IT may not be unnecessary to inform the Reader, that the following Reflections had their origin in a correspondence between the Author and a very young gentleman at Paris, who did him the bonour of defiring his opinion upon the important transactions, which then, and ever since, have fo much occupied the attention of all men. An answer was written some time in the month of October 1789; but it was kept back upon prudential confiderations. That letter is alluded to in the beginning of the following sheets. It has been fince forwarded to the person to whom it was addressed. The reasons for the delay in fending it were assigned in a short letter to the fame gentleman. This produced on his part a new and pressing application for the Author's Sentiments. The Author began a second and more full difcuffion on the fubject. This he had some thoughts of publishing early in the last spring; but the matter gaining upon him, he found that what he had undertaken not only far exceeded the measure of a letter, but that its importance required rather a more detailed confideration than at that time he had any leifure to bestow upon it. However, having thrown down his first thoughts in the form of a letter, and indeed when he fat down to write, baving intended it |