The second part I deliver to the public exactly as I found it,
without the least alteration, and I have scarcely felt myself
entitled to make slight corrections of the style, so important did
it appear to me to preserve in this sketch the entire vividness of
its original character. A perusal of the opinions which she
pronounces upon the political conduct of Russia, will satisfy
every one of my scrupulous respect for my mother's manuscript; but
without taking into account the influence of gratitude on elevated
minds, the reader will not fail to recollect, that at that time
the sovereign of Russia was fighting in the cause of liberty and
independence. Was it possible to foresee that so few years would
elapse before the immense forces of that empire should become the
instruments of the oppression of unhappy Europe?

If we compare the Ten Years' Exile with the Considerations on the
French Revolution, it will perhaps be found that the reign of
Napoleon is criticized in the first of these works with greater
severity than in the other, and that he is there attacked with an
eloquence not always exempt from bitterness. This difference may be
easily explained: one of these works was written after the fall of
the despot, with the calm and impartiality of the historian; the
other was inspired by a courageous feeling of resistance to tyranny;
and at the period of its composition, the imperial power was at its
height.

I have not selected one moment in preference to another for the
publication of Ten Years' Exile; the chronological order has been
followed in this edition, and the posthumous works are naturally
placed at the end of the collection. In other respects, I am not