issued.
22 December:Decree setting out plans for primary elections to the forthcoming legislature.
1790
9 February:Burke’s first public attack on the French Revolution in his speech on the army estimates (published 20 February).
4 March:Henry Flood’s motion for parliamentary reform defeated in House of Commons.
15 March:National Assembly declared abolition of feudal regime in France.
22 May:National Assembly voted to abolish king’s prerogative over declarations of war and peace.
19 June:Abolition of titles of hereditary nobility.
June:Horne Tooke stood as candidate for Westminster on the program of reform agreed by the Society for Constitutional Information.
12 July:Civil Constitution of the Clergy voted by National Assembly.
4 September:Resignation of Necker.
6 September:Abolition of the parlements.
October:Publication of Calonne’s De l’état de la France.
1 November:Publication of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.
29 November:Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Man.
December:Publication of Catharine Macaulay’s Observations on the Reflections of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke.
1791
January:Publication of Joseph Priestley’s Letters to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke.
12 March:Publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. Part the First.
7 May:Publication of Mackintosh’s Vindiciae Gallicae.
May:Open rift between Burke and Fox in the House of Commons.
20 June:Louis XVI’s flight to Varennes.
2 July:Publication of second edition of Vindiciae Gallicae.
15–17 July:Birmingham “church and king” riots; destruction of Priestley’s house and laboratory.
17 July:Massacre on the Champ de Mars.
28 August:Publication of third edition of Vindiciae Gallicae.
3 September:Adoption of a constitution declaring France to be a constitutional monarchy (Constitution of 1791).
1 October:The National Constituent Assembly replaced by the National Legislative Assembly.
1792
9 February:Property of French émigrés forfeited to the nation.
16 February:Publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.Part the Second.
16 March:Abolition of lettres de cachet.
11 April:Formation of Society of Friends of the People.
20 April:France declared war on Austria; Prussia joined war against France.
30 April:Charles Grey pledges to introduce a motion for parliamentary reform on behalf of the Friends of the People in the following year.
21 May:Royal proclamation against seditious writings (strengthened in December). Publication of Mackintosh’s Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt.
10 August:A popular uprising involving the killing of Swiss troops at the Tuileries, which brought down the French monarchy.
12 August:French royal family imprisoned.
2–6 September:The September massacres: the killing, by a mob, of counterrevolutionary prisoners in Paris jails.
21 September:The National Legislative Assembly replaced by the National Convention, the task of which was to draw up a new Constitution.
22 September:First French republic officially declared.
19 November:Decree of Convention offering fraternal aid to promote revolutions abroad.
18 December:Paine tried in London in absentia.
1793
21 January:Execution of Louis XVI.
25 January:Inaugural meeting of London Corresponding Society affiliated to the Society for Constitutional Information and partly inspired by Paine’s Rights of Man.
1 February:France declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic and the first coalition against France (Britain, Prussia, Holland, Spain, and Austria) was formed.
March:Start of the rising in the Vendée against the French Revolution.
6 April:Committee of Public Safety took power.
7 May:Grey’s promised motion on parliamentary reform heavily defeated in House of Commons.
5 September:Terror declared the “order of the day.”
16 October:Execution of Marie Antoinette.
November:Height of dechristianization campaign.
1794
May:Suspension of habeas corpus in Britain in response to radical agitation.
21 June:Burke resigned from Parliament.
July:Split within Whig Party widened when conservative Whigs under Portland lent support to Pitt’s policies.
28 July (10= Thermidor):Execution of Robespierre; end of the Terror.
1795
17 February:Armistice in the Vendée.
2 November:Establishment of the French Directory.
29 October:George III’s carriage stoned at opening of Parliament.
10 November:Bills to curb seditious meetings and “treasonable practices” introduced in Parliament.
1796
20 October:Publication of Burke’s Two Letters on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France.
1797
9 July:Death of Edmund Burke.
1799
9 November (18= Brumaire):Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état established a military dictatorship in France.
1802
27 March:Peace of Amiens.
2 August:Napoleon becomes first consul for life.
1803
May:War resumed.
1804
2 December:Napoleon crowned as hereditary emperor of the French.
1814
30 March:Allies entered Paris.
6 April:Napoleon abdicated and was sent to Elba.
3 May:Louis XVIII entered Paris.
4 June:Louis XVIII issued a constitutional charter.
1 November:Congress of Vienna opened.
1815
1 March:Napoleon landed in France.
19 March:Louis XVIII fled.
20 March:Napoleon entered Paris to begin Hundred Days (until June 29).
2 June:Napoleon issued liberal constitution, Le Champ de Mai.
18 June:Napoleon defeated by Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo.
22 June:Napoleon abdicated for a second time.
7 July:Allies entered Paris.
8 July:Louis XVIII returned.
2 August:Napoleon departed for exile to St. Helena.

