PREFACE. 
"Tue latest events have at all times appeared the most 
important. Present scenes seem more crowded than suchas 
are past ; and there are few periods, not imagined by the 
existing generation to be at least as werthy of a place in 
history as any that have preceded them: With a full re- 
collection of this partiality, we hesitate not to affirm, that 
the years 1791 and 1792 are of singular, and even of unpre- 
cedented interest and importance in the history of the 
world: no antecedent period, of equal duration, has pre- 
sented so great a number of extraordinary revolutions: the 
jntercourses of mankind were moreextended, and the means 
of their communication more generally diffused, as well as 
eagerly employed among all ranks of society, in all civilized 
nations. The changes that were produced by the prevail- 
ing opinions, and an artful address to those opinions partook 
of the quickness of thought from whence they sprung. 
Though many and various, and involving the most serious 
consequences, they were yet less remarkable for their num- 
der and magnitude, than for the extreme rapidity of their 
succession. 
By means of the press, the grand forum on which all 
‘public affairswere agitated, a principle of restless discontent 
and endless commotion had been introduced into the most 
‘populous and centrical, the most refined, ardent, and in- 
flammable nation in Europe ; and whose fashions, manners, 
and opinions most of the othernations were prone to follow. 
eid a2 Meta- 
