Seeds...............................

     All the eventful year of 1793, which witnessed the execution of Louis XVI and the outbreak of the war between France and England, the decline of Danton and the rise of Robespierre, was passed quietly by Talleyrand in London.  It was probably during this year that he wrote the treatise on the Duke of Orleans which forms part of his published memoirs.  He offers no defence for, and indeed strongly condemns, the character and conduct of Philippe Egalite, but acquits him of any responsibility for the outbreak or the course of the Revolution.  "If historians strive to attribute the blame of having caused, or directed, or modified the French Revolution, they will be wasting their time.  It had no authors, nor leaders, nor guides.  The seed was sown by writers who, in a bold and enlightened age, wishing to attack prejudice, overthrew the principles of religion and of social life, and by incompetent Ministers, who increased the embarrassment of the treasury and the discontent of the people."  Whether Talleyrand wrote these words in 1793 or at a later date they can be taken as giving his considered opinion, the soundness of which few historians will be inclined to dispute.

-Duff Copper, Talleyrand