Dramatis Personae

Abercorn: James Hamilton, eighth Earl Abercorn, 1712–89. Politician.

Aguesseau: Henri François d’Aguesseau, 1668–1751. French jurist, three times chancellor of France under Louis XV.

Princess Anne: 1665–1714. Second daughter of James II, later queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1702–14).

Anne of Austria (Antonietta of Austria): 1601–66. Queen of France, wife of Louis XIII.

Antillon: Don Isidore d’Antillon, 1778–1814. Professor and member of the Cortes who became a victim of the Spanish restoration.

Artois: Charles Philippe de Bourbon, comte d’Artois, 1757–1836. Brother of Louis XVI, émigré leader during the French Revolution. King of France as Charles X 1824–30.

Bacon: Sir Francis Bacon, 1561–1626. Baron Verulam of Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. English philosopher and statesman.

Bailly (Bailli): Jean-Sylvain Bailly, 1736–93. Member of the Estates General and mayor of Paris from 1789.

Barrere (Barère): Bertrand Barère (de Vieuzac), 1755–1841. French revolutionary—originally a monarchist but was later a member of the Committee of Public Safety. Attacked Robespierre at Thermidor.

Bayard: Pierre du Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard, 1473–1524. French soldier.

Beccaria: Cesare, Marchese de Beccaria, 1738–94. Italian jurist and philosopher, author of Dei delitti e delle pene (on crimes and punishments).

Bentham: Jeremy Bentham, 1748–1832. English philosopher and social reformer, pioneer of utilitarianism.

Birkbeck: Morris Birkbeck, 1764–1825. Author of Notes on a Journey through France from Dieppe through Paris and Lyons to the Pyrenees, and back through Toulouse, in July, August, and September 1814 (1814).

Blackstone: Sir William Blackstone, 1723–80. English judge and jurist, author of Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–69).

Blackwood: Adam Blackwood, 1539–1613. Scottish author and critic of George Buchanan.

Boileau: Nicolas Boileau, known as Boileau Despréaux, 1636–1711. French poet and critic.

Bolingbroke: Henry St. John, first Viscount Bolingbroke, 1678–1751. English statesman and author.

Bossuet: Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, 1627–1704. French cleric and orator.

Breteuil: Louis Auguste Le Tennelier, baron de Breteuil, 1730–1807. Diplomat and statesman.

Brienne: Etienne Charles, Loménie de Brienne, 1727–94. French statesman and cleric who replaced Calonne as Louis XVI’s principal minister and tried to introduce reforms.

Brion de la Tour: Louis Brion de la Tour, 1756–1823. Cartographer.

Brissonius: Barnabas Brissonius, 1531–91. Jurist.

Buchanan: George Buchanan, 1506–82. Scottish scholar and humanist.

Buonaparte: Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I, 1769–1821. Corsican general who became emperor of France in 1804.

Burgh: James Burgh, 1714–75. Scottish dissenter, teacher, and moral and political reformer.

Burke: Edmund Burke, 1729–97. Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher. Author of Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).

Burlamaqui: Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, 1694–1748. Swiss jurist. Author of Principe du droit naturel (1747) and Principes du droit politique (1751).

Burnet: Dr. Gilbert Burnet, 1643–1715. Bishop of Salisbury, historian and supporter of William and Mary’s accession to the English throne.

