The Memoires de Bailly 7 



1792. The writing of the Memoires was interrupted for some 

 time in the early part of June by a tour that Bailly made through 

 western France.^ This accounts, in part, for the fact that while 

 the first volume was written in about a month, nearly four 

 months more passed before the suspension of the writing in the 

 second volume. 



The evidence would seem to indicate, then, that Bailly began 

 the writing of his Memoires the latter part of January, 1792. 

 He worked industriously through January and February, com- 

 pleting the first volume. After that, the work went more slowly, 

 was interrupted, and finally ceased, probably the last week in 

 June, 1792. 



The writing was evidently done in a country house, near 

 Nantes, where Bailly had fixed his residence after retiring from 

 office.^ 



Memoires, dealing with events happening in Paris and Ver- 

 sailles in 1789, written near Nantes in the winter and spring of 

 1792, even if composed by an eye-witness and one who declares 

 that his "memory will be faithful," would not, as a rule, be 

 looked upon as the most reliable of sources for historical work. 

 It is true that Bailly, with a few exceptions, describes nothing 

 but what he has seen; his Memoires deal with (i) the elections 

 of the Third Estate in Paris up to May 24,^ when he went as a 



temps, c'est-^-dire pendant deux ou trois mois, nous fumes sans justice, les 

 prisons se remplirent. . . . Aujourd'hui que les jures commencent a 

 travailler, nous nous sentons encore, plus de deux ans et demi apr^s de cat 

 encombrement des prisons et de cette impunite apparente des crimes." 

 /^/V/.,II, p. 362. 



The decree was passed October 9, 1789; two years and a half from that 

 date would give April 9, 1792; but as it was two or three months before the 

 new courts were working, that time should evidently be added, giving June, 

 1792, and as these pages must have been written in the latter part of June, 

 at the earliest, that date would also fit a reasonable interpretation of the 

 passage. 



1 "Ce futdansles premiers jours dumois de juin (1792) que Bailly, ancien 

 maire de Paris, qui parcourait les d^partements, se rendit dans celui de la 

 Vendue. II voyageait avec sa femme qui prenait une part tres active aux 

 affaires publiques.'' 3Iimoires de Alercier du Rocher in Souvenirs et 

 Memoires, April 15, 1899, p. 336. See also page 337. Mercier may have 

 been mistaken about the date, and it may have been in the last days of June 

 that Bailly appeared at Fontenay. 



^Mkmoires de Bailly, I, p. XXV. 



^Mimoires de Bailly, I, pp. 1-71. 



337 



