A narrative of the proceedings relating to the suspension of the King of the French on the 10th of August, 1792
Contributions
- Thomas Cooper
- author
Related resources
- is paratext of
- A narrative of the proceedings relating to the suspension of the King of the French on the 10th of August, 1792 has paratext
Summary (extracted citations)
Cooper in the advertisement to the narrative: 'I have no doubt of the fidelity and correctness of this narrative, and I have strictly complied with my correspondents request, in adding some explanatory observations, but leaving the facts as he has related them'. Cooper in the advertisement to the Appendix: "These two papers relating to the same course of events which form the subject of the preceding pages, I thought would be deemed no unacceptable addition". On p.46, between Condorcet's text and the National Convention exposition, Cooper explains the origins of the source texts: "The preceding translation is copied with some slight alterations from the *Star*. It was deemed unnecessary to retranslate so short a piece. The succeeding exposition is translated expressly from the original".
Notes
The translator's advertisement cites a letter from D'Aumont claiming to have written the narrative in English and to have relied on Cooper for corrections. He further declares to have written the narrative with an English public in mind, in order to counter faulty narratives of the revolution already in circulation.
In the notes, Cooper comments on the meaning of certain French terms and provides some additional facts.
The reference to the Star is most likely a reference to The Star and Evening Advertiser, the first daily evening newspaper in the world, founded in 1788 by the publishers John Murray and William Lane.
The other possibility is the Belfast-based Society of United Irishman paper, The Northern Star (Jan 1792–May 1797, edited by Samuel Neilson). Its average print run of 4000 copies made it the most successful of the Irish papers supporting parliamentary reform. Much of its content concerned the events in France, with many translations of French pamphlets and bulletins – “In the present very critical state of France, our readers will, we doubt not excuse us in carrying many essays… to give place to details of French affairs – it is not merely the fate of France that is depending, it is that of THE WORLD” (cited in O'Brien, p.12).
See Patrick Leech, Cosmopolitanism etc., p.151.