Many imagine that immediately after the Reign of Terror ended things settled down very quickly in France, and that whatever benefits accrued from the Revolution soon blossomed and bore abundant fruit. It was, however, very much otherwise; and the prevalent idea, that the prosperity of modern France is due to the great Revolution, is a fallacy; for, independently of the chaos created by the Reign of Terror, we must take into consideration the decade of Napoleonic despotism which separates the Revolution from the beginning of what is known as _la France moderne_. Henry Redhead was born in 1772, most probably in the West Indies, whence he was fetched as a child, and brought up at Little Eaton, near Derby. He was evidently a youth of considerable observation and studious habits, and before he was twenty had written a pamphlet against negro emancipation, which, however, he recalled a couple of years later as the result of a visit to Paris, then in the early throes of the Revolution. Redhead threw himself heart and soul with the enthusiasm of youth into a popular movement which he believed was to liberate humanity from every sort of bondage, and bring about a period of quite utopian peace and prosperity. Whilst under the influence of the buoyant rhetoric that marked the first period of the Revolution, he was privileged to witness many of the most striking events and scenes in that momentous drama; including the trial of Louis XVI., in connection with which he gives in these “Letters” several facts omitted by general historians. There were at this time several other British enthusiasts in Paris, amongst them Robert and John Sheares, with whom he became acquainted, and who induced him to join the British Club, an association at which were discussed such subjects as the advantage of liberating England by the assassination of that harmless monarch George III. Redhead would not, however, hear of any such project, and, after a violent quarrel with the Sheares, left the Club, being denounced to the Convention by Robert Rayment. He now concluded it were wiser to put the frontier between himself and the disorderly and fanatical horde of informers and informed who had, with surprising rapidity, seized the reins of administration in Paris. He changed his name, assumed that of Yorke, and, travelling through Holland, reached England in 1793, where he joined a liberal debating society in Derby, and became distinguished for his rhetorical eloquence. It was soon alleged against him, however, that he had, amongst other revolutionary ebullitions, declared, “You have before you, young as I am (about twenty-two years of age), a man who has been concerned in three revolutions already, who essentially contributed to serve the Republic in America, who contributed to that of Holland, who materially assisted in that of France, and who will continue to cause revolutions all over the world.” This striking boast did not receive the support Redhead imagined it would; for he