Moore, John. The Travel Writings of John Moore. Vol. 4: A View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution (1795). Ed. Ben P. Robertson. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2014.



The Travel Writings of John Moore is a four-volume set that reprints the late-eighteenth-century travel writings of Scottish physician John Moore, who lived from 1729 to 1802. The edition provides a general introduction, four volume introductions, and textual and explanatory notes. A chronology of Moore's life appears in Volume 1, and Volume 4 includes an index for all four volumes. The edition also reproduces eight contemporary images of Moore that are held at the Wellcome Library in London and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

Volume 4: A View of the Causes and Progress of the French Revolution (1795)

The final volume contains Moore’s thoughts about the genesis of the French Revolution, which he describes as ‘one of the most awful events of which history affords any record’. Essentially a work of cautionary historical analysis, this volume presents Moore’s assessment of the revolution primarily as a product of the abuse of power in the French government and of the misappropriation of public funds. Moore laments that the revolution, intended to overturn tyranny and despotism, became abusive in its own turn, so that liberty became the watchword of the new oppressors. Ever the constitutional royalist in sentiment, Moore denounces the cruelty and lawlessness of the revolutionaries and calls for all sovereigns to take heed lest they fall into the same errors as had the French royalty. For Moore, the alternative is tantamount to anarchy in which liberty truly exists for no one.

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