4 Fred Morroiv Fling 



I was called to the elections," wrote Bailly, "I could not have 

 suspected the part that would be successively given to me in the 

 public administration nor the influence that I would have upon 

 affairs : this part increased, this influence extended always in 

 an unlocked for manner. I have regretted much that I did not 

 have constantly with me a secretary to collect the facts, the 

 anecdotes, the characteristics, the thoughts that would have mer- 

 ited preservation, that I might paint with more fidelity and ani- 

 mate by their aid the grand scenes of which I have been a wit- 

 ness. Reduced to my memory to retrace them at this moment 

 in my mind (I shall show presently that the burden placed upon 

 Bailly's memory was not excessive), and to commit them to this 

 journal, I protest that my memory will be faithful."^ Fortu- 

 nately, the value of the journal does not depend wholly upon the 

 correctness of this naive protestation. It would seem reasonable 

 to infer from this sentence and from the one immediately fol- 

 lowing that the work was composed after Bailly had closed his 

 official career. If it is objected that this paragraph may have 

 been prefixed to the Memoires some time after they were writ- 

 ten — a thing that does not seem probable — it is easy to show 

 that a retrospective strain runs through the two volumes. Such 

 expressions as "depuis," "alors," "ce mcme jour," "deja/' "en- 

 core"^ are scattered throughout the work. Other expressions 

 like "je ne me rapelle pas," "je m'en soiiviens," "je crois,"^ indi- 

 cating that he had difficulty in recalling events on account of 

 their remoteness, are also well distributed through the two 

 volumes. 



^Mhnoires de Bailly, I, p. 1. 



"^Mhnoires de Bailly, I, pp. 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17, 25, 30, 44, 51, 58, 71, 107, 

 136, 148, 150, 155, 165, 170, 175, 176, 183, 215, 216, 217, 227, 235, 237, 248, 

 253, 277, 291, 301. 315, 317, 320, 321, 323, 324, 325, 330, 335, 337, 358, 

 360, 372, 373; II, pp. 10, 19, 33, 36, 55, 60, 61. 77, 78, 80, 92, 107, 108, 109, 

 116, 133, 139, 140, 141, 154, 164, 169, 189, 195, 206, 208, 209, 212, 219, 227, 

 229, 237, 241, 247, 249, 250, 252, 253, 271, 273, 282, 283, 284, 286, 292, 296, 

 299, 303, 308, 310, 314, 317, 321, 322, 330, 331, 339, 346, 353, 363, 368, 369, 

 372. 375, 378, 382, 389, 392, 395, 397, 403. 



^Ibid., I, pp. 1, 2, 35, 87, 94, 95, 105, 116, 156, 174, 176, 195, 204, 227, 231, 

 246, 253, 258, 263, 317, 343, 363, 393; 11, pp. 1, 5, 8, 19, 26, 157, 160, 165, 167, 

 170, 180, 230, 237, 239, 248, 257, 260, 268, 275, 280, 285, 291, 312, 313, 334, 

 344, 354, 367, 377, 380. 



334 