Cadmus: The legendary founder of Thebes. Son of the Phoenician king Agenor and brother of Europa. Famed for having introduced the Greek alphabet from Phoenicia.

Calonne: Charles Alexandre de Calonne, 1734–1802. Controller general of French finances 1783–87. Author of De l’état de la France (1790).

Lord Camelford: See Thomas Pitt.

Camus: Armand Gaston Camus, 1740–1804. French revolutionary politician.

Candolle: Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, 1778–1841. Genevan botanist.

Caraman: Victor Louis Charles Riquet, duc de Caraman, 1762–1839. French soldier and diplomat.

Cartwright: Major John Cartwright, 1740–1824. English political reformer.

Chabroud: Jean Baptiste Charles Chabroud, 1750–1816. Representative of the Third Estate in Estates General, author of a report on the actions of Châtelet following the events of 5–6 October 1789.

Charles I: 1600–1649. King of Great Britain and Ireland. Executed following the English Civil War.

Charles II: 1630–85. King of Great Britain and Ireland. Came to the throne at the Restoration in 1660.

Chatham: William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, Pitt the Elder, 1708–78. Prime minister. Father of William Pitt the Younger.

Churchill: John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, 1650–1722.

Clarendon: Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, 1609–74. English statesman and historian of the English Civil War.

Clermont Tonnerre: Stanislas, comte de Clermont Tonnerre, 1757–92. Moderate French revolutionary politician, associated with the Monarchiens.

Coke: Sir Edward Coke, 1552–1634. English judge and jurist.

Collins: Anthony Collins, 1676–1729. Deist and author of Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity (1729).

Constant: Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, 1767–1830. Swiss politician and author.

Cooper: Dr. Thomas Cooper, 1759–1839. English reformer.

Corneille: Pierre Corneille, 1606–84. French dramatist.

Cromwell: Oliver Cromwell, 1599–1658. English soldier and statesman. Lord Protector of England 1653–58.

Crosby: Brass Crosby, 1725–93. English radical. Alderman of Bread Street ward from 1765. Lord Mayor of London from 1770.

Cujacius: Jacobus Cujacius, ca. 1522–90. French jurist.

Curran: John Philpot Curran, 1750–1817. Irish judge.

Cuvier: Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric (Georges) Cuvier, 1769–1832. French anatomist, zoologist, and naturalist.

De Lolme: Jean Louis De Lolme, 1741–1806. Genevan writer. Author of Constitution de l’Angleterre, ou etat du gouvernement anglais, comparé avec la forme républicaine & avec les autres monarchies de l’Europe.

Duncombe: Henry Duncombe, 1728–1818. MP for Yorkshire 1780–96.

Dundas: Henry Dundas, 1742–1811. First Viscount Melville and Baron Dunira. Scottish jurist and politician. Home secretary to William Pitt the Younger.

Eden (Lord Auckland): William Eden, first Baron Auckland, 1744–1814. Statesman and diplomat.

D’Epresmenil (Eprémesnil): Jean Jacques Duval d’Eprémesnil, 1745–94. Member of the Parlement of Paris. Critic of Calonne and Brienne. Arrested, together with Goislard de Montsabert, in May 1788.

Erskine: Thomas Erskine, first Baron Erskine, 1750–1823. Scottish jurist and member of the Society of the Friends of the People.

Fénelon: François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, 1651–1715. French cleric and writer, archbishop of Cambray and author of Telemachus (1699).

Ferdinand VII: 1784–1833. King of Spain. Forced into exile by the French invasion of 1808, but restored to the throne by a treaty with Napoleon in 1813.

Filmer: Sir Robert Filmer, 1588–1653. Author of Patriarcha (1689).

Fletcher: Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, 1653–1716. Scottish patriot and author.

Fleury: André-Hercule de Fleury, 1653–1743. French prelate and politician. Effectively controlled the government of Louis XV until 1743.

Flood: Henry Flood, 1732–91. Irish politician and reformer.

