MEMOIRS OF Cour COUNT MIOT DE MELITO › MINISTER, AMBASSADOR, COUNCILLOR OF STATE AND MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, BETWEEN THE YEARS 9768 EDITED BY GENERAL FLEISCHMANN FROM THE FRENCH BY MRS. CASHEL HOEY AND MR. JOHN LILLIE WITH NOTES AND AN INDEX PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR THE NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743 AND 745 BROADWAY 1881 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. My purpose in placing before the public the recollections of Count Miot, my father-in-law, as a contribution to the large number of works which treat of the Great French Revolution and the events of the early years of the nineteenth century, is to aid writers who desire to throw a new light. upon the history of those times. I believe that no materials supplied by contemporaries can be superfluous for the accurate and sufficient representation of all that was memorable, great and terrible in that epoch, and for a true estimate of the influence which it has exercised and still exercises upon the destinies of mankind. Count Miot passed through a great revolution, but his recollections of it were untinged by personal regret. He had nothing to disguise or to excuse. It was for many years his constant habit to write down every evening all that he had learned or observed during the day. These notes of the events in which he was nearly concerned contain important details, for the most part unknown, and place the origin of those events in a clear and accurate light. In arranging them to meet the eyes of the public, I have thought it advisable to suppress all that possesses interest for the family of Count Miot only, but I have scrupulously refrained from adding anything that might |