The Memoires de Bailly 3 



of the Chamber of Deputies at Paris. It is difficult to see how 

 M. Brette could have overlooked so well known a fact, the edi- 

 tors of the edition of the Memoires published in 1821 having re- 

 ferred to it in their introduction.^ 



No serious attempt has ever been made to determine definitely 

 when Bailly composed his Memoires.'- It was believed by M. 

 Naigeon that the work was really a journal kept from day to 

 day. He noted that the style was not as correct as one had a 

 right to expect from "an author, member of three academies," 

 but he excused Bailly on the ground that "he wrote his journal 

 only when he returned home at night, and in moments when his 

 mind was more or less agitated, saddened, affected as well by 

 what had passed during the day as by the dangers to which he 

 would find himself exposed on the morrow."^ M. Naigeon was 

 misled by the title of the work, its form, and phraseology. The 

 full title is, Memoires d'un temoin de la revolution on journal 

 des fails qui se sont passes sous ses yeu.r, et qui out prepare et 

 Uxe la constitution frangaise; the text is arranged in the form 

 of a journal, events being grouped under the day of the week and 

 month when they occurred; and, finally, the verisimilitude is 

 increased by the employment of such expressions as "hier," 

 "anjourd'hui," "ce matin," "demain," "ce soir." It was not the 

 intention of Bailly, however, to deceive anybody.* 



The opening paragraph of the first volume makes clear that 

 we have to do with Memoires and not with a journal: "When 



^Mhnoiies de Bailly,^ vd\s., Paris, 1821: " Le manuscrit original d^- 

 pos6 k la bibliotheque de la chambre des deputes," p. II, This is the edi- 

 tion that I have made use of. The first edition appeared in 1805. 



2 Flammermont noted that the Mhnoires were written ' ' au commence- 

 ment de 1' annee 1792," citing in support of his statement the parenthetical 

 expression (I, p. 358), "Aujourd'hui 23 fevrier 1792." Flammermont, La 

 j'ournie du i^juillet JjSg, p. CLIX. 



^Mhnoires de Bailly, II, p. 411. The Jiigement de M. Naigeon sur les 

 Mk moires de Bailly (pp. 409-118), has little scientific value. 



^ These expressions were evidently introduced on account of the form into 

 which Bailly threw his narrative. He wished to reproduce the events of the 

 revolution day by day, and making much use of the historical present, he 

 naturally used such expressions as "ce matin," "ce soir," "hier," etc. His 

 frequent references to later events and his expressions of regret because of 

 his inability to recall what happened on a particular day furnish sufficient 

 proof of his honesty. 



333 