Fouché: Joseph Fouché, 1763–1829. French revolutionary politician who supported the attacks on Christianity and was one of the people behind the Thermidor coup.

Fox: Charles James Fox, 1749–1806. Leading Whig politician. Rival of William Pitt.

Franklin: Benjamin Franklin, 1706–90. U.S. statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, inventor, and scientist.

Frost: John Frost, 1750–1842. Reformer and supporter of the French Revolution, secretary of the London Corresponding Society.

Gassendi: Pierre Gassendi, 1592–1655. French philosopher and scientist. An advocate of the experimental approach to science and an early critic of Descartes.

Gibbon: Edward Gibbon, 1737–94. English historian, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88).

Godwin: William Godwin, 1756–1836. Novelist, historian, and author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), the work attacked by Mackintosh in his lectures on law of nature and nations.

Goestard/Goislard: Goislard de Montsabert, 1763–1835. Leading member of the Paris Parlement, arrested alongside d’Eprémesnil in May 1788.

Green: Thomas Green, 1769–1825. Author of An examination of the leading principle of the new system of morals, as that principle is stated and applied in Mr. Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1799).

Grenville: William Wyndham Grenville, first Baron Grenville, 1759–1834. English politician and prime minister. Son of George Grenville.

Grey: Charles Grey, second Earl Grey, 1764–1845. English statesman, prime minister, and opponent of William Pitt the Younger.

Grotius: Hugo Grotius, 1583–1645. Dutch jurist, politician, and diplomat. One of the founders of international law, his great work on the subject being De Jure Belli et Pacis (1625).

Hale: Sir Matthew Hale, 1609–76. English judge and writer.

Hargrave: Francis Hargrave, ca. 1741–1821. Lawyer and legal historian.

Harrington: James Harrington, 1611–77. Author of The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656).

Hawkesbury: Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of Liverpool and first Baron Hawkesbury, 1729–1808. English aristocrat.

Heineccius: Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, 1681–1741. German jurist.

Helvetius: Claude-Adrien Helvetius, 1715–71. French philosopher, one of the Encyclopédistes.

Henrietta of Orleans: Henrietta Anne, duchesse d’Orléans, 1644–70. Youngest daughter of Charles I, wife of Philippe, duc d’Orléans.

Henry III: 1551–89. King of France (1574–89).

Henry the Great: Henry V, 1387–1422. King of England (1413–22).

Hobbes: Thomas Hobbes, 1588–1679. English political philosopher, author of Leviathan (1651).

Hollis: Thomas Brand Hollis (originally Thomas Brand), ca. 1719–1804. Gentleman.

Holt: Lord John Holt, 1642–1710. English judge.

Hooker: Richard Hooker, 1554–1600. English theologian, author of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594).

Hottomannus: François Hotman, 1524–90. French publicist and jurist.

Howard: Sir Robert Howard, 1626–98. Politician.

Hume: David Hume, 1711–76. Scottish philosopher and historian.

Hurd: Dr. Richard Hurd, 1720–1808. Cleric and author.

James I: 1566–1625. King of Scotland as James VI from 1567. Became king of England in 1603.

James II: 1633–1701. King of Scotland as James VII, and then king of England and Ireland as James II. Second son of Charles I, brother of Charles II. On the invasion of William of Orange, James fled to France.

Jebb: Dr. John Jebb, 1736–86. English reformer.

Jeffries (Jeffreys or Jefferies): Jeffreys (of Wem), George Jeffreys, first Baron Jeffreys, 1645–89. English judge who condemned Algernon Sidney and William Russell to death for their alleged involvement in the Rye House Plot.

Jones: Sir William Jones, 1746–94. English jurist and orientalist.

Kirk: Percy Kirke, ca. 1649–91. Lieutenant-general, colonel of Kirke’s Lambs. Had a reputation for brutality; escorted Judge Jeffreys during the bloody assizes.

La Fayette: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, 1757–1834. French soldier and revolutionary. Fought against the British in the American War of Independence before returning to France to take part in the Revolution there.

