N.B.  As to the particular gentlemen, I do not remember that Mr. Burke mentioned either of them,—­certainly not Mr. Bailly.  He alluded, undoubtedly, to the case of the Marquis de La Fayette; but whether what he asserted of him be a libel on him must be left to those who are acquainted with the business.

Mr. Pitt concluded the debate with becoming gravity and dignity, and a reserve on both sides of the question, as related to France, fit for a person in a ministerial situation.  He said, that what he had spoken only regarded France when she should unite, which he rather thought she soon might, with the liberty she had acquired, the blessings of law and order.  He, too, said several civil things concerning the sentiments of Mr. Burke, as applied to this country.

FOOTNOTES: 

[75] Mr. Burke probably had in his mind the remainder of the passage, and was filled with some congenial apprehensions:—­

Haec finis Priami fatorum; hic exitus illum Sorte tulit, Trojam incensam et prolapsa videntem Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum Regnatorem Asiae.  Jacet ingens littore truncus, Avolsumque humeris caput, et sine nomine corpus. At me tum primum saevus circumstetit horror.  Obstupui:  subiit chari genitoris imago.

[76] They are Sworn to obey the king, the nation, and the law.

REFLECTIONS

ON THE

REVOLUTION IN FRANCE,

THE PROCEEDINGS IN CERTAIN SOCIETIES IN

LONDON RELATIVE TO THAT EVENT: 

IN A LETTER

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SENT TO A GENTLEMAN IN PARIS.

1790.

It may not be unnecessary to inform the reader that the following Reflections had their origin in a correspondence between the author and a very young gentleman at Paris, who did him the honor of desiring his opinion upon the important transactions which then, and ever since have, so much occupied the attention of all men.  An answer was written some time in the month of October, 1789; but it was kept back upon prudential considerations.  That letter is alluded to in the beginning of the following sheets.  It has been since forwarded to the person to whom it was addressed.  The reasons for the delay in sending it were assigned in a short letter to the same gentleman.  This produced on his part a new and pressing application for the author’s sentiments.

The author began a second and more full discussion on the subject.  This he had some thoughts of publishing early in the last spring; but the matter gaining upon him, he found that what he had undertaken not only far exceeded the measure of a letter, but that its importance required rather a more detailed consideration than at that time he had any leisure to bestow upon it.  However, having thrown down his first thoughts in the form of a letter, and, indeed, when he sat down to write, having intended it for a private letter, he found it difficult to change the form of address, when his sentiments had grown into a greater extent and had received another direction.  A different plan, he is sensible, might be more favorable to a commodious division and distribution of his matter.