Source: The Last Episode of the French Revolution Being a History of Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals by Ernest Belfort Bax Author of Marat: The People’s Friend, The Story of the French Revolution, The Social Side of the Reformation in Germany, etc., etc.
Published by Grant Richards Ltd. London, 1911.
Transcribed by Ted Crawford.
HTML Mark-up by Andy Blunden and Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
As the principal sources that have been used in the preparation the following study may be mentioned:
(1) The careful and exhaustive Histoire de Gracchus Babeuf et du Babouvisme, largely based on hitherto unpublished documents, by M. Victor Advielle. 2 vols. (Paris, 1884).
(2) Gracchus Babeuf et le Conspiration des Egaux, by Philippe Buonarroti (Paris, 1830), a first-hand narrative by one of the principal actors in the drama he describes.
(3) Babeuf et le Socialisme en 1796, par Edouard Fleury (Paris, 1851), a book preserving some interesting details, but prejudiced and not altogether reliable.
(4) Among the contemporary sources for the history of the movement, the Copie des Pieces saisies dons le local que Babeuf occupait lors de son arrestation (Paris, Nivose, Ann. V.) occupies an important place. It consists in a volume officially published by the High Court immediately after the trial, containing a complete collection of the pieces de conviction which formed the basis of the prosecution.
(5) The collection of the numbers of Babeuf’s journals, the Journal de la Liberty de la Presse and the Tribun du Peuple, together with the few numbers of the Éclaireur, a journal published for a short time by Babeuf’s friend Sylvain Maréchal, to be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Other, minor, references are given in the text.
Allusions to, and accounts of, the movement are, of course, to be found in all the journals of the time, but they are for the most part utterly prejudiced, and contain no facts of importance not given by Buonarroti or contained in the officially published documents.
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