Lally Tollendal (Tolendal): Trophime-Gérard, marquis de Lally-Tollendal, 1751–1830. Moderate French revolutionary politician, associated with the Monarchiens.

La Rochfoucault: François, sixth duc de la Rochefoucauld, 1613–80. French writer and opponent of Richelieu.

La Rochfoucault-Liancourt: François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 1747–1827. French revolutionary politician, philanthropist, and social reformer.

Laud: William Laud, 1573–1645. English prelate. Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I.

Le Chapelier: Isaac René Gui Le Chapelier, 1754–94. French lawyer and revolutionary politician. Author of the Loi Le Chapelier (1791), which outlawed workers’ associations. Executed during the Terror.

Leibnitz: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, 1646–1716. Prussian philosopher and mathematician.

Leopold II: 1747–92. Holy Roman Emperor, brother of Marie Antoinette.

Lewes: Sir Watkin Lewes, ca. 1740–1821. London alderman, sheriff, Lord Mayor, and MP. Radical and reformer.

Locke: John Locke, 1632–1704. English philosopher.

Louis XIII: 1601–43. King of France from 1610.

Louis XIV: 1638–1715. King of France from 1643. Son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Known as Le Roi Soleil.

Louis XV: 1710–74. King of France from 1715.

Louis XVI: 1754–93. King of France from 1774. Grandson of Louis XV. Executed during the French Revolution.

Louis XVIII: Louis Stanislas Xavier, comte de Provence, 1755–1824. King of France, younger brother of Louis XVI. Declared himself king in 1795 but actually took up the throne in 1815.

Macdonald: Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald, 1765–1840. Of Scottish Jacobite descent, became a general in Napoleon’s armies in 1794 and governor of Rome in 1798.

Mackenzie: Sir George Mackenzie, 1636–91. Scottish jurist and author. Wrote against Buchanan and Milton.

Lord Mahon: See Earl Stanhope.

Maitland: James Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale, 1759–1839. Scottish lawyer, politician, and author.

Malthus: Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766–1834. English political economist and clergyman. Author of the Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

Marat: Jean Paul Marat, 1743–93. French revolutionary, journalist, physician, and scientist. Famous for his popular newspaper L’ami du peuple.

Marie Antoinette (Maria Antoinetta): Josèphe Jeanne, 1755–93. Queen of France, wife of Louis XVI.

Princess Mary: 1662–94. Daughter of James II. Wife of William of Orange. Later queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1689–94).

Mary (A Queen of France): Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–87. Queen of Scotland and mother of James IV and I. Though born in Scotland, Mary was sent to France at an early age. She returned to Scotland as an adult. Executed in England on the orders of Elizabeth I in 1587.

Mary of Medicis: 1573–1642. Wife of Henry IV, mother of Louis XIII.

Masséna: André Masséna, 1758–1817. French general. Became Marshal of the Empire in 1804. In the campaign of 1809 earned the title prince of Essling.

Maurice: Thomas Maurice, 1754–1824. Oriental scholar and historian.

Maury: Jean Siffrein, Abbé Maury, 1746–1817. French prelate and counterrevolutionary orator and writer.

Maynard: Sir John Maynard, Serjeant Maynard, 1604–90. English judge.

Millar: John Millar, 1735–1801. Professor of civil law at Glasgow University, author of The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771) and An Historical View of the English Government (1787).

Milton: John Milton, 1608–74. English poet who also wrote political prose works.

Mirabeau: Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, 1749–91. French revolutionary politician and orator.

Molyneux: William Molyneux, 1656–98. Irish philosopher and writer, author of The Case of Ireland (1698).

Montesquieu: Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède, 1689–1755. French jurist and author of the Spirit of the Laws (1748).

Montesquiou: Abbé François Xavier Marc Antoine Montesquiou-Fezensac, 1758–1832. French cleric.

Montmorencie(y): Anne, first duc de Montmorency, 1493–1567. French soldier.

Montrose: James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, 1612–50. Scottish general.

Mounier: Jean Joseph Mounier, 1758–1806. French lawyer and moderate revolutionary politician, associated with the Monarchiens.

