of a very dexterous thief resulted
in the opening of the imperial archives, in which the authentic
records of the Revolution are deposited. For the emperors, Joseph and
Leopold, were the queen's brothers; her sister was regent in the Low
Countries, the family ambassador was in her confidence, and the events
that brought on the great war, and the war itself, under Clerfayt,
Coburg, and the Archduke Charles, can be known there and there only.
Once opened, Arneth never afterwards allowed the door to be closed on
students. He published many documents himself, he encouraged his
countrymen to examine his treasures, and he welcomed, and continues to
welcome, the scholars of Berlin. Thirty or forty volumes of Austrian
documents, which were brought to light by the act of the felonious
Frenchman, constitute our best authority for the inner and outer
history of the Revolution and of the time that preceded it. The French
Foreign Office is less communicative. The papers of their two ablest
diplomatists, Barthelemy and Talleyrand, have been made public,
besides those of Fersen, Maury, Vaudreuil, and many _emigres_; and the
letters of several deputies to their constituents are now coming out.

Next to the Austrian, the most valuable of the diplomatists are the
Americans, the Venetians, and the Swede, for he was the husband of
Necker's illustrious daughter. This change in the centre of gravity
which went on between 1865 and 1885 or 1890, besides directing renewed
attention to international affairs, considerably reduced the value of
the memoirs on which the current view of our history was founded. For
memoirs are written afterwards for the world, and are clever,
apologetic, designing and deceitful. Letters are written at the
moment, and are confidential, and therefore they enable us to test the
truth of the memoirs. In the first place, we find that many of them
are not authentic, or are not by the reputed author. What purports to
be the memoirs of Prince Hardenberg is the composition of two
well-informed men of letters, Beauchamp and d'Allouville. Beauchamp
also wrote the book known as the _Memoirs of Fouche_. Those of
Robespierre are by Reybaud, and those of Barras by Rousselin. Roche
wrote the memoirs of Levasseur de la Sarthe, and Lafitte those of
Fleury. Clery, the king's confidential valet, left a diary which met
with such success that somebody composed his pretended memoirs. Six
volumes attributed to Sanson, the executioner, are