The Memoirs of Joseph Fouché

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. A Perusal of the author's preface will shew that I might indulge some degree of self-satisfaction in the fulfilment of his intentions relative to the publication of these Memoirs. Pecuniary advantages had no share in the selection of myself as editor, and I dare affirm, that . ' in...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. A Perusal of the author's preface will shew that I might indulge some degree of self-satisfaction in the fulfilment of his intentions relative to the publication of these Memoirs. Pecuniary advantages had no share in the selection of myself as editor, and I dare affirm, that . ' in accepting the office, I was actuated by equal disin- . . terestedness. To all persons but myself, such a publication would have been a great desideratum, and they would only have considered it as a source of profit, perhaps after all ideal. On the contrary, I only saw in it a duty; this I have fulfilled, but not without hesitation: I will even confess, that it became necessary to strengthen my own opinion by that of others. The title of the work, and the subjects which it treats, appeared but too well calculated to create uneasiness in my mind. I was anxious neither to trespass against the laws, shock public decorum, nor offend the government of my country. Not daring then to confide in my own judgment, I consulted a gentleman of considerable experience, and his assurances have removed my apprehensions. If I requested him to favour me with a few notes, it was chapter{{Section 4rather to confirm my own opinions, than to present a contrast between the text and the commentaries. Although these notes were far from being numerous, they had, however, nearly deprived me of the publication of these posthumous Memoirs. At length, the person commissioned to fulfil the author's intentions yielded to the force of my reasons, and I am now enabled to announce to the public that no time shall be lost in bring- ing out the second part of the Memoirs of the Duke of Otranto. As to the intenseness of their interest, and their authenticity, I shall merely say with the author? Read. chapter{{S...