Necker: Jacques Necker, 1732–1804. Genevan-born French politician and financier. In 1777 Necker was made director-general of French finances. Dismissed in 1781. Recalled in 1788 but dismissed again in 1789.

Noailles: Louis Marie, vicomte de Noialles, 1756–1804. French soldier and revolutionary politician.

Nolan: Michael Nolan, died 1827. Irish legal historian.

Nottingham: Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, 1647–1730. Tory politician.

Orleans: Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d’Orléans, also known as Philippe Égalité, 1747–93. French Bourbon prince, cousin of Louis XVI. During the French Revolution supported the Third Estate against the privileged orders, but later arrested as a Bourbon and guillotined.

Ormond(e): James Butler, second Duke of Ormonde, 1665–1745. Irish nobleman. Impeached for high treason (for Jacobitism) in 1715, went into exile in France.

Paine: Thomas Paine, 1737–1809. English radical political writer and revolutionary. Wrote The Rights of Man in reply to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Paley: Dr. William Paley, 1743–1805. English theologian. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy expounded a form of theological utilitarianism.

Papinian: Aemilius Papinianus, ca. 140–212. Roman jurist.

Peiresc: Nicolas Claude Fabri Peiresc, 1580–1637. French scientist.

Peters: Hugh Peters, 1598–1660. Independent cleric.

Pétion: Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, 1756–93. French revolutionary, mayor of Paris from 1791.

Philip II: 1527–98. King of Spain and of Portugal, also ruler of the Spanish Netherlands.

Thomas Pitt: Thomas Pitt, first Baron Camelford, 1737–93. Politician and art connoisseur. Nephew of William Pitt the Elder. Spoke against parliamentary reform in 1782.

William Pitt: Known as Pitt the Younger, 1759–1806. English statesman and prime minister, 1783–1801. Son of William Pitt the Elder, first Earl of Chatham.

De la Place/De Laplace: Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace, 1749–1827. French astronomer and mathematician.

Powys: Sir Thomas Powys, 1649–1719. Judge.

Price: Dr. Richard Price, 1723–91. Welsh moral philosopher and Unitarian minister. Price’s A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789) prompted Edmund Burke to write his Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Puffendorff (Pufendorf): Samuel Pufendorf, 1632–94. German writer on jurisprudence. Author of De Jure Naturae et Gentium Libri (of the law and nature of nations).

Richlieu/Richelieu: Armand Jean Duplessis, duc de Richelieu, Cardinal Richelieu, 1585–1642. French prelate and statesman, minister of state to Louis XIII.

Richmond: Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 1735–1806. Peer, diplomat, and government minister.

Robespierre: Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre, 1758–94. French revolutionary politician. Sat on the Committee of Public Safety 1793–94. Executed, together with other members of that committee, on 10 Thermidor (28 July 1794).

Rolle: John Rolle, baron Rolle of Stevenstone, 1750–1842. Politician, supporter of Pitt.

Rose: George Rose, 1744–1818. Secretary to the treasury under Pitt.

Rousseau: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712–78. Genevan-born French political philosopher and author of The Social Contract (1762).

Russel/Russell: Lord William Russell, 1639–83. English politician. Arrested alongside Algernon Sidney for involvement in the Rye House Plot. Found guilty of high treason and executed.

Sacheverell: William Sacheverell, 1638–91. English politician. Sometimes called the First Whig.

Savary: Anne Jean Savary, 1774–1833. French general.

Sharman: Lieutenant Colonel Sharman, d. 1803. Recipient of A Letter from … the Duke of Richmond.… See A Letter to William Pitt, appendix 1, no. 3.

Shipley: Bishop Jonathan Shipley, 1713–88. English prelate.

Algernon Sidney (Sydney): 1623–83. English politician and writer. Grandnephew of Sir Philip Sidney. Arrested for alleged involvement in the Rye House Plot, alongside William Russell, and executed.

Sir Philip Sidney: 1554–86. English poet and patron.

Smith: Adam Smith, 1723–90. Scottish moral philosopher and political economist, author of Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Wealth of Nations (1776).

