Product Review

Marquis François de Barbé-Marbois (1745-1837), a French government official who served as minister of finance under Napoleon, negotiated the sale of Louisiana to the U.S. In 1779 he was made secretary of the French legation to the United States; he remained in America as chargé d'affaires in 1784.

The Conspiracy of Arnold seems to have attracted, from the moment of its detection, Count Barbe Marbois' particular attention. His official situation and his connexions enabled him to procure the most authentic and ample materials for the history of the transaction. At what time he began with this so evidently a favourite and laboured task, does not appear. But it cannot escape the sagacity of his readers that his work, has been, if not recast, at least retouched, since the great revolution of March, 1814, and seasoned with allusions to the state of things in France under the revived monarchy.

The " Conspiracy of Arnold" has received the highest praises from all the critics, and by one of them it is placed on a level with St Real's celebrated masterpiece, the Conjuration de Venise. Its author has at a later period visited the American continent, and has enjoyed abundant opportunities of correcting his narrative, by comparing his own recollections with those of the most eminent men of that, country.