AMERICAN OPINION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution. By Charles D. Hazen. (T. Fisher Unwin. 8s. 6d.)-The only &pinions worth preserving are those of Jefferson and Gouverneur Morris, who resided in France and came into actual contact with Revolutionary forces. Monroe's opinions were not such as wise seen preserve in archives. Mr. Hazen divides his volume into two portions : the opinions of the three we have mentioned, and those of the home-keeping Americans who went crazy with joy at the rise of the Republic. The wave of enthusiasm that swept through America furnishes interesting speculations as to the conceptions of liberty possessed by the American of the period. Mr. Hazen has one good quality : he reproduces the criticisms of Jefferson and Morris with absolute impartiality, and brings into evidence with real skill the temper of mind of the two men ; but he repeats him- self, and lacks finish of style. It is an interesting book, because it furnishes one more proof of the contemporary ignorance of the forces that were to overrun French society, and of the failure of contemporary opinion to realise the hopeless insincerity of political France, and her moral unsoundness. Even the penetration of Morris failed to see to what lengths the Parisian might go.
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