Somers: John Somers, first Baron Somers (of Evesham), 1651–1716. English Whig statesman.

Sophia of Hanover: 1630–1714. Electress of Hanover, mother of George I.

Southampton: Charles Fitzroy, first Duke of Southampton and Cleveland, 1662–1730. Son of Charles II by Barbara Villiers.

Stanhope: Charles Stanhope, third Earl Stanhope, later Lord Mahon, 1753–1816. English scientist and politician. Son-in-law of William Pitt the Elder, but later fell out with Pitt the Younger over the French Revolution.

Stewart: Dugald Stewart, 1753–1828. Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University, author of A General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy (1816, 1820).

Sully: Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, also known as baron de Rosny, 1560–1641. French financier.

Sunderland: Probably Robert Spencer, second Earl of Sunderland, 1640–1702.

Surrey: Charles Howard, Earl of Surrey, 1746–1815. MP for Carlisle 1780–86 and supporter of parliamentary reform.

Swift: Jonathan Swift, 1667–1745. Anglo-Irish clergyman and satirist.

Talleyrand: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince of Benevento, 1754–1838. French cleric and politician.

Tallien: Jean Lambert Tallien, 1767–1820. French revolutionary. One of those behind the Thermidor coup.

Target: Gui Jean Baptiste Target, 1733–1806. French lawyer and revolutionary politician.

Tatham: Dr. Edward Tatham, 1749–1834. Cleric and author.

Temple: Sir Richard Temple, 1634–97. Politician.

Thouret: Jacques Guillaume Thouret, 1746–94. French lawyer and revolutionary politician. Guillotined during the Terror.

Thuanus: Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus), 1553–1617. French statesman and historian.

Thurlow: Edward Thurlow, first Baron Thurlow, 1731–1806. Lord Chancellor.

Tooke: John Horne Tooke, originally John Horne, 1736–1812. English radical politician and philologist.

Tucker: Abraham (Abram) Tucker, 1705–74. English cleric and author of The Light of Nature Pursued (1765–74). Wrote under the pseudonym Edward Search.

Turgot: Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, 1727–81. French political economist and politician. Comptroller-general of finance under Louis XVI.

Ulpian: Domitius Ulpianus, ca. 170–228. Roman jurist.

Vattel: Emmerich de Vattel, 1714–67. Swiss jurist and author of Droits des gens.

Vergennes: Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, 1717–87. French diplomat, foreign minister 1774–87.

Victor Amadeus: Victor Amadeus II, 1666–1732. Duke of Savoy (1675–1713), king of Sicily (1713–20), king of Sardinia (1720–30).

Virieu: François Henri, comte de Virieu, 1754–93. Initially a supporter of the Revolution but later became a royalist.

Voltaire: Pseudonym of François Marie Arouet, 1694–1778. French Enlightenment author.

Walpole: Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, 1676–1745. English Whig politician, seen as the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Warburton: William Warburton, 1698–1779. Cleric and author.

Ward: Robert Plumer Ward, 1765–1846. Barrister and MP. Author of An Enquiry into the Foundations of History of the Law of Nations in Europe, from the Time of the Greeks and Romans to the Age of Grotius (1795).

Wilkes: John Wilkes, 1725–97. English politician.

William of Orange: William III, 1650–1702. Stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and king of Great Britain and Ireland. Replaced James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Windham: William Windham, 1750–1810. Statesman.

Wolf (Wolffius): Christian Wolff, 1679–1754. German philosopher.

Wray: Sir Cecil Wray, 1734–1805. Politician.

Wyvill: Rev. Christopher Wyvill, 1738–1822. Anglican clergyman and reformer.

Zouch: Richard Zouch, 1590–1661. English jurist.

This book is set in Adobe Garamond, a modern adaptation by Robert Slimbach of the typeface originally cut around 1540 by the French typographer and printer Claude Garamond. The Garamond face, with its small lowercase height and restrained contrast between thick and thin strokes, is a classic “old-style” face and has long been one of the most influential and widely used typefaces.

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