on does not show any such
"parentheses," indicating omissions, whereas that in the British Museum
has such marks, and has evidently been prepared for the press,--being
indeed accompanied by the long title of the French pamphlet. There are
other indications that the British Museum MS. is the original Memorial
from which was printed in Paris the pamphlet entitled:

"Memoire de Thomas Payne, autographe et signe de sa main: addresse a
M. Monroe, ministre des Etats-unis en france, pour reclamer sa mise en
liberte comme citoyen Americain, 10 Sept 1794. Robespierre avait fait
arreter Th. Payne, en 1793--il fut conduit au Luxembourg ou le glaive
fut longtemps suspendu sur sa tete. Apres onze mois de captivite, il
recouvra la liberte, sur la reclamation du ministre Americain--c'etait
apres la chute de Robespierre--il reprit sa place a la convention, le 8
decembre 1794. (18 frimaire an iii.) Ce Memoire contient des renseigne
mens curieux sur la conduite politique de Th. Payne en france, pendant
la Revolution, et a l'epoque du proces de Louis XVI. Ce n'est point, dit
il, comme Quaker, qu'il ne vota pas La Mort du Roi mais par un sentiment
d'humanite, qui ne tenait point a ses principes religieux. Villenave."

No date is given, but the pamphlet probably appeared early in 1795.
Matthieu Gillaume Therese Villenave (b. 1762, d. 1846) was a journalist,
and it will be noticed that he, or the translator, modifies Paine's
answer to Marat about his Quakerism. There are some loose translations
in the cheap French pamphlet, but it is the only publication which
has given Paine's Memorial with any fulness. Nearly ten pages of
the manuscript were omitted from the Memorial when it appeared as
an Appendix to the pamphlet entitled "Letter to George Washington,
President of the United States of America, on Affairs public and
private." By Thomas Paine, Author of the Works entitled, Common Sense,
Rights of Man, Age of Reason, &c. Philadelphia: Printed by Benj.
Franklin Bache, No. 112 Market Street. 1796. [Entered according to
law.] This much-abridged copy of the Memorial has been followed in
all subsequent editions, so that the real document has not hitherto
appeared.(1)

In appending the Memorial to his "Letter to Washington," Paine would
naturally omit passages rendered unimportant by his release, but his
friend Bache may have suppressed others that might have embarrassed
American partisans of France, such as the scene at the king's trial.