Svend Rom. Hendaye, France. February 2000.
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Preface:

In this volume, as in those preceding it and in those to come,
there will be found only the history of Public Authorities. Others
will write that of diplomacy, of war, of the finances, of the Church;
my subject is a limited one. To my great regret, however, this new
part fills an entire volume; and the last part, on the revolutionary
government, will be as long.

I have again to regret the dissatisfaction I foresee this work will
cause to many of my countrymen. My excuse is, that almost all of them,
more fortunate than myself, have political principles which serve them
in forming their judgments of the past. I had none; if indeed, I had
any motive in undertaking this work, it was to seek for political
principles. Thus far I have attained to scarcely more than one; and
this is so simple that will seem puerile, and that I hardly dare
express it. Nevertheless I have adhered to it, and in what the reader
is about to peruse my judgments are all derived from that; its truth
is the measure of theirs. It consists wholly in this observation: that


HUMAN SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY A MODERN SOCIETY, IS A VAST AND
COMPLICATED THING.


Hence the difficulty in knowing and comprehending it. For the same
reason it is not easy to handle the subject well. It follows that a