The condition of France and the state of public opinion at the beginning of the Revolution may be studied in the printed collections of _Cahiers_. The _Cahiers_ were the statements of grievances drawn up for the guidance of deputies to the States-General by those who had elected them. In every _bailliage_ and _senechaussee_ each estate drew up its own cahier and the cahiers of the Third Estate were condensed from separate cahiers drawn up by each parish in the district. Thus the cahiers of the Third Estate number many thousands, the greater part of which have not yet been printed. Among the collections printed we may mention _Les Elections et les cahiers de Paris en 1789_, by C. L. Chassin (4 vols., Paris, 1888); _Cahiers de plaintes et doleances des paroisses de la province de Maine_, by A. Bellee and V. Duchemin (4 vols., Le Mans, 1881-1893); _Cahiers de doleances de 1789 dans le departement du Pas-de-Calais_, by H. Loriquet (2 vols., Arras, 1891); _Cahiers des paroisses et communautes du bailliage d'Autun_, by A. Charmasse (Autun, 1895). New collections are printed from time to time. A more general collection of cahiers than any above named is given in vols. i.-vi. of the _Archives parlementaires_. The cahiers must not be read in a spirit of absolute faith, as they were influenced by certain models circulated at the time of the elections and by popular excitement, but they remain an authority of the utmost value and a mine of information as to old France. Reference should also be made to the works of travellers who visited France at the outbreak of the Revolution. Among these Arthur Young's _Travels in France during the years 1787, 1788 and 1789_ (2 vols., Bury St Edmunds, 1792-1794) are peculiarly instructive. For the history of the Assemblies during the Revolution a main authority is their _Proces verbaux_ or Journals; those of the Constituent Assembly in 75 vols., those of the Legislative Assembly in 16 vols.; those of the Convention in 74 vols., and those of the Councils under the Directory in 99 vols. See also the _Archives parlementaires_ edited by J. Mavidal and E. Laurent (Paris, 1867, and the following years); the _Histoire parlementaire de la Revolution_, by P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux (Paris, 1838), and the _Histoire de la Revolution par deux amis de la liberte_ (Paris, 1792-1803).