May these quotations lead some able writer to erect a monument still wanting to the glory of our country!  There is in this subject, it seems to me, enough to inspire legitimate ambition.  Did not Plutarch immortalize himself by preserving noble actions and fine sentiments from oblivion?

EXAMINATION OF BAILLY’S ADMINISTRATION AS MAYOR.

The illustrious Mayor of Paris had not the leisure to continue writing his reminiscences beyond the date of the 2d of October, 1789.  The analysis and appreciation of the events subsequent to that epoch will remain deprived of that influential sanction, pure as virtue, concise and precise as truth, which I found in the handwriting of our colleague.  Xenocrates, historians say, who was celebrated among the Greeks for his honesty, being called to bear witness before a tribunal, the judges with common consent stopped him as he was advancing towards the altar according to the usual custom, and said, “These formalities are not required from you; an oath would add nothing to the authority of your words.”  Such, Bailly presents himself to the reader of his Posthumous Memoirs.  None of his assertions leave any room for indecision or doubt.  He needs not high-flown expressions or protestations in order to convince; nor would an oath add authority to his words.  He may be deceived, but he is never the deceiver.

I will spare no effort to give to the description of the latter part of Bailly’s life, all the correctness which can result from a sincere and conscientious comparison of the writings published as well by the partisans as by the enemies of our great revolution.  Such, however, is my desire to prevent two phases, though very distinct, being confounded together, that I shall here pause, in order to cast a scrupulous glance on the actions and on the various publications of our colleague.  I shall moreover thus have an easy opportunity of filling up some important lacunae.

I read in a biographical article, otherwise very friendly, that Bailly was nominated the very day of, and immediately after, the assassination of M. de Flesselles; and in this identity the wish was to insinuate that the first Mayor of Paris received this high dignity from the bloody hands of a set of wretches.  The learned biographer, notwithstanding his good will, has ill repelled the calumny.  With a little more attention he would have succeeded better.  A simple comparison of dates would have sufficed.  The death of M. de Flesselles occurred on the 14th of July; Bailly was nominated two days after.

I will address the same remark to the authors of a Biographical Dictionary still more recent, in which they speak of the ineffectual efforts that Bailly made to prevent the multitude from murdering the governor of the Bastille (de Launay).  But Bailly had no opportunity of making an effort, for he was then at Versailles; no duty called him to Paris, nor did he become Mayor till two days after the taking of the fortress.  It is really inexcusable not to have compared the two dates, by which these errors would have been avoided.